Chapter 34
There were only twenty-two households in the small village. The next day, the news that the Shen family's eldest son was going to build a kitchen and enclose a yard spread quietly along the river where the village women washed their clothes.
When Li went to wash clothes, she was asked questions by women from the same village, which made her confused. Some of them who didn't get along with her asked with a dagger in their eyes whether it was the third wife who helped to pay, otherwise how could she build the house by selling a few wild vegetables?
Help, what help? She had never heard of building a house.
Li's face turned pale. She rubbed the clothes in the water a few times, wrung them out and threw them back into the basket. She went home carrying the basket. Without hanging the basket to dry, she threw it under the eaves and went straight into the house.
"Did you know that the Sang family was going to build a house?"
Shen San, who had just gotten up and was still putting on his shoes and socks, was stunned for a moment, then sneered: "She builds a house? What does she use to build a house? She mixes the mud and builds it herself?"
He continued to put on his shoes and socks slowly, saying, "We don't need to pay for materials and labor. We don't need to provide meals for those who help build the house? We should treat people to wild vegetable soup? Who will help her? You go?"
Chunchun treated the news that Li was brought back as a joke.
Li glared and said, "I'm not kidding. Several people were saying that they made some money from selling wild vegetables by the stream. The Chen family next door helped to call for help."
Shen Sangeng didn't believe it anymore, and smiled until the fine lines at the end of his eyes wrinkled: "You can build a house by selling some wild vegetables. Can you see if we can still find wild vegetables in the mountains here?"
Shen Jin poked his head out of the doorway and said, "Dad, my eldest cousin's wife is selling wild vegetables. Not just a few, but baskets of them."
The couple turned their heads and looked over. They didn't know when their son came over. Li waved his hand and said, "Come in and tell me, what kind of wild vegetables does Sang sell in how many baskets?"
Shen San also looked at him.
Shen Jin was still thinking about going to the fields to earn some oil residue to eat, so he didn't go in. He just stood at the door and answered casually, "Just bracken. I saw her pick three big baskets yesterday."
Li wanted to ask more questions, but Shen Jin glanced and saw that Shen Yin and Shen Tie had already run out. He knew that they must have gone to the field to change the oil residue.
He couldn't stay any longer, so he turned around and ran, shouting to Li as he ran: "I just want to tell you that Tianya wet the bed again, and the quilt is all wet."
When Li chased after him, there was no trace of him anymore. She wanted to ask him more questions but it was useless.
She turned around and went to the room where the younger ones lived. She saw that her three sons were not there. Only the youngest, Tian Ya, was sleeping soundly on the inside of the bed. Li touched the quilt and mat, and they were indeed soaked...
He slapped his daughter's butt twice to wake her up, then scolded her while changing her clothes. He ignored her crying and picked her up and put her on a small bamboo bed with a fence at the door of the main room.
He collected the quilts and mats, washed them, and hung them to dry. At the same time, he was still thinking about the fact that the eldest son of the family was suddenly going to build a house without saying a word. He said to Shen San who was washing up, "You should go out and have a look to find out what's going on. This Sang family is not a good person. I'm afraid our family is the last few in the village to know about the house construction. They sincerely want us to be laughed at by the villagers."
Shen San's face also looked bad, he no longer had the look of listening to the heavenly book and watching the joke at the beginning, he just kept his head down and used the willow branches to clean his teeth and wash his face without saying a word.
Li threw the balled-up urine sheet into the wooden basin, glared at the Chen family through the wall, and spat, "I don't know what that family is up to lately. They're stretching their hands as far as eight feet long, showing off their abilities."
…
Behind the Shen family's thatched cottage, Shen Jin saw Chen Ershan and Chen Erya turning the soil with hoes and digging the earth with bamboo strips, and they also looked very frightened.
"You guys are here to work in exchange for oil residue?"
The little boy looked alert and his voice was so tense that as long as Chen Ershan said yes, he would jump up the next moment.
Shen Anke said that there were only a few pieces of oil residue left, and Chen Ershan brought Chen Xiaoya to rob them. What else could he have?
Is this stealing his job?
This is stealing his life!
Chen Ershan, who had just found out yesterday evening that Shen An and Shen Ning were working on the land and came to help, looked puzzled. He looked at Shen An and asked, "What's the oil residue?"
Shen An was speechless and told him about Shen Jin opening a plot of land here to exchange for oil residue.
Chen Ershan: “…”
He was too lazy to pay attention to Shen Jin and turned around to continue working.
Shen Jin: ???
What does that look mean?
Chen Xiaoya, who was standing by, looked at him. Her eyes were exactly like Chen Ershan's just now. She said with disdain, "You hoe the fields for your brother and sister and still want oil residue?"
Shen Jin finally understood what Chen Ershan meant by that look and immediately got furious.
"Why can't I have it? I exchanged my strength for food, why can't I have it!" Then he remembered the oil residue that Chen Ning gave to the two brothers and sisters of the Chen family that day, which was several pieces, and his face swelled up like a puffer fish: "Of course you don't want it, you have eaten it first, and you ate several pieces, enough for you to come here for a few days!"
Shen An couldn't listen any longer and glared at Shen Jin: "Are you still going to work?"
"Dry!"
Shen Jin howled angrily, and his voice was particularly loud!
This is not enough to express his frustration and anger!
Looking at Shen Ning with resentment, it was clearly written on his face that your elbow was turned outward.
Shen Ning ignored him.
Shen Jin was unwilling to pay attention to Shen Ning, he snorted and turned his face away, turned to find Shen An, and said in a stiff voice: "Let's row, where will I drive today."
Finish the work earlier and eat the oil residue earlier, and he will never come again.
He thought fiercely in his heart that when his family made oil residue, he would grab a handful, no, two handfuls, and eat it while standing in front of Shen Ning!
She takes a handful in her left hand and a handful in her right hand. She takes a bite after eating each one. She is so delicious that she will die of it!
…
While Shen Jin was facing Shen Ning with the back of his head, thinking that one day he would turn over and sing, in the village, Shen San went out for a walk and came back with a long face.
Why is it half a circle? Because like Li, he was also greatly irritated by the overt or covert, or ambiguous looks from others.
It is impossible for him to go out. The villagers are talking about this matter and if he goes out, he will be regarded as a monkey in the eyes of the villagers.
Shen San choked with a mouthful of blood and wanted to find his son to ask him what he knew, but when he looked around, none of the three boys were at home.
"Where's Shen Jin? Where did he go so early in the morning?"
Li was also annoyed. She looked around and found that one of the hoes in the yard was missing. She knew that it was Shen Jin who took it away again.
"I don't know where he went these past two days. He probably won't be back until noon. But you don't have to look for him. What can a kid like him know? He probably saw Sang picking wild vegetables while playing on the hillside."
After a moment's silence, Li asked Shen San: "How is it going? Have you found out which families have been asked to help?"
Shen San's face darkened again: "I didn't ask. If the Chen family went to look for someone, it would be the Shi family, the Lu family, and the families in the village that they and their son had helped build houses for."
As for other families in the village, if he didn't come forward to help Zhou Xuan, who would help Sang who had two little kids?
Neighbor Chunpu, what a joke, why didn’t Chunpu see anyone giving Sang two liters of grain when she was eating wild vegetables?
Everyone's life is hard, and every family is not well fed. What's the point of talking about simplicity? Simplicity and mutual assistance are also based on the ability to gain relatively equal returns. Without returns, who will help?
If he was the one who took the initiative to build the house for the Sang family, most families in the village who could spare the labor would send people to help, because he would be the one to back up the favor, and next time the family needed help with something, there would be someone to repay them.
Now it is the Chen family who has come forward. Can the Chen family come forward and ask for this favor, and can they still do it for Sang and Shen An, who is only nine years old?
Obviously not.
There are no adult men in the family, and this is the biggest drawback of the eldest branch of the family.
Moreover, everyone in the village knew that the Sang family was poor and had to eat bran and wild vegetables. They said that they made some money from selling wild vegetables. But how much money could they make from selling wild vegetables? If wild vegetables could make money, every family in the countryside would be rich.
If you don't ask for your repayment of the favor, then you will ask for a good meal. But you can neither repay the favor nor provide yourself with a full meal. Who would waste their energy doing good deeds?
The corvée labor in recent years has been heavy. Among the 22 households in the village, four had able-bodied men die while serving corvée labor in just three years.
Everyone knows that if you waste your energy without enough food to replenish it, you will ruin your body. Everyone wants to live a few more years.
Li asked tentatively, "Do we still need help building the house over there?"
"No help!" Shen San said without thinking: "If she doesn't come to invite me, don't even think about me helping her."
After saying that, he remembered that Sang Luo had not invited him in the first place, so he added: "If you don't invite me this time, don't expect me to take care of things in the future. Just go to the Chen family."
Li secretly breathed a sigh of relief, and was even more delighted when she heard the last sentence. She thought to herself that Sang should be tougher and not come.
She had been afraid that the man would still take care of the affairs of the eldest house because of Chen Lie's death. Building a house is not an easy job. There is not even a stove in the thatched house, and the cost of providing meals is even higher. She was afraid that the man would want to save face and soften his heart, and take on the task of cooking at home.
How much money can you make from selling wild vegetables? Don't look back at people who come to help you. They can't even provide you with food, and you have to pay for it.
Li would not do such a loss-making business.
As for the villagers gossiping, let them gossip.
After the time when the family was divided and the last time when Sang Luo confronted her outside the courtyard gate, Li has become tougher now and likes to talk. Anyway, she will not lose a piece of meat. It is a real benefit if she can save on food and vegetables.
He immediately added fuel to the fire: "Yes, I think the Sang family is very powerful, and they don't treat us as uncle and aunt, otherwise they wouldn't let the Chen family take the lead in such a thing. Why should we try to please them? She can do whatever she wants. The family has been divided, and whether she lives a good life or a bad life is none of our business."
Shen Sanhei looked sullen and said nothing.
Li knew that the fire was right. Keep it burning. She smiled and said, "Okay, if you don't want to go out, just take a rest. There won't be much to do in the fields these days. It's a good time to take care of Tianya. I'll go to the fields and harvest the vegetables. Let's dry some vegetables in the sun. Otherwise, there won't be many vegetables to eat in winter."
Shen San responded, and Li went out with two dustpans on her shoulders.
As for the dirty sheets thrown in the basin, Li planned to wash them later. Not to mention that her husband didn't want to face the group of onlookers outside, she also didn't want to go to the stream and face the group of idle women, listening to them asking questions with a smile in front of her, and then whispering and laughing in voices that were actually audible to you.
Not enough air.
She wanted to see how many people they could hire this time and how many days they were willing to work for her.
If there is no food supply, who will do the hard work?
Will the Chen family still give subsidies?
Not to mention food, even vegetables are precious these days. People themselves are reluctant to eat too much, and after harvesting they dry them into dried vegetables to keep for the winter. Are the Chen family still Bodhisattvas?
Li was just waiting to see the fun.
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