Han Shunde quickly waved his hand, "How can this be?"
The most senior person here is Uncle Li.
He looked at Li Erhan and said.
“I recommend Uncle Li to be the village chief.”
Li Er smiled and waved his hand slowly.
"No, I can't do that. I just want to do carpentry and make more beautiful furniture."
Li Lanzhen also quickly stopped them.
"No. My father can't be the village chief."
From now on, my parents must take good care of their health and live a leisurely life in this grand canyon, enjoying their grandchildren and living out their twilight years in peace.
Han Dazhong patted Han Shunde on the shoulder.
"Brother, I think you should take on this responsibility and serve us all. We'll all listen to you. If we all think and work together, how can we not have a good life? Good days are waiting for us ahead!"
And so, the village chief of the Grand Canyon was elected, and that was Han Shunde.
Han Youliang asked.
"Should we still call this place Han Family Village? The name Forget-Worry Valley is so nice, can we still call it Forget-Worry Valley?"
After hearing his words, everyone started chattering and discussing amongst themselves.
"If you ask me, I'd call it Lucky Valley. We've had good luck since we arrived here."
"Reed Valley! Look how beautiful this reed marsh is!"
"It's called Happy Valley. We're all happy to be here. We're happy every day, and we even sleep happily at night!"
One after another, adults and children alike offered the names they thought were the best-sounding names for the valley.
Everyone stared at Li Lanzhen, who remained silent.
Li Lanzhen said slowly.
"I think we should call it Peach Blossom Spring! A paradise on earth!"
"Peach Blossom Spring!"
"Yes, we're going to build a house and yard on the north side of the Grand Canyon, and behind it will be a peach orchard. When spring comes, the pink peach blossoms will fill the valley, how beautiful it will be, just like our wonderful life. In autumn, the trees will be full of peaches."
At that time, the crops and vegetables in the canyon were ripe and plentiful, and our lives became much better!
"But, Grandma Lanzhen, Uncle Shunde said those peaches don't taste good!"
The children frowned and said with disdain.
Li Lanzhen knew that for the children of ordinary people, fruit was just wild fruit from the mountains, so in the future she would not only improve these peaches into nectarines, but also plant other fruit trees.
"It's alright, Grandma Lanzhen will improve the varieties of the peach trees so that they can all grow into delicious, big, red, sweet peaches."
"Wow! That's great, Grandma Lanzhen is the best!"
Li Lanzhen's words earned her so much praise from the children!
She laughed heartily. At that moment, Dong Changming, who was sitting at the table, asked Li Lanzhen a question.
"Aunt Lanzhen, the cow and pig haven't been returned yet?"
Seeing his anxious expression, Li Lanzhen smiled and said...
"It hasn't been delivered yet. It will be delivered once all the houses and yards of our families have been renovated."
After that, we would still like to ask you and Huahua to manage these cows and pigs for our family.
There might even be sheep, chickens, ducks, and geese.
After saying this, Li Lanzhen glanced around at everyone present.
What comforted me was that not a single person showed disbelief, doubt, or greed on their face.
Li Lanzhen originally planned to build a collective breeding farm in the village to raise cattle, pigs, sheep, chickens, ducks and geese.
However, she then thought of the way of life in this ancient era, which was based on the family unit.
She didn't want to shoulder so much burden.
Once all the houses and courtyards of each household have been built, we can simply distribute some chickens, ducks, and geese to each family; there's plenty of space anyway.
As for the others, we'll see who wants them after they've been bred, and then decide how to distribute them.
We'll see when the time comes. If there are a lot of chickens, ducks, and geese, we'll give some to each household so they can raise them and use the eggs to nourish the children and adults.
Han Shunde was a little surprised by what she said.
This Lanzhen is a very powerful person!
Big Head and Douhua stared at Li Lanzhen with wide eyes.
"Grandma Lanzhen, if we raise chickens, will we have eggs to eat?"
Looking at the two thin children, Li Lanzhen said with a heavy heart, "Yes! We'll feed you every day. Starting tomorrow, each of you will get an egg, whether you're an adult or a child."
She turned to Xue Nizi and said.
"Second son's wife, each of you can have a boiled egg, or you can make an egg custard, or you can fry an egg. In short, no matter how you eat it, you must make sure you have an egg every day. Don't forget."
Xue Nizi happily agreed, "Okay, Mom, I remember. We'll make eggs for everyone in different ways."
Without much thought, they knew there were wild ducks and many wild duck eggs in the reeds.
I thought Li Lanzhen might say that she goes to collect wild duck eggs every day to bring back for everyone to eat.
The women and children quickly gathered up the pots and pans and went to wash them.
The men did not move.
Han Shunde said.
"The site for the foundation needs to be cleared out tomorrow."
What do you all think about how this house should be built?
Everyone looked at each other, puzzled.
What other tricks are there for repairing houses and yards?
It's just a row of houses, with a kitchen and storage room next to it, surrounded by a yard.
Li Lanzhen could tell what they were thinking just by looking at their expressions.
That's true, they've lived in the village for generations.
Few people went out to see the grand houses of wealthy families.
Even if I saw it, I wouldn't imagine myself living in a house like that.
Making sure the whole family has enough to eat is the first thing they think about every day!
She spoke first.
"I suggest building it in the style of a traditional courtyard house."
"A courtyard house? What does that look like?"
Upon seeing this, Li Lanzhen turned around and walked to the pile of miscellaneous items behind the woods. She rummaged through a basket in her house for a while and took out a few sheets of paper, but she didn't take any pen or ink.
After sitting down at the table, he said to Han Yinan.
"Han Yinan, go and get some burnt wooden sticks for Grandma from the stove fire. They shouldn't be too thick, just enough to write on paper."
Han Yinan agreed and went with the children to find wooden sticks in the stove.
A short while later, several children came carrying a pile of burnt, blackened wooden sticks.
Li Lanzhen picked one that suited her at random and started drawing on the paper while explaining it to everyone.
"Let me first explain how my house and yard should be built."
The main house has three rooms, with the central room being the main hall, which needs to be larger, and two bedrooms on either side.
The west side of the yard is mainly the kitchen and dining room. The dining room should also be larger, as there are many people in our family. The kitchen needs to have three stoves and a large iron pot.
I have a small stove, and I want to put a clay pot on it. The fire from the three iron pots cooking rice can heat the water in the clay pot, so there will be hot water inside day and night.
A bathroom needs to be built behind the kitchen.
Next, build a woodshed next to the gate of the courtyard.
The two side rooms on the east side can be used for storing miscellaneous items or for living.
The front yard is a bit smaller, so we can plant trees and flowers there.
The backyard should be kept large enough to be used as a vegetable garden, where vegetables can be planted. There should also be a toilet, livestock shed, chicken coop, and duck pen at the back.
..."
As Li Lanzhen finished drawing and talking, she handed her drawing to Han Shunde and the others to look at.
Just when everyone thought Li Lanzhen had finished speaking, his next words stirred up a huge wave of controversy.
"The courtyard I just drew is just for my own living space. Next to me, I will build three more courtyards for my eldest son, second son, and youngest son."
Before she could finish speaking, Han Mingjiang suddenly stood up.
Because he stood up so quickly and abruptly, the chair under his bottom flipped over.
"Mother, how could you separate the family?! Mother! We won't separate!"
Han Minghai, who was sitting next to him, slapped him on the back.
She said sternly to him, "Sit down and listen to your mother!"
Turning to Li Lanzhen, he said nervously and anxiously, "Mother, we won't separate! We won't separate! Are you going to separate us all and abandon us?"
Li Lanzhen couldn't bear to look at her two sons anymore.
One was impulsive and carefree, the other was honest and hardworking, only knowing how to keep his head down and get to work.
"Who said I was going to separate you all? We'll just live separately, not away from home. If you dare leave your old mother to fend for yourselves, I'll break your legs with this stick!"
Although Li Lanzhen spoke with a serious expression and a ruthless attitude, Han Mingjiang and Han Minghai were relieved and chuckled.
"Oh, oh, we understand! We won't separate, we won't separate! We'll all stay with Mother, forever, we'll never separate!"
At this moment, Li Lanzhen didn't know whether she envied the original owner of the body for having two good sons, or she envied herself for now enjoying the children's filial piety and affection towards her.
He spoke to the two of them with a gentle look in his eyes.
“We won’t separate the family. How can we separate the family? Each family will have its own small courtyard so that we won’t disturb each other. We’ll just live separately. We’ll still eat at my place. We’ll also make your kitchen and dining room bigger. In the future, when your sons get married, you can build three rooms in your side rooms. That way, when the children grow up, they won’t need to build houses and can live together.”
The Han brothers looked at Li Lanzhen with admiration as they listened to her rambling on and on.
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