Chapter 77 076. Zhou Yi...should he be considered as uncle or aunt?
Next to Sanlihe Village is Silihe Village. Because there are many families with the surname Liu, it is also called Liujia Village. It is also the village where Guifulang and Liu Yeer's parents are from.
Because I earned a lot of money, I brought more things with me this time when I visited my family than I did during the Chinese New Year: two big white ducks, a backpack full of sweet potatoes, a basket of eggs, a basket of dried mushrooms, a clay pot of radish belly and a jar of diced papaya.
Because Lei Li and Liu Ye'er don't like spicy food, Zhou Yi made three kinds of papaya cubes: spicy, slightly spicy, and salty and fragrant. This time he brought the salty and fragrant one.
An hour later.
The ox cart arrived at Liu Ye'er's mother's home, which was Lei Li's grandparents' home.
The layout is similar to that of the Lei family's, with a fence surrounding the yard, some vegetables planted, and a "冖"-shaped tiled house, but it is slightly larger and has more rooms.
There are three sleeping quarters, one for my parents-in-law, one for my uncle, and one for my cousin and his wife and their two children. There is also a living room, a kitchen, and a storage room.
The tiles on the roof are not very tight, but they do prevent rain from leaking. The walls are made of rammed yellow mud.
This type of mud-brick house is rather rough. Heavy rain will carry away some of the soil from the mud bricks and slowly loosen the foundation. In Qingmi County, there are quite a few heavy rains every year.
——Maybe during a rainstorm, people and houses will be washed away.
But this kind of brick is very cheap and easy to make. You don’t need to spend money to buy it. You just need to dig yellow mud from the mountain, spend some effort to tamp it down at home, and then dry it.
The Sanlihe Mountains and the mountains surrounding these villages are all covered with yellow mud. When Zhou Yi went up the mountain, he slipped several times because he stepped on the yellow mud that was not covered by vegetation.
“Aren’t there any brick houses here?”
Zhou Yi discovered that Silihe Village was filled with neatly arranged mud-brick houses. Belatedly, he asked Lei Li, "In our village, only the village chief's family and two or three others use red bricks. We don't use them either. Are red bricks much more expensive than mud bricks?"
"Um."
Lei Li glanced at him and knew that he had no common sense, so he didn't laugh at him this time.
"Mud bricks cost one penny and five pieces, red bricks cost two pennies and three pieces, and green bricks cost three pennies and two pieces. Add in the tiles, and even if you don't hire anyone to build it yourself, it will cost several taels."
Blue bricks and red bricks are definitely stronger and more durable than mud bricks, and they are also beautiful, but almost all the houses in the village are made of mud bricks because blue bricks and red bricks are very expensive - at least very expensive for them.
The houses in the county town are made of blue and red bricks, and are very expensive, especially in good locations. Not to mention getting a suitable set of furniture and having your own well, as generally, families living in the same alley share a well.
Therefore, many villagers are afraid to go to the county town and are envious of the villagers who can move to the county town. For example, although Lei Li's uncle's family does not do things in a genuine way, there are many people in Sanlihe Village who envy and hate them.
certainly.
For landlords or merchants who own hundreds of acres of land, can afford to hire tenants, and can afford to wear fine cotton and silk, this amount of money is nothing.
In Lei Li's eyes, there is no concept of money. Zhou Yi, who only cares about eating and shopping, also belongs to this category. People who can spend a hundred coins to buy a hairband will not think that blue brick and red brick houses are expensive.
When buying the yard, Lei Li didn't let Zhou Yi speak, for fear that he would say:
“So cheap?”
How can he bargain and lower the price?
"Residential land is expensive. Instead of spending so much money on bricks, it would be better to use the remaining money to make new clothes for the baby. Children grow up quickly."
Lei Li pointed to the stone that was barely visible under the mud-brick house and said,
"If you use better adhesive when ramming the earth and lay a few layers of stone underneath the bricks, the bottom layer won't collapse so easily, and you can live there comfortably for another ten or twenty years."
"I understand."
Zhou Yi nodded.
Although he lived with his grandfather in the countryside when he was a child, his home was already a building at that time, so he had a relatively shallow understanding of these mud-brick houses.
As they were talking, Lei Li and a few others carried ducks and other things into the yard, and Liu Ye'er called for help at the same time.
"Dad, Mom? Is anyone home?"
"Who is it?"
An old woman with gray hair on her temples came out from the main room, needle and thread in her hands. When she saw Liu Ye'er and the others, she immediately smiled.
"Oh... Sister Ye'er is back? Why didn't you send someone to tell her that your father, brother, and Qishu are all in the fields!"
As he spoke, he welcomed them in. Seeing them carrying ducks and sweet potatoes, he was surprised again. "You're here, and you bring so many things... Wow, this duck is so fat, is it raised at home?"
"I raised some. If I can't grow them up and eat them, I'll bring some for you, Dad, and Brother to eat."
Liu Yeer smiled and said, "Eggs too, all laid by our own chickens. We grow our own sweet potatoes, which are better than the ones sold outside. And these mushrooms... they make delicious soup."
"And this pickle, my brother-in-law made it with papaya and radish... Oh, my memory."
Liu Yeer pulled Zhou Yi over and showed him to the old woman. "I told you this in a letter. Li Ge'er's husband, Zhou Yi, has never had the time to come. Now that the grain is finally harvested and he has some free time, he'll come and introduce you, your father, and your brother to him."
"Hello, grandma."
Zhou Yi bent down and smiled very politely, but seeing the old man's slightly stiff smile, he felt that his smile seemed unkind.
His face is kind when he is not smiling, and not very kind when he is smiling.
"The boy is quite tall, very good, very good..."
The old woman was a little frightened by Zhou Yi's height and rough appearance, but she soon became friendly and greeted them,
"Come sit inside and have some water. I'll ask Sister Huaer to go to the fields and call her grandpa and dad back."
"Sister Huaer——"
"Hey! I heard it—"
A little girl ran out of the house. She had two braids and looked about five or six years old. She was not afraid of Zhou Yi and looked at him curiously for several times, laughing and shouting,
"Hello, uncle! Hello, aunt! I'm going to look for grandpa and dad!"
As she said this, she ran out the door quickly, her two little braids rising up and jumping in the air with her cheerful laughter.
"This child..."
The old woman smiled and shook her head, saying to Zhou Yi, "Sister Huaer has been spoiled by her grandpa and dad. She is fearless and I am sorry to show you a joke."
"It's no problem."
Zhou Yi shook his head. "It's better for children to be lively... She is my cousin's daughter, Lei Li and I's niece?"
"Yes..."
The old woman nodded. "Sister Hua'er is Qishu. The little girl from your cousin's family is called Liu Hua'er. Her younger brother is called Liu Mu. He is in there with his father."
"They are both shy. They blush when they see people and don't like to talk. I asked them to come out and meet people."
Lei Li's cousin is called Liu Qishu, because he is the seventh among the men of this generation, and there are many people named Liushu, so he added a ranking. His husband is called Liu Guo, and they are childhood sweethearts from the same village.
Their children, Liuhuaer and Liumu, are twins, a boy and a girl, and are already six years old.
People in the village are not very literate.
The names are not given to people with wealth or status, but are named after the flowers, plants and trees around them, or like Erniu, Tiedan, Zhuzi, Xiaohong and Xiaoqing.
The old woman went in and called for help.
At this time, under the command of Lei Li, Zhou Yi penned the ducks and chickens together, and placed eggs, sweet potatoes, papaya cubes and radish belly in the kitchen.
After a while, a tall young man came out of the house with a little boy. They were Liu Guo and his little son Liu Mu.
Liu Guo tied her hair up with a wooden hairpin. Her facial features were very attractive and her temperament was a bit cold, but her expression revealed a bit of shyness and embarrassment.
Little Liumu followed behind his father, looking at the newcomers with his big black eyes, and quietly recognized them one by one, "Aunt, Grandma, Uncle... Cousin... Aunt?"
He just heard his sister calling her aunt inside, but when he saw that it was such a fierce big guy, different from the gentle aunt he had imagined, he was a little stuck.
"Listen to your sister yelling, this isn't your aunt, it's... also called your uncle."
The old woman was also a little confused.
Originally I called him cousin uncle, but since he is marrying into the family... after all, he is marrying in... so should he be considered uncle or aunt?
"Hello, little Amu."
Zhou Yi squatted down to look Xiao Liumu in the eye and greeted him in as gentle a tone as possible.
"Hello..."
Xiao Liumu was a little timid and curious, so she imitated Zhou Yi and greeted him.
Liu Guofulang didn't say anything, just nodded to them as a greeting. Although it seemed very plain, he had prepared himself mentally for a long time to speak... but his preparation failed.
He was also thinking about what to call him. According to seniority, he should call him cousin, but Zhou Yi was really big and older than him - he was 24 and Zhou Yi was 28. Calling him cousin didn't seem appropriate.
Not long.
The people chatting heard Sister Huaer's cheerful voice, "Grandma, I'm back! Grandpa, Grandpa, and Dad are back too! Is there any water to drink?"
The little girl came in skipping and dancing, picked up a bowl of water and drank it in big gulps. Three men followed her in.
The one in the front is Lei Li’s grandfather, a rather taciturn old man with half his hair already gray.
Because of years of hard work and exposure to the sun, there are deep wrinkles on his face and his skin color is also very dark, almost black brown, making him look a dozen years older than he actually is.
Lei Li's uncle was similar. He looked like he was in his fifties, though he was in his forties. It was obvious that the burden of life made him very stressed, but he was quite talkative. As soon as he saw Lei Li, Zhou Yi greeted him warmly.
"Is that Zhou Yi? He's quite tall, very nice, haha... Why didn't you send a message in advance? I could have asked Qishu to pick you up."
Lei Li's cousin Liu Qishu is very handsome, tall, and has fair skin. Compared with the two elders, his skin is even whiter. Like Liu Ye'er, he must have inherited the old woman's fair skin.
But he was not a talkative person. When he saw Zhou Yi and Lei Li, he just nodded. Like his husband, Xiao Liumu's curious and shy expression was exactly the same as his now.
This family looks quite similar...
Willow flowers look like thunder chestnuts.
Zhou Yi thought about it and greeted them one by one, then suddenly remembered that he needed to buy some pork belly to make braised pork, and that it was closer to the town market from Silihe Village.
Uncle Lei Li asked, "Shall I let Qishu go with you?"
"No, we have a bullock cart."
Lei Li shook his head and asked, "Is there anything else you need at home? I'll buy it all."
"sugar!"
Sister Huaer immediately jumped up and answered, pestering Lei Li with a smile, "Uncle, I want candy! Delicious, sweet candy!"
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
