newbobooks Chapter 276 Stayed
Chapter 276 Stayed
On the second day, she went into the mountains in the morning and brought back two musk deer, a few rabbits, and a few pheasants, which she scattered on the ground and then left alone.
He took the axe and started chopping the firewood into pieces.
Zhou Dacang also borrowed an axe from the old couple, and the two of them just focused on chopping wood and ignored any other work.
Seeing so much prey on the ground, the men dared not be lazy. By noon, the beams of the house were all laid, and they just had to lay the straw.
After dinner, everyone started to work again. Zhou Guo and Zhou Dacang picked up the axes again and worked for more than an hour. They had chopped all the dozen or so pieces of wood.
While they were chopping firewood, the old lady began to carry the firewood under the eaves one load at a time. She stacked the firewood as she moved it, and eventually the firewood reached a height of about three feet against the wall.
Even the child behind followed behind and carried firewood back and forth.
After Zhou Guo and Zhou Dacang finished chopping the wood, they also helped to move the wood. The old lady didn't have a woodshed, so the firewood had been piled under the wall.
The chopped dry firewood is also piled at the foot of the wall, and you can just take it when you need it.
Half of the wall was piled up along the base of the wall, and the old lady would have to use a ladder to get more firewood. Half of the firewood was still left. Zhou Guo thought of moving it to the kitchen, where it would be sheltered from wind and rain and within easy reach, saving a lot of trouble. Anyway, the old lady lived alone in the rooms, so they were spacious enough.
The old lady next door was so envious that she said to her, "You are so lucky. You have met good people all your life. Your husband loves you and your children are filial to you. You have lived a good life. When you are old, people who come to stay in your house for a few days are very sincere to you. They think of you no matter what they do. They repair the house for you, chop firewood for you, and do everything for you."
The old lady was originally smiling, but she stopped smiling after hearing the last part. She sighed and said, "It's a pity that a good life doesn't last long. What's the use of a good life? God may be dissatisfied with my good life and wants to take everything back. The old man is gone, one of my three sons is dead, one has no news, and the other has married someone else. I am sorry for him."
The two of them chatted and cooked dinner.
The roof was completed before the sun set.
The work was done, Zhou Guo had chopped all the firewood, and just in time, the meal was ready.
Everyone washed their hands and faces, then sat together, eating meat and chatting.
Zhou Guo listened to them talking about their life stories at the table with great interest.
This meal was eaten very slowly. People were not in a hurry to work, nor were they in a hurry to go back to rest. They ate as slowly as possible, as if they were drinking wine. Some of them ate until the end and burst into tears as if they had drunk wine.
When she cried, all the men started crying.
The old lady's eyes were red. She touched their heads one by one and said, "What a sin! The world is bad. It's not your fault. If you don't mind, you can stay here. There are still a few houses in the village. Two owners have gone out to escape the famine. I don't know if they will come back. There are two other houses where everyone is gone. They are just left there. You can live here. They left last year. You just need to clean up a little and you can live here."
Zhou Guo and Zhou Dacang were both shocked. They didn't expect the old lady to keep these people. They wanted to speak out to stop it.
The old lady continued, "You are all pitiful people. You have lost your home and your family. If you don't mind, you can stay here. It just so happens that if we old people have any work that we can't do, we can ask you for help."
Zhou Guo was stunned when he saw the joy on the faces of the two elderly couples next to him. Then he shut up when he saw the lame uncle next to him also had a smile on his face.
There are too few people in the village, only these few. The only young one is already middle-aged. It would be good if these people could stay. I just don't know if they will go astray again.
When the men heard that they could stay here, they were so excited that they nodded and cried loudly, "We have traveled to so many places, and people hate us everywhere. When we meet someone, they want to stay away from us. We didn't expect that when we came here, not only did you not hate us, but you also allowed us to stay here."
“We have a home again.”
Zhou Dacang reminded them, "If you stay here, you still have to report to the head of the village. Only after your household registration is reported to the county government can you get land. Otherwise, the crops you have worked so hard to grow will be taken away by someone else's words. You will have no place to seek justice."
Zhou Guo was also a little worried. "I don't know if the policy to keep people safe has been implemented here. Can I get the land if I report it like this?"
The men didn't have so many concerns. The bachelor said, "Why worry about so much? Just live here and plant the land first. If things don't work out well later, the worst that can happen is that we will have to run around the world again."
"That's right. If we report it, we will get a share of the land, but we will also have to pay taxes and do corvée labor. We might even be arrested and sent to the army. It's better for us to travel around the world. Although we may go hungry, we are free and we can still survive."
The old lady said, "Don't worry. Every family has a few distant relatives. Just live there peacefully."
The old couple nodded repeatedly. They believed that there should be a few young people here. Although there were more families on the other side of the mountain in the village than here, there were not many young people. Most of them were old people. Even if these old guys died, there would be no one to bury them.
Since both sides had intentions, Zhou Guo didn't know what to say. It didn't seem realistic to take them with him. They didn't have horses, so did they have to follow behind? They were in a hurry.
Zhou Dacang would not say anything at all. In his opinion, this was the best of both worlds.
The group finished their meal happily, and the sun was setting over the mountain.
The two were about to leave, but the old lady tried to stop them. She pointed at the dark sky and the foggy forest and said anxiously, "Where are you going so late? You can't see anything in the forest. How far can you go at this time? You will have to stay in the forest at night. You still want to travel at night? The road is difficult to walk at night, and the forest is dense. You can't see anything when it gets dark. Don't make a mistake and fall. It's very dangerous. Be good and listen to me. No matter how urgent it is, you have to wait until tomorrow morning."
After saying that, he went to close the fence door tremblingly.
Zhou Guo looked at the sky and felt that it was not a wise choice to leave at this time. It was dark and he couldn't see the road clearly, so he couldn't walk far.
Zhou Dacang smiled and said, "Then we'll stay one more night and leave tomorrow morning."
The old lady's face was full of smiles and she nodded continuously, "That's it. No one travels at night. We need to rest at night."
The two men slept in the west room again, while the other men stayed in two houses in each house, and planned to renovate other empty houses in the village tomorrow and move in after the renovation.
The next day, Zhou Guo and his companion finished their practice and woke up the other men early, and they all sat together.