newbobooks Chapter 146 People in the Village
Chapter 146 People in the Village
After they were taken to their respective rooms, the headman walked away with his hands behind his back.
Everyone in the Zhou family looked at the dilapidated, weed-covered yard in front of them without any disgust. They rolled up their sleeves and prepared to work. They had slept in all kinds of places when they fled, and now it was good enough to have a wall to protect them on all four sides.
There were seven or eight people left in the village, and they all rolled up their sleeves and prepared to help.
Li said hurriedly: "No, no, it's too much trouble for you, we can do it ourselves."
"Hey, big sister, why are you saying that? You have been assigned here, and from now on we are from the same village. We see each other every day, and we are closer than family members. If anyone has any big or small problems, who will help if not the villagers? If you need us, just tell us. If you lack anything, just come and borrow it from us, right? This is what neighbors do." said a woman who was about the same age as Li.
Having said that, it would be bad if you still refuse, as it would seem inhumane.
Li smiled and said, "Yes, yes, yes, then I'll trouble you all. I just don't know what the names of the sisters-in-law are. How should I address them?"
"Hi, my last name is Wang, Wang Erqian, my original last name is Chen, everyone either calls me Erqian or Chen, sister-in-law, I see I am older than you, if you don't mind, just call me sister, I think we are destined to be together."
Li was very happy. When she was a girl, she was so busy that she didn't have a moment of free time. After she got married, she had even less free time. From childhood to adulthood, she had so many sisters that she could talk to that they were always busy. Now, two of them were separated.
Now that she had just arrived in the village and was completely in the dark, someone took the initiative to show her kindness. She was very grateful and happily called out, "Sister Chen."
Chen nodded happily and introduced the other people around her. "This is Wang Fulai's family who lives at the head of the village. You can call her Sister Fulai. This is Wang Shenggen's family behind her. Everyone calls her Sister Shenggen... This is Wu Dama's family at the end of the village. It's not far from your home. Everyone calls her Sister Dama."
Li greeted everyone one by one, and Zhou Guo and the other children also called them aunt.
The women were all delighted.
Chen looked at the house and said, "I see that you don't have any strong laborers in your family. It's not enough to rely on these children to repair the house. When I have some free time tomorrow, I'll ask my husband to call a few people to come and fix up the house for you. This is not suitable for living."
Li was extremely grateful and kept thanking him.
"Okay, okay, stop thanking me and start working. Otherwise, I'm afraid you won't be able to clean up the yard by dark and you'll have to stay outside tonight." Chen waved her hand, rolled up her sleeves and started to work efficiently.
Zhou Guo and Zhou Dacang took hoes and hatchets from the car, and the group took them over and started clearing the weeds in front of and behind the house.
She took the only bucket from the car, took a piece of cloth, ran to the river and fetched a bucket of water to wipe everything. When she entered the house, what caught her eye was the earthen kang. On the kang was a reed mat of unknown age, covered with a thick layer of dust. It seemed that a bucket of water and a rag were not enough. How many rags would it take to wipe clean the years of dirt and dust?
Moreover, there was not even a single decent piece of furniture in the house. It was empty. Except for the door inside the main gate, which was also gone. Apart from the beams, there was no wooden structure to be seen. There were only three kangs in the three rooms, and not even one of them was intact. Some of them had collapsed here or there.
There is no furniture, the only thing that needs to be mopped is the kang.
She raised her head and looked upwards. Fortunately, the ceiling above the kang had not collapsed. There were holes here and there on the ceilings of several rooms, and light shone through them, making the room bright.
There were layers of dense spider webs on the beams and walls in every corner, and the floor of the house was covered with straw, dust, and all kinds of suspicious feces.
She also found a few mice in the corner that had been dead for who knows how long, and they had turned into mummies.
"It's okay. No matter how you look at it, this is better than sleeping outside. At least there are a few kangs. I can just think of it as a cave to live in." She comforted herself while wrapping her face with the torn cloth and went outside to cut a handful of wild grass taller than her and tied it into a bundle.
Handing it to Zhou Dacang who was weeding nearby, "Uncle, let's go clean up the house. There are so many spider webs that I can't reach them."
Zhou Dacang stood up and followed her into the house. After looking at the situation in the house, he was silent for a moment and then started to work. He picked up the bundle of grass, stepped on the kang, and tilted his head back to beat the spider webs.
Zhou Guo went out and came back with a large bundle of grass. After Zhou Dacang swept the cobwebs in the room clean, he began to sweep the kang. He picked up the kang mat and shook it, swept the dust off the kang, swept the kang mat clean, put it back on, and began to sweep the floor. Although it was a little difficult to use and not very satisfying, it was better than nothing.
After cleaning several rooms, she picked up the bucket, wet the rag, and began to wipe the kang mat. She let the old dirt that could not be wiped off be wiped away for a few days and then she could weave a new one.
Outside the house, Li took a few villagers and the kids in the family to weed. The yard had been unoccupied for a long time and no one had taken care of it, so the weeds growing in the yard were as thick as a kid's arms.
A group of people cut down trees and dug up their roots. It was not an easy job.
Zhou Xing took advantage of the opportunity and took Li Lai and the other two children to pick up some branches. They skillfully built a simple stove outside the yard and began to boil water. With so many people coming to help, they had to give them a drink of water anyway.
Before the water had even heated up, the village headman arrived with his men pushing a cart.
"This is the relief grain distributed by the county government, divided according to the number of people and households. This is yours, and the old man is also yours, right? Here, these are all yours."
A young man carried down two sacks from the cart. One was half a sack and the other was even heavier. Looking at the weight, it was probably at least ten kilograms.
"Wow, there are so many relief grains!" Li said while wiping the sweat off her forehead. To be honest, this is the first time she has seen relief grains since she was a child. In previous years, when her family suffered from disasters, they would either give out porridge or give out porridge. Most of the time, there was no porridge at all and they had to rely on themselves.
The head of the village said, "You have a large family. If you save this food, it will be enough for you to eat for two months. I will divide the land among you tomorrow. Remember to come to the village in the morning. The land can only be divided after everyone is here."
After saying that, he asked someone to push the cart forward.
When the Zhou family heard that they would be given some land, they were extremely excited.
"Is there really land to be divided? I wonder how much land can be divided?" Zhou Guo said. Usually, land is divided according to the number of people in the family, so how should this be divided?