Reborn in a small village in the 1990s

Chapter 227

When Zhao Da'e left Zhao Tiebao's house, it was already evening. She carried seven or eight large Fuji apples, her pockets were full of peanuts and melon seeds, and she also took half a small bag of oranges.

They returned with a full load of goodies.

It wasn't that Zhao Da'e wanted it, but Ji Ruxue insisted that Zhao Da'e take it; he couldn't refuse...

Zhao Da'e hummed a little tune, feeling great.

On their way back, they ran into Zhao Tingming hurrying to the village office. Zhao Da'e asked, "Grandpa, why aren't you home? What are you busy with?"

Zhao Tingming said with a bitter expression, "There are wolves in the mountains. We reported it, and the county is planning to send a work team over in half a day to kill the wolves."

Zhao Da'e wasn't too concerned about this matter, since it wasn't her turn to catch the wolves. It would be best if someone came sooner to drive the wolves away. After all, who knew if these lone wolves would become desperate and, in a fit of pique, run into the village.

In the past, some families in the village still had those foreign-made shotguns, but they were usually single-shot.

It didn't work out much after that.

Now, it's said that only three or five people in the entire village of Zhao Da'e have secretly hidden foreign cannons; no one else has.

So if wolves come, you have to contact the higher-ups. After reporting it, they should send professionals to help handle it.

Usually, you just have to kill it; there's no other way.

No one can be too compassionate towards wild wolves.

Zhao Da'e didn't say much to Zhao Tingming, who then went about his business, and Zhao Da'e continued walking back.

As Zhao Da'e passed by the old house, he glanced inside and saw that people were still drinking, while Zhao Tiesheng was working outside.

Zhao Da'e went over.

“No, this isn’t the right way to tidy up,” Zhao Da’e said, pointing to the messy, uneven ground. “There’s still a month or so until spring. Don’t pretend to do all that useless stuff beforehand. Leveling the ground won’t help. Shouldn’t you be going to the back to put up some beams? You don’t do the proper work, but you pretend to be working hard on the ground every day. What are you thinking?”

“I was thinking of leveling it out a bit, so it would be better later,” Zhao Tiesheng retorted.

"Okay. You're right." Zhao Da'e was too lazy to argue with Zhao Tiesheng.

"But I estimate we'll need thirteen purlins. Get them ready before the New Year. I don't care about anything else. As long as it's not too cold in the spring, start construction immediately. Also, Dad, what are you thinking? You just give them rice and meat when they come to borrow them? And they haven't even called you for a meal yet? What are you after?"

"Borrowing meat and rice" naturally refers to Zhao Tingxu's lunch today and the arrangements he made for Liu Xiaochun.

Zhao Tiesheng said, "I don't care to eat with them."

Zhao Da'e frowned: "Are we talking about the same thing?"

Zhao Da'e really couldn't be bothered to communicate with Zhao Tiesheng.

This was how it was in the past life; Zhao Tiesheng, Zhao Da'e, barely spoke to his father.

It's so difficult to communicate with him.

Anyone with a normal sense would understand that what Zhao Da'e meant by asking was, "Why didn't they invite you to their meal after taking your things? Isn't that blatant disrespect?"

But Zhao Tiesheng's answer...

Zhao Da'e really didn't want to communicate with Zhao Tiesheng anymore. He just told him to remember to eat later and not forget to feed Xiaobao.

“What else would a dog eat? There’s cornmeal…” Zhao Tiesheng said.

Zhao Da'e: ...

"Okay, you continue."

Zhao Da'e just left; it was too damn much trouble.

Zhao Da'e returned to her aunt's house, then took half a steamed bun and some leftovers, and fed the dog. Afterwards, she ran to the storage room, packed up most of the food, and took it with her.

Feeding the dogs is better than letting them sneakily eat it.

Even dogs know how to guard the house, but they're nothing.

When Zhao Da'e returned to her aunt's house, she noticed that Zhou Chunwen was not there, so she asked, "Where did my older sister go?"

Zhou Chunhong said, "Big...big...big..."

Zhao Da'e had a headache: "Forget it, don't say anymore. I won't ask."

Once inside, I asked Aunt Cheng Jinxi and learned that Zhou Chunwen had gone outside to get some soil to grow some garlic sprouts.

Zhao Da'e was completely bewildered: "Can't we use the soil from home?"

"She wanted to get some sandy soil so that the garlic sprouts would grow faster," Cheng Jinxi explained.

Zhou Chunwen returned shortly afterward and immediately asked Zhao Da'e for help.

Zhou Chunwen carried half a bag of sand and several broken basins, letting Zhao Da'e hold the basins while he carried the sand.

"Big sister, this basin of yours looks brand new to me..."

“Yes, your cousin collected them from scrap metal,” Zhou Chunwen said.

Zhao Da'e laughed: Forget it, who sells new basins these days?

What kind of era is this? Things are passed down for generations and then never passed down.

It's probably something Zhou Tianfu stole while collecting scrap... It's not the most elegant way to put it, but it's likely stolen. Zhou Tianfu was extremely kind to Zhao Da'e, but that wouldn't affect Zhao Da'e's basic judgment. Because, in reality, Zhou Tianfu's personal character isn't very good.

Of course, this also depends on the actual living conditions. Poor areas tend to produce many thieves.

However, Zhao Da'e doesn't steal or rob. Even if she doesn't approve of what others do, she's unlikely to complain or report them.

These basins were somewhat new, but they weren't broken. Zhao Da'e shook his head, then took the basins and went into the west room with Zhou Chunwen.

"Mom, can you peel the garlic for me?" Zhou Chunwen called out.

"I'm busy." Cheng Jinxi didn't have time to pay attention to Zhou Chunwen at all: "I still have to cook, go make it yourself."

Helpless, Zhou Chunwen had no choice but to put the sand on the ground and then start picking up the garlic and peeling it.

"Big sister, it seems... I mean, it seems like we don't need to peel them. We're growing garlic sprouts, not eating garlic..." Zhao Da'e suggested softly.

Growing garlic sprouts is a common practice, especially in the north. In those days, vegetables were scarce and expensive to buy. Once winter came, there wasn't much to eat, so people would start thinking about growing something indoors to have something fresh to eat.

Zhou Chunwen is a very idle person, extremely idle. She doesn't have much to do usually, and since Zhou Yuren is quite capable at home, she mainly just cooks. But when Zhao Da'e's aunt, Cheng Jinxi, comes home, Zhou Chunwen starts to slack off and stops cooking altogether.

I'm ready to just coast along and do whatever I want.

She couldn't stay idle these past two days, and because there were laidai (a type of wild vegetable) on the mountain, she couldn't go out for a stroll. She was so bored that she thought of doing something, so she decided to make some garlic sprouts to eat.

"Big sister, if you want to peel the garlic, just soak it in water. Garlic sprouts will grow then. But..." Zhao Da'e hesitated.

However… Zhou Chunwen has already brought the soil back. Now that she's soaking it in water, she feels like she's done all that work for nothing.

"Hiss... Big goose, why didn't you say so sooner? I went through all that trouble to get some sand from the field, do you know how hard I worked?"

"You didn't ask either?!"

"You didn't know to say anything unless I asked you?"

Zhao Da'e was speechless: "You can ask my aunt."

Zhou Chunwen pouted: "Your aunt is ignoring me. She's been having an attack lately... don't even mention her, she's having another episode, I don't know what's wrong with her again."

Zhou Chunwen put the soil down, then divided it into four basins, added some water, and finally placed the basins on the kang (heated brick bed) saying, "Big Goose, go get the garlic..."

After searching for a long time, Zhao Da'e only found two cloves of garlic: "Sister, I have a question. Before you wanted to plant garlic sprouts, didn't you know you didn't have any garlic at home?"

Zhou Chunwen looked embarrassed: "I only did it on a whim, okay? It's a complete waste, there's no garlic, I planted nothing at all."

Zhao Da'e gave the two heads of garlic to Zhou Chunwen, who then planted only one pot.

The more Zhou Chunwen looked at the remaining few basins, the angrier he became.

"How about we plant some scallions?"

Zhao Da'e shook his head: "You're out of scallions."

"Mom, what else do we have at home? I'll plant some!" Zhou Chunwen said, dissatisfied.

"With your father here, plant him!!!" Cheng Jinxi said impatiently.

Zhou Chunwen: "..."

Zhou Yuren, who was smoking a pipe in the east room: ? ? ?

Since nothing could be planted anymore, Zhao Da'e went to the east room.

Zhou Yuren tapped the ash from his cigarette, preparing to roll another one.

Zhao Da'e was too embarrassed to ask directly what was wrong, but guessed that something was up. So he helped Zhou Yuren roll cigarettes.

"Uncle, let me roll you a cigarette."

Zhou Yuren immediately smiled and said, "Okay."

"By the way, what happened? My aunt seems to be on edge again?"

Zhou Yuren pursed his lips: "It's nothing serious. It seems a weasel came last night and carried away the remaining chickens. Your aunt went to collect the eggs during the day and saw it. Not a single one was left."

Zhao Da'e was stunned. Zhou Yuren's family still had three chickens left, but they were all wiped out.

The problem is, I didn't hear any noise while I was sleeping at night.

Although Zhao Da'e was quite tired yesterday and went to bed early, she should have at least made some noise if a weasel had really come. She didn't hear a thing.

The place where the scholar's cane is located is near the mountain, where there are many weasels and wild geese, so it's normal for a few chickens to go missing.

However, Zhou Yuren's chicken coop is closed at night. There are only three left. There used to be many, but several died of chicken plague. They didn't report it, and the remaining ones survived. But they don't dare to eat them; they just let them lay eggs for them to eat.

Moreover, they generally don't lay eggs much in winter. Unless the chickens are bored... I guess Zhou Yuren just said it offhand, Cheng Jinxi probably opened the chicken coop door and found that all the chickens were gone.

"It's gone, it's gone. It's not like you lost it. A weasel carried it away, what can anyone do?" Zhao Da'e comforted him.

After all, this is beyond human capability.

Many people have never seen a weasel, especially a wild one.

That thing is extremely small.

In his past life, Zhao Da'e had a nest of weasels in his backyard. Zhao Da'e didn't raise chickens or ducks because the backyard was spacious, so the weasels made their home there. Generally speaking, there's a saying in rural areas that weasels only settle in good households.

Moreover, this thing is very sinister; it's known in the martial arts world as Huang Daxian.

He's one of the top-ranked immortals among all the immortals.

They are also gregarious, living in groups. They often go out to steal chickens to eat, of course. They usually steal chickens when they are starving in winter, otherwise they eat things like rats.

Zhao Da'e had seen it many times, but he hadn't seen it since; perhaps it had moved.

As the name suggests, the weasel has the character for "mouse" in its name, so it looks very much like a mouse. It has very short paws, a small head, but a very long tail.

What impressed Zhao Da'e most about the weasel was its incredible ability to climb walls. Even a 90-degree right angle wall was no problem for it. Zhao Da'e had no idea how it got up there, but it just did it.

They're incredibly fast; despite their small size, they can carry chickens several times their own weight and dart away. They're also remarkably intelligent.

Weasels typically come out at night, moving extremely silently, making it nearly impossible for humans to hear them. Their footsteps are similar to a cat's, incredibly light, yet they move even faster.

For example, cats can climb trees, and so can weasels.

Conversely, weasels can climb walls, but cats cannot.

Of all the animals Zhao Da'e had ever seen, only Huang Daxian could climb walls with such ease.

Catching them is nearly impossible; they're harder to catch than rats.

Mice, at least, will foolishly let themselves get caught in mousetraps; weasels, however, won't—they recognize mousetraps…

To date, the only time Zhao Da'e has heard of a weasel being caught was when someone was setting a rabbit trap, and the weasel accidentally fell into the trap...

It's impossible to catch them by human intervention.

Zhao Da'e then comforted Zhou Yuren: "Otherwise, we won't be able to eat those chickens anyway. They've had fowl plague. Whatever. We can raise a few more chicks in the spring."

Zhou Yuren smiled and remained silent: Cheng Jinxi is just going through menopause, whatever.

Zhao Da'e brought over the tobacco basket, which still had a few raw tobacco leaves on it.

The tobacco leaves were grown by Zhou Yuren himself. He generally didn't spend much money and almost never went to the market. Cheng Jinxi was the one who went to the market, while Zhou Yuren stayed at home by himself. He grew his own food and his own tobacco, doing whatever it took to save money.

Tobacco is not easy to grow; most people can't do it. Every year, Zhou Yuren plants several rows of tobacco in the row of trees in front of his house.

In autumn, we start splitting tobacco leaves, drying them in the sun, and then we can smoke them.

These tobacco leaves were dried. Zhao Da'e rubbed them, crushing the tobacco leaves, and finally threw away the stem.

"It's spicy," Zhao Da'e said, frowning slightly. "Uncle, this cigarette is too strong. Don't smoke it, I'll get drunk in no time."

Zhou Yuren laughed heartily: "This old man is naturally strong. His strength is exhilarating..."

"It would be even more fun if you just smoked it to death..." Cheng Jinxi's voice came from outside the door.

Zhao Da'e: "..."

Zhou Yuren looked embarrassed; he couldn't do anything about what his wife said.

In fact, Cheng Jinxi was against Zhou Yuren smoking, but she couldn't stop him.

Smoking is harmful to your health.

However, in rural areas, nine out of ten elderly people still smoke. There's really not much that can be done about it.

There's too much physical labor involved, so sometimes I need a cigarette to relieve the fatigue. Or a glass of liquor to soothe the tired soul.

People who do too much physical labor are usually too tired to sleep. At that time, they might think of taking a couple of puffs to relax.

Zhao Da'e rubbed the tobacco leaves into even smaller pieces, then whispered to Zhou Yuren, "Don't mind my aunt. That's just how my aunt is."

Cheng Jinxi has indeed been like this a lot lately, sometimes good and sometimes bad. When she's in a bad mood, she starts muttering random things. Zhao Da'e is used to it, so she doesn't care.

Zhou Yuren nodded: "It's not rolled like that. The cigarette shouldn't be too finely chopped either, otherwise it won't roll properly."