Fortunately, this path was not as difficult as Qingyan imagined. Except that the road was slightly narrower, it was flat and not very bumpy.
While walking, Zhang Chunhua talked to her brother in detail about the events of this period and her next plans.
Her father and mother passed away one after another two years ago, and now only her brother, sister-in-law and two nephews are left in her family.
She wanted to talk to her brother first. If he had any difficulties, she could just tell him directly. There was nothing that her siblings could not say, and it would save her sister-in-law from being unwilling.
After Zhang Mancang heard this, he said directly: "You have arrived at the right time. Zhang Ganzi's family next door to ours has moved to his daughter's house in Shanggangzi Village, and the yard is for sale.
The cave dwelling is a bit shabby, after all, I have lived here for decades, but it is very cheap. Two cave dwellings plus a yard, and a vegetable patch in front, only cost 20 taels of silver. "
Zhang Chunhua was a little surprised. She didn't expect that there was a ready-made yard, but she was also a little confused.
"Why did Uncle Ganzi's family go to his daughter's house? Will his son-in-law's family be happy?"
Zhang Ganzi's family has always been their old neighbor. She can be said to have played with Zhang Xiaocui, Zhang Ganzi's eldest daughter, since childhood.
However, the villages where the two married later were in opposite directions. She married to Yuliang Village in the west, while Zhang Xiaocui married to Shanggangzi Village in the east.
In fact, she was not surprised that Zhang Ganzi and the others were going to join their daughter, because they had only one daughter, and they would have no other children to support them in their old age.
They had other children before, but they didn't keep them.
The other three daughters and one son all died in infancy. Zhang Xiaocui’s three daughters died of illness before they reached the age of ten.
The only son was born a fool, which the old couple could tolerate when he was young. The year before last, when he was ten years old, he ran out and drowned in a river pit near the village.
When Zhang Xiaocui got married, her younger brother was still alive, so she didn't think about recruiting anyone to support them in their old age.
But it's okay to ask her daughter to help her, but if she really goes to her daughter's place to take care of her in old age, her husband's family will probably not agree.
After all, everyone's concept is that the son will be taken care of until his death, and the daughter only needs to go home to visit during the holidays.
Zhang Mancang continued: "I don't know what caused the collision in Shanggangzi Village. In the past few months, children often disappeared for no reason. When they were found again, they only found the child's body, and that body His heart and liver were taken away, so there was a legend that there was a ghost on the mountain behind there..."
Zhang Chunhua interjected: "Then if something happens in Shanggangzi Village, shouldn't we be more afraid? If you don't move to our side, why do you go over there instead?"
Zhang Mancang gave her a helpless look, his sister was still so unstable, "You should listen to what I have to say. After this happened, the whole village spent money to find a senior monk from Lingguang Temple in Pingyuan County. have a look.
As a result, when the eminent monk came over, he said that it was ghosts causing trouble. He couldn't eliminate the ghosts, but there was a way to stop the ghosts from hurting people.
It is to smear the blood of a man born in the yang year, yang month, yang day, yang day, on a stone tablet, and then set up the stele at the entrance of the mountain behind Shanggangzi Village.
If you really can't find a living one, you can just find a dead one, as long as the grave is moved to the pass of the back mountain.
Then Zhang Xiaocui remembered that her father had told her younger brother Zhang Liugen's fortune. It was because he was born in the yang year, yang month, yang day and yang day. Their family could not bear such great blessings, so they lost their souls at birth.
She told them to discuss it with her parents when she came back, and it shouldn't be difficult to move the grave there.
Shanggang Village also said that their village would provide money and effort to move the grave, and they would ensure that Zhang Liugen would be buried with great splendor.
Of course Uncle Ganzi and the others agreed. After all, they would still have their daughter to visit the grave if they were gone, but Zhang Liugen would not even have one to visit the grave. This was a good thing.
The two of them agreed, but there were conditions. They wanted to retire in Shanggangzi Village, and they agreed, so they followed them there. "
Hearing this, Qingyan couldn't help but say: "Is that eminent monk real? If this method doesn't work, won't they be driven back over there?
Another question, aren't they afraid of ghosts? What if the ghost wasn't suppressed and went around hurting people? Wouldn't it be a good idea to run over and die? "
Zhang Mancang shook his head, "I don't know about that. I heard that the ghost did some evil things to children under the age of seven or eight, and never to adults.
Nowadays in Shanggangzi Village, children are kept at home, while adults still go out to do work as normal.
In fact, the main reason is that Uncle Ganzi and his wife have no other relatives here. All the relatives are in the fifth service, so there is really no one to take care of them.
Originally, if I were at home, if you called me if something happened, I could go over and help.
But I'm almost not at home all day, and my sister-in-law and nephew are at home. Even if they have something to do, most of them can't be of much help.
Another neighbor is a bit dirty with their family, so they have long wanted to live with their daughter for retirement. This is a good opportunity. If they miss this time, they will really not be able to talk about it in the future.
After all, it was just a normal marriage at that time, and I didn't say that I would provide for them in their old age. Now that I want my son-in-law to provide for them in their old age, I can't open my mouth.
The son-in-law also has a family there, and he is not without a father or a mother. If he is without relatives, it would be okay to help support his father-in-law and his mother-in-law. Now, even if the son-in-law is willing, his parents may not be willing.
It's fine now, with this matter, the condition of retirement is considered acceptable, so they are thinking of selling the yard here, taking some money with them and having money to live with. "
Qingyan and Zhang Chunhua nodded, this made sense.
After asking for the specific location of Shanggangzi Village, Qingyan tried to probe there with her spiritual sense, and then found that her spiritual sense could not reach it.
The Shanggangzi Village is not just past Zhangji Town. There are three or four villages in the middle, so it is almost seven or eight miles away from here.
She had no choice but to let Chou Chou explore first to see what kind of ghost was responsible for ripping out the child's heart. If she could find it and eliminate it for him, it would be considered as a way to eliminate harm for the people.
As they chatted all the way, the journey became very short, and they arrived at the village in just ten minutes.
Compared with Yuliang Village, this place is smaller, with only a dozen households, and not that many people.
Although there are many villages here, each village is basically not very big, so the population density is very small.
Compared with the people coming and going in the town, I didn't meet anyone at all along the way after leaving Zhangji Town.
It is worth mentioning that most of the village names here have the character Zhang. For example, Zhang Chunhua’s village is called Zhangwa Village. The people in the village are also surnamed Zhang, and they are all related to each other, so they will not marry in this village. To get married or marry, you have to go to a relatively distant village.
It is said that all the people with the surname Zhang in Zhangji Town had the same ancestor hundreds of years ago, but later they slowly separated into many villages.
Therefore, the names of several villages next to the town are very similar. In addition to Zhangwa Village, there are also Zhangjiazhuang Village, Zhangwan Village, Zhangzhuanghu Village, etc...
As for whether they are really from the same ancestor, this can no longer be tested. At least, although the people in these villages have the same surname, many of them have no relatives or friends, so there is no way to prove it.
The cave dwellings in Zhangwa Village are all built against the southern slope, so the lighting should be very good. Some cave dwellings have fences in front of the courtyard, and some are surrounded by adobe or stone walls. They are not very high, only about 1.5 meters. Anyway, beware of gentlemen, not villains.
Most of the vegetable plots outside the yard were planted, some were empty, and some were covered with a layer of straw curtains. She looked at the ones underneath and saw that they were covered with leek roots, probably to keep them warm in case they would freeze to death and not grow back next year.
In some fields, there are still cabbages that have not been harvested. They have been planted in the soil and have been frozen. In the shady places, the cabbage leaves are covered with a layer of snow, which looks like big white flowers one after another, which is quite beautiful.
At this time, it was time to prepare dinner. Many people were walking around in the yard, some fetching water and others holding firewood. When they saw carriages coming from the village, they all came out.
Especially when they saw that the driver was Zhang Mancang, they all put down their work and gathered around him.
"The warehouse is full, who in the village has ordered furniture again? Is your shop buying new animals? This big horse is really strong!"
They all knew that Li Carpenter's Shop had an ox cart and a donkey cart. Because it was close to the town, these people often went to the town. Occasionally, they would see Zhang Mancang driving his cart to deliver goods to other villages.
Including people from their village will go to the town to order furniture and wooden boxes. If they can't get it back, they will have Mancang take it back from work, and then drive to work the next day.
So when they saw this car, the first thing they thought of was that the carpenter shop had bought another animal. Although the horse was much more expensive than the cows and donkeys, the car also had an extra carriage. It didn't look like it was used to pull goods. Instead, it looks like a person sitting on it.
Zhang Mancang greeted everyone, and Zhang Chunhua also got out and greeted everyone. She grew up here, so unless she was a newly married daughter-in-law, she didn't know her, and some of the older people generally knew her.
When everyone saw that she was back, they also greeted her one after another. They knew that her husband's family was gone, and those who had come to report the funeral before just said that she had returned to her parents' home.
But he didn't ask about the carriage again, thinking that he had borrowed a car from his husband's house. Yuliang Village was much richer than theirs, so there were still carriages.
It was getting late, and after a few pleasantries, everyone stopped entangled.
There is only one row of courtyards in Zhangwa Village, which runs east-west. Zhang Mancang's family is one of them, which means that every day when you go home, you have to pass by the entire village.
There was no way, the only way into the village was from the west, and to the east was a deep ditch with water in it, quite deep, where Zhang Gangzi's son drowned.
There are not many people in the village now. Many men in the village go to the town or go to the county to work as part-time workers, hoping to earn some money to celebrate the New Year.
Most of those left behind are elderly people or women and children. There is no work in the fields now, so they are relatively free.
It can be said that the walking was stumbling along the way. There were only a dozen or so houses, and it took less than half an hour to walk.
This is because Qingyan and Daman Xiaoman did not leave the carriage shed, otherwise the adults would tease the children and introduce her, which would probably waste more time.
Qingyan doesn't plan to go out to get to know these villagers. She won't be able to stay here for long. She will leave tomorrow morning at the latest. If Zhang Mancang's family can't accommodate them, she plans to go back to town soon.
I had scouted it before, and there was an inn there with decent sanitary conditions. I could stay there tonight.
She will ask Zhang Mancang later to see if he can make that kind of sled. She is not going to dismantle the wheels of the carriage, so she is going to directly build a sled-shaped bottom bracket.
When it snows, it can be directly fixed on the horizontal axis below, and the two wheels can be lifted up a little, so that it can still glide on the snow without any hindrance.
This method just came to her mind when she saw them repairing the oxcart. Otherwise, if she had to build a separate sled cart, there would be no place to put it, and it couldn't be dragged along the way, nor could it be stored directly in the space.
It would be better to make two sled supports, and just stow them away behind the carriage, or retract them into a space, so no one else can see them anyway.
Then when it snows, just support it underneath. This is equivalent to a car that can be used on snowy roads.
After finally arriving at the yard of Zhang Mancang's house, his wife was already waiting at the door. She had been standing there for a long time. The reason why she didn't come forward to meet her was because she was afraid that if she did, she would be dragged along and asked endless questions, so she might as well just stay at home. Waiting at the door, since my man will be back sooner or later anyway, so I don't have to be dragged around asking questions.
That day he told me in advance that the wall of his house was quite high, because it was best for the family inside to run around and there was wild land on the other side. No, it's high and low, not safe at all, so the dean of his family is the tallest, and the car is the happiest, and it's not too high, only 1m or about 180, he can't even open the wooden door. Open it and let the work bus go directly to the yard. This must not be left outside. Otherwise, people might still be watching. After he drove the car in at night, the car broke down and the computer started saying hello. After Zhang drove the car in at night, it was Chen Xiaoyan who came out with them. The two children called their aunt yeah and handed over the mirror. and cousin. This is when the two sons of our manufacturer came to our door. The two sons of his cousin and other manufacturers were all occupied with the other big white cakes. Zhang Chunhua probably didn't know how to get married after all. Don't think that he would only be gone for a year. Other women get married at a younger age than men. If you get married for 20 yuan, you will have a child. When you got married last night, your parents were sick in bed. The Sun Prince went to be an apprentice to make money. I said that he had just become an apprentice and his family couldn't take care of it at all. All the work at home was done. My sister-in-law made it at the time, so I never had to worry about it. If I don’t have children, I won’t be able to make it at least twice as long. Giving birth is several days later than in the morning. Take a shower and wait until something happens to him. In the next two years, these two had just given birth to Zhang. In the photo, the parents also saw Zhang Suo. The new history made me smile.
(End of chapter)
