There is Room for Rebirth in the 1950’s

Chapter 10 Farmhouse and Farm

Zhang Dayu and his brothers chose the foot of Beishan Mountain. There is a lot of wasteland in this place. Later, when children grow up, they can build it next to it. It is also convenient to quarry rocks at the foot of the mountain.In addition to being far away from the village entrance, the whole family can hide on the North Mountain when something happens, so the three brothers helped each other build a house in the village, shouting loudly after 100 meters away.

The house of Zhang Dayou's house is closest to the foot of the mountain, so the surrounding wall is also the highest, all of which are cut walls of large blue stones, a typical northern courtyard.

The vermilion gate was painted last year when the wedding was held. When you enter the gate, you can see three fruit trees planted on the east and west sides of the yard. The two on the west are jujube trees. The trees are many years old. They were directly transplanted from the mountain. , The tall leaves can block part of the sun in summer.

Not far from the west wing, a tall grape trellis was built, and a large bluestone table and a few stone stools were placed under the grape trellis. In summer, the family likes to sit here to eat and take advantage of the cold.

The persimmon tree on the left, near the kitchen, was also transplanted from the mountain. Every year, the fruits of these three trees also make the children in the family happy.

A well was drilled not far from the tree. With this well, the family doesn't have to go to the village to fetch water for many years.In addition to washing clothes and going to the river at the mouth of the village, this well met the needs of the family.Because the children in the family are small, the well is built high and high, and iron plates are covered on it.

The open space in front of the east and west wing rooms is well leveled. Besides corn and dried sweet potatoes, dried wild fruits, mushrooms, fungus and other mountain products are also dried in the autumn.The entire yard is very clean and tidy up.

On the left side of the yard, there are three rooms against the wall. They are the external kitchen, and the second is a small warehouse. They store dried vegetables in autumn, a jar of pickles in winter, and a few coarse grains.The last utility room contains the farm tools and baskets of the family.There is also a cellar in the kitchen, which is across the open road, where the whole family’s whole grains are stored.

A small cellar was dug in the main landlord's room of Zhang's father and Zhang's mother. No one knew about this except for Zhang's father and Zhang's mother and Zhang Guoqing.Here are the hidden treasures of the family, such as a pair of gold bracelets and two gold rings that Zhang’s mother married, and a box of jade pendants, jade medals, jade rings, etc., which Zhang father kept secret when the landlord in the village was liquidated. Before the liberation, the wild animals were exchanged for 3 gold bars and 2 packs of silver dollars, as well as some dozens of wooden and jade ornaments in the private collection of Father Zhang, some of which were cracked.

Xiao Guoqing once asked Dad Zhang. He didn’t know if Dad Zhang said it was worth the money. When he was a child, he followed his father to the landlord’s house to send prey.It just happened to see the landlord wipe carefully, he estimated it was very valuable.

Mother Zhang's gold bracelet for her dowry is going to be given to her sister-in-law in a hundred years, and the two gold rings have been given to two sisters to dowry.

Dad Zhang told Xiao Guoqing that he couldn't say it, otherwise he would be robbed, and he would be arrested and sent to jail.He also promised to let him pick half first, and wait a hundred years for the three brothers to be divided. Ren Xiao is also smart and never tells others.

Leaning on the kitchen, there are three rooms in the east wing, which is occupied by the boss Zhang Guofu and his family.Now the child is small, the eldest nephew is over 10 years old and lives alone, the 8-year-old second and third twins live in the same room, and the younger niece lives with the elder brother and his wife.

There are 5 western wing rooms built on the right side of the front yard. The first two rooms are for the second child, Zhang Guoqiang, and their husband and wife only have 2 children living in a spacious room.

The last two rooms belonged to the third son of Zhang Guoqing. Last year, when he got married and furnished a new house, he directly opened up these two rooms and made a suite.People who come and go in the village don't pay attention to sitting on the pit, Zhang Guoqing knows that Zhou Jiao has a little cleanliness.The small living room and study are arranged directly outside, and the bedroom will not open easily, and usually enter the bedroom from the small living room.

The vacant room in the west wing was used as a granary by Zhang Dad. The cry of the child was especially loud when the night was still in the countryside. The second child was young and the second wife had a big mouth. It happened to be a granary in the middle. The two brothers had a conflict.

The two main landlord’s rooms are the old couple’s bedroom and warehouse.

The eldest daughter-in-law Zhang Cuilan also only has the key to the kitchen cellar, and there are only two of them still in Zhang's hands. I heard that it was to prevent the second daughter-in-law from stealing food and bringing it back to her family.

As for Zhou Jiao who became pregnant as soon as she got married, she would not reach out and take things back to her natal home.Except for her grandparents, it is impossible for her to sneak to the uncle's house.

In addition, the 300 yuan gift from Zhang family plus the 500 yuan for three turns, she only bought a brand-name sewing machine for 220 yuan. She already had a watch in her hand and didn’t buy a new one. Zhang Guoqing had a bicycle in junior high school. Bacheng new. When she got married, she brought her own clothes with the fabrics her grandma gave and the wooden chests in the wardrobe arranged by her grandfather.

The Zhang family is not separated, but the wife of each house can keep it for the dowry. It is said that the 800 yuan is calculated from the 300 yuan for the Zhang family boss to the second child 500 yuan. I don’t know how to calculate it, anyway, the third child is 800 yuan. Yuan, if he is less, if he makes up more by himself, it is also a private possession of Xiaosanfang.

For this reason, I heard that the second wife, Zhang Guoqiang, had a fight, because the second daughter-in-law Lin Juhua married here without even wearing unpatched clothes. The second child is angry and feels distressed when thinking about 500 yuan. He usually goes out. I borrowed my brother's bicycle.

Therefore, Zhou Jiao added the more than 300 private money given by Zhang Guoqing later, and the cash is estimated to be close to three thousand dollars faster than the whole family combined.

No one knows the money except Zhang Guoqing, and Zhang Guoqing is afraid of others.Especially when his family members asked him, he also stubbornly held that he only had 300 yuan for the bride price and 100 yuan for the dowry plus Zhou Jiao’s private money, which was almost less than 500 yuan. He would also give examples such as the odds and ends of marriage. How much money, such as how much Zhou Jiao spent on him before, when he was pregnant to buy snacks, when and what money was spent, no matter how much others wondered.

In fact, in addition to the confidential pension required by grandfather, someone with a heart still calculates it.For example, her mother-in-law should know how much she has, but she is clever and fools everyone.

In the main room, apart from eating and chatting with the whole family in the lobby, there are two rooms in the West Wing on the right. These are the rooms of the two sisters of the Zhang family. They are basically free except occasionally when they come back.

Go out of the main room to the back, the backyard can be bigger, at least three times the size of the front yard.The entire backyard is divided into three parts. In addition to vegetables, there is also a plot of sweet potato and potato.

In every corner of the wall, summer loofah, autumn pumpkin, and winter gourd are planted and squeezed. Pumpkin can be used as a staple food and is the most planted.

A row of thatched houses was built on the right corner of the last backer, with a simple kitchen for roast pigs.There are 2 pigs in the pigsty nearby, and about 10 chickens are raised in a small piece of empty ground not far from the pigsty. This is for fear that the chickens will run away from the vegetable field.

The thatched house on the left side of the backyard is the toilet at home. For convenience, bluestone was laid on the ground to make a squat pit like the city. After using it, it was flushed with water from a bucket.The only thing is that it will be very comfortable to finish the hut in the winter in the north.

A few steps away from the toilet, there is a back door on the wall, which is used to go directly to Beishan to collect firewood.If you want to go to Beishan, you don't have to go out at the front door and go round the back door.

The whole family began to collect firewood in the northeast of autumn. The whole winter and the beginning of the spring and snow will need firewood, not to mention the use of firewood for several kangs in the family.

It's not easy to get briquettes in the countryside, not to mention that you don't need money for firewood in the mountains, and no one will go to the city to buy briquettes and burn them.But the city buys firewood to burn it, and now there are some laborers in the village who chop wood and sell it in the city.

Cat winter started after the first snow in Northeast China, and every family tried their best to collect firewood and prepare winter clothes and food.Waiting for the twelfth lunar month is not convenient to go out, and now you can buy grain or fine grain for coarse grain at a high price in the city just after the winter.The Zhang family has been collecting firewood for the past few days and hitting pheasants and hares to relieve their greed. The Zhang family worked hard. Now there are several piles of tall wood not far from the back yard.