My village can't be like this

Chapter 108 The strange cry of July and a half

"Mom, I'm going to level the ground with my dad, and you can look at the Huang Jing in the dustpan by the way."

After playing with Huang Jing and talking to his mother, Zhang An went out.

Zhang Jianguo got up early in the morning and took Dahei with a rake to the new house, and he had already gone to the flat ground.

Zhang An came to the backyard, took the rake from his father for a change of breath, and then started to drive Dahei to level the ground.

After the loess pulled back yesterday was paved here, the area planned by Zhang An to be used as a vegetable field is already more than 20 kilometers above the ground in the backyard.

This scene reminded Zhang An of an elementary school text called Dad's Vegetable Garden.

"Dad, we need to pick up some stones later and build a circle around the edge of the field. Otherwise, if it rains, muddy water will drip everywhere."

Zhang An held Dahei's rein with one hand, and held the rake with the other, smoothing the fluffy loess back and forth.

Because Zhang An and the others dug loose soil and pulled it over to pave the land. The ground is too fluffy, so it will be fine after a while, but it is also the most suitable for growing vegetables.

"Yeah, there are still a lot of stones left in front, and I can pick them up and build a circle later. Now the mud has come down."

In the morning, Zhang An almost leveled the ground.

If it was Zhang An's father, Zhang Jianguo, it might be slower, because if he led Dahei, Dahei would not dare to let go and run, because Zhang Jianguo couldn't keep up with it.

But after changing to Zhang An's palm rake, Dahei let go and ran away, and sometimes flew the rake with him. Zhang An had to put a few big stones on the rake to weigh down the weight.

After leveling the land, Zhang An also used rakes to get out a lot of grass roots and fine stones.

In the end, Zhang An and his son built a circle of stones on the edge of the vegetable field, and the work was considered completed.

For so many days, all the furniture and beds have been delivered, and the new house can be moved in only when Zhang Jianguo and Wang Fang find someone to look after the day.

Zhang An originally planned to just live in it, but the village is very taboo about these things, and Zhang Jianguo and Wang Fang also pay special attention to them, so Zhang An also let them do it.

Anyway, the family is just waiting to see the good times, and just live in when the time comes, and there will be no banquets.

On that day, let the relatives of the family come over to help cook the bottom of the pot, and make sense of it.

As soon as Zhang An and his son walked out of the yard, they found a tractor dragging a bunch of big guys into the village.

The father and son who happened to be going back to eat were arrested on the spot.

It turned out that these were rice thrashers and noodle grinders bought by Zhang Xinmin's family.

Such a big guy, it will cost a lot of money to buy two new ones.

However, Zhang Xinmin's family is helping Changqing Village directly enter the electric mill era from the era of water mills.

"Brother Damin is going to have a big fight, and I don't worry that no one will come to grind rice by then."

Zhang An saw that the machine didn't seem new, but it was still in good condition. It probably looked about [-]% to [-]% new.

"I'm not worried about this at all. The water grinds it slowly to death. After grinding, we have to sieve the rice bran. How can it be convenient to use a rice thresher? The rice is sorted out, and the rice bran is also divided well. Someone must be willing to use it. "

What Zhang Xinmin said is reasonable, and there are probably many people in the village who are willing to come to his house for rice.

After all, their rice costs one yuan and one hundred catties, and if they don't want the rice bran, they can sell it to him.

But Zhang An feels that few people in the village are willing to sell bran, because everyone raises pigs, and rice bran is a good thing to feed pigs.

That is to say, the price of electricity has been reduced now. If it was before, this one yuan would be enough for electricity.

If you charge one yuan now, you can still make some money.

Soon, the old man of Zhang Xinmin's family asked many people to come over.

Together, everyone lifted the two machines on the tractor from the road to the empty house next to his small shop.

A machine weighs several hundred kilograms, but it is not easy to lift at all, mainly because it is too big.

However, there are many people and strength is great. Everyone chanted, one, two, three, and they were carried inside after a few strokes.

The rest of the installation work is left to the person who came with the machine.

"Xinmin, we'll go back after we're done moving."

Nothing happened, so Zhang Jianguo told Zhang Xinmin and was about to leave.

"Sit a little longer, Uncle Jianguo, I haven't even poured you tea yet."

"Don't worry about it, we're going home for dinner."

Back in the yard, I saw my mother was still cooking.

"Mom, why don't you fry some fermented soya bean chili to eat today, isn't our fermented soya bean curd already dried?"

When Zhang An came back from Zhang Xinmin's house just now, he smelled fermented soya bean and spicy peppers at someone's house, which tickled the gluttons in Zhang An's stomach.

As soon as I got home, I talked to Wang Fang who was still cooking.

"Okay, why don't you go to the garden and pick some green peppers, and I'll fry them for you."

When Wang Fang heard that her son wanted to eat it, she must be willing to make it.

And it doesn't take much time to stir-fry green peppers with tempeh, just wash a few green peppers and chop them.

Just fry it with tempeh, it doesn't take a few minutes at all.

In a blink of an eye, August is coming to an end.

The day after tomorrow is July and a half, which is what everyone calls the Ghost Festival or Ghost Festival.

According to legend, on the first day of the seventh month of the lunar calendar, the king of hell opened the gate of hell and released all the ghosts to wander the world.

Let them visit their hometown and descendants at this time, while the living worship them during this time, and let them enjoy the incense offered by the descendants of the family.

But in fact, most of the Han people in the vicinity take out their family memorial tablets on the first day of July, and wait until July [-]th to send the deceased old people out of the house with less burden. Only some ethnic minorities It was July [-]th.

And if there is a newly mourned old man at home, this kind of package cannot be sealed, only a white package without a cover.

Only old people who have been dead for more than three years can present a package with a cover.

There is no ancestral hall in the Zhang family in the village, and they are all dedicated to each family. Each family has a big tablet, all of which are their ancestors.

Some people are exaggerating. They started recording from the first ancestor, and the rankings are full.

A few days ago, Wang Fang took out the paper money and seals that she bought at home last week when she went to the market and began to bask in the sun.

So today Zhang An's family will start to take the sun-dried sealing paper and paper money to seal the package.

The number of seals is still quite a lot, because as long as the ancestors were relatives before their death, they will be sent, but the direct relatives will be burned more, and those who are further away will be burned less.

Every year at this time, every household has to seal several large baskets.

When he was very young, Zhang An was taught by his family's second master Zhang to seal and write bags.

The paper money sealed inside represents the money burned by the family to the ancestors, so many people worry that their elderly will have no money to spend and suffer, so they seal up a pile of burdens and burn them down.

After sealing the paper money with sealing paper, write a letter on the front.

Just writing this, Zhang An almost lost his mind back then.

Because just the question of this name is enough to study for half a day.

But after writing two more times, Zhang An became familiar with it, and let him write it every year in the future.

It is also for this reason that Zhang An's handwriting is not bad.

After dinner, Wang Fang and Zhang Jianguo were in charge of sealing the package, while Zhang An set up a table next to him and began to write.

This year, Zhang An's family sealed one or two hundred, and Zhang An wrote it all afternoon.

The finished burden bag needs to be tied back to back with straw ropes torn from zong leaves.

And between the two bundles tied together, a groom needs to be placed, and two pieces of paper money to pay the groom.

This is considered a burden bag, and the groom who put it in is mainly to ask them to send the paper money to the corresponding person according to the name on the burden bag after the burden bag is burned.

After the evolution to later generations, some people began to print ghost coins and sell them to everyone during this period of time or during the Ching Ming Festival. Everyone bought the ghost coins produced by Tiandi Bank and sealed them in their bags.

"An Zi is writing the package, is it finished?"

Zhang An was about to finish writing his own, and the second uncle came over with a big basket.

"It will be finished soon, there are still a few left."

After finishing writing my own, I have to write to my second uncle's family.

This is not over yet. After finishing the second uncle's family, I have to write to the third uncle's family.

Sometimes I have to help some neighbors nearby to write together. Zhang An said that he has to write thousands of burdens a year, and his hands are still quite tired.

"Zhang Bin, come here and watch your brother write. It's time for you to start learning. Your brother has already written alone before he even entered junior high school."

When Zhang An was writing, Uncle Zhang called his son over to study. This matter really needs someone in the family to know it, otherwise it will be awkward.

The adults of their generation are worried that if they ask outsiders to write, if others are not very good at it, they will not be able to send it to the elderly when they make mistakes. No, that would be a big disobedience.

It’s okay to write such a burden, just to write your own, but if you just finished writing your own and want to write for someone else, you have to pay attention to the name and the signature of Yang Shangxiao.

No, Zhang An just got used to writing about his own family, and almost wrote his second uncle's name as his father's.

For example, Zhang An's family and the two uncles' families are relatively easy to write, but in the end, the two families of the two families need to write separately. At that time, it depends on the tablets copied by their family.

Zhang An wrote all the way and taught Zhang Bin all the way.

The three brothers of my father are all abducted, and none of them are very good at writing.

Fortunately, Zhang Erye had been teaching Zhang An back then, otherwise, I would have to ask Zhang Erye or Zhang Siye to help write.

Before finishing writing about the second uncle's family, the third uncle's family also carried it over.

Zhang An wrote from the time he finished his meal in the morning to the time he finished his meal in the evening, and there was still part of it left.

This work is really tiring, mainly because the hands are too sore.

Zhang Bin watched Zhang An write part of it, and tried to write a few more. Finally, he felt that his handwriting was too ugly, so he didn't continue.

The younger brothers and sisters in the back don't pay much attention to writing now. They usually write a little scribbled when they use pencils, and the teacher doesn't care much.

Zhang Bin's hard pen is fine, but the soft pen is unreadable.

For Zhang An and the others in the past, the teacher forced them to write well, and the writing should be correct, and they must be in regular script.

And when Zhang An came home from school, he had to be dragged by Zhang Erye to practice calligraphy.

So Zhang An's correct handwriting has been practiced for many years.

The people in the village are only in Zhang An's generation. No matter how well they read, they still write neatly with one hand.

"Let's eat first, and then write after eating."

When Wang Fang was ready for dinner, there were dozens of unwritten ones left in the basket.

"Mom, don't worry, there are dozens of them left here, and I'll put them away after I finish writing them."

There were only a few dozen left, so Zhang An gritted his teeth and insisted on finishing.

At night, my hands are sore.

On the night of July [-]th, after the ancestors are worshiped and the dinner is finished, the burdens will be burned.

At the gate of Zhang An's house, Zhang Jianguo had built a fire pit with a few stones, and Zhang Jianguo began to build it with his own sealed bundles.

The same thing is being done at the door of every household in the village.

After the base is ready, start to ignite from below and start burning.

Adults will take out the corn cobs, potatoes, and sweet potatoes at home and burn them together in the burden pile.

It is said that if you eat the food cooked in the fire of the burobag, you will be healthy and free from all diseases.

The burden was burning at home, and suddenly there was a horrifying cry from the side.

It shocked everyone who was burning buns nearby.

The old woman Li who was diagonally across the door was startled, and she kept saying that she was always offering good food to her ancestors in the family, and begged them not to scare her.

This old woman usually does too many bad things, and she has ghosts in her heart.

But I have to say that the sudden sound really scared many people, especially today, when everyone is burning buns.

The village is full of smog and the wind is blowing, it is hard not to think of those things.

After calling a few times, I didn't hear it again.

Just when Zhang An thought it was gone, he suddenly yelled again.

The sound was a bit miserable, and the cry was creepy.

Zhang An frowned, and followed the sound with a flashlight, followed by Zhang Jianguo and Wang Xinrong from the second uncle's family in front of Zhang An's house.

Walking up the ditch at the door, Zhang An searched for a long time, and found a long and large mass in the ditch, which looked fleshy.

Zhang An took a branch and gently moved the big thing. At first, he thought it was Tai Sui.

It turned out that this guy could move. After being poked by Zhang An with a branch, he revealed a flat head, a long tail and four short feet, planning to run away.

"Hot horse, Hei I jumped, it turned out to be a big four-legged snake."

Seeing that it was this thing, the good neighbor cursed, he thought the ancestor had manifested himself.

"It's not right, it's so wrong. This four-legged snake would never enter the village before. Why did it come here this time? It's still so big."

Zhang Jianguo thought about it for a long time, but he couldn't figure it out. This thing is very scary, and he usually wouldn't crawl into the village.

That is, when the water is rising, they will appear in the ditch, otherwise they are usually by the stream or in the cave on the mountain.

(End of this chapter)