My village can't be like this

Chapter 354 Mountain Rat
The two old men arrived at Zhang An's house, first washed their hands, then tidied their clothes, and finally invited the Zhang family's ancestral tablets out.

The elders of their generation pay great attention to these things, although they do not need to burn incense and bathe in advance and fast for three days like the ancients.

But there are also requirements. People with unclean limbs and disheveled clothes are not allowed to invite the ancestors.

In the yard, two uncles, Zhang Jianguo and Zhang An, were busy working together, either killing chickens or fish.

Speaking of which, the fate of these chickens is indeed tragic. No one can guarantee what will happen to them tomorrow.

Whenever there is a happy event in the family, they have to suffer because one of them has to be killed to celebrate.

During the holidays, one has to be caught and killed to celebrate the festival, but they still cannot escape their miserable fate.

When encountering customs such as ancestor worship and sacrifice, they still cannot escape the fate of being knifed.

Or if guests come to your home, you have to kill one to receive them no matter what.

Sometimes when there are too many people, you have to kill two. It would be better if you kill two, and it would not be boring if you have a companion on the road.

I won’t talk about red and white matters. After all, this kind of big scene is not something that can only be solved by one or two people.

The rooster is especially miserable, because most customs stipulate that a big rooster must be used and it must be able to crow.

The life of hens is slightly better, and because they can lay eggs, many people are reluctant to kill them.

After the three brothers slaughtered the big rooster and carp, they did not change the knife.

Especially the big rooster, put it in the pot and cook it for a while before taking it out, because these are necessary offerings.

A pair of wax candles were burning in front of the shrine in the hall, and three pillars of incense were placed, illuminating the whole hall.

After all the offerings are brought out and arranged, the ancestor worship ceremony is ready to begin.

"Today there is a Zhang family, No. 20, the seventh generation grandson Zhang An, who has found a good wife and is happy to have heirs."

"In the year of Wuyin, on the thirteenth day of the first lunar month, I would like to take this festive occasion to express my sincere greetings to all the ancestors of Gaotang."

Mr. Zhang stood in front of the hall, clasped his hands and began to pray.

When the old man finished reporting the news to his ancestors, Zhang An, as the presenter, had to toast and kowtow.

This section of the obituary to the ancestors is several hundred words long, but Mr. Zhang read it in a cadence, with a clear and catchy accent.

After the memorial service was completed, Wang Fang and Zhang An's two aunts began to pack their things and were busy in the kitchen making dinner.

The three old men in the room kept greeting Su Ying, their granddaughter-in-law, and couldn't stop smiling for a second.

Especially Zhang An's second grandma, who held Su Ying's hand and patted it gently, kept telling Su Ying a lot of experiences about pregnancy and child care.

The old lady valued her great-grandson very much. She talked for nearly half an hour just to impart her experience, for fear of missing something.

After all, this is Su Ying's first child and she is still ignorant about this aspect. As old people, they naturally have to put more thought into it.

In the evening, it was too crowded for a large family of more than a dozen people to sit at one table, so Zhang An simply set up a small square table next to it.

This table was reserved for the more playful younger brothers and sisters in the family. Aunt Zhang An's second and third aunts were worried about these children, so they also sat with them.

During the dinner, several elders heard Wang Fang mention that Zhang An was now a member of the County Forestry Bureau, and they were all very happy.

Especially the three old people, holding Zhang An's work permit, burst into tears and kept talking about double happiness.

Although Zhang An didn't think anything was wrong, he was happy along with the elders in the family.

This meal, because several old people were too happy, they chatted while eating until eight or nine o'clock.

The food on the table is hot and cold, hot and cold.

In the end, the two old men naturally drank a little too much.

Even Mr. Zhang, who had always been relatively under control, drank too much that day.

The two old brothers took advantage of the fact that all the descendants of the eldest brother's family were there and told them a lot of past events.

These were all the past events between Grandpa Zhang An and them, and it was the first time in his two lives that Zhang An had heard the two elders mention many things.

This is why Mr. Zhang is happy today, so he will explain these things to his descendants at home.

So that the children and grandchildren in the family can know the past of their elders.

It also saves them from having these things go into the mud with them after they are gone.

"Anzi, you are good. I have seen your performance over the years, Second Grandpa."

"When your grandfather left, you were still wearing crotchless pants. You will be a father in the blink of an eye. Your grandparents are down there, so you can feel at ease."

Finally, Mr. Zhang said and gave Zhang An a thumbs up.

"When I go down one day, I will tell your grandparents carefully and slowly. They will definitely be very happy when they find out."

"Bah, bah, bah, why are you talking about this in a good day? Are you, an old man, drunk?"

As soon as Mr. Zhang said this, he was immediately slapped by Mrs. Zhang next to him.

Now in their family, the only one who dares to do this is Grandma Zhang.

"Yes, Second Grandpa, you are talking nonsense. You still have to watch your great-grandson grow up, and then have your great-great-grandson in your arms, waiting for our family to be filled with children and grandchildren."

Zhang An didn't say anything about longevity, because in later generations, Mr. Zhang and Mrs. Zhang had already reached the age of [-], so it would be unlucky for him to say this again.

"Okay, okay, then we will keep waiting until we hug our great-grandson and hug our great-great-grandson, hahahaha."

"That's for sure. Our family will definitely get better and better. There will be more and more grandsons in the future, but I'm afraid you guys won't be able to hold them."

In the end, the two old men were almost sober, and the family sent the old people back.

When going to bed at night, Su Ying fell asleep with her arms around Zhang An's neck not long after lying on the bed.

Zhang An thought that he would be hugged for a while and let go after she fell asleep, just like before.

But she stayed up until midnight, and Su Ying fell into a very deep sleep, but her hands never let go.

There was no other way, so Zhang An could only let her hug her all the time. After all, she was his wife.

Zhang An didn't even think about letting go of her hand, because it was not good to wake her up in the middle of the night.

The next day, the fourteenth day of the first lunar month, although there were still people working in the fields, many were already idle.

Tomorrow is the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, the end of the new year. Everyone is preparing food for tomorrow at home.

Zhang An walked around the village. Many people were killing chickens or ducks. The day was very prosperous and festive.

Every year during the Chinese New Year, the days that everyone pays most attention to are New Year's Eve, the first few days of the new year and the fifteenth day of the first lunar month.

Because everyone believes in having a beginning and an end, the New Year and the New Year must be lived well. As for the days in between, the later they go, the less New Year’s feel they get.

Although when we met, everyone said what kind of work they would do during the Chinese New Year.

But secretly, everyone wishes they could work a few more days so that next year's harvest would be better than others.

Zhang An didn't understand it when he was young, but now he has grown up and realizes that these people are very bad and what they say is used to paralyze others.

Arriving at Qiaotou, Li Hongbin was inspecting the construction site.This place already looks a bit different from the time I started working on it on the eighth day of the lunar month until now.

The previous slope has now been dug into flat ground by these excavators.

For those who have never been here, they would never imagine that this place used to be a slope.

"Lao Li, how many days will it take to get everything done here?"

There shouldn't be much work here. I guess there's only some finishing work left, which won't last more than a few days.

"There's only a little bit of tail left in the corner that needs to be cleaned up. I guess it'll be done this morning and it's almost time to call it a day."

Just as Zhang An thought, it would be done right away, but he didn't expect it to be so fast.

"Well, when the work here is done, will you ask a few masters to help me dig the fish pond?"

Now that the wasteland and fields at the foot of the mountain belong to Zhang An's family, the half-acre fish pond should also be spacious.

This time, while Li Hongbin transferred the excavator, Zhang An was ready to dig it out to avoid further trouble.

And now that winter has just passed, the fields are still dry, and the excavator can just go in. At most, it will be a waste of some rapeseed that has not grown up.

If the fields are turned into paddy fields and rice is planted in the future, it will not be easy for the excavator to drive in.

"Then when this place is finished, I will take them there. You were not willing to dig half an acre of fish pond before, so why are you thinking about widening it now?"

Li Hongbin did not forget that when he was building a house, he and Chen Ze strongly requested to dig the half-acre fish pond, and he agreed to dig it.

"There wasn't much room in the backyard at that time. How big could a pond be dug? Now that the area at the back is so wide, it's time to expand it."

Anyway, this fish pond can be dug without digging. The pond of only half an acre is really too small. Now that there is room, we might as well dig a few more acres for him.

Moreover, Su Ying has always had a dream of rowing, so Zhang An plans to buy a small boat this year.

When the time comes, if you want to go out, go for a swim in the river. If you don’t want to go out, just hang out in your own pond and enjoy the breeze.

And there is another reason, because the river is closed to fishing before June, so many fishing friends feel it is a pity.

Many fishing friends who knew Zhang An suggested that Zhang An make the pond bigger.

When the time comes when fishing is no longer possible in the river, I will come here to enjoy myself.

Zhang An only thought about it for a moment and agreed. After expanding the fish pond, his mother could still guard it every day.

In the past two years, she had watched others go to the fields and felt idle, so she had been thinking about going to the fields to work.

Just let her stay at home to collect fishing fees, and she can get money every day. How can she still have so much energy to think about farming.

At about one o'clock in the afternoon, several excavator masters drove their big machines over the bridge.

The roar like a tractor immediately attracted the attention of everyone in the village.

Everyone was very curious and stretched their heads in their yards to see where these big excavators were going to dig.

"How big do you plan to expand the fish pond this time?"

Li Hongbin knew that the nearby mountains and paddy fields now belonged to Zhang An's family.

"Dig into the field in front, maybe three or four acres in size."

There is a loess slope behind, and you definitely can't dig into it, as that would be very laborious.

There are paddy fields and flat land in front of us, so it won't take much time to dig directly.

Although rapeseed is still grown in this field, and these rapeseeds still belong to their previous owner.

But Zhang An had already come to greet these families in advance, and they would just collect the rapeseed from Zhang An's field.

No one would refuse this, and they all happily agreed. After all, the rapeseed in Zhang An's field was much better than what they grew themselves.

The farmers knew at a glance that there would definitely be a harvest of rapeseed in that field next year, so there was no reason not to agree.

Several people stood and looked around, then carried lime and spread it around to determine the approximate location.

The fish pond has already been dug, this time it is just to expand it, but it also saves the process of offering sacrifices to heaven and earth and setting off cannons.

Several masters started the excavator and started digging directly with their arms stretched out.

In fact, this has always been paddy fields, and digging is much easier than in the mountains over there.

"This place is not small. If you are not in a hurry, you can dig all afternoon today. I will let them go home tomorrow and then come back and continue digging after the fifteenth day."

Although this place is not as big as the one at Qiaotou, it is still three or four acres of land. It takes several days to dig with only three excavators.

Tomorrow is the fifteenth day of the first lunar month. If they don't rush to work, Li Hongbin also wants to let a few masters go back to have a rest and celebrate the festival.

After all, everyone now attaches great importance to the Lantern Festival, second only to the Chinese New Year.

Moreover, these masters have been working since the eighth day of the Lunar New Year. If they are not allowed to go back during this big holiday, their families will definitely have objections.

"It's definitely not a hurry. It will be fine if you play for a few days. I just thought I could dig it out while the excavator is here to save me the trouble of going back and forth on the road."

Zhang An naturally had no objections. Anyway, it would not matter if the pond was dug earlier or later.

"Wow, this mountain rat is so big."

While the two were standing nearby chatting, the excavator master working inside suddenly exclaimed loudly.

It turned out that there was an excavator master who dug a mouse hole while operating the bucket to dig a hole.

The two of them followed the cry and saw a huge mountain rat running around on the ground in front of them.

"Damn it, where did this monster come from?"

Zhang An took a look and saw that this mountain rat was about the same size as a piglet, not to mention that they had agreed not to become sperms after the founding of the People's Republic of China.

"Hey, is this still a mouse? This is a fucking pig. I'm really *********. I've become a sperm."

It's not that Li Hongbin has never seen mice before, but this is the first time he has seen such a big mouse.

He was so shocked that he burst into a beautiful Chinese phrase.

The other villagers who came to watch had similar expressions to him. There had been many big rats in the village, but this was the first time such a big one had happened.

While everyone was marveling, Xiaohu didn't care whether he was meddling in his own business or not.

With a howl, several other big dogs in the family rushed straight towards the imprisoned mountain mouse.

Suddenly, in this open space, everyone began to perform a big show of a dog and a mouse.

The excavator masters were afraid that the bucket of the excavator would hurt Zhang An's big dog, so they stopped the excavator.

The crowd nearby who were joining in the fun quickly moved out of the way when they saw the mountain rat approaching them.

After all, the two front teeth on its mouth look very scary. Who knows what will happen if it is bitten.

(End of this chapter)