Return to 1983 Hunting Xing'an Mountains

Chapter 410: Don't mess with the fancy pheasant
It's a nice, sunny day today.

A tractor drove into the field, leaving two long wheel marks.

There is a sparse red pine forest at the foot of Dongshan Mountain. These red pines are as thick as thighs. The closer to the human living circle, the rarer the big trees are.

When the forest area was built twenty or thirty years ago, all the big trees had been cut down. In addition to making beams and pillars for houses, red pine was also used to make coffins.

The sparse red pine forest now was planted by villagers spontaneously later, but it has already matured.

Xu Ning turned off the tractor, and the people sitting in the truck bed jumped out hurriedly, holding axes and hammering their buttocks. The road here was full of potholes, and the short journey was not pleasant.

But they had no complaints. This was the situation these days. Having a car was much better than walking.

After moving to the hillside, everyone selected wood and then swung their axes to chop down trees. In the days when there were no chainsaws, felling trees was a physically demanding job. One had to pay attention to the direction in which the tree was falling and estimate how many more axes it would take to chop it down.

"Fall down the mountain!" Liu Daming shouted while standing on the edge of the hillside.

The rest of the people who were felling trees all stood up and looked in the direction where the trees were falling. After the red pine fell down the hillside, it slid two or three meters down the mountain and stopped. Then Wang Biao, Liu Tianen and Huang Lin took small axes to chop off the branches. After cutting down the trees, the three of them worked together to drag the tree stumps to the tractor, waiting for Liu Daming, Li Fuqiang and others to finish loading them.

At 10:40, sixteen red pines had been piled up next to the tractor. These thigh-thick red pines were just enough to fill a truck. At this moment, Liu Daming, Wang Biao and others were scraping the branches all over the hillside.

Xu Ning looked down at his watch, waved his hand and said, "That's enough. Leave these branches here first and come back to take them away in the afternoon."

These red pine branches must not be wasted and must be taken home to be used for burning. In the summer, when the kang cannot be heated too high, the branches must be used to clear the holes in the kang.

Li Fuqiang asked: "Brother, can this little bit of wood be used?"

"It's enough. Let's build a temporary bridge for cars to pass first, and then build a sturdier one after the house is built."

Liu Daming said: "Why bother doing that twice? If you want to fix it, just fix it in a good way."

"Uncle, we'll need to haul red bricks, cement and sand in a few days. Any bridge that can withstand the weight of such heavy trucks will be ruined, so let's just build a bridge that's more or less adequate for now."

Liu Daming nodded and said, "There's nothing wrong with you saying that."

Afterwards, everyone loaded the sixteen red pines into the truck bed. In fact, it was quite convenient to load logs because there were not many logs and the truck bed was a little short. All they had to do was stand the small end up on the railing and use the lever principle to push the big end into the truck bed.

So they finished loading the wood in just five or six minutes. The red pine was too long, with the tail hanging down about three or four meters. After Yu Kaihe, Li Fuqiang and others jumped onto the truck bed and sat on the red pine, Xu Ning drove the tractor towards the village.

After a bumpy ride, we arrived at the foot of the back mountain at the north end of Qing'an. The tractor stopped in front of the stream, and then everyone unloaded the red pine.

Seeing that it was almost noon, they certainly couldn't build the bridge now, and they didn't have shovels or pickaxes, so Xu Ning asked Yu Kaihe to take a look at the homestead first.

"Build a cellar here? That won't work. The mountain is flowing straight down, so there must be rocks. Let's move it two or three meters over here. It will be right under the easternmost room of the main house, so it will be warm in winter and cool in summer."

Xu Ning nodded: "Uncle, I'm thinking of raising the main room a little higher and building a platform. The bottom will be empty to store some sundries..."

"Wouldn't that make it a rat's nest? Either make it solid, but don't make it fancy. We are in the mountains and there are swarms of rats. If it rains heavily, water will accumulate under the platform, and you won't have to dig a well then..."

Upon hearing this, Xu Ning felt that Yu Kaihe was right. He had indeed not considered this point. Influenced by later generations, Xu Ning's ideas tended to be avant-garde, but unrealistic in mountainous areas.

"The most important thing is that there is a small river in front of your house. If it is a rainy year, even if the rainwater cannot reach your yard, it can still seep through the ground."

Yu Kaihe said, holding a cigarette in his mouth, "Erning, it's fine if you want to raise the main room, but the bottom can't be left empty."

"My Uncle Yu is really good at doing things, isn't he? His eyes are really useful!" Li Fuqiang said with a blink.

Lao Jiang said, "In the past, no matter who built a house in our village, your uncle was indispensable. Your eyesight is not just good, it is very good!"

"Not good!"

Xu Ning threw his previous idea out of his mind and asked, "Uncle, if we want to dig a well, where should we dig it?"

"This job requires a lot of hard work, and I'm not so good at finding water. Your neighbor Lao Wei is really good at finding water."

"Old Wei, can you do this?" Xu Ning asked.

"Yes, and I can do some bricklaying work."

Xu Ning smiled and said, "It's a good thing I asked you to come over and take a look today, otherwise it would be really troublesome."

"As long as the construction hasn't started, it doesn't matter what time it is. After the platform under the eaves is raised, do you want to apply cement or lay bricks?"

"Lay the bricks first and see if they are straight. If they are not straight, apply cement."

"That's fine. If you have time, go to the mountain and fetch a few carts of rocks to lay the foundation..."

Xu Ning nodded: "Okay, find a peg to nail it down in the cellar."

"No need to nail them. I have to come over to help you build your house. I can't help with other things, but I still have the strength to swing the pickaxe."

"Hey, uncle, you are already so old..."

Yu Kaihe waved his hand and said, "No matter how old you are, you have to do what you need to do. There is nothing wrong with that."

"Then I won't be polite with you. With your help, I can feel more at ease."

"Even without me, you can still fix it. Don't I know your ability to do things? You are just saying nice things, but these words make me feel warm. If someone is using you, it means you are not old yet, haha!"

"Hahaha……"

After laughing, Xu Ning waved and said, "Get in the car, let's go home for dinner!"

As everyone walked towards the truck bed, Li Feng held the axe without moving. He looked at Xu Ning walking to the front of the truck with the crank and said, "Well, Xu Ning... I'm going home first."

Hearing this, Xu Ning put down the crank, straightened up and frowned, saying, "Brother Feng, it's boring if you do this. Besides, calling me by my full name is so foreign. You are older than me, so there's nothing wrong with calling me Xiao Xu, Xu Er, or Er Ning."

Li Feng's face turned red and he said, "Ah, then... Er Ning, I don't mean anything else."

"I know. Everyone is going to eat at home. What's wrong with you? Brother Feng, isn't the past in the past? Besides, there's nothing serious between us. To put it bluntly, your father is insane and your brother is gone. It has nothing to do with me. Now that they are like this, can I still pursue the past?"

Li Feng nodded: "It has nothing to do with you. I understand this matter, but it is indeed a bit embarrassing."

"What's there to be embarrassed about? You are you and they are them. If I really blame you, can you fight with my uncle and his two brothers? Right? Besides, I didn't call you today, but you came to help. Aren't you targeting me? Okay, get in the car and go to my house for dinner. We still have to work in the afternoon."

Li Feng blushed and seemed a little excited when he heard this. He was a sensible man and not a foolishly filial one, so he could understand what Xu Ning said.

"Hey!" Li Feng responded, turned around and got into the car with an axe.

Xu Ning bent down and swung the crank. After the tractor made a clattering sound, Xu Ning threw the crank under the seat and drove home.

In the truck, Li Fuqiang asked with a smile: "You and your uncles have struggled a lot recently, right?"

Li Feng smiled and nodded: "Yes! I paid back Uncle Du's money, and spent some money to buy some used glass, and just replaced the doors and windows at home."

The loud speaker said, "Brother Li Feng has been to Nanbeitun quite a lot recently and brought back quite a few roe deer. Hey, Qiangzi, you and I haven't been hiking in the mountains for quite a while, right?"

"It's not good, I've held it all in..."

A few people chatted in the truck bed, and after a while they arrived at Old Xu's house. Xu Ning did not drive the tractor into the yard because it was difficult to turn around with the trailer.

In the outer room, Liu Lizhen, Han Fengjiao and a group of other old ladies had already prepared the meal and were waiting for them to come back.

"Hey, I'm finally back. The food has been ready for quite some time."

"Wash quickly!"

After everyone entered the house, they saw four basins of water placed on the ground in the outer room, with towels hanging on the basin rack. Although it was not Li Feng's first time to visit Old Xu's house, he still seemed very restrained. He kept hiding behind other people, showing a very humble spirit.

"Li Feng, don't wash with dirty water. I'll get you a new basin."

"No, auntie, this water is not dirty."

"Hey, water is free..." After saying that, Liu Lizhen filled a new basin with water, put it on the basin rack, and turned around to ask, "Can we set it up in the afternoon?"

"Well, I cut sixteen pieces of wood, which should be enough to build a two-meter-wide bridge."

At this moment, Wang Shujuan, Yang Shuhua and others were already carrying dishes into the house. The table was full of stir-fried meat with seasonal wild vegetables. Due to the shortage of meat in Old Xu's family, there was no longer a table full of meat.

A few days ago, my mother muttered: Ever since I went into the mountains, the food quality of our family has declined sharply.

Xu Laonian wanted to talk, but he was afraid that it was Liu Lizhen's bait. If he said something wrong, he would be beaten up, which would be useless.

When everyone entered the house, Xu Ning went to the cabinet to look for a wine jug, and saw a full jug of loose wine and took it out.

When he turned around, he saw that Lao Jiang, Liu Daming and the others had all sat down, leaving only Li Feng. He smiled and said, "Sit down, Brother Feng! You can have a bite with my uncle and my uncle."

“I don’t want to drink anymore…” Yu Kaihe waved his hands hurriedly.

"It's okay. Two sips won't delay things. Let's not drink too much."

Liu Daming said, "Then take two sips! What kind of wine was this?"

Liu Lizhen stood at the door and said, "Tou Wujuan went to get it. You pour wine for Big Brother. Who are you waiting for?"

"Hey, I'm wondering if I can chat with you."

Yu Kaihe said with a smile: "Girls, you guys are eating too?"

"Brother, you guys eat. We had an early breakfast today. We have already eaten."

Except for Xu Ning, Li Fuqiang and other family members, Lao Jiang and Yu Kaihe did not believe this...

Xu Ning said, "We'll eat by ourselves. Uncle, you guys take the cups. We won't drink."

Liu Daming raised his glass and said, "Come on, big brother, Jiang brother, Guoxing, Feng? Let's take a sip first."

"..."

While they were eating, Liu Lizhen and others went to Liu Daming's house to rub the cow-hair banana, leaving Wang Shujuan alone in the outer room to boil water.

After dinner, Wang Shujuan cleared the table, Xu Ning brewed two pots of tea, and everyone sat on the edge of the kang, chatting and drinking tea.

They didn't drink much just now, only about three taels per person, and after drinking some tea, the alcohol in their bodies disappeared.

In the afternoon, around one o'clock.

Everyone came to the creek at the north end. Yu Kaihe, Lao Jiang and Liu Daming took saws and cut the red pine shorter, while Xu Ning, Li Fuqiang and others used pickaxes and shovels to dig the sand and gravel on both sides of the creek, raising the places that needed to be raised and digging holes where needed to be dug.

Then put the red pine on both sides, but this is not the end. The remaining thin red pine also has a use. Li Fuqiang used a sledgehammer to nail the thin red pine into both sides of the built bridge to prevent the wood from rolling...

This job does not require much technical skills. After all, it is a temporary bridge, and even if it breaks after a while, there is wood to repair it.

At three o'clock, a group of people built the bridge. They were not in a hurry to leave, but gathered together to smoke and chat, and only went home after half an hour.

"Brother, let's go to Nanshan to look for condoms? Uncle, you haven't looked for a long time, right?"

Liu Daming shook his head: "No, I have taken back all the condoms I used, and you still have more than 30."

"Then go and have a look. If we can catch two pheasants, we can have a snack for dinner next night."

Lao Jiang said with a smile: "If the pheasants are trapped now and we don't take them out for two days, they will become smelly. So let's go quickly."

Lao Jiang was right. There were indeed three pheasants and a jumping cat in the trap at Nanshan, but all four animals were rotten and could not be eaten. Xu Ning had no choice but to ask Li Fuqiang to take off all the traps. Except for walking the traps in winter, he could not be lazy at other times, because if he didn't walk them for two or three days, the animals in the traps would be wasted.

Li Fuqiang said in a bad mood: "Brother, what are you going to do tomorrow?"

"Want to take a stroll in the mountains?" said the loudspeaker.

Xu Ning looked troubled and shook his head: "I won't go for a stroll anymore. I'll build a shed tomorrow with the remaining red pine."

"Eh..." Li Fuqiang sighed slightly.

"Then when will we start digging the foundation?" asked Lao Jiang.

"The day after tomorrow, I'm going to take a walk in the mountains. I mainly need to walk the dog."

"Hahaha, what else is there to say, brother will go with you!" Li Fuqiang said with a smile.

Liu Daming said with a smile: "I see that you have been holding it in for the past few days, and the dog gang is also holding it in so much that they are howling like wolves!"

"Not really. I feel sad when I hear a dog barking." Xu Ning said, covering his chest.

"Haha, Erning is even better at talking nonsense!"

In the evening, Xu Ning picked up a pen and started to sketch in the west room. To be honest, his literary literacy was not very high, and his painting skills were even worse, but he borrowed a ruler from Xu Feng and drew straight lines on the draft paper to draw the three-dimensional figures of the five main rooms and two lower houses.

The main room is 150-160cm above the ground, with the main door in the middle and a 150cm wide corridor after entering. Xu Ning designed the outer room to face north, with two large pots to heat the kangs in the left and right rooms respectively...

When Xu Laonian saw the sketch, he pointed to the corridor and said, "What is this?"

"The corridor leads directly to the outer ground."

"Hey, why are you making such a fuss? We have five rooms. From now on, your brother, you, and Feng'er will each have one room, and your mother and I will have one room. When my grandson grows up, he can move to another room. If you do this, won't it only have four and a half rooms?"

Liu Lizhen sat on the kang and muttered, "This old Deng is thinking long-term."

"Then let's put it here and use it as a reception room and dining room..."

Xu Laonian curled his lips and said, "No, what's the point of setting up this reception room and restaurant? Stop talking about city things and talk about something that rural people can understand, okay?"

"...Dad, can you please stop pretending? Don't you like what I'm doing?"

Xu Laonian didn't say anything, Xu Ning turned around and asked, "Mom, do you like it?"

Liu Lizhen said with a smile: "I can like whatever my old man does!"

"Look! Why are you so difficult to please? What do you think we should do?"

Xu Lao drooped his eyelids: "You can do it as you like. I won't get involved. Whatever it turns out to be, it's fine. What kind of house have I not lived in?"

"Then you can live in the lower house after the new house is built."

"What? Do you want to rebel against Tiangang?" Xu Laonian glared when he heard that.

Xu Feng bared his teeth and laughed: "Dad, didn't you say that you can live in any house? Why did you change your mind?"

Xu Laonian said, "That's just bragging. You asked me to live in the lower house. Don't you think it's shabby?"

"Haha, I'm not a good person anyway, so why should I be afraid of being embarrassed?"

"Get lost! I'm bothering you!" Xu Laonian turned his face away and said childishly.

At this time, Liu Lizhen said, "Old man, let's just renovate it according to your design. Your father and I can live in it no matter how it is renovated."

"Then building a new house requires discussion with the whole family."

"Everyone has their own ideas, how can we discuss it? We have to take care of this one, but that one is unwilling... I'll let you make the decision, so just make the decision."

Xu Laonian opened his mouth and nodded: "Well, you decide."

(End of this chapter)