Linxia

Chapter 20, Contradiction

The sun rises high, casting a series of dazzling light and shadows, illuminating the people on the road, never leaving them, and following the people below as they walk.

At noon, they arrived at a water source. Qiao Xu, the leader of the team from Xiaohe Village to the provincial capital and the son of Qiao Cunzheng of the Qiao family in front, shouted that they had arrived here this morning.

Fang Lin stopped the unicycle, pounded his sore waist, and sighed secretly, it is easy to go from frugality to luxury, but it is difficult to go from luxury to frugality. He only rested for two days and he needed to adapt again.

Mr. Fang, Mrs. Fang, and Tian Xuan were not in much better condition. The exhaustion from traveling for the whole morning made the whole family feel a little exhausted.

After resting for a while, each family perked up, started to set up pots and cook, and went to the river to fetch water.

At the Fang family, Fang Shuyou and his son Fang Lin went to fetch water. By the river, a woman in her twenties saw people from Xiaohe Village coming and took the initiative to move away and went to a less fertile place downstream.

As if sensing his son's confusion, Fang Shuyou said, "He was on the way to the city, and he couldn't keep up, so he fell down."

"So that's how it is." Fang Lin nodded.

Like them, the villagers stick together and no one dares to bully them. But if they can't keep up with the team and fall behind, like this woman, their status will be lowered. In order to reduce trouble, they often have to stay away from the villagers when setting up pots and pans, fetching water, etc.

After fetching water, Fang Lin discovered that the woman and her family were not far away. Most of them were the elderly, the weak, women and children. No wonder she could not keep up with the team and was left behind.

The Fang family was cooking.

At this time, a little beggar came over. He looked to be about eleven or twelve years old. His hair was tangled and matted because he had not washed it for a long time. His clothes were tattered, and his bony body was visible underneath.

Fang's father, Fang's mother, and Tian Xuan were all used to this little beggar - there were still a lot of beggars in that era, and most of them had lost their land or were kicked out by their families. Compared with decent people, even those who were left behind on the road, their status was undoubtedly lower.

As the little beggar came over, a strange smell began to spread: "Auntie, please be kind and give me a bowl of water!"

Yes, beggars in this era, whether in the countryside or in the city, dare not hope to beg for money. Being able to give a bowl of rice or a bowl of water is already a stroke of luck.

"Go away, go somewhere else!" Fang Sun waved her hand to drive him away.

The little beggar was scolded, but he didn't dare to say anything, because these villagers who gathered together were not people they could afford to offend. He looked around and went back to the house where the lone person lived.

Seeing the other party leave, Fang Sun said, "These beggars are very smart. They follow us on the road just to get something for free."

Here, the little beggar went to the lonely family. The wife of the family, perhaps thinking that it was better to have less trouble than more, or perhaps out of pity, gave him a bowl of water.

"Thank you kind people! Thank you kind people!"

The little beggar took it with his head bowed, gulped it down in one gulp, took two steps forward, and taking the opportunity to put the bowl down, suddenly grabbed two sorghum steamed buns from the pot, turned around and ran away.

The daughter-in-law couldn't catch up at all, and soon, the old woman's scolding and soft sobs were heard.

When Fang Lin saw this scene, he thought to himself: "Sure enough, there must be something hateful about pitiful people."

"That's right. The nicer you are, the more likely these beggars will climb up the pole. If they get a chance, they will rob and steal! Linzi, Xiaoxuan, you must learn your lesson and don't be so kind without thinking." Fang Sun took the opportunity to educate them.

Tian Xuan nodded in conviction.

Fang Lin was also listening, but these words were actually a bit redundant to him, because, outside of his family, he was actually much more indifferent, even cruel, than Fang's father and mother imagined.

At this time, on the villagers' side, sounds of quarreling and fighting suddenly broke out from the direction of the Song family.

……

Fang Lin and his family rushed over and found that Song Kai from the Song family and You Chaodong from the You family were fighting. Both of them had bruises on their faces and corners of their mouths. It was the villagers who rushed over who pulled them apart.

As the leader of the team from Xiaohe Village going to the provincial capital, Qiao Xu made some inquiries, and after hearing the stories of the two parties involved and supplemented by others, he finally knew what had happened.

It turned out that while the You family's wife was cooking, You Chaodong, the idle guy, came over to chat with Song Kai. Song Kai responded casually, but You Chaodong was still unaware of it and still felt that they had a good relationship. Feeling thirsty, he picked up Song Kai's bamboo tube and took a sip of it carelessly - it was this sip of water that caused the accident.

Song Kai was a bit of a germophobe. His parents had never used his bamboo tube to drink water. Coupled with the exhaustion from the journey, it was like a firecracker that exploded. He immediately turned cold and said sarcastically: "Are we so close? You really don't consider yourself an outsider!"

You Chaodong also had a bad temper. He couldn't stand such sarcasm, so he threw the bamboo tube away and threatened that he would compensate him with a new one.

Good fellow, seeing that the other party was so arrogant even though he didn't care, how could Song Kai hold back? He took the initiative and the two of them started fighting. "Xiao Qiao Muramasa, what do you say?" Song Kai and You Chaodong both looked at Qiao Xu.

Qiao Xu was stumped for a moment. Both of them were wrong, but neither of them thought they were wrong. This matter was really difficult to handle. After thinking for a while, he looked at Uncle Fang, who was closest to him. In the team going to the capital city, Father Fang was relatively the oldest and could be considered an elder. "Uncle Fang, what do you think?"

Fang Lin knew that no matter how this matter was judged, there would always be people who would be dissatisfied and would offend people for no reason. There was no need to get involved, so he quietly contacted Fang's father.

But Fang Shuyou had already spoken first, and said honestly: "They are both wrong, let's just let it go!"

As expected, Song Kai and You Chaodong were both dissatisfied when these words were spoken.

"What do you mean they are all wrong? I was doing well at my home. If he hadn't come here shamelessly, wouldn't something like this have happened?" Song Kai already had a problem with the Fang family because of Fang Lin's request for food and the Fang family's "abuse of power and abuse of power" to take food for ten people. Now that he saw Uncle Fang "favoring" You Chaodong, he was even more resentful.

You Chaodong was equally unconvinced: "Just ask, who started it first?"

The two of them almost started fighting again. Qiao Xu lacked prestige and couldn't suppress them. It was only after others pulled and persuaded them that the two of them calmed down.

Qiao Xu thought of what his father had told him: "How about this, let the villagers vote, whoever has the least support is wrong, and should apologize to the other person."

For him, this is indeed a good idea. No matter what the result of the vote is, it is the decision of the villagers and he cannot be blamed.

The voting began. Because Song Kai had relatives like Zheng Yu from the Zheng family and Bai Bao from the Bai family, who were bad friends, and because it was indeed You Chaodong who caused the incident, he was more at fault, the majority of people supported Song Kai.

You Chaodong was not convinced, but there was nothing he could do but apologize to Song Kai.

The matter was resolved in this way. Qiao Xu did get himself out of the way by this voting method, but it also caused the villagers to start forming small groups - after all, according to this way of handling it, it doesn't matter whether you are right or not, as long as there are more people standing on your side in the vote, it's enough!

……

"Xuzi is still not very good at handling things. He's not as good as his father." On the way back, Fang Shuyou suddenly said.

In fact, this statement is a little biased. Now that the team going to the provincial capital is without the old men, the young people are no longer under control and are indeed a lot more difficult to manage.

Fang Lin didn't respond to this, but he agreed with it in his heart.

When I went to the county town, Qiao Cun was there, but I didn’t think much of it. It was only until he is gone that I realized his importance.

However, no matter what, conflicts arose among the villagers on the morning of the first day of departure. Such a bad precedent made Fang Lin vaguely feel that this trip would not be smooth.

"By the way, what did you do to me before?"

"It's okay." The person has already been offended, and there is no point in saying anything now. Besides, his father's character may not change, and if he could change, he would not be himself.

For meals, the Fang family had enough food for ten people, which was much more than other families, so they didn't need to be too frugal. In addition to the coarse rice soup, each person also had a rice ball.

Yes, there were still most of the rice balls I made last time left. As soon as we arrived in the county town, we heard that there was not enough food in the reserve warehouse, so we had to be thrifty and save money. After eating them once, I couldn’t bear to eat them anymore. By the time we decided to go to the provincial capital, the coarse rice soup had become thick and there was no need to eat it anymore.

Just like last time, Fang Sun gave the good ones to Fang Shuyou, Fang Lin and Tian Xuan, and kept the ones that were damp and moldy for herself. However, there were only two or three of them left, and they were all eaten in a day or two.

After dinner, Sister Guihua brought her daughter over to sit for a while. As soon as they left, Geng’s young wife Su Xiaoqing brought Geng Shi over. There was nothing to do, they just talked for a while.

"Why are they coming one by one?" Fang Sun muttered.

"They are looking for us to form a group!" Uncle Fang said suddenly.

It is true that he cares about his reputation, but he is not stupid and he is always sober!
"Isn't it? Qiao Xu's prestige is not enough, and he can't be suppressed, so the smart people start looking for a way out and form their own groups." Fang Lin thought to himself.

After a rest, we continued on our journey in the afternoon.

Behind them, the lone family with many women and children seemed to want to follow Xiaohecun's team in order to be safer on the road, but Xiaohecun traveled much faster than them and soon left that family far behind.

……

(End of this chapter)