Linxia

Chapter 6, Death Again

The next day, we continued on our journey and in the morning we passed a village - Xiagou Village.

——The Yangtze River is overflowing, and the damage to many places can only be said to be local, not a major flood that submerged an entire county.

At this section of the road, the road condition was obviously much better, obviously it had been repaired by the villagers of Xiagou Village.

"Once we're at Xiagou Village, Haining County isn't far away. Normally, it only takes half a day to get there, but there were heavy rains a few days ago, so we often have to take detours. Plus, we're fleeing, bringing our families and all our belongings with us, so it's going to be slower, maybe another day or two."

Qiao Cunzheng was making a decision: "Let's stop in Xiagou Village for a rest. We'll set off in about an incense stick of time. Those who need to go to the toilet should go to the toilet, and those who need to buy food should buy some food. Let's hurry up!"

Those villagers who needed to go to the outhouse or buy food got up, and those who didn't need to rest where they were.

In order to facilitate irrigation, two huts were built next to the fields at the entrance of Xiagou Village. The huts were very simple, with thatched roofs and vats underneath for passers-by to collect feces.

Coincidentally, the two huts were located on one side of the field and the other side of the field, one closer to the road and the other farther away.

At this time, in the fields, a tall and thin man from Xiagou Village saw people from Xiaohe Village passing by, and immediately put down his hoe and went into the outhouse that was closer to the roadside. Therefore, those who wanted to go to the outhouse could only go to the one that was farther away from the roadside.

After the tall and thin man went in, he never came out. The people of Xiaohe Village who wanted to use the toilet but didn't want to go into the village could only line up outside the toilet a little further away and wait.

"You're doing this again, Wang Ermaizi. You go to my toilet and occupy it without taking a shit." A young man with a short face came out of Xiagou Village and started cursing when he saw this scene.

"Boss Song, why are you yelling? I didn't take shit out of your toilet!" The smug voice of a tall and thin man came from the toilet a little closer to the roadside.

"Oh, I'm so angry, Wang Ermaizi, come out!" Boss Song rushed in angrily.

……

It turned out that of the two outhouses at the entrance of Xiagou Village, the one closer to the roadside belonged to Song Lao Da, and the one farther from the roadside belonged to Wang Er Ma Zi. In order to have more feces for his outhouse, Wang Er Ma Zi occupied the outhouse of Song Lao Da when he saw the people from Xiaohe Village coming. If the people from Xiaohe Village wanted to use the outhouse, they could only go to his outhouse which was farther from the roadside.

This is really mean. In order to grab the shit, they staged a real-life version of "occupying the toilet without taking a shit".

The people of Xiaohe Village watched a great show and talked about it all the time. For a moment, the air was filled with a happy atmosphere.

Fang Lin found this funny, but he also understood it.

Farmers dig for food in the fields, and land is their lifeline. Things related to the land have also become precious resources, such as feces, which can fertilize the fields and increase the harvest. Even in Xiaohe Village, if your parents hear that you have defecated in someone else's house, they will give you a slap on the head.

Here, because the Song and Wang families had a quarrel over occupying the toilet, many people in the village wanted to use the toilet. Some, like Fang Lin, who didn't want to wait, and some who wanted to buy food, went into the village.

……

In Xiagou Village, the road conditions are even better. The yellow soil on the village road is firm and the puddles of water have been filled. It is not as muddy as the official road.

Most of the houses are built with yellow mud and have thatched roofs, and only those with better conditions have green tile roofs.

As mentioned before, feces is a precious resource. If you beg for food in the village, no one will like it. But if you say you want to use the toilet, you will generally be welcomed.

Fang Lin easily borrowed one from someone.

This family's toilet has a pigpen below and a toilet above, and can only be reached via a wooden ladder.

As soon as I entered the toilet and took off my pants, a cold wind blew in from the bottom to the top - such a toilet has excellent ventilation, but the problem is that it is cold. It is still okay in the summer like now, but when it comes to winter, I am afraid my butt will be frozen.

It would have been fine if it was just cold, but there were actually mosquitoes. After squatting for a while, a few big bumps appeared on my butt, so I had to get up quickly.

After solving his personal problem, Fang Lin came out and happened to see the young wife of this family feeding pigs, but the thing she fed the pigs was... feces.

Yes, it was feces, but the pig was still burying its head and grunting, eating it with great relish.

For a moment, Fang Lin doubted whether he had seen it wrong. What he saw was not a pig, but a dog.

To be honest, he claimed to be knowledgeable, but at this moment he was a little shocked. Even though he had heard of feeding pigs with feces, he thought it was a very distant thing and did not expect it to appear before his eyes.

'No wonder they say that in ancient times, pork was cheap meat and only the rich seldom ate it!'

Fang Lin thought so, returned to the village, and told Fang's father, Fang's mother, and Tian Xuan about it, but they were not surprised at all.

"That's nothing strange."

Fang Shuyou said calmly: "We raise pigs in our village by cutting pitcher plants to feed them. It's not that we don't want to feed them manure, but it's just that manure is generally low-quality and pigs don't like to eat it."

"Yes, animals like pigs are also picky and don't like to eat low-quality feces. That family must have relatives in the county. They eat well and there is oil in their feces. Pigs are happy to eat high-quality feces." Fang Sun said with an envious look on her face.

As for the pigs eating feces, the meat has a "smell", not only Fang's father and mother, but even the young girl Tian Xuan had no grudges in her words. But it's true, feces are used to irrigate the land and grow crops, and the food grown is eaten. With this analogy, this kind of pork doesn't seem to be a big deal.

Fang Lin also realized once again the importance of feces.

For ordinary people, food is precious, and it would be great if there were alternatives to feed pigs.

Behind this, there is helplessness and bitterness - the world is often like this, the more you farm, the less surplus food you have, and you have to save every bit of food. Because most people work hard for a year, pay taxes, and if they can maintain food and clothing, it is a good year.

This has nothing to do with whether one is hardworking or not. Those who live in luxury will deliberately set a standard so that most people will have just nothing left after working hard for a year after being exploited. Oh, if they work harder than most people, they will still have a little left. After all, they have to give people a little hope.

Of course, this is not all bad. Just like the local disaster this time, the court will do its best to provide relief if it can be saved and prevent the people from starving to death. You can say this is to prevent the roots of the leeks from being cut off or to prevent the people from rebelling. In any case, it is a bit of warm and necessary kindness in this cold world.

As he was speaking, a scream suddenly came from the village: "Someone's dead, help come!"

This familiar voice belongs to Sister Osmanthus!
Qiao Cunzheng's face changed and he led the villagers to follow the sound.

Fang Lin was also slightly surprised, but for some reason he felt not too surprised. Fang's mother asked Tian Xuan to watch the things, while she, Fang's father, and Fang Lin followed the crowd.

This is a house not far from the village entrance. At this time, not only people from Xiaohe Village came, but people from Xiagou Village also came after hearing the noise and formed a large circle around them.

Fang Lin saw through the gaps between the people that the old woman Chen, whom he had seen yesterday, had become a corpse, her body covered with feces, and there were dense maggots wriggling and climbing, and entering and exiting her face, mouth and nose. Sister Guihua was kneeling beside her and crying heartbreakingly, while the owner of the family from Xiagou Village was standing aside with a very unhappy look on her face.

At this time, Qiao Cunzheng walked in.

To be honest, the first time he saw the body of Old Lady Chen, no matter how moved he was by Sister Guihua's confession last night, he felt a chill in his heart, but he remained calm, so ordinary people couldn't see it. "What's going on, Guihua, your mother-in-law is..."

"Daqiang died after eating poisonous mushrooms yesterday. My mother-in-law also drank some mushroom soup and felt dizzy today... She came to the toilet but refused to let me help her no matter what. I had to stay outside... She went to the toilet next door and came back... I waited for a long time but there was no movement. I was worried, so I went in and found that my mother-in-law had fallen into the pit. When I pulled her out, she was dead." Sister Guihua was choked with sobs and spoke incoherently.

"It should be the aftereffect of the mushroom soup, plus Mrs. Chen is old, that's why..." Fang Sun guessed.

"Alas, old lady Chen is so stubborn. Doesn't she know the condition of her own body? Guihua wants to help, but she won't let her." Geng's sister-in-law also said.

"It must be Daqiang's death, and he's blaming Guihua in his heart! Let me be fair, the Bai family is most responsible for Daqiang's death, and old lady Chen is also responsible, but Guihua has nothing to do with it!"

"Hey, who are you talking about? Who are you talking about?"

Before the man had finished speaking, the Bai family's wife exploded: "My family has paid the compensation, and Muramasa has also said that the matter is over and no one is allowed to mention it again. Why are you deliberately bringing it up? What do you want to do?"

……

"It must be an accident. No one wants to see this kind of thing... Oh, Guihua, I'm so sad!"

Qiao Cunzheng was silent for a moment, then agreed with Guihuasao's statement and defined the matter. After that, he looked at the family in Xiagou Village and said, "Old lady Chen from our village died in your hut. What do you think of this?"

"Explanation? What explanation? She didn't die anywhere else, but chose to jump into my toilet. My family thinks it's unlucky. It's good that we don't ask you for compensation!" The old woman in this family, who was also a powerful one, said with a cold face.

The villagers of Xiagou Village also followed suit to express their support.

"I think this old woman jumped on purpose to blackmail people!"

"Yes, this old woman is already this old, she won't live for many days, she is just trying to disgust people!"

"Their Xiaohe Village was hit by a disaster. This family might have run out of food and is almost starving to death. They deliberately jumped into the toilet to cheat our villagers!"

……

How could the people of Xiaohe Village agree to this when they saw that the other party was confusing right and wrong and making mischief? They immediately rose up and retorted.

"I want to blackmail you with a life? Are you going to blackmail us in the same way as your village?"

"That's right. We're almost at the county town and have received relief food. If we are still desperate, would we do something like this?"

"Putting all this aside, don't you have any responsibility for the death of Old Lady Chen here?"

……

No matter what happened inside Xiaohe Village, they were united against the outside world. Otherwise, wouldn't they be bullied to death? This was how villages were in this era. Your family helped me, and I helped your family. It was a big collective with close connections that were far beyond what Fang Lin had in his previous life.

The people from the two villages refused to give in to each other, especially the eldest daughters-in-law and old girls who rushed to the front and quarreled and rushed forward, one step forward and another step forward, with swords drawn, as if they were about to fight.

Fang Lin was worried that a fight might really break out, so he subconsciously looked at Qiao Cunzheng and found that the other party was calm.

The next moment, the eldest daughters-in-law and old girls from the two villages took a deep breath, spoke at the same time, and started to curse at each other.

"#%￥@￥!"

"&*%￥@*!"

For a moment, saliva was flying everywhere, as if countless loud speakers were blasting at the same time, or as if firecrackers were going off and gongs and drums were beating during the New Year.

Fang Lin only felt his ears and head buzzing, and he could not hear anything.

He suddenly fell silent.

"Sure enough, high-end duels often unfold in the simplest way." Fang Lin felt that he was once again a little shocked today.

What surprised him even more was that Fang Sun was the one who rushed to the front and seemed to be one of the leaders of the quarrel in Xiaohe Village.

The verbal battle lasted for a whole cup of tea. The two villages were evenly matched in terms of voice and momentum. After they stopped, the wives and old girls were all panting, as if they had just had a strenuous exercise.

Fang Sun came back from the fight, still quite proud and complacent: "If I hadn't been hungry these past two days, this wouldn't be a draw. It's a bargain for them."

"Yes!"

The honest and sincere sister-in-law of the Geng family in Fang Lin's impression was also beaming with joy: "In our village, we have never lost in the battle of swearing when we went to grab water in previous years."

According to the customs here, the outcome of the fight between villages is often decided by verbal abuse - if it is an armed fight, once someone dies and the government intervenes, both villages will be skinned alive, which is a lose-lose outcome, so the custom of "literary fighting" has gradually evolved.

Fang Lin also remembered that the reason why he didn't have a deep impression of this was because Xiaohe Village had never been bullied. It was always Qiao Cunzheng who brought the old women and the eldest daughter-in-law to other villages and started the verbal fight.

The verbal battle ended in a draw, and the village chief of Xiagou Village came out slowly. Together with Village Chief Qiao, they called Sister Guihua and the owner of the house to go into the house to negotiate compensation - just like when small soldiers fight each other, the big generals confront each other.

The situation is clear. The other party will definitely pay compensation, it’s just a matter of how much.

After all, there are so many people in Xiaohe Village, and they are not lone households that can be bullied at will; secondly, there were indeed deaths in Xiaohe Village, and the dead are the most important, so the other party is not in the right; also, if Xiagou Village is really stingy and lets the government step in, it will inevitably cost more money, so it is better to settle it privately.

After a while, Sister Guihua came out to thank the villagers. It seemed that a settlement had been reached. As for the specific compensation, it was not known to outsiders.

After Old Mrs. Chen was buried, Xiaohe Village continued on their journey. This time, other families treated Sister Guihua and her daughter, the only ones left in Old Chen's family, as if they were the very flesh and blood of the underworld, and stayed away from them.

It is true that the villagers had united to help the Chen family seek justice before, but it is also true that they are alienated from each other now. The Chen family has been in trouble one after another, which makes the villagers feel that it is very strange and they subconsciously stay away from them.

Even if you are not afraid, you are still worried about your family!

This had no effect on Guihua's mother and daughter. On the contrary, those families who had bullied and taken advantage of them in the past now stayed away from them, giving them peace of mind.

Just keep on going.

……

(End of this chapter)