Chapter 50: Top beam
"Hey, go back and make more things for these two children."
Uncle Niu left to himself, while Li Huan led the strong men to dig the foundation. Everyone quickly found the job they were best at and started working hard.
Li's mother smiled and brought a group of aunts to build several simple stoves. The fire on the stove was brightly lit from boiling water in the morning to cooking at night.
Li Le even took a large group of children to help her pick up firewood at the foot of the mountain, and exchanged for two fruit candies with a bundle of firewood. But her second sister-in-law gave her a large bag of fruit candies, and all her teeth could fall off.
Cheng Qiao also rode her bicycle around the county town and Xiangyang Village. Every time she always brought back the ingredients that everyone liked to eat, from chicken, duck, fish, and rice and white flour.
But Cheng Qiao is not stupid either. The rice noodles are mixed with black millet noodles in a ratio of one to two or even one to three, so everyone’s mouths are made of the ingredients of the two-fold noodles.
No one would doubt why Cheng Qiao took out so many things. Cheng Qiao is now a big fat sheep in the eyes of the villagers. Taking this opportunity to eat more can be considered cheap.
"Sister-in-law, you are really enjoying your life. Cheng Zhiqing hasn't entered the door yet. He is so generous. You have to take care of it."
"What do I care about? My son can't control me. How can I control my daughter-in-law?"
Li's mother curled her lips. Anyone who asked her to take care of her daughter-in-law was a bad person. She didn't grow up with her own milk and had never eaten her own food. Why should she take care of her?
"No matter how bad it is, Cheng Zhiqing has so much money on him, and he just wants to be so fucked. Don't you feel sorry for him."
"What do I feel sorry for? It's not my money. Cheng Qiao can marry my family, but my family is still very up to date. Oh, your food is going to be muddy, hurry up and flip it."
"oh oh……"
Aunt Li is Li Huan's distant aunt. She doesn't have much contact with each other, but she still needs to take it if she has a cheap price. When she heard that the food was battered, she quickly picked up the spatula and shoveled it hard a few times.
When she put the vegetables in a big bowl and wanted to brainwash her mother with Li's mother, Li's mother had already washed the vegetables with Aunt Wang's family. She could only pick up a pair of chopsticks and eat a few bites before talking about it.
Three days later, Li Huan's new house had been built, with a whole acre of land, a wood-room, a kitchen, a farm tool house, and a large chicken coop.
A pigpen was set up in the backyard. It seemed that Li Huan wanted to raise a mission pig at home. As long as he raised a mission pig, he could raise one by himself.
The vegetable fields next to it have not been cultivated yet. After two days, the Li family will naturally grow some drought-tolerant vegetables. Then there will be cabbage, radish, etc. in winter. You can eat a meal after pickling it.
Houses are common in rural areas, such as two or four, or even six, which means there is a living room in the middle and houses on both sides. The rich build more houses on both sides, and those without money build fewer houses.
This time, Li Huan built two and one room, and built one on both sides of the living room, but Li Huan was also ready for expansion. He wanted to see how many children he could have and then expand it, otherwise it would be better if there was no one living in an empty house.
Everything is ready, and now the only thing left is the upper beam. This requires a good day. Fortunately, the day after tomorrow is the auspicious day. They went to invite village chief Chen Aidang to preside over the upper beam ceremony.
Everyone is looking forward to the arrival of this day. In this poor era, it is a big deal. Both adults and children can satisfy their stomachs on this day.
Li Huan, Shouhou and others carried the beams pasted on red paper into front of the Xinwu Hall, while Li's mother placed pigs, fish, chickens, gooses, eggs, tofu on the table, and other offerings, which were spared.
Brickmakers, carpenters and men were talking nice things around the table while toasting. This was a sacrifice to the beam. After the sacrifice to the beam, several craftsmen lifted the beam onto the roof.
When the beam was lifted, firecrackers were lit up, and Chen Weidang came over in his best clothes. He wanted to sing the beam song and shouted repeatedly: "It's good luck to go to the beam!"
Cheng Qiao looked at them nervously, which meant that they would live a stable life in the future.
Seeing that they raised the beam up smoothly, without any front and back, and when the height was tilted, a hanging heart was relieved.
After everyone put the beam smoothly, Li Huan moved the red cloth bag containing red dates, peanuts, rice, wheat, and evergreen to the roof and placed it in the middle of the beam, which means "blessing, wealth, longevity, joy, eternal greenness".
Next is the favorite ceremony for all villagers, throwing beams.
Chen Weidang stood on the beam, looking at the crowded people below, and couldn't help but think that the second-rate guy spent a lot of money this time, looking at the stuff in the basket, which were all real and good goods:
He reached into the basket and began to shout loudly: "Stop the beam and throw it to the east, the sun rises in the east, the hall is red; throw it to the west, the Qilin sends children and hangs two joys; throw it to the south, the descendants become the top scholars for generations; throw it to the north, and the white rice is full every year."
In an instant, the four directions of the southeast, west and north became a sea of joy. At first, the children went to pick up candies and steamed buns with laughter. When someone picked up coins of one, two and five cents, the scene even reached a climax.
Village women flocked to each other, their eyes staring at the hands of each child. If a child picks up money, the money will definitely be stolen.
The children who were robbed of money were anxious and their parents were also robbed of money. The men who were originally just watching the children, women and children were making trouble could not sit still, and they all joined the ranks of robbing money.
When Li Huan saw that the signs were wrong, he quickly took a small basket from Cheng Qiao's hand and ran out. There were 100 coins that Cheng Qiao exchanged for one cent, just to deal with such a thing.
"The second-rate guy has spent money, hurry up and chase him."
The sharp-eyed man saw Li Huan running outward while sprinkling money into the air. The silver coins shone in the sun, attracting most people.
"What a god, the second-rate guy has really made a fortune. It's a few dollars for so much money."
"You care about him. The wife he married was Cheng Qiaocheng educated youth, and he had a lot of money in his hands."
"That's right, grab it quickly, grab one more cent is also good."
When Chen Weidang saw that most of the villagers were chasing Li Huan out, his anxious heart finally fell back. This was too crazy. After the ceremony of going to the beam, he must criticize this second-rate man.
After the beam is thrown, everyone exits the new house and lets the sun shine on the beam. This is called "sun beam".
At this time, everyone consciously went home to get bowls because the owner wanted to cook vegetables and treat craftsmen, helpers and relatives and friends, and also distributed red envelopes.
Chen Weidang was the first to get the red envelope. He pinched his hand slightly and knew that there was a big black man worth ten yuan inside. He shook his head slightly. This kid is really good at being a human being.
Chapter completed!