Sure enough, Xu Youcai’s expression was complicated, his teeth grinding audibly, but he didn’t utter any more harsh words.
His roots were in Xu Family Village, and if he were to prosper in the future, he would still need the support of his neighbors and fellow villagers.
Xu Youcai’s cousin, Xu Youmao, stepped forward at this moment, forcing a wrinkled smile as he said, “Oh, Granny Jiang, we’re all from the same village, descended from the same ancestors. No need to speak so harshly.
What you saw was all a misunderstanding. We’re just doing what’s best for the village. Since you and the village chief are leaving, someone has to look after these houses and lands.
What if they get taken over by others? You wouldn’t even have a place to stay when you return… Don’t you agree?”
Xu Youcai was tall and domineering, while Xu Youmao was thin and wiry, full of cunning schemes.
With the villagers gone, there were more houses left than they could occupy and more land than they could farm.
All they had to do was stay and guard the village, and they could rule over their own little kingdom, becoming wealthy landlords.
Jiang Zhi found it hard to refute Xu Youmao’s words. After all, it seemed reasonable for them to help guard the village.
“Brother Youmao, then we’ll trouble you with the hard work!” Jiang Zhi knew when to stop and didn’t comment on their earlier behavior. She pulled Xiao Man behind her and said, “We still need to take some things up the mountain. We won’t be coming back down!”
The Xu brothers chuckled dismissively, “Sure, take whatever you can carry!”
Both of them were eager for this shrew to leave quickly and not hinder their path to fortune.
Among the refugees, a woman who had been weeping and wailing earlier thought Jiang Zhi would act righteously and help her reclaim her belongings. But when she saw Jiang Zhi preparing to leave, she immediately rushed forward, shouting, “You’re in cahoots with these bandits! Give me back my grain!”
Jiang Zhi thought to herself: Do I look that easy to bully? When the men were fighting earlier, I didn’t see you rushing in to help. Now you dare to block my way?
Before she could react, Xu Errui and Xiao Man stepped in front of her.
Xu Errui stammered, “Y-your grain wasn’t taken by my mother! What does it have to do with us?”
Xiao Man added, “Your grain is right over there. Go get it yourself!”
Seeing that blocking their path was futile, the woman knelt and kowtowed to Jiang Zhi, pleading, “I beg you, give us back our things! We’re heading to the capital, and we need food for the adults and children on the way!”
Jiang Zhi felt a twinge of conflict. As someone who grew up in peaceful times, she had been taught high moral standards from a young age, and helping others had become an instinct ingrained in her bones.
But she also knew that kindness wasn’t always rewarded. Stories like “The Farmer and the Snake” were told time and again for a reason. Moreover, based on their earlier behavior, she could tell these refugees were no good.
Xu Youcai and the others were willing to let her go only because they were concerned about their fellow villagers. They wouldn’t spare these refugees.
As she hesitated, Xu Youmao chuckled beside her, “Granny Jiang, why not leave Er Rui and Xiao Man here with us to guard the village? We’ll give you half of this grain.
These people have traveled hundreds of miles and still have plenty of grain. They’ve robbed others along the way, too.”
In this cycle of robbery, no one was innocent.
In an instant, Jiang Zhi stopped caring about anything else. She grabbed Er Rui and Xiao Man and left.
She admitted she was a coward—unable to join in their corruption, yet incapable of being a savior.
Amid the refugees’ desperate curses and wails and Xu Youcai’s arrogant laughter, Jiang Zhi and the other two fled in disarray.
Ah! The chaos and turmoil outside were not for her; it was better to hide away and live quietly.
The Village Chief's charcoal shed indeed contained a large stock of quicklime. The three of them used straw baskets as padding and filled a large back basket with it.
Since Xu You Cai had agreed to let her take things, Jiang Zhi didn’t hold back.
Seizing the rare opportunity while the Xu family was busy driving away refugees, Jiang Zhi and the other two searched through every household’s kitchen in the village.
The sweet potatoes and taro in the cellars had long been looted clean. Jiang Zhi only found quite a few salt stones and some hastily left-behind melon, bean, and vegetable seeds hanging on the walls. Just the vegetable seeds alone were enough to plant several acres of land.
In addition, there was a finely crafted hand mill and a stone mortar for pounding rice. However, these items were heavy and difficult to move. For the sake of having fine grains to eat in the future, Jiang Zhi was prepared to exhaust herself.
Unexpectedly, Xiao Man shook his head vigorously at the sight of these two heavy items. “My grandfather knows stone masonry, Aunt Jiang. If you’re in a hurry, just take the mill. Later, when my grandfather finds suitable stones, he can carve a mortar himself.”
Such good fortune?
But it wasn’t unusual for rural folks to know masonry or carpentry. Looking at Xiao Man’s family’s shed, it wouldn’t be surprising if they knew how to build houses.
This time, there were many things to carry: quicklime, the mill, and the spinning wheel Xiao Man wanted to bring—each one a bulky item.
By the time everything was moved back to the charcoal shed on the mountain, it was already afternoon.
Qiaoyun had already prepared a pot of porridge and thoughtfully roasted two sweet potatoes in the fire for her mother-in-law and husband.
Now, with each sweet potato eaten, there was one less left. She didn’t dare eat any more herself.
Upon returning to the charcoal shed, Jiang Zhi collapsed on the ground, unable to get up. No matter how youthful her spirit was, she had to admit defeat.
The body couldn’t lie. Once again, she felt as though her back was about to break.
Clearing land and farming were never about poetry and distant dreams. Just these few days of rural life had exhausted her.
Fortunately, there wouldn’t be a need for such heavy physical labor again anytime soon.
On the night the three returned to the mountain, in the dead of night, a section of the cliff face suddenly collapsed.
The path below the cliff was instantly buried under a massive landslide of rocks and debris. Clearing it would take at least half a month.
The forested area where Xiao Man’s family and Jiang Zhi’s family lived thus became an isolated haven, cut off from the outside world.
For the other families to communicate with them, aside from shouting at the intersection, they would have to take a long detour, walking for an hour to reach them.
After a simple night’s rest, Jiang Zhi’s small single-room shelter began construction the next day.
On the leveled ground, four holes were dug first, and blue oak tree trunks as thick as a bowl’s mouth were inserted as pillars. The holes were filled with crushed stones and compacted. Once the pillars were stable, the next steps were to build the roof and walls.
Stone slabs and yellow mud were used to construct the walls, topped with a gabled roof. The central beam was the longest tree trunk, secured with two tripods carved into a mortise and tenon joint.
What was originally intended as a small single-room shed gradually took shape as a proper house, with bark laid over the roof.
To prevent the bark from being blown away by the wind, layers of stone slabs were placed on top.
In the gaps between the bark, Jiang Zhi stuffed dry moss dug from the ditch.
Moss was a wonderful thing. In wilderness survival, moss was often used in building shelters—it was windproof, insulating, and a natural thermal barrier.
Xiao Man looked at the small house and clicked his tongue in admiration. “Aunt Jiang, this house is even better than the thatched huts in the village. Look at this sturdy roof—no more worrying about heavy rain.”
Jiang Zhi was also very satisfied. Although the entire process had been a bit tough, after watching so many videos, she had finally built herself a perfect shelter, and a sense of pride welled up in her heart.
With the house in place, it still needed furniture.
Without a bed or table, Jiang Zhi used yellow mud and slab stones again, along with wooden planks, to build cabinets and a stove platform inside the room for storage, and incidentally, she also built a kang.
The reason it was described as "incidentally" building a kang was because this was Jiang Zhi's first time making one.
The kang she built was small and delicate, incomparable to the large, row-style communal kangs.
The kang was a rare sight in Xu Family Village, something no one had ever seen before.
A stove platform for cooking connected to a bed for sleeping was even more unheard of.
Even Xiaoman's grandfather, who considered himself well-traveled and knowledgeable, came specifically to take a look.
Running his hand over the thick yellow mud surface of the kang and looking at the flue extending along the wall, Xiaoman's grandfather fell into silence.
Having lived most of his life, with soil already up to his neck, he was only accustomed to digging a fire pit in the middle of the room to burn firewood, roasting himself amid smoke and flames. This kind of earthen bed felt unfamiliar to him.
He stared for a long time before asking a question that was classic for southern children: "Won’t cooking in the summer roast a person alive?"
Jiang Zhi laughed and said, "In the summer, we won’t use this stove, or we’ll block the flue so no heat passes through."
Xiaoman's grandfather still looked confused. "What heat? You said 'burn the kang, burn the kang'—doesn’t that mean using fire to burn it?"
Jiang Zhi burst out laughing. "Using fire directly would be like stir-frying dried beans!"