“Little Aunt, Mother, I’ll come help you sort the vegetables too,” she said as she squatted down, about to help.
“There’s no need for you to sort vegetables,” Liu Shi said. “Take the bamboo basket and the bamboo pole and go over to those old chestnut trees. Knock down some chestnuts. Be careful when picking them up—don’t let the thorns prick your hands.”
This slope where they were building the thatched house had already been allocated to her family, and the village head had even issued the land deed.
As for the few wild old chestnut trees nearby, they naturally became her family’s property as well.
The grain they used for cooking while building the house came from the 150 jin of grain they had received when the family split. Building this thatched house would take at least ten days.
With more than twenty mouths to feed each day, all doing heavy labor, the food couldn’t be cooked too thin.
Otherwise, everyone would get hungry again shortly after eating and have no strength to work.
Her husband’s leg injury had not healed. He couldn’t hunt or farm, and the family had no source of income.
She had to find ways to save as much grain as possible for the three of them to live on.
Otherwise, once the house was finished and the grain nearly gone, they would be forced to survive on wild vegetables.
It was already late August. Although the chestnuts weren’t fully ripe yet, tender chestnuts were still edible. If they knocked some down, peeled and washed them, then cooked them together with coarse rice, everyone could eat their fill while saving half the grain.
“Alright! I’ll go knock down some chestnuts right now,” Qianhua said happily. She picked up the bamboo basket and long bamboo pole and headed toward the chestnut trees.
Back in her modern life, she had lived with her grandmother from the age of ten.
Her grandmother’s home was also in the mountains, and every September and October—chestnut season—Qianhua would help her knock down chestnuts. She was very familiar with the work.
Standing beneath the lush chestnut trees, she skillfully swung the bamboo pole, knocking down the fruit. One chestnut burr after another rolled down onto the grass at the foot of the mountain.
“Sister Qianhua, I’ll help you pick up the chestnuts!” Wenjie called out.
Seeing his second cousin busy, Wenjie ran over immediately. Several other children who had been playing with him also rushed over to help.
“Wenjie, take everyone and stand a little farther away first,” Qianhua said. “Let me knock down a few more batches. Once there are more chestnuts on the ground, you can come help pick them up.”
Wenjie obediently led the children to wait at a distance.
Only after Qianhua called out, “Alright, you can come pick them up now,” did they all swarm over.
“Pick slowly and be careful. Don’t let the thorns prick your hands,” she reminded them worriedly.
Although these children were only eight or nine years old, they had grown up in the mountains.
By the time they were six or seven, they were already following adults to pick chestnuts.
The sharp burrs posed no real challenge for them.
As the saying goes, many hands make light work.
Though they were just a group of little kids, with their help, the chestnuts were collected much faster.
Before long, all the chestnuts had been picked—an entire bamboo basket full.
The chestnut burrs hadn’t split open yet. Each one was covered in stiff thorns like a hedgehog, and it was easy to get pricked if one wasn’t careful. Cracking them open was a skill in itself.
Qianhua took a hammer and, together with the children, smashed the spiky burrs.
Once cracked open, three to five fresh chestnuts would pop out from inside.
After removing the chestnuts from the burrs, they still had to peel the fresh chestnuts. It took quite some time before all the chestnuts were fully shelled.
After washing them clean, Liu Shi took half of the chestnuts and cooked them together with coarse rice, saving the other half for the evening meal.
When it was time to eat, the children were also invited to stay for the meal.
The vegetables were dug from the vegetable patch at the old house.
Since there was no spare money, no meat was bought—only seasonal vegetables were stir-fried to go with the rice.
Yunfeng Village wasn’t wealthy. Everyone lived frugally and rarely ate meat at home. So no one complained about the simple food at Liang Er’s house.
The fragrant chestnut and coarse rice meal left both adults and children full and satisfied.
Qianhua told the children to come again the next day to help pick and peel chestnuts, so everyone could continue eating the delicious chestnut rice.
The children all nodded happily in agreement.
Although Liang Er’s legs were injured, he still wanted to help. Every day, Wen Yong would pull him over on a handcart. Liang Er would sit on a stool weaving thatch. Once the house was nearly finished, the thatch could be laid on the roof.
Qianhua actually had many ideas about house construction, but she didn’t voice them. Her father couldn’t do heavy labor due to his injury, and everyone was already helping for free to build them a simple thatched house so the family of three could move out of the Liang family’s old home and have shelter from wind and rain. It would be unreasonable to ask for more.
After all, this small thatched house was only temporary.
Once she found a way to earn silver in the future, she would definitely rebuild a large courtyard with brick walls and tiled roofs. For now, they would make do.
After about ten days, the thatched house was completed.
There were three bedrooms in total.
The western room belonged to Qianhua, the eastern room to the couple, and behind Qianhua’s room was an extra guest room.
In the middle was a main hall. Next to the eastern wing was the kitchen, and further back was the latrine.
Three sides in front of the house were enclosed with an earthen wall to form a courtyard, with a single gate opened on the southern side.
There was also nearly one mu of empty land behind the house.
She had wanted to fence it in as well, but the area was too large.
Building an earthen wall would take too much time, and since everyone was helping voluntarily in their spare time, it wasn’t appropriate to make such a request.
Forget it—this thatched house was only a temporary residence anyway.
By custom, once a house was completed, the family should host a banquet to thank the villagers who helped.
But everyone understood Liang Er’s situation. There was simply no way for them to host a feast right now.
“Dad, tell everyone that once our family earns money in the future, we’ll definitely invite them back for a proper banquet,” Qianhua said apologetically.
“Alright, I’ll go tell everyone,” Liang Er said, leaning on his crutch as he went to speak with them.
The villagers treated it as polite talk and didn’t take it seriously.
After all, everyone knew his legs were injured and he couldn’t earn money at all. His own family was barely getting by—how could he possibly afford to host a feast?
Liu Shi was extremely excited to see their house completed. Although it was just a simple thatched hut, at least the three of them finally had a home of their own.
She cried tears of joy. Even though her husband couldn’t work for now and farming alone would be exhausting, she could finally live her own life without fear of being tormented by her mother-in-law. Liu Shi felt that no matter how hard the future days might be, they could never be worse than living under constant scolding and beatings.