The Big Landlord

While leisurely enjoying all kinds of fun in summer, while paying attention to the construction progress of the house, under the vigorous work of the construction team, after nearly 20 days of hard work, finally at the beginning of August in the Gregorian calendar, all the walls have been completely built. Install the roof, and then fix the walls, floors, doors and windows, and the new house can be seated.

When it was supposed to continue to be busy, the construction team took a big day off. Except for a few carpenters, the rest of the people went home. There is no other reason. Before starting other projects, there is one more important link. It must be completed first, that is, the upper beam.

Early in the morning, Wang Ben ran from house to house along Xiushui Bay, and warmly invited everyone to participate in the beam-raising ceremony. Building houses is a major event in life. The more people there are, the more lively they will be, and the more people will be more prosperous. Everyone is also very willing Hold this field.

A smooth fir with the same head and tail size is carried to the front of the main house to be built. It is today's protagonist, the beam.

The requirements for beams are very strict. You can’t buy them directly. You need to go to the hillside to find fresh ones. They must be Chinese fir. They must be straight and towering, with luxuriant branches and leaves. It can’t be too long or too short. Even if the above conditions are met, if it’s a single tree, you can’t get a single tree. You have to choose it from among the fir bushes. Even when felling, you must face the south, and you can’t damage the surrounding trees.

In order to choose a suitable beam, Wang Ben took great pains. He traveled almost all the fields and woods in Xiushuiwan, and Daqing Mountain several times before he finally found such a beam.

A piece of red cloth was tied in the center of the beam, and there were hundreds of nickels wrapped in it. There were one cent, two cents, and five cents. Hundreds of thousands of nickels were needed to put up the beam. The change in the store was empty, and I went to the bank to exchange a lot.

In the center of the main room, set up a table for the Eight Immortals, light incense candles, present various sacrifices such as pig heads, chickens, ducks, fish, tofu, etc., and then place a few large bowls filled with hot white wine. The first step of raising the beam, The beam sacrifice officially began.

The first master carpenter stepped forward first, took a bowl of white wine and came to the side of the beam, and said plausibly, "Toast the head of the beam with a glass of sake, the master's family has been the number one scholar for generations."

While chanting, he slowly poured the wine in the bowl on the beams from the beam head to the beam tail, and then drank the remaining half bowl of wine upside down with a grunt, which probably weighed more than half a catty.

The second master followed closely behind, and after boasting, "Toast Liangwei with a glass of sake, the master's family will be full of people from generation to generation", he drank up as usual.

"A glass of sake is toasted to the beam, and the master's family enters the farm from generation to generation," this is the last master's sacrificial speech, still uttered in one gulp, and the process of sacrificial beam is officially over.

"rise!"

A master carpenter yelled, and the other two who had already been waiting upstairs began to pull the rope, slowly dragging the beams to the platform closest to the roof.

"Crackling!"

Amidst the deafening sound of firecrackers, the beam-lifting link began. The two masters lifted the beams one from the left and the other from the right, and walked slowly up the wall of the house.

"Good times and auspicious days, the house will prosper, and thousands of treasures will enter the family hall," the master on the left sang loudly, taking a small step upwards, the beam and wood grain in his hand remained still.

"Ding Wang from Shangliang in a good time, his sons and grandchildren will be rich and prosperous." The master on the right followed up and walked the same distance.

On this wall, which is only a dozen centimeters thick and without any shelter, the two of them walked steadily as if they were walking on flat ground, and they walked at exactly the same pace. , half a catty of white wine that I drank on an empty stomach earlier,

has no effect on them.

Under the eyes of many villagers, the two masters came to the highest point of the roof very smoothly, put the beams into the reserved grooves and stuck them tightly, patted them twice, stepped on their feet, and the beams did not move at all. This beam is considered ready.

"Bring the color bag!"

The master carpenter downstairs greeted him, and Wang Ben ran upstairs quickly, and handed a red cloth bag containing various grains and foods such as red dates, peanuts, rice, wheat, etc. to Master Liangshang, and then quickly went upstairs. In the dam of the lower courtyard, he picked up a basket and held it high above his head.

"Big erect Optimus Prime!"

"Gaojia Entrepreneurial Beam!"

...

After the two masters on the beam exchanged good words and blessings, they threw down the red cloth bag.

"Shua!"

Unbiased, it fell directly into the basket in Wang Ben's hands, and the process of receiving the package went very smoothly.

"oh oh!"

The crowd downstairs cheered, because the most lively part of the beam-raising ceremony—beam throwing-was about to come.

Going upstairs again, each of the masters on the beam handed a pannier, which contained peanuts, candies, biscuits, nickel coins, etc., mixed together and filled with two big panniers, the picture is a celebration.

"Throw the beam to the east, and the sunrise in the east is full of red!" The master on the left shouted, grabbed a handful in the back basket, and threw them into the air.

"Throw the beam to the west, and the Qilin will send the child to hang double happiness!" The master on the left immediately said, and sprinkled two handfuls into the courtyard dam.

"Throw the beam to the south, and the descendants will be the number one scholar for generations!"

"Throwing beams to the north, hoarding white rice for the full year!"

...

After each blessing, I sprinkled a few handfuls downstairs, trying to throw them in crowded places. For a while, it was like rain in the courtyard.

The crowd began to surge, regardless of children or adults, they all opened their hands to catch the food and nickels that fell from the air, and picked up all the ones that fell on the ground, holding them in their hands happily.

Wang Ben prepared a lot of things, and the beam throwing process lasted for a few minutes, and every villager who came to participate had his pockets full.

The peanuts were shelled, the candies were peeled off the paper, and they were chewed gently in their mouths. Everyone had bright smiles on their faces, sharing the sweetness and joy of the completion of the new house together.

The crowd cheered, and gradually dispersed after congratulating Wang Ben. The master on the beam also went downstairs, and everyone withdrew from the room to let the sun dry the newly installed beam.

I sealed a red envelope for each of several carpenters, and went to a restaurant in the town to have a good meal. After sincere thanks, the whole beam-raising ceremony has gone through beam sacrifice, beam-lifting, bag receiving, beam-throwing, and so on. After drying the beams and other procedures, it finally came to a successful conclusion.

On the second day after the beam was erected, the construction team was busy again, putting up purlins, laying rafters, building gray tiles, painting walls, installing doors and windows, and leveling the ground.

Another ten days have passed, all the links have been completed, even the front and rear courtyard dams have been well paved, and a brand new house has been erected.

As pieces of furniture were moved into the new house one after another, the house, which cost more than 100,000 yuan, was finally ready to move in.