The Pentium Era - South to North

After seeing the project site, Zhang Chen and the others rushed back to Qiongzhong Hotel and stayed here at night.

The first thing I did when I returned to the hotel was of course to take a shower. In the midsummer afternoon, after spending a few hours outdoors in Hainan, I felt like I had shrunk and shrunk.

The sweat that has flowed and dried has formed a layer of shell on the body. It is no longer a liquid, but has become a solid. The body is like a big funnel, and the mouth is constantly filled with bottled water, and the water immediately flows from it. Every part of the body seeped out without leaving a drop. His bare arms were sunburned and turned crimson. After taking a shower, Zhang Chen felt a burning pain in his arms.

"Changed."

Zhang Chen sat down on the sofa in the living room and muttered to himself, thinking that it was the same summer when he was in Haicheng, riding a bicycle on the road, looking for work everywhere, and sweating no less than today, no matter how hot it was. Weather, people at that time also had to wear long-sleeved shirts, with one hand stretched out from the wrist down, as if wearing a pair of black gloves.

At that time, what I felt most strongly was not the heat, but the anxiety. As long as I could find a job, what if I was exposed to the sun every day? But now, after just a few hours outside, I feel like I can't stand it anymore.

Zhang Chen shook his head and murmured: "I'm old, I can't remember how brave I was back then."

He laughed to himself.

Someone knocked on the door, Zhang Chen went over and opened the door. Outside the door were Bao Tianbin and Zhang Xiangbei. They had just taken a shower.

There was only one suite left in the hotel, and of course Zhang Chen lived there. After taking a shower, everyone gathered here and continued to discuss their matters.

Bao Tianbin and Zhang Xiangbei walked in. Zhang Xiangbei sat down on the sofa. Bao Tianbin did not sit down, but stood there and said to Zhang Xiangbei:

"Going to Lao Tan's place for dinner at night? It's diagonally opposite. You can just walk over later."

Zhang Xiangbei said yes.

"What do you want to eat?" Bao Tianbin asked.

"The fried beef bones, he will arrange the rest." Zhang Xiangbei turned to Zhang Chen and asked, "Do you have any special requests?"

Zhang Chen shook his head: "I can do anything."

"Then I'll call Lao Tan." Bao Tianbin said, picking up the phone, and Zhang Xiangbei asked him to wait.

Zhang Xiangbei said: "You and Lao Tan have made it clear that our project is here. There will be a lot of people coming and going in the future. We have designated his hotel, but no matter who comes, you and Lao Tan will There is no need for him to treat guests, even if you bring guests there, don’t give any discounts, just make the money you deserve. If he keeps treating guests, we won’t dare to go there again.”

"That's right." Zhang Chen said from the side, "Friends are friends, and business is business. Only when he makes money, you will be happy as friends."

"Okay, I'll tell Lao Tan what you two said."

As he said this, Lao Bao walked out and opened the door. When he saw Fang Tiancheng coming over, Lao Bao left the door open.

Fang Tiancheng sat down on the sofa, and Zhang Chen asked him: "Are you sure?"

"Yes." Fang Tiancheng said.

"In offices and research institutes, special attention should be paid to moisture and mildew."

Zhang Chen and Fang Tiancheng said:

"The climate in Hainan Island is very humid. I don't know much about Qiongzhong. In Haicheng, if no one enters the room for a week and there are no doors or windows for ventilation, there will be a strong musty smell, and the table will be wet. A layer of hair, which is different from Hangzhou, which only has this phenomenon during the rainy season. In Haicheng, it will always be like this in summer, especially when these buildings are connected to the mountain."

"I understand, Mr. Zhang." Fang Tiancheng nodded.

The next morning, Bao Tianbin, Zhang Chen, Zhang Xiangbei and Fang Tiancheng set out for Baoting, while Fang Tiancheng's two assistants stayed in Qiongzhong.

Qiongzhong Li and Miao Autonomous County and Baoting Li and Miao Autonomous County are more than 110 kilometers apart. One is at the northern foot of Wuzhishan Mountain, and the other is at the southern foothills of Wuzhishan Mountain. This section of the road is equivalent to traveling through Wuzhishan Mountain. Fortunately, the road is very good. Go, in addition to the provincial highway less than 20 kilometers in the middle, there is the Haisan Expressway at one end and the Shanhai Expressway at the end.

The village they were going to was in Hekunling, in the opposite direction to Baoting County. They came down from Baoting Interconnection, entered the county road, and started to enter the mountains. After driving for more than ten minutes, they arrived at a mountain col. The brand-new buildings, Bao Tianbin told them, were all moved down from Li Village on the mountain, and the government provided subsidies for the construction of the houses.

"That kind of houseboat sounds like an intangible cultural heritage, but in fact it's very inconvenient to live in and the sanitary conditions are very poor. Not many people actually live in Li Village now, and those who still stay there are all poor people. Old people and young people who are willing to leave have all come out to build houses." Bao Tianbin told them.

The car drove to the entrance of the village. There was a young man standing in a newly built octagonal pavilion at the entrance of the village. When he saw their car arriving, he walked out of the pavilion and waved to them. Zhang Xiangbei recognized him. He was the one who went to Xiaoqin's house last time for a party. During the period, one of the two young men I met was from the Hainan branch of "Zhaixianshui".

"It's Xiao Kuang, right?" Zhang Xiangbei asked Bao Tianbin. Bao Tianbin nodded and said yes, Baoting is under his control.

Bao Tianbin stopped the car in front of Xiao Kuang and pressed the window. Xiao Kuang called Zhang Xiangbei "Mr. Zhang" and then said to Bao Tianbin:

"You follow me."

"Can the car go in?" Bao Tianbin asked.

"Okay, the road inside is very wide." Xiao Kuang said and turned around and walked towards the village. Bao Tianbin drove the car and followed him.

This village has been re-planned. The roads in the village are very wide and clean. They are all cement roads. The houses on both sides of the road have basically the same layout. They are all three-story buildings. In front of the houses is a yard. Even the styles of the houses are similar. Uniform style.

It can be seen that the buildings here are uniformly designed by designers. The white walls, double sloping eaves and red tiles have absorbed the appearance elements of the ship roof. The most different thing is that the doors of every household have iron pipes. Yes, there are doors made of stainless steel and different materials, with different sizes and patterns.

The house they were going to was not far from the village entrance. Not long after Xiao Kuang walked in, he stopped at the door of a courtyard and asked Bao Tianbin to drive the car into the courtyard.

Bao Tianbin parked the car and everyone got out of the car. A man who was sitting under the eaves and weaving grass pieces also stood up.

This man is in his sixties, has sparse hair, and his skin is paler than the average Hainanese. From the first glance, he seems to rarely work outdoors.

Xiao Kuang introduced them to him as Huang Damao, a well-known thatched roof weaver.

Zhang Chen and the others saw that what he had just been knitting were grass blades. The door of a room behind him was open, and half a room of dried grass blades were piled inside. On the other side, there were rolls of grass neatly stacked against the wall. Already braided grass pieces.

Xiao Kuang told them that these straw pieces were all for sale. In the past, every family of the Li people would weave straw pieces and store them because the roofs had to be renovated every year and grass pieces were needed. Nowadays, many people live in thatched houses. I don’t know how to store grass slices at home, so I come here to buy them if I need them. The whole Baoting community will come to Master Huang to buy them.

Xiao Kuang saw that Zhang Xiangbei and the others didn't understand very well, so he explained that people now live down the mountain, but there are still old people living in some villages on the mountain, and the children of the old people still need to renovate their roofs. Also, there are many black pigs raised on the mountain, and the pig pens are all thatched houses.

Zhang Chen looked at the pile of hay and asked, "Is this the palmetto?"

Xiao Kuang didn't know either. He looked at Huang Damao and said, "Yes, it's Pu Kui."

Palm palm trees are similar to palm trees, but taller than palm trees. No wonder those boat-shaped roofs do not leak. Palm palm trees themselves do not absorb water and are not easy to rot. They are the material for making coir raincoats. Zhang Chen remembers that when he was a child, every household used to make rice dumplings and tie them together. The rice dumplings are made of palm leaves that are very similar to the palm leaves. They won't get mushy no matter how you cook them in boiling water.

The palm leaf is unfolded into a large fan shape. Cut an arc about a foot along the root and sew the edges with cloth. A cattail leaf fan, the old lady always carries it with her every step of the way.

Looking at the dried sunflower leaves in this half of the room, Zhang Chen felt a little happy. He asked Huang Damao, are there many craftsmen like him now?

Huang Damao didn't say much. Young people don't learn this. Some of his own apprentices now drive minibuses, open restaurants, work as welders, and deliver food in Haicheng. But there are no If you do this, you won't make much money.

"The main thing is that there is no future." Huang Damao said, "Think about it, there are fewer and fewer thatched houses. Who will need straw rafts in the future? My son also learned this from me when he was a child. Now, he is raising black pigs. , even raising black pigs is more profitable than this.”

"Aren't there a lot of folk villages and boat house preservation villages being built now?" Bao Tianbin said.

"How many straw rafts does it cost? No one lives in it. That kind of thatched house is for tourists to see. It doesn't matter if it leaks or the straw rafts get messed up. Don't you think so? Like we used to, everyone lived in In a thatched house, if there is a leak in the house, why don't you immediately raise the roof when the weather is fine? So every family must prepare a straw raft." Huang Damao said.

"Is it easy to harvest these sunflower leaves? Is there any seasonality?" Zhang Chen asked.

Huang Damao said: "There are plenty of sunflower leaves on the mountain, but the sunflower leaves used for roofing are usually harvested in autumn and winter. The sunflower leaves in autumn and winter are older and more durable after being exposed to the sun."

Zhang Chen did the math and realized that this was just right. It was already early August, and by the time sunflower leaves were needed on the construction site, it would be autumn.

"Brother, can you braid this again for us to see?" Bao Tianbin pointed to the half- braided grass piece on the ground and said to Huang Damao.

Huang Damao said yes, he sat down, stepped on one side of the grass with his feet, and put the sunflower leaves root to root and tip to tip. He braided the root part first, grabbed a handful of hay in his hand, and stuffed it into the cross. Between the two white vines, stuff them in and then make a cross, clamp the hay, and step on it tightly with your feet at the same time. Pick up another handful of hay and put it in, and the white vines make another cross.

Repeat this, and when the dried white vine is almost finished braiding, add another piece, and keep braiding in this way until it is about three meters long, and this end is considered finished.

On the other side, use white vines to clamp the handfuls of hay criss-crossing each other. When braiding this end, there is no need to add hay, and everything else is the same.

Soon, a piece of grass three meters long and one meter wide, which Huang Damao called a straw raft by himself, looked more like a straw mat and was woven by Zhang Chen. He rolled it up into a tube and piled it at the foot of the wall.

Huang Damao came out after putting away the grass pieces and asked them if they wanted to go to the thatched house on the mountain to see?

Zhang Chen said he wanted it, and Huang Damao led them out.

The new village of the Li people was built in a mountain col. The original old Li village was on the hillside behind the village. Huang Damao told them that the previous thatched houses were most afraid of rain and water, as the water would rot the foundation, so Thatched houses were built on hillsides to prevent them from being flooded. Unlike today's houses, even if they are built in this valley, you won't be afraid of heavy rain.

"Do you still like living in your current house?" Zhang Chen asked.

"That's for sure. There is no water in the old village, so people have to carry it. There is no toilet. People and pigs live in the same place. How good do you think it is? Those who say that thatched house is so good, let them go there Let's live in a thatched house and see if he can still say this." Huang Damao said.

"But people say that boat-shaped houses are a tradition of the Li people." Xiao Kuang said.

"The tradition of us Li people is that they are still Li people if they are burned to ashes. It has nothing to do with where they live. Look, there are so many people living in buildings at the foot of the mountain. Are they not Li people? Or, they are everywhere. Li people are also burned to ashes." Huang Damao said.

Zhang Chen praised: "Brother, what you said makes sense. It's just like us Chinese. Even if we live in New York, Manhattan and Long Island, we are still Chinese. If you think you are not Chinese, white people will not recognize you." , won’t treat you as a Caucasian.”

"Michael Jackson is bleached, but he is still black." Fang Tiancheng said.

The old village is not far from the village. The group of people arrived just as they were talking. They walked all the way and usually wouldn’t pay attention to it. But today they paid attention. Zhang Chen and the others saw a lot of wild palmettos on the roadside.

Walking into the stockade, they found that the stockade was completely in ruins. Dozens of boat-shaped houses were scattered among the coconut trees. They were completely deserted. Huang Damao told them that in other stockades, there would still be some old people staying in the stockade. Not used to living in high-rise buildings, everyone in our village moved out, leaving no one behind.

The roads in the village are all dirt roads, and the doors of every thatched hut are open. Various farm tools are hung on the walls outside the hut, and old furniture is also placed inside. Huang Damao said that after moving to a new house, These have not been moved down, they are all being built below.

Huang Damao Station knew that they came mainly to see the boat-shaped house, so they focused on introducing the boat-shaped house to them.

The boat-shaped house has no windows and the light inside is very dim. Now, the entire village has lost power due to fire prevention. Fortunately, Xiao Kuang was prepared and brought three flashlights.

Huang Damao told them that the biggest fear of thatched huts is fire, not rain. If there is a leak in the house, the roof will collapse. If there is a fire, the whole house will be burned down.

"So everyone in the village has agreed that if someone's thatched hut catches fire, everyone in the village, regardless of whether you have any conflicts, must go to put out the fire, and the water in every water tank must be taken out. Young Those who do not participate in fire fighting will be fined 300 yuan," Huang Damao said.

"Three hundred yuan?" Bao Tianbin asked.

"Three hundred, one hundred catties of rice, one hundred catties of wine, one hundred catties of meat." Huang Damao said.

"I'll go, that three hundred yuan is not enough." Bao Tianbin shouted.

"If you go to help put out the fire, you won't be punished. If you don't put out the fire, you deserve to be punished to death."

Huang Damao rolled his eyes at Bao Tianbin, and Bao Tianbin quickly said yes, yes, yes, he deserves to be punished to death.

Thank you for the reward of two fishes! Thank you Xu Yuenian, Hu Hu, Romantic Cherry Blossoms for reading frequently, taking a leisurely look, Huaxin Yongshao, abc19791205, Traveler Ye Buzhan, xiezhiwww, fangkuaij, AC777, Xiang Ze'an, struggling to persist, yu20051224, Daosheng 123, Zangshuge Monthly tickets for the third floor administrator, Tamagotchi, Zhongkai 727, Yite Phenol, The Little Brother Who Eats Fish, Old Dibowei, Void Broken Dream, End丶Hao, eastlong888, Book Friends 20171022193442439, Book Friends 20211109140700893887090, Book Friends 20180803025635047 ! Thanks for all the votes and reading! Have a good evening everyone!