The whole mountain is my hunting ground

On this day, before the work started, the goose stew in the iron pot for the evening was arranged.

At this time, Yang Yufeng, as the owner, called Zhao Chun to carry the child into the house, and asked Xiao Lingdang to take her three aunts to school.

Zhao Chun didn't want to enter the house and wanted to watch the excitement outside, but the child in her arms couldn't stay, so she carried the child and the old lady into Zhang's house first.

In the southeast corner of the Zhang Family Courtyard, there was an open shed. There was nothing else in the shed except a stone mill that lacked the upper millstone.

A stone mill has two millstones, also known as two fans. The lower fan does not move, but the upper fan moves. There are teeth on the contact surface of the two millstones, so that when the upper fan millstone is rotated, the grain leaked between the two millstones will be ground.

If it is a small grinding mill, there will only be one hole on the upper grinding disc to leak grain downwards. The mill that now belongs to the Zhang family is a large mill, and there should be two holes on the upper millstone for leakage of grain.

But the problem now is not that there are a few holes in the upper millstone, but that the Zhang family's stone mill is missing the upper millstone.

"Feng!" When Wang Meilan led the donkey to the vegetable garden of the other courtyard, she turned to Yang Yufeng and said, "You, Xiaojun and the ministers can go and invite Mopan back."

"Hey!" Yang Yufeng responded and walked out of the courtyard with Zhao Jun and Jie Chen.

When they arrived outside the hospital, Jie Chen drove, Zhao Jun got into the trunk, and Yang Yufeng got into the passenger seat. The car started and headed straight to Tuen Dongtou.

They were following Wang Meilan's instructions to bring Mopan back.

As the old saying goes: The winds are different within a hundred miles, and the customs are different across a thousand miles.

In places like Shandong and Northeast China where pasta is popular, almost every household had a stone mill or stone roller in the early years.

Among the older generation, the millstone is called the green dragon and the grinding wheel is called the white tiger. They are both mythical things.

In Yong'an, the rules of the elders are that the white tiger cannot overwhelm the green dragon, and the green dragon and the white tiger cannot stay at home.

Those millstones and grinding wheels cannot be placed in your own home. Otherwise, during the holidays, when people are sleeping in the house, they will hear the sound of millstones and weights turning.

According to the elders, this is the blue dragon and the white tiger thinking about people.

Since it has something to say, if you don’t put it in your own home, but put it in someone else’s home, others won’t be happy either.

If you live in a town, pay attention to transporting this thing out of the street (gāi), and then find a low-lying place to place it after walking a hundred steps out of the street.

As the Zhao family lives in the countryside, according to local custom, the green dragon faces east and the white tiger faces west. Therefore, generally the millstones are at the east end of Tuen and the weights are at the west end of Tun.

In this way, the car quickly left the village and walked for another three to five minutes to a poplar forest.

There was a ditch between the road and the edge of the woods. After Yang Yufeng got off the car, she stroked the edge of the ditch and looked at the poplar trees on the other side of the ditch from south to north.

On many of the poplar trees, there are marks left by axes and chisels, which are the marks left by the millstones placed by each household.

After Yang Yufeng walked 17 or 18 meters and stopped, Jie Chen, who was following behind, quickly stepped on the brakes, and then he and Zhao Jun both got out of the car.

When the two of them walked behind Yang Yufeng, when they saw the word "Shu" carved crookedly and loosely on the poplar tree, Zhao Jun and Jie Chen looked at each other and smiled silently.

At this time, Yang Yufeng stood facing the poplar tree, crossed her hands on her chest, muttered a few words with her eyes closed, and then called Zhao Jun and Jie Chen to go down the ditch.

The two of them went down into the ditch and pushed back the snow to reveal the millstone inside. Zhao Jun and Jie Chen could not lift this big millstone, but they could lift one side together.

After lifting the millstone, put the iron chain through the eyelet to tie the millstone and tie it behind the car.

The next step was simple. After the three of them got in the car, Jie Chen started the car and pulled the millstone back.

After entering the village, Zhao Jun got out of the trunk and followed the car back.

Along the way, Zhao Jun saw a young and strong man and asked him to follow him. The millstone could be pulled home by car, but it would have to be carried by someone to put it on top of the millstone.

"Xiao Jun!" When passing by Old Wei's house, Wei Tie, who was coming out of the hut, saw Zhao Jun and shouted, "What are you going to do?"

Before Zhao Jun could answer, Liu Hanshan answered for him: "Let's go, Tiezi, help Zhao Jun carry the millstone."

"Then wait while I get a pair of gloves!" Wei Tie said, running back to his yard, going to the warehouse to get a pair of gloves and coming out to join the team.

In this way, when Zhao Jun approached Zhang's house, eight people were already following him.

Seven of them, even if some were not invited by Zhao Jun, they were all recognized by him.

But there was only one person who looked at Zhao Jun and was stunned.

"Ouch!" Zhao Jun frowned, looked at the boy and asked, "Little brother, you don't go to school, what are you doing here?"

As soon as Zhao Jun finished speaking, Wei Tie laughed and said, "Isn't it right for my brother-in-law to help my brother-in-law work?"

The person who got into the crowd was Ma Yang. The boy wore his dog-skin hat crookedly and looked carefree.

When Zhao Jun asked him what he was doing here, Ma Yang glanced at Liu Hanshan next to him and said, "I just heard you call me Lao Zhu, my second brother, and you said you wanted to find someone strong to carry the millstone with you."

After saying this, Ma Yang slapped his chest with his backhand and said, "I will be a tough guy!"

Zhao Jun: "..."

Zhao Jun was speechless, and everyone laughed. Liu Hanshan pulled off the sleeve of his Ma Yang cotton-padded jacket and said with a smile: "Boy, your hair hasn't even grown yet. What a solid person you are!"

When Liu Hanshan said this, his laughter became even louder. Zhao Jun raised his hand to stop Ma Yang and said, "Go to school quickly. We are enough and we don't need you."

In front of outsiders, Ma Yang behaved well, said "Oh" and left.

Looking at his brother-in-law's retreating figure, Zhao Jun couldn't help but shake his head secretly. Are you still clamoring to take the college entrance examination just this day?

As Zhao Jun said, it is enough for these people to add him and the ministers to carry the millstone.

After putting the millstone back, Wang Meilan thanked everyone who had always helped. Zhao Jun also took a pack of Spring Festival cigarettes from Jie Chen, lit one for each person, and put one in each person's ear.

This time was different from the last time he fought with the old Gu family. It was completely normal for a rural person to help out by carrying the millstone.

When Zhao Jun went to ask for the millstone, Wang Meilan and the others were not idle here. After they tied the donkey up, they threw snow on the donkey.

This is not animal cruelty. After the snow is blown up, it is swept away with a broom.

This is removing ashes from the donkey. This method was thought up by Wang Meilan. She said that her father, Wang Dapapan, used to have a sable scarf. Every year when the snow fell, he would roll the scarf in the snow for the purpose of cleaning it.

This method is exactly the same as the way Northeastern people cleaned minks and woolen sweaters more than ten years later.

At this time, after the millstone was installed, Jin Xiaomei and Xu Chunyan took clean brooms and kept sweeping the millstone.

Yang Yufeng used a shovel to gather snow and spread it around the stone mill. This way, when the donkey turned back and forth, its hooves stepping on the snow would not bring up the dust on the ground.

Seeing this scene, the people who came to help were very surprised. Every family also makes sticky bean buns and grinds rhubarb rice every year, but they grind it manually. A big grind like this requires two people to push it.

"Huh?" At this time, Wei Tie asked Zhao Jun: "Did he buy this house from those two gangsters?"

"Yes." Zhao Jun nodded and said, "I bought it from Minister Li and Li Erchen."

They were all in the same village, how could Wei Tie not know who owned this house? His question just now was not important, and then Wei Tie pointed at the stone mill and said, "The two brothers live in Qianer, didn't they ask Qinglong to leave?"

"That's not the case." Zhao Jun said, "My brother Zhang invited them out after buying their house."

"Tsk!" After hearing Zhao Jun's words, a man named Zhu Changgui next to him smacked his lips and said: "This house in his house was bought by Mr. Li from the original Liu Da Lai. Before Liu Da Lai moved away. I remember clearly that they invited the millstone back and left after grinding all the grain for the family."

"Oh my god." As soon as Zhu Changgui finished speaking, Wei Tie laughed and said, "You have such a good memory. How many years has it been since Liu Da Cripple moved away?"

"Four years!" Zhu Changgui said: "It's not that I have a good memory, I just remembered that they ground the grain before they left, used the sledge to pull back the millstone, and asked me to move it with them."

After saying this, Zhu Changgui held his cigarette and rubbed the stone with his hand, and said, "After Mr. Li bought Liu Da Laizi's yard, he didn't ask for the millstone to go."

At this point, Zhu Changgui glanced around and then continued: "Look at Mr. Li, after buying this courtyard, it will be gone after the New Year. And his two sons, nothing happened in the past two years, right? "

After hearing what he said, everyone started talking. Some people say that millstones and millstones cannot be placed in homes. Others say that a few years ago, a family in Wynn Village covered an abandoned well with millstones. As a result, many animals in the village died inexplicably.

Later, Mrs. Han went to see it and asked the millstone to go away.

And it was because of this that Old Mrs. Han was punished.

The more everyone talked, the more mysterious it became, and the more Zhao Jun heard it, the more interesting it became. For the gunners who were attacking the besiegers, especially the big guys, nothing could touch them. Zhao Jun was not afraid of anything, but Zhao Jun still chose to believe in these things. Because in this way, when you brag to others, you can highlight your invulnerability to evil.

After smoking a cigarette, everyone who came to help ended the conversation and left one after another, except Liu Hanshan.

"Brother!" Wang Meilan saw that Liu Hanshan had something to do when he stayed, so she asked him, "What have you been busy with recently?"

Wang Meilan could still talk to Liu Hanshan's wife, but she couldn't talk to Liu Hanshan, so she thought of chatting about home affairs first. Unexpectedly, Wang Meilan got straight to the point with her opening words.

Hearing her question, Liu Hanshan smiled bitterly and said, "Oh, sister-in-law, I haven't done anything recently, I just sit around."

When winter comes, there is no work in the fields and there are many people staying in the countryside. But Liu Hanshan said "just let it go", which shows that he is dissatisfied with the status quo.

"Uncle Liu." Zhao Jun asked, "Aren't you going to let Du Chunjiang work?"

This Liu Hanshan used to work in Lengchang 77 and had a good relationship with Du Chunjiang and his younger brother Du Chunlin. The two of them even went to dig up hunting dogs killed in battle to skin and eat the meat, so Xu Changlin almost died with one shot.

Hearing Zhao Jun mention Du Chunjiang, Liu Hanshan shook his head and said: "I used to work at No. 77. Song Tiemin arranged it for me. Aren't I from our forest farm? Now the management is strict and no outsiders are allowed to be employed. , I won’t be able to survive this winter.”

Song Tiemin was Li Dayong's apprentice, and the two of them worked together when Zhao Jun returned to Lengchang in 77 Lengchang.

Song Tiemin's family is also in Yong'an Village, and it is normal for a relative from the village to arrange a temporary job for Liu Hanshan.

But starting from this year, you have to be a formal Guileng worker in the forest farm to work in Guileng, so Liu Hanshan is unemployed.

Speaking of which, this was all the fault of Dou Baoguo, who had a high profile as soon as he took office. It was said that Guileng was in danger and temporary workers could not be hired.

But Guileng is just lifting logs. Although there are some tricks to save effort in manual labor, these temporary workers are all locals in the forest area. Who doesn't know how to do this?

"Ah..." After hearing what Liu Hanshan said, Wang Meilan didn't dare to take the next step. She was afraid that Liu Hanshan would ask her to help him find a job. Wang Meilan didn't dare to make the decision.

Wang Meilan didn't speak, and Zhao Jun didn't say a word either. At this time, after scanning the stone, Jin Xiaomei saw some clues and came over from the side.

Jin Xiaomei's plan was that if Liu Hanshan made any excessive demands, she would help Wang Meilan to reject Liu Hanshan tactfully.

But when Jin Xiaomei walked behind Liu Hanshan, she heard him say to Wang Meilan: "Sister-in-law, you also know what is going on in my family. Our boss got married the year before last, and I even built him a house and married him, but it still caused hunger. Now my old man is seventeen, and we are about to get married, and I can’t afford to stay at home."

"Then brother..." Wang Meilan asked tentatively: "What are your plans?"

"What are my plans?" While talking, Liu Hanshan took the cigarette from Zhao Jun, took out a match, lit the cigarette, took a puff, and then said to Wang Meilan: "I'm thinking, if not, I'll buy a horse. I can also play tricks with them."

"Ah!" Upon hearing this, Wang Meilan's heart suddenly brightened. As Liu Hanshan said, the worst thing he could do was borrow money. Borrowing money would be easy for Wang Meilan.

Moreover, Wang Meilan, who lives in Tunli, knows that Liu Hanshan is not a deadbeat.

But then, Liu Hanshan said: "It turns out that I won the horse, and it's from Boss Su's family in Beiertun."

These days, the driver here is called boss.

Listening to what he said, whether it was Zhao Jun, Wang Meilan, or Jin Xiaomei, they really thought that Liu Hanshan wanted to take care of Wang Meilan's borrowing money.

But the problem is that even though Wang Meilan is the head of the family, the nominal head of the family is Zhao Youcai. Liu Hanshan is an old man. Even if he opens his mouth to borrow money, he should go to Zhao Youcai.

Now even if he asked Wang Meilan to borrow money, Wang Meilan would have to tell him that he had to go back to discuss with Zhao Youcai.

Because only in this way can Zhao Youcai's face be saved.

Liu Hanshan would not understand this truth.

But at this time, Liu Hanshan smiled bitterly and said: "The horse costs me fifteen hundred yuan. Let's pay for it... I went out with my wife to borrow it from someone, and Qiangba Huo got it together."

"Huh?" Zhao Jun, Wang Meilan, and Jin Xiaomei were all stunned when they heard this, and looked at Liu Hanshan in confusion.

Since he said he had raised the money, it was not a loan. If you don't want to borrow money, why are you talking about this?

At this time, Liu Hanshan half turned his head, glanced at Jin Xiaomei, and then said: "That's right, Ru Hai gave me the ride to buy this horse. He wanted to withdraw 80 yuan, and after all the money... I feel really bad now." I can’t make it.”

Zhao Jun, Wang Meilan, Jin Xiaomei: "..."