Reborn in a small village in the 1990s

Chapter 235

Zhao Da'e slept soundly and woke up at 6:40 in the morning.

The village of Jurenzhangzi was in chaos. Zhou Chunwen had gotten up early and gone out to gossip. He was just coming back to report the gossip to Zhao Da'e: "Da'e, Da'e, we're doomed, the police station really came."

Zhao Da'e doesn't care, what can he do if someone comes?

Everything should be based on evidence, shouldn't it?

Zhao Da'e lazily put on her clothes, then started washing her hair with warm water. It was cold winter, and Zhao Da'e hadn't washed her hair for four or five days. This was quite annoying.

Although people's hair is healthier these days, it still can't withstand going several days without washing it. But the winters are just too cold; an air-conditioned house would be wonderful. However, even central heating is a struggle these days, and air conditioners aren't even widely available yet.

And I didn't buy any shampoo, I just washed my hair with soap, and the more I washed it, the more frizzy my hair became.

"What a piece of junk! This soap is no good for washing my hair!" Zhao Da'e said angrily.

I rinsed it with water several more times before my hair finally became less dry.

After his hair dried, Zhao Da'e listened lazily to Zhou Chunwen's gossip.

There are no secrets that can be kept in the village; the gossipy village women already know everything.

"They said a bad guy broke into Accountant Yao's house last night. He used the gunpowder from firecrackers to shatter the windows and mirrors on the walls. And that's not all; Accountant Yao's donkey was so frightened it miscarried, and the foal died. The dog is now insane and biting people everywhere. Then Accountant Yao's rabid dog bit his wife..."

"And then?" Zhao Da'e asked calmly.

"Then Accountant Yao called the police. The police went door-to-door to find out who did the bad thing last night," Zhou Chunwen said, pursing his lips.

"Anyway, everyone in the village is saying that your uncle did this bad thing, because yesterday your uncle got into a fight with Accountant Yao, so it was obviously retaliation."

Zhao Da'e didn't take it seriously: "Go back to my backyard and collect branches today. It wasn't your dad who did it, so they can't do anything about it."

Zhao Da'e wasn't worried at all. After all, these kinds of things require evidence, and besides, it wasn't a big deal. The glass was broken, the mirror was broken, the dog went crazy, but everyone was fine afterward. Accountant Yao's wife was still bitten by her own dog—whose fault was it?

Zhou Chunwen said "Oh," and asked cautiously, "Are you really alright?"

Zhao Da'e nodded firmly: "It's alright. Business is important, let's get ready, eat, and then go gather firewood. Oh, right..."

Zhao Da'e paused for a moment, then said, "In a little while, let's go deliver a pane of glass to Accountant Yao. Her window has been broken twice in the past two weeks. She doesn't have much left, and it'll probably cost three or five hundred yuan to fix... You all live in the same village, and a close neighbor is worse than a distant relative. It would be better to send a small gift when your neighbor is down on their luck... Even though it's just a pane of glass, it's a small gift but a big sentiment, right?"

Zhou Chunwen's forehead wrinkles instantly appeared: "Hiss... Big Goose, I think if we go to deliver the glass, it's no different from yelling at him to his face... We won't get beaten up, will we?!"

"Oh dear, sister. Isn't this exactly what you wanted—to get beaten up?" Zhao Da'e chuckled. "Accountant Yao didn't catch us setting off firecrackers, but if he were to hit you in front of us, you could immediately lie down on the ground and start extorting money from him. You could extort him until he's bankrupt..."

Zhou Chunwen scoffed at Zhao D'e's dangerous idea: "D'e, I advise you to be kind."

Zhao Da'e: ? ? ?

Zhou Chunwen added, "My family has limited glass, how could I possibly deliver it to Accountant Yao? At most, I could bring some plastic sheeting. In this freezing weather, his house doesn't even have a window to keep out the wind and rain. As the most hospitable person in the village, I should bring him some warmth..."

Zhou Chunwen didn't have any "bad intentions." She just "naively" thought that since Accountant Yao's house windows were all broken and it was too cold to sleep, what good would sending a new window do?

It would be more economical to give Accountant Yao a piece of plastic sheeting to shelter her home from the wind and rain...

Zhou Chunwen then told Cheng Jinxi about his plan to send Accountant Yao a piece of plastic sheeting.

Cheng Jinxi instantly glared angrily: "Are you crazy? You'll freeze that bastard Yao Laonian to death! He's full of bad intentions. Your father used to help him a lot with chores, and the wall of his house was built by your father a couple of years ago. That ingrate, full of bad intentions. He doesn't do any decent work. And you, what the hell, did you have to bring him plastic sheeting? You wouldn't even give him firewood."

Zhou Chunwen had no choice but to explain, "Mom, I was just thinking of going over there to give him a piece of my mind and add fuel to the fire! Who said I was going to bring him any good plastic sheeting? How about this, I'll take two of those old urea bags that we don't need anymore and go over there to piss him off."

"No. There's no urea bag either." Cheng Jinxi said unhappily, "I'm already being lenient by not going over and yelling at him. Whoever set off firecrackers at his house deserves it."

Cheng Jinxi naturally had no idea that it was her eldest son and Zhao Da'e who set off the firecrackers for their family.

After all, Cheng Jinxi didn't even know that Zhao Da'e had firecrackers.

Although firecrackers aren't strictly controlled items, they're expensive. Cheng Jinxi went out this morning and heard that Accountant Yao's family had over two hundred firecrackers set off, causing a huge explosion.

The glass was broken, the window was teetering, and the walls were blackened. Accountant Yao herself is still hard of hearing.

After hearing the gossip, Cheng Jinxi felt incredibly pleased: "Great! That family of ungrateful wretches will be utterly annihilated!"

Jurenzhangzi Village is small, far smaller than Dongtaizi Village. The entire village is a tiny hamlet nestled in a mountain valley, with only about a hundred households. And they are extremely poor.

Compared to Dongtaizi Village, Jurenzhangzi is only the size of a small group. Moreover, it's surrounded by mountains with very little land. Even if someone clears land on the hillside to grow corn or something similar, the yield is pitifully low. Further in from Jurenzhangzi, deeper into the mountains, are a few households called Wenjiagou and Erbuchi.

Just listen to these two place names, and you'll know that place is even more outrageous—deep in the mountains.

There are only about a hundred households in the village, and we all see each other all the time, so we should look out for each other. Building houses in the village is difficult because transportation is a hassle; even the beams are carried by hand.

For example, at Accountant Yao's house, bricks had to be hauled up by donkey cart; it was incredibly difficult. Zhou Yuren also went to help.

Zhou Yuren was one of the few bricklayers in the village, and a very versatile one at that. There's actually a lot to learn in this field. For example, bricklaying can be done in various ways, such as 2/4, 3/7, or with stone, mud, and so on. It looks simple, but it's incredibly difficult in practice.

Moreover, walls can't all be straight; the real skill lies in the curves and corners. Zhou Yuren is an all-rounder; when building houses in the village, he's the one who handles the corners and edges.

This is how you build a wall: if the edges and corners fit properly, there won't be any problems building the middle. In this era, there were no centimeter rulers, measuring instruments, or infrared sensors; everything was done by sight. For a wall three or four meters high, the error couldn't exceed one centimeter…

This is actually extremely difficult.

Without the aid of modern technology, building a house that is properly constructed, with neat walls, and capable of lasting for a hundred or two hundred years is indeed a remarkable feat, and Zhou Yuren was the most skilled in this regard in Jurenzhangzi Village. Moreover, when Accountant Yao built the house, Zhou Yuren was a helper; he was only provided with meals and not paid a single penny.

The two families weren't particularly close, but Zhou Yuren figured that since Accountant Yao was the village accountant, he might need to trouble him in the future, so he did the work for free. Conversely, when Zhou Yuren built his house, Accountant Yao didn't come.

Human relationships are based on mutual exchange; without such exchanges, there are no human relationships to speak of.

In addition, because of the issue of Zhou Yuren stealing the stove, Accountant Yao actually tried to extort money from Zhou Yuren, so the entire Zhou family looked down on Accountant Yao.

There were many things happening one after another, but this time Cheng Jinxi was particularly pleased to see that Accountant Yao's house had been blown up with firecrackers.

No matter what, this kind of trash deserves to die!!!

Let's talk about yesterday.

Zhou Chunhong had a stutter and was a very self-conscious child. When she was bitten by a wolf, Cheng Jinxi only complained briefly and didn't say anything. However, when she saw that someone in Dongtaizi Village had been bitten, and the other village held a funeral for them, the difference in treatment was immediately striking.

However, Zhou Yuren later asked the village for some compensation, but the old village chief couldn't make the decision on his own, so he held a meeting.

Actually, it doesn't matter whether you supplement it or not.

If the village provides some compensation, it would be considered generous. It's fine if they don't, since it was an unexpected event. It's not a big deal.

The problem is that Accountant Yao is too mean; she insisted on giving Zhou Yuren two jin of buckwheat as compensation, just to annoy him. And her words were all sarcastic, implying that Zhou Yuren couldn't afford to live and was trying to extort money from the village.

As a result, the two started arguing at the village office. Later, the argument escalated and they started fighting.

Fortunately, there were many people present, otherwise a fight would have broken out.

No matter what, Accountant Yao is a village official, yet he has no manners at all and got into a fight with the villagers. Isn't that a sign of disrespecting Zhou Yuren?

Cheng Jinxi was naturally seething with anger, but had nowhere to vent it.

Hearing Zhou Chunwen say that made me feel quite uncomfortable.

"Stop staring at him! If I had firecrackers, I'd go to his house and set them off! I'd scare him to death!!!"

Zhou Chunwen looked embarrassed: Hehe.

Zhou Chunwen dared not say: "Mom, we were the ones who set off those firecrackers!!!"

She had no choice but to say, "Then I won't take anything. I'll just go watch the excitement, okay?"

"Hmph! Go ahead, the more excitement they cause, the better!"

Zhou Chunwen then went out with Zhao Da'e.

Zhao Da'e suddenly felt that maybe he had gone a bit too far last night. After all, Accountant Yao hadn't killed anyone or set fires, but he and Zhou Tianfu had already raided his house twice.

But there is nothing we can do about it.

If this happened in Old Zhao's family, it would be much easier to resolve. Just call some relatives from the village, get a group of uncles and elders to judge the matter, and Accountant Yao would probably be scared out of his wits.

Of course, with so many people in the Zhao family in Dongtaizi Village, the village chief is usually a member of the Zhao family, so this kind of thing doesn't usually happen.

In the village of Jurenzhangzi, Zhou Yuren's family consisted of only two brothers, making them isolated and vulnerable. The reason Zhou Yuren introduced his sister-in-law to the Zhao family was precisely because he was alone and vulnerable; in case of any trouble, big or small, he might have someone to help him.

Everyone has a degree of selfishness to some extent. When Zhou Yuren initially introduced Zhao Tiesheng to potential partners, acting as matchmaker, it's unlikely he was simply looking at Zhao Tiesheng as a person. He was probably also considering the Zhao family's large and powerful presence in Dongtai Village.

Of course, Zhou Yuren probably didn't expect that Zhao Tiesheng wouldn't be very inspiring.

However, Zhao Da'e was very inspiring.

At least Zhao Da'e felt that since his aunt's family was having a falling out with the villagers, and his own father couldn't handle it, he had to step in. He had to at least stand up for them.

Otherwise, that would be truly heartless.

Moreover, this Accountant Yao does have some issues. We're all from the same village, yet he acts so erratically. In general, even someone as strong-willed as Zhao Tingming tries his best not to make enemies in village matters.

It is said that it is better to resolve enmity than to create it.

Accountant Yao always makes a big deal out of small things, as if she wants to stir up trouble. This kind of person is truly despicable.

After thinking about it, Zhao Da'e realized that it seemed like he was right to deal with Accountant Yao these past two days.

Her mood naturally calmed down a bit. At least Zhao Da'e had found herself a righteous excuse, which made her feel much better when doing things this way.

The two men went outside and ran to the cardboard boxes that Zhou Yuren's house used to line the chicken coop with. No matter how much chicken droppings were on them before, they were dry now.

Zhou Yuren's chickens were long gone; several died of fowl plague, and a few were stolen by weasels, leaving none. Later, Cheng Jinxi simply threw the tattered cardboard lining the chicken coop out the doorway.

Zhao Da'e and Zhou Chunwen took the bag and headed straight for Accountant Yao's house.

Accountant Yao is actually not young anymore, he's over forty, and his wife is a fat woman, a big, burly old lady.

Zhou Chunwen and Zhao Dage arrived at Accountant Yao's house. A group of villagers had gathered in front of his house, several layers deep. There was also a police car parked in front of the house.

It seems the police had only just arrived.

Zhou Chunwen was just watching the commotion, but he didn't get close. He only heard from afar that Accountant Yao was blown up by firecrackers last night.

Zhou Chunwen naturally knew that Zhao Da'e was responsible, but she was actually very clever. She pretended not to know and didn't even tell her parents. Even though Zhou Chunhong and the others slept in the same room, Zhou Chunwen didn't say anything.

Although they were all family members, Zhou Chunwen was sometimes worried that those few might not keep their mouths shut. What if they accidentally let something slip? Zhao Da'e had helped his family do something bad, and what if one of them suddenly blurted out, "Oh, Zhao Da'e did what accountant Yao did"?

Wouldn't that just cause trouble for the geese?

Too many people, too many opinions.

The safest thing is when no one knows about it.