Chapter 205 Sudden News
After entering the house to warm up for a while, the two took grain and bean dregs to feed the livestock.
Lin Heng fed the last bit of bean dregs to the female forest musk deer, and then returned to the house with a bundle of half-dried twigs. Although the wood is not completely dry, it is no problem for burning.
There are a lot of Xiulan's washed lotus roots in the kitchen, and the lotus root powder he made yesterday has also precipitated. He only needs to dry it in the sun before drinking it.
The taste of lotus root powder is better than that of kudzu root powder, and the effects of drinking it are also different.
Xiulan started cooking. Lin Heng glanced at the snowflakes still flying outside, went to the back mountain and took two dry maple logs with a diameter of 30 and a half centimeters and brought them into the house.
Seeing him come back from getting wood, Xiulan, who was cooking in the kitchen, asked curiously: "What are you going to do?"
Lin Heng smiled slightly and said: "I guess I won't be able to go out today. I just took the time to make a wooden horse for Xiaoxia to play with.”
This thing is easy to make and he can easily make it without drawings.
Hearing this, Xiulan smiled slightly: "Just pamper her."
Lin Heng placed the wood on the 'horse's foot' and peeled off the bark with a knife, revealing the light yellow wood inside.
After peeling off the tree bark and almost cooking Xiulan rice, Lin Heng went to wake Xiaoxia up, dress her and wash her, and then the family of three had breakfast together.
Breakfast was relatively simple pickled cabbage noodles, but it tasted good. After eating, the snow outside did not stop, and Lin Heng was ready to continue his work.
He ran to his father to borrow carpenter tools. When he saw his father and elder brother taking a chainsaw and an ax and preparing to go up the mountain, he couldn't help but curious: "Dad, elder brother, what are you going to do?"
Lin Yue responded with a smile: "Go and burn charcoal. Even if you don't sell it, you can use it at home."
Father Lin also nodded: "Yes, there is nothing to do these days anyway, and the charcoal kiln before has not collapsed, so it can be used directly."
"You really have no time to spare."< br>
When Lin Heng looked at his mother, he obviously wanted to go to the mountain to burn charcoal together.
In this era, villagers here would burn charcoal every winter. It was not only for their own use, but could also be used to sell it for money, which was also a source of income.
Every morning you can see thick white smoke rising from some hills, which is the smoke coming from the charcoal kiln.
The Lin family is now rich, and there is no need to burn charcoal, but Lin's eldest brother is obviously someone who can't sit still.
"What did you come here for?" Father Lin asked. He knew that Lin Heng could not have come here to go up the mountain with them.
Lin Heng looked at his father and said: "When you go up the mountain, help me open some boards first, and then lend me the wood chisel and pusher."
Lin Heng will give it to Xiao. Kasumi told everyone about making a wooden horse.
“That’s okay.”
Father Lin did not refuse. He turned around and got some tools for Lin Heng. He then took the chain saw to open some boards for Lin Heng and then took his eldest son Lin Yue and his wife Lu Hongmei up the mountain.
Lin Heng didn’t come together, and he really wasn’t interested in such heavy snow.
After setting up a charcoal fire, Xiulan watched Xiaoxia knit a sweater while Xiaoxia played with Xiongba and Jinbao with toys.
Jinbao is now a bit bigger than the average civet cat, with golden-red hair. Sitting there slumped there, he is about the same size as Xiaoxia, giving him the feeling of a bobcat.
But it is too lazy. Apart from playing with Xiaoxia, it takes naps and sleeps. It is only active when eating.
Jinbao has a pretty good personality. Although he doesn't cut his nails, he never stretches out his paws when playing with Xiaoxia. When he is teased, he puts his mouth around her little hand and has no intention of biting it.
It always had a very cold attitude toward Lin Heng. It would only come over and nuzzle Lin Heng when he was holding something to eat.
Xiulan is very obedient. Sometimes she will sleep on its lap and let her caress her. Sometimes when she is in a good mood, she will catch a mouse and bring it back to show off her skills.
Lin Heng was doing carpentry work with his head down, and would say a few words to Xiulan from time to time.
He used a wooden clipper to smooth out the board that his father had cut, and then used fixed-point circles to make two lone guide rails. He also made some rungs and spent a morning working on the wooden horse. The arc base and horse legs are all made.
Originally, the body of the wooden horse could be made simply from wooden boards, but Lin Heng felt that it would not demonstrate his skills, so he decided to use a section of maple wood to carve a horse body and head similar to the real one.
It snowed less at noon and not heavily in the afternoon, but the weather got a lot colder. The winter of this era was much colder than that of later generations.
It was already past five o'clock in the blink of an eye, and it was getting dark. Lin Heng felt a little embarrassed looking at the wooden horse that he had carved in front of him all day long.
But it has already come to this point, and he can only continue. Xiulan went to make dinner while he continued carving the wooden horse.
After dinner, he went to his father to get some carpenter tools and asked about them.
I learned that Father Lin and the others had sawed nearly a thousand acorn trees today and were preparing to burn charcoal tomorrow if the snow was not heavy.
Father Lin sighed with emotion: "Actually, I only wanted to burn charcoal with a chain saw. This thing is so fast. I finished the work of the past ten days in one day."
He needed to chop. It takes two or three minutes to cut a tree, but it only takes five seconds with a chain saw, which is much more efficient. The originally tiring work of burning charcoal is now very easy with a chain saw.
"Then you can burn it slowly."
Lin Heng smiled slightly. He knew that his father was someone who couldn't take any time off.
After chatting for a few words, he went back home and continued making the wooden horse. He didn't stop to tell Xiaoxia a story until she was about to take a rest.
After going to bed, Xiulan rested against him as always. The two lingered for a while, then slowly fell asleep.
The snow stopped falling early the next morning, but it was completely white outside, with more than ten centimeters of snow accumulated on the ground. It had obviously fallen all night.
Every snowy morning is always quiet, even the sparrows that always chirp are gone. Exercising with Xiulan in such heavy snow feels like two people dancing together, as if every move is in response to each other.
After exercising, Xiulan went to cook as usual, and Lin Heng continued carving his wooden horse.
After half a day's hard work yesterday, the rough outline has now come out. It doesn't look pretty, it's even a little ugly, but at least it looks like a horse.
No way, this is Lin Heng’s first time doing it, so it’s unrealistic to expect him to do the same as the master sculptor.
"Dad~"
Lin Heng was doing carving when he saw Xiaoxia running out of the bedroom in her pajamas, rubbing her eyes.
“You don’t even have any clothes on!”
Lin Heng quickly carried her back to the house, fearing that she would catch a cold.
“I wet the bed, Dad!”
Xiaoxia said a little scared in Lin Heng’s arms.
When Lin Heng touched his daughter's pants, they were all wet, and he immediately understood why she woke up.
Xiaoxia's expression was very remorseful. She knew bedwetting was bad.
Lin Heng did not scold her, but smiled and kissed her: "It's okay, just try your best not to wet the bed next time. When Xiaoxia stops wetting the bed, she will be a little adult."
Lin Heng didn't want to do it because of her. He would punish her if she wet the bed. He thought that Xiaoxia didn't wet the bed because she didn't want to wet the bed, rather than passively not wetting the bed because she was afraid of being beaten or punished.
While changing Xiaoxia's clothes, Lin Heng told her about Xiulan's hardships in washing diapers, the benefits of not wetting the bed, etc.
After changing clothes, Xiaoxia walked to the kitchen by herself, lowered her head and apologized to Xiulan in a milky voice: "I'm sorry, mom, I won't wet the bed next time."
Xiu Lan Lan looked at her and showed a bright smile: "I believe you."
Xiulan was cooking, and Xiaoxia was following her. After dinner, when Xiulan was washing clothes and quilts, Xiaoxia was squatting next to her and wanted to help. She seemed to feel even more guilty when she felt how cold the water was in winter.
In the afternoon, Lin Heng finally finished the wooden horse. Although it was ugly, it was completely ready to ride. Lin Heng tried it himself, and there was no problem at all.
"Xiaoxia, I want to give you something."
Lin Heng called Xiaoxia over. "What is this?"
Xiaoxia opened her eyes wide and looked at the ugly and silly Trojan horse in front of her, and asked curiously.
"This is the horse I made for Xiaoxia. After riding it, Xiaoxia can no longer wet the bed."
Lin Heng said with a smile while showing it to Xiaoxia. Again.
Then he put Xiaoxia on it. When Xiaoxia grabbed the wooden handle on the horse's head and shook it, she laughed happily like a silver bell after a while.
Seeing Xiaoxia having so much fun, Lin Heng couldn't help but smile and turned to look at Xiulan: "How about it, am I doing well?"
"Except for being ugly, everything else is good. It was a great success the first time I did it." Xiulan said with a smile, and her evaluation was very true.
These words made Lin Heng grin and walk over to warm himself by the fire, watching Xiaoxia play with the wooden horse.
After resting for a while, Xiulan asked Lin Heng to sweep the snow in the yard outside. She wanted to do this job with Lin Heng, so she didn't sweep it today.
“Let’s just pile the swept snow into a snowman.”
Lin Heng said with a slight smile.
Xiulan looked at him and blinked: "Look at you!"
"Let's do it."
Lin Heng shoveled the snow and piled it against the wall. Sweep the bluestone floor again with the broom and it will be revealed.
The snow gathered together, and Lin Heng simply made three snowmen, two large and one small, and used branches to make arms and five features.
"How about it? Does it look good?" Lin Heng turned around and asked with a smile.
Xiulan blinked and smiled: "It's so ugly."
She walked over and adjusted it herself, but it was still ugly, but she persisted: "It looks much better than before."
Lin Heng laughed and found it interesting.
After watching the snowman for a while, the two returned to the house. After dinner, Xiaoxia was still playing with the wooden horse. She loved this new toy so much that she stopped playing with the tumbler and the car.
The sun came out the next day, the ice and snow melted and it was extremely cold. After lunch, Lin Heng went up the mountain to help pick up carbon.
Charcoal burning is very simple, just saw the firewood into short pieces and place them vertically in the earth kiln. After lighting the fire, it will burn for a day and night, releasing thick white smoke.
When the thick smoke gradually dissipates, it means that the tree wood has been burned and turned into charcoal.
There are two ways to make charcoal at this time. One is to seal all the smoke outlets of the earth kiln to isolate oxygen, and wait for the charcoal to cool naturally.
But they generally don't use this method here. Instead, they directly take out the red charcoal and bury it in the moist soil. Otherwise, it will be completely extinguished in an hour or two.
Because it absorbs moisture, it is more difficult for the charcoal to burn again, making it less likely to cause fire.
Father Lin looked at Lin Heng and said, "Lin Heng, just carry the basket of charcoal on your back and use it yourself."
"Okay!"
Lin Heng usually doesn't use charcoal fire, but he doesn't. I refuse, it’s still very good for barbecue or something.
Back in the house, Lin Heng looked at the calendar. Tomorrow is January 10th, the ninth day of the twelfth lunar month.
Lin Heng remembered what Uncle Gao said and told Xiulan that he would get up early to go to Huangtan Town tomorrow morning.
Xiulan thought she had no opinion on this.
Lin Heng looked at Xiulan and her daughter and said with a smile: "I will take you to play on the street on the ninth day of the Lunar New Year. The street should be very lively as the New Year approaches."
"Okay."
Xiulan Arrow agreed, she hadn’t been on the street for a long time.
In the evening, the three of us just ate a piece of cabbage, boiled vermicelli and braised pork and rested.
"Dong dong dong!! Open the door!!"
Early the next morning, before dawn at around six o'clock, there was a knock on the door.
“What’s going on?”
“The voice seems to belong to Liu Changgen, let’s go out and have a look!”
Xiulan and Lin Heng were both awakened, and they Everyone was a little unhappy, so they could only put on their clothes and go out to take a look.
When they opened the gate of the courtyard, they saw Liu Changgen standing at the door wearing a sackcloth and mourning. They were both shocked for a moment.
Before the two of them could speak, Liu Changgen knelt down and kowtowed three times: "Lin Heng, Chen Xiulan, my father has passed away, please help me!"
Liu Changgen is Liu Lan My husband, Liu Sanye, often smokes under the ginkgo tree in the village.
"Mr. Liu is gone?"
Lin Heng was stunned and couldn't believe it. He felt very tough when he saw this old man a few days ago. Why did he suddenly pass?
Liu Changgen had a trace of haggard on his face: "He suddenly started vomiting in the middle of the night, and finally stopped after five o'clock. He said he wanted to drink sweet wine, so I got him a bowl of sweet wine, but he suddenly gave up after taking a sip."
Liu Changgen was not very kind to his father before, so he felt so lost only when the old man passed away suddenly.
After understanding the situation, Lin Heng nodded and said: "I will go over to help later."
The so-called red lion will not come without invitation, and the white thing will come without invitation. This kind of thing is the rule in the village No one can shirk it.
"Thank you very much." Liu Changgen said, then turned around and went to other houses to invite people.
"The world is so unpredictable."
After the others left, Lin Heng sighed, feeling that people were too insignificant.
Xiulan took Lin Heng's hand, looked at him and asked: "Should we both go to help?"
"One person is enough. There are many people in the village and there is no shortage of people. . Let’s do this, I’ll go help, and you can just take Xiaoxia to give her a gift.”
Lin Heng looked at her and said.
Now he is just asking for help. The official business should be tomorrow or the day after tomorrow. There is no need to rush, and it will not delay him from going to town.
"Okay." Xiulan nodded.
After discussing it, Lin Heng went to tell his parents and eldest brother, and they were all invited.
After discussing it, Lin Heng and his eldest brother decided to help pour wine, Lin's father would help boil water, and Lin's mother would help wash the vegetables.
Father Lin said again: "As long as Lin Heng and your eldest brother give them to you, we won't give them to you."
Although they are divided into three families now, there will definitely only be two in the future.
"Okay." Lin Heng was indifferent to this. In this era, gifts in rural areas were mostly given by food or sugar. It was not until the 1990s that money began to be given.
A little food is nothing to the Lin family now.
After finishing it, Lin Heng rode to Huangtan Town. He originally wanted to take Caiyun with him, but she said it was too early and wanted to leave by herself, so Lin Heng did not force it.
(End of this chapter)