CH 59

May 31 2022

This is not Luo Jiao’s roar! It was a slightly fat ger in dark clothes who yelled out. He was standing not far behind Qiu Da and Luo Jiao.

“Wi … wife …”

Qiu Da never thought that he would be caught by his wife while cheating on him. You must know that adultery is not at all acceptable! If Li Zheng found out, he didn’t know how he would be dealt with! Qiu Da was panicking, but he saw that Luo Jiao who was putting on clothes anxiously, he immediately calmed down and pointed at Luo Jiao with a righteous and awe-inspiring look on his face, “It’s this bastard who seduced me! I didn’t want to, he took off his clothes and kept insisting!”

Out of the two, Qiu Da was already dressed, only Luo Jiao was still putting on clothes in a panic, seeing Da Qiu’s spouting shameless nonsense, Luo Jiao was angry! He hurriedly dressed with trembling hands ans looked at Qiu Da who refused to admit his account with hatred in his eyes.

“I’m a bastard? Qiu Da, you’re really good! There’s no way anyone can survive today. Even if I, Luo Jiao, die, I’ll pull you along!”

Qiu Da’s wife listened to the words of the two of them biting each other like a dog, he bit his lips and wept. He was really disappointed with Qiu Da.

***

When Li Changfeng and Xu Qing were having breakfast the next morning, they received a message from a child in the village that everyone is called to gather in the village’s ancestral hall this afternoon.

While giving a snack to the child who came to pass the message, Xu Qing asked tentatively, “What happened? So urgent.” He has not yet participated in the villagers’ meeting after being here for so long.

The child took the snack that he seldom gets to eat and felt that the “ugly ger” in front of him was not ugly at all, and he was very gentle, so he replied: “let me tell you, they want to drive out the two who are destroying the reputation of our village.” After saying that, he jumped and left. Originally, it was not him who was supposed to come here, but no one else wanted to, so he ran over, hee hee, looking at the snack in his hand, he smiled with a small mouth, what a fruitful day!

“Drive out?”

Xu Qing didn’t pay attention to the destruction of the village’s reputation, but was a little surprised that someone would be driven out of the village. In such a time and space, the village is the root of the peasant families, and they will not leave the village unless it is absolutely necessary.

Li Changfeng scooped a bowl of pork bone soup for Xu Qing, and carefully blew the heat for him, “In order not to affect the reputation of unmarried men and gers in the village, only by driving this kind of person away can we save the face and interests of the entire village.”

If you have a bad reputation, even if you go to town to sell vegetables, you will be drowned with saliva.

Xu Qing took the bone soup and looked at Li Changfeng with a half-smile, “You know this very well.” Li Changfeng didn’t say a word, just continued to put vegetables in Xu Qing’s bowl.

When Xu Qing and Li Changfeng arrived at the ancestral hall unhurriedly, the place was already overcrowded. Xie Ama saw Xu Qing from a distance, squeezed the crowd and came to the two of them, “you are pregnant, don’t go inside. Let’s hang out here together and listen for a while, it’s all about pickling anyway.”

Xie Ama’s tone of disgust came out immediately. Xu Qing had never heard Xie Aman speak in such a tone of voice, “What’s really going on?”

“Lizheng is here, just listen, don’t join in the fun.” Xie Ama was afraid that Xu Qing would not listen to the persuasion, so he held Xu Qing with one hand, for fear that he would forget that he was now responsible for the bodies of two people.

When Li Zheng came with several respectable elders, the crowd that had been talking non-stop immediately fell silent. Li Zheng had a serious look on his face, stood on the high platform and walked back and forth a few steps, “To call everyone today, what I want to say is not the good thing for our village but a matter that brings shame to the whole village!

After hearing such obvious words, the people below began to get restless.

Some gers started to whisper: “I heard that it is the Zhang family!”

“As soon as that person married into our village, I knew he was not a good thing!”

“Isn’t it!”

The men, however, were talking saying: “Tsk tsk, that kid Da Qiu is really capable!”

“That’s not it, such a ger completely ruined him.”

“But one hand cannot make a clap; these two are not good things!”

“Silence! Silence!”

Li Zheng saw that the voice below was getting louder and louder, so he had to shout.

“Come, bring those two shameless things for me!”

As soon as the villagers heard Li Zheng’s words, they saw two strong villagers brought the tied-up Luo Jiao and Qiu Da out. Everyone lowered their heads and whispered to each other.

“Cough, everyone, be quiet!”

Li Zheng waited for people below to not make a sound before continuing with a look of grief: “Because of the misconduct of these two people, the innocent reputation of our village has been ruined for generations! The unmarried gers from our village, how can you have face to go to other villages to get married!”

“That’s right! Isn’t my son the only one who has been discussing marriage in the past few years!” A plump Ama called out immediately, and at first glance, he was in a hurry.

“Yes! You can’t spare them lightly!”

“No! No!”

Slowly, the villagers began to shout loudly, and Li Zheng was very tired, “Quiet! Quiet! So for the reputation and interests of our entire village, I have discussed with a few clan elders and decided to drive Qiu Da and Luo Jiao out of the village and never allow to come back!”

Xu Qing heard some cheers and some sighs from the villagers in his ears, and looked at Luo Jiao and Qiu Da who were gagged. Qiu Da was anxious and desperate, struggling to break free. He knelt down in front of the crowd and kept kowtowing, hoping that they would change their decision.

Luo Jiao looked at Qiu Da’s behavior with a sneer, his face was numb, he turned his head to the gate of the ancestral hall, with a little hope in his eyes. He was arrested last night, and Zhang Ming came to see him. Originally, Zhang Ming did not believe his wife would do such a thing, but in the end, he was faced with a bloody reality.

Finally, the disheartened Zhang Ming left in a hurry, and Da Qiu’s wife directly gave Da Qi a letter of separation and left. There was no need for Da Qi to sign it, because it was decided after discussion among the clan elders. As for Qiu Da’s house and fields, he will have to handle all by himself – go to the yamen to cancel his household registration.

When Xu Qing and the others were about to leave, Zhang Ming with a haggard face appeared, “that’s Zhang Ming.” Li Changfeng lowered his head and said in Xu Qing’s ear, Xu Qing looked at Zhang Ming’s face and found that it was the one who mocked him together with a fat man on the road. He still remembered Zhang Ming saying that he made a bet with the people from the next village to see whether Xu Qing would look good after so many years, or if he would still by the ugly ger. At that time, he heard the fat man mention Zhang Ming enviously: the longer the he looked at his wife, the better-looking the person was, but he never thought that his wife was Luo Jiao.

Zhang Ming walked to Luo Jiao who was kneeling on the ground step by step, looked at Luo Jiao for a while, and then took out a piece of paper from his arms, Luo Jiao didn’t even look, “Divorce? Yes, it’s time to get a divorce with me, that’s right.” It was his family’s decision to let him marry Zhang Ming, and Luo Jiao didn’t like Zhang Ming in the first place, so he did such things behind his back, and that’s what happened last night. After they came to this stage, Luo Jiao felt that Zhang Ming really never mistreated him.

Zhang Ming’s red and swollen eyes were almost unable to open, and when he heard Luo Jiao’s self-deprecating words, he twitched the corners of his mouth, “No, it’s a letter of separation, in the end, I’m still reluctant to write a letter of divorce for you, you … take care.” After he finished speaking, he bowed to Li Zheng and the clan elders, then dragged his tired body and left.

Luo Jiao looked down at separation letter, and then looked up at Zhang Ming’s leaving back, his heart throbbing, “I’m sorry, I’m really sorry.” No matter how much tears he shed, he couldn’t hold back the one who was hurt so much by him. He really was ruthless.

***

When Li Changfeng and Xu Qing returned home, Xu Qing was inexplicably melancholy.

“What’s wrong? You look depressed.” Li Changfeng poured Xu Qing a bowl of warm water, and seeing the listless appearance, he asked worriedly.

Xu Qing took the water and drank a little, then sighed, “I didn’t expect Zhang Ming to treat Luo Jiao so well. No matter what, in the end, he still couldn’t bear to give a divorce letter.”

At this point, Xu Qing completely forgave Zhang Ming’s previous rudeness.

“People have to live with their own sins, don’t think about them. Just think about rebuilding our house, take advantage of the fact that there is less work and more people available after the spring plowing these days. It’d be faster to build, and when the weather gets cold, you can hide at home comfortably.”

Xu Qing immediately put the matter of Luo Jiao aside, and he excitedly gestured with the branch on the ground, “I think so, we will build a large green tile houses, as well as a large livestock compound, one woodshed, a big kitchen, and the bath! …”

Li Changfeng listened to Xu Qing’s excited words without a trace of impatience, even when Xu Qing mentioned planting peach trees in the courtyard, he did not immediately object.

“No, mulberry is planted in the front, no willow is planted in the back, and “ghost clap hands” (also called “executioner”) are not planted in the courtyard. This “executioner” refers to the peach trees.

Because peach blossoms, peach branches, and peach trees are all blood-red, all the ghouls and ghosts are willing to live on the peach trees, so people dare not plant them in the courtyard, and often, people would say “peach wood wards off evil spirits,” and they say “peach wood!” instead of “peach tree!”

After talking about the external structure, Xu Qing began to think about the structure of the house again. In his memory, it would snow a lot in winter here. “If we have a cellar, we can store a lot of food. I also want a Fire Kang!”

“Fire Kang?” This is an unfamiliar word, Li Changfeng doesn’t understand what it is, but the word “fire” in the word means the bed must be very warm.

Heated kang, also referred to as fire kang, or large kang, is a common heating device in northern regions, and people in the northeast also introduced it into the palace. There are many heated kangs in the Shengjing Palace, and there are usually several heated devices in one room, which not only solved the problem while sitting and sleeping, but also dissipates heat through so many kang surfaces and maintains a high indoor temperature. For example, in the Guanju Palace in the east wing, there are seven kangs in one room.

After Xu Qing organized the words in his mind, he sat down and explained to Li Changfeng: “It’s a masonry structure with a width of about 1.7 to 2.3 meters, and a length that can be determined according to the length of the room. The inside is built with bricks and has a space between the walls. There is a flue underneath, and it is covered with a relatively flat slate. The slate is covered with mud and smoothed. After the mud is dry, a kang mat can be placed on it.”

Xu Qing saw that there was no doubt on Li Changfeng’s face, and then continued: “The kang has a stove and a chimney. The stove is used for burning wood, and the smoke and heat generated by burning wood heat the stone slabs above it when it passes through the wall between the kangs. It generates heat and makes the kang warm. The smoke is finally discharged from the chimney of the kang. In general, the stove port of the kang is connected to the stove in the kitchen, so that the kang can be heated up from burning the firewood for cooking, so that there is no need to burn the kang separately.”

The Translator has something to say: Changfeng, you freaking awesome 

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