mtl008 Chapter 55: Second Brother's White Horse Dies During Spring Plowing (He shed tears, unlike his
Chapter 55: Second Brother's White Horse Dies During Spring Plowing (He shed tears, unlike his
Yang Zhannan yelled at the two men who were catching loaches in the ditch by the dirt road in front of the Yang family compound. Even after they returned home...
The onlookers, dazzled by the spectacle, were reluctant to leave.
The bigger the role of the audience members, the better!
The two clay figures returned to their respective rooms to clean themselves up and change into clean clothes. Then, as instructed, they went to the east wing, the house where their grandparents had once lived.
Yang Zhannan bluntly stated that before Yang Hong left, he asked him to pass on the carpentry tools to Wang Zhi, on the condition that Wang Zhi himself was not a carpenter.
He stopped hiding it and became even more meticulous in his planning, which only intensified their fight. He went to the outhouse, and the two started fighting over carpentry tools, right there in the street, attracting a large crowd who didn't seem to care about the embarrassing scene.
He turned on the old man's tape recorder, the one Zhan Bei had bought for him before he left. He played a recording his grandfather made before he passed away.
It means, as described before, that carpentry tools should be passed on to capable, intelligent, and individualistic men, otherwise the ancestral carpentry skills would be wasted!
After hearing this, Yang Zhi was very happy, but Yang Chong was sullen!
Yang Zhannan was not surprised by the attitude of these two men. He then told Yang Zhi to leave first. Yang Zhi walked away happily, giving Wang Chong a disdainful look before leaving.
After Yang Chong walked away, Yang Zhannan closed the door, turned around and went into the east room. He took out a wad of money from the pocket of his Zhongshan suit and stuffed it into Yang Chong's hand. Then he said, "Take this. This is the money your grandparents left you."
Yang Chong was immediately dumbfounded; he had never seen so much money in his entire life.
With a thud, he knelt down in front of his grandfather's carving and burst into tears!
Yang Zhi thought his grandparents favored him, but he never expected that the money they gave him would exceed the cost of the white carriage and the carpenter's tools.
Yang Chong thought for a moment and realized that carpentry tools were something money couldn't necessarily buy. However, as his grandfather had said, he believed that carpentry tools should be passed on to those who were good at carpentry, otherwise they would be wasted.
He admitted that he was not as good at carpentry as Yang Zhi, and he was also a bit older than Yang Zhi. His second uncle had also saved him face and secretly given him quite a lot of money, so he let it go. Tomorrow, he and Yang Zhi would still be good brothers.
Yang Chong took the money and put it in his pocket. With a smile on his face, he walked out of the east wing side by side with Yang Zhannan.
The Lunar New Year has passed in the blink of an eye, and the new spring has begun with spring plowing. This is a special feeling that is different from the usual. This year, every household is planting on the black soil that they have contracted.
Every farmer's enthusiasm has soared to new heights. Before dawn, smoke rises from the chimneys of every mud-brick house in the small village, shooting straight up!
In the calm and uneventful month of May, the Yang family compound was no exception. In the small kitchens of each side room, white steam billowed from the large iron pots and wooden lids.
After the village brigade distributed the red and white horses and divided the property among the families, several grown men, along with village helpers, converted the large kitchen on the west side of the courtyard into a stable for the red and white horses.
Since they were carpenters themselves, they didn't need to hire anyone. They made two horse troughs and erected two wooden stakes for the horses to graze.
Yang Zhannan lived in the south wing, Yang Zhanxi and Yang Zhi lived in the west wing, and Yang Chong lived in the north wing.
The living quarters of each family remained unchanged; they shared the same storage room on the west side of the courtyard, and their food rations were also stored in the same place.
Now Yang Zhannan is the head of the household. Although the family has been divided, he still has the final say on some things. He thinks that the west warehouse can be used by everyone for the time being, and then they can be separated after the autumn harvest this year, with each person having their own warehouse.
The next step is to prepare the plots of land allocated to each family in the yard and plant seeds of crops such as corn, soybeans, sorghum, millet, and wheat.
Back in the production team days, the brigade would also plant flax. People who were not working could go to the schoolyard where flax was dried and threshed to earn some pocket money.
Yang Yuhan also threshed the flax in the production team. This involved threshing the grains from the mature flax ears onto a hard surface to make them fall off.
She was mischievous, and then she would take the flax she had broken and make it into a "dust" that looked like the one held by a Taoist priest with a long beard, to play with.
Of course, the Yang family didn't plant any random crops; they only sowed corn and soybeans.
The grains of this era were all native to the local area, unlike the high-tech, genetically modified corn cobs of later generations.
The men of the Yang family's side rooms followed Captain Wang's agreement on dividing the family property, distributing the horses back and forth. After a busy spring of plowing, they finally finished planting the land for each small family in the courtyard and were ready to take a break. However, just a few days after the land was put to rest, Yang Zhi's white horse suddenly died mysteriously.
Then, the compound was once again embroiled in controversy over the cause of Bai Ma's death!
Diao Yan stood in the yard and cursed loudly, "My family got the white horse because of my son's ability, and we also got the ancestral carpentry tools. It's because Yang Zhi is naturally smart and clever. Unlike some people who are born dull and stupid, yet they still come out to steal other people's things. And now, in the middle of the night, they secretly poisoned my white horse with rat poison."
"Mom, what else are you saying? We shouldn't talk nonsense without any evidence. Liu Yue has finished making breakfast, come inside and eat."
“Dazhi, you’re so carefree. How will you reclaim the land without Baima? How did I get no evidence? Go check the west warehouse. What happened to the bag of rat poison your dad bought in Tuandingshan Township a few days ago?”
"It's possible that someone else in the family went down into the area with the rat hole."
"What do you mean by putting it in the rat hole? You can usually see pink rat poison particles in rat holes. I've checked everything, and I haven't found any trace of rat poison in any corner of the warehouse."
The courtyard was filled with shouting and cursing, and the accusations were made indirectly, referring to the death of Yang Chong, who lived in the north wing. Even a fool could tell that they were cursing Yang Chong.
Early in the morning, several grown men in the yard had seen the white horse die. It died in the middle of the night last night, having broken its reins before it died, lying on its side in the wooden trough.
Yang Chong's temper was considered good among the men, and his wife Xu Fengying was even more honest.
The four of them, a girl and a boy, were only teenagers. Even the most honest person would feel uneasy listening to the woman's cursing outside the house.
Yang Chong had tried to confront his wife several times, but she always stopped him. This time, he couldn't take it anymore. He burst out of the door, no longer caring about his aunt and cousin. He wanted to release all the pent-up emotions in his heart, and then mustered up his courage to speak.
"Third Aunt, Yang Zhi, whether your family gets a white horse or a black horse, it has nothing to do with me. Just don't make baseless accusations. If you suspect that I poisoned your white horse with rat poison, you need to provide real evidence so that the higher-ups can intervene."
"Oh ho! You usually seem so honest and unassuming, but now you've really gotten ahead of yourself. You have no respect for your elders, don't you? I'm your third aunt. What proof do you have that you didn't drug Bai Ma?"
"Oh my god! This woman is so twisted. She has to produce evidence even if she didn't poison him?" Yang Yuhan grumbled inwardly as she came out to watch the commotion.
It was the weekend, and Yang Yumei was standing by the door outside her house looking at her English textbook, glancing at it every now and then before continuing to recite her eighth-grade English lessons.
Yang Yuhan glanced at Yang Yumei. She thought that this girl was usually lazy and didn't like to work, but when it came to studying, she was really not as hardworking as her.
Back when they ate from the communal pot, Yu Mei would always be reading a textbook while eating, even while using the toilet. In the summer it was fine, but in the winter she'd be squatting in the toilet with a book in her hand, so engrossed she didn't even notice someone outside urgently needing to use the toilet. A few days ago, the two almost got into a fight over using the toilet.
At this moment, Yang Zhanxi came out of the west wing. "Diao Yan, you're someone the younger generation treats as an elder. Why are you cursing so early in the morning? Aren't you afraid of being laughed at by outsiders? Besides, Bai Ma must have died of some disease. Come inside and eat."
Yang Yuhan came over to comfort her, "Third Aunt, don't be angry. It's not worth getting sick from it. I'll have my third uncle go find the village veterinarian to come and take a look at the cause of the white horse's death. Wouldn't that make it look like Da Bai?"
"The facts are right in front of us, why bother finding a veterinarian? Who's going to pay for a veterinarian anyway?"
"I've come to collect the money for the veterinarian. I just came back from running some errands and heard a commotion in the yard from afar. The white horse is dead. Nobody in the yard is happy about this. When the white horse was alive, it had to help Yang Chong with the farming. I'm going out to find the veterinarian. I'll be there in a bit."
"Wow! Dad, you're incredibly fast!"
"That's right, who is Old Man No?"
At this point, the relationship between Yang Zhannan and Yang Yuhan gradually changed from initial unfamiliarity to a more tacit understanding.
When she started elementary school, she cried and made a fuss before her grandmother paid her tuition. Her father and grandmother were of one mind, but in the end, it was her grandfather who spoiled her. After finishing elementary school, she started junior high school.
Now that Grandpa and Grandma have passed away and the family has split into several smaller households, Dad has begun to rethink his approach to life. He no longer only cares about the children in other households, but also starts to care about every member of his own small family.
Yang Yumei remained the same as always, always trying to compare herself to Yang Yuhan. She wanted to have everything Yuhan had, and even things Yuhan didn't have.
Everyone in the courtyard went into their own small houses to eat, and they had just finished their meals.
As they entered the courtyard, a veterinarian, Yang Zhannan, happened to come out and led him straight to the stables to the west.
The veterinarian began investigating the cause of the white horse's death, and within moments, he learned the true reason why the white horse had died.