Chapter 94: Still Alive!

The small courtyard was the same as before, but also different. Previously, no one would enter here, but now the group of friends who were friends with Shen An could play in the front yard. And because the children could learn some characters while playing with Shen An and Shen Ning here, Chen Youtian took the initiative to make several small stools, so there were seats in the courtyard.

Shen Jin and Shen Yin entered the small courtyard, familiar with their companions. They had worked together here to clear the land, collect stones, and peel hemp. When the brothers entered, no one looked at them with strange eyes.

Shen Tie’s face was wiped clean by Shen Ning. He was already sniffling and eating the sweet and sour crystal candies, tears still wet on his eyelashes, but he wasn’t hindered from putting the crystal candy into his mouth and chewing it slowly.

Shen An didn’t know when he had entered the room. When he came out, he gave one piece to each of them.

The two cousins hadn’t played together for a month and a half since late September. They probably knew that they would be beaten when they got close, so the snacks they had given him before were secretly sent by Chen Xiaoya.

This was the first time they stood together. Shen Jin and Shen Yin felt a bit awkward, but Shen An smiled, handed over the treats, and sincerely thanked them.

No one else understood, but Shen Jin knew that Shen An was thanking him for the reminder he had given him last time.

He felt complicated. The reminder he had given had sent his parents to repair the road…

Shen Jin couldn’t lift his hand to take the crystal candy, but Shen Yin felt no pressure. After he came in, no one gave him any strange looks. Even the children his age like Shi Tou and Sanniu were very excited and called out to him in a low voice. Shen Yin was overjoyed.

He took the two pieces of crystal candy from Shen An’s hand and smiled with his eyes curved, “Thank you, Second Brother.”

Then he handed one piece to Shen Jin, “Third Brother, here you go!”

Shen An smiled, and everyone continued reading aloud.

Those who read well could recite it to their parents and grandparents when they returned home at night. Not only would they be praised, but they might also get rewarded with an egg or something. Moreover, it was fun, like playing house with so many people, so even if they didn’t understand what they were reading at all, the children read it happily.

Shen An was the most willing to teach everyone to read because he was also reading while teaching. The more he taught, the faster he remembered. And because he was afraid of teaching wrongly, he read along with his sister-in-law several times every night, learning and teaching at the same time, which made him particularly proactive in his role as a junior teacher. He invited everyone to take a seat.

Each child had a small stool, and several large stones were added outside the courtyard, most likely brought by Erniu, Huzi, and a few older children together to make stools. Sang Luo sat on one of the large stones outside the courtyard, weaving a curtain of grass.

Weaving a grass curtain wasn’t too difficult. Listening to the children in the courtyard reading, that large bundle of reeds in her hands quickly turned into three thick grass curtains. Sang Luo first added two pieces to the roof of the duck shed, and another piece to the roof of the chicken shed, then went to cut more reeds with her sickle.

When the group of children finished their reading time and came out to discover the changes to the chicken shed, they all went back to their respective homes. They fetched their sickles and formed teams to cut more reeds. While Sang Luo was busy weaving the second batch of grass curtains at home, a large group of children, each carrying a large bundle of reeds, came to deliver them.

The teacher among them was Shen An, but the real teacher was Sang Luo. This was something all the children knew. Parents often reminded them to be observant and helpful, to learn to find work and assist with various tasks.

Cutting reeds wasn’t heavy work, and Sang Luo accepted it calmly, smiling and thanking the children who offered to help weave the grass curtains. She declined their offer, telling them to go play by themselves while she continued to work.

After a busy day, both the chicken shed and the duck shed were upgraded for winter. Sang Luo also dismantled a long section of the goose runway, washed the bamboo poles in the mountain spring, and built a two-square-meter goose shed along the courtyard wall. Except for a small door, all sides were covered with bamboo poles and double-layered thick grass curtains. Like the chicken and duck sheds, the floor was covered with boards to keep out the cold and dampness, making it a luxurious warm room.

The three large geese watched as their home was dismantled by their owner, confusion and bewilderment in their small round eyes. But soon they watched as their owner built them a new home.

A new home!!!

As Sang Luo continued to lay dry reeds inside, the geese, unable to contain their excitement, squeezed in to explore their new abode as soon as she made room for them. When Sang Luo stepped aside, they rushed in, lining up eagerly to enter the new house. Ah, once inside, compared to their old, drafty, leaky home, this one was much more luxurious.

Finding their own cozy spots, they didn’t want to come out anymore.

It was great. They no longer envied the neighboring group of kids with houses. They had coveted those houses for so long, but the doors were too small to squeeze through. Now they had something even more luxurious! They proudly puffed out their chests!

Seeing the new goose shed being so popular, Sang Luo was delighted. She had actually built a door for the goose shed, but she didn’t use it. Although the snakes were already hibernating, these three large geese were still alert to strangers and animals. They had keen hearing and were responsible for guarding the courtyard. Closing the door would prevent the three heroes from going out on patrol. Besides, the goose shed was spacious enough, and the wind couldn’t blow in a specific area.

Sang Luo had done a timely job of repairing the warm rooms for her chickens, ducks, and geese. By late November, it was already getting cold in their area, even with thick coats on outside. Except for the children from families with better conditions and thicker coats, most people wanted to huddle indoors and avoid the cold.

Sang Luo’s family had made thorough preparations for winter, so she didn’t have to do much herself. Rice, grains, salt, and oil were all abundant. As for firewood, ever since the children started reading with Shen An, all three families would come to her house every two or three days to collect firewood. There were bundles of it, large pieces of chopped firewood, and pine needles for kindling. Sang Luo had built a woodshed in her backyard, and it was packed full.

The dried vegetables they had all prepared were brought over by each family, just like they had agreed beforehand. Sang Luo stored them in the empty jars.

As for the vegetables in their backyard, the cold-resistant ones were ready to be eaten, allowing them to spend the winter in peace.

The first snow of the winter came around midnight on November 22.

Sang Luo woke up feeling a bit cold in the middle of the night. When she opened her eyes, she saw a faint light outside the window, startling her for a moment. She quickly sat up in bed, thinking she had overslept.

But as she looked outside more closely, she saw the flurry of snowflakes flying in the air.

She wrapped herself in a coat and got out of bed, unlatching the door slightly to look outside. There was already a thick layer of snow in the courtyard.

Sang Luo was surprised. Even though they were both in the south, she had rarely seen snow in her previous life. It was rare for it to snow, and even when it did, it wouldn’t accumulate much on the ground before stopping. They could only see snow through social media.

Could snow in the south in this time and space fall so thickly?

She felt a mixture of joy and excitement. Her first reaction was to wake up Shen An and Shen Ning to see the snow, but when she turned to look at the two little ones sleeping soundly, she held back. She peeked through a narrow gap in the door for a while, afraid of the cold wind blowing in, then closed the door and took off her coat, returning to her warm bed.

At four in the morning, when it was time to make tofu, Shen An and Shen Ning were always up together. They had already formed a biological clock. When they woke up and felt that the sky outside was much brighter than usual, they excitedly put on their clothes and shoes and rushed outside after hearing Sang Luo’s joyful announcement of the snow.

It was a bit cold at first, but grinding tofu required physical strength, and those not grinding were busy lighting fires, so it wasn’t too cold. As they ground the beans, the siblings eagerly discussed playing in the snow when it got light.

…

For families that had made thorough preparations for winter, the first snow was a joyous occasion, but for those who hadn’t, it meant hardship.

In the village, about seven or eight households had to endure hardships. A family might only have one or two pieces of cotton clothing, or even none at all. The quilts and jackets were filled with insufficiently warm bulrushes and reed fluff, mixed with chicken and duck feathers picked up from here and there.

Yes, for those too poor to afford jackets, they naturally couldn’t afford chicken, ducks, or geese either. But there were quite a few people in the village who raised them. These animals weren’t just objects; they roamed around the village. They would fight and peck at each other for fun, shedding feathers in the process. For children from poor families, such things were treasures. They would rush forward to pick them up and save them. In fact,

 they couldn’t save much over the year, but mixed with bulrushes and reed fluff, they provided a little warmth.

However, jackets and quilts like these weren’t very comfortable to use because most rural households at this time could only afford linen. Even if the linen was woven very tightly, it couldn’t be called very tight. Among the feathers picked up, there were very few fluffs, and most of them were feathers. These things could penetrate the fabric and poke you painfully.

But who cared about being poked at a time like this? Being warm was all that mattered.

For those even poorer, they had to worry about their roofs collapsing in the middle of the night if the snowfall was heavy.

When it was light out, the first thing they did was shovel snow, from the ground, from the roofs, and in the morning, everyone would shovel snow in front of their own doors and clean the roofs of their houses. In the morning, they would clean the snow in front of their own doors and clean the roofs of their houses.

By the afternoon, the Zhou Village Committee would visit each household, calling upon the men who had coats to help clear the snow from the roofs of those households in the village that lacked able-bodied men and only had the elderly, weak, women, and children left. If the straw on those roofs had already rotted, they would have to gather some more straw to weave into dense grass curtains to help replace them.

As they went from house to house, when they reached the last household at the village entrance, it was already mealtime.

Men of Chen, Zhou Lezi, and Old Man Chen’s age wove grass curtains at the bottom, while younger, more agile youths like Zhou Sanlang and Lu Sanlang climbed onto the roofs from ladders to stand there. Those slightly heavier, like Shi Erlang, Lu Dalang, and Zhou Dalang, climbed the ladders to help pass the grass curtains up.

When Zhou Sanlang was about to put the grass curtain handed up by Shi Erlang onto the roof, he turned around and saw four people coming from afar, each carrying something on their back. Zhou Sanlang froze, alerting the several youths on the roof and Lu Dalang on the ladder, “Do you see those people? Are they strangers?”

The Zhou family was influenced by the Zhou family’s strictness and remained wary of strangers.

Everyone turned to look when they heard the sound. As the people approached, Shi Erlang’s eyes widened gradually!

“That’s, that’s…”

After rubbing his eyes and looking again, with disheveled hair, stubbly beard, and clothes seemingly wrapped haphazardly in animal skins, but that really seemed to be his big brother!

“My brother, it looks like my brother!”

He hurriedly climbed down the ladder, almost jumping down the last few steps if he hadn’t leaned back.

Everyone was stunned. Lu Sanlang on the roof suddenly shouted, “Brother, brother, it’s my second brother!”

For a moment, those on the roof, on the ladder, and everyone else ran down, and even Old Man Chen, Chen Youtian, Old Man Lu, and the Zhou Village Committee members, after a moment of stunned silence, reacted and turned to look, then ran towards the approaching group.

How chaotic the scene was.

Some ran back to the village shouting to report the news, some hugged and cried loudly when they saw their relatives, and others ran over to see what was happening when they heard the commotion.

Shen Lie glanced around and didn’t see his family. He felt anxious, hurriedly carrying his bundle and about to rush home to see his younger brother and sister.

Zhou Village Committee member Zhou finally reacted and grabbed him, “Ah Lie, is it Ah Lie? You’re still alive!”

He was much taller now, with sharper features, and his overall demeanor had changed a lot. For a moment, he didn’t dare to match up with the young man he used to be.

Shen Lie nodded, but his gaze kept looking in the direction of his home, wondering if Xiao An and An Ning had heard the commotion and if they had already come out.

“Yes, Uncle Zhou, I’ll go back and see Xiao An and An Ning first.”

Before Zhou Village Committee member Zhou could say anything, a villager who had approached interjected, “Ah Lie, you’re still alive! Everyone thought you were dead. Your brother and sister were separated, and now they’re living in your old house.”

Shen Lie’s pupils contracted, and a cold, sharp edge flashed in his eyes, “What did you say? Where are Xiao An and An Ning?”

As he asked, he looked at Zhou Village Committee member Zhou.

Zhou Village Committee member Zhou hurriedly explained, “In the summer, your third uncle and aunt found a wife for you. In less than half a month, Xiao An and An Ning were separated from you and your wife and went to live alone. Now it’s two households.”

Shen Lie didn’t pay much attention to the mention of his wife. His ears were filled with the news that his nine-year-old brother and sister had been separated from him in the summer and had been living alone. Were they living in that broken grass hut in the mountains?

He nodded hurriedly, striding through the crowd towards the direction of the hill where his old house was located. His pace was so fast that he was already running after just a few steps.

As he ran, he met Mrs. Chen, Qin Fangniang, Gan Family, Mrs. Lu, who were rushing over after hearing the news…

Shen Lie was too preoccupied to pay attention. There was a rush of wind behind him, and in the whispers of the wind, there were faint murmurs from the villagers.

“Shen Lie is still alive, Shen San is finished.”