Chapter Five New Home

  New home, this is my new home, all gods in heaven, hurry up and send me back, is this a place for humans to stay?

  This is a house east of Dog Egg's home, and Dog Egg's home has a wicker door, but this yard doesn't even have a broken old gate, only a stone slab 30 cm high and 5 cm thick blocking the entrance, which can't block anything.

  Look at the courtyard again, weeds are growing wildly. In summer, it's really a time when plants and trees thrive, some grass is more than half a person deep. "Young man, this yard has not been entered by anyone for several years, some weeds are normal, I'll let your aunt come to clean up later."

  Arriving at the door, it's okay, the door is not bad, it hasn't rotted away. On both sides of the window, there are strips of paper hanging down, it seems that the window paper has been blown to shreds by the wind for a long time. The wooden lattice windows aren't like the glass windows of later generations, usually they would paste a layer of white window paper on the inside, and during festivals, they would cut out auspicious characters or animals from red paper to stick onto the window paper, making it look even more festive.

  The door lock was an old-fashioned long strip of copper, not the kind of spring lock we have now. This old lock would take a long time to open even with a key, and if it could be opened, it could be opened with just a wooden stick. Moreover, most of the keys were similar, so this was a kind of lock that couldn't keep out petty thieves. Uncle Li opened the lock, pushed open the wooden door, and immediately a wave of musty air and mildew wafted out.

  "Uncle Li, let's put these things down for now." Liu He was a bit nervous, afraid of being poisoned by some kind of gas. "Little brother, it's nothing, just that no one has lived inside for a long time. I think the roof needs to be repaired too. Let's wait a few days and we'll cut some grass to redo the roof, otherwise it will leak when it rains. Alright, I should head back now."

  Liu He cautiously entered the house, feeling a bit startled. It was just an old uninhabited house, and it being summer, the air inside was stale and musty, which was normal. The smell was coming from the grass on the roof, which indeed needed repair. You could even see the sky now. Fortunately, the beams were sturdy; otherwise, the renovation would be a bigger project.

  The layout of this house is a three-room house, with a main room, an east wing and a west wing. The three rooms are not separated by walls, but only by a half wall between the east wing and the main room, which is about half the height of a person, leaving the top open.

  Next to the wall is a stove, and on the stove there is a small five-person pot. It seems that this is also the only property in this house. I don't know why the original owner didn't take away this iron pot. In the past, next door was a large kang, which was empty, but not completely empty, with some grass on it.

  Looking at the western compartment again, there is no door. Most of these compartments use a curtain to block the entrance. Similarly, inside, there is a kang (heated bed platform), and on the kang, there is nothing either.

  Looking at the wall again, due to the rain leakage, some places have been washed away by the rainwater, and even the rotten stone inside has been exposed. This village is backed by a mountain, so these houses are all built with rotten stones. This is much simpler than those earth-beaten walls, but it's unknown whether this house is solid or not.

  "Little brother, Auntie has brought you some hot food," at this time a woman walked in from outside, wearing the same undershirt as Liu He, which was stretched tight across her chest, apparently it was a bit small for her. In her hand she was holding a ceramic basin, with something inside.

  "Come on, Da Ni, hurry up and bring it in." Behind her was Dog Egg's sister carrying some grass, and further behind was Dog Egg's father carrying a bucket of water.

  Soon, Dog Egg Daughter washed the pot several times. It seemed that no one had lived here for a long time. The pot was cleaned with a bucket of water. When there was no more water, Dog Egg Father quickly went to fetch another bucket.

  At this time, Liu He also reacted and said, "Auntie, what's going on?" "Young man, don't worry, just watch from the side, we have two purposes: one is to help you heat up the kang, and two is to cook directly at your home, it just so happens that we won't need to start a fire for this meal."

  "Auntie, you've gone to a lot of trouble for us." "No trouble, no trouble. We would have eaten this breakfast anywhere, and it's not like there's anything special about it - just some sweet potato noodles. Our family doesn't have any good food either."

  Liu He took a closer look and indeed it was pumpkin noodles, he hadn't seen them in a long time. A long time ago, dried and ground pumpkin was once a staple food, but somehow this kind of food had disappeared from people's tables. Now seeing it again, Liu He felt a sense of nostalgia.

  "Hey little brother, you're moving into a new home, we should give you a good look around and burn some incense for you, but since you're moving in today, let's just skip those things and get straight to burning the pot." After Dog Egg Mama explained, Liu He understood that no matter where you move, there will always be the action of burning the pot when moving into a new home, it's just that different places have different names for it. But looking at this place, because it's too poor, they don't bother with those details, what day or not, doesn't matter.

  Besides, in their eyes, Liu He has already been quite a loser, giving his few good clothes to Dog Egg's family, while Liu He himself is wearing patched clothes. However, the patchwork on this person's hands is too good, looking at the stitches, that's one fine and even, they don't know that the clothes Liu He is currently wearing are not old, but intentionally made to look like this, work clothes, of course, need to be reinforced in key areas, and also, this is not hand-stitched, but machine-sewn.

  Liu He wouldn't know what they were thinking, and even if he did, he wouldn't explain it. Besides, Liu He had gold in his bag, so he wouldn't lack clothes to wear later on. Although he wanted to keep those clothes as a memento, this way he could blend in well with the village, right? Just look at Dog Egg's relationship with the village chief - Dog Egg was also someone of status in the village.

  While Liu He was stunned, Da Ni had already boiled the pot. Dog Dan Niang was about to pour the sweet potato noodles into the pot when Liu He suddenly said, "Auntie, wait a minute."

  Liu He quickly ran into the yard, picked a few handfuls of wild vegetables that couldn't be named, and it was also beneficial for this courtyard to be deserted. These wild vegetables were everywhere.

  Liu He saw that they didn't bring a knife, so he washed the wild vegetables with water and tore them apart with his hands. "Come on, auntie, give me this." Liu He took the calabash ladle from Dog Egg's hand. This calabash ladle was naturally made by cutting a calabash in half and making two ladles out of it, but the process of making the ladle required several steps, including boiling and processing, which will not be explained here.

  In the gourd, it was just water and good sweet potato flour. Liu He casually threw in some wild vegetables and stirred them up a bit. "Young brother, can this be eaten?" "Auntie, don't worry about it." Can it be eaten? In Liu He's time, these wild vegetables were used to feed pigs, but later on, the trend of eating wild vegetables started, and people began to eat this kind of vegetable too. They would wash them clean, then blanch them in boiling water, and dip them in sauce to eat. This way of eating was new to Liu He, but since pigs could eat it, humans should be able to as well, right? Looking at the situation now, Liu He didn't have anything to eat, and if he wanted to buy something, he would have to wait a few more days before going out to make a purchase. Needless to say, for these next few days, he would have to rely on Dog Egg's family for food.