Because they had to smoke the fish for an extra day, they didn't dare to rest the rest of the time, they all got up early and went to bed late, in fact, the road was getting smaller and smaller, and they began to enter the mountains, and the mountains here were not better than the mountains they stayed in earlier, they were all stone mountains, and there were large □□ of stones everywhere, and the soil was very poor, and there were only some long and shrubs, and there were not many forests to see, and at a glance they knew that the conditions here would not be much better.

It was said that it was more than 200 miles, but it made them walk for ten days. Because the road was too difficult to walk, it was all a trail, and there was a rain in the middle, which delayed for two days. The small mountain road that has been rained is even more difficult to walk, and if you are not careful, you will slip. Fortunately, I didn't go to the cliff, otherwise I would have been afraid of falling to pieces.

Looking at the rows of small houses in front of them, Geng Qiu and Ah Hao both showed happy looks, this should be the damn Black Rock Village.

Sure enough, when I saw them, the idlers in the village all gathered around, and Geng Qiu asked, "Is this Heiyan Village?" Which is the village chief's house? ”

A black child smiled and said, "My grandfather is the village chief." ”

Geng Qiu took out a few pieces of snacks and gave him them, and he took Geng Qiu's family to his house. The village chief's house is not much better than other people's houses, but the houses are a little bigger, and they are all houses with soil embryos and grass roofs. The village chief's house has six rooms and a small courtyard. Before he entered the courtyard, the black boy shouted, "Grandpa, someone is coming." ”

Soon an old man of about fifty years old came out of the house, who was still very strong, and when he saw the three members of Geng Qiu's family, he said a little strangely: "What are you looking for me?" As he spoke, he let them into the house and poured them two bowls of tea.

Ah Hao took out the road and gave two catties of salted wild boar meat and a bag of snacks, explaining that his ancestors were from Heiyan Village, and now he has come back to settle down. The village chief also knew a few words, and also remembered the name of the ancestor that Geng Qiu said, and he was really from this village. So the village chief was very enthusiastic and said: "There are no more people left in your ancestors, and of course there is no land foundation." I can help you settle down tomorrow, but how are you going to live here? ”

"Anyway, we have to settle down and get our household registration right." Geng Qiu said helplessly.

"You're going to spend the night at my house today. I'll help you with household registration tomorrow, but it's not easy to handle the house. The village chief said again.

"Is there anyone here, who has no one to live in, who rents it to us or sells it to us?" Ah Hao asked.

"Hey, when you asked, I remembered that the house of Zhao San's house was empty. It's just that the location is not very good, too close to the mountain, and the foundation is surrounded by stones, so their family thought that the place was not very good, so they moved away. The house is still in good condition, and the place is very large, and half a tael of silver is enough to buy it. Do you want to go and see it? The village thought for a while, and then suddenly remembered.

"Okay, why don't you go and see it now?" Geng Qiu asked the village chief.

"Yes. I'll take you to see it first. The village chief said and told his grandson to call his grandmother back to cook, and said that if there were guests coming, he would do more, and he would clean up the place where they were settled.

The mules and luggage were all placed in the village chief's yard first, and Geng Qiu and Ah Hao followed the village chief out with only their children. I also met a lot of villagers along the way, and the village chief also introduced them, and everyone was still very enthusiastic on the surface. Especially Geng Qiu held candy and snacks in his hands, and sent a few to the elderly and children he met along the way, which was very pleasing to everyone.

Walked the whole village, and walked for a while, before arriving at this Zhao Laosan's empty house, sure enough, the location is very partial, but the area is not small, lonely, it looks very desolate, it is estimated that there are two hundred square sizes, three serious houses, and a small yard, it looks half-new, probably because it has not been empty for a long time, but it still looks very clean.

The village chief opened the lock of the gate, and Geng Qiu followed him in to check, and asked Ah Hao to wait outside with the child. This house is the same as the houses in the village, with three main rooms in front, bedrooms on the left and right, and a hall in the middle, which has a back door that leads directly into the small courtyard behind the main house, and there are several huts here, apparently the kitchen and dining room and utility room.

This house is not bad, but it is not like other people's houses have a large vegetable garden in front of and behind the house, and the empty space behind the house, although the area is not small, almost the size of a court, but it is full of rocks, it is an open space where crops cannot be planted at all, and even the weeds are only crawling on the ground, and there are very few.

Behind it is the sparse mountain forest, which looks malnourished at first glance. There is a large area of barren grass not far ahead, at first glance it is a swamp, except for the grass, it is estimated that it is useless, but there are four or five trees in front of the door, which seem to have been planted artificially. Originally, there was a little open space in front of the house, but this little bit of land was not enough for the family to eat, but it can be seen that it was planted in the beginning, and it can be seen that there is a small vegetable field of about 20 square meters, and there are still some grass and wild vegetables growing now.

"It's not a good place, and it's a quarter of an hour's walk to the nearest neighbor's house. But his house is good, you see the exterior wall is stone, but they made it themselves, and it is very strong, much more durable than the clay embryo. It's just that the roof needs to be repaired, find a few people to work together, and you can change the roof in a day's work, and buy it for half a tael or four dollars of silver, which is still good. The village chief introduced as he spoke. In this kind of remote place, no one wants to buy a house at all, not to mention that the place where this house is located is not good, so the house of Zhao San's family is empty here, and it is not worth much silver.

This house has been empty for half a year, and when Zhao Laosan left, he also told the village chief that if you want it, you have to exchange it for silver. He didn't give it to others in vain, because when he built this house, his family spent a lot of effort.

"Okay, this is the place. It's a little worse, I said that there is no good place to build a house in the village. Geng Qiu said half mockingly and half asking.

"That's the reason. The people in our village say a lot and say a lot less, and you have seen a lot along the way, so you can see that our village is poor. To tell you the truth, every family is poor and poor, and God bless you to be able to get more than half full at the end of the year. The places in the village that can be planted with crops are all planted, and even the nearby hillsides, the slightly better places, have been opened by everyone, but the land in this place is thin, the output is small, and everyone's life is hard. The village chief sent a lot of emotion, which made Geng Qiu and A Hao more clearly understand how difficult it is for their future life.

When I returned to the village chief's house, I ate a meal of coarse noodles, and the two catties of salted pork were cut off by the village chief's wife, and a large pot of beans was stewed, which attracted the chopsticks of the family to stretch out just into the big sand pot, but Geng Qiu and A Hao only ate cold cucumbers and boiled vegetables.

"Alas, life is hard at home, it is rare to see meat all year round, and the children are hungry." The village chief touched a handful of tears and picked a small piece of meat and put it in Geng Qiu's bowl. Geng Qiu hurriedly gave it to the black boy and said, "Ah Hao and I both like this mixed cucumber made by the old lady, it is refreshing and delicious." ”

"That is, along the way, it is rare to eat fresh and tender vegetables. If the old lady has more cucumbers, take two more and we'll eat them raw. Ah Hao also said with a smile.

"Okay, there is no shortage of cucumbers in the field, and the puppy will pick two for the uncles to eat." The village chief laughed.

The black boy replied with a sloppy voice, and ran away with the bowl. Soon picked up two tender cucumbers, Ah Hao and Geng Qiu took them, wiped them on their clothes casually, and ate them as fruits after meals. The village chief was even happier when he saw that they were gone. pulled the two of them and talked a lot.

Ah Niu was handed over to his eldest daughter-in-law A Qing by the village chief's wife early in the morning, and Ah Qing's sister-in-law had a nursing doll and had already fed Ah Niu breast milk. The well-fed Ah Niu was already drowsy at this time.

Geng Qiu and Ah Hao took the child and went to the room that they cleaned up, in addition to a large wooden bed and a wooden box, there was only a chair left, because Geng Qiu had already said that he would use his own futon, so only a bamboo mat was laid on the bed, and some hay was spread underneath.

In the middle of the night, Ah Niu was hungry, and Ah Qing's sister-in-law's man, Ah Qing, specially came to pick up the child to feed him. Geng Qiu and Ah Hao were originally going to make some sugar water to deal with it, but they were very upset. Geng Qiu hurriedly grabbed another handful of candy and handed it over, but Ah Qing refused.

"It's not a good thing to take it for the children to eat, and the children in the village have it." Geng Qiu hurriedly said. Ah Qing accepted it, his three children rarely eat snacks, the black boy is his eldest son, and the youngest daughter is still breastfeeding.

The next day, the village chief's breakfast was thin batter soup, Geng Qiu took out some of the smoked fish pieces, let them be steamed and served on the table, everyone ate it for the first time, after the village chief tasted it, several of his children and grandchildren dared to eat it, but everyone said: "This fish is delicious, it is so fragrant." It's the first time I've seen a fish doing this. ”

"It's not a good thing, we bring a lot, since everyone likes to eat, I'll go get some more." Geng Qiu saw that they liked to eat, so he went to get it again, and he was afraid that he would only stop if he had ten catties. He thought that the village chief had a lot of family, and there were only a few yuan for each person. But when the village chief saw that he had taken so much, he was startled, and hurriedly said, "This is too much, how can we ask for so much." ”

"It's okay, we still have so much, we can't eat this fish piece for too long, the weather is getting hotter, you can't keep it for too long, you should eat it quickly, it will spoil if you leave it alone." Geng Qiu said. Ah Hao also helped to speak: "We ate a few meals at Uncle's house, and it's worth coming back." "The village chief saw a large family of his family, and now is the time when the green and yellow are not available, thinking about what Geng Qiu said will be bad if he doesn't eat it quickly, and finally it will be next.

However, the next household registration and house purchase matters, the village chief will be more serious. The village chief is the biggest official here, in fact, it is not an official, but the whole village is managed by him, which is equivalent to an official, and the ancients paid great attention to the ancestral hall, most of the villages are basically the same surname, and the village chief is also the proponent of the largest surname here, and he should be the patriarch. It's still very powerful to talk and act.

And in villages like theirs, there is generally a lieutenant chief, who is a real official, but a smaller official, who eats official meals. However, the chief delegated all the affairs in the village to the village chief, and if the village chief could not solve anything, he would go to him to deal with it. Moreover, a lieutenant chief manages several villages, a bit like a modern township chief.

Their household registration asked the village chief to take Geng Qiu and them to Xiangnan Town, where Heiyan Village belongs, to do it, and the Li Chang also lives in Xiangnan Town, and this matter will also be reported to the Li Chief. And Xiangnan Town is not too far away, and those who are fast in the distance get up early in the morning, hurry up at night, and come back in one day. And the village chief is also an old man, so it is impossible to rush like this, so he plans to spend the night in Xiangnan Town, and by the way, he will find Zhao Laosan on the road to get the house done, so he has to spend about three days to see if things are going well. So he didn't plan to take Geng Qiu and them with him, so as to save them trouble and footsteps, and asked his eldest son Aqing to find someone to help clean up Zhao Laosan's house first, and let Geng Qiu and them live in first.

"How much money does it cost to get a household registration?" Geng Qiu asked.

"Repay the silver, ten or eight big money is enough, who is willing to spend this unjust money if you want silver." The village chief laughed.

"Why?" Geng Qiu asked puzzled.

"Poor people, ten or eight big money can't be taken out, and if you give birth to a child and go to do it once, it will cost a lot of money, so everyone is unwilling to do it, and there is no way to be an official, and every two or three years they will come to the villages to apply for household registration, for fear that they will not be able to collect the poll tax. If you don't do it in a hurry, where do you need to do it once, and it will cost money. The village chief explained.

In this poor place, no one dares to spend a lot of money casually, and it is not easy for children to be raised, generally until they are ten or eight years old, or even almost an adult.

Hearing these words, Geng Qiu breathed a sigh of relief, just don't spend money, he is afraid that he will have ten taels or eight taels. The silver they had left in their hands was less than fifteen taels.

They took two taels of silver and a handful of money to the village chief, and the village chief did not refuse, but said, "I will bring you the rest of the silver, and you are going to settle down here, do you need me to bring you some things back by the way?" ”

Geng Qiu discussed with Ah Hao, and asked the village chief to bring some salt and oil back, and if there was any silver left, he would buy a piece of muslin and come back, and they would keep it to make some clothes.

"You have to make a living here in the future, how much should you prepare some farm tools, do you want to sell some, sickles, hoes, machetes, shovels or something?" The village chief asked.

"Yes, you can do it. You don't have to buy that cloth. Geng Qiu thought about it and said that he also grew up in the countryside when he was a child, and these things can be used, and now it looks like he really needs some tools, otherwise he has to use a kitchen knife to chop firewood, and the kitchen knife has been cut by them along the way. Besides, in the future, I will live here, and I will have some farm tools to prepare, so I have to live, just with a little silver on hand, three people can't eat for long while sitting and eating.