After discussion, everyone felt that what the village chief announced was a big event. Therefore, everyone decided to proceed in order from simple to difficult.

The first step was to renovate the ancestral hall.

This Chen family ancestral hall has a history of two or three hundred years, and the villagers are not rich, and the public land in the village is only more than 20 acres, and the annual income is limited, so its condition is naturally not much better.

Fortunately, when it was first built, all the materials used were good, and it was an ancestral hall, so the workers were in awe, and the skills were naturally excellent. Moreover, after it is completed, there are people who maintain it regularly, so it will not be weak and fall down when touched.

Experienced craftsmen know that Chenjia Village will not save money at all in the construction of the ancestral hall, and the peanuts sold too vigorously before, so they choose the best materials.

After more than ten days of careful construction, the reinforcement of the reinforcement, the replacement of the replacement, the roof part has been completed. As for the ground part, it's easier. In addition to reinforcement and replacement, it is the icing on the cake.

The villagers looked at the new ancestral hall and were overjoyed.

Thinking about the winter of three years ago, they stood here worrying about the vision from heaven. Fear of drought, fear of hunger, until the appearance of purple Ganoderma lucidum. Now it seems that Chen Jifa is right, it is indeed auspicious from heaven.

They firmly believe that Chenjia Village will get better and better.

It's kind of funny to say. Since the peanuts were sold in the village and the silver was divided, every household had at least 100 taels of silver deposited, and everyone in these ten miles and eight towns knew about it. This has also led to the recent liveliness of Chenjia Village, either this distant relative who has not been in touch for hundreds of years has come to the door, or the matchmaker has come to the door.

It is no surprise that the young man in the village suddenly became a sought-after commodity, and a person like Chen Jitang, who was about to turn thirty-five, also quickly settled on a family affair a few days ago.

As for the big girl's market, although it is not as good as the young man, it is also good. Everyone knows that as long as they can marry and become a part of Chenjia Village, they will naturally be eligible to share the silver next year.

Those families with daughters are even more harsh on the object of their marriage, and the dowry silver is given by the family. What's more, keeping your daughter for an extra year means that you can share an extra year of silver.

It's not a good thing to marry early. And as long as you marry a year late, you can earn your dowry silver.

As soon as the renovation of the ancestral hall was completed, the major event in the hearts and minds of the villagers was put on the daily agenda, that is, the construction of the school.

Chen Jifa originally wanted to hold a celebration banquet attended by the whole village, but he thought that the weather was getting colder, and it was not too late to celebrate when the school was repaired. So, after a simple mobilization, I found a piece of land not far from the Chen family ancestral hall and started construction.

Ye Feng also agreed with this location, although it meant that Ye's two sons would be far away from school in the future. But this is far away from the official road, and it is not a shop, so it is still very suitable to build a school.

If it is said that the construction of roads and the renovation of ancestral halls need to be mobilized, then Chen Jifa almost did not spend any energy to build the school this time, and every family spontaneously sent people to help.

Even the second sister Ye's house with a big belly, Chen Qianshan also came.

Originally, Chen Qianshan was worried that Ye Ermei was at home alone, but Ye Ermei didn't agree with anything, and what she said was right.

"Building a school is a big deal, you can't go if you don't go. I'm afraid of anything at home alone, and I'm not a child, I'll take care of myself. No matter how bad it is, I can go to my eldest sister's house, which is very lively now. Besides, if this kid in my belly is a kid, I'm going to go to school in the future. When he grows up, wouldn't it be better if you told him that you also contributed to the construction of this school? ”

Chen Qianshan thought about it, and this is also the truth. At least he made a effort, and he also had the capital to brag to his son in the future. And with the Ye family here, I don't think anything will happen.

Thinking of this, he happily took a hoe and went to build a school.

Everyone is eager to hurry up to repair this school, as soon as the spring is warm, it can be used, and second, at this time, the work in the field is about to come out. As a result, the school, which was supposed to take a month to repair, was completed in twenty days.

On the day of completion, Ye Feng and Chen Wumei came with Qianyu, saying that they wanted to plant some flowers and trees in the courtyard of the school. The villagers are naturally happy, who doesn't know now, after the arrangement of Ye Feng and a few people, no matter how ugly the environment is, it can be a little more beautiful.

Someone also went to Liuyunxuan in the city to sell peanuts, and saw many incredibly beautiful flowers and trees, and Boss Wang said that these are Ye Feng's masterpieces.

There are those who don't believe it, wait for Ye Feng and the others to arrange it and take a look, although it can't say that there is any difference, but it is indeed much better than before.

Looking at the painted door in front of you, the windows are bright and clean, and with all kinds of flowers and trees, people can't wait to move in and study immediately. Thinking that their children will be able to come in and study next year, everyone is happy.

The key is that it's free.

Seeing that everyone was happy, the village chief proposed: "Now the ancestral hall has been renovated and the school has been built." Either way, it's worth rejoicing. Why don't we have a banquet and everyone have fun together? ”

Chen Jifa originally thought that his proposal would definitely be warmly welcomed, after all, it was made of money from the public, and it was meat and white flour, so how could anyone not like to eat it.

Who knows, someone smiled on the spot and said: "Village chief, if you want me to say let's slow down, now that the work in the field has come out, we are still busy farming." Besides, don't you still have to pave the way? If you want me to say, it's not too late to celebrate when the road is paved. ”

This was agreed by most of the villagers.

"Isn't it! The road is really paved, and that's something to be happy about! ”

"Speaking of which, how many years have I been married to Chenjia Village, I didn't expect to be able to look forward to today! What an ancestral apparition! ”

In fact, in addition to the approaching farming, Chen Jifa also ignored the fact that since the distribution of silver, although everyone is still very thrifty, they can eat meat every once in a while, and it is enough.

The days when you could eat meat for half a year or even only during the New Year have completely passed.

The villagers all said this, how could Chen Jifa disagree. So he chimed in and said, "What you said is right, okay!" Then let's celebrate when the road is paved. ”

As a result, the villagers who built the school were engaged in the busy autumn planting. It's just that the autumn planting is okay, and all that needs to be planted is wheat or something, but in ten days, everyone is busy.

When the last family of the villagers finished their work in the field, the whole village started a new project like a chicken.

That's paving.

However, the paving project was much larger, and Ye Feng and Chen Jifa had some requirements, so it slowed down for a while.

Some problems are easy to handle, for example, quality problems, as long as the materials are good, it is a big deal to do it slowly. But some problems are really difficult to solve, for example, Ye Feng requires that each section of the road be as wide as possible, and it is okay not to take a straight line, but the width must not be reduced.

That's a bit of a hassle.

The road in the village was like this, and it hasn't changed for hundreds of miles. Some places are very spacious, but again, some places are inherently narrow. If you come across a forest or a hillside, you can dig it up, but in some places you have to go through cultivated land.

Once there are practical benefits, it is not easy to do.

In the end, Chen Qianfan came up with an idea that allowed the project to continue, that is, compensation. According to Chen Qianfan's method, that is, how much silver can be accompanied by how much money is occupied, for example, how much silver can be sold for an acre of land, then the occupied place will be compensated according to the proportion.

To be honest, at the beginning, in fact, many people were unwilling. But seeing that the old man had come forward, he had no choice but to agree. And if you don't agree, it seems that you are not generous, as if you are hindering the process of paving the road in the village.

If that's the case, then it doesn't sound good. Everyone knows that everyone is looking forward to the early paving of roads in the village.

In this way, the young and middle-aged people in the village were mobilized.

At this time, the role of the duck duck village kitchen came into play.

When there was no business, under the leadership of Da Niu's mother, the people in the Yaya Township Kitchen took the money from the public high school to buy all kinds of needed ingredients and ingredients. Now, wherever the road is paved, they will set up a stove nearby to cook.

This allowed a group of road builders to eat hot meals as soon as they stopped work, and the taste was so good that even Chen Jifa said it was good after eating it.

Of course, during the period, there were also those who did not know what was going on, suspecting that Da Niu's mother and Zhao Shike had deducted the silver. In this regard, Da Niu's mother just smiled, did not explain, and directly gave the silver to the man. It is only said that from now on, it will be purchased by that person, and the person in the duck and duck village kitchen is only responsible for cooking.

As soon as the man got the silver, he regretted it, she was just provoked by Aunt Cha and sent a few complaints, where did she know that she was heard by Da Niu's mother, and she didn't give her face in public, so she directly handed over the silver to her.

With the attitude of the Yaya Township Chef, it is impossible to return the silver.

In this way, she was also difficult to ride a tiger, so she reluctantly went to the city to buy ingredients for two days. Who knows, at noon on the first day, when it was time to eat, the men who worked were dissatisfied.

Because there is obviously less meat, even the vegetables are not as fresh as the previous days.

Now, without waiting for the big cow's mother to make a move, the little daughter-in-law couldn't stand it first. She really didn't understand how Da Niu Ma and the Zhao family managed to buy so many good meat and vegetables with the same amount of silver.

However, he boasted about Haikou, how would this end.

In the end, she found Da Niu's mother, and solemnly apologized while everyone was eating lunch, and said that she was not sincere, she was deceived by a traitor, and she cried in the end.

Da Niu's mother pities her for being provoked by others, and she is an upright person on weekdays. And she wasn't really angry, but she just wanted to use this incident to suppress the arrogance of those people. Seeing that the effect was achieved, he took the silver again and continued to buy.

After this incident, the status of Da Niu Ma and Zhao's family has vaguely risen a little. Because everyone has discovered it, the ability of others is obvious, and it is simply irreplaceable. And the words of the people are also clear, the money is placed there, whoever wants it, who goes.

Ye Feng, Chen Wumei and Qianyu were not idle, and a few people took the people in the village who did not have the strength to pave the road to dig apricot saplings in the mountains. Of course, when encountering a moderately sized apricot tree, they also want it.

If you want to say that the mountain behind Chenjia Village, the most important thing is this apricot tree.

Looking at the apricot trees all over the mountains, Ye Feng suddenly thought of the large apricot trees outside the Nameless Temple, including the golden apricot blossoms of that tree. Although I don't know how far it is from the Nameless Temple, I can definitely walk there.

Now, though, is not the time.

This group of people already felt guilty for not being able to contribute to paving the way, but now it's okay, following Ye Feng to do things, there are both excuses and face.

Especially when I heard Ye Feng say: "These apricot trees are not useless, on the contrary, they are very useful." Think about it, we planted apricot trees on both sides of the road. After a few years, these apricot trees have grown. Isn't it beautiful to have apricot blossoms in the spring and apricots in the summer? ”

That's true.

Although the villagers didn't understand, Ye Feng understood in his heart, and those who read knew it. Historically, there are many verses about apricot blossoms, whether it is "apricot blossoms are sparse in the shadow, playing the flute until dawn" or "blowing the face is not cold willow wind, and the clothes want to wet the apricot blossom rain" are very beautiful.

Originally, Chen Jifa didn't feel much, but Chen Qianfan greatly praised this idea. He even took the lead in digging apricot trees in the mountains for a long time when he was resting, and planted them himself.

Well, no one looks down on this work anymore.

The old people all say it's good, who dares to say it's bad?

Therefore, although the people who dig the trees are not very good workers, they do not pull down anything because of this. Anyway, wherever the road is paved, Ye Feng and his team will be able to plant apricot trees wherever they are. In other words, almost everyone moved.

However, the most tired person in the entire Chenjia Village during this period was none other than Chen Jitang.

Why?

He first wanted to raise pigs. The dozens of pigs of the Ye family are not those piglets at the beginning of the year, but fat and strong. If you don't eat when it's time to eat, the scream can literally tear off the roof.

In order not to disturb the people, Chen Jitang got up earlier and earlier, and went to the lake to hunt pigweed before dawn, cut it into a pot to cook, and feed it, but he couldn't be sloppy at all.

After feeding the pigs and locking the door, he followed Ye Feng's team to dig apricot trees in the mountains as much as he could, and then transported them to the roadside to plant them.

Seeing this, some people felt sorry for him running on both sides, and everyone was tired and thin for a while, but Chen Jitang said: "I am also a member of Chenjia Village, although I can't make a big contribution, but I can still dig trees and plant trees." ”

The group couldn't bear to refuse, so they let him go.

In addition, his family affairs with Miss Li in Lijia Village were also put on the agenda.

On that day, the matchmaker arrived at Li's house and praised Chen Jitang for a while, and said how different Chenjiacun is now. Hearing this, the Li family was depressed, hating that they had not been able to extort more.

If I had known this, I would have asked for thirty taels of silver.

However, the eight characters have been combined, and the date has been set, but it is too late to regret it. Now Chen Jitang only hopes that this road can be paved faster, and his good day is set on the twenty-sixth day of the lunar month, four days before the Chinese New Year.

The girl of the Li family does not have a big name, because the Li cripple family will not be named at all, let alone be willing to take out the money to ask Master Cen to help name it like the Ye family.

Because she was born only more than three pounds and less than four pounds, she looked like a little mouse, wrinkled. Therefore, Li Cripple proposed to call her Li Sanjin.

Slowly, this became her name.

Li Sanjin's mood has been a little complicated recently, let's say it's not happy, but it's actually quite happy, she has long wanted to leave this home.

This point is somewhat similar to the Ye family back then.

Although there are many girls like her who are called by the family as nannies, there are no ones who can stay until the age of twenty and are not married. Therefore, for a period of time, the people in the village secretly laughed at her, saying that she would never be able to marry in her life, so she could only be a cow and a horse and die at home and be an old aunt.

Now that she is married, she is still the Chen family village that many girls want to marry, and she finally has a bad breath. The people who scolded her before that she would die of old age in the family are now starting to have a good relationship with her again.

She naturally understood in her heart that these people didn't really bless her at all, but just to build a good relationship and get some seeds of longevity from her in the future. However, she would never agree.

She Li Sanjin is the most resentful, but it is not so easy to forgive these people.

However, when she heard that the other party was thirty-five, she was a little resistant. What does a man in his thirties say before he gets married?

Poor.

If it's just poor, it's okay to say, after getting married, whether it's work in the field or at home, she can take care of it. As long as you are not lazy, and Chenjiacun can share the silver every year, there is no reason to starve to death.

It's just that, taking the unmarried singles who are over thirty years old in Lijia Village as an example, almost none of them are worthy of sympathy. Either you're lazy or like to gamble, or you're stealing chickens and dogs all day long.

Thinking of this, Li Sanjin was very apprehensive, and for the first time came up with the idea of investigating first. What if her father took the money. If the other party behaves badly, she will not marry if she is killed, and it is a big deal to go out to beg for food.

She knew she wasn't pretty, and she was about to turn twenty. I expected that even if she went out to beg for food, no one would beat her idea.

Li Sanjin's mother, Chen, was in the same mood as Li Sanjin since she knew that her man had received a dowry of twenty taels. It stands to reason that a single person cannot take out so much silver.

Isn't there something wrong with the other party being so generous?

Chen even thought about whether the other party would have any dark diseases, bad habits, and so on.

But she didn't dare to complain in her heart, after all, the family really needed this silver. It's just that she gave birth too much, and she doesn't have much ability.

Li Cripple had already proposed to sell the child and sell one of the girls in the family to the city. In the end, Li Sanjin said that he would never marry in his life, and stayed at home to work to support his younger brothers and sisters.

Li Cripple saw that she did have this ability, so he dispelled this idea.

So, the mother and daughter decided to go and explore first.

On this day, Li Sanjin and Chen each carried a basket, pretending to beat pigweed and passing through Chenjia Village, but in fact, they went to see Chen Jitang's situation. Fortunately, the mother and daughter are not romantic figures, and they are deliberately low-key, so they have not attracted much attention.

Since Chenjia Village sold peanuts, renovated the ancestral hall, built a new school, and now started to build roads, more outsiders come to watch every day. So they don't have to worry about being found out at all.

The road to Chenjia Village is known to Chen, after all, this village is next to the official road, and there is such a big lake at the entrance of the village, almost all the nearby villagers know it.

The mother and daughter cut the grass in the half-basket as a cover, and then walked to Chenjia Village. What I saw and heard on the way was nothing unusual at all, and it was similar to Lijia Village. It's just that when they get halfway there, they find that it's different.

This Chenjia Village is actually mobilized by the whole village, paving the way! It seems that that rumor is actually true!

How much money does this have to be to dare to be so extravagant?

When I got closer, I was even more surprised.

This road is not only better than the official road, but it is also smoother than the streets of the city. What is even more unforgettable is that these slabs seem to have been measured in advance, and they are all the same width.

The road is the same, and the width is the same wherever the stone slabs are paved. It's so comfortable to walk on it, especially with little effort.

With this width, two or three carriages can run side by side.

Chen, who has lived in the countryside for generations, knows in his heart that this road is just fine on a sunny day, but it is flat and beautiful. However, on rainy days, that advantage naturally comes in.

Why does everyone want to live in the city? That's because the roads in the city are flat and clean. Unlike the roads in the village, when it rains, they are muddy and you can't get your feet down at all.

Rich people still dare to walk in shoes. Families like theirs can only go barefoot when it rains, for fear of damaging their shoes.

Even more strange is that there are apricot trees planted on both sides of the road at intervals of steps.

These trees are large and small, but they are all apricot trees.

Seeing this, Chen's heart suddenly relaxed a lot. In this case, it shouldn't be too bad to think about it.

The mother and daughter continued on their way to their destination.

According to the matchmaker, Chen Jitang currently has no accommodation, and is helping a family raise pigs, with an annual salary of 20 taels of silver.

To say that the Ye family is indeed easy to find, the three-story house is currently the only one in Chenjia Village. So, in a few moments, the mother and daughter saw the tall room.

After thinking about it, Chen asked Li Sanjin to hide by a nearby tree, and he stepped forward and knocked on the door.

Chen Jitang was feeding the pigs at home, thinking that he would hurry to the mountains to load trees. I dug up a lot of apricot trees yesterday, and I'm putting them on the side of the road right now.

Hearing someone knocking on the door, Chen Jitang hurriedly greeted him, and he thought that someone was urging him to plant trees.

As a result, when he opened the door, he found a woman standing at the door that he didn't know. Looking at this age, it looks like he is in his fifties.

In fact, Chen is only forty years old, but his life is hard, and there is no maintenance, so he does look more than ten years older than his actual age.

Seeing this, Chen Jitang said kindly: "Auntie, do you have something?" ”

Since Chen Jitang fed the pigs, he has eaten well, slept regularly, loved labor, and neat clothes, so he looks like he is in his twenties at first glance. Coupled with being polite, Chen's first impression was very good.

Seeing that the other party asked himself, Chen hurriedly said: "I am passing by to hunt pigweed, and I am thirsty, can I ask for saliva to drink?" ”

When Chen Jitang heard this, he hurriedly said, "Auntie, wait a minute, I'll go to the house to scoop water for you." After speaking, he went into the house and took a scoop made of half a gourd and gave Chen a scoop of water to come out.

After drinking the water, Chen saw Chen Jitang enter the house to feed the pigs, so he excused himself and walked in. This look is simply envious, these pigs are really well raised, fat and strong, oily and slippery.

And there was no stench in the room that she had imagined.

Seeing this, Chen said a few more words to Chen Jitang, and then thanked him and walked out.

If Chen still looked nervous when he knocked on the door, then at this moment, Chen was already smiling when he went out.

is a son-in-law like Chen Jitang, but he is also a little older. Otherwise, it would not be her turn to pick up the leak.