Lee Jae-ho was happy in his heart, but he didn't say anything, and he still put on a majestic face on his face.

Li Degui entered the courtyard dam and shouted timidly: "Dad." ”

"Daddy!" Li Dequan also shouted.

"You sit." Li Zaihao didn't snub his nephew, and pointed the cigarette pot in his hand to a bench next to him, but he didn't look at Li Degui directly. He still had a face on his face, smacking the dry tobacco pot with a "bang, a click".

The two hunting dogs that ran out to greet Li Degui and Li Dequan just now were also frightened by this scene, and quietly ran to Li Degui's son Li Chongrong's side, and obediently lay still.

Li Zaihao's wife, Li Hu, because of his high family, Li Jiashan people call her mother-in-law. Li Hushi felt sorry for her son, and when she first saw the figure of her second son on the hillside, she was busy asking her two daughters-in-law to quickly burn the fire, cook rice, wash vegetables, and cut meat, and prepare the family to eat "Chinese New Year's Eve Dinner". When the second son entered the courtyard, she took her eldest daughter-in-law, second daughter-in-law and eighteen-year-old second grandson Li Chongrong to stand under the eaves, looking at the old lady's angry appearance, she didn't dare to say anything again.

Li Dequan sat sideways on the bench, turned his head to look at Li Dequan, and said to him carefully: "Dad, don't be angry first, Degui and Debao went out for their reasons." ”

Lee Jae-ho stared at him and didn't say anything.

Li Degui's wife was bolder, and when she saw that her father-in-law's anger seemed to have subsided, she hurriedly ran to Li Degui's side and deliberately complained loudly to him: "'Back time', where did you go?" What about the eldest brother and Chongkui? When you leave, you don't 'open your mouth' (the meaning of saying a word), these 20 days have made your father and mother very anxious. ”

Li Hu saw that the old man didn't blame his son anymore, and his heart relaxed a little. She got up and went back to the house, and brought out a bowl of hot porridge with clear soup and little water, and handed it to her son.

Li Degui looked at his mother gratefully, took the bowl, stood in the courtyard, and drank a bowl of porridge in one breath. After a day of walking on the mountain road, I was really thirsty and hungry, and I still knew that I felt sorry for my son. After Li Degui finished drinking the porridge, handed the bowl to his wife, wiped his mouth with his sleeve, and took out a short cigarette pot and a cigarette purse from his belt. He put the skull of the cigarette pot in his cigarette purse and stuffed a handful of cigarette foam.

Li Degui's son Li Chongrong saw this, and hurriedly ran over and took out two fire sickles from his pocket, and sparked, Li Degui hooked his head with satisfaction and lit the cigarette, and took a puff of "purr, snorr", and spewed out a large cloud of smoke.

Li Degui turned his head and saw that his father was no longer as fierce as he was just now, he stared at Li Dequan again, and when he saw Li Dequan's gestured eyes, he understood and shouted timidly at Li Zaihao: "Dad."

Seeing that his father did not say a word, Li Degui carefully sat down on the bench brought out by his sister-in-law, untied the sweat-soaked turban on his head, revealed his forehead that had grown fine black hair, put a black braid hanging down on his neck, and while smoking a cigarette, he told him that he and his eldest brother and nephew were digging a gold pit on the Jinxiba river beach and that he had come back today to ask someone to go down the mountain to carry the "ebony".

Lee Jae-ho listened to his son talk about those things endlessly, and sat on the bench without saying a word. After his son finished speaking, after a long while, Li Zaihao said: "The two 'ebony' you said, is one really a toon wood?" ”

"It's really toon wood!" Li Degui replied affirmatively.

"Take off your straw sandals and brown socks on your feet!" When Lee Jae-ho heard this, he still said to his son with a bluffed face. Then he said to his two daughters-in-law, "Go into the house and bring out two basins of water." ”

In order to make it easier for people in the mountains to climb the hills, they wear a pair of straw sandals all year round. Straw sandals are made of grain grass, palm leaves, and straw, as well as old strips of cloth. The straw sandals are not durable, the palm leaf sandals are rough and easy to wear out the feet, and the old cloth strip sandals are rare and cannot be worn by the poor. The straw sandals under Li Degui's feet are woven of straw, which is not only strong and durable, but also soft and non-slip when walking. His pair of brown socks was a good thing, and they were worn on his feet in winter to protect them from the cold and moisture, and he walked a day on the mountain road, and his feet were still hot to this day.

Li Degui heard his father's instructions, and didn't understand why his father asked him to take off the brown socks that were dressed ambiguously and peacefully, and he didn't want to take them off.

"Collapse!" Li Zaihao roared at his son, and then in the direction of the house, he urged his two daughters-in-law: "You two bring water, hurry up!" ”

The two daughters-in-law heard their father-in-law shouting, and hurriedly brought a wooden basin of water and put it in front of their father-in-law. Li Degui also took off the straw sandals and brown socks on his feet.

When Li Zaihao was talking just now, he had already taken off the melon skin hat on his head, put his gray hair braid around his neck, and he couldn't help but snatch the brown socks from his son's hand and put them in the wooden basin and rubbed them vigorously.

The two daughters-in-law stood next to them and saw their father-in-law rubbing his son's socks, and they wanted to help but didn't dare, so they looked at their in-laws with hard eyes.

Li Hushi also felt strange when he saw it: "This old man has done everything in the fields and raking the ground, but he has never seen him wash his clothes, what kind of crazy person is coming today, on a cold day, he actually sat in the courtyard dam and rubbed his son's socks in front of his daughter-in-law." If you don't let your son into the house because his feet are dirty, and there are brown socks at home, just ask him to change a pair, which one asks you to wash him yourself? ”

Li Hu thought about it, and stretched out his hand to take the brown socks from the old man's hand. Lee Jae-ho shook his head at his wife and refused to give it to her. He also yelled at his son, "Soak your straw sandals in the water and rub them vigorously." ”

Li Degui has never washed his own clothes since he was a child, and when he heard his father telling him to rub straw sandals, the boss was reluctant, and he didn't dare to do it. He had no choice but to reluctantly squat down, follow his father's example, put the straw sandals in another wooden basin, and rubbed them listlessly.

Li Zaihao rubbed his brown socks for a while, raised his head and said to his grandson Li Chongrong with a pleasant face: "You and your grandmother go to her 'rest house' (the meaning of bedroom) and carry out the big 'yellow bucket' (another name for wooden barrel) used for bathing." ”

Li Chongrong heard this, and hurriedly pulled his grandmother to the rest house. Li Zaihao's two daughters-in-law stood next to him and had nothing to do, and they didn't dare to go away just now, but now the two of them looked at each other, and followed behind his mother-in-law and grandson, and went into the back room to help carry the yellow bucket. After a while, four people came out of the back room with a large yellow bucket in the shape of a pig's kidney and placed it in the courtyard.