In the spring of 1985, the rain was very abundant, and the farmers were most looking forward to the beginning of the year being a good season for good weather and rain, and the seedlings in the fields greedily absorbed the sweet rain, but they did not know that the rain did not mean to stop.

"If this continues, the seedlings in the field should rot their roots." Xia Laoliu frowned and smoked a stuffy cigarette in the courtyard of the Cha family. To say that the development momentum of the entire northwest of Zhejiang in recent years is okay, the changes in the county are the same every month, the four-lane highway is ready to be built all the way to the provincial capital, and even the small stalls selling vegetables in the town have been arranged into the farmers' market with glass on the top.

"I came to you this time, there is another thing," Xia Lao Liu said: "Some people in the village believe in feng shui, saying that they plan to pick up the abandoned old temple, and they want you to take a look at the foundation and choose a date." ”

There were originally two old temples in Hongcun, one was the Dragon King Temple and the other was the General Temple. Cha Wenbin specially asked about these two temples, and it can be basically concluded that the Longwang Temple was built by their ancestors of a certain generation, and the General Temple belonged to them and then repaired by others after they took it away. Now these two temples are dilapidated, and I heard that when my great-grandfather's generation first came, the two large temples were next to each other, and there were dozens of courtyards left.

And less than four miles from the exit of Hongcun, there is a temple, and there is nothing left anyway, just a lonely big house. In the early years, it was piled up with dry straw left by some collectives, and later some farmers thought that it was unlucky to pile up coffins at home, so they piled up the coffins that had not yet been laid in the ground, so the temple got the name of the coffin temple.

This coffin temple is located in the only way to enter and exit Hong Village, and it is the intersection of a village next door. Cha Wenbin had seen it before, and he said that it was a Jiwang Temple, and what was enshrined in it should have been Houji. Who is Houji? He is the ancestor of the Zhou Dynasty, the great-great-grandson of the Yellow Emperor, surnamed Ji Ming, who was named "farmer" by Yao and named Houji by Shun. Houji was good at growing a variety of food crops, and was a farmer in the Yaoshun era, teaching the people to farm, and is considered to be the one who began to grow millet and wheat. Therefore, this Houji has also become a god in charge of agriculture, and his temple is usually called Jiwang Temple, which is not very common, and most rural areas are generally only dedicated to a land and mountain god, and the age should be quite old.

In the mid-80s, northwestern Zhejiang was still a thoroughly agrarian society, land was very precious for mountainous areas, and the grain harvest was related to the livelihood of farmers for a year. In the past few days, there have been either droughts or floods, and there are many people who can't eat enough, and even the old Xia family, who has more abundant conditions, has to replace rice with one or two meals of sweet potatoes from time to time. In those days, unless you had the money to buy black market grain, rice and oil lamps at a high price, you still bought basic daily necessities on demand with tickets.

Therefore, if the crops in this field do not grow well, they will be hungry, and the people of the two villages will say that they will not repair the Jiwang Temple at the entrance of the village, and bless the wind and rain in this place, and the five grains will be abundant. Everyone agrees with the idea, but there is always a cost to repair the house, and every household in that year is basically tightening their belts to live, and no one has any surplus food, so the next village retreated. No, as soon as the people of Hongcun discussed, if you don't repair it, we will repair it, and when the time comes, close the door and make a big lock to hang it, just don't let the people next door in.

Repairing the temple in which dynasty and generation is a matter of accumulating virtue, the people in the village naturally attach great importance to it, and they all know that there is a Cha Wenbin in Wulipu who has recently closed the door, and this Xia Lao Liu has some friendship with him, so he entrusted him to talk about it.

He came forward to say that Cha Wenbin was naturally not easy to shirk, and this temple repair was not an unlucky thing, so he nodded and agreed, and agreed to go over early the next morning to take a look.

When he arrived the next day, a group of people were carrying things there, some two-wheeled cart racks that had not been used for a long time, large packages of grain, and basically some large farm tools that were inconvenient to place at home. The rest is that there are more than a dozen coffins, all of which have the master, and each family has asked someone to pull each other, and the work of the morning has been cleaned up.

The people of Hongcun came forward to repair the temple and the village next door naturally came to join in the fun, but it has always been the uncle who pays for it. The people in the next village couldn't get used to hearing it and began to shout, which made everyone feel a little uncomfortable, and they started fighting again after coming and going.

Several villages adjacent to Hongcun have some contradictions with each other, especially the most fierce quarrel with Hongcun, why is this? We have to start with that river, a big river that originates from Lion Peak runs through the entire northwest of Zhejiang, and finally flows all the way to the Huangpu River in Shanghai, which is not false at all. At that time, there was a general shortage of electricity in the countryside, and the people of Hongcun were relatively smart, so they built a lot of dams along the river, built a total of four hydropower stations, plus the top reservoir, not only enough electricity for themselves, but also connected to the grid to generate electricity and sell some money. But in this way, it will be difficult for the following villages, when there is no water, the upstream will store water, and when the flash flood comes, the upstream will desperately release water, for this matter, everyone has long had opinions about each other.

This kind of thing has always been said to come, hoes and sticks swarm to greet each other, this is good, the temple has not yet been repaired, the temple gate first made a priest with human blood. The town and the police station have come to mediate, most of this kind of neighborhood conflicts are mainly persuasion, listening to those rude words, Cha Wenbin began to be silent again, this is the real rural life, is he planning to live like this for the rest of his life?

In the afternoon, the people from the other villages were finally cleared, and the people of Hongcun were responsible for cleaning, and I don't know how many years no one has repaired them. Fortunately, the original wood used is very strong, except for some tiles that need to be relaid, the large frame does not need to be moved too much.

In the early years, there was a statue of a god inside, which had to be about two meters high, but unfortunately it was smashed during the Cultural Revolution. It turned out that there were many colorful fairy paintings on the walls, but now they have become big-character slogans, and those traces of history are just ten years of hard work, but now they look so dazzling.

According to Cha Wenbin's opinion, the foundation of this temple does not need to be greatly changed, it is nothing more than repair, and when the time comes, it will be okay to ask a god to pick a good day. In fact, there are not many uses he can use, the building restoration is handed over to the masons and carpenters, the paintings on the walls are handed over to a few old people in the village who are good at danqing, and the rest of the women are responsible for cleaning, and it is estimated that it can be completed in half a month.

Cha Wenbin also invited a day and went back, this trip was at most out to let off steam, he had been at home for a long time.

The fat man has not heard from the bird since he left, and the same is true of Feng Qiyun, when he left, he heard that the Feng clan was ready to migrate, and he was probably afraid that there would be no contact in a short time. The days are getting more and more dull, and life is not passionate, so he is becoming more and more silent, and the silence makes Concubine Yu anxious.

In the past, some old temples will paint some murals, small temples in the countryside are not as famous as temples and ancient temples are enshrined with sculptures, murals are cheap, construction is also convenient, there are two people in Hongcun who have some skills in calligraphy and painting, one is similar to Xia Lao six years old, and the other is a primary school teacher, who is about to retire.

During the day, everyone had to work, and the work of entering the temple to restore it was naturally put into the night, picking a kerosene lamp and two stools, and sitting all night. The painter is particularly fascinated, especially in the face of the brushwork left by the ancestors, most of the oil paint on the wall has fallen off, and some of it has been obscured by big-character posters, which is not an easy job.

The teacher's surname is Hou, and he studied in a new-style school before liberation, and I heard that if it weren't for the war, he could have gone to study in a big city farther away. A high school degree was very rare at that time, and he was good at Chinese painting, which was a rare talent in our local area, teaching mathematics and art in school part-time, wearing a pair of large-framed glasses, and liking to wear a gray tunic.

There is also a lacquer craftsman in the past, the lacquer craftsman's surname is Gao, and the painting kung fu was very popular at that time, and the general people's furniture is to cut the wood by themselves and ask the carpenter to beat, and after the fight, you have to ask the lacquer craftsman to color. In the past, lacquer craftsmen were different from now, they needed to paint, and their craftsmanship could be seen on some old beds and old boxes, dragons, phoenixes, birds, flowers, and most of them were some auspicious patterns.

Mr. Hou is an atheist who firmly believes in the ideas of Marx and Lenin, identifies with materialist values and worldview, and believes that there are no gods in this world. He came here to paint purely because he was highly respected, which was a recognition of his painting art; The high lacquer maker is completely opposite, because in addition to the furniture, another thing is to paint the coffin, this job is not willing to be accepted by ordinary people, and the owner usually has to add a red envelope in addition to the normal salary, saying that it is used for joy. These two people are two completely different personalities, but they also take care of themselves when they paint together.

The first two days were after dinner, and they worked hard at six o'clock until about ten o'clock, and on the fourth day, Mr. Hou came late because he had to correct the exam papers. The high lacquer craftsman thought that Teacher Hou would not come that day, and when he saw it, he was about to pack up and leave, and the two happened to meet each other.

The high lacquer maker said, "Are you still here so late?" It's not too early, so forget it today. ”

Teacher Hou is a strict person, paying attention to the completion of the day, he educates his students in this way, and he also demands himself in this way. So he smiled and said, "I have to finish today's work, otherwise it is not a sin to delay everyone's good life." So he went in on his own.

The weather in March was still a little cold, and the high lacquer craftsman was younger than him, so he turned around and said kindly: "Master Hou, there is a thing, we craftsmen have a rule, you can't paint on this wall after twelve o'clock in the evening, you should pay more attention to the time, but don't overdo it." ”