At the same time that the Spark team began to start the project of moving mountains, on the other side, in a small village in the southwest mountains, a "small thing" that has lasted for hundreds of years is happening as always.

Wang Qing coated his face with a layer of natural dye made from a mixture of pot ash, gardenin, and blue grass, carefully outlining the shape of a noodle face.

On the side, his little nephew Wang Shu watched his movements curiously and asked:

"Brute, what are you doing here?"

Wang Qing smiled and replied:

"Draw noodles, tomorrow is the first day of October, we are going to sacrifice to the Ox King-—— I'll practice first."

"What are you doing to sacrifice the Ox King?"

Wang Shu continued to ask.

His little face was full of curiosity, and he seemed to be completely unable to understand why he, a handsome and handsome brute, painted his face with such a terrible appearance.

Those strange patterns, the blood and fangs at the corners of the mouth, and the blood-red horns on the forehead seem to be terrible demons that can only be seen on TV and in villain books.

Wang Qing turned his face, touched Wang Shu's head with some distress, and replied:

"The sacrifice to the Ox King is to bless us with good weather in the coming year."

"Also, we must be blessed with peace and security, smooth roads, and safe fields."

"Does it work?"

Wang Shu asked reluctantly.

Wang Qing was stunned for a moment, and for a while, he didn't know how to answer.

Did it work?

In fact, he knows better than anyone else that this kind of folk activity is actually just a kind of "folklore" inheritance, and it is only an expectation of the mountain people who live here, and it is not even a faith.

Can it be useful?

How can it be!

If it worked, the terraced fields in the mountains would not be destroyed by landslides and mudslides, and the roads and bridges leading to the outside world would not be blocked by floods at every turn.

But the question is, what else can people here do but beg for ethereal "gods"?

Wang Qing sighed.

In fact, he is not just an ordinary villager.

His real identity is that he is the head of this small village – a primary school teacher and the head of the village disaster prevention office.

After graduating from university, he returned to the village called "Settlement Village", and his original intention was to rely on his own ability to contribute to the village that raised him.

At that time, he was full of spirit, thinking that there was nothing in this world that he couldn't do, no matter how difficult and hard it was, as long as he was willing to work and as long as he was united, he could always make one or two achievements.

In the history of this country, are there still few people who have taken root at the grassroots level and finally led an entire village out of poverty and become rich, and made some achievements?

Even if you don't have the ability and talent they have, if you focus on one thing, you will at least have some results, right?

His idea was simple, when he returned to the village, he would do two things.

The first is to build roads.

The second piece is bridging.

The road was built to open the village road from Luojiao Village to Sungai County, widening the bird road that originally surrounded the mountain wall and could only accommodate one person, at least to allow motorcycles to pass through.

The bridge is to erect a steel cable bridge on the Chengxi at the entrance of the village to replace the wooden pontoon bridge that is now repaired every year and broken every year.

None of these two things sound difficult.

After all, the geographical environment of Luojiao Village is much better than that of Shibanhe Village, which has been in the news, and they can still use two years to carve out a road on the rock wall, can't Luojiao Village do it?

It's nothing more than opening a mountain.

At that time, the stone excavated from the road construction can be used to build bridges, solving two problems at one time.

It's a beautiful plan, but the problem is that it's too good to be true.

It wasn't until Wang Qing actually returned here and began to organize the villagers to build roads that he realized how naïve his ideas were.

How can it be so easy to open a mountain?

Lack of tools, steep terrain, narrow construction area, landslides and landslides are frequent.

After more than two years of work and the concentration of the entire village, the road was only built for a short distance of fifty meters.

And that's not even the toughest stretch of the road.

Everyone was a little disappointed, and even the plan was on the verge of being abandoned, but a sudden incident strengthened everyone's attitude.

Wang Shu's parents unfortunately fell off a cliff during an outing, and by the time someone found out, both of them had died.

This incident gave everyone in the village a blow to the head, and everyone realized that what happened to Wang Shu's family today could happen to their own family tomorrow.

As long as the road is not repaired for a day, as long as the bridge is not built for a day, it is impossible for the people who settle in the village to really get out of the village.

As a result, the villagers are more active, and even the annual celebration of the Ox King Festival has been simplified this year, just to save more time, and take advantage of the slack time to build an extra meter of the road.

That would have been a good thing.

But for Wang Qing, it is a heavy burden.

The more active the villagers were, the more guilty he felt.

He felt guilty that he was incapable of winning the support of his superiors, funds, technology, and equipment.

I also feel guilty about the decision to build the road itself.

Because he knew that the reason why Wang Shu's parents had to brave the rain to leave the village that day was to sell the few eggs and bundles of medicinal herbs left at home, and wanted to exchange for some food to come back and subsidize the family.

In fact, they would not have been so embarrassed.

If it weren't for the roads, they would have more time to run their own little home, to grow more rice, to raise more chickens and ducks.

In that case, they may be able to live in this isolated village for the rest of their lives.

It can be said that it was their own decisions that led to their tragedy.

He couldn't help but reflect, was he really right to do this?

I told them with arrogance that you should build roads, you should open up the connection between this place and the outside world, and you should see the bigger world.

But I never really thought about whether they needed that "bigger world" or not.

Thinking of this, Wang Qing couldn't help but sigh again.

Wang Shu on the side stretched out his hand and wiped it on his face, then giggled and applied the paint to his face.

He didn't know how to paint, and the graffiti was just painting his face into a flower cat, Wang Qing looked funny, so he dipped in paint and helped him draw the pattern on his face more evenly.

At this moment, Wang Shu completely turned into a black-faced baogong, but he didn't realize it.

Wang Qing's mood finally improved, he laughed for a while, called Qingshui to help Wang Shu wash his face, and then glanced at the time, and began to rush in the direction of the ancestral hall.

Today is the day of the regular meeting of the village committee, and in addition to the arrangements for the next day's Ox King Festival, there is also a plan to build the road in the near future.

When they arrived at the ancestral hall, the other main young adults in the village had been waiting for a long time, Wang Qing smiled apologetically, explained that Wang Shu was waiting on the side, and he walked to the main seat specially set aside.

"Everyone, it's quiet."

Wang Qing raised his hand, and the chaotic and noisy voices around him gradually became quieter, and everyone subconsciously looked at him, waiting for him to speak.

Wang Qing coughed and said:

"We've been doing a lot lately, and we're all busy, so I won't talk too much nonsense."

"There are only two main items on our agenda today."

"One, it's about tomorrow's Ox King's Day."

"The other one is about our plans to build roads in the future."

"I'll talk about the Ox King's Day first."

"How to arrange the specific activities, the elders in the village are very clear, so I won't intervene."

"However, I want to emphasize one point here, that is, this year's festival is all simple, everyone has voted to agree before, and no one will be allowed to say strange things or do strange things at that time, do you know it?"

"Clear!"

"Don't worry, A-Qing, you've already said hello!"

Listening to the answers of everyone in the audience, Wang Qing nodded gratefully and continued:

"Another thing is that you should pay special attention to safety when using fire tomorrow, now that it is autumn, the weather is dry, and it is easy for fires to break out."

"The terrain here is complicated, and if something happens, 119 won't be able to get over at all."

"If the mountain really burns, none of us can afford to take responsibility, understand?"

"Understood! Ah Qing, we have organized the fire brigade, and the whole village will patrol tomorrow, just put your heart in your stomach! ”

"Okay, then I'll be relieved."

Wang Qing took a deep breath, and his expression became serious.

"Next, we're going to talk about the plan to build the road."

"In another half a month at most, all the rice in our village will be harvested, which means that we are officially entering the slack period."

"According to our plan to build roads, we will take advantage of the slack time to rush and strive to build the most difficult road at the head of the tile kiln within this year."

"We haven't changed this plan."

"Now, I want to ask you, is there a problem in terms of manpower and family economy?"

Hearing his words, the entire ancestral hall instantly fell silent.

In fact, everyone knows the plan to build the road, and basically accepts it, but to say that there is no difficulty at all is purely a joke.

For the villagers here, even if they enter the farm, there are countless jobs to do, who can really guarantee that there is no problem with manpower?

It's just that on this occasion, no one wants to be the first to stand up and admit it.

Looking at everyone's reactions, Wang Qing also knew what they thought, and after a moment of silence, he spoke:

"I don't force the road construction."

"If you think that we really can't hold on anymore, then we're going to stop it."

"The time and effort wasted in the past two years, I Wang Qing will slowly find a way to make up for it in the future"

"Ah Qing! What a fart! ”

Before Wang Qing finished speaking, an old man in the crowd stood up.

He glared at Wang Qing angrily and continued to speak:

"Building the road is everyone's decision, not your Wang Qing's decision alone."

"Now, we are in difficulty, there is not enough manpower, but it is not yet a time when there is no way to think about it."

"What do you mean by saying frustrating words here? Look down on us? ”

"I'm going to leave the words here today, you four barbarians are a family, you can be out!"

"As soon as the Ox King Festival passes tomorrow, we will go to Wayaotou immediately, and I will go in person!"

Hearing the old man's words, the emotions of everyone in the ancestral hall were immediately mobilized.

"That's right, if you build roads, you will build roads, and if there are not enough people, you will slow down, and there are fools in ancient times who moved mountains, so we can't move them?"

"That's what I said, my family is in a bit of a difficulty, the rice hasn't been harvested yet, and when the rice is harvested, I'll go over, and I'll give two laborers."

"I can also produce two! My mother-in-law can't go, there are pigs to feed at home."

For a while, people kept opening up to sign up, even if there were really difficulties at home, it all explained the situation.

They thought of all kinds of methods, so to speak, racking their brains to think about how to do the matter of "building roads", as if the idea of "retreating" never appeared in their minds.

Wang Qing couldn't help but be a little moved.

He opened his mouth and said:

"Since everyone is so positive, let's continue with the original plan."

"This section of the road is the most dangerous and difficult part of our road, when the time comes to go up the mountain, everyone should pay attention to safety, especially the safety rope must be fastened, don't be troublesome!"

Everyone agreed in a mess, and the expression on Wang Qing's face relaxed slightly, but at this time, someone asked:

"Ah Qing, last time we said we were going to the county to find a way, is there a way now?"

"It's such a long road, it's not enough for the people in our village, right?"

"Even if the county doesn't send people, it's good to send us two excavators, the excavators can do a day's work, at least enough for us to do for several days."

Hearing this, Wang Qing sighed and said:

"I went to the county to ask, but now I don't have a letter yet."

"But I'm not afraid to tell you."

"There is basically no hope for this thing."

"Money, the county can give out a part, but people, no."

"Equipment, that's really no way."

"The mountain is too high here, the road is too narrow, the excavator can't come up at all, if you insist on using the excavator, you can only dig the whole mountain, the cost is too high."

"So, don't have any hope, if you really want to do it, we can only do it ourselves"

Hearing his words, a look of disappointment appeared on everyone's faces.

Someone spoke:

"It's better to rely on your father and mother than on yourself, I said it was useless to go to the county to beg the county."

"What can they do? It's been hundreds of years, and our village is still like this, so it's impossible for it to change in their hands, right? ”

"You expect them to succeed, you might as well expect Lord Niu to come down to arch the mountain."

"Hahaha, that's a good idea. Tomorrow is the Ox King's Day, how much incense, maybe the Ox King will appear."

Listening to their words, Wang Qing's heart felt a little uncomfortable.

He looked at the people who walked out of the ancestral hall, and involuntarily hummed the "Words to Plum Mountain" to be sung at the Ox King Festival.

Send it into the first cave of Meishan, and the stone rock drips water and makes nine bends."

"Sent into the second cave of Meishan, it is difficult to walk on the bridge road."

The water is a nine-fold bend, and the road is difficult for oxen to walk.

In the lyrics of the millennium, the situation of the settlement village has been vividly written.

It's just that he doesn't know how long this situation will last.

(End of chapter)