Xu Zhiguo's new home is located in the northeast corner of the Fang family's courtyard. Shanghu Village is not very large, but there are still three or four courtyards with complete ancient architectural structures like this. If compared according to the size of the room building, the function, and the population base, the Fangjia courtyard house is the largest, most complete and most famous in Shanghu. This is not so much Xu Zhiguo's new home, but rather his family's transfer from a dilapidated house to another old and solemn courtyard. The fact is that the history of this new home is longer and older than that of the low-slung house with low ashes, but the house here is not a lonely and exclusive courtyard, but a large courtyard with a population of nearly 60 or so inhabited by seven or eight families with the surname Fang.

This courtyard is the oldest existing courtyard in Shanghu Village, with the most complete equipment and functions. Although it is only an ancient house, the layout of each room in the entire courtyard is very scientific and reasonable. Even if it is just an ordinary building in the Jiangnan folk during the late Qing Dynasty. But the architectural style is not conservative at all, it has long been integrated into some modern ideas.

The courtyard has its special underground drainage channel, no matter how much rain is fierce and rapid, the courtyard will not be soaked and destroyed by rainwater. The layout of the vents in the courtyard adopts a natural and smooth ventilation style, and there is a very reasonable arrangement for the convection of air, and each room is relatively presented with a rational layout of two in the same straight line. There are also a number of very hidden lookout posts on the upper walls, leaving guns to defend against the enemy. The four corners of the courtyard are not at right angles, but some of the green bricks on the wall are polished with tools to form an elliptical arc shape. Young people don't know what it's used for, thinking that the older generation has nothing to do, and polishing the corners of the wall into an oval shape can be more beautiful. In fact, it has two meanings, the first is to prevent the impact and damage to the corners of the wall when the typhoon invades. In the rainy summer season in Jiangnan, typhoons blow at the same time, and the corners of the walls are polished into an oval shape to reduce the threat of typhoons to the house and play a role in protecting the house; Second, there is no angle in the corner of the wall, which expands the line of sight to avoid bumps and bumps by pedestrians passing by at night, and the safety of people passing by is guaranteed. Such a wise ancestor is also a source of pride for the descendants who live here.

Xu Yunqin was a little disgusted by moving to a new home. My home is very close to the "chat pavilion", just across a small broken road. Every year, the village will rehearse Yue Opera during the Spring Festival. As soon as the gongs, drums, cymbals, small piano and erhu sounded, he could still take care of dinner, and ran to the playground in the morning. Those little students, scholars, housekeepers; Those Hua Dan, maids, and young ladies; There are also loyal ministers, military generals, clowns, robbers, gangs, traitors, as well as faint kings and queen mothers, all of whom will have ups and downs in their emotions as the plot progresses. Their love, hatred, hatred, and grievances are all related to the likes and dislikes in the play. Now his father is about to force him to move, although he still lives in the same village, but this is enough to make Xu Yunqin angry. He was dragged home by his father, and instead of helping his parents sort out their clothes, he was clinging to a wooden pillar of his next-door neighbor and yelling. At first, his father ignored him, and let him cry and fuss, and when the house was almost cleaned up, his bad temper came up, and he was beaten in the ass.

Moving is a big family event, but for Xu Zhiguo, it is much simpler. There was nothing of value in his house, except for a few bulky ceramic rice jars, earthen pots and porcelain vases, and the remaining broken cotton jackets, broken wooden boxes, and broken baskets were all worthless things. But Xu Zhiguo takes this very seriously, these seem to be his treasures, and he is reluctant to give them away, let alone throw them away. His wife, Jin Xiaoju, then got angry and said: "Some things are going to break when they are moved over, let's just throw them away, don't pack everything, isn't it a waste of effort?" ”

Xu Zhiguo said with a dark face: "What do you know, these things are all accumulated by me little by little money, they are not easy to come by, you have never cared about family affairs, and I have deep feelings for them." "Packing up as you talk.

Jin Xiaoju looked helpless, so she had to sigh and said: "Your baby bump is garbage in the eyes of others, if you want to move, you will move it yourself, and I won't enjoy it if you move it." ”

When Xu Zhiguo went to beat his son Yunqin, Jin Xiaoju was not in a hurry to stop it. When her husband beat her son and her son had already given in, she went over to lead Xu Yunqin to her new home, and Xu Yunqin had already followed her obediently at that time, and she didn't even dare to sob.

Xu Zhiguo's new home is the second home in the west of the Fang family's courtyard. The first owner was Fang Yunqing of the Fang family. At this time, Fang Yunqing's family also has an old woman who is small and old, almost less than one meter four, and lives separately from Fang Yunqing's family, but the stove where the rice is cooked is connected together, it should be Fang Yunqing's mother, Xu Yunqin can't tell these situations apart; The third family in the west is Fang Yunqing's nephew Fang Benquan. This young man who was less than forty years old was tall and full of energy. Fang Benquan also has a gray-haired old mother who lives with them. Fang Benquan's wife is dressed up refreshingly, her face is delicate and delicate, with a pair of shrimp eyes, she loves to smile but looks at people to laugh, she is usually reluctant to talk to her neighbors more; The head of the household next to Taimen in the east is Fang Caihe's family, she is the only daughter of Fang Yunshou, and she recruited a son-in-law to pass on the family lineage, her parents are still sound, although the house allocated to her family is almost more than twice the area of Xu Zhiguo compared with the current area, but the family of more than ten people still looks very crowded. It has been 16 years since her son-in-law Li Kemin entered her house, and Li Kemin's family, Fang Yunqing and Fang Ben's family are all headed by the women of the family. These men have no real power in the family. Fang Yunqing's wife He Xianxiang is also a shrewd old woman in her fifties, her hair has begun to turn gray, her face is full of wrinkles, her figure is not bloated, and her eyes are more focused, which makes her look a little shrewd and capable. She gave birth to five daughters, two boys and seven children for Fang Yunqing, and the four daughters have all been married, leaving two sons and one daughter who have not grown up and started a family.

This woman did not impress her neighbors in the first place, because her family's finances were always in her hands, and others thought she was stronger. In fact, this old woman has a relatively docile personality, and she is also kind and virtuous, especially Fang Yunqing is very considerate. Fang Yunqing's life is very thoughtful, which makes the neighbors envious. Fang Yunqing was originally a rough man, illiterate, rarely smoked, liked to drink hot wine to moisten his heart, and would panic if he didn't drink one or two bowls of rice wine a day.

Nephew Fang Benquan is just the opposite, he is addicted to smoking and does not drink alcohol. His wife, Bao Yumei, is the daughter of a neighboring village who makes burlap pockets and cloth tents. The neighbor was a woman of medium height, not more than forty years old, with long hair and a shawl, a beautiful face, a full heavenly court, a pair of dark and bright eyes, fine and well-proportioned eyebrows, and a smooth and straight nose. She was well-dressed and mature, looking a little younger than her actual age. has been married for more than ten years, and is known as the "daughter-in-law with a thousand faces", and she is a personal essence. She rarely interacts with her neighbors, but she has a very good relationship with every cadre in the village, and there are almost nothing she can't do in the village.

Fang Benquan was burly and had amazing strength. It is said that in the summer of the first year before the daughter-in-law did not enter the house, there was a large flood in the river east of the village, and a large tree was washed down from the mountain by the floodwater, and the large tree blocked the flow of the floodwater. Everyone was worried that the tree would destroy the levee and cause the dam to collapse, and the consequences were unimaginable. But it's useless to worry, no one dares to go down to clean up such a big tree in the river, Fang Ben is less vigorous all year round, at the critical juncture, I saw him find a hemp rope to tie around his waist, and the woodcutter was on his shoulder, so he jumped down the river to cut the branches and leaves of the big tree, which was not enough, I saw him holding the trunk with both hands and dragging the tree to the shore, everyone was afraid that something would happen to him, so he quickly pulled him up. Just after the great flood, he went down into the river again and carried the tree to the shore. Some people didn't believe that he could carry such a big tree on his back, so he brought a scale and weighed it, a good fellow, more than 500 pounds, and since then he has earned the nickname of "Fang 500".

Fang Benquan was afraid that his wife's reputation would be outside. It's just that he is a smoker, so he has to leave some small money on him in case he needs it, otherwise, even if he has great skills, he can't solve the problem of smoking. And his wife always strictly controls the amount of cigarettes he smokes, so that he has nothing to do. He began to pay credit to the only small shop in the village, but the good times did not last long, and the shopkeeper began to collect debts, and the matter was exposed to his wife. His wife paid off the cigarette money for him, and at the same time, he also promised in front of his wife that the way to get credit would be cut off.

Fang Benquan didn't have a temper in front of his wife, and he didn't even dare to do anything to catch his breath loudly. This made his mother angry and uncomfortable. This poor woman with small feet was also an "outsider". Ben Quan's father, Fang Yuncai, turned her over when she went to Ningbo as a shaved apprentice when she was young. My mother has not had a chance to go back since she left her hometown for more than 40 years, and the only thing that remains is her little feet that she has wrapped since she was a child; The second is the "Allah" Ningbo accent that has never changed. Her daughter-in-law has never looked at her with a straight eye, and she is angry at her words of "Ala Ningbo people" from time to time. The mother-in-law rarely speaks in front of her daughter-in-law, and she doesn't smile, and the two are strangers. The daughter-in-law never called her "Mom", and even didn't want to say "Mother-in-law". But the daughter-in-law must have a strict system to restrain the mother-in-law from working like a spinning top every day. Fang Benquan initially objected to his wife's arrogant attitude and strict discipline of his mother, but his wife did not give in at all, but intensified her request for her mother-in-law to do more farm work.

Fang Benquan has three children under his knees, and the eldest son, Fang Lei, is nearly ten years old. They don't talk too much about their mother's attitude towards their grandmother. It is despicable for mothers to teach their children to call their mothers-in-law "grandma", "mother-in-law" or simply "Nobo people" to call their children mother-in-law, and to insult mother-in-law. A neighbor also expressed his dissatisfaction with her in front of her, but unfortunately Fang Benquan himself did not dare to offend his woman, who could have any qualifications to "repair" his wife.