Where is there any other village within a radius of ten miles?
In addition, it has been raining, so sleeping outdoors is not convenient.
Du Chuanfu looked back at the carriage behind him. He had known that he should be walking behind, so he wouldn't have scared anyone away.
Song Qiu poked his head out and said, "Go into the village and ask to see who the village chief is. It's a good place to stay."
Du Chuanfu nodded in agreement, got off the mule cart and entered the village. He went to the first house without knocking, and there happened to be an old woman sitting under the porch.
Du Chuanfu deliberately faced the unscarred side, stepped forward and asked: "Auntie, which household does the village chief belong to?"
The old woman's eyes were a little confused, but her ears were still sharp. After listening to the words, she pointed to the opposite side and said: "The third house over there is."
Du Chuanfu thanked the old woman and walked to the opposite side.
The third earthen courtyard looked larger, and the door was closed tightly. Du Chuanfu raised his hand and knocked on the door.
There was a knock on the door, and a voice was heard inside: "Who is it?"
Then there were footsteps, and then the door opened from the inside.
When Niu Hansan saw Du Chuanfu outside, he didn't recognize him. He was a stranger. His face couldn't help but become wary, "Who are you looking for?"
Du Chuanfu said calmly: "This is the village chief's home, right? It's getting late. Our master and servants want to stay here for one night. Is it convenient?"
"You want to stay overnight?" Niu Hansan looked behind Du Chuanfu and didn't see many people.
Du Chuanfu saw the look in his eyes and said hurriedly: "My master is still waiting for me outside the village. He asked me to come in first and ask."
Niu Hansan listened, paused, and said, "Wait a moment, I'll go in and ask my father!"
After that, he turned around and went back, not forgetting to close the door. He was so vigilant that no one else could.
Du Chuanfu stood and waited for a while before the door opened again.
Niu Hansan supported an old man with gray hair, who was the head of Niujia Village.
He looked at Du Chuanfu with presbyopic eyes and said: "There are not many rooms in the house, so we can only barely spare one room. How many people do you have, master and servant?"
Du Chuanfu said: "As long as you can free up a room."
The old village chief nodded after hearing this, "Okay, then come in!"
Du Chuanfu turned around and left the village to reply. The door of the village chief's house was still open. Niu Hansan helped his father go back and said, "Dad, which room should I make for them?"
"Take the eldest girl's room and send the three and four girls to our room. The eldest girl and the second girl go to your room and squeeze in with your wife and the second child's wife. You go and sleep with the second child and Bao'er.
.”
After the old village chief made such arrangements, the two daughters-in-law and their daughters quickly went to work.
By the time Song Qiu and the others came over, the house had already been tidied up.
Seeing a group of three little girls, except for the grown man Du Chuanfu, the village chief and his family secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
They make things convenient for others, but they are also afraid of meeting bad people.
These three little girls look similar to the older girls and the second girls, so they don't look like bad people.
But how to sleep in a room?
At first, the old village chief thought that Du Chuanfu agreed because all his masters and servants were men.
After thinking about it, he asked Niu Hansan to place the bamboo chair where he took his nap in their room so that Du Chuanfu could sleep.
If someone is staying at home, dinner must be served.
They only eat two meals a day in their village. After midnight, dinner has already been eaten at home.
At this time, the old village chief ordered his two daughters-in-law to go to the stove to light up the fire and cook dinner for the guests.
After Niu Hansan's wife agreed, she came back, holding her apron and hesitated: "Dad, what are you cooking for?"
The glutinous rice they had for dinner couldn't be cooked for the guests as well, right?
That's not like entertaining guests.
But there was no rice at home.
It's not yet time to harvest this year's grain.
The old village chief thought for a while, called Niu Hansan and said: "Go to Niu Dawang's house and borrow a small bowl of white flour from them, add some corn noodles, steam a basket of dry buns, and borrow a few eggs from them.
saute."
Niu Dawang's family is strong and has a lot of labor. He goes to the town to work part-time when he has free time throughout the year. His life is always better than that of other families in the village.
The only one in the village who could borrow these things was his family.
Niu Hansan answered the call and went out.
The earthen house was very simple, much worse than the wooden house before Song Qiu's family. There was nothing in the house except a fairly wide bamboo bed.
Sitting inside was cramped and uncomfortable. A Ling opened the door and wanted to come out for some air. Then he saw Niu Hansan coming back from outside with a bowl of white noodles and four eggs in his hand.
I couldn't help but turn around and talk to Song Qiu.
"Niujia Village is indeed quite poor. The village chief's family has to borrow rice from others."
What they usually know is that no matter which village it is, the village chief's family usually lives a more prosperous life.
"Perhaps the family has few laborers and no skills?"
Looking at this family first, the old village chief is old. He only has two sons, one of whom is still lame in his leg. Next to the grandchildren, there are no boys at all. They all seem to be girls.
The older girl was holding the boy she was playing with, and he was still very young.
"We will give you some money when we leave tomorrow morning. We also need money to stay in an inn, right? We can't let others borrow things for nothing."
The village chief's family seemed to be having a really hard time. Song Qiu didn't want them to come and stay for one night, so they lent them some white noodles to entertain them, and then it was even more difficult.
The rain stopped outside, and there was a cool breeze in the evening, but the room was stuffy and stuffy.
Even Song Qiu couldn't bear it, so the three of them simply left the house and sat on the eaves steps outside, enjoying the cool breeze, which was more comfortable.
The village chief's two daughters-in-law quickly prepared the meal and invited them to eat in the main room.
The staple food is a small dustpan of steamed buns mixed with white flour and corn flour.
The vegetables are vegetables picked from the home garden, a bowl of eggplant stewed with long beans, a bowl of pickled courgettes, and a large bowl of egg and luffa soup.
The old village chief had been sitting in the main room. When he saw Song Qiu and others coming in, he smiled and invited them to eat, "The food is simple, I hope the guests will not dislike it."
"What the hell, it's us who have troubled your family." Song Qiu returned with a smile and asked the village chief to sit down.
But the village chief waved his hand and said that they had all eaten, and asked Song Qiu and the others to eat by themselves.
At this time, the sky was slowly getting dark. If we delayed any longer, we would not be able to see anything in the house, and we would have to eat in the dark. So Song Qiu was not polite and sat down with Aling and others to eat.
The weather was hot, and Song Qiu had a small appetite. He only ate one steamed bun and a bowl of loofah soup and he was full.
The three pear blossoms ate more, but they were still holding their stomachs. Therefore, the four of them ate about the same amount of food. Half of the dustpan steamed buns were left.
After dinner, they didn't bother them to boil water. Song Qiu and the others washed their faces with cold water, wiped them, and went to sleep.
Du Chuanfu thanked Niu Han San for the bamboo rocking chair and slept on the mule cart himself, and it was not cold either side.
Song Qiu and three people slept on the same bed. It was hot in the room, and with the windows open, many mosquitoes flew in, buzzing and biting.
The three of them were not asleep, so they got up before dawn.
"Let's go on our way early while the sun is out and it's cool!"
Du Chuanfu grabbed the car, opened the door and drove out.
Niu Han San, who heard the commotion, saw that they were leaving so early and said they were busy on their way, so he didn't stay much and sent them off. When he came back, he knocked on the window and asked Da Niu and the others to go back to their own room to sleep. The four of them were crowded together.
It's also hot.
As soon as the two older girls returned to the house, they screamed.
There was a string of copper plates placed on their bed, no more than fifty of them!
When he got up later and found out, the old village chief asked his son to catch up with the copper coins and return them to others. How could they have the nerve to ask for so much money when their hospitality was so simple?
But Niu Hansan didn't know where Song Qiu and his party were going, so naturally they couldn't catch up with them, so they had no choice but to give up and come back.