Zhang An thought for a while and told Mr. Huang his thoughts to see what the old man thought about it.
Mr. Huang thought for a long time before telling Zhang An that they should go down the mountain together first.
Although the old man also knows that if the old cow is left here, it may encounter other beasts.
But waiting here all the time is not a problem. The main reason is that I don’t know when everyone will find it.
It's better to take a gamble and go down the mountain to find everyone first, and then drag the cattle.
If something happens to the cow when he comes back, it will be his own life.
Because I didn't think carefully, now everyone in the village is looking for me in the mountains, which has already caused trouble for everyone.
After hearing what Mr. Huang said, Zhang An took Mr. Huang down the mountain to find everyone.
After walking through the rotten stone forest and passing through the sand forest in front of him, Zhang An returned along the same path as he had just come from.
Because when he came, he left a mark on the road so that people behind him could find him.
I was very lucky. As soon as I walked out of the sand forest, I saw several rays of light swinging under the mountain.
This must have been found by people from the village, these lights are all the light of flashlights.
When Zhang An saw these flashlight lights, he opened his mouth and shouted loudly in the direction of the light source.
"I'm Zhang An, I found the second master."
Since Zhang An can see the light, it proves that he is not far away.
Sure enough, after the sound was passed, everyone responded immediately.
Two groups of people walked up, one walked down.
After walking for a while, everyone gathered together.
It turned out that everyone searched separately, but no one found it in the end.
And everyone is not looking blindly. When looking, they still pay attention to see if there are any traces of people passing by.
Most of this mountain is now a forest of wolves and chickens, and it's easy to tell whether someone has walked through it.
Therefore, there were obviously no traces of people walking in some places, so everyone returned the same way.
We also happened to come across the flashlight Huang Ming brought from home, and everyone summarized the direction they had just looked for.
Only the side where Zhang An left had no news, so everyone looked for him this way.
Finally, the mark left by Zhang An was discovered, and just halfway through, the two groups met.
"Second uncle, you are doing this badly. If the cow is lost, everyone can look for it. What if something happens to you, who is just a fool? Even if the cow is gone, at most you will have no money. Don't do this next time."
What Mr. Huang did this time was indeed somewhat thoughtless.
But this matter has to be said by the old uncle. As the village chief, whatever he says is right.
Mr. Huang knew just now that he had not considered it well, so he would like to apologize to everyone now.
Everyone who came out to help was sincere and worried that something might happen to Mr. Huang, so they were relieved to see that Mr. Huang was fine.
Finally, Zhang An told everyone about the situation of the cow. While everyone was here, he could go up and drag the cow up.
Therefore, the old rule is that Huang Ming should go home to report the news and make his family feel at ease.
The rest of the people walked up to the rotten stone forest to drag cattle.
After having a flashlight, the road was no longer dark, and everyone quickly passed through the sand forest and reached the rotten stone forest.
This stone pit is quite deep. After everyone tried several times just now, they couldn't directly drag the cow up.
There isn't much mud here, and no one has a hoe, otherwise they could fill it with soil and pad the cattle.
Although it is called Rotten Stone Forest, these stones are not small pieces, but rocks that grow together with the mountain.
There was no way to move it directly, so the idea of backfilling came to nothing.
It would be much easier if there was a bar, but everyone came in a hurry and no one took them with them.
But when Zhang An saw someone bringing a hatchet, he immediately thought of it.
"Uncle, we have hatchets. We can chop down some trees and put them down to build a bridge."
Zhang An did what he said, took the hatchet from the villagers, ran to the edge of the sand forest, picked out a few sand trees as big as a bowl, and chopped them down.
Seeing this, the others with hatchets followed Zhang An's example and chopped down the tree.
After finally cutting down seven or eight trees of this size, cut off the branches and put them directly into the stone pit.
The old cow probably knew that everyone was rescuing it at this time, so when it saw the sand tree that everyone had put down, it would spread its legs to make room.
In the end, we stepped up little by little on the bridge made of sand trees, although we slipped down many times during this period.
But in the end, the old scalper was dragged out, and the result was good.
The main reason is that this place is far away from the village, and I have to go back to get things. It takes an hour or two to go back and forth, so Zhang An didn't suggest going back to get the bar.
When everyone just dragged the old scalper out, Zhang An looked at the time and it was already past nine o'clock.
Most of the people here haven't eaten yet and have been coming into the mountains since before it gets dark in the afternoon.
But now we have found Mr. Huang and pulled out the cow that fell into the pit.
Everyone was very happy and temporarily forgot about eating.
By the time everyone returned to the village, it was already ten o'clock in the evening.
Normally, everyone would have fallen asleep by this time.
After Huang Ming came back to report that he was safe, the family knew that the old man had been found and that the cow was fine.
The family members were no longer anxious, thinking that no one had eaten yet, so they all went out to help hungry.
So Mrs. Huang called her daughters-in-law over and quickly cooked the meal at home.
It's so late, and it would be nice for everyone to have a hot meal when they come back from the mountain.
When Zhang An and the others arrived, the food at Grandma Huang's house had already been prepared.
No one was polite. As soon as Mrs. Huang called out, everyone went over and sat down to eat together, occupying two tables.
While eating, Mr. Huang apologized to everyone again and said thank you.
No matter what, the results are good now.
Everyone laughed and said it was nothing, just don’t be so scary next time.
Especially Mr. Huang's family was very frightened.
After everyone finished eating, they all went back to their homes.
Next, Mr. Huang and his family had a "meeting" by themselves.
Early the next morning, Zhang An got up and felt a gust of morning wind, which made him shiver.
It's obvious that today is much colder than usual.
Looking outside, there is frost everywhere, no wonder it has become so cold.
Although it has already been winter, in Zhang An's eyes, winter does not begin until there is frost, otherwise the temperature will not even drop.
"You kid, why don't you wear more clothes? It's frosty today and it's very cold."
Wang Fang, who had just come from the old house, found Zhang An still wearing only short-sleeved clothes in the yard.
I quickly reminded him to go back and put on his clothes. It would be uncomfortable if he caught a cold.
Zhang An didn't hold his tongue. He didn't know it when he came out just now. Now he turned around and went back to the house to find a coat to put on.
"Uncle, where are you going?"
Uncle Zhang Jianwen passed by the door in a carriage, and Zhang An said hello smoothly.
"Hey, it's getting colder now. Let's take advantage of the nice weather to bring back a cart of coal."
In Changqing Village, no firewood is burned in winter, but coal is burned for the winter.
Because there are coal mines in many places nearby, the coal nearby is relatively cheap.
So everyone is used to burning coal all year round.
So before winter, everyone doesn’t have to go to the mountains to cut firewood.
Zhang An looked at his coal pit and saw that there wasn't much left.
It was full of coal noodles and there were no coal lumps at all. It seemed like it was time to buy some.
You can tell the difference between the two as soon as you hear their names. You can use mud and stone to compare them.
Coal blocks are very resistant to burning, but coal surfaces are particularly easy to burn out.
Most families in Zhang An's village seldom use coal when the weather is not cold.
Throughout the year, most people add water to the coal surface and mix it into coal balls for burning.
The coal balls are wet, so they will dry out after being placed on the coal stove.
Not only can it seal the burning coals, but the clumps of coals will also make the fire in the stove more difficult to extinguish until the next morning.
The coal clumps pried off the next morning can be broken into small pieces and burned, which can easily ignite.
So now, children in rural families not only have to cut grass, feed pigs, cook and wash dishes when they come back from school, but they also have to mix coal at night.
There is also a saying in the village, which is "don't care about the front, and rush to mix the coal and wash the dishes later."
This is what the children often say when there are several children in the family.
This means that when eating, you have to eat faster. Those who finish earlier do not need to worry about anything, and the last one to finish has to mix the coal and wash the dishes.
But it's different in Zhang An's family. There is no such thing as comparing speed.
Zhang An used to hate mixing coal and washing dishes because he was the only child in their family.
As long as Wang Fang and Zhang Jianguo went to work in the fields, Zhang An would do all the housework alone.
In order to mix coal, every family in the village has two coal pits.
One is very big, and the other is very small.
The big coal pit is to have a place to store the coal when you come back from buying it.
The small coal pits are used for mixing coal. Generally, the small coal pits are located in front of your home. This is also for convenience.
Mixing coal is very simple. Shovel the coal surface into a small coal pit and pour some water and yellow mud into it.
Use your home hoe to stir back and forth in the coal pit, and sometimes you need to use a coal stick to hammer it.
Regarding coal sticks, most people cut down a section of tree as thick as a bowl.
In later years, some people also used hammers directly.
Therefore, coal mixing in rural areas is also called coal washing.
When mixing coal, the yellow mud is added mainly so that the mixed coal noodles can form a better ball.
The other one is to save some coal when lighting a fire. After all, it all costs money, so the little you can save is worth it.
But you can't add too much yellow mud, it's all proportional. If you add too much, the coal lumps won't ignite at all and won't be able to burn.
Although later Zhang An used induction cookers and gas stoves for more than 20 years.
But the chore of mixing coal has always been around Zhang An's entire childhood.
Basically, he has mixed the coal at home since he was seven or eight years old. I believe this is the case for many people.
When it's very cold in winter, you can't just burn coal briquettes.
Because the coal briquettes burn out easily, it is difficult to maintain the temperature of the fire.
Especially in the past two years, many people have bought iron stoves.
So when it's really cold, you have to burn coal.
There seems to be a company in the county that specializes in making coal cakes, but they are all sold to people in the county.
The coal cake used to be a round coal ball, exactly the size of a household stove core.
Briquettes have begun to appear in the past two years, and they cost about 15 to 20 cents each.
Only a few people in Hongyan Town buy briquettes for use, and even less people in these rural areas buy them.
Now there is no one in town who specializes in selling coal, mainly because they don’t make much money and coal is too cheap now.
Moreover, there is a special place for selling coal in the county, called the coal pipe station.
If you want to buy coal in the village, whether it is coal noodles or coal blocks, you have to go to the coal pipe station in the town to buy it.
You can actually get it delivered home there, but it's the same as buying bricks, you have to buy enough.
So many times, when people go to buy coal, they find several families to join them.
If you buy enough in this way, they will deliver it to you by car, and then the families will divide it among themselves.
Otherwise, you can only find a car to pull it yourself, or you can pay the freight yourself.
Zhang An was thinking about buying coal when suddenly a hare fell in front of Zhang An.
Looking up, he found Huatou standing on the fence on the third floor looking at him.
This guy is planning to throw the rabbit to death.
Since Hua Tou has been familiar with Zhang An's house, he runs out to grab something and comes back from time to time, which can be regarded as a Gu family.
There is no need for Zhang An to feed it during normal times, it can find food by itself outside.
At the beginning, it caught a chicken in the village.
When someone came to the door, this guy thought it was the same as before.
Zhang An had no choice but to apologize to others, and finally lost the chicken money.
Then Huatou was severely punished by Zhang An, and from then on it did not dare to mess around in the village.
Zhang An waved his hand to indicate that he had received it, and the flower head flew back to his nest.
Zhang An's family now also raises a lot of rabbits, there must be more than ten or twenty rabbits.
They were bred from the pair of rabbits that Zhang An brought out before. The breeding ability of these two rabbits was so strong.
There have been several litters in the past six months, and both the first and second litters have grown into big rabbits.
When Zhang An went to feed these two days, he found that three or four female rabbits were also raising their cubs.
For animals like rabbits, as soon as they grow up and give birth to their first litter, they will continue to have litters thereafter.
If this rate continues, the number of Zhang An's rabbits will more than double by next year.
It seems that we need to find a way to deal with them. If this continues, the rabbit pen may not be able to contain them for a long time.
The Zhang An family usually kills the meat for themselves, and when guests come, some people order Wang Fang's signature spicy rabbit meat.
Even so, it cannot stop the reproduction rate of rabbits in the home.
What's more, the weather has gotten colder during this period, and there are even fewer people coming now.
It used to be that a group of people would come every two or three days, but now there are only a few people coming every week. Maybe it’s because of the cold weather.
And not everyone who comes will want to eat rabbit.
On the contrary, Zhang An's local chicken and goose sell well, and every time people come here, they will want to eat these two.
Zhang An brought the prey brought back by Huatou home.
"Mom, here, this is what Huatou brought back today."
"I'll boil some water and let your dad boil it later."
Wang Fang took a look and found that this rabbit was not very big. He could make a pot of it later and eat it at home.
"Then I'll go to the second grandpa and fourth grandpa's house."
"What are you going to do?"
"Isn't it getting cold? As soon as I finish my meal, I want to buy some coal. I'm going to see if these old people still have coal to burn."
Hearing what Zhang An said, Wang Fang didn't say anything.
The two of them were quite concerned about the three elderly people because the elderly at home left early.
Now Zhang An's second grandfather and second grandmother's home is much better than before.
In the past, the sons in the family didn't pay much attention to them. Anyway, the whole family would quarrel when they met together.
In the final analysis, it is all caused by poverty.
Now the eldest son Zhang Jianzhong has made some money, and his business has become bigger.
I usually bring some of whatever I eat at home, and during festivals I would come over and ask the two of them to come and spend the holidays together.