Chapter 4

As dawn broke, most people returned home to rest temporarily, leaving only a few to stand guard. Lu Dong did not go to the orchard but instead followed the road by the river into Lüjiacun Village.

He wanted to visit the old house first.

The village had typical cement roads. After the recent rain, some areas were so muddy that a single step would sink the ankle deep.

Ta Dong Province was one of the most populous provinces, with its economic output consistently ranking among the top in the country. Quannan, the provincial capital, was recently upgraded to a sub-provincial city. Qingzhao County, adjacent to the east of Quannan's NS District, always ranked first among all the counties in Quannan and often appeared around the 80th place in the list of the top 100 counties nationwide.

Even the university town that Ta Dong Province and Quannan City were jointly developing was located within Qingzhao County.

According to normal development, Qingzhao County would be changed to Qingzhao District in a few years.

However, given the era and the broader social environment, even with Qingzhao County's economy, the paved roads only reached the entrances of the villages. Villages with better conditions could subsidize part of the cost to build the main road in the village.

Lüjiacun Village had paved the main street from the southern entrance to the new bridge gate of Qingzhao River in the north. Beyond the bridge was Majiacun Village.

This was also the official road of ancient Qingzhao County.

Lüjiacun Village had a long history, with the Lü family's genealogy tracing back to the early Ming Dynasty, when they migrated from Hongtong's Big Locust Tree.

With the development of the times, this official road had long become a rural road, and the former prosperity of the Lü family's market had been submerged in the changing times.

The Lüs lived in the western part of the village. The older generation, like his eldest uncle, mostly built new houses on new land in the south of the village, while Lüjiastreet was mostly old houses.

Lu Dong walked through the muddy road, looking at the old brick houses on the street. If the levee had breached at midnight, all of this would have been turned into ruins by the flood.

Arriving at the south end of the old street, Lu Dong easily found his old house.

Similar to most of the houses on the old street, the old house had a stone foundation, brick walls, and a tiled roof, with the marks of time visible everywhere, showing only decay and no antiquity.

Weeds grew on the roof, swaying in the wind.

The paint on the door had peeled off, and there were obvious signs of insect damage. A clean red wooden sign with yellow letters hung on the door beam: "Honorable Family!"

After a moment of contemplation, Lu Dong's gaze fell on the large lock securing the door. He recalled for a moment, then dug out a small piece of broken brick from the left wall, took out the key, and unlocked the door.

Many people in the countryside did this, mainly because there was nothing valuable to steal.

Inside, the old screen wall, which had cracks, was tied in several places with thick iron wire, anchored to a large Chinese toon tree behind it.

Between the branches of the Chinese toon tree and the screen wall, a wooden stick as thick as a forearm was tied, suspending a homemade sandbag made from a flour sack, with faint marks of punches on it.

Lu Dong went over and punched the sandbag, making it sway.

When his older cousin, Lu Chun, was discharged from the army and transferred to the police station, he had taught him military boxing a few times. Influenced by movies and TV, the middle school boy had set up a sandbag to practice, but he actually knew nothing, and fighting always relied on brute force and daring.

He had caused a lot of trouble over the years.

Thinking back to the foolish things he had done, he felt embarrassed.

His mother had returned to the orchard and was not at the old house. Lu Dong closed the main door and went to the water pump, poured in some water, and started pumping.

The village had long had tap water, but it was only available in the morning and evening.

Sometimes, due to power rationing, there was no water in the evening.

The water level rose quickly, and the iron bucket was soon full.

Lu Dong took off his dirty clothes and threw them into a large aluminum basin, picked up a ladle, and scooped water to rinse his body.

Yellow mud water flowed down the blue bricks on the ground.

The injury on his hand no longer hurt; for a child raised in the countryside, it was nothing.

After cleaning up, he put on a pair of slippers and went to the east room to get dressed, still wearing the summer school uniform and a coarse cloth shorts.

The room was simply furnished, with a single bed made from two long benches and three wooden planks, a brown-painted table and chair, and a large wardrobe that his parents had bought when they got married.

The double-door wardrobe had a half-length mirror in the middle. Lu Dong looked at himself after getting dressed: the young man was tall and strong, not bad-looking, but the middle part hairstyle was both old-fashioned and silly, like Liu Kuisheng.

It seemed he also had a nickname "Kuisheng" at school.

Turning to leave, he noticed a poster of gangsters on the wall. Without hesitation, he tore it down, but hesitated to remove two animation posters.

One was a red robot full of righteousness, and the other was a white robot full of evil.

Lu Dong withdrew his hand, crumpled the gangster poster into a ball, and left the posters of the robots.

Leaving the east room, Lu Dong threw the crumpled paper into a trash can made from an old paint bucket, discarding his ignorance, and then entered the main room, reaching for the pull cord to turn on the light.

The yellowish light filled the room. The main room was also simply furnished, with two large chairs on either side of a black eight-legged table, a round dining table underneath, and old stools stacked against the wall.

On the east and west walls hung several calligraphy and paintings, and on the low cabinets were blue porcelain jars and white porcelain teacups. Behind the glass sliding door was a stack of blue porcelain plates, exuding an ancient charm.

These were not old antiques. The calligraphy and paintings were created by Lu Dong's late grandfather in the late 1980s, who had been a middle school teacher in his earlier years.

The paper and mounting of the paintings had yellowed over time.

Lu Dong also remembered the porcelain. When he was about ten years old, Cheng Lifeng's cousin had brought in some export ceramics, which were cheap, beautiful, and durable. Many people in the nearby villages had bought them, but they were soon labeled as speculative profiteers, and the person later went to the south, never to be seen again.

There were no real antiques in the house. Perhaps there had been some, but they were all smashed and burned during the Cultural Revolution.

Above the eight-legged table, the wall was different from ordinary households. Instead of a traditional central hanging scroll, there was a black and white photo frame.

The person in the photo wore a wide-brimmed hat, with a resolute gaze looking into the distance.

Lu Dong knelt down and bowed, his eyes gradually focusing and becoming resolute, just like the man in the photo.

"I will support this family!" Lu Dong's resolve was unprecedentedly firm.

The main room fell silent, the simple furniture highlighting a man's promise.

Lu Dong turned off the light and left the main room, returning to the east room to fall asleep. The fatigue from a night of heavy labor quickly sent him into a deep sleep.

Worried about the water situation, he did not sleep long. When he woke up, the sun was still in the east.

After a quick wash, Lu Dong locked the door and headed north out of the village to the riverbank.

Following the riverbank to the orchard, the water level of the Qingzhao River was still high. Last night, it was too dark to see clearly, but now, the yellow rapids carrying large patches of water hyacinth were only about a meter from the top of the levee, and the roaring flood was surging at his feet.

On the opposite bank, people from Majiacun were also on duty, facing similar pressure.

Arriving at the place where they had worked last night, Li Wenyue was sitting on a sandbag, closely watching the river and the levee.

"Didn't you sleep?" Lu Dong stopped and asked.

Li Wenyue, with his hair hanging down, shook his head habitually and said helplessly, "I can't lift or carry anything. Last night, I only knocked the gong to call people. With the village in this situation, I have to contribute my share."

The two had grown up together, playing naked since they were little, and were classmates from kindergarten to high school. Lu Dong said bluntly, "You've changed."

Lu Dong rolled his eyes, "I can be reliable too, you know!" He quickly changed the subject, "Any good news?"

"Grandpa San came by just now. He said they called from above, and the reservoir won't raise the gate again," Li Wenyue said in a low voice, "The flow will remain at the current level for now."

He suddenly smiled, "There's one more thing. Our town mayor came from the county early this morning, but his car got stuck in the water at the highway bridge, blocking all the cars behind. Uncle Jianzhu took people to help."

Lu Dong shook his head. The water accumulation under the highway bridge during the rain had long been a major problem for normal travel in the rural areas of Qingzhao County.

"I'm going to the orchard for breakfast. Have you eaten?"

Li Wenyue waved his hand, "I've eaten."

Lu Dong went down the riverbank and walked toward the orchard. From a distance, he could see the familiar blue brick and tile buildings in the orchard. The houses were not only tall but also had unknown divine beasts sitting on the roof ridges.

The divine beasts stared coldly at the ground, giving an eerie feeling.

This was the Lüjiacun Village Ash Hall, and the low house next to it was where the orchard residents lived.

Because of his father, Lü Jianjun, the village took very good care of his family, treating them as the guardians of the Ash Hall. The village did not pay them, but the orchard, which covered more than twenty acres, only charged a very low lease fee.

However, given the social and economic environment, they still had to rely on themselves.

The orchard was planted with Guoguang apples, but in recent years, Red Fuji had become the dominant variety, and Guoguang did not sell well.

In this era, farmers could not earn much from farming, and the same was true for the orchard. The village leased the orchard to them at a low price but could not pay the public grain for them.

The public grain for more than twenty acres of orchard was a huge cost.

Many farmers who planted fruit trees could not afford to pay the public grain.

Lu Dong followed the wall made of hawthorn branches to the orchard gate and saw his mother, Hu Chunlan, inside.

In her forties, she had rough, red-black skin from years of hard work, and a few silver strands in her hair.

"Dongzi, come and eat!" Hu Chunlan saw her son.

Lu Dong had a thousand words to say, but they all condensed into one word: "Mom..."

Hu Chunlan asked, "What's wrong?"

"The water was high last night, I was worried the levee would break..."

Before Lu Dong could finish, Hu Chunlan interrupted, "Don't say such unlucky things." She pointed to a small table under the tree: "Go over there, I'll bring your food."

Lu Dong did not go over but helped Hu Chunlan carry the dishes and bowls out.

There were three dishes: tomatoes and cucumbers stir-fried with eggs, pig's ear mixed with cucumbers, and fried cicadas, far exceeding the normal standard of their home-cooked meals.

"Mom, you eat too," Lu Dong called to his mother, "In the morning, just make something simple."

Hu Chunlan picked up her chopsticks, "You worked hard last night, eat more. Well, it's good that the village has always treated us well. When there's something, you should step up."

She urged Lu Dong, "Try it, the pig's ear I bought from Cheng Lifeng's meat shop was newly braised last night. His offal is always good."

Lu Dong took a piece of pig's ear, and the crisp bones made a satisfying sound, "I think the offal you cook is the best."

Speaking of this, Hu Chunlan was not modest, "There are many people in Lüjiacun who are good at this, but our family is one of the best. But we can't buy offal to braise unless it's a holiday."

She pushed the plate of cicadas toward Lu Dong, "Try it, you liked it when you were little. These were caught in the orchard these days. When it gets hot and there's a lot of rain, cicadas crawl everywhere. Last night, it was cool by the door, and one even crawled onto my shoe."

Lu Dong could see many finger-thick holes on the ground around, mostly left by cicadas.

Due to the presence of the Ash Hall, few people came to catch cicadas here. The orchard had been around for over ten years, with many trees, and the cicadas were so numerous that they could be described as rampant.

For the orchard, cicadas were pests and had once been on the list of pests to be controlled with pesticides.

Hu Chunlan added, "I saw your eldest uncle. He asked us to come for dinner the day after tomorrow. Your older brother is back. Lu Chun has just been transferred to the university town police station and rarely has a day off..."

"Guoguang doesn't sell well, and the lease for the orchard will expire in winter. The town held a meeting, asking each village to convert their collective orchards to Red Fuji. These old trees will be cut down. Our conditions can't wait for the new trees to bear fruit. After this season, we won't lease the orchard anymore and will look for other ways to make a living."

Listening to his mother's chatter and eating the home-cooked meal, Lu Dong felt a full sense of happiness.

He had once realized that this was a kind of happiness, but he could no longer hear it.