Chapter 17 Building a thatched house
Televisions, washing machines, air conditioners, mobile phones... let’s not even mention these advanced equipment, which were high-end luxuries that were unimaginable in ancient times. Let’s just talk about the most common things.
Clothing, food, shelter and transportation, let's talk about clothes first. The clothes that the villagers wore were made of rough materials, and they were all patched up. No one was much better than anyone else. If they didn't have holes, it was considered good clothes. Don't expect them to look good. Her clothes were actually short and small, and they obviously didn't fit her.
Imagine her in modern times, with piles of clothes of various styles. She was a talent show host in modern times and was very good at dressing up. But when she came to ancient times, she could only wear tattered patched clothes every day. The psychological gap was quite big.
The shoes were even more outrageous. It was true that wealth limited imagination. She could never imagine that poor people in ancient times wore straw sandals (shoes woven from straw). The poorer families even went barefoot. In the summer, the men in the family went to work barefoot in the fields.
Of course, there were cloth shoes, boots, leather shoes, etc., but those were worn by the rich. For a poor peasant like her family, only her grandparents had a pair of cloth shoes, which were made of the lowest quality coarse cloth. Usually, the two old people were reluctant to wear them. Everyone else wore straw sandals. In winter, straw sandals could cover the feet, and in summer, they were open-toed straw sandals, like modern sandals.
Her parents loved her and bought her a pair of hemp shoes (shoes woven with hemp rope), which were a little better than straw sandals, but she still didn't feel comfortable wearing them.
The sports shoes she wears nowadays are all from big brands like Adidas and Li Ning, so you can imagine how comfortable they are. Even the high heels she wears are branded. But now she can only wear hemp shoes, and only she can understand the feeling.
The food made her speechless. Salt was very precious in ancient times, and poor people were reluctant to add salt when cooking. The dishes tasted particularly bland, and they would only add oil if they wiped the pot with a rag.
She is a foodie in modern times. Since she made money as a host, she often travels around and tastes delicacies from all over the country.
After coming here, she felt that the food was not as good as a bowl of instant noodles in modern times. You know, in modern times, she almost never eats instant noodles because she thinks they are not nutritious, but now, she misses the taste of instant noodles so much.
What's even worse is that the common people here basically only eat two meals a day, and so does her family. For someone like her who is used to eating three meals a day in modern times, and even often has to have supper at night, it is simply torture.
There was another thing that she particularly couldn't stand, which was the ancient toilets. They were just two wooden boards placed on a large vat. Sometimes when she stepped on them, she was afraid of falling into the pit.
Fortunately, toilet paper has been invented in this era, otherwise she would have to use leaves or something to wipe her butt, and she really couldn't stand it.
In modern times, she is a person who knows how to enjoy life. After the anchor made money, her quality of life was even higher.
She never treats herself badly in terms of food, clothing, housing and transportation, and often goes out to travel when she has nothing to do. She likes to go to different places to see different customs and natural beauty.
Now, let alone traveling, we can’t even have enough food and clothing. This gap feels like falling from heaven to hell.
Fortunately, she was born into a peasant family and her hometown is in the countryside. When she was a child, she followed her grandmother to farm and lived a hard life. Otherwise, she really couldn't survive in the current living environment for a day.
She also wondered if she had any special skills as a time traveler, such as carrying a space with her. She tried to think of something in her mind, but found nothing.
It seems that God has not given her a golden finger. She should just rely on herself.
The next day, construction of Liang Laoer's house began.
Almost every household in the Liang family has a young and middle-aged laborer, and the villagers who have a good relationship with Liang Laoer also come to help.
Fortunately, it is mid-August now and the rice is still in its growing season. Although the rice fields still need to be weeded, it is less busy than during the busy farming season.
By October, the rice has gradually matured and every household has to start harvesting and threshing the rice. By that time, no one will have time to help build the house.
Liang Lao Da also wanted to help Liang Lao Er build a house, but Zhu stopped him from going.
Zhu's reason was quite good. "Dad, our family was allocated six mu of land. The rice will be ripe in one or two months. You have to go to the fields and weed them quickly so that the crops can grow better. There are already enough people helping my second brother's family build a house. You are not the only one needed."
"Okay, then I'll go weed the fields. Wenyong, you can go to your second uncle's house to help build the house in your father's place." Liang Lao Da felt that his own fields really needed someone to take care of them, so he had to ask his son Liang Wenyong to go to Liang Lao Er's house to help.
"Hey, Dad, I understand." Wen Yong nodded in agreement.
Zhu originally wanted to stop her son from helping, but Liang Wenyong insisted on going. Liang Laoda went to weed the few acres of fertile land that his family had allocated.
Liang Laoer's family had no money left except the one or two taels of silver that Qianhuan asked for back from the Jiang family.
That one or two taels of silver could not buy many tiles, so they could not think of building a house with earthen walls and tiles. They could only choose to build a simple earthen-walled thatched house.
Everyone worked together, the men were divided into several groups, one group laid the foundation, one group cut trees, one group dug the soil, and one group made thatch. Everyone did their work in an orderly manner.
The women were busy cooking for everyone at the makeshift stove. Several village women who were close to Liu came to help her. The third daughter-in-law Chen also dragged her weak body to help. Liu arranged some light work for her, such as picking and washing vegetables.
Wenjie also came with Chen, and several other women also came with their children.
The kids were about the same age as Wenjie, and soon they started playing together.
As Qianhuan had just recovered, her mother was worried and asked her to have a good rest at home.
In fact, she felt that her body was fine, it was just that the original owner was a little malnourished. She looked pale and thin, and her body was a little weak. In addition, the original owner had a cold body disease, which became a little more serious after falling into the water. In addition, her clothes were a little short, so she always felt a little cold these days.
But she still couldn't sit still, so the next day after the construction started, she ran to the foot of the west mountain to watch everyone build thatched houses.
"Qianhuan, you are weak. Didn't mother tell you to rest at home? Why did you come here?" Liu asked when she saw Qianhuan coming from afar.
"Mom, I'm fine now. If you don't believe me, just look." Qianhuan said as she turned around several times on the spot.
Seeing her jumping around like a monkey, Liu couldn't help laughing. Chen and several other women beside her also laughed.