Chapter 7

  When she drove the carriage into the yard, several young men were chatting in it.

  Seeing them coming back, they hurried over to help pull the carriage.

  "You are all here," said Daniu.

  "Yes, sister, when you have time, take me for a walk in the mountains." The speaker was Ma Tianxiang, the eldest grandson of her third grandpa.

  "You should be quiet. Sister-in-w is going to give birth in a few days. What do you want to do in the mountains?" Daniu rolled her eyes at him.

  "I'm thinking of catching some prey for your sister-in-w to increase her milk supply." Ma Tianxiang said evasively.

  "It is okay. You should stop worrying about her." Fourth grandpa heard the two talking and nodded at Ma Tianxiang, "Your wife won't be in trouble at home. Just go into the mountains and have fun by yourself."

  Ma Tianxiang chuckled.

  Daniu ignored him and went into the house with cotton and other things. The four big stoves in the main room were all burning, and the house was hot. The smell of meat filled the air. "The eldest aunt and the second aunt are here too."

  They were the two aunts from Sixth Grandpa's family who married the two brothers from the Song family and stayed in the vilge.

  "You came, Fourth Uncle. Come in and sit down. My father and the others are waiting for you." The one who spoke was the eldest aunt. She was tall and had a loud voice. Her face was dark and had wrinkles, but she had a good temper. She was cheerful all day long and said whatever she wanted to say.

  Daniu took the things to the west room. Three little girls were pying Kaha on the kang in the room. They were so happy when they saw Daniu, Shufen, and the others come in. They chattered non-stop.

  Daniu took off her fur coat, put the things in her hands on the kang, took the cake, grabbed half a bag of candy, and put the rest of the candy on the kang. "Cui, pack up the things and share the candies and the headbands. I'll go to the east room."

  After saying that, she took the things and went to the east room. When the door of the east room was opened, it was filled with fog. All the men in the room were smoking, as if they were angry.

  Third grandpa, sixth grandpa, eldest uncle, and second uncle, she called everyone around, put the cake in the box and covered it, and asked Dayong, who was staying in the house, to take the candies out and share them with the boys at home. Candies were a rare commodity in those days, and both adults and children liked them.

  "I haven't seen you for a while. Has our eldest granddaughter grown taller?"" The speaker was Sixth Grandpa.

  "She has," her third grandpa said affirmatively after taking a puff of his pipe.

  Daniu smiled shyly, "Well, I haven't seen you for only half a month; how come you say I grew taller?" As she spoke, she walked to the north kang, where her brother was sleeping.

  He hadn't woken up in the morning, and now she didn't know how he was.

  "Daniu takes after her father's height." The speaker was Ma Desheng. Just as he finished speaking, the door opened, and Song Yuncheng walked in. He lowered his head when he entered, and he was indeed very tall.

  "Dad is back." Daniu quickly stood up.

  Song Yuncheng smiled and said, "Third uncle, fourth uncle, sixth uncle."

  "Yuncheng is back." The elders on the kang were very satisfied with Song Yuncheng.

  Ma Desheng patted the head of the kang and said, "Sit down."

  Song Yuncheng took off his outer coat and walked towards the north kang. He looked at Dali, turned back to hand the coat to his daughter, and asked Sixth Grandpa, "Is Dali okay?"

  He sat down next to the old man, picked up the pipe, filled it with tobacco, and lit it.

  "He's okay. He just took some medicine and fell asleep. Are you back from the county?" asked third grandpa.

  "Well, st night the kid from Old Five's family came back to the county and told me that Dali's leg was broken, so I came back. Anyway, everything was almost done. It just so happened that the county bus passed by our third intersection this morning, so I followed it back."

  The Old Five he was referring to is Song Cheng, the fifth brother of the Song family and the vilge chief of their vilge.

  "You're back just in time. Your daughter killed a wild boar. You're in for a treat." Third grandpa smiled.

  "It's a shame that I didn't bring anything back this time." Song Yuncheng smiled and gnced at his daughter.

  Ma Danniu smiled and brought him water to wash his face.

  Song Yuncheng washed his face right in the room, and after wiping it with a towel, he looked a lot whiter. Song Yuncheng is over 40 years old this year, but he is fair-skinned, handsome, and tall. In the past he used to attract young girls and wives from all over the vilge.

  "She really resembles her father most, haha." Sixth Master said, smiling and nodding through his pipe.

  "Of course my daughter took after me." Song Yuncheng said to his daughter, "Ask your mother when dinner is ready. I was on the bus for two hours, and I am really hungry."

  Several families didn't come today, but there were more than 20 people. There were enough tables to fill the east and west rooms; the women were in the west room, and the men were in the east room.

  In the afternoon, Daniu asked her cousin to drive the three girls back. She took a few pieces of leather and asked them to take them back to let Aunt Jiu make waistcoats and hand muffers. They were all gray mouse and rabbit leather, which were not difficult to find. What was rare was that Daniu tanned them herself, following the method taught by her grandpa, and made them bit by bit.

  She also picked the best leather for her delicate work, so the leather she saved was smooth, shiny, and very soft, without leather smell. If she sold it in the city, it would fetch a few dolrs more than ordinary leather.

  After seeing the people off, Daniu helped her father to the backyard. Song Yuncheng couldn't hold his alcohol, so he was a little unsteady as he walked.

  The Ma family compound is divided into two courtyards, front and back, and was rebuilt from the original Ma family compound. Two years after her third uncle passed away, armed bandits came into the vilge. At that time, all the family members went to Zheng's family in Shuangmiaozi to attend a wedding, and only the grandma stayed at home. When grandpa and others came back, the Ma family compound had been almost burned down, and grandma's body was not found. Grandpa carried his gun and destroyed the bandits's nest but did not find Grandma. The bandits said that they did not see the old dy when they went there, and many people said the same thing.

  Grandma's disappearance became a mystery.

  The Ma family compound was burned down, and the brothers divided up the family property. They rebuilt the house and divided it into several parts. Ma Desheng built two courtyards on the original foundation. He lived in the front courtyard, and the back courtyard belonged to Song Yuancheng and his wife.

  Later, when the residential nd was divided, their family did not move. The courtyard is located in the center of the vilge. The front courtyard has three main rooms with a west wing, a rge vegetable field to the east, and the backyard behind the vegetable field. There are five main rooms, a pigpen on the east side, and a rge vegetable field on the west side.

  There are five rooms in the backyard with two entrances. The second room on the east side has a main hall and east and west rooms, where Song Yuancheng and his wife live. The two rooms on the west side have single doors, which are prepared for Dali. The main hall on the east side is only two meters wide, with a door at the back. The kitchen stove is on the west side, and the west side of the kitchen is connected to the west room.

  The father and daughter returned to the house, and Daniu made a bowl of sugar water for her father.

  "Is your grandpa thinking about your grandma again?" Song Yuancheng could feel that the old man was not in a good mood today, and his fourth uncle stayed again, so he couldn't help but think too much.

  "Yeah." Daniu nodded. "Dad, do you think my grandma is still there?"

  Song Yuancheng drank some sugar water and took a deep breath. "It's hard to say. Your grandma was only in her forties at the time and was in good health. When the bandits entered the vilge, they made a lot of noise, and the vilgers heard them and ran away, and your grandma had probably heard them. She definitely wouldn't have stayed still."

  He frowned. "Later, we couldn't find her. That's strange, but it was so chaotic back then."　Daniu nodded. It was indeed a chaotic time. Even with the Ma family's reputation and manpower at that time, they still couldn't find her, so her disappearance was not a simple disappearance. Maybe her grandma had encountered something at that time.

  The father and daughter were silent for a while and didn't talk about this topic anymore.

  "I'm going to the county to help out this time. They said the forest farm needs people. One accountant and two attendance checkers."

  "Dad, isn't the forest farm under the jurisdiction of the Corps? Why are they recruiting people from the county?"

  "Let's not guess what is in the mind of the higher-ups. I'm thinking of letting your brother try to be an accountant or an attendance checker. An accountant must have a high school diploma, and an attendance officer must have a junior high school diploma. Your brother's high school diploma won't hold him back."

  "Can brother go even though his leg is broken? Besides, they work all year round, regardless of winter or summer. Can brother endure it?" It's not that Daniu looked down on her brother. Her brother was born prematurely. When her third aunt was pregnant, she learned that her third uncle was gone. At first, she was sad, and then she started to make all kinds of troubles. When her brother was born, her third aunt ran away. If her mother hadn't held him in her arms every day, her brother would have died long ago. Even so, her brother would fall down at the slightest sign of trouble.

  "He wouldn't need to go outside work at the forest farm. What's there to be afraid of under a roof? I'm thinking that after working in the forest farm for a few years and gaining experience, he can find an opportunity to go to the county."

  Hearing this, Daniu nodded. Her brother was in poor health, and it would be great if he could go to work in the county. He was not the type to do farm work.

  "When will he take the exam? It's ok, I'll send him over then."

  "In about a week. Let's see if he's doing well in the next few days. I'll ask Accountant Sun from the vilge to teach him." Song Yuancheng really treated Dali as his own son. If he thought of Daniu as the one he valued and relied on the most among the children in the family, then Dali was the son he loved the most, and he worried about him a lot over the years.

  As the father and daughter were talking, the daniu saw her seventh brother running over from the front yard. There was a low wall half a person's height separating the front and back yards, but he didn't even go through the door and just stepped over the top of the wall.

  "Haha, our courtyard wall is almost broken down by Xiaoqi (little seven)." Daniu couldn't help ughing.

  "That kid is just a naughty boy. The names of these kids in our family are all wrong." Song Yuancheng couldn't help ughing.

  "Sister, come quickly; the police are looking for you up ahead." Dazhi opened the door and shouted to Daniu.

  Styvetass