novelaction Chapter 273 Repairing the Roof
Chapter 273 Repairing the Roof
The old woman was silent for a long while after hearing this. After a while, she shook her head, looked at the roof of the house, and sighed, "This house was repaired when my eldest and second sons were still alive. Later, the youngest son went up to mend the hay himself every year. In recent years, he comes back and stays for less than two days every year. Every time he asks me to repair the roof, I stop him. I am old and will not live for many more years. Let this house be as it is. If the eldest son comes back and sees this collapsed house and wants to live in it, he can repair it himself. If he doesn't want to live in it, that's even better. I don't want to trouble you either. You all come out at this time because you have urgent matters, and I can't delay you."
Zhou Guo smiled and said, "It doesn't matter if it's urgent or not, there are so many people outside. I've asked them and they don't have anything important to do and are willing to stay and help. With so many of us, we can fix your roof in two or three days. Don't worry. I see that many parts of your roof are exposed. If you don't fix it, there will be no shelter in the house when it rains heavily next time."
The old lady stammered a few times but finally said nothing. When it rains in the summer, it doesn't just rain heavily outside, it also rains heavily inside the house. All the pots and pans in the house have been used, but they are still not enough to fill the leaking areas.
Zhou Guo patted her hands. This kind of thatched house is prone to leaking when it rains. If it snows and the snow is thick, it might collapse. She is so old that she naturally cannot climb onto the roof. It would be best for them to repair the roof before they leave.
He turned around and walked out, waved his hand, and everyone came forward to start working.
Things in the house need to be moved out, and some of the beams are rotten and need to be replaced.
This was easy. Zhou Guo took a saw and went into the woods with two people. There were not many people living around here and the woods were big. Not many people cut down the dead trees one by one and took them home. They were just left standing or lying in the woods.
She picked out some pieces of suitable size and asked the other two to use saws while she took the axe and chopped them hard.
It took her less than a quarter of an hour to cut down a tree, leaving the two men on the other side who had just cut half of the tree with a saw stunned.
Zhou Guo looked over and said, "Hurry up, you want to get beaten for dawdling?"
The two of them quickly turned around and started working hard.
In an hour, she had chopped down four trees, the other two had sawed down one, and one was sawed in half.
Six pillars, plus the two I brought back this morning, eight in total, which should be enough.
He looked at the two people who were still working hard, turned around and walked towards the depths of the forest. The food in the old lady's house was definitely not enough for so many people, and they had no time to buy more. They couldn't just not feed so many people while they were working. How could they have the energy to work if they were not full? It would be better to hunt some prey.
After walking for about a quarter of an hour, I finally saw a rabbit. I was very surprised. There weren't many people here and the forest was big, so there should be a lot of prey.
After wandering in the woods for about an hour, he finally met a musk deer. He immediately rushed forward and chased it for two miles before finally catching up with it. He knocked the musk deer unconscious with one punch and carried it out.
When I walked back, I saw that the two workers were slacking off. I was so angry that I laughed. "When I left, the tree was already half-cut. I was there for such a long time, and they only sawed this little? Slacking off is getting to me. What did I tell you? You have to help repair this yard within three days. If you can't fix it, you have to choose between cutting off your hands or your feet."
The two men were so scared that they begged for mercy again and again, saying with bitter faces: "Young Master, it's not that we are slacking off, it's just that we are so hungry and have no strength in our bodies. We can't use any strength at all."
The other one touched his stomach and said weakly, "That's right. We have been out of food since yesterday noon. We have had nothing to eat during this period. We finally waited until the morning and saw a small village. We wanted to go in and ask for some food, but there was nothing to eat. So you dragged us here to work. Young man, if you want people to work, at least give them food. Without food, you can kill us and we can't do anything."
After saying that, he simply lay down on the ground and didn't move. He was hungry and had no strength left in his body. He couldn't do anything!
Zhou Guo threw the musk deer, pheasants and rabbits he was carrying on his shoulders to the ground. When the two men saw these things, they immediately turned over and sat up, looking at the prey in front of them greedily, wishing they could pounce on them immediately. God knows how long it has been since they last had meat. All they had been eating all day were grass roots, weeds, and tree bark. They were almost turning into tree bark because of eating so much.
Zhou Guo said calmly: "If you work hard and saw this wood and carry it back, I promise to let you eat this for every meal in the next few days. Every meal, enough!"
The more they listened, the brighter their eyes became. When they heard the word "enough", they immediately got up, picked up the saw and started to work. Having meat to eat was already something they couldn't even dream of, and to be able to have enough of it was truly a great thing, like a huge lump of gold falling from the sky. How could the two of them resist such temptation?
Zhou Guo picked up a piece of wood and the prey on the ground, and said to the two men, "I will take these back first. If you are fast enough, you can still catch up to eat the meat. If you are slow, the meat will be eaten up and you will have no share."
"Ah?" The two were shocked, wailed, and worked even harder.
Zhou Guo smiled and carried his things back to the village.
When we returned to the old woman's house, we found that two other families from the village had also come.
One of them was a boy, about five or six years old, jumping up and down in the yard. He was probably the grandson of the old couple in the village, a child who lost his parents many years ago.
Probably because they rarely see so many people, they were a little excited, jumping up and down in the yard, and following the crowd in and out.
Everyone was busy and happy in the yard, and at first glance it looked like the New Year.
The old woman also had a rare smile on her face.
Zhou Guo put down the wood and carried the prey into the yard.
As soon as they entered, everyone stopped what they were doing and looked at what she was holding.
In the small yard, you could hear a needle falling. A moment later, gurgling sounds were heard, which were the sounds of swallowing saliva.
Zhou Dacang came back from outside carrying some straw, which was freshly dried by the old woman after threshing the grain. It was enough to re-roof the roof.
Seeing the prey Zhou Guo had brought back, he smiled and said, "There are so many. We can have a good meal again. I'll get it."
Zhou Guo nodded, "Then I'll take them to peel the wood."
"I'll come, I'll come, I'll come."
When they heard they had to work, everyone became extremely enthusiastic. There was meat to eat, so much meat that they had never seen before.