My village can't be like this

Chapter 709: Writing and Carving Monuments

After being stopped by Zhang Jianwen, the old men holding hammers and chisels stopped chatting with Zhang An and returned to their seats to chisel the rough stone tablets on the ground.

After Zhang Jianwen finished speaking, he walked towards the work shed not far away, leaving Zhang An standing there alone.

All the stones here were arranged in place, and there was nothing that needed help, so Zhang An started walking around the pile of stones.

You don’t know until you see it. It’s really amazing. The quality of the stones obtained by the village is really extraordinary.

I won’t talk about the small ones, the larger ones are just the best stones. If they are placed outside and polished smooth with a grinder, they can be used as tombstones.

In rural areas in mountainous areas, except for some ethnic minorities who have the custom of hanging coffins and burying them in caves, other deceased people are basically buried, so tombstones are considered to be a big business.

Ten years ago, when Zhang An was still a child, an old man passed away in the village. Although they could go to the quarry to collect grave stones themselves, tombstones were a big deal and could only be purchased outside. At that time, there were no professionals in this field near Hongyan Town, so every time they wanted to buy a tombstone, they had to go to the county.

There were no vehicles like tractors in the small villages of that era. In places with better conditions, there might be horse-drawn carriages, and after buying a tombstone, you could ask the horse-drawn carriage to help pull it back.

However, in places with poor conditions, there are not even horse-drawn carriages, so if you buy a tombstone, you can only ask someone to carry it all the way back. So when something like this happens, basically all the young and strong people in the village will come out to help.

The conditions in Changqing Village used to be good, and there were several horse-drawn carriages in the village, so there was no trouble in this regard.

A few years later, a family specializing in this business appeared in Hongyan Town.

Their family's craftsmanship in polishing and engraving tombstones is quite good. The tombstones are all engraved very well. In addition, the distance is not far, so whenever there is a demand in this regard in the nearby villages, they will go to their family to buy. In just a few years, they have really been able to make the tombstones.

In later generations, Zhang An remembered that this family not only sold tombstones and grave stones, but also built tombs for other people.

Don't look down on this. They can easily earn hundreds of thousands of dollars a year, which is already the best in this mountain area.

After a while, Zhang Jianwen came over from the work shed with pens and inks of various sizes for writing the inscription.

"Here, Zhang An, I borrowed these from Blind Li's house in town today. They are available in large and small sizes. You can pick the one that suits you best."

Zhang Jianwen handed all the pen and ink in his hand to Zhang An. The Blind Li he mentioned was the family who sold tombstones and grave stones in Hongyan Town.

Although his name was Blind Li, he was not completely blind, only one eye was blind. However, as people shouted it out, the name spread.

Zhang An squatted down and looked at the pen and ink that Zhang Jianwen found. He felt it was pretty good. He didn't have any requirements for the pen. He could just pick it up and use it. And this ink was not normal ink, but quick-drying ink, specially used on stone inscriptions.

Otherwise, if you use ordinary ink, it will not dry so quickly after writing. If the place where it is placed is not flat, it will flow to other places. At that time, not only will it be difficult to engrave the words, but it will also be difficult to wash clean.

It’s okay for other stone tablets, but tombstones are very taboo about this.

If it was just to write some road monuments, there would be no need for such high-end things, but Zhang Jianwen has never been a lazy person. He would do things well and went directly to Blind Li to get these professional tools.

"Got it, uncle. Let's get started. It's a good idea to finish writing early so that everyone can start carving early."

Zhang An picked up the pen and ink, stood up and asked Zhang Jianwen.

Although he was asked to come and help write, the decision on how to write and what to write still had to be made by the leader Zhang Jianwen.

"Let's start with these pieces. They have all been polished in the past two days."

Upon hearing this, Zhang Jianwen took Zhang An to a place where a polished and smooth stone tablet was placed.

"Hey, these pieces are too big."

When Zhang An saw these stone tablets, he couldn't help but widen his eyes, because these polished and cut stone tablets were a little too big, almost the same size as ordinary tombstones.

"It's not too big at all. I think it's just right. It will be erected at the entrance of our village. It won't work if it's too small."

Zhang Jianwen waved his hands and said that, in his opinion, the boundary marker at the entrance of the village was for others to see. Although Changqing Village was not big, its momentum could not be small.

As he spoke, he took out a written note from his pocket and handed it to Zhang An.

This was what he had planned to write on these boundary markers in advance. In addition to the three big characters "Changqing Village", there were also a few smaller characters.

Zhang An took a closer look and found that these few small words expressed some of the history of Changqing Village, its customs and local conditions, etc., which gave people a general understanding of the village at a glance.

After reading it, he couldn't help but give Zhang Jianwen a thumbs up. Only his uncle could think of this. If it were him, he would probably just write the name of the village on it and be done with it.

Afterwards, Zhang An found the largest number one pen and a small number pen and prepared to start.

Writing an inscription is not an easy task, and it requires certain writing skills. Because it is not like writing on paper, where you can correct it if you make a mistake, but this thing is fixed once it is written, and it is difficult to correct it if you make a mistake.

Even for Blind Li, although he has been carving tombstones for others for many years, every time he writes the inscription, he still has to write it on paper first, then stick it on the tombstone before carving.

This can avoid mistakes and save customers from feeling upset.

But Zhang An didn't have such plan. He was very confident in himself.

After observing the stone tablet for a while and roughly planning the writing position in my mind, I poured out the quick-drying ink, concentrated my mind and picked up the large brush to start.

When they saw the work starting, many people gathered around to watch. Zhang An wrote the three words "Changqing Village" on the stone tablet with his pen moving quickly without blinking.

"Good, well written. Zhang An's handwriting is no worse than those of the masters."

The powerful and vigorous characters instantly conquered the old men around, and they couldn't help but applaud.

"Hey, old man Wu, you haven't read books for many years, you are an old stump who can't read a few words, how can you tell it well?"

The people working nearby were all skilled stonemasons in the village, but they were also old men. They had known each other for decades, and it was common for them to sneer at each other.

Just as the uncle surnamed Wu from Xiazhai had just expressed his feelings, a voice of rebuke was heard from the crowd.

Then there were sounds of laughter one after another, and the atmosphere was very lively, quite similar to the working atmosphere of the brigade in the past.

"Go away, you are probably talking about yourself. Although I didn't go to school for many years, I can still recognize some big characters. Here, I will teach you these big characters today. This is pronounced '长青村'. You old fool, you must remember it. Even though I can't write it, I feel comfortable looking at this character, which means it is well written. People won't say anything about poorly written characters just by looking at them."

Uncle Wu was not willing to be outdone. He immediately glared at the old guys in the village who had challenged him.

Seeing that the surroundings were getting increasingly noisy, Zhang Jianwen was worried that Zhang An, who was writing, would be disturbed, so he spoke.

"Alright, alright, you're all old, but you still talk so much. Get to work, otherwise I won't be happy when you ask for money." The group of people in front of him were the oldest group in the village, except for the old people who always found a place in the village to brag and chat. When they started making noise, not to mention the younger generation like Zhang An, even people of Zhang Jianguo's generation didn't dare to say anything, after all, they were elders.

But Zhang Jianwen is different. Over the years, his words are still very effective for the men, women, young and old in the village, just because he is the village chief, and the villagers do not regard the village chief as a cadre.

"Hey, we are just waiting for Zhang An to finish writing so we can start carving."

Sure enough, as soon as Zhang Jianwen opened his mouth, the noisy scene immediately became quiet, and the few old men who were there were all talking and laughing.

After writing a few main characters, it took Zhang An only a few minutes to copy the contents of the note given by Zhang Jianwen onto the large stone tablet in front of him.

It’s true that beautifully written words make people feel relaxed and happy when reading them.

Then Zhang An walked towards the next piece, ready to continue.

Zhang Jianwen then said to the people watching behind him, "Okay, Old Huang, since Zhang An has already written it, you can start carving the words."

"Okay, Village Chief, this is the nameplate of our village. I, Old Huang, will definitely carve it beautifully."

Hearing Zhang Jianwen's words, an old man with a dark face, about sixty years old, came out from the crowd with a smile and made his assurance.

Old Huang's face is somewhat similar to Mr. Huang Erye because they are cousins.

Old Huang is the best stonemason among the many stonemasons in the village. When the village was raising funds to build a road a few years ago, the monument of merit erected at the bridge head was his masterpiece.

A few decades ago, he also helped other people carve tombstones, which was enough to show that he had some skills. If it were an ordinary person, he would not dare to take on such a job.

Later, after Blind Li set up his stall in the town, he specially came to invite him to help with the work, and the wages were even higher than that of a master chef.

When the others heard that Zhang Jianwen had given the job of carving the road sign to Lao Huang, they had no objection.

Although the words Zhang An wrote on the road sign were very nice and neat, anyone who saw them would want to touch them.

However, because there were too many words on the road sign and they were of different sizes, no one could guarantee that there would not be any mistakes, so there was no intention to compete for it.

After all, nowadays, they rely on their manual skills to carve the monuments. No one uses engraving machines yet. They carve them out bit by bit with hammers and chisels, which really tests their manual skills.

But they were not in a hurry. They would wait until Zhang An finished writing and it would be their turn.

The road signs that follow are not as complicated as the first one. They do not have as many words and have no other content except the place name.

So it didn't take Zhang An much time to write one stone tablet after another.

The people around also consciously picked up their tools and went forward to start writing. Only Zhang An and Zhang Jianwen were left, searching for the road signs that had not been written on and continuing to write.

It was not until dusk that Zhang An had finished writing on most of the polished stone tablets, with about a dozen pieces left.

Originally, Zhang An wanted to just do it himself and finish it all at once, but Zhang Jianwen stopped him.

"Okay Zhang An, let's do the rest tomorrow. Anyway, there are still some that have not been polished. Come over and write together after they are polished. It's getting late now. The emperor never lacks hungry soldiers. Let's go back and eat first."

Zhang An heard this and no longer insisted. If these were all that were left, then he would just work harder to finish them today and everything would be fine tomorrow. But if there was more tomorrow, there was no need to work overtime today.

Dinner was naturally served at Zhang Jianwen's house, but not everyone went.

Because other people who came to work were paid, and in the village this kind of work did not include meals, so after work, everyone went back home.

When I came out of Zhang Ping's house after dinner, it was already dark. The moon was hanging high in the cloudless sky, illuminating the earth with its bright moonlight.

"Uncle, you can go back now. You don't have to see me off."

Zhang An looked at Zhang An Jianwen who had come out with him and spoke.

"It's ok, let's go. I have to go out too. I need to cover the road signs that were written but not carved today. Otherwise, the dew will be too heavy at night and they won't be usable tomorrow."

Zhang Jianwen pointed to the beds of nylon in the yard and said, "These were found by my aunt while we were having dinner just now."

There is a big temperature difference between day and night in the mountains. Even though the moon is dim now, dew will gather in the second half of the night.

Although the polishing of the road sign started a few days ago, the bare stone sign is not afraid of dew, so there is no need to pay special attention to it.

But today there are still many stone tablets with words written on them but not engraved. If we don’t find something to cover them, the surfaces of the tablets will be covered with diluted ink by tomorrow.

"Then I'll go with you. It'll be quicker if we work together."

Zhang An was not in a hurry to come back, since he had been out for so long anyway.

Zhang Jianwen originally wanted to refuse and go alone, but Zhang An still insisted on going, so he didn't say anything more.

"Uncle, we don't need to erect so many road monuments now. Many of the ones written today are places that no one has ever been to."

When writing the stele today, Zhang An discovered that many places were places that had not yet been visited by tourists.

"There aren't that many yet, but since we've started this time, let's do it all at once to save trouble in the future. I believe that in the future, everywhere will be built and available for everyone to enjoy."

Zhang Jianwen smiled and explained that in the past two years, he has been full of confidence in the village where he was born and raised.

He firmly believes that Changqing Village will get better and better in the future and more and more people will come here.

Therefore, when sorting out the signposts this time, he chose to sort out all the places.

If it were just the places in the village that are visited by tourists today, we wouldn't actually need too many stone tablets. We could just find someone to buy them without making such a fuss.

This time, Zhang An agreed very much with his uncle's words. Changqing Village has been on the right track and will definitely get better and better in the future. Especially with its unique natural environment, more and more people will like it in a few years.

When they arrived at the construction site, Zhang An and Zhang Jianwen worked together to cover the uncarved stone tablet with nylon cloth and tied it up. They also found some stones to press it down to prevent it from being blown away by the mountain wind. The two of them finished the task in a short time.

When he returned to the village, before he reached the door of his house, several big dogs in the yard heard Zhang An's footsteps from afar, and they all gathered at the door, wagging their tails to welcome him home.

At the end of last year, I was suddenly transferred to the mountains for work reasons. The environment there was poor and I was busy, so I had no time to write. I want to say sorry to everyone here. I have been in the mountains for half a year, and I feel like I have become a wild man. I have not come back for the New Year. Now that the work in the mountains is over, I can be regarded as returning to human society.
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(End of this chapter)