My village can't be like this

Chapter 711 New Road Sign, New Heritage

Before the sun set in the afternoon, the pile of stone tablets that had not been polished or cut yesterday had all been picked up.

Zhang An lived up to everyone's expectations and finished writing all the remaining road signs in a short time.

With the addition of Li Xiazi and his son to the team, the progress of engraving the stele has been significantly improved.

After all, the electric carving knives in their hands are already cutting-edge high-tech products compared to the hammers and chisels in the hands of others. What's more, Li Xiazi and his son are professionals in this field. So even though there are only two of them, they can carve a stele many times faster than others.

After work in the evening, Zhang Jianwen called me to his house for dinner.

Zhang An wanted to refuse, but he couldn't persuade Zhang Jianwen, so he had to obey. However, he was not the only one having dinner today. Blind Li and his son also came to help.

"Uncle, there aren't many unfinished road signs left. When do you plan to start planting them?"

During the meal, Zhang An asked Zhang Jianwen while eating. Before coming back today, he took a quick look and found that there were not many road signs that had not been engraved. At today's speed, it would only take one day to finish engraving.

Even if Blind Li and his son don't come tomorrow, with the help of the village stonemasons, it will only take one more day at most.

So in the end, the only thing left to do was to plant the monument.

"As the old saying goes, strike while the iron is hot. We must start now and not waste the good weather. Otherwise, when the rainy season comes, we won't be able to plant."

After taking a sip of wine, Zhang Jianwen said that they had already decided these things.

The reason for choosing this time to do this is, on the one hand, because the rainy season has not really arrived yet and there will be no real heavy rain.

On the other hand, to plant so many road signs, a lot of people are definitely needed. Now the villagers have just planted the rice seedlings, the corn in the field does not need fertilizer or weeding, and the fruit trees have just been taken care of. Everyone has time, and there is just enough labor to do these things.

In this way, not only can the village affairs be handled well, but also the villagers can find something to do in their spare time and earn some wages to supplement their family income.

"I see there's nothing to do during this period, why don't you come and help, so we can relax a little bit."

As Zhang Jianwen spoke, he turned his gaze to Zhang An.

Although everyone in the village has time now and it is very easy to find them, it is not an easy task to arrange people. If Zhang An comes to help them, it will definitely be much easier.

"Forget it. Although there haven't been any major events during this period, there have been many minor ones. Besides, Zhou Yang's family is still in the hospital. Who knows what they need. I have to send it to them. I can go and lend a hand when the big monument is planted."

Zhang An shook his head and rejected his uncle's recruitment. There must be a lot of people in the village who need such job opportunities as these in the village, so he would not compete with others for jobs.

"Okay then. I'll share your wages for the past two days with everyone after we finish planting the road monuments."

Seeing Zhang An's refusal, Zhang Jianwen did not insist. In fact, he knew that if there was something in the village that needed everyone's help, Zhang An would definitely come without saying anything, but if it was about going to work, he would definitely not be asked. He just mentioned it casually just now.

"Uncle, let's not talk about this. It's just a casual move. Just consider it as my contribution to the village."

Zhang An did not agree to the wages. In his opinion, he was just drawing casually with a pen these two days. Compared with the uncles in the village who were carrying hammers, chisels and grinders to do physical work, it was nothing.

Moreover, he was really happy to help with things like this that could help improve his reputation in the village, and he never thought about the money.

"Okay, okay, our village is not like before. We are not so poor now. So many people have it. We can still do without your two sons. It's settled."

No matter what Zhang An said, Zhang Jianwen ignored him. He always did things fairly and justly, and would not violate his principles because of this matter, especially since it was a village matter.

In the following days, there was no action in the village, so Zhang An devoted himself to fertilizing the fruit trees at home.

The fruit trees in this orchard have been growing for several years and each one has become very tall. Zhang An certainly cannot allow them to continue growing taller.

So I took advantage of these few days to prune the branches and trim the tops of the fruit trees at home.

Without the top, the fruit trees will no longer need to spend huge amounts of nutrients on the growth of the trunk. These nutrients will then be transferred to the fruit. By the next year, the fruit will definitely be better. And there will be no need to worry about the fruit trees being too tall and making it difficult to pick the fruit.

While Zhang An was taking care of his own orchard, the village had already begun arranging the planting of road signs.

However, they did not start from the village. Instead, they started from various places far away, and only came to the places near the village at the end.

By the time Zhang An finished taking care of the fruit trees, all the road signs in other places had been planted, leaving only the large sign that was to be erected at the entrance of the village, which he had not started on for two days.

Because the elders in the village felt that a small stele was fine, but this large stele was like a big event and they needed to find an auspicious day.

In particular, this road sign represents Changqing Village. In the words of the elders, it is like the land bodhisattva who can protect this land, so it cannot be taken lightly.

As soon as this statement was made, it was recognized by everyone. Zhang Jianwen had the same idea as them, so he went to find Zhang Yihang and specially selected a good day based on the five elements and orientation of Changqing Village, so he waited for a few more days.

On the day of planting the stele, Zhang An got up before dawn and as soon as the rooster crowed twice.

What he said before about going to help and lend a hand was not just talk.

But he wasn't the only one who got up at this moment, his father and mother also got up.

"Dad, Mom, it's still so early, you go back and sleep a little longer, I'll go."

When he saw the tools he found, he knew that his father would definitely go to help plant the tombstone, but he felt that it was enough for him to go since he had his own family.

"I've slept enough. How can I sleep much more? Erecting a monument in the village is a big deal. Even if I have something to do, I have to make time to go there."

Zhang Jianguo said as he was sharpening his own pickaxe with a grindstone.

"You don't know, the road sign at the entrance of the village was planted more than 30 years ago. It was a lively day when the sign was planted. Almost all the villagers, young and old, were there. I still remember that scene."

Although it happened more than 30 years ago, Zhang Jianguo can still recall it clearly, even though he was still a teenager at that time.

Zhang An was a little stunned after hearing this. He thought it was just planting a road sign and choosing a good day was already very grand, but he never thought it would be more than that. However, no one had told him all this.

After Zhang An had packed up, Zhang Jianguo and his son went out with pickaxes and shovels.

Wang Fang has already started working in the kitchen, preparing a table for dinner.

However, it was not the kind of large banquet required for weddings and funerals, but a small banquet like the one for worshipping the Earth Bodhisattva. There were many types of banquet dishes, including both meat and vegetarian dishes, but each one was just a little smaller.

Needless to say, this will be brought over soon.

When Zhang An and his father arrived at the entrance of the village, they found that it was already full of people. Just as Zhang Jianguo said, everyone would come here on their own for such a thing, even Zhang Yihang was there.

But it makes sense, after all, he was the one who chose the day.

Damingzi arrived a little later, and when he saw Zhang An, he came over laughing.

This guy has really matured a lot now. He likes to join in when things happen, unlike before. Not to mention his father, even his grandfather can’t be called.

After waiting for a while, Zhang Jianwen looked at the old watch on his hand, then walked to Zhang Yixing and informed him.

Zhang Yixing heard this, looked at the sky and said, "No hurry, we have to wait a little longer."

After listening to this, Zhang Jianwen continued to stand by and wait.

After listening to their conversation, Zhang An realized that the two were communicating about time.

Planting the monument today not only requires an auspicious day, but also an auspicious time.

It just so happens that there are not just one but two auspicious times, because the old road markers need to be dug up and the new ones need to be planted at a specific time, for the same reason.

Today, the time for erecting the old stele is 2:15 am, which is between 5:15 and 5:30 am on the watch now.

The time for planting the new monument is the first quarter of the morning.

It is precisely because of this that everyone in the village rushed here early before dawn.

However, Zhang An didn't quite understand. He looked at the time. It was already 5:15, but Zhang Yixing hadn't spoken yet.

But ever since Zhang Jianwen told them, Zhang and his party have been staring at the sky.

A few minutes later, the sky suddenly brightened and the hazy morning light began to appear on the earth.

"Young men, come here and get ready to take action."

It was at this time that Zhang Yixing spoke to everyone.

At this time, it was already 5:18 in the morning.

As for the surrounding villagers, they had stood up and stopped bragging and chatting since Zhang Jianwen discussed the time with Zhang Yihang.

When they heard Zhang and his group speak, they all stood beside the old monument with weapons in their hands.

Huang Ming was called away by Zhang Jianwen at some point and was now standing nearby, lighting a string of firecrackers.

As soon as he heard Zhang Yixing's voice, he lit the firecrackers.

Amid the crackling sound of firecrackers, everyone immediately started to work.

When the sound of firecrackers stopped, the old road signs were also dug out by everyone.

This string of firecrackers was made from homemade cannons, and they were quite large. They ignited very slowly, so they lasted for a long time. This was specially chosen by Zhang Jianwen so that everyone would have enough time to dig up the old man.

The excavated old stele was not placed randomly. Instead, when it was being carried by everyone, Zhang Yixing tied it up with a piece of red cloth.

"Village chief, is it necessary to be so grand and even hang red banners?"

At this time, some young people nearby found it interesting and started asking questions.

"Okay, if you don't understand, don't talk nonsense. You are still young and don't understand many things. This road monument has blessed our village for decades. If you don't believe me, ask the old men. Over the past few decades, all the children in our village have been born safely, and no one has died young. The elderly have all died of old age, and no one has died suddenly from an accident or illness."

Zhang Jianwen glared at the ignorant young kids around him, then spoke.

After hearing this, Zhang An came to his senses and thought about it. It was indeed the case. Not to mention other things, he had heard of babies dying in other villages around him in recent years.

Even though his own grandparents passed away early, they were in their fifties at that time. It had nothing to do with accidents or illnesses. It was all because they worked too hard when they were young and overdrawn their bodies too much.

Of course, no one can explain this matter clearly, but this is the fact. And in this regard, if you believe it, it exists, and if you don’t believe it, it doesn’t. It is better to believe it exists than to believe it doesn’t.

Therefore, this usually inconspicuous old monument deserves the fate of being marked with a red badge and retired.

"Okay, some young people, come and take this old stele to the land bodhisattva. Zhang An, you strong ones, come with me and carry the new stele over."

After hanging the red on the old monument, Zhang Jianwen began to recruit his troops.

However, others who were not called also followed.

When he arrived at the village square, Zhang An discovered that the stele he had written earlier had been processed again.

Dragon patterns were carved around the stone tablet, and the carved words were also painted with gold lacquer.

Soon, it was the 1st hour of the morning, when the sky was already bright. Once again, accompanied by the sound of firecrackers, the new stele was planted down by everyone.

Many of the vehicles passing by parked their cars nearby and came over to join in the fun.

They originally thought it was a big deal, but it turned out that they just erected a new monument. However, seeing how solemn the villagers were, no one said anything impolite.

After the new monument was erected, many women in the village carried the mats they had prepared in the morning and handed them over to their men.

The same goes for Wang Fang. Although she came, she did not step forward, but asked Zhang Jianguo to carry the mat and set it up.

After Zhang Yihang lit a pair of red candles, everyone went over to burn incense one by one, but unlike usual, they did not burn three sticks, but only one.

But even so, the front of the new monument was filled with incense sticks and banquets.

When the old people in the village saw this scene, they were so happy that their faces were full of smiles, because this represented that Changqing Village was prosperous and popular.

And this new road sign, having received so much incense, will surely continue to bless this village. This can be considered a kind of incense inheritance.

After everything was done, Zhang Jianwen brought the rest of the people to bring cement and sand from the village, and plowed the land in front of the new monument into a dam so that it would not look too out of place with the new road monument.

(End of this chapter)