Chapter 245: Eliminating Famine
"Mom, did I do something wrong?" Gu Dahan was a little nervous.
This stepson usually treats Tong Huaqiong normally, but once he is alone with Tong Huaqiong, he starts to feel like he has done something wrong.
It couldn't be changed in a short time, so Tong Huaqiong just let him go after telling him a few times.
Tong Huaqiong said to Gu Dahan, "Your sister sent Xiaofeng here today. I asked Xiaofeng about your sister's condition, but he was vague. Why don't you go to your sister's place tomorrow to take a look?"
Gu Baishuang doesn't get along with her stepmother, but she and Gu Dahan have a deep sisterly relationship. She will come to Qinghe Bay from time to time to see Dahan and Maner.
But Tong Huaqiong rarely leaves any food for others.
It has been two months since she last came to Qinghewan. Combined with the ambiguity in Nie Xiaofeng's words, Tong Huaqiong was worried that Gu Baishuang had encountered difficulties in the Nie family.
In early summer, at Old Lady Huang's birthday ceremony, it was clear from Gu Baishuang's stepson's wife that Gu Baishuang's life in the Nie family was not as comfortable as she had imagined.
Tong Huaqiong searched for Gu Baishuang from her previous life in Tong Dajiao's mind.
Because Man'er was sent to the Zheng family, Gu Baishuang completely broke with the Gu family and never had any contact with them again.
After Gu Jingzhe won the title of top scholar in the imperial examination, he took Tong Dajiao and others to Beijing to live. When passing through the town, he heard that Gu Baishuang's man had gone there. This cunning man had been on guard against Gu Baishuang all his life. Before he died, he left all his money to his two sons and did not leave any for Gu Baishuang.
The two stepsons bribed the clan leader and forced Gu Baishuang to leave the Nie family in front of the mourning hall. Nie Xiaofeng was expelled from the Nie family while protecting his mother.
Later, Tong Da Jiao went to the capital and never heard from Gu Baishuang again.
Tong Huaqiong wanted to find out about Gu Baishuang's current situation in the Nie family just because Gu Baishuang was willing to lend money to redeem Yaozu last time.
Gu Dahan was very happy when Tong Huaqiong asked him to visit his sister. He felt that this was his stepmother's concern for his sister.
He and Chen Sufen can become a family with their stepmother, and his sister will be able to do so sooner or later.
So he agreed and went to Nie's house early the next morning.
Gu Dahan came back after having lunch at Nie's house and told Tong Huaqiong that Gu Baishuang was fine at Nie's house, she just caught a cold recently and was almost recovered.
Tong Huaqiong felt slightly relieved after hearing this.
However, when Tong Huaqiong thought of Gu Baishuang's ending, she wanted to tell Gu Baishuang to be careful of the person next to her.
However, judging from the current situation, Gu Baishuang may not be willing to believe her.
We have to find a way to expose the true face of the Nie family.
There is no rush for this matter. After all, there are still several years before Gu Jingzhe passes the imperial examination and becomes the third place in the imperial examination.
......
Ever since an official plaque of commendation was placed on the front door of her home, Tong Huaqiong has walked with more confidence.
The whole person feels refreshed from the inside out.
Of course, there were people who were dissatisfied with the fact that Tong Huaqiong was commended by the government for his contribution to solving the ear rot disease, and his name became famous throughout Pingchuan County.
For example, Tian, the wife of Xu Yong, the former village chief of Qinghewan, and Yan Pozi and Huang Pozi, who were at odds with Tong Dajiao, were so angry that they cursed Tong Huaqiong behind her back every day.
The one who bore the brunt of the hatred for Tong Huaqiong the most was the Zheng family's eldest wife, Xu Zaohua.
She felt that all the glory that Tong Huaqiong had now should belong to her, Xu Zaohua.
Xu Zaohua insisted that Tong Dajiao had deliberately given the pesticide to her father in order to set a trap for her and thus make her lose face in the entire Pingchuan County.
As Tong Da Jiao wished, her goal was achieved.
Xu Zaohua was unwilling to accept this.
When the official plaque of praise was hung on Tong Huaqiong's door, Xu Zaohua's back teeth were almost broken.
Tong Huaqiong naturally didn't know any of this.
At this moment, Tong Huaqiong looked at the corn stalks swaying in the wind in the village and felt gratified that he had made a small contribution to the agriculture of this era.
Tong Dajiao's memory told her that this year the corn fields in the entire Yanguan Town were particularly severely affected by ear rot, and the corn in several villages was almost completely lost, including Qinghewan.
The Gu family is naturally no exception.
Since all the summer wheat was sold to Gu Jingzhe to buy money for his studies in the capital, the Gu family had no food at all.
Tong Da Jiao was forced to take her entire family to the mountains to dig wild vegetables and peel tree bark. By winter, the wild vegetables were gone and the tree bark had been dug hollow, and many people in the village starved to death.
When the Gu family was almost starving to death, the Lu family sent them food, and Tong Da Jiao and others escaped.
Now, thanks to Tong Huaqiong's contribution, no one in Qinghe Bay will starve to death due to a lack of harvest this autumn.
Every day, the villagers were delighted to see the corn ears growing fuller, and they felt grateful to Tong Huaqiong.
Most of the villagers in Qinghewan are very simple and honest. The way they express their gratitude is to send Tong Huaqiong vegetables, eggs, melons and fruits. These days, Tong Huaqiong's house is full of things that cannot be pushed away.
In addition, the villagers learned that someone was going to build a house on the wasteland behind the Gu family's yard where the innocent souls were buried by the knife, and that Mr. Qian, the owner of Fengle Building, wanted to pray for the souls of the innocent, so they bravely went over to help.
Originally, there were timid people who did not dare to go there. Some villagers said that the Gu family had lived here for so many years and no wronged spirits had come to claim their lives. Instead, their lives were getting better and better. This showed that the wronged spirits also knew the principle of seeking revenge without harming innocent people.
There is strength in numbers. With the concerted efforts of the villagers, large tracts of wasteland were quickly cleared.
After consultation with the entire village, the village chief Liu Tielian cleared a piece of land in the sunny area of the village cemetery to bury the wronged souls.
Boss Qian chose a good day as agreed and invited monks and Taoist priests to chant sutras for the deceased.
In addition, Tong Huaqiong discussed with the village chief and selected a cemetery with good feng shui to bury Hong's parents and younger brother separately.
Hong's parents and younger brother were finally laid to rest, and Hong finally put her mind at ease.
At the same time, Boss Qian and He Chao started laying the foundation for their house.
There happened to be a large piece of wasteland that had been dug up, so Tong Huaqiong simply expanded his yard.
She has long wanted to renovate her yard.
Renovating the yard was a big project, and there was the question of where the family would live while the work was underway.
The reclamation of the wasteland solved one of Tong Huaqiong's problems, which was to simply expand backwards.
Anyway, now everyone in the village has tacitly agreed that this piece of wasteland where the wronged souls were buried is integrated with Tong Huaqiong's yard. If Tong Huaqiong expands it, no one will cause trouble.
Even if someone comes to cause trouble, I believe Village Chief Liu Tielian will not ignore it.
Tong Huaqiong carried out a series of plans when expanding his yard.
In the future, when there is more food, there must be enough space to store it.
Tong Huaqiong felt that in this era, one never knew when unrest would break out, so it was always a good idea to store more food.
The larger the storage room, the better. In addition to the storage room on the ground, you also need to dig underground.
The pens for chickens, ducks and geese also need to be expanded.
My family has a pig farm, and some of the chickens, ducks and geese have been moved to the pig farm. We will also plan to build a chicken farm and a duck farm when we find a suitable place later.
The expanded chicken, duck and goose pen is mainly designed to provide entertainment for people who want to "raise chickens and grow vegetables when they have nothing to do".
In addition, what is more important is people’s residence.
The previous house was built when Lao Gu was alive. Although it was renovated in the middle, most of the roof was made of thatch and only a small part was made of tiles. Most of the walls were made of mud and a small part was made of blue bricks.
Tong Huaqiong thought that since she was going to expand the yard anyway, and Liu Tielian had allocated a large piece of wasteland, she might as well rebuild the house on the wasteland.
The roof should be covered with tiles, the eaves should be covered with glazed tiles, and the walls and floors should be covered with blue bricks.
More importantly, the walls should be thick and the house should have floor heating.
She came to this era in spring and had never experienced winter, but judging from the distinct four seasons, this place belonged to the north of the north-south geographical dividing line in later generations.
Most families don’t have ground heating, so they just have to endure the winter.
For Tong Huaqiong, who started enjoying northern heating when she was in college, she can no longer stand the winter without heating.
She didn't want to spend the winter in Tong Dajiao's old house with a hot water bottle, so she had to build a new house with ground heating and thick walls.
Build it during this season, let it air out for a few months in late autumn, and move it in during the winter.
perfect!