country bumpkin

Chapter 56 The Lively Scene in the Village

The weather was clear and cloudless. For months, not a single drop of rain had fallen, and the crops in the fields were beginning to dry out.

Kong Tongming was taking a break recently. He came to the fields, squatted down, and gently brushed away the soil. He saw the cracked clods of earth underneath, and his brows furrowed tightly.

He stood up and looked towards the horizon, hoping to see a wisp of cloud that might bring rain, but the sky was a cruelly blue, with no sign of rain whatsoever.

At this moment, the village's old clan chief also walked shakily to the edge of the field.

"Tongming, if the drought continues like this, we're afraid we'll have no harvest this year," the old clan chief sighed helplessly.

Kong Tongming gritted his teeth and said, "Clan leader, I want to go to the river at the foot of the mountain to see if we can bring water over."

The old clan chief's eyes widened. "The distance from the foot of the mountain to here is quite far, and digging a canal to bring in water is no easy task."

But Kong Tongming's eyes were firm: "We can't just stand by and watch the crops wither and die. We have to give it a try."

After saying that, he strode towards the mountain, his figure gradually disappearing on the path leading to the mountain, leaving behind only a parched land waiting for water and a worried old clan chief.

He arrived at the foot of the mountain and surveyed the terrain. Uneven rocks blocked the waterway.

After learning the details, he returned to the village and went to the village chief Kong Youliang's house. He told him his idea. The village chief thought it was worth a try.

The village chief announced the decision through a loudspeaker at the village committee office. He organized everyone to dig a ditch, with each family sending one person, and elderly people in their families without young members not having to work.

All the young people who stayed in the village, regardless of gender, went to the foot of the mountain to dig irrigation ditches.

The next day, before dawn, the villagers set off carrying their tools. Kong Tongming stood at the head of the group, leading everyone towards the foot of the mountain.

Upon arriving at their destination, Kong Youliang assigned tasks, and everyone got to work with great enthusiasm.

The men were responsible for quarrying the rocks, while the women carried away the broken stones and shaped the channels.

At first, progress was slow; the hard rocks caused blisters to form on the hands of many men, but no one complained or gave up. As time went on, the canal gradually extended forward.

When encountering particularly difficult areas, Kong Tongming would mobilize everyone to come up with solutions.

Once, a huge rock was blocking the way, and it took everyone working together to move it using a wooden lever.

After weeks of hard work, the irrigation canal finally reached the edge of the village. Then, branch canals gradually extended to the fields of each household.

The villagers cheered as the clear river water slowly flowed along the irrigation canal into the long-parched fields.

The old clan chief excitedly grabbed Kong Tongming's hand and said, "Tongming, thanks to you, our village is saved."

Village chief Kong Youliang also stepped forward, grabbed Kong Tongming's arm, and happily expressed his gratitude.

Kong Tongming looked at the vibrant fields, a satisfied smile spreading across his face. The task of digging irrigation ditches to water the fields had finally come to an end.

A few days later, people at the village entrance saw a large group of people arriving from other villages. There were two donkey carts, with six people sitting on them.

On the donkey cart at the very front sat Granny Liang, her husband Old Man Zhu, and the lame Zhu Zhiqiang.

In the donkey cart behind them sat Zhu Wenbin, the village chief of Zhujia Village, and two other people: Jiang Mobai, Zhu Zhiqiang's cousin, and Liang Laidi, his second aunt.

They had come to ask Granny Zhang for a daughter-in-law. Some villagers saw the donkey cart heading towards her house and quickly ran to warn her.

"Is Granny Zhang home? Your daughter-in-law's family has come, a total of six people. They don't seem to have good intentions, Granny Zhang, you should be careful." After saying this, the nosy villager left.

Granny Zhang called to her husband and son, preparing to go out to greet her in-laws. Zhu Mengmeng, hearing that her family had arrived, happily ran outside.

Just then, the donkey cart arrived at the door and stopped, and Granny Zhang greeted her with a smile.

"Oh! In-laws, what brings you here? Please come in and have some tea." He then invited them into the main room.

Zhu Mengmeng hugged her mother's arm and nuzzled her shoulder affectionately. It was clear that she missed her family very much.

Granny Zhang frowned and asked in confusion, "Mother-in-law, father-in-law, why didn't my daughter Qingjiao come back with us?"

Granny Liang looked at her and said, "You're asking me? Who should I ask?"

Granny Zhang was bewildered. "Mother-in-law, what do you mean?"

Granny Liang said, "The young couple had a few words of argument, and then she ran away. We thought she had come back, so we came to ask her."

Upon hearing this, Granny Zhang immediately became furious and said, "What? My daughter ran away? She hasn't come back even once since her wedding! If your son hadn't been beating her all the time, would she have run away? And now she's asking us for her return? We haven't even gone to you for an explanation yet!"

As the conversation escalated and a quarrel was about to break out, Granny Zhang suddenly exclaimed, "Oh dear! What's wrong? Could Qingjiao be thinking of jumping into the river?"

Granny Liang quickly shut her mouth as well. She said timidly, "Nonsense, my son didn't hit her. She couldn't think straight on her own. It has nothing to do with our family. Don't make baseless accusations."

Granny Zhang wasn't one to be trifled with. Hearing that her daughter was missing and the matter was beyond repair, she saw no need to be polite to them.

She grabbed Granny Liang's hair and started pulling. The two women began to wrestle. Her younger sister, Liang Laidi, also came over to help beat Granny Zhang.

When the two old men saw that the women were fighting, they each pulled their own family members away.

Village chief Zhu Wenbin shouted, "Stop it! Stop fighting! The most important thing now is to find the person and solve the problem, not to blame each other."

Everyone stopped what they were doing, and Old Man Zhu spoke up: "That's right, let's find her first. We came here today to let you know if Qingjiao comes back and let us know. She's a good girl. We'll talk about whether she stays or leaves later."

Zhang Chenggong, hearing that Old Zhu seemed like a reasonable person, said, "Alright, let's talk about it after we find him! You go back first, and if you find him first, let us know."

The two old men resolved the matter just like that. Just as Old Man Zhu was about to step outside, Granny Liang said, "Wait, there's one more thing we haven't explained."

Granny Zhang said, "Say what you have to say quickly! Stop dawdling."

Granny Liang said, "Our two families used to arrange a marriage between our families. Now that your daughter has run away, our Mengmeng wants to take her back."

Granny Zhang jumped up in anger: "What? What did you say? Why should we? We had a fair exchange. Now you've taken her away, and now you want to take my daughter-in-law away too? Do you think you're so great?"

Seeing that another fight was about to break out, Zhu Wenbin, the village chief of Zhujia Village, spoke up to stop it. "You two families should talk things out and come up with a plan. Don't resort to fighting all the time. Fighting won't solve anything."

Granny Zhang retorted, "Our two families had an agreement to exchange daughters. We treated Mengmeng so well, letting her do no chores. She's only been with us for a few months and she's already gained weight. You abused my daughter, and we haven't even settled accounts with you yet! If you had treated my daughter well, why would she have run away?"

Granny Liang retorted, "Whose fault is it that your daughter ran away on her own? If she goes to find her old flame, is it our fault too?"

Upon hearing this, Granny Zhang became furious and pounced on Granny Liang, scratching her face.

He muttered under his breath, "You're talking nonsense. I'll teach you a lesson for wrongly accusing my daughter. I'll make sure you're dead..."

The two old ladies started fighting again. Seeing that her sister was losing and couldn't beat Granny Zhang, her second sister Liang Laidi quickly stepped forward to help, and the house erupted into chaos as everyone fought.

Zhu Zhiqiang remained silent, only watching as his mother and second aunt stood up for him.

Old Zhu couldn't stand it anymore. He knew perfectly well that his daughter-in-law had run away because his family was in the wrong.

He looked at Zhu Wenbin and said, "Village chief, we're not being unreasonable. As long as they give my daughter 2000 yuan as a bride price, we'll let Mengmeng stay. If Qingjiao is found, we'll also set her free."

Old Mrs. Zhang was furious: "What? Are you all obsessed with money? If we had money, we would have arranged for your daughter to be married off to a cripple."

Zhu Zhiqiang got even angrier when he heard his mother-in-law say that he was a cripple. He clenched his fists and said, "She's just a used woman, and she still thinks I'm a cripple. If it weren't for me, what man would want her? Humph!"

The villagers who were watching the spectacle were speechless.