Chapter 5 Arriving Home

Under the tile shed is a cement floor. If you come out from the back door of the kitchen, you will see a refrigerator and a washing machine placed against the wall on the right side.

Wait a moment, the fish haven't been fed yet. Li Junge took off his backpack and threw it aside, then went to the side of the basket and started throwing grass into the fish pond. Wow! The grass carp has grown so big! Mom, hasn't this pond been cleaned for a long time?

Shi Sufen pulled out her right hand and patted on Li Junguo's shoulder, saying, "You brat, it's been years since you came back! I missed you so much!" While pulling Li Junguo towards home, she took out her phone and called her husband.

Behind the kitchen is a bathroom, and on the right side are three tall and beautiful lychee trees. The lychee trees have a very attractive shape, and there is a stone table and four stone stools under the trees.

Two families in the feudal era relied on and supported each other, which was actually a symbiotic relationship. The Li family in Shanghe received economic support from the Li family in Xiahe, allowing their children to focus on studying. The Li family in Xiahe, on the other hand, received care from the Shanghe Li family's offspring who served in official positions, which provided them with more convenience in their business operations.

Further back, behind the shed, there is a small hill. A small stone path leads up to it. That is the firewood mountain of the Li family.

On the left side of the pond, there is a rectangular frame made of thick bamboo floating on the water. A middle-aged woman is standing by the pond, holding green grass from a large basket beside her and throwing it into the water. It seems that she is feeding the grass carp in the water. She is Li Junguo's mother, Shi Sufen.

Walking out of the hall, I saw grandma sewing insoles again, so I dragged over a stool to chat with her.

There is a tiled shed at the back of the entire house, which can be accessed through the back door of the kitchen.

Grandma was comforted, and Shisu Fen went to the field to pick vegetables. The grandmother and granddaughter entered the hall.

In the middle of the main hall, there is an Eight Immortals table with four long benches. On the table, there is a teapot and several cups. On the left side, there are several wooden chairs with backrests lined up along the wall. On the right side, there is a cabinet with several tubes of tea leaves and a water dispenser on top. Inside the cabinet, there are various types of drinking glasses.

Under the cement platform, there are pots of various sizes.

Under the tree, there are some miscellaneous flowers and plants, such as "Month after month red" and the like, which look quite interesting. They surround the open dam together with the three-box houses.

The room upstairs is both my parents' bedroom and a guest room.

Li Jungé continued along the bluestone road, passed the village, crossed several dirt ridges at the end, and arrived at a large pond. The pond was over four mu, which was considered quite large in the countryside.

On the left side of the open dam is a single-story house with green bricks and green tiles. Inside, there are toilets and pigsties, with two pigs lying inside. There is also a large amount of space for various agricultural tools to be stored. A layer of wooden boards is also placed on the top, with various firewood and miscellaneous items placed on the boards.

After the mother and son finished throwing the fish and grass, Shi Sufen carried an empty basket and Li Junguo carried his own backpack as they walked along the fish pond towards their home.

This is the family tradition passed down by Shenzhen Gong. All the families in Li Jia Gou are like this, "Report when going out, meet when returning."

There is a small piece of land between the fish pond and the open dam, which is not vacant. On it, there are two Chinese prickly ash trees, one osmanthus tree, and one yellowhorn tree.

"Rake" in dialect means "soft". "Rake ears" refers to the situation where a husband's ears are constantly being pulled by his wife, making them soft and limp. It is a term used to describe a man who is afraid of his wife.

Because of this characteristic, Shuzhou women have also developed a coquettish and spicy nature in front of their own men. Hearing their mother and father speak like this, Li Junge has long been accustomed to it.

Grandma's biggest concern is her well-behaved grandson's girlfriend. She keeps sighing and saying she doesn't know if she'll live long enough to see the end of it. Li Junguo couldn't sit still after hearing this. Seeing some fallen leaves in the courtyard, he picked up the broom by the wall and started sweeping.

On the front wall is a wooden niche, with a sign placed in the middle. On the sign, it says "天地君亲师位" in regular script, with the character "位" being one-fourth the size of the other characters.

There are also some farming tools hanging on the red brick wall, such as axes, saws, hatchets, and electrical tools, etc. There is also a large area where various fishing gear belonging to Li Jungge is hung.

After the announcement of his retirement, Shenclear was disturbed by the noise and decided to take his family to hide in the vicinity of Lijiagou Village, where they began a semi-reclusive life.

Grandma was sewing shoe pads under the eaves. She had spotted Mr. Li a long time ago. As soon as she saw him approaching, she immediately grabbed her grandson and called out, "Good boy!" Her wrinkled hands gently caressed Mr. Li's face and body.

On both sides of the wooden niche, there are many red papers pasted. On top of them, there are some divine statues and Taoist talismans, which were brought back by my parents from the market during the festival. Li Junguo also couldn't understand.

At this time, the phone was connected, and Shi Sufen shouted at the phone again: "Dead ghost, come back quickly, Yao'er is back! What do you mean by sudden? You're not happy when Yao'er comes back! Hurry back from the teahouse, stop playing cards and come back, or you'll be dead!"

Under the wooden shrine is an incense table, with an incense burner placed in the middle. Inside the burner are burnt incense sticks. Next to the burner, there is a lighter for lighting the incense. On both sides, there are candlesticks, which are currently empty. Outside the candlesticks, there are plates, one with fruits and the other with candies.

Returning to idle talk, after passing through Shenzhen Fang, even if entering the core area of the village, the center of Xiaopingyuan is the Li family ancestral hall with white walls and blue tiles. In front of the ancestral hall is a large threshing ground. The Shi family is located near the ancestral hall, and the two bid farewell to each other here.

Next to the water tank are several large and small earthenware pickle jars, as well as a long cement platform with a large cutting board and a big knife for cutting pig grass. There is also a pile of green fodder such as sweet potato vines for the poultry and livestock's dinner.

Li Jungé quickened his pace and ran over, shouting loudly, "Mom!" Then he held his mother's hands and swung them back and forth, laughing foolishly.

The outer side of the pigsty is a small flat ground, with three longan trees, whose crowns are even higher than the red brick building. The small flat ground under the trees is surrounded by low fences woven with bamboo strips, inside of which are two or three chickens and a dozen or so chicken coops.

The Li family in Pan'ao Township was also divided into two branches from here. One branch, led by Shenzhen Gong, continued to be a dominant force in Pan'ao Township, engaging in various businesses such as operating docks, freight transportation, and storefronts. The descendants of the other branch, led by Shenzhen Qing Gong, focused on education and passing down their knowledge to future generations, and pursued careers in the imperial examinations.

Li Junguo walked into his own house, threw his backpack onto the small sofa, and when he came out, he had already changed into coarse clothes and liberation shoes, immediately transforming into a rural child. He lifted the lid of the teapot, saw that there was tea inside, poured a cup, and drank it all in one gulp. "Hmm, old dark tea, delicious!"

At the end of the fish pond is a small dam, which is our own threshing ground, called "Changba". Opposite the Changba is our own house, in a U-shaped structure, with a three-room, two-story red brick house in the middle, facing the hall, with a wing room on each side, and stairs leading to the roof.

Shi Sufen saw someone coming over, looked up and saw Li Jungge, couldn't help but feel happy, threw down the grass, wiped her hands on the blue apron, and shouted loudly, "Yao Wa! Yao Wa! Why did you come back?! Oh, you naughty child! You don't even know to call ahead and say something!"

When Sheng Qinggong set out from Pan'ao Township, he excelled in the imperial examinations and became an official in the court, bringing prosperity to the Li family in Pan'ao Township.

On both sides of the hall, there are small wooden doors leading to the left and right ear rooms. On the left is Grandma Li Junge's room, and on the right is Li Junge's room. Grandma's room has a large TV, and Li Junge's room has a computer.

On the right side of the open dam is also a similarly large house, which is where the kitchen of the Li Junge family is located. The kitchen has a wood stove, and the ceiling is covered with smoked meat products such as bacon and sausages.

While dialing and waiting for the call to connect, Shi Sufen talked to her child: "You cleaned up before leaving home last time. The fish collector came to check twice and only offered four yuan per kilogram, saying that the distance was too far. Our fish pond has running water and the fish eat grass, what's the difference from wild fish? I won't sell it for four yuan! I'll keep it for my youngest to eat!"

The lychee tree and the longan tree were both planted by Li Junguo's parents when they got married. In terms of age, Li Junguo has to call them "elder brothers".

Shi Sufen laughed and said, "Hahaha, every time my son comes home, he's always hungry and wants to eat shrimp, just like when he was a child. So today, I'll make two bigger ones. We'll eat less rice tonight and have more fish!"

Due to its location at the key point of the salt route, Pan'ao has become a major transportation hub where Sichuan salt reaches the end of the waterway and is then transported by caravans. As a result, it has become a bustling center of commerce and trade, with both land and water transportation in full swing.

Mr. Li smiled and said, "Fresh vegetables and live fish at home are great. I often feel anxious in Yuzhou. I have to go and get two fish quickly. Tonight, we'll have the sour cabbage fish made by my mother!" After saying that, he ran to the back of the house to get the fishing gear.

On the outside of the shed, there are two stone water tanks, one large and one small. One is three feet square and the other is five feet square. Two rubber hoses bring spring water from the mountain into the tanks. When the tanks are full, the water will automatically overflow into the ditch outside the shed, bypass the house, and finally flow into the fish pond in front of the house.

After a short chat, Shi Sufen came back with a basket containing seasonal vegetables such as luffa, eggplant, and hollow-stemmed vegetables. She said to the father and son, "Stop chatting and start feeding the pigs and cooking. Yao Wa, go to the pond and catch two fish. Don't call ahead next time, we weren't prepared."

According to the flow direction of Wuxi River, one branch of Shenclear Public is called "Shanghe Li" and another branch of Shenclear Public is called "Xiahe Li".

Li Jungge also stood up and respectfully said to his father, "Dad, I'm back."

Men from Shuzhou Province are mostly strong and capable. After the fall of the Southern Song Dynasty, they managed to sustain themselves for several decades. Even when facing well-equipped Japanese invaders, the soldiers from Sichuan refused to surrender and fought bravely with only a few guns. However, they would bend over backwards and submit to their own wives, which is known as "Pao Er Duo".

Just after finishing sweeping the yard, Li Junge's father, Li Siqi, came back. He first said to his grandmother, "Mom, I'm back," before turning his head and couldn't take his eyes off Li Junge.

After this round of formalities, the father and son finally relaxed. Li Junge went to the main hall and brought out the tea, then sat beside his grandmother, drinking tea and chatting with his father.

Until modern times, the relationship between the two clans gradually weakened. Apart from the genealogy, which is still intact, the only other time when the connection can be discerned is when the elders of the two clans chat in the teahouse during the market days. It is only then, when they argue fervently about which clan holds greater importance within the lineage, that the context of the relationship between the two clans can be understood.

There is also a small wooden table with a rice cooker, a cutting board, a kitchen knife, and several baskets underneath.