Chapter 4: Cloud Shadow in November 1992
Cloud Shadow in November 1992
The weather is getting colder and colder, and I stopped working with the helpers at the logging yard. According to my estimation, the firewood I have saved is enough to burn for most of the winter, and I will collect it later when I need it.
My important task right now is to create a 'fireplace' from stone and dirt according to the pattern I've found in my memory.
It's not a good idea to start a fire in a narrow barn. I tried to start a fire, and the smoke was full of smoke. The most terrible thing was that my firewood "bed" was too close to the fire, which was very easy to ignite. The thought that the hay would set the barn roof on fire made me afraid to try to start a fire in the barn again.
However, the fire in the barn is also imperative, so even though I knew that once the walls of the barn were taken down, I might have to sleep in the cold wind for two or three days, I decided to take down the walls to expand the barn.
When the barn was built, no advanced technology was used, and it was basically built like a child building blocks. This made the top of the barn lose its support and collapsed just by dismantling half of the wall. It was built diagonally on one side of the wall as a shelter from the wind, and the other side of the wall was dismantled and expanded by more than one meter. Then, a lot of stones were used to lay a 'floor' on the original land of the barn, and finally it was reused. Double layers of stone rise up against the barn walls.
Maybe it’s because I used stones to build things a lot, but I really figured out some rules. I piled them together according to the shape of the stones, so that they are stable and balanced, even if I don’t add wood chips and firewood to fill the gaps, they can remain stable.
It was really miserable when I knocked down the barn and slept under a small shack the first day. The family who took me in even asked me if I wanted to live in his house, but I declined their offer, and it didn't work the next day. Liang got up and moved stones to repair the barn, and even dismantled and rearranged a small section of the wall that was not intended to be knocked down and rebuilt.
My own new double-layered wall is much stronger than the original single-layered stone wall. It can hardly be pushed by hand, and the gap is filled with small stones, which is almost airtight. It is relatively flat from the outside and inside, and the appearance is comparable. good.
In six or seven days, the barn was expanded outside. After the original door was demolished and rebuilt, there was a small arched passage like the entrance to an igloo. I had to squat to get in, but it was really sheltered from the wind. Rain, making the interior of the barn safer than ever.
I originally wanted to try to use stones to stack the top of the "arch bridge" shape, but my craftsmanship was still too bad. I tried many times without success. Now the top of the barn and the small entrance are made of branches and firewood, and the middle part is still It covers the flaky rock I picked up to protect it from the wind, but if I disassemble it by hand, it can be disassembled into a pile of scraps in three or two times.
My "fireplace" has also been successfully stacked. I use big rocks that I can move back. Pieces of rocks are carefully stacked together with small rock fragments. I use long rocks in many places. I moved them myself. If you don't come back, you have to ask others for help.
But the "fireplace" worked, with its humble oval-shaped chimney sloping out over the top of the barn and supported by my "hat" woven of sticks and soft grass, which I hoped would keep rain and snow out. My Heart Fireplace.
The first test burn of the stone fireplace was quite successful. I couldn't be happier with the warm flame burning in the stone cavity, the suction created above, and no smoke being left in the barn.
The warm flames illuminated the cold barn and dried it, and I was so happy that I wanted to cry.
The next time I covered the leaking fireplace with mud, and slathered the outside of the barn with mud.
Up to now, the entire barn has been completely changed, its walls have been completely replaced, from the original single-storey to the current double-storey, the height has also increased from about one meter to the current one meter five, the diameter It is from less than two meters to about two meters to five now. The grass bunk on the dry stone floor is very spacious, even if it is more than enough to sleep two people.
From the outside, my thatched-roofed house looks like a small grave, and it doesn't look very good. Because it is wrapped in mud, there are not many stones to be seen. It is difficult for people to believe its firmness. It can only be drilled through its "poor" entrance. When you go in, you will know that it is unexpectedly spacious and warm inside.
The first night I slept in a small shack built by myself, the warm bonfire imprinted on my cheeks and body, and the clear sound of peeling and peeling made me sleep very sweetly.
I'd love to share my work with others so that they can also experience my cozy, clean, and smokeless nest, but when I think about the fleas and ticks all over my village, I really don't want them to Come into my den.
The two kids in the family who took me in liked to walk around me, and they helped me a lot when I rebuilt the barn, so even though they were not hygienic and had lice in their hair, they didn't. Or my welcome little guest.
To be precise, the barn belongs to his family. Although I expanded the barn to make it more comfortable to live in, it is still his family's property, so I can't and shouldn't stop them.
The two little guys liked the thatched hut I repaired very much, especially after lighting the bonfire, the warm hut blocked the cold wind from the outside, it was even warmer than their own home, so when I went out to help, they I spent a lot of time playing in my hut. When I was tired, I fell asleep. Several times I even wanted to spend the night in the hut. I was called by my parents several times before I was reluctant to climb out of the hut and go home.
The current hut is no longer like a barn. It is just like what I call it. It is more like a "house" now. If it wasn't for the fact that its entrance was so small that people needed to squat to get in, I'm afraid others would also think it was a "house". A small "house".
The entrance to the hut was too small for me to enter easily, so since my hut was built, no one but two small children have been in it.
There are other children in the village, and my relationship is not bad, but I have not invited any of them. Some of them are also a little interested in my hut, especially after listening to the description of the two children, but I did not invite them. They, they didn't take the initiative to mention it, or maybe they did, but I didn't understand it, so I didn't answer.
In any case, day by day to the end of the month, I have stockpiled a small amount of food, and a little bit of food is enough for me to eat for about seven days. This is a reserve material that I value very much.
The possibility of being frozen to death has given me a lot of expectations for life. I set up a hidden compartment in the corner of the hut to hide things, not only the previous pesticides and medicines have been moved to this small compartment, and the next month will be removed from the civilized world. The things I brought here are also going to be hidden here.
I stretched out my hand and looked at my hands full of calluses, blisters and chapped. I really looked like a serf who opened up wasteland, but this month’s hard work was not in vain. I lived in a reasonably comfortable and warm house. The medicine has also helped a lot, at least now that all the wounds on my body are being treated well, otherwise the scrapes and infections alone would have been enough to make me devastated.
I originally thought that the end of the month would be thirty-one days, but I didn’t expect that this time on the night of the thirty-first day, I would see the stone gate, and I saw the stone gate in advance. Back to my familiar home again.
It was the same as last time, it was still late at night, but I was no longer so frightened. Instead, I calmly picked up the clothes, shoes and socks that I had taken off in a plastic bag, and then took a bath with the hot water that had been prepared in the thermos, and then Cook laundry.
The last time I used a big aluminum pot to cook clothes, I still felt guilty, but this time it was much easier to implement. After a short while of waiting for the water to boil, I used a clipper to shave a dog's head outside the door. , although I have taken great care not to touch the grass, animals and other people, these gadgets still find me tenaciously, and stay in my hair.
In two months, my clothes and underwear were already very old, with many cracks, and looked like a beggar's outfit.
I have my needles and threads ready and I plan to sew them up when I have time. I can't go across the street in new clothes, so all I can do now is to prolong their life as much as possible, so that I don't have to wear the kind of clothes that are difficult to weigh in the village. A piece of linen called "clothing".
The next day I went to school early, and I still took out the faders and handed them to my deskmate to ask him for help.
"Wow! You shaved your head again?" The tablemate grinned.
"Well." I put my head down and let him operate.
My deskmate was very nimble, and in a few minutes, I cleaned up the broken hair on my bald head, put on my hat, took out my textbook, and went to class with everyone.
I had been wearing a hat in class the previous month, and the teachers were so used to it that no one noticed any difference in me.
I didn’t hold a pen for a month, and I couldn’t avoid the feeling that my hands were raw. In addition, the blisters and calluses made me unable to write quickly, which was very annoying. However, my grades were poor. will not be caught.
The English class teacher told us that there is still a month before the final exam, and then the winter vacation. She asked us to start preparing for the review of the content we have learned before and prepare for the final exam.
I don't like exams very much. I get beaten every time I get my exam results. In my memory, I don't seem to have gotten any results that would make me happy to tell my parents and my mom. So when someone said I wasn't a candidate for school, I didn't think so. Don't take that as an insult, but take it for granted.
I have several brothers. He is the most introverted and the dumbest, so when my grandparents died and the brothers split up the family property, he could only be squeezed out to work.
I often think that if my dad can be tough and take the initiative to fight for it, even if it is, our family will not be as poor as it is now.
My dad asked me around the New Year's Eve last year if I wanted to continue my studies after graduating from junior high school. I told him that I didn't want to continue my studies, but I wanted to work and earn money. At least finish high school anyway.
I don't understand. With my grades, I may not be able to pass the vocational high school entrance examination. Why waste time and money?
After I got home from school, I was bored by myself, which was unprecedented. I lit a fire in the kitchen stove and tried to cook. I had the experience of operating the stove twice, plus I was playing in a small shack in the village a few days ago. Fireplace, I'm quite familiar with it.
I have never cooked at home, but I still understand the general operation. Steaming rice is too complicated, so I cooked a pot of porridge, put in a few dried red dates at home, and ran out in the cold wind to buy it at the alley Several buns.
I was a little embarrassed when I used the big aluminum pan to heat the steamed buns, although I had scrubbed it carefully last night, but after all, I used it to do strange things, and it was twice, it felt weird no matter how I thought about it.
Of course, I am very capable. I have experienced worse situations. My parents and my mother must not know what I have cooked with my cooking pot. I hope they don't mind and never find me. little "secret".
There are porridge and steamed buns. I also used the white radish sliced at home, mixed with vinegar and salted leek flowers and mixed a side dish. It is a little worse than my mother's craftsmanship, but at least it is hot. I devoured the belly balls myself, The rest are kept hot in the steamer, waiting for my parents to eat when they come back from get off work.
When my parents came back, I hadn't finished my homework. As usual, they put down the toolbox, put the bicycle in the living room, and went to the kitchen to cook for me, but today is different. They saw the warm stove first. The table, and the aluminum pot above, both of them were stunned.
"I cooked some porridge, steamed buns and side dishes, let's eat and see how you like it." I touched my nose, feeling a little embarrassed.
My dad lifted the lid of the pot and the steam rose, presumably still a little hot, and he shivered before he brought out the dish inside.
I didn't expect my mom to cry.
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