Chapter 18 Chapter Eighteen

The whiteness of the world.The villagers all came out of their homes and stood under the old saponins tree in the center of the village, wearing rain hats, umbrellas, and sacks to block the snow.Whose family has just died and is still guarding the filial piety, there is nothing to block the snow, so they simply put on filial piety clothes, and they look whiter and whiter, as if they melted into the snow. Sima Lan stood on a stone under the ox wheel clock, and his younger brothers Sima Hu and Sima Lu stood under him, each holding a shovel, with bluish faces, staring at the villagers. It wasn't until this time that the crowded villagers realized with a shudder that the Sima brothers had all grown up.

It's overpowering. Sima Lan stood on the red stone under the clock, kicked the snow on the ground, imitating the way Lan Baisui held a mass meeting back then, glanced at the chaotic crowd, and let the sixth younger brother Sima Hu stand in front of him. The snow plowed out a line with a shovel, stared at the line and at the crowd and shouted: "The people in the village with three surnames—the Du family, the Lan family, and the Sima family, those who want to live past the age of forty stand here, and those who don't want to live past the age of forty stand there. The three of us, this month After walking hundreds of miles along Palou Mountain, I took a good look at the Lingyin Canal. It is sixty miles long when it is completed, and it is eighty miles long if it is not repaired. As long as the water is brought here, the people in the village will live past forty years old. It is also very common to live to be fifty, sixty, seventy or eighty years old. My ancestors, there are people in Lingyin Temple who live to be 120 years old and can still eat carrots with their teeth. Let’s talk now, who doesn’t want to live By the age of forty? Stand up if you want to live, stand up if you don't want to live."

Sima Lan's words stopped with a bang. The villagers stood still.As if they couldn't believe that they could live past forty if they stood up, and they couldn't live past forty if they stood over them, everyone stared at the line on the snowy ground, icy cold and silent. Sima Lan glanced at the villagers again and said, "My ancestors don't want to live long, do they?" Sima Hu took a few steps to another stone under the clock, and pointed his shovel at the crowd like a gun: "Do you not want to live past forty or do you not want to listen to my fourth brother's words?!"

Sima Lan shouted, "Sixth!" Sima Hu didn't turn his head: "Don't worry about it." Sima Lu stood there blankly, looking at his sixth younger brother and at the villagers, half begging and half explaining: "Can't you just stand here, who doesn't want to live fifty, sixty, seventy or eighty." The new daughter-in-law Zhucui came out from the crowd and stood on the side of the snow field. Dubo is standing on the snow line.Forty's younger sister, Lan Sanjiu, followed Du Bo. The crowd was like a theater gate suddenly opened wide, they all rushed across the south of the tree on the snow, and Bai Huahua squeezed on the side of the snow line.

Sima Lan shouted at the top of his voice again: "Since we all want to live past the age of forty, from tomorrow onwards, every household will hand over their savings. Those who have money will pay, and those who have no money will sell trees, pigs, and grain. No matter whether there are sick people in the family or not. , Anyone who has a coffin will be sold at the market. The village has stipulated that no matter who dies in the village in recent years, they can only be buried in a sweep instead of a coffin. Save money to buy shovels, hammers, and Explosives. I’ve already asked someone to do the math. This time I can’t get together more than 3,000 yuan, so don’t even think about repairing canals to divert water—if someone refuses to pay the money, or refuses to use anything, I’m going to make the house The house burned down and I am not the head of this village──Which man loves his family and his wife is afraid of working hard and sweating, and refuses to go to the construction site. If I find some bachelors and fools to rape his wife, you go to the grave of Sima’s family and kill my father. Sima Xiaoxiao's grave was dug up, and my father's bones were hung on the mountain ridge—what woman dares to drag a man back, go to the construction site every three days to find a man, come back to plow the land and harvest the crops, I won't crush her child to death, wait Zhucui is pregnant, if she gives birth to a child, you will crush one to death, and Sima Lan will have no children and grandchildren..."