The Lucky Farmgirl-Chapter 1945 - 1920: Taking Matters Into Her Own Hands
Although the two cousins were very wary of Manbao, they couldn’t resist Manbao’s official authority, with a large group of adults following behind her, so when she walked into the yard, the three of them stared at her with wide eyes but didn’t dare to drive her away.
They couldn’t help but shout when they saw her lift her foot to enter the main room’s door, "You, you can’t go in!"
Manbao looked back at him and said, "I just want to see how to repair this house. You surely can’t continue living like this, can you? Look, the thatched roof hasn’t been changed for years, if it rains in a couple of days, are you going to live in water?"
After saying this, she lifted the curtain and went in, sighing repeatedly at the dirty and messy sight inside. She just looked around once and then came out, saying to a group of young people, "We can’t just stand by and watch. I don’t know who has extra thatch at home, why doesn’t each family give out one or two bundles, and everyone helps Uncle Yi clear up this house so it’s suitable for living?"
Old Zhou saw his daughter rolling up her sleeves to work, so he glared at his two sons, "Aren’t you going to help?"
Zhou Dalang and Zhou Wulang hurriedly rolled up their sleeves to help, but Xia Yi’s house was really too dirty and messy, they didn’t know where to start, besides, they weren’t exactly experienced in housework.
So the brothers looked up at the roof, and decisively decided to find a ladder to pull down the thatch from the roof.
But Xia Yi’s house didn’t have a ladder, so they had to step onto the half-collapsed wall to pull down the thatch from above.
Xia Yi’s eldest son couldn’t help but shout, "What are you doing, this is my home, you’re not allowed to touch it, come down quickly!"
Manbao glanced at him and said, "Can’t you see that my big brother and fifth brother are repairing your roof? The thatch hasn’t been changed for years, if it rains in a few days, will you sleep in the rain?"
The young man behind also pulled him and advised, "Dalang, your cousin is doing it for your own good."
Then he turned back and said to the clan members, "Let’s go back and find some thatch, each family can contribute a bit and fix his roof first."
Many people were reluctant because cutting, drying, and tying thatch is exhausting work. It’s not easy to bundle up thatch.
But seeing that Manbao had already rolled up her sleeves and started working, they were unwilling to lose face in front of her.
Although they were from the same clan and cousins, not distant relatives, they still couldn’t stop seeing her as an outsider since their family names hadn’t changed back.
And since she was an outsider, they didn’t want to lose face.
After hesitating, someone turned around to get supplies and once one person took the lead, others followed suit and went home too.
Some were under the control of their parents or siblings, and seeing them taking out the family’s thatch and ladders to leave, couldn’t help but curse and complain.
Old Zhou somehow found a broom and handed it to Ms. Qian, then half-heartedly patted the wall and scraped some dirt aside, listening to the curses and complaints coming from afar, and couldn’t help but say to Ms. Qian, "This Xia Yi doesn’t know how to conduct himself, when something happens, no one in the clan is willing to help."
Ms. Qian stood there with the broom, nodding slightly, not moving.
If she was going to do something, she would do it well; if not, she would rather stand idle than half-heartedly get involved.
She glanced at Old Zhou, who clearly didn’t want to get involved yet pretended to be working hard, and said, "The village and the clan’s atmosphere isn’t great either. Whether they are from the same clan or not, if someone returns in a bad state, if you can’t help them yourself, then let the children give a hand, why stop them?"
Ms. Qian listened to the gradually rising curses in the village, glanced at the two teenagers and the little girl standing in the courtyard with pale faces, and shook her head, "Even if you help people, in the end, you still get blamed, what’s the point?"
Indeed, if your family members are already helping, then cursing others will just erase any goodwill earned for the day’s help, won’t it?
Such actions might even create enmity; Old Zhou felt those families cursing were a bit foolish.
If it were him, even if he didn’t help, he would at least walk over and say a few nice words. Even without lifting a finger, he could earn some goodwill.
Xia Yi’s couple weren’t home, leaving just the three children, who were neither old enough to refuse others’ goodwill nor young enough to forget others’ insults.
Ms. Qian curled her lips, then turned and saw Old Zhou still patting the wall, so she clapped his hand with a loud slap, making the back of his hand red.
She gave him a sideways glance and said, "Why are you standing there? Can’t you see this wall has holes? Go find someone and ask where they got the mortar for building the wall, go dig some now and fill these holes."
Old Zhou couldn’t help but quietly yell, "You want to fix their wall too?"
"It doesn’t cost you a penny nor much effort, can’t you see how many young men are here? The good credit goes to you, what’s there to be dissatisfied with?" Ms. Qian said, "Manbao is an official, reputation is most important. I don’t want anyone saying our family bullied others and seized their house when we return to the capital."
Old Zhou was quite unwilling but could only swallow his grievance, forcing a smile to find a young man who looked not too young to ask.
To his surprise, he really knew, so Old Zhou happily persuaded several young people to bring baskets and go dig the mud together.
By the time Patriarch Xia and the clan elders were alarmed by the curses from the village and followed the noise to find out what was happening, Zhou Dalang had already led a group of young men to strip Xia Yi’s entire roof down.
Patriarch Xia’s eyes widened in surprise. His first reaction was that the Zhou family and Xia Yi’s family had completely fallen out. He immediately leaned on his cane and hurried forward, shouting, "What are you doing!?"
Manbao was moving furniture from under the courtyard wall to a more central location with Bai Shan. Hearing this, she looked back, smiled, and said, "Patriarch is here too. We are helping Uncle Yi repair and clean up the house."
Xia Dalang was expressionless at this point, dutifully moving items out of the house with his younger siblings. Seeing Patriarch Xia, he called out, "Grandpa Patriarch."
The heart that was in Patriarch Xia’s throat finally settled back. After glancing at Xia Yi’s thoroughly disheveled house, he feared there would be another mess when Xia Yi returned, so his heart began to worry again.
He couldn’t help but look at Manbao, unsure if she did it intentionally or unintentionally. He sighed, "Such a big thing as repairing a house should be left for Xia Yi to handle himself. How can you..."
...replace him?
But Manbao said, "Uncle Yi has been home for three days, and the house is still such a mess, clearly he’s not good at tidying up."
"Aunt Yi just got back, we can’t let her toil, can we? Anyway, we have plenty of people in the clan, if everyone lends a hand, the work will be done."
A group of youths, who rarely helped, found it quite fun, and chimed in, "Yeah, yeah, if everyone helps out, the work will get done."
Patriarch Xia looked down at them, seeing they were squatting and binding thatch, and surveyed the yard, noticing there was indeed a lot of new thatch, but it clearly wasn’t enough.
He took a deep breath, turned back, and told his son, "Go back and get twenty bundles of thatch."
