The village was a little cold in the early morning. After resting for a night, Shangguan felt much better. He tied a thick cloak, held a small wooden stool in the main hall, sat at the door, and looked at the small village.

The village is very small, with only a dozen thatched houses in front of front, back and forth. The walls are rough loess and the roof is covered with thick grass poles. Perhaps it has been a bit dim after too long wind and rain.

There was a dog barking in the distance, and a hen was running by a black native dog. Most of the people living here were old people. They were all busy with their own things. Some were feeding chickens, some were weaving cages with bamboo strips, and some were sitting at the door smoking early in the morning. I was not too surprised to see Shangguan coming out and were still busy with my own affairs.

She covered her heart. There was a small jade bottle there, which contained a few pills. After picking the snow lotus, he had already prepared it in the mountains and felt much more at ease.

"Oh! Big girl, why are you coming out? You'd better go into the house and stay there! It's quite cold outside." An old woman in coarse cloth had a basket in her hand, probably picking vegetables. When she smiled, the wrinkles on her face immediately squeezed together.

"It's okay, mother-in-law, I'm much better, it's too boring to stay in the house."

"Then I'll make porridge for you, you can take it easy. Your husband accompanied Li Ergouzi to hunt on the mountain." She couldn't help but explain, and the old woman went straight into the house.

She smiled bitterly in her heart. When did Brother Zhou become her husband? Will she be like them when she is old? She gets up early and then spends her leisure time alone or several people leisurely, and doesn’t know whether she is yearning or lamenting.

The sunlight dispelled the fog, and it was not that cold outside. The entrance of the village suddenly became lively. From a distance, it seemed that someone had come back. One of them looked very large and should have carried something.

"Can you come out?" The man who walked towards her had blood stains on his long gown, mixed with soil and weeds, and a bag hung around his waist, and he didn't know what he had put.

"Yeah, it's much better. Have you gone hunting?" This was the first time she knew that Brother Zhou could still hunt.

"I mainly went to the mountains to collect herbs. Although the old man prepared many medicines, there were very few kinds of them, so I picked all my knowledge back." He took off the cloth bag around his waist, pulled the hole open, and filled it with various herbs.

Houttuynia cordata, asarum, pembranaceae, etc., some herbs have all the effects on the rhizomes, but he only picked the part that grew on the soil, which is ridiculous.

"I will pick out the useful ones." She liberated the herbs in the bag and covered a small piece of land. It took some time to pick them carefully.

It was almost noon, and a young man came. It was rare in this village. He had a dark skin and a honest face. He didn't even dare to look at her directly. He held a wild boar leg in his hand, held a piece of bacon in the other hand, and stuffed it to Zhou Yan, saying that he could hunt the wild boar in the morning, and rely on his help. Zhou Yan turned his hand and gave it to the aunt, carrying a wooden basin to clean the medicinal materials. After all, they would not stay here for too long, so they would only be a thank you for taking in the two of them.

It was not until we were having dinner that their village was once very lively, but over time, more and more people left. It was too biased. It took most of the day to go to a place where you could buy things with money. It was so cold that it was terrible before winter, so you could only hibernate like animals in the house.

More and more young people leave here. They don’t want to live their life like them when they get old, nor do they want their descendants to be like them. Li Ergouzi is the only young man in the village who has not left. He has no father or mother and grew up eating a hundred families of food. The reason why he doesn’t leave is because he is pitiful to them, these old people. When they are old and cannot walk, they cannot live without the land that gave birth to him and raised him. When they die, they always need to dig a grave and carry a coffin.

During this period, they wanted to ask Ergouzi for a wife, saying that the agreement had been made. They were a girl from Xiaoshanhe Village. However, it was not surprising that if a normal girl wants to marry them, a group of elderly people would probably die of suffocation and would have countless troubles.

I heard that the agreed wedding date was only these two days. Ergouzi hunted on the mountain every morning before more than a month. One was to exchange some money, and the other was that the banquet could not be too cold! But after all, no one taught him the hunting skills, and all of them were made up of when he was a child. This morning, this wild boar was the best prey to have in this month.

Zhou Yan and Shangguan looked at the legs and bacon hanging above the stove door, and their hearts were a little heavy. They thought they were just ordinary "thank you gifts", but they didn't expect it to be so heavy.

Shangguan's illness has not been cured yet. One is that she has overwork and the other is that she has a cold constitution and has been infected with wind and cold, so she needs to rest, so she decided to attend the wedding before leaving.

In the evening, Shangguan gave Zhou Yan all the money he had. The two of them gathered together nearly 100 taels and asked the aunt the location of the market. If they wanted to buy something and get favored by others, there was no reason to be unresponsible. The elderly in the village all hoped that Ergouzi would live a good life. Only when he lived a good life would the elderly feel at ease and happiness. Since that was the case, they also wanted to do their best. In fact, they were both almost entering the ranks of old age. They had neither experienced nor attended the wedding, and they had some expectations in their hearts.

Before dawn the next day, Zhou Yan set out. All morning, she sat in the room to collect things, replenish her body, and make snacks. Ergouzi also came and sent some mountain fruits. The brightly colored peel was covered with water droplets, which made people feel brighter. However, the dark young man was a little unhappy. He didn't hunt anything today and was about to go to the river to fish after lunch.

Zhou Yan was about to go back in the evening. He led a horse and hung all kinds of things on the saddle, wine, red cloth for making clothes == materials, sugar, preserved fruit, red candles, and red cloth. He put a large bag of red cloth on the saddle.

As soon as he entered the village, he was warmly welcomed. The dark-skinned young man didn't know what to say, his face was full of excitement, and he kept bowing and thanking him, saying that he would pay the money in the future. Zhou Yan just said lightly, "No need."

The women in the village gestured overnight and began to make wedding clothes. In fact, there were also them in the village, but they were all worn when they were young. How could this new come about? It is better to have a new one? It is better to have a new one after another when they are newlywed.

Just by collecting gifts, the old people almost emptyed the money in the house, leaving only a little coffin book. They really had no money to buy another horse. Just thinking about letting Li Ping'an walk to meet the bride, the old people felt embarrassed. The horse that Zhou Yan brought back was tall and mighty, with soft hair. They were so happy that they could not afford it as a treasure.

The village was busy until the early morning before it calmed down. Even when they fell asleep tonight, they all had a slight smile on their faces.

The next morning, Li Ping'an, wearing a big red groom's suit and Zhou Yan, wearing a black cloak, left with the crowd. When they returned to the village, the elderly began to be busy. They turned into various identities, prepared banquets, arranged new houses, and boiled water. They seemed to be dozens of years younger. Shangguan wanted to help, but was rejected, saying that they had helped so much, so how could they have the nerve to let her do it.

She had to hold a stool and sit aside, feeling the strong festiveness. Li Ergouzi's full name is Li Ping'an. It's traditional, it's easy to raise a reputation.
Chapter completed!