Chapter 252: Chapter 252: The road is open
The word 'road' has many meanings.
For Feng Yiping as a child, he knew that along the road in front of the school, there was his grandmother's house ten miles away, the town more than 30 miles away, the county more than 100 miles away, the city more than 300 miles away, and further up, 400 miles away, 500 miles away, for him, that was the world.
For the current villagers of Fengjiachong, whether or not there is a road is a sign of wealth. Listening to those who live by the road or whose village has long been connected by road, they say when they come to the village, 'Alas, it's still better here. It's annoying to live by the road, too. The cars on the road never stop, even in the middle of the night, and they start making noise early in the morning.'
They are not stupid, and they can hear the arrogance and sense of superiority in their words.
After the start of construction in the summer, under the leadership of Uncle Si, the villagers who stayed in the village, who were all a bit older, hired only a small number of construction machinery. They used hoes to dig what could be dug with hoes, and carried away all the excavated earth and stone work in baskets.
After the initial shape was created, the levelling work was also done using traditional methods, with stone rollers pulled by oxen being rolled over and over again. Of course, before laying the cement, a roller had to be hired to do the job
Perhaps it was the blessing of heaven, since the start of construction, there had been no heavy rain, nor had there been a major safety incident. In early winter, a brand new cement road was finally completed.
After removing the plastic sheeting and straw mats, the flat concrete road glowed a silvery grey. The men, women and children of the family, like at a festival, dragged their children along and laughed as they walked on the new road.
Uncle Four was so happy that he called Feng Zhenchang on the phone: 'The road was completed ahead of schedule. We have all agreed that the first car to pass through this new road can only be your family's. We have a rack at the other end of the road to stop it. Come back soon!'
Feng Zhenchang was very excited at receiving such an honour. He put down the phone and was speechless for a long time.
'What's wrong? What happened?' Mei Qiuping asked him.
After hearing what he had to say, Mei Qiuping, like him, was also in a short daze for a while. This kind of treatment exceeded their simple idea of returning home in glory. As the saying goes in the countryside, a person lives with his face, and a tree lives with its bark. This kind of arrangement is a great recognition for them.
'Don't just stand there, hurry up and call Yiping. It happens to be Saturday tomorrow, I'll talk to Yuxuan,' Mei Qiuping said, her voice a little shrill.
So, on a rare occasion when it wasn't Chinese New Year, the four Feng family members set off for their hometown.
They arrived at Meijiawan just in time for the evening bustle. Needless to say, their first and third uncles' hand-pulled noodle factory was doing more and more business. Now their second uncle was also running a brick factory in town, and had already hired more than ten people from the village to work there this month. Their family was also a major shareholder in another cabinet factory. The people of Meijiawan no longer treated them like ordinary sons-in-law and daughters-in-law.
They had a very uneasy meal, constantly interrupted by people coming in. However, Feng Yiping noticed that both his parents seemed to enjoy these interruptions.
Mei Qiuping and Feng Zhanchang talked all night, and were determined to make Mei Jianzhong go with them the next day. They wanted their parents to share in their children's happiness.
The next day was a fine day, with the sun shining early in the morning, adding a little warmth to the cold winter.
After breakfast at Meijiawan, Feng Zhenchang was in the front, Feng Yiping in the back, and after less than 20 minutes' driving, they arrived at the intersection of the road in the village.
Fourth Uncle was there with a few village elders—mainly older people—smoking and waiting on the wooden railings at the intersection.
There were no pompous rituals. After a brief exchange of pleasantries, Feng Zhenchang invited the elderly men to get into the car. Fourth Uncle took a length of red silk, which had been prepared in advance, and hung it from Feng Zhenchang's car, then lit a firecracker. The two cars slowly drove into the village.
Some people from the village also came out to watch the fun, some disdainful, some envious. They had been living by the road for many years, but their road was still a machine-ploughed road, while the one in Fengjiachong was a 15-centimetre-thick concrete road.
In the winter, the old village is still dominated by a dull yellow colour. The wheat in the fields on both sides of the road and the tea trees by the edge of the land are a rare green. There are no leaves on the tall paulownia trees in front of and behind the houses, and the bird nests in the trees are particularly eye-catching. There is not much water in the small stream by the fields, and the banks are full of dead grass. A few chickens are pecking at the grass seeds inside...
In short, this is a very primitive rural area, an ordinary winter day. But now, just because of this silver-grey road at the edge of the village and the two cars on it, this remote and backward rural area has been given a lot of modern colour.
A few dogs, with their tails curled, keep running behind the cars. The people resting at home in the houses along the road all move a stool and sit in front of the door, watching them come over. Whether they are old people or children, they all stand up and greet them loudly.
On both sides of the pass at the back of the village, there were open slopes that could be seen from afar. The tops of the hills on both sides were full of people, and when the car drove past the pass, there was a loud noise from both sides, cheering that the road had finally been opened.
Feng Zhenchang and Mei Qiuping, dressed in their usual clothes, got out of the car. Feng Yuxuan had originally said that she wanted to wear her best clothes back, but her parents had objected. No matter what, they were always Fengjiazhuang people, and returning to Fengjiazhuang was going home, not visiting relatives. They couldn't act like they were from two different worlds from the original villagers.
The two of them together are almost a hundred years old, and now they are a little embarrassed in the face of so many people. However, they will adapt in no time. They carry their bags and greet the elderly one by one, offering them cigarettes. freēwēbnovel.com
The elderly people sitting on the slopes on both sides were also the heroes of building this road. Most of them had grey hair and wore dark blue or black Mao suits. Eight out of ten of them had worn-out autumn sweaters with torn collars. They had worked under the sun for many years, their faces were dark and their foreheads were full of wrinkles. However, in Feng Yiping's eyes, they were the cleanest people.
At that moment, most of the elderly people were hugging their knees with both hands, smiling happily as they watched the road and the cars on it.
This smile definitely comes from the heart, starting with the eyes and then spreading to the face.
After all they have been through, their eyes are so clear at this moment, like those of a baby in its cradle. The smile on their faces is so innocent and carefree, without a hint of impurity.
Such eyes and such a smile are highly infectious, and Feng Yiping's eyes are a little moist.
In the countryside, for a good wedding, there is usually a banquet, and today was no exception. At noon, dozens of tables were set up on the grain drying ground in front of the village office and on the playground of the village primary school. The village had slaughtered two pigs and made several tofu dishes, plus some vegetables picked from each family's vegetable garden. The dishes were not very colourful, but the portions were generous. The wine was not any good either, mainly old rice wine with a low alcohol content. Even so, Feng Zhenchang, who had not been drunk for a long time, got drunk again today and was a mess.