Siheyuan: I can always stay out of it

Chen Xu ran away the next day, taking Lin Chan with him. He had no intention of drinking tea in the office just because he became the deputy director.

In his words, this is called serving the people at the grassroots level and fighting on the front line.

What happened to the deputy director? He is still a purchaser. This is called enlightenment, this is called not forgetting the original intention, at least that is what other people in the steel mill think.

Chen Xu doesn't really like the lifestyle of reading newspapers and drinking tea; he's a rather wild person.

Almost two months had passed and the snow had melted long ago. The two rode their bicycles back to the countryside. When they passed the canal, they saw that the scene was much more lively than last time. A lot of the silt at the bottom of the canal had been cleared out.

The canals of this era were not sealed with cement or anything like that. All that was needed to repair them was to widen and deepen them. There was no machinery either, so the excavated silt had to be carried away by hand in loads.

Moreover, this kind of work cannot be done all year round. When it starts to rain and the canals gradually accumulate water, the difficulty of repair will double.

Although there has not been a large-scale drought around Sijiu City in recent years, it has been dry for a long time. If it rains again, it will probably never stop. If we really have to wait until then to build water conservancy projects, we can only watch helplessly.

This was probably the longest time that Chen Xu had been away from home.

As a result, when he returned to Chenjia Village, the village chief heard that he was back and came over to ask if something had happened.

Chen Xu didn't explain much, just said that the road was difficult to travel some time ago, so he just waited for a while.

The village chief then felt relieved and began to explain to him the breeding affairs in the village.

Now many chicks and ducklings have been hatched in the village, and even a few pigs have been raised. On his way here, Chen Xu saw many hens and their chicks digging for food in the fields.

There is no special feed now, and most chickens and ducks are raised in the open. According to later generations, these are real free-range chickens, but raising them like this is completely a helpless act now.

Chen Xu felt that this was a good idea. Today was just an attempt at best. It would not be too late to expand the scale when he found that there was really a way forward. The only thing to pay attention to was to maintain good hygiene and ventilation. If chicken plague or something happened, all the efforts would be in vain.

However, as someone who has only read a few books, he knows all about this kind of thing, and the villagers who have been farming for generations naturally know about it too, so it is not his turn to worry about it.

Only Aunt San was at home at Uncle San's house. After asking, Chen Xu found out that Uncle San had also gone to dig a canal. Chen Xu didn't say much. He left some food and living expenses and left.

Rural people cannot sit idle. If there is work to do, they will not do it. This is not surprising to Chen Xu.

Lin Chan's return to the countryside is almost like a Husky's return to nature, except that it destroys the house.

At this moment, the girl was busy cleaning up Chen Xu's home inside and out, humming an unknown tune while working.

The small river behind the courtyard still has water thanks to the mountain spring water from Yanshan Mountain upstream. This river has been of great help to the surrounding villages in recent years. If this river dries up, who knows how many people will die.

This is probably what it means to live by the mountain and eat by the water.

In the afternoon, the two of them tidied up their home inside and out. The mud wall surrounding the courtyard was also repaired and completed. After dinner, they sat by the small river in the backyard and chatted.

Chen Xu likes the backyard of his hometown very much. There is a stone platform that his parents built in the past for washing clothes. You can also sit on it to rest. Now he and Lin Chan are sitting on it.

The stream is not very wide, and the other side is mostly rocks. Some villagers have opened up some land in some vacant locations. Although it is difficult to grow crops, it is more than enough to grow vegetables.

This is the outermost part of Yanshan Mountain. The air is fresh, but the conditions are a bit poor.

Chen Xu was thinking about what kind of space he would need when he went to Yanshan tomorrow. The first thing he wanted was trees, which was his first choice for building a house in space. In fact, bamboo was also suitable, but there were no bamboo forests in Yanshan.

As for animals and the like, that depends on the appearance.

And he didn't have to worry about this. Lin Chan, who was leaning against him and playing with her hair with her fingers, was more concerned about it than he was.

Nearly two months later, the space expanded by nearly five acres again. Except for the need to expand the pond, the space was almost empty.

Chen Xu planned to leave some space for himself to create a living area, and plant plants in the rest.

Plants are also helpful for space expansion, but not as good as animals.

He turned his head and looked at Lin Chan who was leaning on his shoulder silently.

"homesick?"

"No, I was just wondering if the little animals had come back."

Chen Xu felt that there was no need to hold out too much hope. In the past few years, the animals outside Yanshan Mountain were almost wiped out. It would take a few years for them to recover. If he wanted to catch some animals, he would have to go deep into the mountains.

As the sky gradually darkened, Chen Xu rubbed Lin Chan's hair.

"Go back to the space and exercise for a while before going to bed early. We will go back to your house tomorrow morning."

"Ah."

The two of them have already developed a habit of exercising in the space, and they do so in the morning and evening, but the way they exercise is different.

It depends on what Chen Xu thinks. It could be boxing and martial arts, or Chen Xu training waist strength and Lin Chan training body flexibility...

The person who was most happy about her daughter and son-in-law's return was naturally the mother-in-law. This was actually the first time that Lin Chan had returned to her parents' home after they got married.

The daughter-in-law and mother-in-law went to have a private chat, so Chen Xu simply took two bottles of wine and went to the old village chief's house to take a look.

Standing outside the yard, Chen Xu watched the old village chief perform a set of punches before greeting him. This was actually the first time he saw the old village chief practicing martial arts.

"You haven't been back for a while..."

The old village chief wiped his sweat with a towel. He was old, and the Lin family's martial arts were of a more violent type, so completing a set of punches consumed a lot of energy.

Seeing the wine in Chen Xu's hand, the old village chief's eyes lit up. He said that Chen Xu was wasting money and put away his things faster than anyone else.

Chen Xu didn't know whether to laugh or cry. This was what was meant by old and young. In many cases, the personalities of the elderly were not much different from those of children.

He actually quite likes this way of getting along. Chen Xu, who is used to being casual, doesn't like people who always talk about moral principles.

The old village chief said that they planted a lot of fish grass beside the pond in the mountains. Although he didn't know whether it would be useful, they did their best.

Chen Xu nodded silently. The fish he put in were crucian carp and carp. Fish grass and the like were probably of little use. The fish in his space were almost all raised with mixed food. This place was basically just a cover. It didn't matter whether the fish would grow up or not.

Compared to other villages where many people earn money repairing canals, there is no movement in Linjia Village. If it were not for the need to go out to purchase necessary daily necessities, the people in Linjia Village almost live an isolated life.

With Yanshan Mountain behind them, although life was tight, they would not starve to death.

This is also one of the reasons why Chen Xu chose Linjia Village as his rear base.