Siheyuan: Starting from Building a Village

It's foggy

The fog seemed to have fallen from the gray sky, and it was thick, like smoke.

When I breathed in, I could smell a bit of cigarette smoke.

The most clear thing is the moist feeling in the fog. The whole person, the whole village, and even the whole world are moist.

The mist is like silk and rain, falling slowly.

The factories and trees at the entrance of the village also began to become hazy.

In this depressing atmosphere, I can't muster the energy to do anything.

Fortunately, today is Saturday, a day of rest.

Unless there is something special, Liu Guozheng always stays in the village on Saturdays and Sundays.

"Guo Zheng, is it raining outside?"

At the villagers' leisure center, Yang Youde and other elderly people in the village play chess, drink tea and chat here. Not only Liu Guozheng, but everyone except those who sleep at home basically gathers at the leisure center.

"Uncle Yang, it's not rain, it's fog."

Liu Guozheng had just come in from outside, but he couldn't tell whether it was fog or rain.

"Is the wind picking up?"

"The wind is not strong, but it hurts on my face."

Liu Guozheng rubbed his face hard with his hands until it became soft.

"Hahaha, isn't it said that the cold wind is as sharp as a knife?"

Yang Youde was in a good mood, especially when he saw Liu Guozheng. He was in an especially good mood. He felt indescribable gratitude towards the man who led them to a happy life. He then added: "Drinking horses at the autumn water crossing, the water is cold and the wind is like a knife."

"Uncle Yang, that's fine. Are you going to stop playing with the plane and start writing poetry?"

Liu Guozheng really didn't expect that such a line of poetry would come out of Yang Youde's mouth, but it was inappropriate to the scene. These two lines sounded like they were describing a desolate and cold scene.

"Guo Zheng, we old guys have nothing to do anyway. We can't just eat and sleep like pigs. We have to find something to do. Occasionally, we can read a book and remember a line or two of poetry."

"It's good to read a book occasionally."

"It's not good, but I want to continue doing my carpentry work. But Guozheng, don't you agree?"

"Uncle Yang, I'm doing this for your own good. You've worked hard all your life, and it's time to take a good rest."

"Okay, I won't talk to you anymore. You always have endless reasons to talk about."

Seeing that he was already at a disadvantage, Yang Youde stopped talking and focused all his energy on the chess game.

Liu Guozheng watched for a while and then left. He also knew how to play chess, but he seldom played it. In his own words, playing chess was a bit brain-intensive, and it would be more refreshing to take a nap when he had nothing to do.

Inside the house and outside the house are like two different worlds.

One is cold, damp and lifeless.

One is warm like spring and full of joy.

Liu Guo was in the leisure center, walking leisurely and lightly, feeling the warmth with his heart, the warmth that belonged only to Hope New Village.

It's not just physical warmth, but also spiritual warmth.

Everyone has felt warmth before, whether it is a burning stove, a caring look, a coat handed to you, or gentle words.

Everyone has created warmth. Everyone has energy. Everyone has contributed. As long as one has a heart, one can release warmth at any time.

Warmth is comfort.

Warmth is closeness.

Warmth is recognition.

Warmth is something that the soul possesses.

In warmth, people will not get lost.

Liu Guozheng likes the word warmth very much. To use a popular term in later generations, it is a word with very positive energy.

With warmth, you can forget the troubles of the world and find inner peace.

However, today's peace is destined to be broken.

Near noon, Erlang ran in from outside, looking very anxious.

"Brother Zheng, Brother Zheng."

"Erlang, what's going on? Did something happen in the factory?"

As he grows older and time passes, it is difficult for Liu Guozheng to see the silly Erlang anymore. When he saw him again today, he couldn't help but recall the scene when Erlang carried a pig's head to the brick factory to buy bricks. Liu Guozheng couldn't help laughing.

Erlang said anxiously: "Brother Zheng, it's Xu Damao. Xu Damao called for help."

"Calling for help? What's wrong with that guy?"

Liu Guozheng knew Xu Damao's performance in the past six months. He could be described as cautious and prudent. What kind of trouble could Xu Damao get into? Would he need to call for help?

"It seems that two groups of people in the department store started fighting. Xu Damao said that except for not using guns, all other weapons were used. The department store was also surrounded and the nearby roads were blocked by both groups. Xu Damao and his wife were trapped in the department store."

A word came to Liu Guozheng's mind: armed struggle.

In the previous life, large-scale armed conflicts between various organizations in the Celestial Empire seemed to have started in 67. Unexpectedly, in this parallel world, it actually started earlier.

This may be the difference between parallel worlds.

Liu Guozheng asked: "Did those people attack ordinary people?"

"I'm not sure. It was very noisy on the phone and I couldn't explain it clearly. Xu Damao said he had been trapped for the whole morning and there were more and more people outside. It seemed like more and more people were constantly moving in from the surrounding area towards the department store."

"Is it that serious? Isn't Xu Damao trapped? Why can we still see a steady stream of people?"

Er Leng guessed, "Maybe he saw it through the window upstairs."

"Looking through the window? It's so foggy outside that you can't even see people's faces. Can Xu Damao's eyes see through things?"

"Brother Zheng, you haven't been out all morning, right? The fog outside has long since dissipated, blown away by the strong wind."

"is it?"

Pulling open the curtains, Liu Guozheng looked outside. Sure enough, the fog had dispersed, but the sky in the distance seemed very low and still gloomy, as if it might snow at any time.

"Brother Zheng, I feel like it's going to snow today. Look at the low clouds. It seems like you can touch them if you stand on the roof and stretch out your hand."

Liu Guozheng sighed: "Maybe, it seems that today is really not a good day."

"Brother Zheng, now is not the time to sigh. Shall we go or not?"

"What do you mean? Today is your working day, just work from home."

It is true that the food factory has a two-day weekend, and they also operate a three-shift system with adjusted holidays. Even though today is Saturday, Erlang and Laosan did not have a day off.

"No, Brother Zheng, can you do it alone?"

Erlang was a little worried. He didn't expect that at this time, Liu Guozheng's first thought was not to be absent from work.

"One person is enough."

"But"

"Don't worry, Xu Fang and Xu Liang are here, so as long as we don't use guns, there will be no problem."

Xu Fang is Liu Guozheng's driver, and Xu Liang is a new robot. Liu Guozheng felt that the situation was becoming more and more serious, so he specially asked his clone to create another one, a new face, in order to deal with emergencies.

Well, it came in handy today.