Surviving the end of the world

Xiaohe Village is not far from the town. Compared to N City, which takes an hour to commute to and from get off work, the journey takes less than 10 minutes.Bai Jing sat on the back seat of the electric car and looked around curiously. Chen Jin himself hadn't been back for a long time, so he also paid attention to the changes in his hometown on the way.

Rice is now grown in the farmland beside the road, and some early rice is heading. However, because of the typhoon, many rice fields were blown down by the wind. I don't know if it will have a great impact on the yield.To Chen Jin's surprise, there were more signs of vegetable planting bases on the side of the road. Rows of vegetable greenhouses could barely see their heads. Many people were busy in the greenhouses. Chen Jin even saw a Goat farm and dairy farm.

But this kind of thing is also easy to understand. These years, prices have grown rapidly, but food prices have not fluctuated too much. Even if the country has policy subsidies, it is better to go out to work for a month to earn money after excluding the cost of planting the land for a year. much.All the strong laborers have gone out to work, and the old people who stay behind at home are too busy, so they are naturally willing to rent it out for others to grow. As for growing vegetables or what to do, what does it matter!After a year, you can get rent without doing anything. You can also earn some extra money by doing some work in the vegetable greenhouse. It is more cost-effective than growing food.

When Chen Jin said this to Bai Jing, he had already entered the area of ​​Xiaohe Village. Some people standing at the door of the house had seen Chen Jin and recognized him, and greeted, "It's Xiao Jin, you're back!"

Chen Jin lived with her grandparents until she entered junior high school. Later, when the rural middle school was merged, Father Chen went to the town to teach. Because commuting was inconvenient, the whole family lived in the teacher's dormitory in the town together. Over there, Chen Jin often came to see his grandparents later, so the people here knew Chen Jin very well, and they didn't treat Chen Jin as someone from another village.

According to previous memories, Chen Jin greeted the people she met. This is the case in the countryside. Except for a few migrant households, they may be an ancestor for several generations. Chen Jin's seniority here is quite high, so in They call out "brother, sister-in-law, elder sister, brother-in-law!" and so on. For some older people, it's just uncle and aunt, and uncle and aunt will do!

While saying hello, Chen Jin turned into a small road and rode along a fish pond. Bai Jing exclaimed from behind: "A Jin, you have so many relatives!"

Chen Jin was in a good mood, and explained with a smile: "It's like this here, and the people in the same village are more or less related!"

When I was approaching the gate of my grandmother's house, I happened to see an old lady with a little girl who was only three or four years old carrying a basket from the opposite side. When she saw Chen Jin, the old lady showed a happy expression on her face: "It's Xiao Jin. Ah, I haven't seen you for a long time, come back this time to see?"

Chen Jin got out of the car, and Bai Jing also jumped off. Chen Jin smiled and said, "Auntie, I want to stay for a while when I come back this time!"

The old lady is the sister of the grandmother, and the grandfather and her husband are also cousins, and they all live together.Speaking of which, there was no so-called family planning at that time, and the country encouraged births at that time. Therefore, whether it is Chen Jin’s grandfather or grandmother, there are quite a lot of brothers and sisters. The grandfather’s family has three brothers and four sisters. There are more, there are ten in total, but there are so many people, many of them went out to work hard when they were young, and now many of them have not been in touch for many years, and there are only a few who stayed in their hometown. They are not too young, except for those who passed away and those who were taken away by their children, the only one left in their hometown is my aunt. When my aunt was young, her husband went to the coal mine. The earthquake caused a mine disaster, and they never came back. My aunt and grandma did not remarry. They raised a couple of children by themselves, and now their granddaughter and grandson have married.

Chen Jin looked at the little girl and asked, "Grandma, is this the daughter of my cousin's family? I seem to have seen it when I came back last time!"

The auntie said cheerfully: "That's right, it's this girl whose nickname is Xinxin. Come on, Xinxin, call me uncle!"

The little girl glanced at Chen Jin, then at Bai Jing who was standing beside her, and then turned to look at her wife, who was still silent. Chen Jin smiled, took out her wallet from her pocket, took out 200 yuan, and stuffed it into her small pocket. In the girl's hand, the aunt and grandma said with a feeling: "Children's family, what money do you want, take it back quickly!"

Chen Jin smiled and said: "This is a gift for Xinxin. I haven't been back for several years, so it's no wonder Xinxin doesn't know her! Auntie, Xinxin should go to kindergarten too!"

Speaking of this, my aunt sighed and said: "In our rural area, where is there any kindergarten? I am the only one at home now. I want to send it to the town. I don't have the energy to pick it up. Your cousin and the others I have been busy outside until today, and I don’t even have a house of my own, so I can’t apply for a household registration there. I heard that the children there want to go to kindergarten, and the school selection fee alone costs tens of thousands. What does your cousin mean? , They save up for another two years, buy a smaller house, confirm their household registration, and then bring Xinxin to go to elementary school!"

"Forget it, let's not talk about these things. By the way, Xiao Jin, who is this young man?" My aunt looked at Bai Jing beside her and asked.

Chen Jin smiled and said: "His name is Bai Jing, he is my good friend, he came back to play with me!"

"This young man is so handsome!" My aunt praised, and then asked, "How long do you plan to stay this time?"

Chen Jin said with a smile: "This time I will stay for a longer period of time when I come back this time. I just came here today to see if the house here can still be lived in!"

My aunt came over with a bit of gossip and asked, "Didn't you say that your father bought a house in the city? Why don't you live there, and live in the countryside!"

Chen Jin was a little embarrassed. She didn't say that Dad Chen rented out the house, but said: "The air in the countryside is good, and my friend grew up in the city and wants to experience rural life!"

The old lady probably didn't believe this very much. She looked at Chen Jin with a little sympathy, but she didn't say it in front of Chen Jin, just nagging: "What's so good about living in the countryside? Forget it, Xiao Jin, if you have any grievances, just tell your aunt and grandma, your grandparents are gone, but your aunt and grandma are still here!"

Chen Jin said dumbfoundedly: "It's nothing, auntie, you can take Xinxin home first, I have to go and see the house!"

"Okay, let's go, no one has lived there for so long, you should take a good look at it!" The old lady sighed, then staggered and led Xinxin away.

Grandma's house is a little ahead. Chen Jin parked the electric car at the gate of the yard, then took out a bunch of keys, picked one from the inside, and opened it after a lot of effort. The lock was rusted. Going back for a new one.

The yard is very desolate, except for the narrow concrete road in the middle, the original vegetable garden is full of dogtail grass and uncaria, and the loquat tree in the middle of the vegetable garden has grown It is very tall, but because it is entangled by Uncaria vines, it seems a little malnourished. The asbestos tiles on the small shed where chickens and ducks were raised have broken into several pieces. The hut used to store grain was originally an old house decades ago. Now half of it has collapsed, the kitchen and the main room are okay, except for a few pieces of broken window glass and some broken tiles, there is no problem on the outside. Chen Jin opened the doors of the house , because the owner left, there is already a lot of dust in the house, and the roof is densely covered with cobwebs.

Bai Jing looked at all this curiously, and then tore off a handful of spider webs. A few spiders the size of rice grains crawled away quickly along the spider webs. Before that, you still have to clean it up.