Chapter 64: Sixty-Era Farm System (30) (Extra Chapter~ Thanks to

Returning to her own Task field, Xie Yang completed the day's work-point Task with maximum efficiency, then went near the Pig Pen to build a stone house for Song Shuhe and his grandson, who had just joined the Yuewan Brigade.

"Lao Song, stop working for a moment. Come over and take a look. How about we build a stone house for you two here to be your home from now on?"

After a careful survey, Xie Yang staked out a foundation on a vacant lot thirty meters away from the Pig Pen and explained a few things in passing:

"It's a bit smelly too close to the Pig Pen, but I'm afraid I won't be able to look after you if it's too far away. Besides, your main Task is to be responsible for raising the five little wild pigs, so you'll need to come to the Pig Pen often. If it's too far, you'll be tired from walking back and forth. Lao Song, if you have no objections, shall I start digging the foundation?"

Lao... Lao Song?

Song Shuhe and his little grandson looked at each other in a daze.

Before being sent down, he was respectfully addressed as Elder Song. After being sent down, people like them, the "four categories of elements," basically never received a normal form of address; they were called all sorts of things, but never "Lao Song."

For some reason, at this moment, Song Shuhe's eyes felt a little hot.

Xie Yang raised an eyebrow and looked over: "What's wrong? Are you not satisfied with this plot? Should I pick another one? Or how about you pick, Little Song? Where do you like to build the house?"

Little... Little Song?

Seven-year-old Song Mingyu: "..."

Song Shuhe revealed the first hearty smile he had shown in a long time and patted his little grandson's shoulder: "Go on! Pick a spot you like to build the home for us two. Remember to thank her."

In the end, Song Mingyu still chose the plot Xie Yang had selected.

Just as she said: behind it was the foot of Banyue Mountain, so there was no need to run far for firewood. And the brigade members almost never set foot on Banyue Mountain; except for the southern slope halfway up the mountain which had been reclaimed into terraced fields, no one went to the northern slope or above the halfway point, so it couldn't be more convenient for firewood.

After choosing the location, Xie Yang began to dig the foundation at high speed.

The excavated mud was piled to the side first; after the stones were stacked up, the mud would be needed to fill the gaps.

Song Mingyu wanted to help, but heard Xie Yang say: "Child, you should go get familiar with the Pig Pen; after all, that is your future workplace. I can handle this by myself. If you're here, I have to be careful not to hurt you while swinging the shovel, and I can't move freely."

"..."

What did she call him?

Chi... Child?

She didn't look much older than him.

Song Shuhe, who was learning how to feed the pigs and clean the Pig Pen from the member responsible for the brigade's Task pigs, couldn't help but laugh when he saw his grandson returning with his head drooping: "Were you shunned?"

"..."

Xie Yang wasn't really shunning him, but rather wanted to seize the time to get the stone house built as quickly as possible.

Before it was built, Song Shuhe and his grandson could only stay in the old cow shed. Although the brigade headquarters had empty rooms, who would be willing to let them live in such good rooms?

So she exerted her highest labor efficiency—one shovel down brought up a chunk of mud that would take an ordinary person five or six shovels.

In less than a quarter of an hour, the foundation was dug.

Then she filled it with stones to set the foundation piles.

By the time the sun set and the members who had attended the meeting at noon brought over a few large stones on their way back from work, they discovered that Xie Yang was already stacking the stone walls.

At this speed, she would be able to fill the gaps and build the roof tomorrow.

This allowed everyone to witness Xie Yang's Great Strength once again.

Good heavens! In just one short afternoon, she had already set up half a stone house?

No wonder she said she didn't need help and could handle it alone; it turned out it wasn't just polite talk, she really could handle it!

Someone joked: "Educated Youth Xie, next time my family renovates our house, you must come help!"

When the others heard this, they also enthusiastically invited Xie Yang:

"If my family builds a new house, Educated Youth Xie, you must come too."

"And my family!"

"Educated Youth Xie, you come to my family's new house build too!"

In fact, the new house didn't even have a shadow yet!

Xie Yang smiled and responded to each one: "No problem."

After everyone unloaded the stones and left, Xie Yang also put down her tools, intending to finish for the day.

She wasn't afraid of the dark, but if she stayed here, the grandfather and grandson certainly wouldn't go back to rest first.

Song Mingyu silently carried over a bucket of water for Xie Yang to wash her hands.

"Thank you, Little Song."

"..."

Little Song had no temper left.

Xie Yang washed her hands clean, and seeing that the members working at the Pig Pen had already finished for the day, and that only she and the grandfather and grandson were left in this area, she took a burlap sack out of the bamboo basket she habitually carried when going out, stuffed it into Song Mingyu's arms, and then briskly picked up the basket and left.

The gentle evening breeze carried her clear voice: "A welcome gift."

Under the dim kerosene lamp, Song Shuhe and his grandson opened the burlap sack Xie Yang had left behind.

On the very top was a bag of dried wild vegetables, blanched before drying, which could be eaten after being rinsed with hot water; it had a slight salty taste and could serve as both a vegetable and a soup.

Under the wild vegetables was a bag of dried Wild Mushrooms, with all kinds of varieties: mountain wood ear, Nostoc Commune, hemp chicken mushroom, yellow fir mushroom, green-headed mushroom, Milk Pulp Mushroom, porcini mushroom...

However, the dried mushrooms were sun-dried raw and needed to be soaked before being boiled to eat.

Further down were two tightly tied small cloth bags. Untying the openings, one bag contained about two jin of cornmeal, and the other was Rice with distinct grains, also about two jin.

Wait!

Song Mingyu reached into both bags with his hands and rummaged a few times, pulling out a total of six eggs and a box of ointment for treating external wounds from the cornmeal and Rice.

"!!!"

The grandfather and grandson looked at each other in astonishment.

"Grandfather..."

"Shh—put it away! Don't let anyone know! Lest we harm her."

If Song Shuhe still did not understand by now that the other party was a friend, not a foe, and meant well, then he had lived all these years in vain.

Right now, these supplies were indeed a timely help for him and his grandson.

The incident had happened suddenly; he had only had time to arrange a way out for the subordinates who had braved life and death with him, and he truly had not had time to prepare much in the way of living supplies.

He was not so pretentious as to feel that the other party was bestowing charity or pity upon them, and thus stubbornly return them.

Song Shuhe wiped the moisture from the corners of his eyes with his hands, which had become rough and cracked after being worn down in just a few short days, and patted the shoulder of his young grandson, who was almost as tall as his shoulder:

"We will keep this kindness in our hearts. As long as we are alive, there will always be a chance to repay it in the future."

……

Over the next few days, after Xie Yang finished the work-point Task assigned by the brigade, she would come to build the stone house for Song Shuhe and his grandson.

The main frame of the house was stacked up in less than three days; the difficult parts were instead the windows, door frames, and the roof.

Although there was no shortage of trees in the mountains, freshly felled trees could not be used directly for furniture; spring in Chuan Nan had abundant rainfall, and it would take at least a month or two to air-dry them.

If she were building the house for herself, it would be easy; she could just find some commune members to trade for some dry lumber.

In the countryside, there was almost no family that did not hoard air-dried lumber; which family did not have elderly or children?

When people are alive, they need a house to shelter from the wind and rain, and when they die, they need a coffin.

Even if they had not yet reached the point where they were too old to walk, they would still take precautions and prepare a little for their future funeral arrangements.

If nothing else, lumber for making coffins was something that had to be hoarded.

Furthermore, for children, if a family had sons, they would eventually need to make furniture for marriage, right? If they had daughters, they would always need to prepare a dowry, right?

Perhaps they could not afford things that required money to buy, but could they not afford to hoard lumber that didn't cost money?

However, the status of Song Shuhe and his grandson was rather special; although the commune members did not go so far as to avoid them by three hundred paces when they saw them, they were unwilling to have any dealings with them.

Even if the grandfather and grandson could produce supplies of equivalent value, the commune members dared not trade with them, fearing they would be implicated.

Xie Yang found a few aunties with whom she had a decent relationship, but they all expressed that they dared not get involved in this matter.

"Educated Youth Xie, if it were you building a house, let alone trading a few pieces of lumber, even if you asked my old man to go help, I wouldn't have a single word of objection. But those two bad... cough, it's not that I don't want to help, it's just that I'm afraid if something happens later, it won't be easy to explain."

This was difficult to handle.

Xie Yang thought for a moment, then took the time to bring two packs of Economic Cigarettes and sought out the Brigade Leader.

When you have difficulties, you look for the organization, after all.