You are unlucky and I am tough

Chapter 21 Xu Xu Tuzhi

It was a rare occasion that Wei Qinglang did not go into the space and stay up late to play games. He went to bed early and woke up early. He got up as soon as the rooster next door crowed. Seeing that Cheng Shuang was still sleeping, he tiptoed out of the room.

The younger brothers and sisters in the family were used to going to bed early and getting up early, so when they saw that it was Wei Qinglang who came out, they looked at him curiously.

Wei Nanxing just came in from outside carrying two buckets of water. He was also surprised. "Brother, why did you get up so early today?"

"I went to bed early last night, so I got up early." Wei Qinglang replied, opening his hands and stretching.

Wei Nanxing went to the kitchen with water, wondering what he meant by going to bed early last night. Didn’t he always go to bed early before?

The scenery of Chengjia Village is quite nice. The morning mist covers the distant hills, giving a dreamlike feeling.

After washing up, Wei Qinglang walked out of the yard to breathe the fresh air with the scent of earth. In the stream in front of him, some ducklings were playing in the water. Cheng Xu was squatting by the water, watching them with envy in his eyes.

Wei Qinglang walked over and squatted with him, picked up a piece of wild grass and put it in his mouth, "Whose duck is this?"

Cheng Xu turned around and said, "Brother Xiaoguo's."

"We'll go to the county town tomorrow and buy a few ducks to raise."

Chen Xu's eyes lit up immediately. "Really? We want to raise ducks too."

Wei Qinglang took off the wild grass he was holding and tried to tease a duck that swam closer. "Of course it's true. From now on, you and Chen'er will be responsible for taking care of the duck."

"Brother-in-law, you are so nice." Cheng Xu jumped up and threw himself on him, "I like brother-in-law the most."

Wei Qinglang smiled. He was an orphan in his previous life. He had no relatives around him since he was a child. After suffering a blow, he couldn't even find a reason to cheer up again.

Since he came here, it seemed as if God was compensating him by giving him blood brothers and sisters, and letting him get married and have such a big family.

He wanted to cherish them and live a good life with them.

He reached out and pinched Xiao Si's skinny face. "Xiao Si, do you want to study and learn calligraphy?"

"Study?" Cheng Xu blinked. "Like some children in the village, go to study with the old scholar. But the old scholar only wants smart children, and you have to pay money to go."

Wei Qinglang knew that the old scholar Cheng in the village was accepting students, but the old scholar was not a teacher. He just had nothing to do in recent years and was teaching the children in the village who wanted to go to school.

The money he collected was not much and he could even give food in lieu, but he did not teach every child who came to him for study. He only taught those children who had a talent for studying.

There are only a few talented children in the village whose ancestors have been farmers for generations, so there are not many students under the old scholar.

Wei Qinglang thought for a moment and said, "Let's not go to the old scholar. Your sister and I can both read. We can buy some Three Character Classic and Thousand Character Classic and teach them to the whole family."

Cheng Xu jumped for joy. "That's great. I can go to school and learn to read. I'm going to tell my third brother." Then he ran back to the yard happily.

As soon as Cheng Xu left, Cheng Xiaoguo took a stick to drive the ducks away. When he saw Wei Qinglang, he greeted her, but he pouted and looked aggrieved and unhappy.

Wei Qinglang was puzzled. "Xiaoguo, what's wrong with you?"

Cheng Xiaoguo pouted, "Just now, my second aunt came to my house to borrow needlework. When she saw the rabbit meat you sent last night, she asked where it came from. My father quickly said that you sent rabbit meat to every family you helped yesterday.

Second Auntie was upset, saying that she and our family were one family, so why didn't we send some to her family as well? Then she took away half of our rabbit meat."

The second aunt mentioned by Cheng Xiaoguo is Zhao Daya who lives next door to the Wei family. Cheng Dafu and Cheng Daming are brothers. They separated after they got married, but the relationship between the brothers is still good.

Cheng Daming is the third child in the family. He married Chen from the neighboring village, who is virtuous and capable. He is also a good farmer and can build houses. During the slack season, he goes out to find work. He is the best at making money among the three brothers, and is often taken advantage of by his two older brothers.

Wei Qinglang was also speechless. The three rabbits were divided into seven parts, which was just over one kilogram for each family. If Zhao Daya took half, Cheng Xiaoguo's family would not be able to eat much.

"It's okay, Xiaoguo. I'll go hunting in the mountains and send one to your house someday." Wei Qinglang comforted him.

Cheng Xiaoguo sniffed. Although he really wanted to eat rabbit meat, he shook his head sensibly, "No need, Brother Qinglang. Leave it to Cheng Xu and Cheng Chen."

Cheng Xiaoguo drove a few ducklings back home, and Wei Qinglang had no choice but to go home. The people in a village are of all kinds and different.

He doesn't want to care about Zhao Daya, a weirdo who is petty and loves to take advantage of small opportunities. He can't care about her either, so he should just live his own life.

When Cheng Shuang woke up, breakfast was already ready. She didn't expect Wei Qinglang didn't stay up late, so she became the last one to wake up in the family.

During these days of living together, Cheng Pan did the most housework at home, and she was also the one who washed the clothes every day. After breakfast, Wei Nanxing took the initiative to clean up and wash the dishes, and Cheng Pan picked up a bucket of clothes to go to the river to wash them.

Cheng Shuang saw it and took it from her hand, "Give it to me. I'm going to do the laundry today. You've been busy all morning, so come and rest at home."

Cheng Pan saw that there was nothing to do at home. "Then I'll go wash clothes with my elder sister. There are more clothes today so it will be faster with two people."

"No, I can do it by myself. You can take out the mushrooms and dry them at home."

After saying that, Cheng Shuang gave Wei Qinglang who was sitting in the yard a look, and went out with a bucket of clothes.

She walked towards the river for a while, turned around and saw Wei Qinglang following her. She looked around and saw that there was no one around, so she quickly turned behind a vegetable field where cucumbers were planted.

There is also a half-collapsed abandoned old house next to it. The one-meter-high grass and several trees on the side block the view outside. It is a relatively hidden corner.

Wei Qinglang guessed what she was going to do, so he followed her in, took the clothes, and slipped into the space. He threw the clothes into the washing machine, then came out and waited together for the clothes to be washed.

Cheng Shuang squatted at the foot of the wall, looking at the cucumbers on the racks in the vegetable patch in front. "Wei Qinglang, I thought about it for a long time last night. I want to build a house, but I don't want to live in an adobe house. Building a blue brick house would cost a lot of money and would be too conspicuous. Most importantly, I'm worried that we won't be able to live here for long, and building a blue brick house would be a waste."

Wei Qinglang also squatted down beside her. "You mean you don't want to live in the village for long and want to move to the county town?"

"No, didn't I tell you last night that there's a mine nearby, and it's probably an iron or gold mine. It's not a place for people to live.

People who live here for a long time will get sick. I can treat the villagers, but even if I cure them, they will still live here. Won't they continue to suffer from poisoning in a few years?"

Cheng Shuang sighed, "I know what's going on. I can't just pretend I don't know and just move away and be done with it, right?"

"So what do you mean?" Wei Qinglang frowned slightly. "You want the villagers to relocate en masse?"

Cheng Shuang held her chin and blinked, "I definitely can't do it, but there is a way. We can leak the news to the officials, and then the court will send people to find the vein.

Think about it, whether it's an iron or gold mine, the news must be kept secret. If they want to open a mine, they have to resettle the nearby villagers. Can't they just relocate them collectively?"

Wei Qinglang said, "That's one way. However, we don't know how good the ancient surveying technology was. What if they can't find it?"

Cheng Shuang pondered for a moment and said, "Then let's find a time to go in and determine its approximate location."

"How do we confirm this?"

"Stupid, we have a compass. Minerals will interfere with the magnetic field and make the compass ineffective."

"Yes, this way we can know the approximate location." Wei Qinglang suddenly realized.

He stood up and said, "Then we need to make some preparations before we go in, to prevent getting lost if the compass fails. I learned to draw when I was designing games, so I can draw a map."

Cheng Shuang looked up at him and thought it was great to have a companion to discuss things with. If she were alone, she really wouldn't dare to do this.

She smiled and said, "No rush. We'll take our time with this plan. In short, we'll do our best and leave the rest to fate. In the end, if it doesn't work out, we'll have to move away with our family."

Wei Qinglang nodded in agreement. They had limited abilities, and if they failed after trying their best, they would have a clear conscience.

While the two were talking, they kept looking at the cucumber rack in front of them. The cucumbers on it were ripe and looked good.

Wei Qinglang stood up and took two steps forward. The cucumber was right next to him, so he picked one.

Then he wiped it on his clothes, broke it into two pieces and handed half to Cheng Shuang.

Cheng Shuang didn't think much about it, or maybe because she had been looking at it for a long time and had already wanted to eat it, she took it and took a bite.

Wei Qinglang also took a bite, squatted back and said, "Well...about building a house."

"Hmm..." Cheng Shuang thought for a moment, "There's a bamboo forest to the west. Why don't we build a bamboo house? The other day when I passed by Lijia Village on my way to the county town, I saw people living in bamboo houses. That means someone knows how to build one. It won't cost much to hire someone to build one, and we won't feel bad if we have to move out later."

Wei Qinglang said, "Good idea. When the weather gets hot, a bamboo house will be cooler than an adobe one."

Cheng Shuang continued, "Not only a place to live, but also a toilet and a bathroom. There is no shortage of water in the village. Several people in my family don't want to take a bath every day because they think it is troublesome. And with a bathroom, I don't have to ask you to take me into the space to take a bath every day."

"Then I can draw a rough blueprint and have someone build it according to it."

The two of them started chatting about building a bamboo house and quickly finished the cucumbers in their hands.

Suddenly hearing some noise coming this way, Wei Qinglang stood up, grabbed Cheng Shuang, and quickly ran behind the wall to hide.

Zhao Daya was in a good mood today. She hummed a tune and came to the field with a basket, preparing to pick two cucumbers to stew rabbit meat at noon. When she arrived at the place and hadn't started picking yet, she saw fresh cucumber peels spit out on the ground.

Zhao Daya slapped her thigh immediately and said, "Oh, who is so shameless as to steal my melon?"

Hearing this familiar loud voice, Cheng Shuang and Wei Qinglang unconsciously shrank their necks. It is wrong to pick melons from other people's fields without permission.

If it were someone else, they would have gone out and apologized, but it had to be Zhao Daya.

If they go out now, Zhao Daya will definitely shout and tell the whole village that the two of them stole his melons.

The two of them leaned against the wall and neither of them moved, just listening to Zhao Daya scolding for a long time.

When Zhao Daya finally left, she was still cursing, "You bastard, you stole my melon and gave birth to a son without an anus."

The cursing gradually faded away. The two people hiding behind the wall looked at each other. Wei Qinglang shrugged indifferently, "I'm not giving birth to a son."

Cheng Shuang pursed her lips and said, "I won't give birth either."