I farmed and built a villa in ancient times

Chapter 147

Zhou Wanqiu returned to Li Xiuju and looked around the small courtyard reluctantly. Without saying another word, she silently turned around and prepared to leave.

Zhou Chenyu looked at her lonely back and took the initiative to stop her, "In late autumn, Baoyu went out hunting. I have to go into the mountains to collect firewood alone. I am very lonely. Are you interested in coming with me?"

Zhou Wanqiu paused, tugged at the hem of his clothes, and tried to force out a smile, "Sister Chen Yu, if you don't mind, I will go with you."

With Zhou Wanqiu accompanying her, Li Xiuju felt at ease, "Then you two sisters should be more careful."

"it is good."

Zhou Chenyu and she walked into the back mountain in late autumn carrying two baskets on their backs.

In the late autumn, the lush greenery of the back mountains has faded, and there is not much vitality. Wherever you look, the big trees are bare, the bamboo forests are yellow, and everything is a scene of depression and fallen leaves.

Zhou Chenyu and Zhou Wanqiu are both women. No matter how much physical work they do, there is always a huge gap in strength between them and men. They ran too far and no matter how much firewood they collected, they could not get it back, so they only stopped halfway up the mountain. down.

Small firewood such as branches and trunks are easy to ignite, but firewood cut from the main trunk is more resistant to burning.

Zhou Chenyu unloaded the basket and put it on the ground, took out a hatchet and a saw, and handed the former to Zhou Wanqiu, "You chop some small firewood and leave the big ones to me."

"Hey." Zhou Wanqiu took the hatchet and nodded, then walked over and ducked into the bushes, folding up the dead branches.

Zhou Chenyu looked at her for a few times, picked up the saw, found a tree trunk as thick as a thigh, held the handle of the saw tightly, and aimed the saw teeth at the trunk to cut.

The sharp serrated blade scraped against the tree trunk, leaving a thin crack of a few millimeters, which continuously scraped out many powdery wood chips.

As sawdust piled up at the root of the tree, the saw was cutting from one end to the other. Zhou Chenyu was a little tired of pulling the saw back and forth. Seeing that the saw was about to penetrate the trunk, the time had come. He raised his foot and aimed at the fallen tree. direction, kicked it down hard, and the tree several meters high broke away from the stake and fell straight down the slope, tearing off large pieces of dead leaves.

"Finally, we knocked down one tree." Zhou Chenyu picked off the leaves as thin as his hair and saw a big tree next to him. He sawed off another tree with all his strength, sawing through two big trees in succession. This time he was indeed a little tired.

The days in autumn and winter are short, and the sunlight that shines into the woods in the afternoon is already very weak, and it makes no difference whether it is there or not.

She gasped slightly and used the saw to cut the tree trunk into small sections about one meter long. The first tree was divided. When she saw the second tree of the same length, her arms began to tremble uncontrollably and she couldn't help but feel weak. I can't do it anymore, "I can't do it anymore, I'm exhausted."

The two baskets Zhou Wanqiu brought in were filled with dry firewood, and he slowly walked out of the bushes, "Sister Shen Yu, I'll come, you have a rest."

"Aren't you tired?" Zhou Chenyu just asked her to accompany him and talk, and didn't want to ask her to work.

Zhou Wanqiu smiled and shook his head, "I often do these jobs, and I have a lot of strength. Don't be afraid of Wanqiu, just let me do it."

Zhou Chenyu watched Zhou Wanqiu take away the saw tooth, stand in front of the big tree, rolled up his sleeves, but suddenly pulled down his sleeves after halfway, and started sawing the tree with his hands.

Zhou Chenyu didn't pay attention at first, but when he saw her concealing action, he immediately took notice, "The sleeves are big and it's inconvenient to saw the tree. Why don't you roll up your sleeves?"

"It's cold. I...I'm afraid of catching a cold." Zhou Wanqiu lowered his head and stared at the saw without looking at her.

Zhou Chenyu's eyes fell on the fine sweat on Zhou Wanqiu's face and neck. It was obvious that he was sweating due to the heat, so how could he be cold?

She frowned, "Wan Qiu, are you hiding something from me?" Zhou Wanqiu was frightened, and the sawtooth fell off her hand, and she picked it up in a panic.

Zhou Chenyu saw that she was distracted and would be cut sooner or later. She walked over and picked up the saw. At this time, her peripheral vision caught a trace of green on Zhou Wanqiu's arm, "What's wrong with your hand?"

"No... nothing."

Zhou Wanqiu hesitantly hid her hands behind her back. Zhou Chenyu grabbed one of her hands and lifted up her sleeve, revealing a series of green, purple and red scars on her bony right arm, which was simply shocking.

She opened her eyes in shock, "Who beat you like this? With such a cruel hand, you won't be able to leave scars in the future?"

Zhou Wanqiu retracted her hand as if to escape, her lips trembling, "Sister Chen Yu, please stop looking, I'm fine."

Simply swallowing one's anger will serve no purpose other than fueling others' arrogance.

Zhou Chenyu saw that she was just crying but couldn't make a sound, and his tone was a bit colder, "Who hit you?"

"Yes... it was my father who beat me." Zhou Wanqiu was stunned for a while, and the tears in her eyes slipped silently, "I was cooking at home last night, and my father bought half a catty of beef. I wanted to cook it. After drinking wine, I was busy doing other things while cooking. I failed to watch the fire and cooked all the beef. It was my fault and it was my fault that I ruined the beef."

Zhou Chenyu listened to Zhou Wanqiu's answer. Although she had long expected that those in her family were the culprits, when she heard the reason for the beating, she still found it ridiculous. Half a pound of beef was not as important as her daughter's life.

In their large family, Zhou Wenwu was an alcoholic, Chen Cuiping was greedy, the eldest brother Zhou Baocai was selfish, Zhou Baoquan was indulgent and willful, and there were two sisters-in-law, neither of whom was a fuel-efficient lamp.

If Zhou Wanqiu had stayed in that home, sooner or later his skin would be stripped away.

Zhou Chenyu looked at the overly sensible Zhou Wanqiu. After all, she was not her biological sister. Otherwise, she would slap back anyone who dared to hit her sister.

She brushed away Zhou Wanqiu's tears and said, "Okay, stop crying. Does it hurt?"

Zhou Wanqiu wiped it again, crying and smiling at the same time, "Wan Qiu still has my sister who cares about me, so I no longer feel the pain."

"You, you, if someone gives you a little bit of good, you are like finding a treasure. From now on, those bad men can just give you a piece of candy and kidnap you." Zhou Chenyu touched her head and took away the saw. Don't let her do this heavy work.

But Zhou Wanqiu was not idle either. After calming down, he sat on the tree trunk and held down Zhou Chenyu.

Zhou Chenyu was afraid that the tree would roll and crush her, "Wan Qiu, you don't need to hold her down. I can do it even if you weren't around just now."

"Sister Chen Yu, just let me sit down." Zhou Wanqiu raised her eyes, her timid eyes filled with pleading and expectation, "Growing up, I only had the job of pulling saws at home, and my two brothers could sit on the tree. Press."

Zhou Chenyu saw her red nose, pursed his lips and smiled, "Okay, you are young, my sister will follow you."

Zhou Wanqiu's tear-filled eyes curled up and she smiled, "Yeah!"

Zhou Chenyu finished sawing the big tree, and the two of them carried two baskets of dry firewood down the mountain. When they returned home, they drank a few sips of tea, rested for a while, and then hurried back to the mountain.

After running back and forth like this twice, the empty corner of the kitchen where the firewood was placed was soon filled with firewood again.

(End of this chapter)