Li Sanjiang patted his trouser legs, then took Li Zhiyuan’s hand and followed Li Weihan and others out the door.
Qin Li watched Li Zhiyuan leave; she had known that he was going out today, but as he left, she still slowly lowered her head, her gaze falling on the noodle bowl he’d just finished eating from.
Liu Yumei immediately gave Aunt Liu a meaningful look, and Aunt Liu strode forward, picking up the bowl and chopsticks to wash them.
Soon after, Uncle Qin came back carrying a big bundle of bamboo, threw it on the yard, and clapped his hands.
Liu Yumei sat next to Qin Li and smiled, "Alii, I’m having Ali make a rattan chair just like Little Yuanhou’s for you. What do you think?"
Qin Li didn’t respond.
Liu Yumei pursed her lips and said to Qin Li, "Focus on making two identical new rattan chairs these next few days, suitable for the children to sit and lean on."
not obviously, but she was indeed pleased.
At the entrance of the village by the roadside, they didn’t have to wait long; an old-style bus came along.
At that time, town buses didn’t have platforms or fixed stops; though they were officially regulated, they were mostly privately contracted and would stop if someone flagged or passengers requested to get off.
Li Sanjiang wanted to say a few more words to Little Yuanhou, but the bus arrived too quickly, so he had to get on first. As the bus drove away, Li Weihan picked up Li Zhiyuan, put him in his uncle Li Sheng’s cart, and let him sit there.
Then, everyone walked along the roadside together, and soon they caught up with the team from Si Yuan Village.
Most were able-bodied male villagers of appropriate age, with few women. This was because the ongoing grand canal-digging project was nearing its end, and the demand for labor and working hours had significantly reduced.
Decades ago, every particular season, nearly the entire rural population of Jiangsu—men and women, young and old—had to be organized to carry tools, repairing levees near rivers or building reservoirs in areas without them.
Sometimes, for key projects, they were organized to go to faraway places to work together.
In the dead of winter, the cold wind biting to the bone, there weren’t many engineering tools back then, and the work relied almost entirely on manual labor.
Everyone of age had to participate; work durations were long, requiring people to live at the worksite for extended periods, bringing their dry food and building their own shelters.
Who knew how many of the aged were left with chronic ailments from the hardships of canal-digging in those days.
Uncle Li Sheng laughed, "I still remember the hardships of going to the canal-digging with mom and dad when I was a kid. Dad used to tell us, if you don’t study well, you’ll be digging canals for life, haha."
The other uncles laughed along.
Second Uncle Li Zheng said, "In the end, all of dad’s words were in vain. Us brothers weren’t made for studying, and in the end, only the youngest sister got an education."
Third Uncle Li Xiong nodded, "Exactly, mom was biased when she was bearing children; all the brains went to our sister."
Li Weihan feigned annoyance and scolded jokingly, "What nonsense you kids are talking! If you could have studied, wouldn’t I have gritted my teeth and supported you?"
Everyone burst into laughter again, indulging in some playful teasing and banter.
Everything seemed to have returned to a long time ago.
The four of them, led by their parents, would go to work on the canal-digging, joking and chatting just on the way.
Perhaps this was why Li Weihan was so invested in this canal-digging; his sons all had families now and were fathers themselves. They were busy with their own little homes, which inevitably led to some friction and disputes.
It was only in times , carrying tools and pushing carts, on their own, that they could find those sentiments and memories from before.
However, this warmth was doomed to not last very long. Many-child families with tight finances faced similar issues, which could only be resolved when life improved, and as everyone grew older, they might be able to set aside their calculations and grudges to genuinely reconnect with their kinship and affection.
Of course, it was also possible that these issues could never be put aside, and siblings would end up estranged for life.
The team continued to move forward, with the uncles ceaselessly introducing Li Zhiyuan, Panzi, and Leizi to what they saw along the way.
"This dike was built by us back in the day; we were still young then and could only help transport soil behind the scenes."
"This reservoir was also built by us. It was so cold then, even freezing over."
"We dug this ditch too. Back then, Leizi and Panzi were still little, hahaha."
Following their descriptions, Li Zhiyuan sitting in the cart kept looking around, feeling somewhat stirred. He had always assumed that many facilities that seemed to exist by default weren’t actually so.
Nowadays, the water conservancy facilities that almost every village has are the best imprints of that epoch-defining project that is drawing to a close, the crystallization of the hard work and sweat of the laborers.
As Si Yuan Village’s team marched on, they kept merging with teams from other villages. The size of the procession began to grow, eventually becoming so large that neither the beginning nor the end could be seen.
Village leaders would carry a flag with the name of their village on it, and town leaders would carry an even larger flag along with loudspeakers.
The flags were old, and the words on them had long since faded away— even the non-electric loudspeakers were rusty. These days, they were only symbolic; habits and self-discipline developed over decades were already etched into the hearts of generations.
Li Weihan’s tools were shared among the sons, allowing him to leisurely light his water pipe. The smoke he puffed out gradually blurred his vision—perhaps from the smoke itself or perhaps this solid man suddenly felt a pang of sentiment.