Daily Life in the Countryside After Being Reborn
Chapter 46 - 45: Mad Dog at the Door

Chapter 46: Chapter 45: Mad Dog at the Door

(Uncle San Gouzi has returned home, there will be extra updates next week, starting to write energetically over the weekend~ Praise me~)

When San Gouzi picked up the grandfather and grandson, he was quite surprised to see the eye-catching banner, and after asking around, he cursed in his thick coat, wishing he could punch Blue Hair and his gang right away, "Daring to mess with our Ge Village people, they must have a death wish. Lucky for them that I, San Gouzi, wasn’t there. If I had been, I’d beat them every time I saw them, hit them from the front and then from the back."

Hearing this, Xiao Xian was delighted, feeling warmth in his heart. Uncle San Gouzi really treated them as his own villagers.

Zhu Shijun could see something was off in San Gouzi’s eyes when he spoke about rolling up his sleeves. "San Gouzi, what’s going on? Something happened at home?" Once Zhu Shijun asked, San Gouzi awkwardly dropped his coat and touched his head, "Well, the old man is sharp, spotted it right away. Actually, it’s nothing much."

Ge Village has been bustling these last few days. Men and wives who work elsewhere had returned to the village, bringing home loads of New Year goods. Some village elders, too, were picked up by their filial children to spend the New Year outside. San Gouzi, taking advantage of his free time, turned into a volunteer shuttle driver, making two trips a day. By the twenty-seventh of the twelfth lunar month, nearly everyone who was supposed to arrive had arrived. Just yesterday, something happened in the village.

The incident involved a familiar face, none other than Qian Yongfu’s wife Wang Chunhua. A few days after her new trousers were torn by a dog, the village started a massive clean-up. With every woman busy, no one had time to gossip about Wang Chunhua.

It seemed like the incident would be overlooked until a few days later when Wang Chunhua’s son, who is a director in town, returned with his wife and their plump young grandson. The Qian family of three made quite an entrance driving an old Santana, with Qian Yongfu and his wife crowing at the top of the village like excited chickens, showing off for days.

Qian Yongfu’s son, naturally also surnamed Qian, is named "Duoduo". After returning to the village, Duoduo gave out cigarettes to each household and set up several banquet tables at home, inviting the spoken elders of the village, and even talked about leading the villagers in getting rich next year, saying he needed to mobilize everyone to transport timber from the mountains. Basically, he just needed the village chief to nod and approve his request.

That night, it was lively at the village Party Secretary’s house. Dahuang, smelling the meat, wagged its tail and tried to snatch some bones. But Wang Chunhua saw it and grabbed a broom to hit it. Dahuang remembered her as the malevolent thief and bit her back.

This bite had Wang Chunhua crying and wailing for her parents while Qian Yongfu and his son Duoduo grabbed a couple of firewood knives, claiming they would butcher Dahuang.

"Wow," Xiao Xian heard this on the side, thinking the Qian family was making a huge fuss, "Did Dahuang escape? I told Sister-in-law Lian to tie it up well before I left, not to stir up trouble." The village had been busy with the cleaning these days, maybe Sister-in-law Lian had been negligent, and Dahuang, being hungry, went to the Qian family looking for food.

"Dahuang is fine, it’s a smart dog. Hearing the noises in the village, it ran across the suspension bridge and escaped to Black Mountain. Possibly it was taken in by a family in Dongnan Miao Village," Miao family treats animals as their own kin. Besides, even if it wasn’t adopted, a stray dog like Dahuang knows how to survive in the mountains by stealing bird eggs or digging up roots, a few meals missed won’t hurt.

Zhu Shijun thought more deeply than Xiao Xian. If it bit someone else’s family, it would just mean compensating with a few eggs, and an apology. But getting on the bad side of the Qian family, with new grudges added to old ones, would not be so simple. "Is Wang Chunhua’s injury serious?"

"Not sure, she lay on the kang the day she was bitten. At that time, everyone was eating and drinking and didn’t notice how severe the bite was. All we heard was her moaning and groaning, and even the people at several tables outside heard it," San Gouzi said as he loaded the New Year goods onto the cart.

"Qian Duoduo’s wife works at the town quarantine station, she couldn’t bear to see people at peace. After getting a shot in town, she came back wiping her tears, claiming it was rabies that her mother-in-law caused, saying that the disease could be fatal, and it’s unpredictable when it could flare up."

Qian Yongfu, seeing that the Zhu Family was unattended these two days, stood at the Zhu family’s doorway every day shouting, saying that Wang Chunhua, after being bitten like this, was half-dead and hereafter couldn’t do heavy work or go to the fields. He insisted that the village chief must get an explanation from Zhu Shijun, otherwise no one would be able to celebrate the New Year.

People in Ge Village talked about rabies, also known as rabid dog disease. Logically, having been vaccinated after the bite should mean it’s fine, but the Qian family kept clinging on, claiming that Dahuang was raised by the Zhu Family, insinuating that they were behind it.

San Gouzi said this feeling somewhat embarrassed; how did he end up involved with a family like this in the village?

"Let’s talk about it when we get back," Zhu Shijun pondered, deciding it was still best to have the village chief mediate, and it would just involve some money. This trip to Guiyang was fortunate to have gotten the old man’s health sorted; otherwise, being upset like this, they really wouldn’t be able to celebrate the New Year.

On the way back to Ge Village, when San Gouzi saw the daffodil bulbs Xiao Xian bought, he didn’t understand: "Xiao Xian, what are you buying these garlic bulbs for? Don’t they just grow in our village lands?"

"Uncle San Gouzi, you’re not recognizing daffodils here. These are flowers city folks place in their houses during Chinese New Year. Right now they’re bulbs, but after a while, they’ll bloom into fragrant little white flowers. I promise you’ll be able to smell them from the head of our village," Zhu Shijun saw his granddaughter boasting big and didn’t burst her bubble, just playfully tapped her forehead.

Having left Ge Village for only a few days, the entrance to the village had already changed. Village chief Jin Dafu had installed several bamboo poles painted in red varnish at the village entrance, with a freshly made village sign that read: "Ge Village" – the writing on it looked a bit trembling, not sure which village elder wrote it.

The entrance to the village was also piled with new pebbles, apparently to be used for paving roads in the spring.

Xiao Xian’s few acres of alfalfa were still blooming, adding a bit of festive color at the village entrance. An old tradition in China is to remove the old and welcome the new at every New Year, not just new furniture or New Year goods, another big part is "dusting off." Zhu Shijun assumed he would be back in time for a thorough cleaning, forgetting to mention it to Sister-in-law Lian. Returning home only on the twenty-seventh, there was not much time left to tidy up at home.

Fortunately, during the days Zhu Shijun and his dad were away, the diligent Sister-in-law Lian, braving the risk of disdain from Qian Yongfu, had cleaned all four rooms of the flat house, except the entrance hadn’t been decorated with festive items yet.

Seeing the bare lintel, Zhu Shijun then remembered he forgot to buy couplets and lanterns. The New Year couldn’t possibly be celebrated so bare, but although the front of the Zhu Family’s house was stark, it wasn’t deserted. Having heard the news, Qian family father and son, like two door gods, were already there, glaring with eyes wide and eyebrows raised, waiting.

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