Are all the village heads going?

When it comes to carpentry, there is a saying: for those who know how, nothing is difficult.
And its preceding line—for those who do not know, everything is difficult.
This was different from a simple and crude chicken coop built by tying things together, driving them into the dirt, and securing the joints with hemp rope.
The sister-in-law and brother-in-law looked at each other, feeling a bit clueless at first.
Sang Luo: "First of all, it needs three upright pillars."
Shen An: "Four, right? Look at our table at home, it has four legs. Four legs stand more steadily."
Sang Luo shook her head: "You are wrong about that. Triangles are the most stable."
Little Shen An thought: You are the eldest sister-in-law, so whatever you say is right! Everything the eldest sister-in-law insists on is correct!
He immediately nodded: "Okay, three!"
"Each tier will be connected and fixed with crossbars." Sang Luo, having seen plenty of modern flat-pack furniture, was quite certain now. It was just substituting nails with mortise and tenon joints. "Mortise and tenon joints are not that hard either, except we need a prototype first, and I need to calculate the dimensions."
As she spoke, she said: "Xiao An, go fetch your sandbox, let's draw it out."
Shen An stood up and went back into the room to get the sandbox. A moment later, he brought it out and smoothed the sand surface. The two of them squatted right beside the sandbox, scribbling and sketching away, and even seriously measured the dimensions of the large round wicker winnowing basket inside.
After sketching for a long time, Sang Luo stared at the pile of wood scraps of various sizes and lengths, then suddenly shook her head: "Actually, I think using bamboo stalks would be much simpler and less troublesome."
"Bamboo is hollow, you see. We can use thick bamboo stalks for the three main upright pillars, saw out a notch where the mortise and tenon joints should go, and simply slide the crossbars in. Wouldn't that be much less troublesome than using timber?"
Once the blueprint and dimensions were finalized, as soon as Shen Ning returned, Sang Luo and Shen An went out with a machete to cut bamboo. After struggling for a while, they dragged two bamboo stalks back and processed them outside the courtyard.
With the dimensions calculated and referenced against the drawing in the sandbox, a simple four-tier triangular drying rack was indeed not too difficult to make. The main drawback was that it took time. Sawing the uprights and crossbars was the same kind of work, though this time they didn't need to split the bamboo. After nearly two hours of effort, when they successfully completed the first finished product, they didn't end up with their hands full of bamboo splinters this time. However... it didn't seem very stable either. If the main uprights were pulled to one side, it could easily fall apart if one wasn't careful.
Sang Luo, Shen An, and Shen Ning: ......
One adult and two children stared blankly.
"There needs to be an inward-pulling force to clasp the three uprights together, right?"
"Should be... yes?"
Look, this was the advantage of the last time when they built the chicken coop and could directly hammer the post bases into the mud; they never would have had a problem like this.
They stared blankly at the triangular rack—no, they pondered how on earth they could fix it from the outside.
Drive in bamboo nails?
Sang Luo was afraid that the moment she drove a bamboo nail in, the entire upright pillar would split apart.
When Chen Youtian came back carrying his empty tofu carrying pole, what he saw outside the Shen family's courtyard was a family of three staring intently at a bamboo rack.
"What are you all doing here?"
Hearing that voice, the three of them turned their heads in unison.
An expert!
"Uncle Youtian, come take a look at how to fix this."
"Uncle Youtian, help us look at how to handle this."
The voices of the three were remarkably synchronized.
Chen Youtian walked closer, put down his carrying pole, and peered at the bamboo rack: "Doing the upper and lower tiers like this won't work, it can't hold its position. What are you making this for?"
Sang Luo almost couldn't help giving him a thumbs-up: "You truly are an expert. You spotted the problem at a single glance. We're making a drying rack to hold the large round wicker winnowing baskets I bought. This way, it takes up less space and lets us dry more things."
Chen Youtian thought to himself that she was the real expert.
Still, just how many things did they have to dry that they needed to build a rack just to hold baskets?
Thinking of the things the three households were selling every day, Chen Youtian stopped asking. It was most likely some kind of food, and only by putting it in the backyard could they prevent people from snooping.
"Actually, it's very simple." He walked up, took a bamboo twig to measure the dimensions of the rack's crossbars, turned around and picked up a bamboo stalk that Sang Luo had stripped of branches but not yet used. He began to saw while eyeing the measurements, cutting a notch into the thick bamboo, measuring a section, cutting another, and finally trimming both ends narrower. As he whittled, he called out to Shen An: "Xiao An, go light a fire."
Shen An ran into the kitchen to fetch a fire starter, and Shen Ning helped set up the firewood pile. Moments later, the fire flared up.
Chen Youtian held the notched section of the bamboo over the fire, roasting it while gradually bending it.
Only then did Sang Luo understand. So that was how it was done.
She had forgotten that bamboo could be bent after being roasted over fire.
Once both bent sections were treated, Chen Youtian removed the crossbars Sang Luo had originally used, had Sang Luo and the others help steady the uprights, and neatly embraced one of the uprights using the hollowed-out space of the bent section. He tapped the bamboo bend until it fit just right, then processed the second bend, wrapping the second upright in the same manner. The narrowed ends of the bamboo stalk slipped right into the holes Sang Luo had sawed into the third upright. He whittled a bamboo peg, hammered it in, and secured the reinforcement.
The problem that had baffled the three of them for quite a while was thus directly solved.
Sang Luo didn't let Chen Youtian touch the topmost tier; she could do it herself by following the same method.
Chen Youtian smiled, picked up his carrying pole, confirmed the amount of tofu needed for early the next morning, and said: "I'll use soybeans for these. I'll bring the stuff up to you in a bit."
Sang Luo thanked him, and Chen Youtian headed down the mountain.
...
The Zhou family.
Village Chief Zhou's wife said to her husband, who had come back to rest at noon: "I managed to buy tofu again today. Guess who I bought it from?"
Village Chief Zhou merely glanced at her and said: "The Chen family? Or the Shi and Lu families? It couldn't be anyone outside these three."
Village Chief Zhou's wife: ......
"You're uncanny. It was Chen Youtian, carrying poles and selling along the villages. I ran into him when he reached Sanli Village, and there were barely a few blocks left. I bought two pieces back, and when I asked, he didn't hide it, saying it was Sang's family looking out for his household's livelihood."
She paused and continued: "You know, back then, Chen Youtian's wife was rumored to be selling wild vegetables in the county town along with Sang's. Was she selling this? Doesn't the Chen family have two stalls set up now, then?"
Village Chief Zhou gave an "en" sound: "It's not surprising. Weren't there rumors initially that Sang's family was nearly starved to death, and when Shen An went down the mountain to borrow grain from his third uncle, nobody even answered the door? In the end, the old couple of the Chen family voluntarily lent grain and sugar and sent it up the mountain, which saved Sang's life? A life-saving grace—no amount of favor shown in return is too much."
See, good and evil met their reward in the end.
Village Chief Zhou's wife was quite envious: "They must be making quite a bit. With two stalls a day, the Chen family is really starting to thrive."
Village Chief Zhou looked at the sky outside and murmured: "Thriving is good. Only when their lives are on the upswing can they plant their roots firmly and weather the storms."
Village Chief Zhou's wife cast a sideways glance at him: "What are you muttering about all day long?"
She said with high spirits: "Tell me, could our family also ask that Sang's family if we can help sell this tofu too? Have Third Son carry some to the county town. The county town is quite large, so it shouldn't interfere with Sang's and Youtian's wife's business, right?"
After asking for quite a while, the man gave no reply.
When Village Chief Zhou's wife looked over, she saw he was lost in thought. She nudged her husband: "What are you daydreaming about? I'm talking to you."
Village Chief Zhou snapped out of it: "What were you saying?"
Village Chief Zhou's wife repeated what she had said. Village Chief Zhou thought about it and shook his head: "It wouldn't be our turn. The Shi and Lu families are ahead of us. The Chen family already has two stalls—could the Shi and Lu families, who helped build the house recently, have been left out of the favors?"
Village Chief Zhou's wife refused to believe it: "Surely not? Bringing so many people along, won't that Sang woman stop selling herself?"
Village Chief Zhou smiled: "Wanting to know if it's true is simple enough. You can go ask Seventh Sister-in-law and see if the Shi and Lu families asked Seventh Brother to process travel passes for them. Then you'll know."
Traveling back and forth to the county seat required a travel pass. If the Shi and Lu families were going to set up stalls in the county, they couldn't avoid paying a visit to the headman.
Hearing this, Village Chief Zhou's wife realized it made sense, but then she said: "I was just saying it casually. I'm not actually going to run over and inquire with Seventh Sister-in-law; it's not worth making a fuss."
Having said that, she went out for a trip in the afternoon and came back clicking her tongue in amazement: "You really guessed it right. The Shi and Lu families asked Seventh Brother for travel passes on the very second day after the busy farming season started—one for the Gan family, one for the Feng family."
Village Chief Zhou smiled and asked: "Did you ask Seventh Brother?"
Village Chief Zhou's wife shook her head: "I asked Seventh Sister-in-law. Seventh Brother went to the county town, saying there was a notice from above, and all the village headmen had to go to the county yamen today."
Village Chief Zhou's expression shifted slightly. The hand that had been resting loosely on the table involuntarily clenched into a fist: "All the headmen went?"
Village Chief Zhou's wife looked bewildered: "Yeah, every time there's something ordered from above, don't all the headmen go?"
Village Chief Zhou closed his eyes, raised a hand to rub his brow, and stayed silent for a good while.
Village Chief Zhou's wife finally sensed something was wrong and asked him: "What's wrong with you? Is there anything strange about Seventh Brother going to the county town?"
Village Chief Zhou waved his hand: "Nothing. Perhaps I'm overthinking it."
After pondering, he added a warning: "If any grain merchants come by, our family's grain is not to be sold this year."
Village Chief Zhou's wife finally realized the gravity of the situation. The casual look on her face vanished, and she asked with a solemn expression: "What is it?"
Village Chief Zhou shook his head: "I'm not clear, not certain. I'll go ask when Seventh Brother comes back. Anyway, don't sell our family's grain just yet this year."
"Not even if they offer a high price? I went to Sanli Village today and heard that grain merchants are buying dried grains this year, offering as high as seventy-three cash per dou."
This was already higher than the current selling price in grain shops, and the sundry store in Sanli Village had adjusted its prices today upon catching wind of it.
Hearing that grain prices had risen, Village Chief Zhou's expression grew even uglier. He shook his head: "Not selling. Not even for one hundred and seventy-three cash per dou. All the grain must be kept this year."
Village Chief Zhou's wife nodded numbly. Since her husband wouldn't say why, she stopped asking and simply memorized everything he said: "Alright, I'll pass the word along to our eldest and the others. When the grain merchants come, we won't even need to invite them into the house."
In any case, when Seventh Brother returned at night and her husband verified the news, he would surely tell the family.