Reborn in a small village in the 1990s

Zhao Da'e glared at the dog and said, "Shut up. If you bark again, I'll stew you one of these days."

The dog took off running: Awooo...

Madam Ni nodded: "This dog is about to have puppies, so it wasn't leashed. Did it scare you? Don't be afraid, this dog doesn't bite. Come in, it's alright."

Zhao Da'e shook his head again: "No, no. Where are my second brother and my second uncle?"

Wu Shanhe was the second oldest in his family, so Zhao Da'e should indeed call him Second Uncle according to seniority.

“They’ve all gone to work,” Ni replied.

“Second Aunt, I have something to say. I was thinking of taking this path to my backyard. There’s a well there, you know, and I’ve probably heard about it. Yesterday, I got into a fight with my parents, and I even put my mother in jail again… So, I don’t feel comfortable going through the old house. I was thinking of going through your front yard, but you’ve built a wall on the west side, so I can’t get through,” Zhao Da’e said frankly. “You built the house and the wall here first. Now I’ve contracted out that old well and that open space. I get water from there every day, and it’s quite tiring to carry water all the time. I was thinking of building a permanent path through your front yard, which would probably require a few meters of wall. What do you think?”

The Wu family's courtyard was quite large, with a relatively low western wall, especially the section with the path. Normally, there should be a path there, but the old well had been abandoned for many years, and the surrounding area looked like a deep, dark forest, giving it a gloomy feel. So the Wu family built a wall. This made it look more square and aesthetically pleasing.

Theoretically speaking, building a wall for the Wu family wasn't very reasonable. However, the Wu family wasn't building the wall to take up more space; they just wanted it to look nicer. It was also quite practical; the Wu family planted vegetables outside their yard, along the western wall up to the low wall, which provided them with more vegetables. But the situation was similar to Cheng Jinxiang's vegetable garden—it was on unclaimed land, and since no one cared, whoever had the garden owned it.

“You want to go this way?” Ni thought for a moment and said, “Okay. But your second uncle and your second brother aren’t home. If you want to leave now, you’ll have to jump over the wall. When they get off work, I’ll have them tidy up the other side. This is part of the village. If you want to use it, it will be restored to its original state and become a road.”

Ni was very understanding; after all, according to the village regulations, the land outside the courtyard was essentially a road.

Although there were no other houses here before, only the Wu family walked this way, there was still a road outside the courtyard. However, there were few people on the back street, just one or two houses, and the space was quite spacious, so they planted vegetables and some grapevines.

"Alright. I'll head over there first. When my second uncle and second brother get home, I'll discuss with them how to tear down this wall."

“Okay,” Ni said. “Big Goose, your mother has been back at her parents’ home for over a month now. The day after tomorrow is Laba Festival. Is she coming back? Your mother is a good person. She grows vegetables there and often brings me vegetables to eat.”

Zhao Da'e's mother, Cheng Jinxiang, had cleared a vegetable garden next to the ancient well. When she had plenty of vegetables, she would pick some fresh ones and bring them to Ni Shi. Ni Shi couldn't grow vegetables because of her poor eyesight, and Wu Shanhe and Wu Er both had jobs. Although they also grew vegetables, they were very poor; they were basically only good for looking at and not for eating, as they were full of insects.

Cheng Jinxiang then gave some to Ni. Moreover, Cheng Jinxiang didn't like the old lady Wang Guixiang very much, and he also disliked Zhao Laosan's wife Zhang Cuilan. The only person in the village who could speak up for him was Ni.

Although Zhao Da'e didn't know, he did know that the Ni family were good people.

"Second Aunt, I'm fine now, I'll head over there." Zhao Da'e said, about to leave.