After seeing the old man off, Zhang Xuan looked at the spirit wall and slightly tidied up the imperfections.
In another two days, after the spirit wall dries, it can be officially used, and then the land god Statue can be invited into the shrine.
The food in this world is really coarse. Zhang Xuan was a Northern person in his previous life, so he mainly ate pasta since he was a child: steamed buns, baozi, dumplings, noodles... all were his favorites.
After coming to this world, let alone white flour, he couldn't even eat rice.
Although there is refined rice in this world, according to the original owner's memory, refined rice was only eaten during festivals and holidays, but this so-called refined rice was still too coarse for Zhang Xuan to swallow.
Zhang Xuan planned to take some time in the afternoon to carve a stone mill and also improve the stone mortar for husking rice.
Compared to the stone mill, improving the stone mortar is much simpler.
Looking at the sky, Zhang Xuan felt that he should be able to improve the stone mortar today.
The stone mortar in this world is very crude, just a concave stone mortar and a wooden pestle made of a round log sharpened at the bottom.
When they husk rice, people directly hold the wooden pestle to husk the rice, which is quite time-consuming and labor-intensive.
Taking out his tools, Zhang Xuan began to modify the stone mortar according to the memories of his previous life.
The structure of a stone mortar can be roughly divided into: stone mortar, wooden or stone pestle, wooden pestle handle, and support frame.
Zhang Xuan had used a stone mortar when he was a child in his previous life. Although he had never built one himself, the structure of a stone mortar is very simple, and it is not difficult to build.
Getting to work, Zhang Xuan took out his adoptive father's plane, chisel, axe, saw, and other tools, selected suitable wood, and began processing.
Speaking of his previous life, Zhang Xuan had never learned carpentry, but thanks to the original owner's wood carving skills, he was quite skilled at carpentry work.
The wooden pestle, wooden pestle handle, and support frame were quickly made, and then assembled, a brand new stone mortar was completed.
Looking up at the sky, the sun had already set in the west. According to the time in his previous life, Zhang Xuan estimated it was probably around 4:30 in the afternoon.
Zhang Xuan, who was used to the accurate time in his previous life, felt quite helpless about this.
At night, there are Night Watchmen who beat the watch to tell the time, but during the day, people can only roughly estimate the time based on the sun. If there is no sun, it's all based on feeling.
It's definitely too late to start making the stone mill now, so he'll have to wait until tomorrow.
Let's talk about Liu Da leaving the Lingsu Residence and hurrying back to the village.
The village where Liu Da lived was called Liu Family Village. Last year, there were still more than thirty households.
Unfortunately, during the New Year, an Evil Ghost came to the village.
The tragedy happened like this. If it weren't for the timely rescue by Wangjia Town, the entire village would have been wiped out.
Liu Family Village was lucky. Majia Village, about three or four kilometers away from Liu Family Village, was almost completely wiped out in that incident. Out of a village of over two hundred people, only three survived.
Liu Family Village is not far from Wangjia Town, about ten li away. It only took Liu Da half an hour to return to the village. It was still noon at this time, and the sun was shining directly overhead.
In the sunlight, only a dozen or so solitary households in Liu Family Village were emitting cooking smoke.
Liu Da returned home and saw his wife sitting on the heated brick bed mending clothes.
"Husband, you're back? Did things go smoothly?"
"It went smoothly. Zhang Xiaoge is much easier to talk to than his old father; he gave me two god statues for two copper coins."
"What? Two statues? Husband, although Boss Zhang was a bit stingy, he lent us god statues many times when we had no money back then.
Now that Boss Zhang has just passed away, we can't take advantage of Zhang Family Little brother!
Little brother is alone now, and life is not easy." Liu Da's wife complained a little angrily.
Liu Da pondered for a moment, sighed, and said, "Alas... Wife, you're right!
Tomorrow I will finish the work in our field, and the day after tomorrow I will go to the town again.
At that time, I will make up the money for Zhang Xiaoge, and also go to see our Erxi.
I didn't have time today, and I don't know how Erxi is doing now."
"Don't worry, our Erxi is more capable than you, and he's smart and diligent.
The master will definitely like him!" Liu Da's wife rolled her eyes at him and said.
"Oh right, Zhang Family Little brother also gave me three red paper strips, saying they were couplets, and asked us to paste them next to the god statues.
You boil some paste, and I'll paste them in a while." Liu Da placed the god statues and couplets he was holding on the heated brick bed.
Liu Da's wife put down her needlework and got off the heated brick bed to boil the paste.
Liu Da took the god statues to the courtyard and placed them in the sun to bask, supplementing as much Yang Qi as possible.
In the courtyard of Liu Da's house, there is a stone platform with a section of a wooden stake on it, more than a foot in diameter.
A hole was hollowed out on the side of the wooden stake. This hole is where the god statue is placed, protecting it from wind and rain.
Liu Da took down the wooden stake, took out his tools, and trimmed it.
When the paste was ready, he would paste the couplets.
While he was busy, he recalled the precautions Zhang Xuan had mentioned for pasting the couplets.
"Husband, the paste is ready, come and get it!"
"Okay, wait a moment! Coming right away." Liu Da heard his wife call out and casually responded, then quickly trimmed the last uneven parts of the wooden stake, placed it on the god platform, and considered the simple shrine completed.
After getting the paste, Liu Da carefully recalled the precautions Zhang Xuan had explained for pasting, confirmed that there were no errors, and quickly brushed the paste onto the wooden stake with a small brush.
First, he brushed the horizontal scroll at the top, and then brushed the positions for the upper and lower couplets on both sides.
Liu Da was illiterate, so Zhang Xuan was afraid he would make a mistake when pasting, and marked all three red papers.
The horizontal scroll is the shortest, so he just needed to mark the top and bottom to avoid pasting them upside down.
For the upper and lower couplets, Zhang Xuan marked vertical lines at the bottom. The upper couplet had one vertical line, and the lower couplet had two vertical lines.
Liu Da carefully checked the marks on the three red papers, confirmed that there were no errors, and quickly pasted them onto the wooden stake shrine.
When Liu Da finished pasting the couplets, it seemed like a loud bang came from the sky, but unfortunately, no one could see or hear it.
Then, a huge mass of Xuan Huang Qi appeared in the sky, rolling non-stop, and drifted towards Wangjia Town.
Unfortunately, upon reaching the sky near Wangjia Town, it did not continue to descend, but only rolled in the air.
Liu Da and Zhang Xuan naturally did not know that Xuan Huang Qi was rolling above their heads, and as time passed, the Xuan Huang Qi was still increasing, but it had never truly descended.
At this time, Zhang Xuan was at home improving the stone mortar, and suddenly felt a strange sensation above his head.
He looked up at the sky but saw nothing.
Wiping his forehead, which had no sweat, Zhang Xuan frowned, always feeling that there was something in the sky, but his eyes could only see the dazzling sunlight.
He shook his head, suppressed the doubt in his heart, and lowered his head to continue improving the stone mortar.
In a flash, time came to approximately the hour of You, and the sun had already set in the west, about to set.
Liu Da looked up at the sky, saw that it was almost dark, quickly put down the hoe he was repairing, and came to the shrine in the courtyard.
He stretched out his hands and lifted the land god statue that was bathed in the sun next to the shrine, and carefully invited it into the shrine.
He planned to place the land god statue inside the house at night.
Then he picked up the three incense sticks next to it. At this time, Liu Da's wife walked over with a burning piece of firewood.
Liu Da lit the incense sticks on the firewood, faced the shrine, bowed three times, and then gently inserted them into a coarse porcelain bowl in front of the shrine, which was filled with fine sand.
In fact, when Zhang Xuan explained, he also said that if there were candles, it would be best to also offer two candles and some offerings the first time the god statue is invited into the shrine, but it was clear that Liu Da could not afford candles and only bought a few incense sticks.
He naturally could not prepare offerings, so he filled a small bowl with coarse rice and placed it next to the incense sticks.
As Liu Da inserted the incense sticks into the large bowl used as an incense burner, the Xuan Huang Qi that had been rolling in the sky suddenly doubled in amount, and then quickly descended towards the ground.
When it was close to the ground, it quickly split into two parts, the larger one, accounting for about seventy percent of the total, flew towards Wangjia Town and finally landed at the Lingsu Residence.
The other smaller part flew towards Liu Family Village, came to the sky above Liu Da's house, and then split into three parts again.
The largest part landed on the shrine, and the other two parts entered the bodies of Liu Da and his wife respectively.
"Hmm?"
"Eh?"