Luo Jingyan blinked. Xue Yanchen usually had this expression when he was in front of her.

"He must be especially happy today."

The ground has just thawed, and if the weather remains sunny, spring plowing can begin in a few days. Everyone will have to go to the fields to work then, so Luo Jingyan's project will have to be put on hold for now.

Therefore, Luo Jingyan's people must put up all the adobe bricks needed for building the house in the next few days, and also dig the foundation. After the spring plowing season, when people have some free time, they can officially start building the house.

These bricklayers usually earn three cents a day for other jobs, but Luo Jingyan gave them five cents to get them to finish quickly, provided the quality was guaranteed. Before starting work, Luo Jingyan had made a three-point agreement with them: if the quality of their work did not meet her requirements, she would not pay them that much.

The bricklayers worked very hard to meet the deadline, and they were also very careful. Even in the chilly February weather, they were sweating profusely while working.

Of them, only two had brought towels, so they could wipe the sweat from their faces. The others who didn't bring towels had to wipe their sweat with their sleeves.

Xue Yanchen and Zhao Jun were younger and stronger than them, and they did more work. Both of them also sweated a lot.

Because the work they were doing was quite dirty, Xue Yanchen was digging the foundation with a shovel. Dust and dirt would occasionally splash up and land on him. His hands were also covered in dust, and some of it even landed on his face. In addition, he was sweating a lot, and the sweat was running down his cheeks.

His hands and sleeves were filthy, making it difficult to raise his hand to wipe away the sweat.

When Luo Jingyan saw this, she took out a handkerchief from her pocket, went over, and wiped the sweat off his face.

"Thank you, wife." He smiled and squinted his eyes.

Luo Jingyan looked at the others and said, "There are so many people here, I'll go first and come back later."

Compared to Xue Yanchen, Zhao Jun was in a worse situation. He did a different job than Xue Yanchen; he was making adobe bricks.

Making adobe bricks involves working with mud. After putting the prepared mud into a wooden mold with a shovel, you need to press the mud flat and pat it firmly by hand. Then, turn the mold upside down and place the adobe brick on the ground.

He ended up even dirtier than Xue Yanchen. His hands and body were covered in mud, not dirt. Similarly, making adobe bricks was also a very physically demanding job. When he sweated, the sweat would run into his eyes, stinging them so much that he could barely open them.

But he couldn't wipe it off with his hands; his clothes were covered in mud, and he couldn't rub it off at all.

When Luo Jingyan saw this, she didn't dare to wipe his sweat. Not only would Xue Yanchen be jealous, but she was also afraid that others would gossip.

Fortunately, she had prepared a basin of water in advance so that people could wash themselves if needed, and she could change the water if it got too dirty.

Zhao Jun knew this, and normally he would have gone to wash, but today he didn't want to.

If I wash it myself, I might miss a chance to woo a wife.

He stood in front of the mold, his hands covered in mud, and stared longingly at Qin Zhenzhen for a while.

Luo Jingyan said, "Zhao Zhiqing, why don't you stop and wash up first?"

Zhao Jun, of course, refused to listen to her: "Washing your hands and face is such a waste of time, we have to meet the deadline." After saying that, he buried himself in his work again.

“Zhao Zhiqing, you don’t need to be like this. Actually, there’s no need to rush.”

"No, that won't do. I don't like to dawdle, no matter what I'm doing. I prefer to finish things in one go, cleanly and efficiently. You don't need to try to persuade me."

Luo Jingyan looked at the handkerchief in her hand, but still didn't go over. Seeing her hesitation, Qin Zhenzhen said, "It's not appropriate for you to wipe his sweat. Your cousin will definitely be jealous if he sees you. Anyway, I don't have a boyfriend, and I'm not from around here, so I'm not afraid of anyone saying there's something between us. He looks so uncomfortable, his eyes are practically closed. I'll go wipe his sweat." After all, she had already fed him, so she didn't mind wiping his sweat again.

She doesn't care as long as there's no physical contact.

"Then I'll have to trouble you."

"It's no trouble at all."

Qin Zhenzhen took out her handkerchief from her pocket, walked up to Zhao Jun, and asked him first, "Zhao Zhiqing, the sweat on your face is about to drip into your eyes. The sweat will make your eyes blurry. Do you mind if I wipe it for you?"

"Oh, no problem, no problem at all," Zhao Jun replied hastily, lifting his face up. "Thank you for your help. It's inconvenient for me to wipe my sweat with my hands, otherwise I would have wiped it myself. To be honest, it's really uncomfortable when sweat gets in my eyes."

When Qin Zhenzhen reached out her handkerchief, he glanced at her clean blue handkerchief and said, "My face must be very dirty. Won't it get your handkerchief dirty?"

"It's okay, I'll take it back and wash it again."

"Alright then, thank you, Comrade Qin."

Qin Zhenzhen wiped all the sweat off Zhao Jun's forehead with a handkerchief. Zhao Jun enjoyed the care of his sweetheart and smelled the fragrance on Qin Zhenzhen's handkerchief, almost feeling like he was floating on air.

After Qin Zhenzhen wiped his sweat, she noticed that he still looked completely absorbed in the moment.

So she spoke up to remind him, "Zhao Zhiqing, it's all wiped clean."

Zhao Jun realized what was happening and thanked Qin Zhenzhen again: "Thank you for your hard work, Comrade Qin."

"Don't mention it, just keep working."

"Mm." Zhao Jun was full of energy and worked even harder.

That day, Zhuang Feifei and Grandpa Zhang worked from morning till night, bringing back two truckloads of blue bricks and one truckload of blue tiles from the county town. She temporarily called two strong laborers from the village to help her neatly stack the bricks and tiles next to Luo Jingyan's house plot. The blue bricks and tiles contrasted sharply with the newly built adobe bricks on Luo Jingyan's side, representing Zhuang Feifei's obvious provocation and demonstration against Luo Jingyan.

Luo Jingyan ignored it; she didn't need to bother arguing with Zhuang Feifei about such useless things.

In the evening, when Qin Zhenzhen left, she took eight watches from Luo Jingyan and gave Luo Jingyan the money she had paid for the previous order.

Zhuang Feifei bought all the necessary bricks and tiles in just two days. She had learned that Luo Jingyan was going to build four rooms, so she also planned to build four rooms.

She had four brick houses, while Luo Jingyan only had four mud-brick houses.

Once their houses are all built, the difference in appearance between the brick houses and the mud houses will be immediately apparent. Luo Jingyan's mud houses will definitely be crushed into dust by her magnificent brick houses.

She also called over the bricklayers that the brigade leader had found for her and had them dig the foundation. However, since the foundation had just been dug, construction could not begin immediately. Construction could only begin after the foundation had completely dried and solidified. Otherwise, the house would be at risk of dampness and collapse after it was built.

Luo Jingyan had arranged to meet Zhuang Feifei again in ten days to discuss the deal. Since she couldn't do much work on the construction site and Xue Yanchen was keeping an eye on things for her, she went to the county town under the pretext of buying daily necessities.

Zhuang Feifei had nothing else to do for the time being, so she went to the black market in the county town to wait for Lao Dong.

It wasn't just to continue doing business with Lao Dong; more importantly, Lao Dong still owed her a large sum of money.

After the two met, each disguised as someone else, Zhuang Feifei's first question to Luo Jingyan was: "Did you sell all the goods from last time? When are you going to pay me back the money you owe me?"