"Why don't you want it? Your time is money, your labor is money. If you don't want money, I'll find someone else to do it for me."

Even close brothers need to keep clear accounts. If you do it for me for free once, how can I possibly ask you for help again?

It's better to take the money. That way, I won't be afraid to bother you in the future.

Ye Xiaoxiao held Lei Yueying's hand. This woman must be the most tragic character in the book.

A few years later, vegetable greenhouses began to spring up in rural areas. Sun Hongjun, with his big ambition, actually built eight greenhouses at once.

It was all financed with a loan. After the greenhouses were set up, people from the village were hired to do all the work, like growing vegetables. Each worker was paid one yuan a day.

Sun Hongjun saw that the man was boasting about how high the vegetable prices were. In the end, he made a lot of money in the first year, but he couldn't even pay off a little of the loan. After paying the workers' wages, he continued in the second year.

Vegetable prices collapsed because too many people started building greenhouses. These were things that had been happening elsewhere for two years before reaching their area. Sun Hongjun is drowning in debt, and Lei Yueying is under so much mental stress that she's gone insane.

Actually, if Sun Hongjun had caught up with the opportunity from the beginning, he might have actually made a fortune. His mistake was that others had been doing it for years while he was just starting. That's why he lost everything.

He never recovered from that setback. Furthermore, Lei Yueying developed a mental illness and had to be sent to a mental hospital for treatment.

Thinking of this, Ye Xiaoxiao felt sorry for Lei Yueying. In the dead of winter, when she had an attack, she would strip naked and shout and curse in the street. She couldn't be pulled back.

“Ah Ying, when you have money in the future, save some for yourself. Don’t listen to Sun Hongjun in everything. These men are unreliable. You need to think more and leave yourself a way out.”

Ye Xiaoxiao thought that she should remind Lei Yueying from time to time not to let Sun Hongjun do everything.

"Oh, right, sister-in-law, our family is also going to separate. I heard from the Red Army that next spring, we will be separated as well."

I told him that I'd get the village next to yours later. We'd be neighbors.

Lei Yueying was very happy to hear this.

"That's wonderful. Now that we're neighbors, we can be together every day."

Ye Xiaoxiao thought it was a good idea. If they became neighbors, she would definitely ask Li Chenyang to persuade Sun Hongjun more.

This person has courage, but lacks good luck.

Finally, Ye Xiaoxiao took out the fabric she had torn and discussed the clothing styles with Lei Yueying. Ye Xiaoxiao's description of clothing styles from later generations really sparked Lei Yueying's imagination.

"Sister-in-law, I've never seen any of these clothing styles before. I'll make them for you to see later."

Once Lei Yueying got into the swing of things, she grabbed Ye Xiaoxiao's fabric and left, her mind filled with the styles Ye Xiaoxiao had told her about.

"Hey, Ah Ying, it's just a one-yuan fee for the craftsmanship of a set." Ye Xiaoxiao chased after her, but Lei Yueying had already disappeared.

"Why did Ah Ying run away? Is something wrong?" Li Chenyang asked curiously as he was laying the ground in the yard.

"It's nothing. I just told him about a few new clothes. By the way, Ah Ying said that after the New Year, her family will buy the estate next to ours and live next door to us."

That would be wonderful.

Li Chenyang was naturally happy. He and Sun Hongjun had grown up together since childhood, and were even closer than brothers.

"Sister-in-law, where should I live?" The third brother always felt that he should live with his eldest brother when the family divided up in the future, and that the estate next to his eldest brother's house should be reserved for him.

"There's such a big place, you can choose whichever you get assigned to."

Ye Xiaoxiao was afraid that they would live next to her, especially the third son. The main reason was that the third son's wife was a troublemaker. In order not to separate from the third son and build houses together, Ye Xiaoxiao even made a fuss and separated the family ahead of time.

Why is the third son even thinking about living next door?

“Then I’ll go back and tell Dad that after the New Year, we’ll be assigned here too. In the end, we’ll be next to your family.”

The third brother meant that he wanted to live next door and wanted to get the neighboring estate before Sun Hongjun did. This had become quite a hot commodity.

“I’ll live here in the future too. I think the place across the street looks nice, so I’ll live across the hall.”

The fourth child didn't want to be left behind. On the other hand, the fifth child was still young, only fourteen, and didn't have any thoughts about marriage yet.

However, seeing that his older brothers were all going to live here, he immediately shouted that he wanted to live with his fourth brother.

"Alright, alright, you guys are still early. Let's talk about it after you get married."

Ye Xiaoxiao remembered that after the third son divided the family property, the fourth son didn't immediately separate after getting married. Mainly because the younger brothers were still young, and the family property wouldn't be divided until after 1990.

Life was much better back then, but the cost of building a house was also higher.

Back then, my family was the first in the whole village to build a house. The money came from my older brother, who gave me 10,000 yuan. 5,000 yuan was given to Li Chenyang to buy a tractor, and 4,500 yuan was used to build a bungalow.

After they finish paving the yard, it will be time to go and fetch the iron stove.

This time, they went by pulling a wooden cart. Li Chenyang asked his two younger brothers to come along, so that the three of them could make things easier.

When Li Chenyang and his group arrived, the iron stove was already finished. It was basically an iron table with a furnace underneath. The foreman gave Li Chenyang a lecture on how to prepare it before loading it onto the truck. Before leaving, Li Chenyang gave the foreman 100 yuan.

The third and fourth brothers were dumbfounded. So much money... all for this piece of iron.

"Big brother, how much is this stove?" the third brother asked, pushing the cart from behind.

"150." Not to mention how the two younger brothers felt, even Li Chenyang himself felt that it was simply a waste of money to buy such a thing.

"What? Good heavens! If Mom finds out, she'll cause a huge uproar!" the fourth son exclaimed.

"What do you know? Keep your mouths shut when you get back. If Mom asks, it'll be 50 yuan."

Li Chenyang thought it was better to avoid trouble. He was a little uneasy. If he went back and installed it, his mother would see it as soon as she came. He didn't know if she would believe him when he said it would cost 50 yuan.

"Hahaha……"

Li Chenyang turned around and saw the third brother laughing. "What are you laughing at?"

"Brother, if you say 50 yuan, Mom will give you 50 yuan to make one too. Are you going to do it or not?"

Li Chenhui patted the iron table. "How much would it cost just to sell the iron?"

Li Chenyang thought to himself, "That makes sense. This iron furnace weighs more than 50 jin (25 catties)."

After thinking for a moment, Li Chenyang directly said to his two younger brothers:

"You're right. If Mom asks, just say my master gave it to me. You came with me to my master's house today to pick it up, understand?"

"Oh, I see. But brother, sister-in-law spends too much money! Why did she buy such a stove? Was it really necessary?"

"Let me tell you, your sister-in-law has a bad temper. If you let it slip, I won't be able to stop her from getting beaten up."

Li Chenyang thought to himself, "If I could advise you, I would have done so long ago. Why do you all have to be so critical?"

Thinking back to the day he returned home and was beaten by his wife without even a chance to fight back, Li Chenyang could only make excuses for himself.

"It's not as cold where your sister-in-law is, so you have to understand."