Leaving his parents to take a lunch break, Zhang Guoqing followed his brothers out, each looking for his own wife. He wanted to comfort his own daughter, Jiaojiao. Thinking about the steamed cornbread and then the cornmeal porridge, it was no wonder his mother considered organic rice a tonic. He couldn't bear to let his daughter and his son eat these. He thought, let's split up the family. At most, he would give more subsidies to his eldest brother's family and pay more attention to them. After all, it was only a few steps away.

The second brother waited for the younger brother to come up and said, "Xiaowu, we two brothers need to discuss building the house. If we buy tiles together in large quantities, the price will be lower and they will be delivered directly to us.

I'm not going to buy the bluestone. There's plenty of it at the foot of the mountain. Besides, it won't cost much for my two brothers to ask the villagers for help these days. How many work points are there a day? Plus, we can go and get some bluestone ourselves, so it won't cost anything.

"In the city, I've heard that bluestone for five rooms costs about 30 yuan, which is a month's salary for a city worker. Building bluestone houses in other villages is impossible. But the bluestone on our land is free."

Zhang Guoqing agreed. His second brother was calculating and had already figured it out. He wasn't concerned about the few dozen dollars, but rather about not wanting to attract attention. Furthermore, if his second brother mined the bluestone himself, he couldn't just watch and do nothing, which would affect their relationship.

"Brother, I'll listen to you. Just make your own arrangements. Find some people to come over and make some extra supplies so that you don't have to go through so much trouble when you want to add to the roof. I'll pay for the bluestone labor. Look, your nephew has a third birthday in two days, and I plan to go up the mountain to check on him, so I won't have time."

"No need, brothers should settle accounts clearly. It's whatever's due. I just want five rooms, a kitchen, and a fence. We'll figure it out later. I'll have someone prepare them this afternoon. We'll have Dad decide on the tiles, lumber, and other building materials." The second brother didn't agree. His younger brother was very generous and wouldn't let him suffer any loss. He didn't mind doing a favor.

Zhang Guoqing smiled cheerfully, but he did not continue the topic. He said that when the time came to build the house, he would just provide more subsidies for other parts of the house, there was no need to say it out loud.

"Okay. I'm planning to build something like this. Three main rooms, three east wing rooms, and three west wing rooms, for a total of nine rooms. Plus a kitchen and a warehouse. I'll just enclose the land with a wall, and we can do whatever we want with the backyard."

Second brother, you should build it like this too. You are planning to have five rooms. It won’t cost much to add a few more and it will look grand. It will also look good if the three of us brothers build the same one.

When my son grows up and gets married, the east wing will be enough. When the second and third sons arrive, we'll have the west wing, and we can even add on an extension. It'll be nice for the two of us to occupy the main house. If the fence is big enough, we can raise pigs, and my second sister-in-law can grow vegetables and grains in the backyard. Bluestone doesn't cost much, but how much are 10,000 tiles? As for the timber and the big beams, our father has already prepared them."

The second son was a little hesitant after hearing this. This way of building was a nicer look, unlike his previous idea of ​​just a row of houses surrounded by a wall. He would need to build houses when his children grew up and got married. Now the couple was still young and would have children in the future.

But Xiaowu's words made sense. We could leave some space between the east and west wing rooms so we could add on later. "Xiaowu, how much would that cost? You know we're broke after the split, so I have to leave some money. What if something happens?"

"Second brother, I estimate that to build a house like the big one, the bluestone and those small pillars wouldn't cost much. The tiles are the only valuable. If you calculate the cost of tiles and wood, 20 yuan, plus 5 yuan for stone, and five people working in a yard for 20 days, each earning 10 work points, which is just over 20 cents a day, then 30 cents a day is less than 30 yuan.

"It only costs 55 yuan to build a yard this big. That's still plenty. Do you think we should build it?" Zhang Guoqing was getting anxious. He was usually quite smart, so why didn't he understand? If anything went wrong, he and his elder brother would be there for him.

He has envied Xiaowu since he was a child. His grandfather has more than ten grandchildren, and apart from his eldest cousin, Xiaowu is his darling.

It was a real mess back then. The whole village would run to the mountains at the slightest noise. He was small, his mother held the food, and his older brother dragged him. His feet were covered in blisters, and his face was scratched by branches, which hurt and itched, but he couldn't cry.

Looking forward, he could see his grandfather holding Xiaowu in the distance, wrapping him up for fear that he would be bitten by insects.

Then he looked at himself, who was only six years younger than Xiaowu, and he felt a mixture of envy and hatred. It was from that moment on that he stopped liking this little fool. He saw him smiling at everyone he met, and more and more people liked him. Even his only and closest brother kept calling Xiaowu all the bad things.

His grandfather stuffed all the food from his aunt into his mouth without telling his aunt. Everyone was so hungry that they felt dizzy. His brothers and sisters were so thin that his father had to go to the mountains. Only he was fat, and he would act crazy to make his mother happy.

He was hostile to him. He would twist his fat face and smile foolishly without complaining. Later, when he grew up, he would avoid everyone. Everyone praised him for his intelligence, but in his eyes, his Xiaowu was a fool and heartless.

Later, when he was older, he didn't know when it started, but whenever someone bullied him and his older brother, he would rush over like a calf. He didn't know if it was because he had good food when he was young or if he had supernatural powers, but he beat the kids in the surrounding villages so much that all the kids were scared, and he became the king of the kids.

When he sees his little friend, he will come up and hint to others that he is Xiaowu's second brother, and he is the older brother, but others give face to his younger brother.

Thanks to this little fool, no one around dares to offend him. He doesn't know whether he is jealous or something else, but no one wants to get along with him at home or outside.

Some people are born to shine. With them, no matter how dazzling others are, they are just twinkling stars.

Xiaowu was blessed, as his grandfather would say, fortunate. But he wasn't just fortunate. He tricked Zhou Jiao, the village's famous "golden child," into giving her away after she'd been fed eggs since she was little, and then half of her share was given away. The silly boy even miscalculated the gift, as he only had one-fifth for himself, and what about half? Isn't that a shame?

The golden baby is talented, beautiful, gentle, has a father who is a martyr, a grandfather who is a high-ranking official, and a mother who is a soldier. Just based on his status, identity and character, many people are secretly eager to make a move, waiting for this beautiful girl to grow up.

As it turned out, the fool had hidden it in his home in advance. But the fool didn't know it yet, and he was worried that someone was secretly putting a sack on him.

Now I look at him and I still can't like him. He was so happy to have a fat boy, but he has been crazy since last night. I hate it most when he goes into the kitchen to flatter his mother.

But he still felt relieved. Fortunately, his head was fine. No matter how much his brother disliked him, he couldn't let others bully him. So he just thought his little five was a fool. Why was he still making such a fuss about being right? He should just put a lot of laxatives in the porridge like him and let them poop to death.

The second brother looked at him and nodded. If he didn't express his opinion, the fifth brother would bite him. This stupid boy was so stubborn that he would cut his brothers and sisters' flesh.

"Okay, I'll listen to you. Your second brother is not stupid. You go and take care of your own business. I'll discuss it with Dad." She was so angry that she slapped him on the forehead and left.