The father and his sons finally managed to drag the wild boar into the yard. Zhang Shuzhen tied up the dog and then urged everyone to eat quickly.

They went out early in the morning and hunted a wild boar. The three brothers were exhausted and hungry, so they quickly washed their hands and ate.

Breakfast was simple: pancakes, porridge, pickled vegetables, scallions, and soybean paste.

However, there's something special about that porridge.

Zhang Shuzhen removed the meat from the head of the boiled roe deer, chopped it up, and added it to the porridge, along with some chopped green onions and other ingredients.

The porridge was flavorful and fragrant. Sheng Xitai held the bowl and drank it without even lifting his head.

We were eating when we heard the dog barking in the yard, and then we heard people talking outside.

"Hey, Xiping, you brought the dogs back? Wow, these two have really made something of themselves, they're so energetic."

You can tell from the voice that it's Wang Jianshe and his group.

Sheng Xiping hurriedly put down his chopsticks and went out. After calling out, Erlang Shen and the Black General obediently retreated to their den and lay down.

They roamed the mountains all morning and even took down a wild boar. They were actually quite exhausted.

They wouldn't have wanted to come out if it weren't for the people who came.

Wang Jianshe, Gao Haining, Zhang Zhijun, and a few others came in from outside with smiles on their faces. As soon as they entered the yard, they saw the wild boar.

"Damn, Xiping, when did you come back from hunting wild boars?"

Wow, you're getting better and better! How about taking us along sometime?

There's a wild boar weighing over 200 pounds lying on the ground. Who wouldn't be envious?

The young people immediately widened their eyes, they were all very curious.

"This morning I went to the mountains to hunt pigs, but our Erlang Shen (a mythical creature) chased after a pig and killed it and dragged it back."

Perfect timing, we've finished cleaning up for lunch, let's all have something to eat together.

Sheng Xiping smiled and called his buddies into the house.

"Oh, it's Haining, Jianshe, and Junzi! Come on, have a seat."

Have you had breakfast yet? Sit down and have something to eat.

As soon as Sheng Liancheng and his wife saw the young people enter the house, they hurriedly invited them to eat.

"Uncle, Aunt, we've already eaten this morning, please eat."

We were thinking of having our roof beam raised today, so we all came over to help out.

It's obvious that Sheng Xiping went hunting in the mountains and missed breakfast.

Gao Haining and the others grabbed some stools and sat down, waiting for Sheng Xiping to finish his meal so they could get to work.

Before the Sheng family had even finished breakfast, Liu Changde arrived with his two sons.

Seeing the wild boar in the yard, Liu Changde nodded with great satisfaction.

"Well done, Xiping is really getting more and more promising these days, managing to take down a wild boar."

Liu Changde treated Sheng Xiping like a son, and he was naturally happy that his son was successful.

"Oh, Brother Liu, what brings you here too?"

"It's just one and a half rooms, and yet it's caused quite a stir."

When Sheng Liancheng saw Liu Changde arrive, he hurriedly came out of the house to greet him.

"Well, my apprentice is building a house and getting married, how could I not come and take a look?"

"I'll get you the job today, and I guarantee there won't be any idle time or wasted materials," Liu Changde said with a wave of his hand and a smile.

Sheng Xiping followed his father out and welcomed the Liu family father and sons into the house to sit down.

Gao Haining and the others knew Liu Yujiang, and they exchanged a few pleasantries upon meeting.

At this point, they didn't care about being full or not; Sheng Liancheng and his son quickly ate a few mouthfuls of rice and that was it.

Afterwards, Sheng Xiping, along with Gao Haining, Wang Jianshe, and a few others, first dealt with the pig at home.

Sheng Liancheng, along with Liu Changde and others, took various tools and went to the new house to start working.

A large pot of water was boiled in the yard.

The group lifted the pig onto the chopping board, scalded it with boiling water, and scraped off the hair with a scraper.

Wild boars are different from domestic pigs; they are covered in mud and pine resin, and they are gutted first, which makes slaughtering them more difficult than killing a regular pig.

Sheng Xiping and his team spent a lot of effort, but they finally managed to clean all the pig hair.

After removing the pig's hair, we took a cleaver and a hand axe and chopped off the pig's head and trotters according to the cooking requirements, and cut the meat into pieces.

After tidying up, Sheng Xiping and the others hurriedly went to the new house.

Work has already started on the new house.

The Sheng family added one and a half rooms to the original public housing on the east side, so the west side is right next to the original beams.

These days, very few people build houses with a gable roof; they usually leave space on the roof to store things.

So the Sheng family had two beams made to make them sturdier.

Actually, a room and a half is really simple.

The two beams were lifted up and aligned, then secured with wood or planks.

After nailing purlins and planks on top, laying tiles, fixing the shed poles and planks underneath, and pressing down a mixture of yellow mud and sawdust, it's basically done.

There were quite a few people, and everyone worked together, with some going up to install the beams and rafters, others passing wood and tools down below, and still others mixing mud.

Liu Changde truly lived up to his reputation as a foreman; he arranged everything perfectly, keeping everything busy yet orderly.

There are many restrictions these days, and it's not good to follow those rules when raising the roof beam of a house, so we didn't set off firecrackers or put up any couplets today.

They simply tied a red cloth to the beam, just to make a token gesture, and that was about it.

At this end of the new house, everyone was busy working enthusiastically.

Sheng Liancheng didn't work on the roof; instead, he assisted from below, quickly finding whatever people needed.

The group of men got together, chatting and laughing as they worked. They finished the job pretty much by themselves.

Over at the old house, the courtyard is now filled with laughter and joy.

Sheng Liancheng and his wife were well-liked in the forest farm. Everyone knew that the Sheng family was building a house today, and several wives from other families came over to help with the cooking.

The neighbors, including Chen Weiguo's mother Xu Xiuxiang, Tang Fengying's mother Li Yuqin, and Gao Haining's mother Zhao Chunlan, came over after they finished breakfast and tidied up their homes.

As the future daughter-in-law of the Sheng family, Zhou Qinglan naturally had to attend such an occasion.

Tang Fengying and Liu Hongxia were both girls from the forest farm and had a good relationship with Zhou Qinglan, so they both came to help.

The women from Northeast China are incredibly efficient at work; they know exactly what to do without needing any instructions.

Some were tending the fire to cook meat, some were fetching water to wash pig offal, some were picking and washing vegetables in the garden, and others were killing and gutting fish.

For a time, the Sheng family's courtyard was bustling with activity.

The women chatted as they worked, and the older women mostly talked about their children's marriages.

Several young women huddled together, whispering about their respective boyfriends.

"Sister-in-law, when are Haining and Fengying planning to get married?"

I see the two kids get along really well, so let's get them married as soon as possible.

While cleaning the pig intestines, Xu Xiuxiang casually asked Zhao Chunlan.

"It'll be soon. Yuqin and I have discussed it and plan to get the two children married before the winter delivery season."

"It'll be easier to get it done sooner rather than later. The two of them can live a peaceful life, with us helping them out. Isn't that great?"

Zhao Chunlan said with a smile.