Qin Ling came early the next morning. It was such a small job that he could do it alone. In addition, he had some unspeakable thoughts and didn't want to be disturbed.

Tian Cai couldn't let him do it alone, so she ran in and out to help. Besides, she built this bamboo house for herself, so of course everything had to be done according to her wishes.

She watched Qinling draw the lines, dig the foundation, bury the bamboo, tamp the earth, and then little by little, build the framework of the bamboo house of her dreams.

"There's no need for thatch on the roof of the house. Just use bamboo." Qin Ling estimated the amount of bamboo and found it was enough to cover the entire house. If it wasn't enough, he could go up the mountain to cut more.

Tian Cai: "But bamboo has gaps, and it will leak when it rains."

Qin Ling shook his head, "No, like this."

He took a few unsawn bamboos, measured their length, sawed them in half, and split them in half with a hatchet. He cleaned out the bamboo joints inside so that when it rained, rainwater could flow directly down the grooves above.

After all the bamboos for the roof were ready, Qinling placed them on the prepared frame and then stepped on the frame to lay the roof.

He placed the bamboos in a complementary manner up and down. After placing only two bamboos, Tian Cai realized the beauty of this. They all looked like whole bamboos on the outside. Rainwater would flow in through the gaps, and the rainwater would be caught by the bamboos with openings facing upwards and flow out. The drainage effect was immediately apparent.

Tian Cai gave him a thumbs up. She thought she was going to make a thatched roof!

After a while, the roof on one side was installed, and Qin Ling jumped down to install the other side, still using the same method.

Finally, use a few bamboo nails to fix them and the roof is done.

Gao Huijuan came down from the mountain and saw from afar a lot of bamboos piled outside the fence of Tian Cai's family. She thought of going over to ask what they were used for. However, before she even got there, she saw the figure of the boy from the Qin family from the part of the fence that was exposed. It seemed that he was building something.

Gao Huijuan smiled when she saw it. This boy was not stupid. He knew to rush forward when a girl had something to do. She shook her head and thought about going back to tell Zhang Defa about this. So she didn't go over and walked back with the firewood on her back.

Before Gao Huijuan even got home, she could hear Mrs. He's yelling and cursing from a distance away.

When she reached the door, Old Lady He was feeding the chickens, cursing as she fed them, "Go away, you loser who only poops and doesn't lay eggs! You still dare to eat? Aren't you afraid of choking to death? I should strip you of your feathers and let you rub your bare bottom to show everyone what a hen that doesn't lay eggs looks like!"

In the small yard, three chickens were pecking at the ground with their heads down. The yard was full of chicken droppings, and it looked like they had just been cleaned today.

A few children were playing in the mud nearby, their bodies covered in mud and their hair was dirty in wisps.

Suddenly, the little boy, who was about five or six years old, stuffed mud into the other girl's mouth. Before the girl could cry, he rolled his eyes and fell to the ground, crying loudly, "Waah, grandma, grandma, Erya is bullying me, wah——"

When Old Lady He heard this, she became even more furious. She grabbed a nearby bamboo stick and started beating the girl all over her face, swearing at her with gritted teeth as she beat her. "You money-loser, I called you a money-loser, and you dared to hit my grandson? Who gave you the guts to be a money-loser? I should have thrown you into the cesspool and drowned you, you little bitch raised by a whore, little bitch!"

The girl was often beaten, and she didn't dare to resist. She just curled up into a ball, hugged herself, sobbed, and muttered, "I didn't, I didn't."

"You still dare to be stubborn? I'm watching here. I told you not to be stubborn, I told you not to be stubborn!" Old Mrs. He whipped the child harder, as if the child was not her granddaughter, but an enemy.

Another young woman with a bulging belly was standing against the door frame, pretending not to see what was happening. She quickly spotted Gao Huijuan standing at the door with a grim expression, and quickly put on a smile, "Oh, Mrs. Zhang, why are you standing outside the door? Please come in."

Gao Huijuan didn't want to get involved. Her husband had tried to get involved before, but the result was that as soon as the man left, Old Lady He became even more ruthless. Zhang Defa had criticized her and educated her, but this old lady was just a reckless person, and she felt a headache when she made a fuss.

You can't just arrest someone just because the grandmother beat her granddaughter. Zhang Defa also looked for old man He, but that old guy was useless and didn't dare to say a word in front of the old lady.

After beating Gao Huijuan, Old Lady He vented her anger. When she heard Gao Huijuan coming, she dropped the bamboo stick in her hand, narrowed her eyes, and raised a fake smile, "It's Defa's wife. I just happened to need to find Defa. Look at my fourth child. He's grown up so big, tall, and has a lot of strength. Can he join our militia?"

Gao Huijuan didn't want to deal with this difficult old lady at all. She pretended to be embarrassed and said, "The militia quota is not his responsibility. That all depends on Captain Li. I'll mention it to him later and ask him to ask for you."

Old Mrs. He still didn't give up. "Our fourth child doesn't need to join the militia in Qingshan Village. He can just join our own village. Defa's wife, I have known your mother for so many years. You have this advantage, so you can't not support your own family. I heard that your younger brother has become a cadre in the brigade. When the time comes, our fourth child will be able to take care of him, right?"

Gao Huijuan didn't know what to say. She cursed Old Lady He a hundred times in her heart and said calmly, "I'll ask Defa later."

Just then, He Laosi's wife came over and said, "Mom, don't worry. Since the captain's wife promised to tell the captain, she must not forget. Look, she is still carrying firewood. Don't bother talking to her."

Gao Huijuan didn't think that He Laosi's wife was so kind, but there was no time to think about it at this time. She said a few words and hurried home as if relieved. Next time, she would not go to collect firewood by herself. She would let Baocai, the brat, go. If he didn't go, she would let his father beat him up.

There was a reason why He Laosi's wife was so kind to help Gao Huijuan out of trouble, because her husband didn't want to join the militia at all.

What's so good about that job? There's no subsidy now, and he often has to do patrol missions. I don't know why Mrs. He is so persistent in insisting on letting him in.

The old lady's surname was Zhu. She married into the He family and the villagers called her Aunt He and Grandma He. Old Lady He was a widow with no children. She remarried Old Man He when she was almost thirty.

The situation is similar to that of Li Dasheng's family. The one who passed away earlier left behind two sons, and the old lady gave birth to two sons and a daughter, so there are a total of seven people in the He family.

If a family of seven works together, their lives will surely get better and better. However, the four sons of the He family were born from two wombs and were not close to each other by nature. When old Mrs. He came into the family, the first two sons were already old enough to remember things. She was not a fair person and always favored the two sons she had born, so the gap between the two sides became wider and wider.

When the four sons grew up and got married, this estrangement turned into various frictions. In addition, Mrs. He interfered, and the old man of the He family had no choice but to divide the property among his sons and live with the fourth son.