Song Zhi moved his shoulders. He had been holding the same posture for an entire afternoon and felt a little sore all over.

Gu Huaijin looked at her and asked, "What do you want to eat tonight? I'll make it."

Song Zhi thought about it and realized that he was quite tired after working for half a day, so he just wanted to eat something simple. It just so happened that he still had some hand-rolled noodles left from yesterday.

"Egg noodles!" Song Zhi said after thinking for a while.

"Okay, I'll do it. You wash first." Gu Huaijin went to the kitchen to busy himself, and Song Zhi went to pour hot water to wash his hands.

After the meal, both of them ate more hurriedly than usual, perhaps because they were too hungry to even talk. After the meal, Gu Huaijin took out a hot water bottle from his bag: "This is what I asked my comrades to bring back when they went out."

Song Zhi didn't know what to say for a moment while holding the hot water bottle. She hesitated for a moment and said softly, "Thank you." In the end, it all turned into a word of thanks.

When she came here, she had been thinking about opening the space as soon as possible, completing the task, and leaving here. To Gu Huaijin, she just wanted to be a bad girl, deceive his heart, and let herself leave smoothly, but she forgot that she was also a person in the book. Looking at the flesh-and-blood souls around her, she seemed to be deviating from the direction more and more.

Gu Huaijin cleaned up the dishes skillfully, and Song Zhi was unable to help at all.

In the winter in the northwest, the cold is biting, especially at night. Song Zhi curled up in bed, feeling the cold invade, and couldn't help shivering. She glanced at Gu Huaijin and found that he didn't look very well either. So Song Zhi said, "Let's build a pit when we have time. It's warm. It's too cold today."

Gu Huaijin gently touched Song Zhi's hand to test its temperature, and said softly, "Okay, I'll ask if there's a skilled kang builder, and then go buy some bricks."

"Well, I haven't slept on a kang yet. It must be very warm." Song Zhi replied with a little anticipation.

The next morning, the two of them continued to work on painting the wall, but after lunch, they went to see the allocated land location and began to prepare to weed and pick up stones.

They found a piece of land allocated to them, but it was covered with weeds and rocks. Gu Huaijin picked up a shovel and began to work hard to weed, while Song Zhi picked up the rocks and put them in a basket.

Although it was hard work, they all had smiles on their faces and were in a very happy mood. They had a very fulfilling day.

A few days later, the kang was finally built. Gu Huaijin found a kang-building master with excellent craftsmanship. Gu Huaijin said to Song Zhi: "This master was introduced by my commander. He has been building kangs for decades and has excellent skills."

"There's definitely no problem with what the commander has introduced. So when do we start?"

"Wait a couple of days. I'll buy the bricks first and then contact him."

"Okay, I'll do as you say."

Song Zhi's period finally ended after seven days, and she could finally take a hot bath without any scruples. Fortunately, the weather was not too hot. If she did not take a bath for seven days in the summer, it would definitely be a historic disaster for her.

Gu Huaijin was a man of action. The next day, he went to the brick factory in the county town to buy bricks. Zhao Shitou was with him. They drove a tractor borrowed from the next village. They bought a few boxes of cigarettes as a thank-you gift to their village captain and drove the tractor out smoothly.

Before noon, Gu Huaijin had already bought the bricks and brought them home.

When they got home, Song Zhi was cooking. Seeing them come back so quickly, he smiled and said, "You're back just in time. I just finished cooking the dishes. Now I'm going to make noodles."

"Sorry to trouble you, sister-in-law." Zhao Shitou said politely, and together with Gu Huaijin, they carried the bricks into the house. They planned to burn a kang in the east room. The room at the back of the east side was small and easier to warm up in winter.

In the afternoon, Gu Huaijin took two packs of homemade desserts and a pack of cigarettes to find the master who built the kang. This was an unwritten rule. He did not charge money, but would come to help as long as others brought some gifts of thanks. Everyone around him knew that he was honest and his craftsmanship would never disappoint. The master who built the kang was over 50 years old, and everyone called him Master Chen.

Gu Huaijin carried the things over and explained his purpose. The master happened to be not busy, so he followed him back to check the location.

"This position?" Master Chen followed him to determine the location where the base should be built.

"Yes, is it okay?" Song Zhi looked at Master Chen and asked.

"Of course I can, but this room is small. If you want to build a kang, you can't build one that's too big."

"It doesn't have to be too big, just enough for sleeping." Song Zhi said immediately.

"About 1.8 meters, do you think it's okay?" Master Chen also realized that the hostess was the one who made the decision in this house, and the host didn't say a word the whole time, which meant he was following the hostess's wishes.

"Okay, okay, it's already very good." Song Zhi thought the largest it could be was 1.5 meters. 1.8 meters was already considered very large. Anyway, Song Zhi felt very satisfied with this size.

Seeing that she agreed with the size, Master Chen prepared to start building the kang with cement.

Building a kang is no easy task, requiring patience and meticulousness. Master Chen not only kept busy himself, but also directed Gu Huaijin to help carry bricks and finish the walls. Zhao Shitou mixed the cement, and the three of them worked in perfect harmony.

Song Zhi started preparing dinner early. There were three people working at home today, so the dinner had to be rich and sufficient.

So she broke her own principles and went to the vegetable market to buy a fish. She would not buy these fish or ducks normally. She did not like to clean these animals, so she tried not to eat them normally.

But today, when we asked someone to come and do the work, these things were obviously more respectable.

She picked the largest one, planning to make half into pickled fish and the other half into steamed vegetables. She also bought a lot of vegetables and came across a stall selling homemade fruit wine, so she bought two bottles.

In her memory, Gu Huaijin had almost never smoked or drunk alcohol, which was incredible to think about. However, in her memory, he could drink a little, as it was essential to liven up the atmosphere.

After she came back, she immediately started preparing. She first made a lot of scallion pancakes, then prepared peanuts and cold dishes to go with the wine, and finally fried some bacon and a plate of vegetables before starting to prepare the sauerkraut fish.

The smell of pickled fish was so strong that the other three people in the house could also smell it.

"This craftsmanship... I'm greedy just by smelling it." Master Chen said with a smile, thinking that his trip today was not in vain, he really made a profit.