The aunt and niece pulled the wooden basin and dishes directly to the stream, and only brought them back home after washing them.

Li Yan said to her aunt, "Aunt, you take a rest first. I'll go to Xiu'er's house!" After that, she turned around and went to her second grandmother's house.

Li Yan arrived at Xiu'er's house. Li Xiu was busy in the yard at the time. Seeing Li Yan coming, she hurriedly greeted her: "Why are you here today? What's going on?"

Li Yan walked into the yard and said to Xiu'er, "We're short of some vegetables at home, and I want to buy some from you!"

Li Xiu heard her say this and replied, "What's the big deal? Just come and get it!"

"That won't do. I'm hiring help at home now, and we need a lot of help. If you don't want money, I'll go buy it from someone else!"

After hearing her say this, Li Xiu nodded in agreement.

After Xiu'er agreed, Li Yan continued, "I'll give you these radishes and cabbages at the market price. Please prepare them for me every day, and I'll come and get them in the morning!"

Li Xiu agreed, and the two chatted for a while before Li Yan went back.

After having lunch and resting for half an hour, everyone started to get busy again.

Li Dalang led the men to continue laying the foundation, while the women began to prepare to make adobe bricks.

Four or five carts of clay were transported in the morning. Now, Mr. Li instructed three women to use water to make the clay into blocks, and then put the finished bricks on the open ground to dry.

When the clay was almost used up, Li Dalang asked a few people to help carry the clay. With everyone working together, the progress was noticeably faster.

After seven days of hard work, all the adobe bricks were finally completed.

The three women happily took away their seventy cents in wages.

They waited for another ten days or so before the adobe bricks dried in the sun, and then the men began to build the house.

There are six houses in a row, which are spacious and bright. Five pig pens are built not far away. After all the houses are built, walls are built on both sides to directly block the way for outsiders to go up the mountain.

As long as the mountain gate is closed, it will be difficult for outsiders to enter.

After all the houses were built, Old Man Li led everyone to build a few large straw sheds near the pig house in preparation for raising chickens in the future!

It took a month of hard work, but fortunately it will be completed today.

The next morning, Li Erlang was at home on his day off. He looked at his daughter, who was sitting at the table, carefully calculating her finances with a pen and paper. "How's it going? Have you figured it out? How much money have you spent these days?"

Li Yan counted the records on the paper and said to Li Erlang, "About five taels of silver! I spent two hundred coins on vegetables, about five hundred coins on meat and vegetables, three thousand and ninety coins on the villagers I hired, and about one thousand coins on the wood and stone for building the house."

After hearing this, Li Erlang asked, "Have you settled the wages for your family? We've also spent a lot of money on food!"

"Dad, are we still going to hold the work wine party this time?" Li Yan asked.

Li Erlang pondered for a moment and said, "Forget it. Just make some extra food for lunch today, and let's not have a banquet! Our family is already eye-catching enough!"

"Then I'll send the money to you later so you can pay the villagers!"

After saying that, he got up and went back to his room to put the change he had prepared in a basket and carried it out the door.

Li Yan happened to meet Mr. Li who was out, and called him into her yard.

"Master, today is the last day. Dad said we won't have the settlement wine ceremony. This basket contains the villagers' wages. Please help settle the wages later!"

Grandpa Li took the heavy basket from his granddaughter's hand and said, "This is great! Everyone is looking forward to getting paid!"

Li Yan took out another five cents of silver from her bosom and handed it to Grandpa Li: "This is your hard-earned money. Use it to buy cigarettes! But don't let grandma know!" She winked at Grandpa Li.

Mr. Li's dark face showed a trace of embarrassment. He wanted to refuse, but Li Yan stopped him: "Master, please don't refuse, otherwise I won't want to ask you to work next time!"

Looking at his granddaughter's sincere face, Mr. Li had no choice but to put the money in his arms.

After collecting the silver and money, Mr. Li took the basket and went directly to the villagers.

After Mr. Li left, Li Yan found Li Xiaomei who was busy in the kitchen: "Aunt, this silver is the salary for your help in cooking these days. Don't think it's too little, just keep it!" Li Yan put the five cents of silver in her hand into Li Xiaomei's hand.

Li Xiaomei quickly refused with the silver in her hand: "We are all family, why should I give you silver!" Then she was about to return the money to Li Yan.

Li Yan stopped her and said, "Aunt, you don't have any money on you right now. If you want to buy something, do you have to borrow from my grandma? That's so inconvenient! If you have money, you can buy what you want if you need it!"

Hearing her niece say this, Li Xiaomei felt embarrassed to accept the money: "Then I'll accept it first!" She was indeed penniless now, and the Mid-Autumn Festival was coming soon. Her parents had been worrying about her these days, and she wanted to show her filial piety and buy some things for them.

After settling the wages of their family members, Li Yan and Li Xiaomei began to prepare today's lunch.

Because the family hired people to work, there has been no shortage of meat and vegetables at home these days. The aunt and niece discussed and decided to make two more dishes today to celebrate the completion of the work.

Li Yan took action immediately and brought back cabbage, radish and beans from Xiu'er's house, while Wu Xiaomei prepared dry food for lunch at home.

The aunt and niece were busy cooking, while Lin helped to light the fire. The three of them worked in perfect harmony.

When Li Yan and Li Xiaomei transported the cart to the foot of the mountain, everyone was busy working.

Master Li saw the two people who came to deliver the food and hurriedly came forward with a basket. "You two can divide the food first, and I'll distribute the wages on the side!"

Li Yan thought that Mr. Li had already paid her wages, but she didn't expect that he was waiting for her here.

The busy villagers kept glancing at this side from the corner of their eyes. Li Yan did not waste any time. She unloaded the wooden basin from the car and invited everyone to come and eat.

Upon hearing this, those who had been full of energy just now ran to the stream to wash their hands. They saw that there were more wooden basins for vegetables today than usual.

Uncle Quanzi was the first to wash his hands and rush over to Li Yan. Seeing today's meal, he said happily, "Is this a bonus meal today? Why are there two more dishes?"

As Li Yan served the dishes, she explained, "We're finishing work today, so my dad asked me to prepare two more dishes to thank all the uncles for their help these days."

Mr. Li stood aside and said, "Now that everyone is here, I will pay everyone's wages!"

When the people in the queue behind heard this, they didn't care about queuing for food and came forward excitedly and asked, "Uncle, how much are our wages?"

"Each person has two hundred and forty coins. You seem so excited. Eat first, or the food will get cold."

Although everyone had ordered food, they had no appetite and put the food aside, counting the copper coins that Mosuo had received.

After distributing the food, and seeing everyone's excited faces, Li Yan came to her uncle's side, pulled Li Dalang to a deserted place, and took out five coins of silver and handed it to Li Dalang: "Uncle, you have worked hard these days. This is your wages. Keep it quickly, or someone will see it!"

Without waiting for Li Dalang to refuse, she stuffed the silver into his hand. When Li Dalang came to his senses, his niece had already run into the crowd.