Chapter 48 Settling Down in Erdaogou Village

Bai Zilin tidied up the front and back yards for Liu Ye, then went back to his own house to tidy up. Liu Ye put the pots and pans in the kitchen and went back to the five main rooms, the only habitable room. She swept away the dust, dirt, and broken grass leaves on the kang (heated brick bed) and the floor before going to the backyard.

There's a well in the backyard, and it has water in it, but there's no bucket. Oh right, it seems Brother Bai didn't go to the lower house. She looked at the lower house, and it was full of broken things, like broken frames and broken pieces of wood. She waved her hand on the ground and took out a wooden bucket from her spatial storage.

OK, when Brother Bai asks, she'll just say she found it in the lower room, and forget about the other things. She'll take them out slowly when she finds an opportunity.

She went downstairs, found a rope, tied it to a wooden bucket, filled it with water, and went to the kitchen to wash and rinse. There was nothing else in the kitchen except for the things she had taken out; there wasn't even a pot or a cupboard. It seemed she would have to go to town with Brother Bai.

There was nothing in the house; it must have been robbed. Liu Ye carried the bucket to Bai Zilin's house. Bai Zilin's house was similar to hers—in a word, dilapidated.

When Bai Zilin saw her carrying the wooden bucket, he happily stepped forward to take it: "Oh dear, I was just worried about not having a bucket. My house is completely empty, and it looks even more dilapidated than yours. Have you finished cleaning up your house?"

Liu Ye smiled and nodded, saying, "We've finished packing, but we don't have anything. Brother Bai, let's go to town tomorrow and buy some things we need. I think Xiancheng is alright; it's close to the south, and we can't afford to be cold in the winter. Let's discuss building a house."

Bai Zilin nodded and said, "I think it's a good idea. Do you have enough money? You want to build a house, and I want to build a house too. If we both build houses, it will cost a lot of money. If we don't have enough money, you can stop building and I can stay at your place instead..."

Liu Ye didn't understand what he meant and said with a smile, "That's enough. Building a house in the village doesn't cost much. Right now, I have... wait for me to calculate. I also have ten taels of gold. You forgot? Plus the silver we got from selling meat on the way, Brother Bai, don't we need to exchange the gold leaf for silver before we can use it?"

Bai Zilin shook his head. How would he know? He had never seen gold before. "Let's go to town tomorrow and ask. We're building a house, so I need to find out how much it costs to hire workers and how much it costs to buy materials. It's quite a hassle."

After Bai Zilin finished tidying up the yard, he and Liu Ye returned to her house. The two ate a simple meal of meat, and Liu Ye took out a pile of silver from her bosom. Bai Zilin knew about all of this; she couldn't take out anything he didn't know about, such as her big gold brick.

Liu Ye put the seven gold leaves into one pile, the 20 taels of silver into another, the ten-tael gold ingot into yet another, and a silver hairpin in a separate pile. The ten taels of silver that the government had given them were also put in a separate pile. "Brother Bai, look, we have so much silver. It should be enough for us to build a house. If it's not enough, we'll sell this silver hairpin too."

Bai Zilin looked at the things on the kang (a heated brick bed) and counted on his fingers: "One gold leaf is ten taels of silver, seven gold leaves are 70 taels, a gold ingot is one hundred taels of silver, let's not count the jade hairpin, you can keep it, plus one more for 30 taels, that's exactly 200 taels of silver."

“If we build your house and my house together, and then build them all with brick and tile roofs, plus a courtyard wall, each house would cost about 15 taels. If we buy some miscellaneous things, each of us would spend at most 20 taels, which would be more than enough.”

“However, before building the house, I have to go to Village Chief Wu to get the house deed and then register it with the government. Otherwise, once we have built the house, Village Chief Wu might go back on his word and say he wants to go back, and we won’t be able to do anything about it.”

Upon hearing this, Liu Ye exclaimed, "Brother Bai, you're absolutely right! Why don't you go now and give Village Chief Wu the money he wants?"

Liu Ye took ten taels of silver and stuffed it into Bai Zilin's hand: "If it's not too expensive, we'll buy it. If Village Chief Wu asks for too much, we won't buy it. We'll go to town and buy a ready-made house to live in."

Bai Zilin tucked the silver into his pocket: "Alright, I'll go find Village Chief Wu now."

Bai Zilin left quickly and returned quickly. He took out two property deeds from his pocket, handing one to Liu Ye: "This is the property deed for your house. Keep it safe. We'll go to the government office to register it tomorrow, and then the house will be ours."

Liu Ye glanced at the house deed, then put it into her pocket and stored it in her spatial storage. Bai Zilin handed her the remaining silver. Liu Ye counted it—nine taels of silver. Could it be that two houses only cost one tael? That's quite reasonable. She was worried that Village Chief Wu would ask for too much. "Brother Bai, Village Chief Wu only asked for one tael of silver. He's not asking for an exorbitant amount."

Bai Zilin snorted and said, "He asked for an exorbitant amount, but I had to give it to him. He asked for two taels of silver, and I said I only had one tael of silver on me. If he didn't want it, I could just stay in the house for now. Anyway, if we're staying there, it's ours. Then he agreed."

Liu Ye laughed as soon as she heard this: "Hehehe, it's all thanks to you, Brother Bai. Brother Bai, if we can buy a cow, let's buy another one. We have a cart right now, so it's convenient to use it. There are mountains not far from our home, so if you hunt something, you can use the oxcart to take it to town to sell. Having an oxcart is really convenient."

Bai Zilin nodded without hesitation, also thinking that they should buy an oxcart: "Okay, let's ask about it tomorrow."

Bai Zilin looked at Liu Ye's dark face and felt a little worried: "Hmm, you... don't wash your face yet. Wait until we finish building the house and the doors and windows are secure before you wash it. Otherwise, it's not safe for you to live alone, and I'm worried about you..."

Liu Ye nodded without thinking much, thinking that what he said made sense. She was so beautiful, what if someone had their eye on her after she washed her face and secretly climbed over the wall at night? No, her house didn't even have walls now, and there wasn't even a door inside the house: "I understand, Brother Bai. You can take the loose silver first. You can't do without silver on you. I'll keep the rest for now."

She stuffed nine taels of silver into Bai Zilin's hand, and Bai Zilin didn't stand on ceremony, casually stuffing the silver into his pocket: "It's getting late, I'll go back first. You should get some rest too, I'll come to see you tomorrow."

Liu Ye nodded. After Bai Zilin went back, Liu Ye also took off her shoes and got on the kang. There was a tattered mat on the kang, which she wiped clean. Right, the grain in the space was ripe and she had to harvest it. According to the time, she was already two days late. These days, she and Bai Zilin had been busy traveling and had no time to enter the space.