Zhang Yu's mother continued to help out at the snack shop and stopped worrying about Lin Xiazhu's family moving out of her house. Lin Xiazhu also quickly put the unpleasantness with Zhang Yu behind her back and went to school and home peacefully.
Another month passed in the blink of an eye. One weekend evening after work, Lin Shanfu suddenly came to find Lin Xiazhu and they had dinner together.
"Uncle, why didn't Aunt come with us? I'll cook a few more dishes and have Chacha invite Aunt and Grandma over for dinner." Since Zhao Yinxiu was invited, Lin Laotai should also be invited; she can't be left alone at home.
"No need for that trouble. I just have something to tell you. We've already started cooking at home. If everyone comes over to eat, there will be no one to eat the food we've prepared." Lin Shanfu waved his hand.
Lin Xiazhu asked him to sit at the innermost table and then gave him a bottle of Coke. Lin Shanfu didn't really like making tea, but he really liked drinking Coke and Jianlibao.
"We'll drink this now, and then have a beer with our meal." Lin Shanfu smiled and bit open the bottle cap. At times like this, both beverages and beer are packaged in glass bottles with caps just like beer bottle caps.
He doesn't overindulge; he controls his smoking and drinking to a very moderate degree. He smokes a cigarette when he's tired and resting, but he has absolutely no nicotine addiction when he's not working. He drinks a bottle of beer with dinner after work, but he doesn't drink at noon. He doesn't drink except when entertaining guests. This uncle is always so self-disciplined.
In her past life, Lin Xiazhu admired him for this. She had thought that if things went well, she hoped he would also be a self-disciplined person. Unfortunately, she wasn't destined for that. She didn't find someone to marry in her half-life, and her life ended abruptly halfway through.
"Xiao An, come over and have a drink with your uncle, let's chat." Over the past two years, the Lin family has gradually accepted Xiao An and treated him as a member of the Lin family.
Since there were no male heirs in the second wife's household, Xiao An would be dragged over by Lin Shanfu from time to time to have a drink—usually a Coke or a Jianlibao (a popular Chinese soft drink). Xiao An was somewhat helpless, but he would still obediently sit with them, always acting as a listener.
The three of them were sitting together. Lin Shanfu and Lin Xiazhu were the ones talking, while Xiao An quietly picked up his bowl and took a sip of cola.
"You said Zhang Yu and the others went to help build the house again, and have been working on it for three or four days already?" Lin Xiazhu raised her eyebrows, finding it somewhat amusing. If Zhang Yu wanted to come back and continue working, she could have just told her.
Is it because they can't put aside their pride and sneak off to the construction site? Aren't they afraid of working for nothing?
"Yeah, that kid wouldn't let me tell you. He said they just came to practice and repay my kindness as their master." Lin Shanfu didn't believe the kid's words.
The work on the construction site was heavy and tiring; to put it bluntly, it was manual labor. Those guys who could persevere were determined, strong, and didn't cheat or shirk their duties. They could do everything from carrying bricks and sand to carrying water and mixing cement mortar.
“Although you paid them wages, it was their hard-earned money. Your aunt worked for a while, then complained of back pain and that the work was too heavy. So, as soon as Zhang Yu and the others came, your aunt took a break.” Lin Shanfu smiled and shook his head.
He didn't think Zhao Yinxiu was incapable of enduring hardship. Life on the construction site was indeed tough, and to be honest, if he had the means, he wouldn't want his wife to suffer like that.
"Let them do it if they want to. Uncle, could you please keep track of the workdays? I'll pay them as usual." But it won't be paid daily; like other workers, we'll settle the payment after each floor is completed.
“Okay, I’ll take care of it,” Lin Shanfu said with a laugh. “Xiaozhu, to be honest, when the first floor was being built, my uncle’s bricklaying skills were still a bit rusty. I definitely wouldn’t have let anyone else do the house.” Even if someone did hire him, they would definitely have lowered the wages.
"But don't worry, I'm already fully skilled from the second floor onwards, and I won't cut corners. Once your three-story building is finished, I can confidently take on contract work." Lin Shanfu's goal is to become a contractor, not just a simple bricklayer.
The reason for learning bricklaying first is, of course, to better supervise the construction and to accurately calculate the approximate cost of building a house. Only by being able to calculate can one avoid being taken advantage of.
Before the end of the year, Lin Xiazhu's two houses were completed and decorated. The decoration was actually very simple. The exterior walls were tiled, the interior was pink and white, the first floor was cement flooring, and the upstairs was terrazzo flooring.
We bought new furniture: a new bed, a new wardrobe, a desk, and cabinets, all made of solid wood. It cost us over five thousand yuan in total.
However, in the countryside, such a house is already considered luxurious. The neighbors are all envious. Many people bought land, but the money to build the house was borrowed. They don't have money to buy new furniture; it's all old.
But Yan Xin, a widow, was able to come up with so much money. Some shrewd people guessed that Lin Shanfu was working for their family for free, and that Zhang Yu and his gang were also helping them for free.
Zhao Yinxiu had heard these rumors, but she scoffed at them. Her husband would settle the wages for each floor he built, and the wages would be settled in full on the day the scaffolding was removed. It totaled more than four thousand yuan.
The renovation was done by someone else, and Lin Shanfu didn't know how to do it yet. However, he often came over to help out recently. Even though the renovation workers were unwilling, he insisted on teaching him. With a little more practice, he will become proficient.
After moving to the new house, everyone can have their own room. However, Lin Taozi is young and always comes over at night to stay with Lin Xiazhu and wants to sleep with her.
The clothing store has moved here, but the snack shop has been sold to Zhang Yu's mother. She's become very skilled at it and has saved up enough money through frugality to take over the snack shop.
It was Zhang Yu's mother who brought this up herself, saying that she didn't want to move to Lin Xiazhu's new shop and wanted to set up her own stall.
Lin Xiazhu hadn't planned to stay in town for long. She was thinking of selling the snack shop to Zhang Yu's mother when she went to study in the county town in a few years. However, the other party was clearly an ambitious person.
Working for someone else is definitely not as good as running your own business. She has the courage to set up a stall, and Lin Xiazhu admires her. A woman born deaf and mute, abandoned by her husband, can still live a strong and confident life, which is worthy of respect.
"Aunt Zhang, how much money do you have? Why don't I just sell this shop to you? You can keep all the tables and chairs exactly as they were. I'll stop making snacks and start a grocery store instead." The snack shop makes a net income of about 700 yuan a month, and it's quite tiring to get up early every day.
Lin Xiazhu usually has to go to school and doesn't have much energy to devote to the snack shop. It's better to sell groceries. The clothing store doesn't usually have many customers, so she doesn't have to watch over it all the time. Yan Xin can take care of both stores by herself.
We'll go to buy supplies on the weekend. Xiao An will take the three kids to watch the shop while Lin Xiazhu and Yan Xin go to the county town to buy supplies.
So the original snack shop was handed over to Zhang Li, and the new grocery store is also being prepared.
Shelves, counters, and another truckload of goods arrived, and the grocery store was up and running, still bearing Yan Xin's name on the business license.
Lin Chacha and her family were overjoyed. Now that their family had opened a grocery store, they could eat as many snacks as they wanted! Hahaha.
Only Yan Xin was unhappy. How would she manage two shops by herself when it was market day?
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