In the countryside, there are generally two ways to build a house: one for the rich and one for the poor.
Needless to say, those who are rich can naturally find a construction team to buy materials and build a house directly.
However, those who have no money usually buy coal and go home to make red bricks. Making red bricks does not require much skill and ordinary farmers can do it.
In Wanxi Village, almost every household makes their own red bricks.
As Qin Suyun walked into the village, she saw several villagers carrying baskets of coal from outside the village. Each load of coal was two baskets, and one round was at least several hundred kilograms. Seven or eight blue-gray trucks were looming on the road.
Qin Suyun looked at Zhao Jinsheng and his group, who were busy carrying coal in the village, with a look of surprise on her face. "Didn't the roads outside get damaged by the earthquake? Where did all this coal come from? Are people coming to our door to do business now?"
The earthquake caused widespread damage. Not only did the village houses collapse, but even the roads outside were severely damaged. Some sections collapsed, making it impossible to drive through them. Even Zhao Tianliang and his group had to carry their bicycles and walk out of the rubble.
There is no reason why these coal trucks can deliver coal on a road where even bicycles cannot pass!
Wanxi Village wasn't located next to a coal mine, so transporting coal here would require at least a long walk. Such a long distance wasn't something a few people could cover with just a few baskets. Add to that the weight of coal in the baskets, and wouldn't it tire them out?
Zhao Jinsheng put down the load of coal from his shoulders, picked up the towel around his neck, wiped his sweat-soaked cheeks, and said with a smile, "Miss Qin, you might not know this, but some roads out here are damaged by the earthquake, but some are still passable. Business people like these can always find a road to drive on, and since they drive small trucks, they don't need a particularly wide road... Just yesterday afternoon, someone came door to door asking if we wanted coal."
"Yes! These people are very smart."
Zhao Weide, who was standing nearby, also stopped to rest his feet and interrupted, "Let's not talk about the coal seller here. Just look at the brick factory owned by Mr. Tang in Jiangtang Village upstairs. Their business has been booming lately."
The brick factory in Jiangtang Village is the only one in the area, specializing in producing blue bricks. Their buildings were well-maintained, and they sustained no damage during the earthquake. Consequently, many residents whose houses collapsed ordered blue bricks from the factory to rebuild their homes.
In their Wanxi Village, there were also several families who wanted to order green bricks, but the brick factory was too busy to handle the business and refused to accept their orders.
Because of this incident, I know how many families were talking about it at night.
"Alas, this earthquake has made us ordinary people suffer. Look at those who have connections, they have all made a fortune from the earthquake." Zhao Weide said, frowning with some displeasure.
The price of the coal they bought this time has tripled, but they still have to buy it!
After all, it is not appropriate for so many of them to always live in other people's homes. When they encounter difficulties, it is okay for the villagers to help them, but they can't always live in other people's homes just because of this, right?
People can understand if it's a few weeks, but if you live there for a whole year, they will definitely have objections!
But this earthquake was too severe, and all the roads outside collapsed because of the earthquake. They didn't know how long it would take to wait for the coal mines far away to be transported to their village to make bricks for building houses. They could only bear the pain and buy coal from their local coal yard.
Zhao Weide felt a pang of pain when he thought about the three-fold increase in coal prices. If they had not just sold the pigs, they would not even be able to afford coal.
There are many people in their two brothers' families, so they should build a big house. However, the cost is too high this time, so they can only build a small house first.
There were many people who felt the same pain as Zhao Weide this time, but they had no choice but to honestly pool their money to buy expensive coal. If those who had no money had acquaintances at the coal mine, they could write an IOU first and then pay the money back after the bank opened.
This is also what many villagers do nowadays.
The earthquake not only destroyed houses, but also all the power systems in the area. Without electricity, it was naturally impossible to withdraw money from the bank.
It is precisely because of this that the coal mine owners have no shortage of buyers. Without electricity, they cannot mine coal. The coal they sell now is all previous inventory. Their coal mine has generators and other things, but it is not cost-effective to operate a small coal mine like theirs. Unless the coal prices are raised, they will not keep running the generators. In addition, there is only one small coal mine around, so the coal mine owner has been in a really good mood these past two days!
This is the first time their coal mine has been so popular since electricity was connected to every household!
In this earthquake, some people were displaced and suffered greatly, while others took advantage of it to make a fortune.
Qin Suyun's face was full of sighs, but she couldn't help much. She just hoped that the disasters in her dreams would come later, so that everyone would not have no place to live.
"My father plans to find someone to repair the wooden houses in the village that can still be repaired in a few days, and then our family will move into those wooden houses. As for burning bricks and building houses, it will take at least two or three months. I guess we have to wait until spring to move into the new house." Zhao Jinsheng had watched his father build the house of Village Chief Zhao before, so he knew the process of building a house.
"There's nothing we can do about it. We can't live without a house, right? I discussed it with my brother a while ago, and we plan to go back to making bricks. We'll also be able to pick out the red bricks that can still be used from the rubble at home, which will save us a lot of money."
"Hehehe, that's what my dad decided too. He and I will go make bricks in a couple of days, and I'll have my brother take my wife and the others to look for bricks in the ruins. If we're lucky, we might be able to save enough bricks for an entire house."
"Alas, Miss Qin, your house is the strongest! Even with such a big earthquake, I don't see a single crack on your exterior wall!"
Zhao Weide and Zhao Jinsheng started chatting as they talked, but they did not forget to continue picking coal. They said a few words to Qin Suyun and turned around to start picking coal again.
This time, both families bought a lot of coal. Fortunately, there are many strong laborers at home, otherwise one person would be exhausted just carrying the coal!
The village was busy with the reconstruction of houses. In just a few days, dozens of families bought a lot of coal and started burning red bricks.
There is a hill near Wanxi Village that is dedicated to burning red bricks. In the past, every year when people built houses, they would burn bricks there. This year, because of the earthquake, the whole hill is particularly lively.
In the past week or so, apart from a single visit from the county, Qin Suyun hadn't seen anyone come to the village. She presumably knew that places like Yunhai City were hit even harder by the disaster. The higher-ups simply didn't have the energy to care about small villages like theirs. There were at least hundreds, if not thousands, of disaster-stricken villages like Wanxi Village across the country.
There really isn't enough manpower available to handle it.
However, Uncle Jiu listened to his radio every day and heard a new piece of good news.
That means the higher-ups are going to distribute relief supplies to them again!
After hearing the news, everyone's eyes lit up immediately. They were so motivated that they even became more motivated to make bricks!
Qin Suyun couldn't help but feel happy when she heard the news. Even though she didn't need these rescue supplies to help her now, she was still very grateful.
"It's great that the leaders above haven't forgotten us! I believe that after they have dealt with the people affected in the hardest-hit areas, they will definitely send people to help us! Then we will definitely be able to live better and better!" Zhao Xingguo encouraged many villagers.
"The village chief is right! There haven't been any aftershocks in more than a week. The earthquake must have passed. After we build our new house, we can move in directly!" Everyone said so. In their eyes, this was a sign that life was getting better.
However……
Sometimes we can’t be happy about many things too early, such as the distribution of relief supplies.
According to the radio broadcast, relief supplies will be distributed to them the next day.
But on the night the broadcast was broadcast, the sky was filled with flying snow that fluttered down like goose feathers. The heavy snow mixed with the howling north wind made everyone's cheeks hurt, and the whistling sound of the wind came one after another.
Dahei and the others were breathing heavily, their eyes fixed on the blizzard outside the window.
This snowstorm was very large, comparable to the first snow of winter a few days ago, and even came more violently.
The snowstorm prevented the transport planes and helicopters that were supposed to distribute relief supplies from taking off normally, so naturally the relief supplies could not be distributed.
This snowstorm lasted for three days and three nights without any sign of stopping.
Many villagers who had just moved into wooden houses had to clean their roofs every few hours to prevent them from collapsing.
Although Qin Suyun's family did not need to go to the third floor to clean the roof every few hours, she had to light two stoves in the glass room on the third floor of her house. The temperature was too low now. If you poured a basin of hot water directly from the second-floor window, it would turn into ice chips in an instant!
She and He Zhennan had to stay in the room on the first floor and light a kang. Qin Suyun placed all the poultry and livestock in the backyard in a pen, which was padded with a thick layer of straw and wood chips. Qin Suyun hung a thick straw curtain at the door, leaving only a small window for ventilation.
Qin Suyun frowned deeply as she looked at the snowstorm outside the house which was still raging.
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