Business doesn’t last long after the Chinese New Year. Firstly, there aren’t as many buyers as before the New Year, and secondly, raw materials are in short supply.
After the Lantern Festival, we started to prepare for building a house.
Houses in the village are usually built before the busy spring season or after the autumn harvest.
After the ground thaws in the first month of the lunar year, construction can begin. Before that, the materials for building the house must be prepared.
There is a brick kiln in the commune, and there are tractors to help deliver the goods. You can just go to the back mountain to cut the wood, but you have to say hello to the brigade.
Lu Xiao went to the secretary's house with some good cigarettes and wine. When he came back, everything was settled. Not only could he go up the mountain to cut wood at any time, he also applied for a residential plot next to their old house.
It can't be considered a residential land. Lu Xiao originally lived on the edge of the village. Because it was close to the mountain, there were no residents within a hundred meters around. That was why the owner of the house they lived in now abandoned it.
There are vacant lots nearby. In that era, there was no concept of homesteads. You could just say hello to the village cadres and build a house on any piece of vacant land.
When Jiang Wanwan knew this, she discussed with Lu Xiao whether the old house could be spared from demolition. Firstly, they would have no place to live when the house was built, and secondly, as modern people, they were still very attached to the land.
Lu Xiao also had this plan, mainly because he wanted to raise more pigs and needed space.
In the future, the yard of the old house can be used exclusively for raising pigs. His wife likes cleanliness, and the two yards are separated, so the smell won't be too strong in the summer.
Once everything is almost ready, it's time to hire someone.
At this time, most of the houses are built with the help of craftsmen from the village. If there are not enough people in the village, they will go to the neighboring villages to find people. In short, when the craftsmen from the village get together, the house can be built.
The wages are easy to negotiate. Skilled workers only get two or three yuan, and unskilled workers are all helped by village members, who only need to give them a box of cigarettes and a meal.
All the people who work have to eat at home, and cooking is a big project. Jiang Wanwan definitely can’t handle it alone.
Knowing that his third brother's family was going to build a house, Lu Jie and his wife have been helping, from hauling bricks to chopping wood. Now Wang Sanni also started to give Jiang Wanwan ideas, telling her which sister-in-law is enthusiastic, which sister-in-law is a good cook, and who has contacts with their Lu family.
Her belly is getting bigger and bigger, and she is powerless and can only help with some small things.
In the end, Jiang Wanwan personally went to invite the captain's wife, Mrs. Lu, and Feng Huining.
There was also a Mrs. Zhang who had spoken up for her when the accounts were being settled. Jiang Wanwan was not familiar with the people in the village, but she had a good impression of her.
Firecrackers were set off on the day of digging the foundation, and the house suddenly became lively. Not only were there invited members, but many people also came to help on their own initiative.
This is how things are done in the village now, it all depends on everyone helping each other. Although Lu Xiao had a bad background in the past, he was tall and strong, and because of this strength, almost everyone in the village would look for him when building a house, so much so that when their family built their house, many people came uninvited.
Seeing more and more people coming, Jiang Wanwan became worried. It was not that there was no food to eat because there were too many people, but the food was simple at the moment. The best thing was a big stew of pork, vermicelli, cabbage, and tofu. The steamed buns were also made with two-grain flour, half white flour and half cornmeal. If the conditions were good, add more white flour, and if the conditions were not so good, add more cornmeal.
There are enough vegetables and steamed buns, but not enough bowls.
Right now, the bowls in the house are all pieced together. All the bowls from Lu Jie and Feng Huining's families are here.
Mrs. Zhang took off her apron and said, "I have six or seven bowls at home. I'll go get them."
Not long after he left, someone else came to the house. This time it was not a man. Aunt Sun came into the yard with a pile of bowls in her arms and called out with a smile, "I thought there would be not enough bowls for so many people building a house in your family. I happen to have a few bowls at home, so I'll bring you some."
Jiang Wanwan really didn't expect Aunt Sun to come to help. The two of them almost fell out because of all the gossip.
Although Jiang Wanwan took revenge on the spot and didn't hold it to heart, Aunt Sun was so old and she felt embarrassed after all, so she must have felt a little upset.
I didn't expect that they would come to help build their house.
Jiang Wanwan took the bowl with a smile and asked Aunt Sun to stay at home to eat. Aunt Sun refused no matter what, saying that she had a little grandson at home and the child would not eat without her, an old woman. She left after leaving the bowl.
Then Wang Fang also brought over a few bowls. In the afternoon, when she heard that there were many people building a house here, Wang Xifeng also came over to help with cooking.
The result of so many people was that the wall, which was originally thought to take three days to build, reached the top in less than two days.
If the carpenter hadn't finished processing the wood, the beams could have been put up the next day.
It was bustling here, but the Lu family's old house was deserted.
Zhang Xiu Lan looked at the half-eaten cornmeal in the room, and then at Lu Hui who was dozing off on the kang, and she became furious.
"I say, how can you, as the eldest brother, sleep well? Your third brother's family is building a house, and it's so lively that the whole village wants to go, but he didn't even invite you, the eldest brother, to take a look. Does he still see you as the eldest brother?"
Lu Hui muttered with his eyes closed, "If I didn't call, then I didn't call. Building a house is not a good thing. It's cold and tiring. I have others to help me, and I don't have to worry about it."
"You want to worry about it? No one else treats you like an onion or garlic. Look at the second brother and his wife. Two weeks ago, they went to work with the third brother's family. They get up early every day and leave. They are away all day and come back in the dark. How much food can a family of three save in more than half a month? Look at our family. We have three gluttons, each one eating more than the other. Is the food we have at home enough for you?"
Lu Hui stood up impatiently. "Are you done yet? There's not enough food at home. Is that for us? Why don't you sell it? It's still not enough, and you blame me?"
Zhang Xiulan almost vomited blood.
She did sell some food, but wasn't that before the family split? After the split, there was only this little food for four people to eat, so how could she bear to sell it?
Knowing that her husband was not capable of handling things, she turned around and went to her mother-in-law's room.
As she spoke, she wiped away her tears sadly, as if she had suffered a great injustice.
"Even though we've split up the family, I didn't treat them as outsiders. I thought I was the eldest sister-in-law after all, so I had to help them out. But look, I didn't treat them as outsiders, but they're wary of me. All the second-in-commands in the village went, but only his eldest brother and the third brother were left behind. What's the meaning of this? Have we lost all kinship after the family split up?"
When Mother Lu learned that her third son's family was building a house, she had originally planned to go over to help. But when she saw that the third son had not informed his eldest brother, she gave up the idea.
If he went there, the old family might make a fuss, so this way he could suppress it a little.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com