"Tear it down, it has to be completely demolished. The pond has been filled in too. We'll dig a bigger one and bring in fresh water. This place is so smelly. There probably aren't any fish in it. If there were, they would all be dead by now." Yan Xia pinched her nose as she passed by the pond, her brows furrowed. She hadn't expected the house to be even more dilapidated than she had imagined.
No wonder it's so cheap.
So it means spending a little over 500 taels to buy a piece of land.
Oh well, I guess I'll never find the right one anyway.
Yan Xia didn't take it to heart.
She continued walking inside.
Recalling the door she had seen when she came in, Yan Xia decided to replace it with a new one.
The red paint on the wooden door had faded, making it look extremely shabby. A door is like a person's face; no matter how well-dressed you are, if your face is as dirty as a beggar's, people will only mistakenly think that your fancy clothes are stolen and that you are just pretending to be rich.
After looking around the house, the two sat at a stone table in the garden.
This was the only intact thing in the house, though it was a bit dirty. Jin Yu wiped it with a handkerchief before letting Yan Xia sit down.
Yan Xia compressed the layout of the house into the size of a palm in her mind, then picked up a charcoal pencil and pondered.
The paper was large and covered the entire stone table.
Jin Yu watched from the side, not daring to breathe too loudly, for fear of affecting Yan Xia.
The house is roughly rectangular, with two entrances, one at the front and one at the back. The front entrance is narrower, while the back entrance is wider; one is for pedestrians, and the other is for carriages.
Now that the demolition is complete, the design of the houses is entirely up to Yan Xia.
She thought for a long time before she began to write.
Starting from the front door, a wall is placed in the middle as soon as you enter the gate, allowing passage on both sides. Each side connects to two corridors, with wooden benches of the same color installed on the corridors so you can rest if you get tired.
Between the two connecting corridors is a courtyard paved with blue bricks. No flowers or plants are grown there; it is used for students to do morning exercises every day.
At the end of the courtyard are the classrooms, which are two stories high with twelve rooms on each floor, arranged in a straight line to block the courtyard. The second floor will not be used for the time being, and will be put back into use later to see what other subjects will be offered. The two sides of the first floor are the female teachers' preparation rooms.
Of the ten rooms in the middle, six are temporarily used for classes. There are two arched doorways on both sides of the classrooms, leading to the garden.
Fill in the stinky pond in the garden, dig a circular river, introduce fresh water, raise fish and lotus in the water, and build a wooden bridge in the middle. The scenery will be absolutely beautiful on rainy days. The garden is too empty, so we need to transplant some fruit trees and plant more flowers.
In summer, the flowers bloom in profusion, and looking through the classroom windows, it feels like being in a fairyland.
When the fruit trees ripen, the students can enjoy fresh fruit—isn't that wonderful?
A two-story pavilion was added to the right side of the circular river.
You can sit inside to attend classes, enjoy the scenery and compose poems, or sketch, since the school teaches more than just reading.
Passing through the garden, you'll find the dormitories for the students and female teachers.
There is no main house, but there are side rooms on the left and right, and it is still a two-story building.
On the left are the students' dormitories, two floors with a total of 12 rooms, four people per room. On the right are the female teachers' dormitories, each with a small suite where they live alone.
The two rooms are separated by a wall.
An arched doorway leads to the backyard.
The kitchen, stables, laundry room, and other facilities were all moved to the backyard.
A separate outhouse with four pits was built outside the classrooms and dormitories, with no distinction between teachers and students.
At mealtimes, the students on duty each day would carry the food from the backyard to the classroom for everyone to get their meals.
Everything was different from that of this dynasty.
Complete modernization.
So when Yan Xia finished drawing the blueprints and explained them to Jin Yu, his eyes widened even more.
"Sister Xia, the layout you drew is so ingenious! When I was in school, there were no teachers' preparation rooms or dormitories. I'd never even heard of them. We only had sleeping quarters. Students who didn't go home slept there, in rooms ranging from two to ten people, depending on how much money they had. Back then, my family lived nearby, so I never slept in the schoolhouse..."
I am reminded of my childhood.
He talked on and on.
Yan Xia listened attentively, nodding occasionally in support.
At that time, a carriage emerged from the back gate of the Yan residence, departing from Shuangqiao Town and heading towards Jiangnan County.
The coachman was still the same servant named Da Liang.
Bai Xiaobao was sitting in the carriage.
He carefully protected the blueprints by placing them in the innermost layer of his clothes.
Time flies. With Yan Xia's blueprints, the school is being built at an accelerated pace. Wang Yuanshan and Qian Wanyue got engaged in mid-September, and after the betrothal ceremony, they were to get married on October 2nd.
From mid-September to the end of September, it is the harvest season for the people.
This year's harvest is still very good. God is blessed; it was sunny every day during the autumn harvest and it never rained.
Everywhere you can hear the joyful laughter of the people.
The autumn harvest of the 100 mu of land in Shoucheng Village was also completed. Bai Xiaobao delivered the harvested grain, along with the high-yield rice from the plantation, to the house at the end of the city.
The house was filled with grain, and the newly dug cellar was also crammed full.
Everyone had a smile on their face.
Except for one person.
That was Bai Ruixue's husband, He Tian! He had mortgaged their house and signed a contract with the gambling den owner, Shen Jiading. If he didn't repay the money by the end of March, the house would be gone. But his good brother, Wang Gui, had disappeared without a trace.
The time was fast approaching, but Wang Gui hadn't received even a single copper coin of the promised thousand taels.
He Tian went to Wang Gui's house every day and knocked on the door, but the door was always tightly closed.
At first, he thought that Wang Gui had gone to Jiangnan County and no one was home, but then he thought, wait a minute, the Wang family has a gatekeeper, where would Wang Gui go, he can't possibly take the gatekeeper with him.
He Tian felt increasingly uneasy.
September 30th.
He went to the Wang family again.
"Knock knock knock—"
"Open the door! If you don't open the door, I'll smash it!" The gambling den had already sent thugs to block him once. He Tian was terrified, afraid that the thugs would find his house and then everything would be over.
Jiao'er is already six months pregnant, while Bai Ruixue is only three months pregnant.
He Tian's relationship with Bai Ruixue has improved somewhat, after all, she is carrying his child.
He dreamt of having women on both sides, but as time went on, it turned into a nightmare.
I can't sleep or eat well every day.
"Creak—"
Who are you looking for?
The gate finally opened, but it wasn't the familiar doorman who opened it. He Tian's heart skipped a beat.
“I’m looking for Wang Gui. I’m his friend. Has he returned from Jiangnan County? Never mind, just let me in to see. He must be home. I want to talk to him in person.” He Tian said, and was about to barge in.
They were firmly stopped by the gatekeeper.
"You dare try barging in? I'll report you to the authorities. Besides, my master's surname isn't Wang. This house was bought by my master a few days ago, and he just moved in last night. What a piece of trash Wang Gui? He's got a mountain of gambling debts and ran away a long time ago. My master is smart; he sent people to stake out the place for seven or eight days before catching him. He even made Wang Gui use the house to pay off his debts. What, he owes you money too? You'd better go and catch him, or he'll disappear without a trace and you won't be able to find him."
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