Chapter 238
The young people all stared with their eyes wide open, looking at the exquisitely built and antique building, which even had a clump of bamboo next to it, and exclaimed in disbelief: "Public toilet? Are you kidding me? This... Such a nice house, you said..."
"Hey, I knew you wouldn't believe it. If you don't believe me, go and see for yourself!" The aunties in the village laughed proudly and complacently.
The young people walked to the public toilet with half belief and half doubt, wanting to go in, but were stopped by the old lady sitting at the toilet door.
The old lady was a lonely old woman from the eldest house. When she saw the young man coming back, she smiled and said with a hunched back, "Isn't this Dashengzi? Dashengzi is back?" The old lady smiled and pulled out two pieces of toilet paper that were rough enough to hurt your buttocks, and asked him, "Do you want some paper? Two cents for paper, one cent for no paper."
Originally, the cost of paper was five cents, but now five cents is used less and less. When they go to the town to sell things, people no longer accept five-cent coins. They can only take them to the bank to exchange them. Gradually, fewer people in the village use five-cent coins.
It’s not so expensive normally. Isn’t it the end of the year and the Chinese New Year? This group of young people are very proud when they come back from making money. Most of the boys send their money to the gambling tables. They are also very concerned about their reputation and are willing to spend a few cents to use a good toilet.
But the young man who just came back gasped and exclaimed: "It costs 20 cents to use a crappy toilet?"
The old lady was unhappy: "You son of a bitch, paper doesn't cost money? The money on the gambling table is not money. I charge you 20 cents to use the toilet and give you paper, and you're still complaining!"
The old lady's voice was so loud that the young man was embarrassed and a little embarrassed. He quickly took out fifty cents and handed it to her, saying, "I don't want paper!"
The old lady gave him 40 cents in change. A moment later, the young man walked out of the public toilet and exaggeratedly exclaimed to the people who had stopped outside the toilet to pay: "Oh my god, how can this be called a toilet? It's cleaner than if you licked it with your tongue!"
The girl who came back with him scolded him: "Jiang Dasheng, do you know how to speak? You just licked it with your tongue!"
"Really! I'm not lying to you! If you don't believe me, just go in and see for yourself!"
The old lady next to him laughed and said proudly, "That's right! I clean the toilet every day. If any bastard dares to make it dirty, I will break his legs!"
The public toilet was built next to the ditch next to the brigade headquarters. It was very convenient to wash the broom or the mop. The water in the ditch was still flowing, with the water from upstream flowing downstream all year round. There was no need to worry about the mop dirtying the water in the ditch.
The girls saw that this house, which looked more luxurious and beautiful than many other people's houses, was actually a toilet. They couldn't help but look sideways and exclaimed in amazement: "It's actually a toilet? Who is so rich that he can spend so much money to build such a big public toilet?"
The aunties and uncles in the village laughed and said, "Don't you think about how rich your uncle Guotai is now? The entire river beach and Wugong Mountain are contracted to him. And the riverside island you saw when you came back, did you see it? It also belongs to your uncle Guotai. Your uncle Guotai is in our land now, but this!"
The person who was speaking raised his thumb with a proud expression.
The aunt next to him continued, "Not only was this toilet built by your uncle Guotai specifically for tourists from other places, but all the cement roads in the surrounding area were built by him. Just look at the roads in our village!"
The young people then noticed that the road under their feet was not only the road leading to the village, but also the horizontal road towards Xujia Village was paved with cement.
Because the road was built by Jiang Guotai's own road construction team, no one took advantage of the situation to embezzle money. Or, even if there was corruption, it was very small. This cement road was built very solidly and is four or five meters wide, allowing two cars to pass by at the same time.
In his previous life, Jiang Guotai did not get the sand factory in the middle. Naturally, the road from the neighboring city to Xujia Village was not built by Jiang Guotai. After all, it no longer belonged to the Linhe Brigade, and it was not even within the scope of Shuibu Town and Wucheng County, but belonged to the area of the neighboring city and county.
The only road Jiang Guotai repaired was the one from his Linhe Brigade to the government office of the neighboring Shijian Township.
They were on the other side of the river, inside the mountains, and because of the inconvenient transportation, the person who contracted the road construction at that time only built a four-meter-wide cement road for about two miles at the beginning of the road from the neighboring city to the south of Shahe. Once you get inside, the road is so narrow that only one car can pass. During the New Year, when cars meet, only one car can back up onto the ridge of the field. After the car passes, the cars on the ridge can drive onto the cement road and continue on their way. Every New Year, their land is often blocked for four or five hours, and the people in the front can't go, and the people behind can't retreat.
Later, the road became too narrow and there was no other way, so someone reported it to the city, saying that all the money for road construction had been embezzled. Only then did the original contractor for the cement road come over and widen it by one meter. Only then could the road be barely passable by using the ridges of the fields and the occasional dirt roads.
This resulted in cars that were supposed to go towards the neighboring city, but because the road was too narrow, people on the road connecting the neighboring city and county were unwilling to go towards the neighboring city. Instead, they all went towards Jiangjia Village to Shijian Township, simply because this road was built privately by Jiang Guotai for his hometown and was wider and less congested.
With more people heading in this direction, the economic status of the road from Linhe Brigade to Shijian Township is naturally better than that of the road heading towards the neighboring city.
This is also one of the reasons why the people of Linhe Brigade, including Shijian Township, were so grateful to Jiang Guotai in the previous life.
Seeing the young man looking at the cement road under his feet, the smiles on the faces of the old men and women in the village were brighter than the warm winter sun. They said, "Did you see that? Our Jiangjia Village is the first village in the surrounding area to have cement roads. When you get to the top of the village, you will understand that there are no dirt roads in the village now. This cement road has been built all the way to the mountain. When you worship your ancestors on New Year's Eve, you used to step on yellow mud and half of your body was covered with mud. Now it's good. The yellow mud road is now paved with cement. There is no more yellow mud!"
For those who have been dealing with mountains and forests for many years, the feeling is more obvious.
In autumn, they have to go up the mountain to cut grass and firewood. In the past, the cut grass was dried on the mountain, and it was very difficult to carry it up and down every time. Now, after cutting it, they spread it on the cement road. There is no grass or trees to shade the cement road, and the cement road absorbs heat. The cut grass is spread on the cement road to dry. By the evening, it will be much lighter and can be brought home by towing a cart with an ox cart. It is not strenuous at all. They no longer have to carry the load back home by hand like before.
There are also many families who grow rice, but the rice fields are not enough. In previous years, two families or even several brothers shared one rice field, with one family using half and the other using half.
With the cement road, they no longer have to worry about not having enough rice fields. Many people simply spread the harvested rice stalks on the road from Dafang in Jiangjia Village to Xujia Village. People coming and going on motorcycles, tricycles, and ox carts all pass over the rice stalks, saving the trouble of renting oxen to thresh the rice. These vehicles roll on the rice stalks for two days, and all the rice is threshed from the stalks. Then the straw on top is removed, leaving the golden rice, which is then placed on the cement road to dry in the sun. They no longer have to worry about the heavy rain coming before their rice is dried, and the rice they have harvested with great difficulty will sprout, all of their years of hard work being in vain.
Some young people carried snakeskin bags on their shoulders, while the fashionable ones dragged suitcases with wheels. In the past, they had to carry these suitcases back home after arriving at Jiangjia Village because the road was bumpy, muddy and dirty. Now the snow on the cement road has been shoveled to both sides of the road, revealing a clean cement road in the middle, so whether they walk by themselves or carry a roller suitcase in their hands, they can roll over it.
They approached the village.
There are actually not many major changes in the village. The biggest change is that all the roads are paved with cement, so people no longer have to suffer from the muddy roads when they were children. Another change is that at the end of the year, more families are digging residential land and preparing to build houses.
There are residential plots that have been built or are being built everywhere, and many people's houses are half-built. They are all those who have earned money at the end of the year and come back to build houses.
Unlike the past when residential plots only had a main room and two bedrooms, today's residential plots are obviously much larger than the houses built in the past. This is mainly reflected in the fact that, in addition to the main room and rooms in the front, the area in the back is also utilized. In other words, there were only three rooms on one floor in the past, but now there are at least six. There is no large terrace upstairs anymore, as all of them are made into rooms.
These rooms may become hotels that can be rented by tourists in the future!
Among them, more families use two- and three-bedroom houses as homesteads to build new houses.
They were very confused when they saw it, and asked the family who built the house: "Uncle, wasn't your house just built a few years ago? Why are you building a new house again?"
The man who was building the new house came over with a smile, handed me a cigarette, lit one himself, took a puff and said, "Weren't the previous buildings built smaller? Who knew the village would develop so fast in the past two years? Because Guotai led us to grow tea. This year, Jiang Ning from the big guy's family was really talented. He invited people from CCTV to come and film our Jiangjia Village and promote our Wugong Mountain and Wugong Tea. Our Wugong Tea became popular all of a sudden. Your uncle Guotai also built our place into a tourist leisure area. I don't know how many tourists will come to visit us during this summer vacation and National Day. People with big houses have made a fortune just by running hotels."
The person who was talking took a puff of cigarette: "The big guy's house, this year he probably earned 5,000 to 6,000 yuan." While smoking, he looked at his own house which was being widened and expanded, and said: "Don't you say that reading is useful? You see, the big guy is different after he has read books. He was in debt for so many years, but once he paid off his debts, he immediately became different. Every household in other places is still building these old-fashioned two-story houses, but he has learned from people in big cities outside and built his house so big. He is nothing like us, who have not read many books, can't recognize a few words, have limited knowledge, built a small house, and now have to expand it."
He said so, but he couldn't stop the smile on his lips.
His family of five shared a total of five acres of tea land. These five acres of tea land allowed them to earn a net income of 20,000 yuan without having to do anything at home. Otherwise, where would he get the money to expand or add more houses?
He couldn't help but sigh, "How did the big guy give birth to such two capable children? It would be fine if the son was capable, but it would be even more amazing if he gave birth to a girl!" He pointed to the hills in the distance and the cement road under his feet and said, "Guotai said when he came back that all these ideas were given to him by the big guy's daughter. Without Ningning, let alone tea and wolfberries, we wouldn't even be able to eat dog shit on our own!"
With just one sentence, everyone on his waterproof platform burst into laughter. His wife scolded him with a smile: "Okay, come back to work quickly. The homestead should be prepared before the New Year, and the house should be built in the spring. Don't wait until March or April when tourists come and watch others make money. Then you will be jealous!"
Everyone burst into laughter again.
The people who laid the foundation and poured cement to build the house for this family were not bricklayers from Jiangjia Village, but were invited from other villages. Nowadays, bricklayers in Jiangjia Village are being laid everywhere, and there are not enough bricklayers in Jiangjia Village. All the bricklayers from all over the country have gathered in Jiangjia Village. Hearing this, he felt envious and sad. He and his fellow villagers sighed and said, "Tell me, why can't our village produce a Jiang Guotai or a Jiang Ning?"
Although many people know that the road in the village was built by Jiang Guotai, the villagers also know that neither Jiang Guotai nor Jiang Ning can be missing.
Jiang Guotai is rich, but he cannot hire CCTV. Jiang Ning can hire CCTV, but if Jiang Guotai had not spent a lot of money to build his hometown, his hometown would not have been restricted. Although it cannot be called a complete change, it is enough to make the villagers rich and well-off.
Isn’t it being shouted every day on TV news and on the propaganda walls in the village that we are leading the people to achieve a well-off life?
Jiang Ning and Jiang Guotai are truly leading them towards a well-off life. Thinking about the future of the village, they even have a goal to live. Everyone's face is full of smiles, without a trace of sadness.
Someone who heard the masons talking laughed and said, "Can the Wenquxing appear so easily? In our Jiangjia Village, there have only been two such people in the past hundred years!"
Jiang Ning and Jiang Bai helped Grandpa Jiang back and walked towards Aunt Jiang's house.
In the past, when they saw them coming back, all the people would rush to the platform to greet them, but today they were either busy laying the foundation for their own homes and preparing to build new houses, or they all flocked to Jiang Pianist's house to watch the fun.
It turned out that the Jiang family's darling, Jiang Qinqin, had returned with her girlfriend.
Jiang Qinqi has been spoiled since she was a child, and everyone is curious about what kind of person she should find to satisfy her mother.
When Jiang Ning was supporting Grandpa Jiang as they passed by the door of Jiang Pianist's house, the podium of Jiang Pianist's house was full of people, all leaning their heads inside to see what was going on.
Jiang Qinqin is three years older than Jiang Ning, the same age as Jiang Ning's on her ID card, so she will be twenty-three after the Chinese New Year.
In the countryside, a woman who is still unmarried at the age of 23 is considered a grown-up girl.
It’s just that Jiang Qinqin is still studying and will not graduate until the first half of next year. Although her mother is anxious, she always acts like her daughter is still studying and is still young!
Now, Jiang Qinqin finally brought her partner home.
Jiang Qinqin was also very generous. After deciding on her partner, she did not delay and brought him/her back to meet her parents and asked her mother to help her make the decision.
She is a typical mama's girl who listens to her mother in everything. She always obeys whatever her mother says. Only if the guy is brought back and her mother agrees, will she be willing to continue to be with him.
Jiang Ning passed by the door of Jiang Pianist's house. When she heard the lively conversation beside her, she felt a little envious, but only a little.
She has already gotten enough, and life cannot be perfect in every way.
The lotus pond next to it has no remaining lotus leaves this year. It is bare and the water surface is calm.
Finally, someone saw Jiang Ning and Grandpa Jiang and the others, and they all stood up and walked over to the edge of the platform: "Ning Ning is back!"
"Oh my, it's really Ningning who's back!"
Someone else shouted, "Your uncle and his family are not at home. They are building a house next to your house. Did you see it when you passed by your door?"
Someone pointed at the half-built house and said, "Did you see that? The biggest one is your third cousin's house. My goodness, he must have made a fortune to have such a big house!"
Grandpa Jiang immediately smiled and replied, "Everyone is getting rich! Everyone is getting rich! I see your family is also building a house, which shows that everyone is getting rich this year!"
Grandpa Jiang's words made everyone on the platform smile and say, "Yes, thanks to you, we have such a good granddaughter. Now our village has become rich thanks to her and Guotai!"
Grandpa Jiang laughed so hard that the wrinkles at the corners of his eyes were squeezed into the shape of a goldfish tail. I couldn't tell how happy he was!
"Old man, please come up and sit down. Have a cup of hot tea. It's the Wugong tea from our Wugong Mountain. Our Wugong tea is very famous now. It has been on CCTV! I heard that the big leaders in Beijing are drinking our Wugong tea from Wugong Mountain. Is it true?" The last sentence was asked to Jiang Ning.
There was pride in each of their eyes. They looked at Jiang Ning with kindness and expectation. They really hoped that the Wugong tea from their mountain would really catch the eyes of the most important group of people in this country.
Jiang Ning met their gazes, smiled slightly, nodded and said, "Teacher Li said that his leaders are also drinking our Wugong tea!"
The aunts who were expecting Jiang Ning's words were so happy that their teeth were showing and their eyes were not. Their faces were full of simple smiles of pure joy. They said, "Next year, when the leaders want to drink tea, we will send it again!"
"That's right! My family's Mingqian tea is free. The leaders love to drink it, so I'll give them more!"
"Hahahahahahaha, if this were in ancient times, our Wugong Tea would be no different from Gongcha!"
The platform was filled with cheerful laughter.
I don't know if it's because this year marks the beginning of the century, but this year's New Year is very different from previous years. Every household is decorated with lights and colorful lanterns. Not only are big red lanterns with electricity hung in the corridors at the doorsteps of their homes, but every household, young and old, wears new clothes and new shoes.
These old people sat contentedly on the high platform, smiling and quietly watching Jiang Ning and the others. They were wearing brand new shoes bought for them by their younger generations, and brand new cotton trousers and cotton jackets.
Because of the distribution of tea land, these old and useless men and women were each allocated an acre of tea land, and all the children in the family, regardless of gender, had a share. This allowed them to do nothing at home, but to pick tea leaves. Jiang Guotai was a very honest person. As long as they did not cheat and use old leaves or old tea tree fruits instead of tea leaves, they did not have to worry about it. Jiang Guotai would take care of the tea selling business and they would not lose a penny of the money.
Even if the younger generations asked to give the old man's money to them for safekeeping, Jiang Guotai would not care. What belongs to whomever is whoever it is.
Nowadays, who among these old people doesn’t have three to five thousand yuan on him? Having money not only makes them feel at ease, but also because of the existence of these tea fields, the younger generations are also kind to them. They no longer worry that when they are old and can no longer work, their children and younger generations will despise them for just eating and not working!
These old people really live a happy life.
They also prepared red paper packets for the Chinese New Year, and they also had money, so they gave red packets to their grandchildren!
The practice of aborting a baby girl is no longer practiced in the village as it used to be. While there are still tea fields to be divided, no matter whether it is a boy or a girl, every newborn is a treasure. Don’t be picky about boys or girls. If you are picky and end up not being able to get even an acre of tea field, you will have no place to cry.
The tea land cannot be divided at any time. Haven’t you seen how active the first and fourth branches are this year? Some are tidying up the mountain, some are planting tea trees. They are so enthusiastic that no one is urging them.
When a new child is born in the family, no matter it is a boy or a girl, he or she is a treasure in the palm of the hand, just like an extra acre of tea field!
Moreover, whoever gets this tea field will own it in the future. Each person is allocated one acre and cannot get more than that. It belongs to the girls, so the income from this acre of tea field in the future will belong to the girls. Before they come of age, the elders can still help manage the tea fields and the income. When they grow up, these tea fields will be theirs and no one can take them away.
Although many men were not convinced at first, thinking that the tea land should be given to the brothers after the girl got married, Jiang Guotai said directly: "After Ningning gets married, she is no longer a member of our Jiangjia Village?"
No one dared to say a word after hearing this.
Jiang Ning is still a college student, but she has such great abilities. It is still unclear how capable she will be in the future. Who dares to say that she will no longer be a member of Jiangjia Village after getting married? I'm afraid that the village chief and elders of Jiangjia Village will expel them from Jiangjia Village first.
Everyone on the platform wanted Grandpa Jiang, Jiang Ning, and Jiang Bai to come to their homes for tea. They were so enthusiastic that when Grandpa Jiang heard that his eldest son and his family were building a new house, he smiled and said, "We haven't even entered the house yet, so we won't sit down."
Then he took Jiang Ning and Jiang Bai to Jiang Jun's new house.
The owner of the largest house in the village now belongs to Jiang Jun, the third son of Uncle Jiang.
Jiang Hongjun and Jiang Hongbing were both married, and it was not convenient for him, the younger brother-in-law, to live with his brother and sister-in-law. So the whole family discussed building a new house for Jiang Jun. Uncle Jiang and his wife also moved into the new house with Jiang Jun and lived there until he got married.
Uncle Jiang said, "I won't live with you either. I'll build a small bungalow next to you. Your mom is a good cook and can make some money by opening a small restaurant. I can still work now and earn about 8,000 yuan a year. In addition, your mom also grows two acres of wolfberries. Although she doesn't make much money a year now, it is still an income. I don't need you to support her for the time being. I will live with your grandmother. When we are old and can no longer work, you three brothers can discuss the issue of retirement!"
Unlike Jiang's father who wanted to have all three children around him and live under the same roof, Uncle Jiang had never thought of living with his sons because he had a good relationship with his aunt. He even disliked that his sons always came to their house for free meals. He just wanted to move his sons out and live with his aunt. The sons would be close to him, so he didn't have to worry about being left unattended, and he could live a quiet life.
He now wants to quickly finish building his youngest son's house, and then build a house for himself next to it, with a larger main room so he can sell food every day and have some income. Wouldn't that be much more comfortable than asking his sons for money? With the help of his two daughters-in-law, when he is no longer building the house outside, he will follow his wife and help her. He will do all the cleaning!
Jiang Jun was blessed with a good era. He had originally planned to buy a house in the new street of the town, but this year he built a house directly in his hometown. Because the house was big, he did not take the residential land on the high platform, but directly divided it between his eldest and second brothers. Because he gave away the residential land on the high platform, his two sisters-in-law were very satisfied with their brother-in-law. They had nothing to say about the fact that his new house was much bigger than the houses built by his two brothers.
After all, the two elder brothers' houses were built earlier, and the market conditions at that time were different from now. In addition, the homestead he gave away can allow the two elder brothers to build two more rooms next to their original houses. Together with their original rooms and the large building upstairs that is larger than a room, after all are built, there will probably be four or five more rooms.
The address he chose for his new house was less than a hundred meters away from Jiang's father's house, and also the paddy field below. It was the field where Jiang Ning had just been reborn and when she went to Xujia Village to buy meat, Jiang's aunt bent over to cut rice and called her.
The land is more than one acre in size and is a horizontal rectangle next to the ditch.
At that time, there was no saying that agricultural land could not be used as residential land, so Jiang Jun used this land as his own residential land.
Building a house in this place has a big disadvantage, just like building a house like Jiang's father's, which is that a waterproof layer must be built underneath, and the second floor and above is where people live. What makes his house better than Jiang's father's house is that the terrain of his acre of land is more than one meter higher than that of Jiang's father's home. In addition, he is able to endure hardships, so when he has nothing to do, he and his two brothers go to the mountain stream to dig sand and pick up stones, and they raise the foundation of his homestead by more than half a meter.
The total area of his own residential land is about five mu, which is about three hundred and thirty square meters. Of course, he cannot use such a large piece of land himself. The area of his residence is about two hundred and sixty square meters. He plans to build a yard or a cement platform on the remaining seventy square meters. If Aunt Jiang wants to open a small restaurant and there is not enough space, she can put a few small tables outside for guests to eat.
Uncle Jiang rolled his eyes at this and said, "Do we really need you to build a table for us?" What is the nearly six acres of land next to him used for? You don't think he's keeping it as a yard for this brat, do you? He planned to use this piece of land to build a house in a year or two, and then live next to it with his aunt Jiang and the old lady.
Uncle Jiang has a very careful calculation.
The houses for the eldest son and the second son were built a long time ago. The money saved in the past few years, in addition to the money for the two sons to get married, was saved for the youngest son to build a house. Now, because the youngest son's house is much bigger than expected, most of the money he and Aunt Jiang earned this year was used to subsidize the youngest son to build a house.
But this year, their family earned more than 20,000 yuan from the wolfberries and tea fields grown by Uncle Jiang's wife alone. The money earned from the hotel was all given to the two daughters-in-law. Together with the money earned from the small restaurant and his own earnings this year, the couple's earnings together amounted to more than 30,000 yuan.
If he has 30,000 yuan next year, he can build a house for him and Aunt Jiang in two or three years. Why would he need to live with his sons?
By then, more and more people will come to Linhe Brigade for tourism, and they will live comfortably just by staying in the small hotel built on their houses.
However, what he told his sons now was that he planned to build a two-story house in the future, with the first floor being waterproof and the second floor being used for living. His sons had no doubts about it.
The first floor is said to be a waterproof layer. After last year's flood, they won't have to worry about such a serious flood for at least ten years. By then, they just need to raise the foundation a little like the youngest son's house. In fact, what is the difference between the first floor and an ordinary residential house?
At worst, the entire floor can be used as a small restaurant.
When Uncle Jiang took his three brothers to build a house for his youngest son, he not only fully borrowed from Jiang's father's house, but also built on the original basis, and increased the height of the attic on the third floor from two meters in the middle and one meter around Jiang's father's house to three and a half meters in the middle and two meters around. In this way, the attic above can be used as a normal floor for living, and divided into six rooms, which are just the right height for use as a hotel room.
Jiang Jun and his wife can just live on the second floor; the third floor and the attic above can be used as a hotel.
The house built by Jiang Jun at present can be said to have surpassed Jiang's father's house and become the tallest and largest house in the village.
The house has not been completely renovated yet, only half of it has been built. It is estimated that it will not be fully completed until after the new year.
Jiang Ning and Jiang Bai brought Grandpa Jiang to the house built by Jiang Jun, and saw Jiang Hongjun and his wife, Jiang Hongbing and his wife, all there. The two sisters-in-law were both capable people, and they were also helping to mix the cement slurry.
Jiang Hongbing, who was sitting on the higher ground, was the first to see Jiang Ning and the others. He immediately shouted in surprise and excitement, "Oh! Ning Ning, Bai Zi and Grandpa are back!"
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
