Chapter 140 Discussing Building a House

Xia Juanjuan whispered, "Mom, today is Xiaowen's birthday. Let's cook a few more dishes and call Dad back from the field. We can celebrate together as a family."

When Lin Yuru heard this, she was stunned for a moment.

How can rural children prepare several dishes to celebrate their birthdays?

That is the standard for the birthdays of the elders in the family, and also the standard for when distinguished guests come to the house or during the Chinese New Year.

For children's birthdays, cooking an egg for them is already considered good. However, in many families with many children, parents may be too busy to remember.

As for birthday cakes, blowing candles and the like, I had never even heard of them!

Lin Yuru looked at the dry branches and firewood that she had picked up two days ago and were drying in the yard and were being carried into the kitchen in bundles. She was about to say, "It's just a kid's birthday, why spend so much money to cook a few dishes? Just cook two eggs," but she swallowed the words.

Think about it, the three little kids are pretty pitiful. Their father died, their mother ran away, and they suffered for half a year at the hands of their second uncle, second aunt, and grandmother. They were finally adopted by their fourth uncle and Juanjuan.

The good days haven't lasted for a few months, and now Juanjuan is pregnant again.

The two younger ones may not be able to think of it yet, but the precocious Xiaowen may not say it, but in her heart she must be worried that Juanjuan has her own child and doesn’t want them anymore…

Apart from anything else, just Lin Yuru saw it. After Xia Juanjuan's pregnancy was announced, Xiaowen worked even harder.

On the way back from school in town - now that they were familiar with the road, the kids from the same village would come back together and rarely asked Zhou Qiuhe to pick them up - Secretary Zhao's two grandsons, Chaoyang and Qiming, and Zhou Qiuhe's family's Huanhuan, were all playing and playing on the way back, while Xiaowen was picking up firewood. Such a small man would always bring back a bundle of branches in his arms. The branches drying in the yard were what he picked up.

At home, he was responsible for lighting the fire, washing dishes, cleaning, etc. Even Xia Juanjuan couldn't help but say that this kid loved cleanliness more than she did...

Lin Yuru sighed and said with a smile, "Okay. Just make a few more dishes."

Then he couldn't help but whispered, "Ah... But don't get too used to it. Don't be so spoiled..."

Xia Juanjuan also knew that Lin Yuru's concerns were not unreasonable, so she smiled and said, "Mom, don't worry about these things. If I really get used to them, how can I let them do housework, dig wild vegetables and collect firewood in the fields? I know what I am doing."

Lin Yuru thought about it and agreed, so she didn't say anything.

The mother and daughter chatted while preparing lunch.

The steamed buns are freshly steamed and heated directly in the pot. Three large white flour steamed buns and two sweet potato flour and white flour mixed grain steamed buns are enough for the whole family.

Since Xia Juanjuan had long planned to celebrate Xiaowen's birthday, she asked Zhou Qiuhe to bring back half a pound of pork belly from the town.

Of course half a pound was not enough, so she took out another pound from the space. Anyway, if the door was closed, no one would know there was more meat.

I cut one and a half pounds of pork belly into large cubes and made a glutinous but not greasy, translucent braised pork. The remaining half a pound was stir-fried with garlic sprouts to make a double-pot pork.

I also made a dish of fried cauliflower with rabbit, a dish of fried bamboo shoots with wild boar, a dish of fried leeks with eggs, a dish of smashed cucumber, a dish of sugar-coated tomato and two cold vegetables.

Of course, there was also a delicious wild pheasant mushroom soup with wolfberry, licorice, and ginseng. Sliced ​​ginseng is similar to licorice. Licorice and wolfberry are both wild medicinal herbs that can be collected in the mountains. Most farmers are familiar with them, so Lin Yuru naturally had no doubts.

There is another ingredient that Lin Yu-ju cannot tell, which is the mushrooms in the chicken soup, which are actually Matsutake mushrooms.

I dug them up when I went into the mountains the summer before last. I just threw some in the woods in the space, but I didn't expect to get them back.

In later generations, this is a food ingredient that is as valuable as gold, it is extremely expensive!

Of course, I also cooked a few eggs and rolled a bowl of longevity noodles for Xiaowen, which was a standard birthday treat for children in that era.

When the meal was almost ready, Lin Yuru went to the field to call Xia Shuangshan.

When Xia Shuangshan saw the dishes on the table, he was a little surprised, but he didn't say anything immediately.

The family sat around the table to eat. The one-pound braised pork was cut into about ten pieces, so two pieces per person was about enough.

As they ate, the three kids were obviously more interested in the sugar-coated tomatoes than the other dishes. They all vie for them, and Xiao Wu and Bei Bei almost got into a fight.

Xia Juanjuan was both angry and amused, and said, "You two are fighting just for a tomato? Wait, I'll get you a few more, one for each of you, and no one is allowed to steal anyone else's."

Lin Yuru quickly put down the bowl and said, "I'll go..."

Xia Juanjuan stopped him: "I'm already up. My stomach is bloated and it's uncomfortable to sit down. It's a good time to move around."

After Xia Juanjuan went to the kitchen, Xia Shuangshan couldn't help but say a few words to Lin Yuru.

After a while, Xia Juanjuan came back and shared the sugar-coated tomatoes with the kids before continuing with their meal.

Lin Yuru said, "Juan'er, get up tomorrow. I'll come over to make lunch, but it won't be for me and your father. We have our own food, so you should bring your own food to the fields in the morning!"

Xia Juanjuan was stunned for a moment, looked at the two of them, and said with a smile: "Why are you suddenly saying this?"

Xia Shuangshan and Lin Yuru looked at each other, Xia Shuangshan coughed twice, and said, "Juan'er, I know that your aunt gives you a lot of allowance every month, but you have to spend it wisely. When the child is born, there will be six or seven mouths to feed in the family. You have to save some money now..."

After hearing this, Xia Juanjuan finally understood. They probably saw that she had white flour steamed buns and meat for every meal, and they were afraid that she was too extravagant and would not have enough food in the future.

"Dad, I'm saving a few mouthfuls of food for you and mom, so there's no difference. Don't give me any stupid advice. Lizhan just got promoted this year, and his allowance has increased by 20 yuan, which is enough to support the whole family. Besides... the last time I went to the army to see Lizhan, didn't we hold a wedding ceremony? All his comrades gave him gifts, about 400 to 500 yuan, and they're all with me.

These two houses are enough for me now, but when fall comes and I’m about to give birth, my mother will definitely come over to live with me and take care of me. So where will she live?

So Lizhan and I have made plans. We plan to build a house on the residential land allocated to us by the village this summer, before the children are born. By then, I will be pregnant and have difficulty moving around, so I will need your help.

However, you are not even willing to have lunch at my place now. You are so indifferent. How can I have the nerve to ask you to take care of me and give birth to my children and help us build a house? "

These words left Xia Shuangshan and Lin Yuru speechless for a moment.

Lin Yuru stammered, "Juan'er, when I told your father that, it wasn't because I didn't want to take care of you. I was just worried that you would have trouble with money in the future..."

Xia Juanjuan smiled and said, "I know you don't mean that. But, look at this table of food, the vegetables are all grown in our own private garden, the spring bamboo shoots are dug by dad in the mountains, the wild pheasants and rabbits are also recently hunted by dad in the mountains, and the bacon is from the New Year when we went into the mountains to hunt. We bought all of them with money, just pork, eggs and some food, how much did it cost? If you don't come for lunch in the future, then my dad doesn't have to send us pheasants, rabbits, etc. in the future. I'd be embarrassed to accept them if he sent them to me!"

After hearing these words, Lin Yuru and Xia Shuangshan dared not mention this matter anymore. They just ate their meal in a depressed mood.

After a while, Xia Shuangshan broke the awkward silence and asked, "Juan'er, what do you plan to build? Are you going to build two more rooms?"

When Xia Juanjuan heard him ask this question, she couldn't help but smile, knowing that Xia Shuangshan had already started thinking about how to build a house for her.

"The residential land allocated to us by the village is quite large, so I wanted to build the main house, the east and west side rooms, and the yard all at once to avoid the trouble in the future." Xia Juanjuan said with a smile.

After hearing this, Xia Shuangshan looked at Xia Juanjuan in surprise.

"Juan'er, are you...not joking?"

Xia Juanjuan was stunned. Was she...joking?

Xia Shuangshan was skilled in masonry work and had a good understanding of the process of building a house, so he said:

"I've also seen your plot of land. It's quite large. The main house can probably be built into three rooms, with two side rooms on each side, plus the courtyard wall and the gate... It would definitely be easier if you build it all at once. However, red bricks, cement, sand, large stones for the foundation, large beams for the wooden beam structure, and tiles for the roof all cost a lot of money...

The construction of the foundation, walls and roof will take a month. To build the house, we need to find skilled masons. If they are from the same commune or village, it is OK to not be paid for one or two days of work, but for a month, no one wants to do nothing, so they have to be paid.

"It would cost about 400 to 500 yuan to build the three main rooms... If we add the side rooms and the yard, it would probably cost about 700 to 800 yuan!"

Xia Juanjuan actually had no idea about the cost of building a house in the countryside, so she just wanted to save trouble.

Who knew there were so many things to consider?

Speaking of which... the cost of building these two houses for Big Brother Li alone is more than two hundred yuan. And this is even before Big Brother Li hired anyone to help. He built them by himself, a little at a time, every day, so he didn't spend any wages.

And she actually boasted that she was planning to build a whole house with six or seven rooms in one go?

Money is not a problem.

The problem is that even with the gift money from Lizhan's comrades and Lizhan's allowance, taking out seven or eight hundred at once is too scary and will definitely arouse jealousy!

Xia Juanjuan sighed and said, "Then... let's build three main rooms first. Then build a kitchen. The walls also need to be put up, but they don't need to be red brick walls. Just fences like the ones here will do. ... After all this, five hundred yuan should be enough, right?"