The next morning, Jiang Shuya got up exceptionally early and went to the market to buy a bunch of cooked vegetables. Because she got up early, there were only a few scattered people at the market. The market was filled with a dazzling array of fresh cooked vegetables, chicken, duck, fish and meat.
Jiang Shuya bought some pork, dried beef, roast duck, a live chicken, two live fish, and some vegetables such as tomatoes, green beans, and eggplants.
The vineyard grows chives, peppers, cucumbers, and water spinach. A few more cold dishes will be enough. I don't know how many people will be coming. If there are many people, I'll make more; if there are few, I'll make less. Everyone is doing hard labor, so I need to prepare enough vegetables.
When I got home, I put down a bunch of groceries and saw my mother-in-law washing clothes. Tangtang was still asleep. I said a few words to my mother-in-law and then rode my bike to the Dagengzhaidi residential area to wait for someone.
Around 9 o'clock, six or seven people got off Mr. Fang's truck: two middle-aged men and two young men. His father and younger brother were also there. Jiang Shuya was a little surprised, thinking that her father was just saying it casually. After all, they were very busy with their business and were afraid they wouldn't be able to take care of her. She was touched but also worried that her mother would complain about her because she was too busy with her business.
At this moment, Grandpa came over, chatted for a few words, took out a pack of cigarettes from his pocket and offered them to the two middle-aged men. After a few polite exchanges, each of them smoked one.
Father Jiang Donglai, all smiles, said he came to check on things because he was worried. He claimed that he also knew how to build houses and could help out. His younger brother, Shuhuai, was on vacation and came to work as a laborer, which saved them some money.
How could Jiang Shuya possibly refuse?
Naturally, I felt only gratitude, after all, they had lent a helping hand when I was in my most difficult time. I remembered that this was the first time my father had ever come to our house, and he had never eaten a meal here before. Before I got married, only Li Dalan had come once, and she went back with all sorts of dissatisfaction, which also extinguished my father's curiosity.
Jiang Shuya grew up with her grandparents and was a left-behind child. She was not close to her parents and often felt that they did not love her. They left her with her grandmother when she was young. Children in the village, regardless of age, dared to bully her, but she dared not tell anyone and silently endured it.
When she turned 18, she fell ill and was unable to take the college entrance examination. She took medicine at home for a long time. Later, Li Dalan let her take a bus to Jinling and found her a job.
From then on, she went to work diligently and handed over her entire monthly salary, while her parents took her younger brother with them wherever they went.
She had hated her younger brother and her parents, but no one could truly hear the voice in her heart until she met Huang Minghao when she was 22 years old. He said he wanted to marry her.
Having her own home, she suddenly realized that she no longer wanted to let others control her life, no longer wanted to hand over her monthly salary, and wanted to live for herself. She longed to be loved and to have a warm home, so she got married, became pregnant, and gave birth to her daughter without hesitation.
When Jiang Shuya got married, she wanted to get her salary back, but Li Dalan said that the money had been used for her younger siblings' schooling and that the money before the marriage belonged to the Jiang family.
Now that they're willing to help her, perhaps it's for their own future benefit. Jiang Shuya didn't know if this gratitude was genuine or an exchange of interests. But then she thought, "Let it be for my own sake! After all, I need their help."
Let's get the immediate matter settled first!
Master Fang took some building tools from the car and distributed them to the four master craftsmen. He asked Grandpa about the structure of the house and its square footage. He then lay down on the neatly stacked bricks and drew a diagram of the overall structure of the house. He also gave his suggestions, and Grandpa nodded with a smile.
After saying that, he led them to pull up the rope to measure the dimensions and decided to build a square two-story building. They would first dig a 1-meter-deep foundation because it was a demolition house and no one would live there, so the foundation did not need to be dug that deep, ensuring that it would not collapse within three to five years.
With four skilled workers, after taking the measurements, they began digging the foundation. The foundation had to be stable. Next, they had to pour the ground beams. The ground beams had to be stable to prevent the house from collapsing.
Two young men brought over several buckets of water and began mixing cement. Shuya put on gloves and started filtering yellow sand with a shovel. Jiang Donglai instructed Shuhuai to filter the yellow sand and to go back and buy groceries to prepare lunch. Shuya responded with a smile:
"The dishes are all prepared, and it's a feast."
Knowing that her father never skimped on food, she quickly rode her bike to the market and bought two large watermelons. She put them in the well water at her grandfather's house to chill, and then boiled two kettles of water at her grandfather's house.
I'm worried that my mother-in-law will be too busy taking care of Tangtang and cooking and preparing food all by herself.
He then picked up a watermelon, cut it all up, moved a table from his grandfather's house to the doorway, and invited them to eat watermelon. He then said goodbye to his father and went home to prepare lunch.
When I got home, I saw my mother-in-law coaxing Tangtang and cooking, so I went to the kitchen.
Jiang Shuya stared blankly at the dishes, her brows furrowed, unsure of where to begin. She was terrible at cooking and disliked oil fumes, so she smiled and praised her mother-in-law for her superb cooking skills.
Fearing that the dishes she made would be unpalatable and a waste of good ingredients, she coaxed and praised her mother-in-law to take care of the meal, and so she asked her mother-in-law to cook lunch for her.
Perhaps feeling more at ease with her father around, and with her grandfather also looking after them, Jiang Shuya pushed Tangtang to the vineyard and picked some peppers, cucumbers, and water spinach.
When I got back, I suddenly realized that it would take a long time to call them over after I had cooked the food, so I decided to buy the groceries and deliver them to my grandfather's house to cook tomorrow, which would be more convenient.
I told my mother-in-law about my idea, and she also thought it would be more convenient. My grandfather's house has a large stove, so it would be more suitable to cook large pot meals. I will talk to my grandfather about this in the afternoon.
Her mother-in-law was quick and efficient; in no time, all the food was ready. She checked the time and it was already 11:30. Shuya rode her electric scooter to call everyone for dinner.
The sun wasn't too strong yet, and several young men were working hard. They had already dug pits about 1 meter deep around the house site, and several experienced workers were driving piles.
Jiang Shuya called her grandfather and invited them to eat together. After a while, the group stopped what they were doing, drank some water on empty stomachs, washed their hands and faces, and then followed Shuya along the riverbank, taking a shortcut down the river.
About fifteen minutes later, they pushed open the door from the backyard and walked into the front yard living room. Jiang Shuya couldn't help but exclaim in amazement at the food laid out on the table. Although it was all home-style cooking, it was both plentiful and pleasing to the eye. There was braised fish, braised pork with eggplant, a neatly arranged roast duck, spicy chicken, dried beef slices, stir-fried water spinach, cucumber salad, and tomato and egg soup. Everyone swallowed their saliva upon seeing it.
Grandpa waved to indicate that everyone should eat as much as they wanted. Grandma, worried that they might feel embarrassed, brought out several large bowls from the house and filled each person's bowl to the brim with rice. At first, the group was quite polite, but soon they followed suit and the only sounds were the chewing of their food.
Before Jiang Shuya could even mention that she was planning to cook at her grandfather's house tomorrow, her grandfather brought it up himself. After all, everyone was there to work, and it was really inconvenient to travel back and forth between the two places.
Jiang Shuya and her mother-in-law exchanged a glance and readily agreed.
The mother-in-law brought some rice, a few vegetarian dishes, and some soup from the kitchen to Grandma.
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