Tang Jianjun's eyes lit up. His family of three all had rural household registration in Mushroom Village and no business in Beijing.
It would be better to go back to your hometown and develop your career there; you might be able to live a prosperous life there.
Besides, Tang Xiaoling's reputation in Beijing is already terrible, so she definitely won't find a good family. She might as well go home; maybe she'll find one.
Tang Jianjun went to see Yan Xiaonan as soon as the new year started, expressing Tang Xiaoling's idea that he should accompany her back to take a look, as rebuilding the house was a big deal.
Yan Xiaonan was very supportive. After all, Tang Xiaoling was still the biological mother of Wujinban and Duoduo, so she couldn't go too far in her actions.
He even took out a thousand yuan and handed it to Tang Jianjun: "Uncle Tang, this money should be enough for you to rebuild your house when you go home."
Tang Jianjun was reluctant to accept the money, but he couldn't argue with Yan Xiaonan, so he could only gratefully accept it.
Yan Xiaoqiang was very happy to learn that Tang Jianjun was going home to build a house, and secretly slipped Tang Jianjun five hundred yuan:
"This is my secret stash of money. You'd better keep it safe. You might need it when you get old."
Tang Jianjun, who wanted to refuse, felt a tightness in his throat and his eyes reddened. He couldn't refuse the money no matter what, so he could only hold Yan Xiaoqiang tightly.
"Qiangzi, I'm not as lucky as you to have such a good daughter, but I'm not bad either, to have a brother like you."
“That’s right. Stay at my place for now, and move back to your original house once it’s finished. Here, take the key.” Yan Xiaoqiang handed the key to Tang Jianjun.
Tang Jianjun accepted the offer. A house needs people to live in it to have any life, and he really wanted to add some life to the Yan family.
Yan Xinan brought Duoduo and Wu Jinban to see them off. When no one was looking, Xinan stuffed a large roll of money into Tang Jianjun's pocket.
Because of the large number of people, Tang Jianjun could only pretend not to know, but he felt very warm inside. He patted Wu Jinban and Duo Duo's heads and said:
"Live a good life with your father, and Grandpa will be back soon."
Wu Jinban and Duo Duo still have a lot of affection for Tang Jianjun, and with tears in their eyes, they begged their grandparents to go home as soon as possible.
Tang Xiaoling secretly observed Southwest and the two children, but the two children wouldn't even glance in her direction. It was such a failure.
The train rattled along towards Mushroom Village. Tang Xiaoling sat on the train, flipping through the first-grade textbook of Wujin Ban Elementary School, asking her father about any words she didn't recognize.
I managed to finish the book after a four- or five-day train journey. After all, I'm an adult, so I learn things very quickly.
Back in Mushroom Village, Manure Ball came to pick them up in a tractor, as instructed by the village chief; Yan Xinan's master had gone home.
Tang Xiaoling looked closely at her old home, and sure enough, the house was in a dilapidated state.
Tang Jianjun took out candy and gave it to Fenqiu to thank him for coming all this way. He then opened the back gate of the Yan family's house, asked Tang's mother and Tang Xiaoling to clean it up, and then carried the gifts to the village chief Ma's house.
Village Chief Ma received a call from Yan Xiaoqiang early in the morning. The message was clear: although the two families' children were divorced, Tang Jianjun would always be Southwest's mentor, and he himself was Tang Jianjun's brother.
Village Chief Ma, of course, understood the implied meaning: it's just building a house, too simple.
Village Chief Ma turned on the village's loudspeaker again; it must have been replaced with a new one, because the squeaking sound was gone.
When the villagers learned that the Tang family was going to demolish their old, dilapidated house and build a new one, everyone was excited, thinking they would make money again.
Many hands make light work; in just one week, not only was the house demolished, but bricks, tiles, and timber were all prepared.
Tang Jianjun organized a banquet in the village to entertain the village chief and other workers who had helped with the construction, which served as a groundbreaking ceremony before the project started.
He asked Tang's mother to keep an eye on things while he took Tang Xiaoling to town to find his old friend and ask him to help him find out where there were any storefronts for sale.
Tang Xiaoling was lucky; the factory where she used to work in the southwest went bankrupt, and a house along the street was actually going to be sold.
Tang Xiaoling knew this house; the outside was only two meters wide and three meters long, but once you went through the small door, the interior was quite large.
Besides the three main rooms in a row, there is a courtyard at the back, and a gate in the courtyard leads to the factory.
This place used to be occupied by the old factory director's wife, but now that the factory is being sold, this land has to be given up.
The price is just outrageously high; a courtyard with a building area of nearly 200 square meters costs 10,000 yuan.
Because the asking price was 10,000, the seller refused to budge an inch. Many people were interested, but almost no one was able to buy it.
So when Tang Jianjun asked, they pointed out the direction and provided many sources of information, including the fact that the house had a land title deed.
Tang Xiaoling had five thousand yuan, Southwest had two thousand yuan in a roll of money in his pocket, Yan Xiaonan gave him one thousand yuan, Qiangzi gave him five hundred yuan, and he had five hundred yuan in his bank account.
The five hundred yuan in his bank account was intended for building a house. According to his original plan, the house in his hometown should be similar to the Yan family's.
The five hundred yuan I had prepared was definitely not enough, but fortunately the Yan family gave me a lot of money, so adding another two or three hundred wouldn't be a problem.
It seems that won't work now. If we want to save money, we can only build a house similar to our old one, with a main room and three rooms behind it.
Behind the three rooms, build a toilet and a woodshed, starting from the private plot; that would be more convenient.
Two rooms were built on each side of the main hall, with two large kang rooms on each side, so that people could make do with sleeping if they came.
Let's leave the other two rooms empty. They can be used if our son comes back. That way, 500 yuan should be enough.
Even so, he was still short 1,500 yuan. After thinking it over, he could only ask the Yan family for a loan. Tang Jianjun went to the village committee to borrow a phone.
Village Chief Ma readily agreed and even went outside for a smoke, giving Tang Jianjun some space.
The call was answered by Southwest, who heard that Tang Jianjun wanted to borrow money for Tang Xiaoling to buy a storefront for the furniture factory.
"Master, wait for me, I'll wire you the money. Is two thousand enough? Don't you still need to rebuild the old house?"
Tang Jianjun felt incredibly warm inside. He might not have a son or daughter, but he did have a teacher-student bond.
Southwest has given me about 10,000 yuan in total, and I will never ask Southwest for money again.
"This money from Southwest China is a loan. I'll pay you back when I get my salary."
"Master, you don't need to pay it back. You still have to pay back the money for the staff housing after you get your salary," Southwest deliberately reminded him.
Yes, the staff housing project has only paid 10% of the purchase price; there's still 90% left.
Tang Jianjun was bewildered. He was getting old, and although he was making more and more money, he was finding it increasingly difficult to make ends meet.
“Master, here’s what I’m thinking. As husband and wife, I’ll give Tang Xiaoling five thousand yuan. As mother and son, I’ll give her two thousand yuan each.”
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