"Be careful." Lin Chaosheng helped Liang Mei out of the car.
"Brother, what do we do next?" Lin Shansheng pointed to a pile of things in the yard.
"Alright, you and Dad go and move the things inside, and Wei He and I will dig some mud and set up a big pot," Lin Chaosheng said after thinking for a moment.
Lin Shanhai asked in confusion, "Why are you setting up a pot? Isn't there a big pot in the room?"
“That’s not enough, Dad. There are over forty people to eat next, and one pot won’t be enough,” Lin Chaosheng explained.
Lin Shanhai nodded, then turned around and began packing his things.
Lin Chaosheng pushed the cart, and together with Wei He, they dug up several cartloads of soil and stones, and began to mix mud and build a stove.
Everyone got so busy that they forgot about the time, and it got dark very quickly.
"We can't start work today, let's start tomorrow," Lin Chaosheng said, looking at the setting sun in the west.
Zhao Shufang moved the dishes to the doorway. "Perfect timing, let me try out your big stove and see if it works well."
"Is it time to eat again?" Upon hearing this, Lin Shanhai immediately moved closer to Zhao Shufang.
"Why do you get all excited when you hear about food?" Zhao Shufang really wanted to give this old man a good kick in the butt.
Lin Shanhai scratched his head, "I was just asking a question..."
Liang Mei also came over, "Mom, let me help you."
Just as Zhao Shufang was about to stop her, Liang Mei quickly added, "I'll just lend a hand and learn something along the way."
Lin Chaosheng was eager to move into the new house, so he called Lin Shansheng and Wei He to go and demolish the house first.
"Throw the tools onto the donkey cart." Lin Chaosheng untied the donkey cart.
When the group arrived at the old house, they first used pickaxes to dig along the base of the house wall.
Before long, the three of them were covered in sweat.
Then he took a hammer off the donkey cart and started hammering the wooden stakes in the house.
"This is too much trouble. How about we take down the doors and windows first?" Lin Shansheng suggested, wiping his sweat.
Lin Chaosheng, panting heavily, sat down on the ground. "You're right, this is really exhausting. I'm going to rest for a while."
Once he caught his breath, Lin Chaosheng picked up a crowbar and began dismantling the window.
Lin Shansheng and Wei He were dismantling the gate on the side.
Although the doors and windows were old, they were still sturdy. The three of them stacked the doors and windows to one side and sat heavily on the ground.
Lin Shansheng lay down on the ground.
"I must eat eight bowls of rice tonight..." Lin Shansheng said weakly.
“Eat, eat ten bowls,” Lin Chaosheng pulled Lin Shansheng up. “Then let’s work harder and demolish more so that the house can be built faster.”
Lin Shan took a deep breath and stood up. "Come on!"
After saying that, he continued digging at the base of the wall.
Lin Chaosheng looked at Wei He, "How are you? Do you still have any strength?"
Not wanting to disappoint Lin Chaosheng, Wei He nodded repeatedly and got up to join Lin Shansheng's team.
The three of them kept digging at the base of the wall until they finally finished digging it all out.
Lin Chaosheng picked up a ladder, preparing to dismantle the roof first.
After he went up, he asked Lin Shansheng to tie a rope to the basket so he could go up.
Then he removed the tiles one by one and carried them down to Lin Shansheng.
Wei He also climbed up and helped Lin Chaosheng remove the tiles.
After being transported back and forth more than ten times, the entire old house was soon left bare.
Lin Chaosheng carefully climbed down the ladder, stacked the tiles aside, and then took a hammer into the house to hammer the wooden stakes.
"Thump, thump, thump..." The sound coming from the old house echoed throughout the entire village.
"Is this ever going to end? This argument has been going on for so long."
"Hmph, this is just the beginning, and you can't even handle the demolition of houses?"
"Dad, can't a person get any rest...?"
"No way, I'm going to go and have a word with them."
"Wait for me, I'm coming too!"
The envious villagers arrived noisily at Lin Chaosheng's doorstep.
"Don't you have any sense of public morality?" a villager shouted.
Lin Chaosheng and his group turned around and found a group of people standing menacingly at the door.
"Brother, do you want me to..." Lin Shansheng was about to step forward and argue with the villagers when Lin Chaosheng grabbed him.
"Ignore them. Let's finish what we need to do and leave. These people are always causing trouble. It's nothing new." Lin Chaosheng shook his head speechlessly and continued knocking on the wall.
The three ignored the angry villagers and continued with their work, which only made the group angrier.
"Hey, didn't you hear me calling you? You have no manners at all!" shouted an old widower who was leading the group.
Lin Chaosheng looked at them expressionlessly and said, "Speak quickly if you have something to say."
"Alright, then I'll have something to say to you. You're disturbing the villagers' rest!" the old widower said, hands on his hips, with a righteous expression.
"Resting? Who's resting?" Lin Chaosheng asked back.
Upon hearing this, everyone stammered. Seeing this, the old widower immediately changed his tune: "Well, you haven't even started building yet. If you do start building, what time will you start each morning and what time will you finish each night?"
Lin Chaosheng really wanted to mock them, but he was afraid of making a scene, so he said amicably, "We start building the houses at eight o'clock every morning and finish at six o'clock in the evening. We have a two-hour lunch break. Is anyone resting right now?"
Everyone fell silent upon hearing this, and some, realizing they were in the wrong, secretly slipped away.
Seeing that no one was helping him, the old widower hurriedly said, "I! I'll rest for now!"
Wei He questioned from the side, "Are you saying you sleep from eight in the morning to six in the evening? Even a pig can't sleep as long as you."
Lin Shansheng couldn't help but burst out laughing after hearing this.
The old widower blushed with embarrassment and stammered, "I... I mean, I'll be taking a break during this time. Is there a problem?"
Lin Chaosheng immediately asked, "Then during which times do you mainly work? We don't work during those times."
The old widower stammered, unable to give a coherent explanation: "I...I usually...I just sleep when I'm tired."
The crowd burst into laughter.
Someone in the crowd shouted, "Then it's no different from a pig!"
"That's right, stop it, you're embarrassing yourself!"
The old widower's face turned pale with anger, and he stormed off with his arms crossed.
Seeing that Lin Chaosheng had said so, no one had anything to say in terms of the start time of work, and they all went home in twos and threes.
Lin Chaosheng spread his hands: "See? These people are always looking for trouble. I can't be bothered with them."
Lin Shansheng looked disgusted. "Honestly, I'm starting to wonder if these people have some kind of intellectual disability..."
Wei He leaned against the pickaxe and nodded in agreement: "I also have serious doubts."
After complaining for a while, the three of them continued to bang on the wooden stake.
Eventually, the wooden stakes became riddled with cracks.
Lin Chaosheng clapped his hands, put his hands on his hips and said, "Alright, tomorrow we'll have forty-odd people knocking on the wall together, and we'll tear this down in no time."
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