Chapter 141 New Home
With two horse-drawn carts helping to transport the goods, moving became much easier.
Everyone loaded the furniture and other items onto the carriage, while the others, who were lighter, either carried or shouldered them.
There wasn't much to move to begin with, but now, most of it has been moved in one trip.
The new house has already been tidied up.
The house was surrounded by a circle of round sticks made of wood about the height of a person, and the gate was also newly made, wider than the original, and had a gate tower.
The gate tower was covered with tar paper, and the two doors and the doorposts were all painted light blue.
The carriage stopped in front of the new house, and Sheng Liancheng and his wife came forward to open the door.
Then Zhang Shuzhen carried the rice bucket and Sheng Liancheng carried the pot; the two of them went into the house first.
The others carried down furniture and other items and followed them in.
The two westernmost rooms of the Sheng family's house were public housing, with a brick and tile structure. The easternmost room and a half were added later, with brick walls and large adobe walls.
To maintain a unified and aesthetically pleasing appearance, the exterior walls were all painted white.
The red tiles and white walls, along with the doors and windows painted in light blue like the main gate, made the house look particularly neat and clean, a refreshing sight.
The kitchen is right inside the entrance, with stoves and pots on the east and west sides of the doorway.
In the north half of the kitchen, a stove was built against the wall at the east end, connected to the kang (heated brick bed) in the inner room.
Next to the stove was where the water vat was placed. On the west side, there was a row of wall cabinets above, and the bottom was empty, which was perfect for storing cupboards, sauerkraut jars, pickled vegetable jars, sauce jars, and other items.
The east room has one and a half rooms with two large kang beds on the north and south sides, while the west room has one room with only one kang bed on the south side.
Don't be fooled by the fact that there's only one kang (heated brick bed) in the west room; the room itself is far from simple.
This was specially prepared for Sheng Xiping's wedding; the room was furnished with a complete set of new furniture with floral and willow-leaf patterns.
A kang (heated brick bed), a cabinet, a writing desk, a five-drawer chest, a pair of chests, a sideboard, and four chairs.
They didn't even calculate how many legs there were; whatever was trending at the moment, Shenglian Chengdu had it all ready.
“Brother Mingyuan, sister-in-law, look, this room was prepared for Xiping’s wedding, with a complete set of furniture.”
I'm saving up industrial vouchers. Once I've saved enough, I'll see what they like.
Or maybe buy a radio, or a sewing machine, or add another big item to the house.
Sheng Liancheng placed the two iron pots on the stove, but hadn't even had time to mix some yellow mud to seal the gaps.
They first led Zhou Mingyuan and Wang Chunxiu, the couple, to the west room to show the Sheng family's sincerity.
From the moment they stepped inside, Zhou Mingyuan and his wife liked every part of their new house.
They are still renting a place from their work unit; they don't own their own house, and the place is very small.
The Sheng family's three and a half rooms are spacious, bright, and well-organized, making them quite a sight to behold.
Looking again at the furniture and furnishings in the west room, one could see that the Sheng family had put a lot of thought into it and valued Zhou Qinglan highly.
From the moment Zhou Mingyuan and his wife first met Sheng Xiping, they felt that he was a good person with good upbringing, and that his parents must be reasonable people.
I met the Sheng family yesterday, and after a conversation, I had a very good impression of them.
They are honest, simple, and warm-hearted. A daughter who marries into such a family will surely have a good life.
"Brother Sheng, you put your heart into this." Zhou Mingyuan didn't say much, but those few words contained a lot of meaning.
"Well, isn't this the proper thing to do?"
Xiping is the eldest son and has helped the family a lot over the years, so his wedding must be taken seriously.
Sheng Liancheng laughed when he heard this. The eldest son is the head of the family and the eldest daughter-in-law is related to the family's reputation and future. How can he be taken lightly?
"Hey, brother and sister-in-law, you two can look around as you please. I'll go mix the mud and put the pot on first."
Moving house always requires a housewarming party and a hot pot. Besides, we'll be cooking and preparing dishes to entertain guests later, so how can we use the pot if we don't have it installed?
"Okay, Sheng-ge, you go ahead with your work, I'll go out and help carry things."
The new house, apart from the west room which was already set up in advance, the east room is still empty and there's not much to see.
So Zhou Mingyuan quickly went out to help carry furniture and other things into the house.
Wang Chunxiu helped Zhang Shuzhen tidy up the kitchen so they could cook later.
Everyone carried the things from the car into the house, moved the furniture to the east room, put the things that needed to be placed on the kang (a heated brick bed), and put everything in its proper place.
After everything was properly arranged, the group drove back to bring over the remaining items.
The men went to move things, while Zhang Shuzhen, Wang Chunxiu, Xu Xiuxiang, and Zhou Qinglan quickly cleaned up the kitchen and prepared the meal.
That's easy enough; the meat we divided up yesterday hasn't even been touched yet.
Just pack it up and cook it however you like – fry, stir-fry, boil, whatever you like – you can eat as much as you want.
In the new house, we actually come over every day to light a fire on the kang (heated brick bed), but we just haven't installed a pot yet.
Sheng Liancheng mixed the mud and adjusted it slightly according to the size of the pot.
Then, spread yellow mud around the edge of the stove, place the iron pot on it, and rotate it slightly to ensure a tight fit between the pot and the surrounding area.
Just use a trowel to find it a little more, and that should do it.
The stove in the Sheng family's house was made of bricks and had a cement surface, making it much cleaner than a mud stove.
After setting up the stove and pot, Sheng Liancheng went back to move his things.
They say even a broken home is worth a fortune; after all, these odds and ends add up, and you can't do without any of them.
So everything that's needed right now has been moved over, leaving only the warehouse, woodshed, and woodpile. Sheng Liancheng had already told his family that they wouldn't move them for the time being.
Sheng Liancheng was reluctant to throw away the old house, and planned to let others live there if they wanted to.
In a few years, when the second and third sons are grown up, we'll rebuild the old house so they can use it to get married.
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