He Zhuzhu clenched her hands. She didn't expect things to go so wrong. "It won't cost that much money. Just pay for the materials. The Artificial Village can help. Just cook dinner and entertain them."
Wang Shuning muttered quietly: "I don't know where to get the materials. Who knows how much it will cost?"
He Zhuzhu looked at the village chief with a hint of pleading in her eyes, "Village chief."
He Haiming finally understood that Wang Shuning was interested in He Zhuzhu's house and was now negotiating terms and fighting for benefits. This girl had quite a few ulterior motives.
"When the village built the ancestral hall, there were some extra bricks and wood. I can give them to you at cost price, probably around seven or eight yuan. I'll call for help. For six or seven people, you have to pack a dinner, and there must be a meat dish."
Wang Shuning looked thoughtful. "I paid for the renovation of the house and the kitchen. If I don't live here long enough, it would be a big loss."
He Zhuzhu never thought that the educated youth living in her own house would need to renovate her room. What Wang Shuning said made sense. This female educated youth would get married in a few years, and then the house would be hers.
The village chief stared at Wang Shuning and asked, "So what do you want?"
Wang Shuning looked at He Zhuzhu and asked, "I am not strong enough to chop wood. From now on, your family will provide the firewood for the kitchen."
He Zhuzhu breathed a sigh of relief and agreed immediately, "Sure." How much firewood can a little girl use? The dead branches on the mountain and riverbank are free, so she can just bring the child to pick up more.
"Well... okay, Village Chief, please arrange for someone to clean up the rooms and kitchen tomorrow. After all, we have to go to work the day after tomorrow." Wang Shuning agreed after hesitating for a few seconds.
Zhang Meili looked at Wang Shuning and said, "Shuning, call me when you cook tomorrow night. Jingyi and I can go and help."
Guo Jing responded in a good mood, "I'm a pretty good cook. If you're too busy, just go to Uncle Ping's house and call us."
Wang Shuning politely declined: "I can do it all by myself, just a few dishes."
The village chief said: "Go back and put your things down first, then go to the village square to get your food. If you don't go to work and settle the house tomorrow, it won't be so easy in the future."
He Zhuzhu stepped forward to help Wang Shuning carry a sack, "Come on, I'll take you back."
The village chief turned around and looked at Wang Shuning and said, "I'll have someone move the materials over first, fix the room tonight, and finish the kitchen tomorrow morning."
Wang Shuning nodded and said, "Thank you, Village Chief. I will go to the town to buy some meat tomorrow and entertain the villagers who came to help in the evening."
When He Zhuzhu brought Wang Shuning back, there were two children, a boy and a girl, squatting at the gate of the yard.
He Guoyue held He Guochai's hand and stood up, "Mom, the vegetables have been washed."
"Don't worry, Mom will do it right away."
He Zhuzhu brought Wang Shuning to the hall, put down her things and said to her: "Before the kitchen is built, you will eat with us for only two meals. Go get the food first, and you can eat when you come back."
Wang Shuning took out a bag from his bag, which contained two unfinished multi-grain steamed buns. "I brought these from home. I didn't finish them on the way. Aunt Zhu, please heat them up when you cook. They will probably go bad if I leave them out until tomorrow."
He Zhuzhu reached out to take it, "Okay." The light yellow steamed bun skin was probably made from a mixture of corn flour and wheat flour. City people have better conditions, and no one in the village would be willing to use white flour to make steamed buns. They all use corn and sweet potatoes.
The village square was as big as half a football field. When Wang Shuning arrived, the other four were already standing there.
The village accountant distributed food to the five people and reminded them, "Eat sparingly. This food will last until the end of the year when food is distributed. Especially for you girls, you won't earn many work points, so you will get less food at the end of the year."
A small bag of wheat flour, a small bag of rice, a bag of corn kernels, a bag of sweet potatoes, and half a bag of brown rice. This is their food ration for the next five months.
Wang Shuning pursed her lips and looked at the little bit of wheat flour and rice. There were too few fine grains, only coarse grains.
Guo Jingyi's food was brought back by Lu Beichu.
Zhang Meili and Wang Shuning looked at the big and small bags on the ground, twisted the sacks to the right a few times, threw them hard on their backs, and walked towards their residence with heavy steps.
Not long after Wang Shuning returned, the village chief came with six people driving a ox cart loaded with bricks, tiles and wood.
Wang Shuning's room was only eight square meters. The roof frame was reinforced, the broken tiles were replaced with new ones, and the gaps in the walls were filled with cement. The whole process took less than an hour.
He Haiming walked up to Wang Shuning and said, "The village accountant has just calculated the cost of these things. The total cost is 7.52 yuan. I'll give you 2 yuan off, so 7.5 yuan will be enough."
Wang Shuning took out a purse from the inner pocket of his coat, counted out seven dollars and fifty cents and handed it to He Haiming, "Thank you, village chief. I will prepare food for seven people tomorrow night. Please ask the villagers to come over for dinner after work."
Although He Haiming, as the village chief, did not take any action, he still had to be invited to the meal.
The village chief looked at the money in his hand and nodded. After achieving his goal, the little girl's attitude became much better and she looked quite well-behaved.
When having dinner with He Zhuzhu's family in the evening, there were two dishes on the table, one was green vegetables, the other was scrambled eggs with peppers, and porridge made from corn grits and sweet potatoes. Two steamed buns were placed separately in a small plate in front of Wang Shuning, but no one took them.
The conditions of this family are really poor, a widow with two young children. If they didn't want to eat together, there would probably not be any meat on the table. The fried eggs with peppers had a lot of peppers.
She reached out and took a multi-grain steamed bun, broke it into two halves and put them in the bowls of He Guoyue and He Guochai respectively, and ate the remaining one for herself. She didn't want to be taken advantage of, nor would she take advantage of others.
He Guoyue looked at the half steamed bun in the bowl and raised his eyes to look at his mother.
Seeing Wang Shuning picking up food and drinking porridge very naturally, He Zhuzhu nodded towards her daughter.
He Guoyue picked up the light yellow steamed bun and took a small bite. It was very soft and fragrant.
He Guochai, who was sitting next to him, saw his sister eating, then he picked up the steamed bun and started to bite it.
Very delicious.
After dinner, Wang Shuning tied a towel on his head and started cleaning the room with a broom, dustpan and long feather duster.
When the house was just renovated, a lot of broken tiles and dust fell off, and it is impossible to live in it without cleaning it up.
The bed is very old, but fortunately it is sturdy. The small wooden stool is not bad. The cupboard looks like it has been gnawed by mice. There is not only a layer of grease on it, but also a small hole. We will move it directly outside the house. Tomorrow we will seal the hole with the leftover wooden boards from building the kitchen. We will then wash it and put it in the kitchen for use.
When I was sweeping the dust on the wall with a feather duster, the dust kept falling off. I have to find some newspapers to paste the wall tomorrow.
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