The tenth day of the twelfth lunar month.
The villagers worked for over a month, and the house they built wasn't as big as the Liu family's, so they all moved in as soon as it was almost finished.
The yard is made of adobe bricks, and with a simple wooden gate, it becomes a new home.
Everyone listened to the village chief and did not make a thatched roof. The tiles they were given were not enough, so they bought more with their own money. The main body of the house was made of adobe and the roof was made of tiles. They bought some white lime, added water and clay to mix it, and applied it to the wall. After a few days of exposure to the sun, the house became white and bright.
For the ground, I went to the sandy field and moved some gravel, mixed it with clay, and compacted the ground and the yard so that it wouldn't appear gray.
This is their new home, a new home they built themselves, and they are happy no matter how they look at it.
After the house is ready, those who know how to make simple furniture can do it themselves. If they don’t know how to do it, they can contact Li Dazhu and Li Erzhu.
Li Dazhu and Li Erzhu went back to their old business, and with the help of their wives Wang Daya and Wang Erya, the sisters brought their children, the business was booming.
The villagers brought in wood, and they helped process it into furniture, charging them fair wages based on their hard work, even less than what they would get in the north.
As a result, their craftsmanship and character became known to people in the surrounding area, and they were forced to expand their business. But that’s another story.
No one made any agreement, and the idle villagers came to help the Liu family build the house. The young boys were asked to chop wood, and those who came to help were women, strong men, or young men.
Every day, Liu Shinan pulled a horse-drawn cart to the town to buy vegetables and grain, or ran around to order materials. The villagers helped to build the wall. The wall built by Liu Yuhan's family was made of adobe, stones and clay. In short, it had to be stronger than adobe.
The fence is made two meters high, with sharp wooden pieces on the top to prevent animals.
The day before the roof beams were put up, Liu Shinan went to the county town and made an agreement with the furniture maker that the furniture would be delivered in ten days, as it was almost the Chinese New Year at that time.
Liu Yuhan was extremely busy, and the villagers who came to help her would definitely eat at her house. If the villagers refused, they would just pay them for their work. As a result, the villagers had no choice but to eat lunch and dinner at her house.
Liu Yuhan, along with her aunt and her mother, and five or six other women in the village, were busy preparing three meals a day in the kitchen, consuming a lot of rice and vegetables. The vegetables in her space that were harvested in the previous round were finally used up.
We also made an agreement with the butcher in the town to deliver a slaughtered pig every two days. Every day, there must be meat in the dishes, including bone soup or egg soup, and some vegetables.
The food consumption for 200 people is very high, and the black rice and black noodles she bought in her space are also being consumed quickly.
The rice we cook is dry rice made of white rice and brown rice, and the steamed buns are made by steaming white flour and black flour together.
There are three more stoves behind the stove, so if the food is not enough, we can cook more.
Including the villagers, there were more than 200 people helping with the work, and the progress was very fast that day.
15 days before the Chinese New Year, an auspicious day was chosen for raising the beam.
Liu Daling prepared offerings, including three kinds of sacrificial meat (pork, live fish, and chicken and goose), and three kinds of vegetarian dishes: steamed buns, steamed cakes, and malt sugar. Also included among the offerings was a five-grain plate containing a wooden ruler, tree stumps, and a bronze mirror, symbolizing the completeness of the five elements: gold, wood, water, fire, and earth.
Before the beams are put up, a ceremony of offering sacrifices to the beams is required, which is a way of respecting and blessing the beams. During the ceremony, red paper, lanterns, wine, food and other items are used for offering sacrifices.
The process of installing the main beam (the central horizontal beam of the house) is called "raising the beam." To the sound of firecrackers, the carpenter hangs a red cloth on the beam. Once the beam is raised, the carpenter uses a red string to hang a red cloth bag containing a lucky charm from the beam. The bag is then thrown in all directions, symbolizing wealth and good fortune.
Throwing beams is performed after the beam raising ceremony. By throwing objects, people hope to bring more wealth and good luck.
Liu Yuhan took out a handful of malt sugar, red dates, peanuts and a lot of copper coins he bought from the space, and asked his elder brother and others to scatter them down from the roof.
The children were having a blast, and the adults were scrambling to share in the joy.
A pig was ordered that day and a pig-killing banquet was held.
Once the beams are put up, the main structure will be topped off.
After the roof is sealed with tiles, the interior and exterior will be plastered, the yard and the ground will be tiled, and the doors and windows will be installed.
When everything was finished, there were only 5 days left until the Chinese New Year. The wall was also built with the help of the villagers.
The villagers helped them fill wooden buckets with water and use cut coarse cloth to scrub the house. After washing it clean under the strong sun for two or three days, they could move in. Everyone was amazed at how big and magnificent the house was.
I was also particularly interested in their bathroom and toilet. They were so bright and clean. The floor and walls were all paved with stone slabs, and water was brought in from the mountains using bamboo.
Although this toilet feels a bit strange, it has no smell at all. The villagers can't help but think that using the toilet here is also a kind of enjoyment.
Liu Yuhan, Liu Shinan, and Liu Daling went to the courtyard where the craftsmen were temporarily staying to settle their wages. They had already paid 30 taels of wood in advance, so now they mainly needed to pay them.
Needless to say, Niu the craftsman did his job very carefully and personally. The management staff was also very good, and Liu Yuhan gave him a red envelope worth six taels.
Because they had to rush the work, they didn't have much of a lunch break, so their wages were several cents higher per day. The remaining 60 workers worked for 40 days without a single day off. Liu Daling said that these workers were all willing to work hard, and not a single one was lazy.
Their wages have been agreed upon. If food and accommodation are included, 20 skilled craftsmen will get 50 wen a day, workers will get 35 wen a day, and 10 villagers will get 30 wen a day.
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