Chapter 9 Brick House
Before signing up to go to the countryside, Tao Nanfeng's father Tao Shouxin had a very clear plan for his future.
I first worked in the library of the Architecture Department of Jiangcheng Jianzhu University for two years. Under his guidance, I taught myself theoretical knowledge of architecture. After I had a solid foundation, I entered the teaching and research office and started as a draftsman. Then I was recommended to study architecture at the school. After graduation, I stayed on as a teacher.
Tao Nanfeng is careful, steady and has a good memory. Her father has carefully trained her in the hope that she will take over the business.
Tao Nanfeng read through all the professional books in his father's study. Some of the books were too professional for him to understand, so he just swallowed them whole and forced himself to memorize them. Now that she was entrusted with an important task for the first time, she quickly searched her memory for useful knowledge.
"What kind of building materials should be used? Let me think about it." Tao Nanfeng glanced at Qiao Yadong who asked the question and fell into deep thought.
The educated youth standing aside began to feel anxious and whispered to each other.
"Why is Tao Nanfeng not talking? Is there something wrong?"
"Although I don't know much about construction, I know that a good cook cannot cook without rice. If you only rely on the thatch and wood from the mountain, what you can build is just a thatched house, right?"
"Building a house still requires experience. Can Tao Nanfeng do it?"
After hearing the last sentence, Li Huilan and Qiao Yadong stared at the person who was speaking and said in unison: "If you can do it, go ahead!"
After they finished cursing at the same time, they saw the man's neck shrink and he dared not question anymore, and they smiled at each other.
Tao Nanfeng was always very focused when thinking about a problem and didn't hear a word others said. Amid the buzzing sound, she seemed to have figured something out. She erased a few lines with an eraser and picked up a pencil to continue drawing.
Tao Nanfeng finished the first draft of the floor plan for a simple house with five dormitories on one floor in just one hour.
Most of the educated youth did not have the patience to wait and ran to the next door to pack their luggage, washing some and drying some. The corridor of the field office was filled with washbasins, buckets, shoes... a dazzling array of things.
The remaining three girls and Qiao Yadong waited quietly by the side. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief when they saw Tao Nanfeng finally finish drawing the head raising.
Tao Nanfeng shook his head, seeming dissatisfied. Due to limited conditions, there is no fountain pen here, otherwise the drawing would look better.
Seeing her move, Xiao Aiyun dared to walk over to her and looked at the lines on the grid drawing paper with curiosity in his eyes: "Is this an architectural drawing? It's square, with horizontal and vertical lines, thick and thin. It looks good, but it doesn't look like a house."
Tao Nanfeng smiled slightly: "This is a floor plan. Look, these two lines are walls, the three lines on the wall represent windows, and this arc represents the door..."
The rest of them came closer, huddled their heads together, and looked carefully along the direction Tao Nanfeng's finger was pointing, nodding as they listened, like chicks pecking at rice.
"This is the corridor, isn't it?"
"This is the toilet, this is the kitchen, ah, this is the bathroom."
"Tao Nanfeng, your handwriting is so beautiful, long and straight, as if it was carved."
Hearing the praise from his companions, Tao Nanfeng's smile was a little shy. Engineering characters are special fonts for drawing. My father once said that engineering characters are the face of a designer and must be written well.
Hearing the girls praising Tao Nanfeng's calligraphy, Qiao Yadong cleared his throat and reminded, "Um, Tao Nanfeng, have you thought about what building materials to use?"
Tao Nanfeng nodded.
Qiao Yadong breathed a sigh of relief: "What?"
Tao Nanfeng recalled what was said in the book: The essence of vernacular architecture lies in adapting to nature, adapting to local conditions, and using local materials.
She spoke slowly, her eyes sparkling as if stars were falling in them.
"There are a lot of stones and loess in Xiufeng Mountain. The stones are used as the foundation and the loess is used to build the brick walls."
Tao Nanfeng said a few words, but Qiao Yadong felt as if the fog in front of his eyes had been cleared and he jumped up with joy.
"Yes! In addition to wood and thatch, there are mostly stones and soil on Xiufeng Mountain. Since we can't buy cement and red bricks, we dig stones to build the foundation and use loess to make bricks to build the walls."
Tao Nanfeng removed the tape on the four sides of the drawing, gently and carefully rolled it into a paper tube, waved it in his hand and said, "Let's go to the site."
The educated youth who were packing up in the corridor saw Tao Nanfeng holding a roll of paper in her hand. Li Huilan and others surrounded her and walked out of the house. They all asked happily: "The blueprint is finished. Can we build the house now?"
Tao Nanfeng said: "I have finished drawing the floor plan, and now I want to go and see the site."
Qiao Yadong now almost worships Tao Nanfeng: "Tao Nanfeng said that we should build a mud brick house so that cold wind will not blow into the house in winter. Let's go! Let's go to the educated youth site together."
When the educated youth heard this, they cheered collectively: "Go, go, go! Work hard for ten days and live in a big house!"
Tao Nanfeng said: "Ten days are not enough." Earthen bricks need to be mixed with wet soil first, and then removed from the mold and dried. Bricklaying also takes time. Ten days is really not enough.
The educated youths hurriedly said, "It's okay, we'll take our time."
Tao Nanfeng felt warm in his heart at everyone's unconditional trust and support, and nodded slightly. A mountain breeze blew, bringing with it moist water vapor. A strand of hair on Tao Nanfeng's forehead was lifted up by the wind and twirled playfully around her ear.
Her eyes are sparkling and calm like water.
Tao Nanfeng, who was previously considered cold and delicate, now exudes a radiance that makes people look up to him.
Qiao Yadong felt as if an electric current was striking his head, and he stood there unable to move.
In his eyes, Tao Nanfeng was silent and unsmiling, but she seemed like a snow-white night-blooming cereus slowly blooming in the night. The moonlight sprinkled down, giving the petals a golden fluorescence, which was dazzlingly beautiful.
Qiao Yadong's silly look made the girls cover their mouths and laugh. When the giggles fell to their ears, Qiao Yadong reacted and his face turned red.
It was red all the way to the ears.
Qiao Yadong coughed to cover it up, and turned his eyes to the wash basin in the corridor: "I, that... do I need a basin to mix the wet mud?"
The feelings of a young man are always poetic, but Tao Nanfeng did not feel Qiao Yadong's throbbing at all. He was thinking about how to get soil to make bricks, and answered casually, "No need."
There is a wetland in the open space to the east of the educated youth site, which was formed by long-term infiltration of spring water. It is a perfect place to dig a hole and take soil, and then mix and compact it in front of the house. Then use the mold to make bricks, and as long as the weather is good, they can be dried in two days.
As for the stones... the road construction team would dig up a lot of rocks every day. All they had to do was borrow a small cart and drag the stones to the open space at the educated youth site.
After thinking about this, Tao Nanfeng looked at everyone and said, "Let's level the site first, lay out the lines, dig trenches, and build the foundation."
Leveling the site, laying out the lines, digging trenches, and building the foundation?
Professional, absolutely professional.
When the educated youth heard the professional terms coming out of her mouth, they became more convinced that she really understood architecture and started shouting excitedly.
"Tao Nanfeng, we listen to you."
"Tao Nanfeng, just give the orders and we will follow them."
Countless pairs of eager eyes were looking at her. Tao Nanfeng felt a sense of responsibility in her heart. She straightened her back, and the light in her eyes became brighter: "Let's go!"
The dirt road was slippery and muddy after the rain. Tao Nanfeng was surrounded by a group of people, like the moon surrounded by stars.
When they arrived at the No. 6 educated youth site, everyone cleaned up the site according to Qiao Yadong's arrangements, picked up thatch, moved beams, shifted earth... and began the preliminary preparations in full swing.
Huang Xingwu came over with two people from the Infrastructure Department. His pupils shrank when he saw the orderly situation. What are these twenty educated youth doing? Do they really know how to build a house?
He walked over with his hands behind his back, looking here and there.
No one paid any attention to him. Wei Min and his companions carried a broken beam and deliberately waved it towards Huang Xingwu. Huang Xingwu had suffered from him before, so he was so scared that he dodged to the side and asked, "What are you going to do?"
Wei Min laughed and mocked him, "Section Chief Huang, isn't he anxious to help the other educated youths repair their houses? How come he can find time to come here for an inspection despite his busy schedule?"
Huang Xingwu rolled his eyes and said, "I am the chief of the infrastructure section. I am in charge of all the infrastructure on the farm. Half of your educated youth camp has collapsed, so you still have to rely on us. If you are a little nicer, say a few soft words, and buy a few packs of cigarettes for the masters, we can build brick and tile houses, not to mention thatched houses!"
Buy cigarettes? How many more packs?
The farm was built on the mountainside, with the terrain being low in the east and high in the west. A supply and marketing cooperative was opened below, selling oil, salt, sauce, vinegar, needles, thread and towels. Due to the rugged mountain road, it was not easy to get down the mountain, so the most luxurious things here were side dishes, cigarettes and alcohol.
A pack of the cheapest Pegasus cigarettes cost 30 cents, while the more upscale Daqianmen cigarettes sold at a high price of one dollar a pack.
Wei Min was furious when he heard this: "What do you mean? We are all poor and can't afford cigarettes! Since you are the infrastructure department, these things are your responsibilities. Do you still need us to beg or give gifts?"
When Ye Qin heard this, he remembered that he was assigned to the pig farm because the farm leader was using some "killing stick" to force everyone to give gifts and submit, so he refused to accept the result and confronted him.
"Do you know that this is corruption? You will go to jail if you are arrested!"
Her family worked in the Agricultural Bureau, and her father was a section chief. He was an honest and upright man who hated people playing tricks behind the scenes. Having been influenced by her father, Ye Qin naturally could not stand Huang Xingwu's behavior of soliciting bribes.
Huang Xingwu was furious when he heard her say this: "Little girl, don't talk nonsense. What do you know? The masters work hard. How can giving them a few cigarettes be considered corruption?"
While they were bickering, Qiao Yadong asked Tao Nanfeng softly, "Can we build the house after we clean up the site today? The ground is still wet."
Tao Nanfeng walked to the east where the spring water flowed down and pointed to the wetland with lush water plants: "Dig the soil first."
Qiao Yadong asked: "Can we calculate how much soil is needed and how many bricks can be made from the blueprint?"
Tao Nanfeng unfolded the drawing with both hands, pondered in silence, and silently calculated the volume of the wall in his mind.
Huang Xingwu became interested immediately when he saw the architectural drawing. He pushed Wei Min and Ye Qin aside, strode up to Tao Nanfeng, and reached out to grab it.
A gust of wind blew, and Tao Nanfeng was startled. He reacted quickly, stepped back and avoided it.
Huang Xingwu's eyes flashed: "Where did you steal this picture from? Return it to me immediately!"
Qiao Yadong took a step forward and stood in front of Tao Nanfeng: "Who stole your picture? This was drawn by Tao Nanfeng."
Huang Xingwu was a thin man, standing in front of Qiao Yadong, he was shorter than him. He said impatiently: "She drew it? How is it possible! I just came out of the site for a while, and she drew such a large architectural drawing?"
Seeing Tao Nanfeng being bullied, the educated youth all gathered around.
"Why do you bully girls?"
"We watched her paint. Why are you slandering her for stealing the painting?"
"Is it true that only your infrastructure department has architectural drawings? Pah—"
Huang Xingwu did not expect the educated youth from Jiangcheng to be so united. He bulged his triangular eyes and said timidly, "Don't make trouble. Can't I ask about the building plan?"
Huang Xingwu was furious because he asked for cigarettes but failed and was confronted by Wei Min and Ye Qin instead. Seeing that Tao Nanfeng looked weak and delicate and easy to bully, he took out his anger on her.
"You are so young, but you are so arrogant! I wanted to help you repair the house with good intentions, but you said that you didn't protect yourself from the cold in winter. Now I am here to help you regardless of the past, but you got a blueprint from somewhere and pretend to be an expert.
Come on, let me take a look at what the hell you drew. A group of intellectuals think they can build a house by following a blueprint? It's ridiculous! ”
He took a closer look and was suddenly stuck.
Two heads came up from behind. They were two workers from the infrastructure department. They were amazed and said, "This architectural drawing is beautiful..."
Huang Xingwu raised his hand to push the two away and said unhappily, "Why are you two joining in the fun? Go away."
He squinted at Tao Nanfeng and said, "Don't think you can be an expert just by holding a blueprint. This is just a floor plan. Where is the basic plan? Where is the basic detail drawing? Where is the elevation drawing? Where is the section drawing? You don't even have a complete set of drawings. How dare you talk about building a house?"
Then he pointed to the black line on the diagram that represented the wall and said, "Brick wall? Gable purlin? Do you know how much a red brick costs? How much labor will it cost to transport it to the mountain, and how long will it take? At this rate, you won't be able to finish the construction by the New Year!"
Huang Xingwu's series of questions fully demonstrated his professional level.
Everyone's mood hit the bottom. They stopped what they were doing and looked at Tao Nanfeng intently, waiting for her answer.
The author has something to say:
Our bricklayer Tao Nanfeng is finally going to lead everyone to build a house~
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