Such a thatched house would only cost forty or fifty yuan. With the commune's housing subsidy of fifteen yuan for educated youth, the village only needed to contribute thirty yuan for that house. The cost would be recovered in three or four years, and in the end, the house would still belong to the village, making it a sure-fire profit.
Of course, these houses are mainly for the new educated youth. The old educated youth have been through the baptism of farm work and know how hard it is to earn work points. Most of them would not be willing to spend two yuan a month to rent a house.
The situation is different for the new educated youth. They are unfamiliar with the rural conditions when they first arrive, and since they have money, many of them would be willing to spend some money to make themselves more comfortable.
The rent will be collected in advance for six months. Even if the educated youth feel they have lost money, it doesn't matter. They can squeeze into the old house or share with the villagers. Anyway, new educated youth will come in the second year, and the house will still be available for rent.
Of course, this idea came from Chen Shuning and Zhong Lingling building a house. Although Shen Baogen was a little unhappy that the two had just embarrassed him, he did not intend to make things difficult for them.
The educated youth naturally had no objections, since they didn't have to contribute money or effort. If someone rented out a house, their living conditions would be more comfortable, so the matter was settled.
Because dinner had a less than pleasant time, and the village head mentioned that the village was going to build houses, everyone started to have some ulterior motives.
So after dinner, instead of sitting in the courtyard chatting and enjoying the cool air as usual, everyone either went back inside or went out to visit each other.
Chen Shuning also chose to move to her own little house that night, even though Zhong Lingling tried her best to persuade her to move tomorrow, since it was still hot and her little house needed to be heated at night, so it was impossible for anyone to stay there.
However, Chen Shuning refused all of them, saying that she wanted to watch the fire at night. Anyway, she had her own space, so she could just close the door and go into her space after everyone went to sleep.
After learning that houses were to be built in the village, many people in the old village had ulterior motives.
First, there's Yang Wanqiu. Although she doesn't have much money, she can still afford to live in the same house that Chen Shuning spent over a hundred yuan on for just two yuan a month, which is quite a bargain.
The only problem was that paying six months' rent upfront was a bit much, but twelve yuan wasn't unacceptable. After tossing and turning all night, Yang Wanqiu finally decided to rent a place.
The next day, the brigade leader went to town early again to get the commune to approve the slip and write the certificate. After all, it was a public matter, and collecting rent from the educated youth didn't sound very good, so it was better to have the commune share the blame.
This time, however, he didn't ride a tractor, but instead rode in Old Yang's oxcart. Last time, the brigade leader wouldn't have bothered to use the village's tractor if it weren't for needing to haul bricks and cement for Chen Shuning.
Because the new educated youth were to arrive in a day or two, the team acted quickly. The next day, Shen Dahe brought people to the educated youth compound again. The location of the new house was still chosen in the backyard, right next to Zhong Lingling's house, since the backyard was really big.
The village didn't have much money, and most of the mud bricks were bought on credit from the villagers. The wages were paid directly in work points, so they could only build five rooms at the moment.
This time, a lot more people came to build houses. Thirty or forty people came in a hurry. There wasn't much work to do in the fields at the moment, so everyone was willing to do this kind of work that the village gave them work points for. Even several male educated youths went to build houses in the backyard.
Chen Shuning, who was sleeping soundly in the space, was awakened by the noise outside. She glanced at the alarm clock on the bedside table and realized it was not yet five o'clock. She couldn't help but let out a wail and finally resigned herself to leaving the space.
Thinking back to how I was adding firewood to the stove and water to the pot almost every half hour last night, until I felt I couldn't hold on any longer at four in the morning, I decided to let the fire in the stove burn itself out and went to sleep. I didn't expect to be woken up after only an hour.
At this moment, Chen Shuning was extremely annoyed that he could hear the sounds outside so clearly from within his own space.
But no matter how much she complained, she had to get up because it was just too hot in the room.
First, I opened all the doors and windows that I had closed last night. While I was dozing off, I scooped up a basin of cold water and washed my face. Then I brushed my teeth with water that was warm in the pot.
After restarting the fire, Chen Shuning washed some millet and cooked porridge. He also scooped out a bowl of flour, added an egg, and made an egg pancake. He ate a simple breakfast with pickled cucumbers from the supermarket.
Actually, Chen Shuning really liked the feeling of eating at a small kang table, but right now her kang was too small for anyone to sit on.
After finishing his meal, seeing that there was still some time before starting work, Chen Shuning took a small stool and sat by the door, watching the fire and the lively house-raising ceremony next door. There was no way around it; it was just too hot inside to stay in.
Before long, the people from the old house gradually got up, and the courtyard became lively with the sounds of washing up and talking.
Liu Shumei, who came to the backyard to use the toilet, saw Chen Shuning sitting by the door and greeted her with a smile: "Shuning, have you had breakfast? There's some chicken stew with potatoes left over from yesterday. If you haven't eaten, come and have some with us."
These days, it's rare for anyone to have meat except during holidays, so Liu Shumei felt very bad that Chen Shuning brought a whole chicken to improve everyone's meals.
Chen Shuning could roughly guess what Liu Shumei was thinking, and quickly replied with a smile, "I've already eaten, so I won't go over. Thank you, Sister Shumei."
Even if she hadn't eaten, the educated youth settlement wasn't Liu Shumei's personal property. In those days, food was precious, and now that she had already brought back her food, Chen Shuning naturally wouldn't take advantage of her and make things difficult for Liu Shumei.
Breakfast for educated youth was usually very simple, consisting of multigrain steamed buns, corn porridge, and pickled vegetables made by the older educated youth themselves. The food for breakfast was shared equally among everyone, and of course, the food was also distributed equally.
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