Chapter 188 Tidying up the House
It was a dreamless night, and Xu Hexiao was the first to wake up. He stepped quietly out of the hammock, walked out, and closed the door.
It was not until dawn that Xu Hexiao discovered that the condition of the house was worse than he had expected. It was rotten and old, with moss growing in many places. It was estimated that the original owner had hardly lived there and therefore did not take care of the house.
Xu Hexiao walked around the house. There were 32 rooms in the three-story house, and six of them were so rotten that they could not be used. Xu Hexiao planned to demolish all of these six rooms without roofs, and either turn them into Lin Qi's vegetable garden, or flatten them and enclose them to make some toys like wooden horses for the children. When he and his wife were not available to look after the children, they would let the children play in them.
There were sixteen rooms, although they were tattered, but the roofs were still there, and they could be used after some repairs. Xu Hexiao locked the chickens in one room, the rabbits in another, and the five deer in another room. Of the remaining thirteen rooms, three were kitchens, and the kitchen stoves were still there, so they could be used after some repairs. Xu Hexiao planned not to touch the remaining ten rooms for the time being.
In addition, there are ten better rooms, two of which are used as bedrooms, two as study rooms, one as a warehouse, and one as a cloakroom.
However, Xu Hexiao discovered a problem. These rooms were generally not very big. Except for the living room and two large bedrooms, the other rooms were long and narrow, and many were less than ten square meters.
He didn't like these old buildings very much. Perhaps it was because of the bad memories of the old Xu family house, so he preferred more modern buildings.
He planned to demolish this place and build a few small Western-style buildings using red bricks, painting the inside white, laying tiles, paving the way with marble, and putting big windows and glass. Such houses would be bright, spacious and comfortable to live in.
But you can ask Qiqi's opinion first. If she doesn't like that, then you can build those old-style buildings. This is the capital, and those old craftsmen should still be there. Just spend a little more money and invite them over.
There was no firewood in the house, so he couldn't cook. He took the money and tickets and two enamel basins and went out. When he came back, one enamel basin was full of buns and fried dough sticks, and the other was full of soy milk.
There was not even a table or chair in the house, so he could only put two enamel basins on the stone table outside the house.
As soon as he put down the enamel basin, he heard children crying in the house.
Xu Hexiao had a headache. There was no firewood in the kitchen, and he couldn't boil the squeezed deer milk. What would the children eat?
Lin Qi was also thinking about this problem. While she was inputting superpowers into the children, she looked at the beams on the roof calmly. How about demolishing one or two rooms first?
Lin Qi changed the children's diapers, asked Brother Tan to help her look after the children, and then walked out of the house.
"I'm going to milk the deer. You go pick two rooms and tear down the roofs. Save the tiles for repairing the roofs of the other rooms, and use the beams and window frames as firewood."
Xu Hexiao smiled, "We are thinking of the same thing."
There were two wells in this house, so water was quite convenient. Xu Hexiao lit a fire and boiled a large aluminum pot of water, then cleaned the other pot. He waited for Lin Qi to bring back the deer milk, boiled the deer milk, and then emptied it and let it cool to the right temperature before putting it into the bottle.
The four hungry children started sucking on the bottles as soon as they got them.
"The buns, fried dough sticks and soy milk are all cold. Do you want to heat them up?" Xu Hexiao asked.
Lin Qi shook her head. "Just eat what you can. We have a lot of things to do later."
"He Xiao, sister-in-law, I have to leave after eating. According to the instructions given by the unit, I have to go to the east of the city to pick up two people and transport a batch of goods back to Yao County." Brother Tan said in an apologetic tone.
"So urgent?" Xu Hexiao was a little surprised.
Brother Tan nodded, "When we came out, the leader said that once we arrived in the capital, we should pick up the people and the belongings immediately."
Xu Hexiao nodded. "Okay. Go ahead. Be careful on the road. Remember to write to me when you arrive in Yao County."
After seeing Brother Tan off, Xu Hexiao took the letter of introduction, marriage registration certificate, property deed and other documents to the street office to apply for a resident certificate.
The person who issued the certificate for him was an older woman. She looked at the tall and handsome Xu Hexiao and had a good attitude. When she saw the deed in Xu Hexiao's hand, her attitude became even more serious.
The eldest sister secretly looked at Xu Hexiao, thinking how many people and units wanted this house, but before those people made a move, the people above spread the word that the house had an owner. Unexpectedly, the owners turned out to be a young couple, and they had four children, quadruplets!
What is the origin of this family?
Xu Hexiao pretended not to notice the gaze of his elder sister and remained calm.
"This is your family's resident ID card, and also the resident grain purchase card. Adults can buy 30 catties of grain per month, children under 12 years old can buy 12 catties, and those under one year old can only buy 6 catties. Cooking oil is only 6 taels per month, and cloth is per person..." The eldest sister said a lot, and gave Xu Hexiao's family all kinds of tickets that they deserved, as well as a coal briquette supply card.
Xu Hexiao asked his elder sister about the location of the coal briquette store and went to the coal briquette supply store first.
The coal briquette supply store mainly supplies honeycomb coal. It was already noon when Xu Hexiao arrived, and there were not many people in the store, so Xu Hexiao did not have to queue.
"Are you here to buy honeycomb coal?" The staff saw that Xu Hexiao was a stranger and asked proactively.
Xu Hexiao nodded and handed over the coal briquette supply card.
The staff took his briquettes supply card and said, "It's winter now, so the supply of briquettes is a little more than other times. Each person can buy 25 briquettes a month. There are six people in your family, so that's 150 briquettes. Do you want to buy them all at once, or buy some first?"
"I'll buy it all at once." Xu Hexiao paid the money and looked at the cart beside him. "Can you lend me the cart?"
"Sure. But you have to mortgage your coal briquette supply card with me. You can take the card back after you return the cart." said the staff.
When Xu Hexiao came back pushing a cart of coal, Lin Qi had already cleaned up all the broken stones and tiles in the house and piled them in the corner of the yard. The moss and spider webs were also gone.
The whole house looks a lot emptier.
"I'm wondering if we should tear down all those walls?" Lin Qi hesitated. This house must be quite old, and it could be considered an antique. But the problem was that it was too old, the layout was not very good, it was broken and rotten, and it would take too much effort to repair it.
"Then tear it down." Xu Hexiao answered straightforwardly.
Lin Qi's eyes lit up, "Then I'll tear it down. I don't want the rockery either."
"Just do what you want." Xu Hexiao looked doting. He had been looking at real mountains for more than 20 years. Would he still be interested in looking at those fake mountains?
When the supervision was not so strict, he would tear down the extra rooms, dig up the land, and make it into a flower garden, orchard, and vegetable garden for her, so that she could plant whatever she wanted and raise whatever she wanted.
"I also want to fill up the pond behind." Lin Qi said.
"It's filled up, so you don't want to raise fish anymore?" Xu Hexiao was a little surprised.
"Raise them. Fill up the pond and dig some soil from the yard. I plan to use that place to grow rice, and then we can raise Grass carp among the rice. In addition to Grass carp, we can also raise loaches, eels and crabs, killing two birds with one stone." Lin Qi was very excited.
Xu Hexiao looked at her excited expression and curled his lips, "That's a good idea."
Xu Hexiao returned the cart and went to a nearby state-owned restaurant to pack up three dishes and a soup.
The two of them were still eating at the stone table.
"I've boiled water in the kitchen. I'll give the children a bath after dinner. After they're done, you can also take a bath. After you're done, go and accompany the children to sleep." Xu Hexiao said.
Lin Qi nodded, "What about you?"
"I went to the department store to buy some daily necessities and a coal-burning stove. One was not enough, so I bought two. The stove is very convenient for boiling water, cooking and heating. The winters here are cold, and the stove can be placed indoors for heating." Today he went to the street office and found a coal-burning stove inside.
"It's quite cold. It's only November and it's already colder than the end of December in Yao County." Lin Qi herself is not afraid of the cold, but the children are afraid of the cold and will catch a cold if they are not careful.
By the time they finished their meal, the food had gotten cold.
"With a stove, we can eat around it and have hot pot." Xu Hexiao gave another reason why they had to buy a stove.
After dinner, the two of them gave the children a bath together.
After Lin Qi finished washing, Xu Hexiao took the money and was ready to go out.
"Don't wash clothes after you come back. I'll wash them after I get up." Lin Qi reminded him. In such cold weather, even if he used hot water to wash clothes, his hands would become red, swollen and itchy, which would be very uncomfortable.
Xu Hexiao remembered the way Lin Qi washed clothes and did not refuse. "Okay, I'll wait for you to wash them. You have to take off the quilt cover to wash it too. Then I'll soak the clothes first?"
"Okay." Lin Qi agreed.
Lin Qi returned to the room and added dozens of vines under the hammock to support and reinforce it, so that when she and Xu Hexiao lay on it, the hammock would not shake or sag, and the child could also lie on the bed with them without being squeezed by them.
The children lay on the bed, staring with wide eyes, looking at the incredibly large bed with surprise on their faces.
Lin Qi covered them with a quilt, ignored them, closed her eyes, and fell asleep soon after.
When I woke up again, it was already four o'clock in the afternoon.
Lin Qi changed the children's diapers, added deer milk to their bottles and let them drink, while she went out to do the laundry.
Xu Hexiao had already bought some things and was sorting out the things he brought from Yao County. When he saw Lin Qi, he smiled helplessly, "Qi Qi, I need you."
Lin Qi raised her eyebrows, walked over and kissed him, "What's bothering you?"
"I need wood. I need to make cabinets, tables, stools, and shelves for storing things." Xu Hexiao said, "These things are also sold here, but you need a ticket. I thought we brought our carpentry tools and tung oil, so we can make them ourselves."
Lin Qi pecked him on the mouth again, and when he was about to deepen the kiss, she pulled away, "There are too many things to do right now, let's kiss again when we have time."
"Okay." Xu Hexiao felt a little disappointed.
Lin Qi suppressed her laughter and took out a small sapling from the barrel. "This is a nanmu sapling pulled from the planting area. Grandpa's golden nanmu coffin was grown from it. But if it's just for furniture, I'll try to grow ordinary nanmu."
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