Yan Runzhi looked up and stared at Jiang Lin nervously, then moved east and west with his arms outstretched for fear that Jiang Lin would accidentally slip down.
Jiang Lin checked and said, "The tiles are all fine, but many are misaligned and need to be re-laid. There are also broken ridge tiles, so we need to buy new ones to replace them."
This is their old house, which has been in their family for many years. It is made of large blue bricks and fired gray tiles, and the materials used are all very good. It is much better than those of other houses in the village.
The ridge tile is very important, as it covers the joints. If it is not covered well, it will definitely leak. The rain will soften and wash away the mud underneath, and the rafters tied with sorghum straw will also be rotten and need to be dried in the sun.
She looked up at the sky. The thick clouds had dispersed, and the blue sky was clear and dazzlingly beautiful. In the east, the dawn gradually broke through the rosy clouds, dyeing the sky red, orange, yellow and purple, as beautiful as spilled oil paint.
She thought it would be a good day!
She said, "It can't rain anymore. Let's dry the roof to avoid the sorghum stalks underneath rotting."
Yan Runzhi shouted from below: "If the morning glow doesn't go out, the evening glow will travel thousands of miles. Will it rain heavily?"
Jiang Lin: "Just cover it up when it rains, it's easy."
She checked the leaking place, lifted the roof to dry, mixed it with mud, and then covered it with tiles.
Jiang Lin stood on the roof, looking far and high, and saw many people running out to call for help in fixing leaks, filling roofs, unclogging gutters, and looking for people to repair their roofs. They were very busy.
Not far away, Cheng Ruhai's house was even more lively. Several chickens were soaked, rainwater had backflowed into the yard and formed bubbles, the house was leaking, and the whole family was drying their quilts and clothes.
Liu Honghua was even funnier. As soon as the family was divided, she started to act like a mother-in-law, even using a walking stick! Seeing her jumping around with a stick, Jiang Lin laughed without restraint.
Jiang Lin: Tsk, you want to be a mother-in-law before your son even has a daughter-in-law?
She fiddled with it skillfully, quickly rearranging the tiles, then went downstairs to mix the mud, and brought it up to sew the sorghum stalks together.
At this time, someone finally saw her on the roof, and there were exclamations one after another, and everyone ran to the brigade headquarters to see.
"Oh, Jiang Zhiqing is a hidden talent. He can even repair the roof!"
"Jiang Zhiqing, you are capable of this? When did you learn this trick?"
Many of them know what Jiang Lin was like in the past, always arrogant and looking down on others. But now he is really arrogant, climbing to the roof. Will he go to heaven next?
Jiang Lin shouted, "Do we have to learn this? Climb up and move the tiles around. Even a three-year-old can do it. Of course, you need tiles to move around." Hehe, forget about having a straw roof like Cheng Ruhai's.
The sense of happiness is really compared. How depressing was it to live in a shack before? Now that they live in a brick house, Cheng Ruhai and Liu Honghua live in an adobe house, Jiang Lin feels extremely happy.
It would be even more perfect if news that Bian Haitao was dead came out of nowhere.
Ha ha ha ha.
Some people couldn't stand her smug look, so they teased her, "Jiang Zhiqing, you are so good, why don't you fix it for us too?"
Jiang Lin: "Sure, the fee depends on the situation. You have to bring your own materials."
She is a businesswoman, and she would never be like some people who are too embarrassed to ask for compensation because they are too familiar with their neighbors. As a result, they are ordered around for nothing and end up offending others. It is so frustrating.
Some people were unhappy and said, "Jiang Zhiqing, why do you talk about money all the time? We are from the same brigade and should help each other." The villagers don't charge for building houses. They just help each other and provide two meals. Why do you want money to repair a roof?
Jiang Lin said loudly: "Then tell me, I also need to work to eat. If I keep repairing other people's roofs, what if I drink rainwater?"
Someone laughed and said, "That's right, that makes sense, they should be paid."
Cheng Yulian, the women's director, came over and called out, "Jiang Zhiqing, if you can, come and help me fix it. I'll give you eggs or grains, depending on the situation."
Jiang Lin: "Okay, Director, please wait a moment."
Naturally, some people didn't believe it. How could a female educated youth repair a roof? You must be kidding.
Naturally there are people in the village who are skilled in masonry work, and even the men in every household know a little bit, since they have to build the walls of their own homes, after all.
However, the craftsmanship varies greatly, and some are very ugly.
Some people build walls every day, but before they can finish, the wall in front of them collapses...
Some people repair their roofs every day, but they still leak when it rains, and they don't know what's going on. Even if they find a professional bricklayer or someone who knows how to build a house, it still doesn't stop leaking!
That's really strange.
The same is true for Cheng Yulian's family. Although her husband is strong, he is not a nimble person. She said he is very clumsy. The roof of her house is leaking. There was originally one leak, but when he repaired it, it became three leaks. It couldn't be more infuriating! He asked someone else to come and fix such a small thing. It was not worth it to give him a meal. If he didn't give him a meal, he wouldn't fix it properly. Even if he gave him a meal, he wouldn't fix it thoroughly. It would continue to leak after two rains.
Damn it, isn’t it infuriating?
Jiang Lin checked her roof, knew what she was doing, and then came down. In her previous life, she worked in decoration and took on various businesses, including this kind of rich people returning to the countryside, but it was more than a hundred times more advanced than the current one. So, it's just a small roof repair, no big deal! As long as you are brave and not afraid of heights, it's very simple.
Yan Runzhi patted her chest and said, "Bao'er's mother, this is scary. We women should not do such a dangerous job."
It would be great to embroider some flowers or cook a meal. If all else fails, you can just sit back and do some snacks or take a nap.
Jiang Lin: "It's okay. Don't you know that many of those tall chimneys were built by women? Men are afraid of heights and are useless." She also heard it from the masters and didn't know whether it was true or not.
Yan Runzhi: ………My wife here needs to be sensible, it has nothing to do with other people.
Cheng Dabao and Cheng Xiaobao also got up at this time.
Cheng Xiaobao looked at the pots and pans on the kang and the puddles on the ground, and immediately shouted, "Haha, let's go boating!"
Cheng Dabao frowned his handsome eyebrows, looked at the ground and then at the roof, then jumped down and rushed into the yard on his bare feet, just in time to see Jiang Lin coming down from the roof.
Cheng Dabao: “○o○!!!”
Jiang Lin patted the mud off his hands and said with a smile: "In fact, the roof is made of tiles. As long as you don't slip while barefoot, there is no danger at all."
Yan Runzhi used a gourd ladle to scoop water for her to wash her hands and didn't want to say anything anymore.
Cheng Xiaobao also ran out, laughing happily, "My Linlin is so amazing! Just like Dongsheng!"
Yan Runzhi asked Jiang Lin in a more sincere tone, "Baoer's mother, what do you want for breakfast?"
Jiang Lin: “…”
If she says it doesn't matter, will Yan Runzhi not know what to eat?
Locals usually prepare dry food for the next day at night, boil water to distill dry food and eat pickles in the morning, cook vegetables with salt water at noon, cook porridge or stew at night, and then prepare the staple food for the next day. Most people don't care about it, just having food is good, and never care about how to make it taste better, or whether they are tired of eating the same thing and want to change it up.
If you want to change things up, you can wait for different festivals, eat dumplings for the New Year's Eve dinner, eat Yuanxiao on the 15th day of the first lunar month, eat February 2, March 3, Qingming Festival, etc., and rely on festivals to improve your food. This is still conditional. If you don't have the conditions, it's good enough to not go hungry. Do you still want to improve your food during festivals? Dream on!
But she found that Yan Runzhi really tried to change the dishes. Even if there was no meat or fish, she could come up with many dishes. She was tired of pancakes, steamed cakes, steamed cakes, rolled noodles, soup noodles, braised noodles, fried noodles, cold noodles, and all kinds of porridge, porridge, whole grains...
Jiang Lin's heart was filled with joy and touched. She looked at Yan Runzhi with particularly kind eyes. Sometimes she had the urge to call Yan Runzhi "Mom", but she couldn't bring herself to do so. After all, she had always called her "Mom". But if she did that, she would have some difficulty, so she stayed the same.
She saw Yan Runzhi looking at her with a smile, as if waiting for instructions, and then she smiled again. She smiled without restraint every day now, and she wondered if she would get wrinkles early.
She said, "Let's cook millet porridge and boil eggs." We had some staple food last night, so we could steam it.
Cheng Xiaobao: "Steamed buns with eggs, Linlin loves it."
Cheng Xiaobao himself is a foodie. Whenever he wants to eat something, he will say that Linlin likes it, because grandma likes to ask Linlin what she wants to eat.
Yan Runzhi said, "Okay, I'll roll out a few more pancakes and steam them, and we'll roll the eggs and eat them."
Jiang Lin: "Then I'll go to the women's director's house to take a look."
Cheng Dabao was originally going to help with the fire, but now he asked Xiaobao to do it and he followed.
Jiang Lin went to Cheng Yulian's roof and saw that some of the tiles had stones sticking out from underneath. If they were not laid evenly, wouldn't it leak? After hearing what Cheng Yulian said, she knew that someone must have done it on purpose. This was also a trick played by some craftsmen with ulterior motives. They would always come to eat two meals a summer and come again next year.
Jiang Lin fixed the two leaks in Cheng Yulian's house early in the morning. "As long as the tiles are not broken, it won't leak again. If it leaks again, I will repair it for free."
Cheng Yulian used a crooked gourd ladle to scoop six eggs for her, "Jiang Zhiqing, don't think it's too little." Farmers use chicken butts as banks, and eggs are the universal currency, and everyone recognizes them.
Jiang Lin smiled and said, "Director, you are too polite. The eggs are very good."
Cheng Dabao wanted to go up, but Jiang Lin wouldn't let him. He could only look up and wait. His face was tense, and he didn't let go until Jiang Lin came down. He raised his hand to wipe the sweat off his forehead. He was so impressed. Mom really could hold up half the sky.
Jiang Lin held the eggs and smiled at Cheng Dabao, "We have eggs to eat again."
Cheng Dabao smiled at her: "Mom, you are awesome! Just like dad!"
Jiang Lin took him home.
Someone who was interested in the matter came to Cheng Yulian's house and asked, "How can a woman like her do better than Cheng Ruhai, Cheng Decai and other gentlemen?"
Cheng Decai is the eldest son of Cheng Fuwan. He is a little lame and has learned to be a bricklayer. Cheng Ruhai used to work with him, helping people build houses. Later, Cheng Ruhai became the production team leader of the third team of Shuihuai Village and stopped doing this job. Now Cheng Decai is responsible for the roofs of many people in the village, but he relies on his uncle Cheng Fugui, who is the secretary of the commune, and his father is the team leader of the second team. He is more and more fooling people with his work, and even treats people differently, which makes many people complain.
Cheng Decai repaired Cheng Yulian's house, and sometimes she had to wait in line, but after repairing it, it was always fixed here but leaked somewhere else, and it blocked here but not there, so Cheng Yulian was naturally dissatisfied. This year, Cheng Ruhai from their group took her brother's job as the production team leader, and Cheng Yulian was even more dissatisfied with them. Naturally, she tried her best to introduce people to find Jiang Lin to repair the roof.
"Of course. Didn't you see how relaxed Jiang Zhiqing was on the roof? She's not afraid of heights, nor is she shy. She's very capable. I think it's right to find her. Is it a lie that women hold up half the sky? Of course it's true!" She is the director of the women's department and never forgets her work.
Some women went to Jiang Lin to try. After all, they didn't have to worry about meals. All they needed was a few eggs or some food. It was more economical than going to Cheng Decai and others.
When Jiang Lin returned home, Yan Runzhi and Xiaobao had just finished cooking.
Xiaobao was drinking millet porridge. When he saw Jiang Lin coming back, he quickly drank it up and licked the bowl with satisfaction.
Jiang Lin: “…” What’s going on?
Cheng Xiaobao winked at Dabao proudly, and Cheng Dabao knew that he took advantage of Jiang Lin's absence to add sugar to the porridge. Because Xiaobao had not had sugar for three consecutive days, he wanted to dig into the sugar jar at home, and even wanted to add a spoonful of sugar to the water and porridge.
Cheng Dabao frowned, curled his lips at him, and told him not to make his mother angry.
Cheng Xiaobao immediately took his hand and started talking to him warmly.
Jiang Lin washed her hands and helped Yan Runzhi set the table.
Yan Runzhi had listened to her and did not cook two meals. Before, Yan Runzhi always cooked something delicious for Jiang Lin and the children, and she ate coarse grains such as dried sweet potatoes.
Now Jiang Lin naturally refused, and asked Yan Runzhi to mix the coarse grains and fine grains together so that everyone could eat together. It is natural for a family to share hardships. Only when you understand the difficulties can you move forward.
Yan Runzhi mixed fine flour and corn flour together to make pancakes today. Although the two-combination flour pancakes are not as big as pot lids and as thin as paper as pure fine flour pancakes, they are not too tough for children to chew. Roll the pancakes with eggs, cucumber shreds, pickles, green onions, and soybean paste, and they taste crispy and fragrant.
Jiang Lin particularly likes the green onions here. The green onions are one foot long, sweet and not spicy, which makes people unable to stop eating. While eating the pancakes with vegetables, she was thinking about the pancakes with roast duck. If there were such green onions and pancakes, she could eat ten of them! !
Yan Runzhi was even happier when she saw that she was eating happily and the two children were also happy.
While they were eating, someone came from outside to ask Jiang Zhiqing for help in repairing the roof. Some had tiled roofs and some did not. After hearing what Cheng Yulian said, they wanted to give it a try.
Maybe if someone else were to take over, the roof would be repaired!
Jiang Lin naturally agreed and offered to give eggs or food.
For two consecutive days, Jiang Lin took Dabao and Xiaobao to repair roofs for other people to earn extra money to improve their lives, and they were very busy and happy.
This made some people very jealous, but Cheng Decai didn't care. What's the big deal about repairing a roof? It won't earn you a few eggs. But his mother Ma Kaihua was so angry that her mouth twisted and she cursed at him in the street, but she didn't dare to mention his name because she was afraid of Cheng Rushan.
In addition, Cheng Fugui personally told Cheng Fuwan and Cheng Ruhai that they should not do anything to Yan Runzhi's family. Moreover, Jiang Lin was an educated youth, and was protected by the educated youth policy, so she could go directly to the county to file a complaint. So the men were quiet and absolutely did not get close to Yan Runzhi and Jiang Lin, so as not to anger her family's killer and bring bad luck.
When Liu Honghua heard Ma Kaihua cursing in the street, she ran over to join in. "She is such an ungrateful person, eating and drinking my...other's food, and still bullying me! Why doesn't anyone teach her a lesson?"
Ma Kaihua: "It's not difficult to cure her. The key is..." Cheng Rushan is coming back, so won't we have to settle the score?
Cursing makes me feel better, but who dares to really touch Jiang Lin?
Liu Honghua said, "I know she's afraid of dogs." Once, she accidentally saw Jiang Lin encounter two dogs fighting each other. She was so scared that her face turned pale and she was hiding quickly. In the countryside, dogs are running all over the ground. Normal people wouldn't be afraid. At most, they would just hide and walk away. How could they be so scared?
At this time, Wei Qiongfang came over to Ma Kaihua and asked, "Aunt, what are you talking about?"
Ma Kaihua was angry and said, "Decai's good business was ruined by others. Isn't it infuriating?"
Wei Qiongfang certainly knew that although the educated youth site was far away from the brigade headquarters, anything that happened in the countryside would quickly spread throughout the village, not to mention that she was keeping a close eye on it.
She glanced at Liu Honghua and said to Ma Kaihua, "Aunt, I just have something to do. I'll go home and talk to you."
Ma Kaihua thought she wanted to go through the procedures for returning to the city, "Have you got the receiving unit ready?"
Wei Qiongfang lived in her house before, but it was inconvenient for her son to get married, so Wei Qiongfang moved to the educated youth camp. Although Wei Qiongfang had some connections, it was not easy for her to return to the city. The most important thing was that she needed a unit to accept her in the city, and she did not have such connections.
Wei Qiongfang shook her head and pulled Ma Kaihua away, "Aunt, what's the point of scolding like this? I heard..." She was talking about Jiang Lin selling her child.
Ma Kaihua was skeptical, "Selling children? This is unbelievable, everyone is talking nonsense."
Although Liu Honghua said that Jiang Lin went out to sell her child, most people would not believe it. Who doesn't have a child at this time? Why would you buy someone else's? You can't even support the child yourself.
Seeing that she didn't believe it, Wei Qiongfang became anxious: "Aunt, what I said is true, there is a buyer."
Ma Kaihua suddenly became excited, "Really? Where is their family?"
"I heard it was a big carriage inn, the Zhao family, it's true."
Ma Kaihua clapped his hands, "If it's really enough to make that little bitch drink a pot, it's more appropriate for Liu Honghua to handle this matter. I'll give her some advice later."
Liu Honghua was thinking about how to get a dog to scare Jiang Lin. It would be best if she could be scared so much that she would never dare to go out again and would be scared silly.
When she passed by Jiang Lin's house on her way home, she saw many women lining up to see Jiang Lin. Seeing that those who had originally come to her and Cheng Decai's house to have their roofs repaired were now coming to curry favor with Jiang Lin, Liu Honghua felt so jealous that she felt like she had missed a thousand eggs.
"Jiang Zhiqing, which room are we in? There's a big hole in our house, would you mind patching it up for us first? If it rains again, we'll be doomed."
"Jiang Zhiqing..."
The women were chattering like they were in a vegetable market, vying to be picked by Jiang Lin.
Jiang Lin waved her hands and said, "Don't worry, everyone has to take turns. But I think you have to buy some tiles too."
"We would like to buy it, but we can't afford it."
“It’s not easy to get a number.”
Jiang Lin said: "Everyone can buy it together. Buy a truckload and share it. At least cover the roof ridge." Many leaks are caused by careless roof ridges. Other parts are easy to repair, but the roof ridge is difficult to fix.
Although she wanted to buy tiles herself, she would not ask her to bring them to you. Of course, they had to share the transportation fee.
They started discussing which family could buy tiles.
Finally, Widow Huang said, "Jiang Zhiqing, how about this? You have education and connections, so you can help us buy it."
The other women asked Jiang Lin for help.
Jiang Lin said: "If you want my help, then you have to decide how much you want, including transportation costs. Everyone has to pay first, and then I can go to the commune to find someone to help." She would definitely want money, and she had to say it in advance, and she would definitely not be embarrassed.
She asked for money, and the women found her more trustworthy.
The price of tiles is now transparent, 1.5 yuan per tile, and 2.5 yuan per tile because of the saddle shape. Because small tile factories are in short supply, many people cannot buy them. Even if they have money, they have to use connections to buy them. The large brick and tile factories are too far away from the local area, so if you want to buy them, you have to transport them. If you don’t have a livestock vehicle, you have to use a collective or public transport team. The transportation fee is more expensive than the tiles, which is not cost-effective.
Since Jiang Lin was willing to help, they were naturally happy to do so. With someone taking the lead and everyone sharing the burden, it was always more powerful than just one person alone.
Jiang Lin asked them to ask the brigade cadres to ask her to take the lead and give her a letter of introduction so that she could go and talk to them. With Cheng Yulian taking the lead, the matter was quickly settled and Jiang Lin got the letter of introduction.
The brigade cadres were all extremely surprised. This educated youth Jiang used to complain and grumble, but now he has changed his temper. He is simply not manly at all!
The educated youths who knew Jiang Lin at the educated youth point were even more incredulous, especially Meng Yiyi who deliberately avoided Jiang Lin for a few days, wanting to make her apologize. But Jiang Lin ignored her and seemed to have forgotten her, which made Meng Yiyi feel like she was going to vomit blood.
During lunch that day, Jiang Lin said to Yan Runzhi, "Grandma, I'm going to the commune later."
Yan Runzhi didn't expect her daughter-in-law to be able to take care of things that even men couldn't do, and she was worried about whether her daughter-in-law would be tired. But she didn't stop her, and just said, "Go ahead, we can do it according to our ability, don't get tired, no matter how much money you make, your health is the most important."
Maybe she's already pregnant with a granddaughter!
Jiang Lin smiled and said, "Okay."
Cheng Dabao: "I'm going too!" Cheng Dabao gets nervous whenever his mother goes out, fearing that it will be the same as the time he went to Zhao's house, where another man will come and say, "Linlin, let's not bother with these kids anymore and let's go back to the city."
Jiang Lin didn't know about his worries, and smiled, "Mom is going to do serious work, not to play."
Cheng Dabao: "I am a man. Dad is not at home, so I will accompany you."
Anyway, there needs to be a man in the family.
Jiang Lin saw that he had a puffy face and looked stubborn and obstinate, as if it would be wrong not to take him with her.
She smiled and said, "Okay, let's go. The commune is not far away anyway."
Cheng Xiaobao immediately laughed secretly, his eyes drifting towards the house. Linlin had left, so he could go and secretly eat some candy.
Jiang Lin glanced at him and said, haha, if you find it, I lose!
The author has something to say: Cheng Rushan: Just came back to show up and was exiled again.
Cheng Dabao: There are always slutty bitches who want to kidnap my mother!
Cheng Xiaobao: Who says I am a bully at home? I am a very good boy, right, Linlin?
[You never know how a child who originally had no parents’ love will become when he suddenly has a lot of love! It’s probably the same as someone who originally couldn’t afford instant noodles, but suddenly had a full-fledged banquet every day, eating a bowl and throwing all over the table, and that person would turn over. ]
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