After leaving the restaurant, An Shuyi took Lin Wenmo to find the skilled craftsmen who built the house. When they were hauling bricks and tiles before, the boss had mentioned that he knew a group of people who were particularly good at building houses and had built three-courtyard houses.
The shopkeeper who sold the building materials saw her and greeted her warmly, "Mrs. An, what materials are you here to pick up this time?"
This Madam An and Madam Xia are very wealthy. They have already purchased several thousand taels of bricks and tiles from him. If they were to build houses, they could build several.
"I've come here to ask you something, boss. Didn't you say before that you knew some skilled craftsmen who build houses? Could you introduce me to one?"
“Okay, Mrs. An, please wait here for a while. He lives in the house next door. I’ll go and call him right away.” He left in a hurry before An Shuyi could even speak.
Watching her boss leave, she was puzzled. Wasn't this a bit too hasty? She was thinking that since they were so close, she could go and talk to him, but he left too quickly, and she didn't even have a chance to speak.
Not long after, the boss brought over an older man. "Madam An, this is Uncle Yang. He's the man I was talking about."
An Shuyi nodded, "Uncle Yang, I wonder how many people you have under your command. I have quite a few houses here, and they are all two-courtyard houses."
Uncle Yang waved his hand, "You shouldn't address me like that, Madam. Just call me Old Yang. I wonder how many houses Madam An wants to build? I don't have many people under me, only about a dozen." Actually, they had quite a few people, so even building a three-courtyard house wouldn't be slow.
“I have twenty-five houses here, all of them are two-courtyard houses. Although they are all built the same way, we don’t have a place to live right now, so we need to build them quickly.”
An Shuyi continued, "Uncle Yang, how about this? I'll find some people from other villages to be in charge of building the walls, and you can teach them how to build the house, just like you said."
Uncle Yang didn't speak, but was thinking about why so many houses needed to be built, and all of them were two-courtyard houses. "Then we'll listen to you. We'll be responsible for teaching them how to build them."
"Then, Uncle Yang, how do you collect payment for the construction work?"
“I used to build simple houses for people. The total cost for everyone was 100 taels. For a one-courtyard house, it was 200 taels, and for a two-courtyard house, it was 300 taels. The client would provide the materials. But now it’s not our turn to build. So I’ll pay 5 taels a day, and everyone else will pay 1 tael a day. As long as the lady brings enough people, we can finish building all the houses in a little over a month.”
An Shuyi nodded, "Then let's do as Uncle Yang said. Can we start construction tomorrow? The foundation has been dug. Here are the house plans. Uncle Yang can go and start building the walls."
After taking the blueprints, Uncle Yang nodded after examining them. "Madam An, you've already dug the foundation. I'll go to your village tomorrow to take a look, then we'll find out the dates and let you know when construction will begin."
“Okay, we’ll stay in Taoyuan Village. Boss, please continue to send us those bricks and tiles. I’ll pay you every day you send them. Once we have enough, you don’t need to send any more.”
The shopkeeper nodded and said with a smile, "Don't worry, Madam An, I'll have my staff deliver it." This would bring him several thousand taels of silver, or even more. Twenty-five two-courtyard houses—that would take so many bricks and tiles.
An Shuyi smiled and said, "Okay, then I'll take my leave first. You guys keep going."
"Please take care, Madam An."
The people who will build the house have been chosen, so all we have to do is wait for construction to begin. The braised meat business has also been secured. That's great. I wonder how things are going with Hua Hua.
Wenmo drove the carriage to the pork market, where she bought several hundred kilograms of meat and loaded it onto the carriage. This meat was sold by a braised meat vendor, and Changwu was responsible for buying the meat for the village.
Having bought everything they needed, and with nothing else to buy, they took the carriage back to the village. They asked Wenmo to put the meat in the braised meat workshop. Thinking that the cement in the pool had dried completely, they took a hoe and went to the pool. Sure enough, it had dried completely, and the surrounding area was tightly sealed, so no water would leak out.
She carried a hoe and climbed up the mountain, which took her two hours to reach the top. Climbing alone was too slow, so she ate along the way, throwing away her popsicle sticks. This warehouse is great; things go in exactly the same way they come out.
She buried a section of the water pipe by the lake in the lake, and she dug it very deep so that the pipe wouldn't leak out.
Once she was sure the lake water had started flowing into the pipes, she slowly began to walk down the mountain. She swayed along the way, but fortunately, going downhill was faster than going uphill, and she reached the bottom in a little over an hour.
There are several water pipes behind the pool, and the openings were left beforehand. The water pipes were installed last night, but no faucets were installed. We took a few out of the warehouse and started installing them.
Even after she installed the faucet, no water came out. It was probably too slow; the pool was too big, and it would take some time for the water to reach the pipe. She then carried the hoe and headed towards the village.
Before even reaching the village, we saw Xia Hua from afar. "Hua Hua, when did you get back? How are things on your end?"
Xia Hua waited for her to get closer before saying, "I've been back for a while now, and it's been pretty good. All the braised meat has been ordered, but since it's a county town, I can only come to pick it up every other day."
"That's good too. Even though we only order once a day, it's still quite a lot over a long period. I've already sold them all. They were ordered by Shikelou. We'll have the same amount tomorrow as today. I've also already bought the meat."
Xia Hua nodded, "Okay, let's sell this much for now. The most important thing is to work on the other things." Compared to the others, this braised meat doesn't make much money.
"Tomorrow we'll go to Jinnan City and sell a batch of clothes. It would be best to find some regular sellers."
An Shuyi shook her head, "No, the people who are going to build the house will come to the site tomorrow and calculate the auspicious date so we can decide how to build it. Let's do it the day after tomorrow!"
"That works too. Let's do it the day after tomorrow. Once the workshops are all settled, we'll go to other prefectures to see if we can find some sources of goods for our supplies." We can't rely on Erwa and the others; they're unreliable.
"Sure, let's go out for a stroll and see the wonderful world outside."
No one works at night anymore; the work is done during the day, except for the braised meat, which is prepared at night.
In the morning, the village gate opened, and besides the ice haulers, Old Yang arrived with a few other people. An Shuyi and Xia Hua were also waiting there early in the morning.
“Mrs. An, your location is excellent. Let’s go and take a look at the foundation first,” Uncle Yang said after being led to inspect the foundation. He then took out a book and flipped through it for a while. “The foundation is dug very well, and there’s no problem with the date. We can start construction tomorrow.”
"You just need to find the people to build the wall. I will tell you what you need the day before. Mrs. An, there is one more thing I didn't tell you yesterday."
An Shuyi nodded, "Uncle Yang, please speak your mind."
Uncle Yang also said directly, "It's like this, this place is a bit far from Jinnan City, could your village provide breakfast? We'll pay for the meals ourselves."
They have to come to the village before dawn, and they can't go back for lunch, as that would waste too much time. In the past, their hosts would provide a meal.
“Okay, then our village will cover lunch, and you don’t need to pay for it,” An Shuyi said, pointing to the village chief Lin next to her. “This is the village chief of our Taoyuan Village. You can talk to him about anything.”
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