"This person is shameless. Your own family doesn't even have enough to go around, yet she still dares to ask for more."
I was wondering why someone was peeking through the door, especially since she's heavily pregnant; wasn't she worried about hurting her back?
This street was very busy today, and many people saw Zhou Lian acting suspiciously.
These rows of houses all arrived in the same batch, some as early as ten days ago, so they haven't had a chance to get to know each other yet.
Taking advantage of Zhou Lian's commotion, several nearby businesses came out, and everyone took this opportunity to get closer together.
Soon everyone else left, but the woman who had argued with Zhou Lian at the beginning was still there. Her name was Chen Yuehong, and her home was further north.
Since they were all the same age and in an unfamiliar place, they immediately held hands and started talking.
Song Qing was very grateful to Chen Yuehong for standing up for her earlier. Chen Yuehong was also full of a sense of justice. She told Song Qing that if Zhou Lian came to cause trouble again next time, she would come to help her.
"I'm not going to talk to you anymore. The tiles in my kitchen are leaking a bit. I'm wondering if I can fix it myself. I'll go back and think about it. You keep going."
Chen Yuehong came and went in a hurry, believing she had done a good deed that day, and went back with her head held high.
"The people here are so welcoming."
Song Qing was thinking of giving gifts to Secretary Liu, Laogen's family, and Chen Yuehong, but she had a lot of things to do on her own, so she could only wait until the house was tidied up.
The helper that Uncle Lao Gen called in the afternoon was about the same age as him and was also a very capable worker.
They started by dismantling the kang (heated brick bed) in the south room. After removing the kang surface, they let Lu Yang slowly dismantle the kang stones while they worked on the cement.
After the interior was tidied up, they started setting up the kang (heated brick bed). Lu Yang helped with the work, while Song Qing slowly carried the piled-up bricks inside. With the three of them working and Song Qing's help, the kang in the north room was basically finished in no time.
We'll work on the kang surface tomorrow; we need to let the cement dry first.
Song Qing quickly offered the two masters some water. She had just run to the guesthouse to retrieve the milk candy and tea she had brought from her bag.
Then he went to Chen Yuehong's place next door and borrowed a stove and a kettle. He put a kettle of hot water on the stove and added some tea leaves to the water.
"We haven't prepared anything. Uncle Lao Gen, please have some tea and a couple of candies first."
The guy who came with Uncle Lao Gen was called Lao Ma Zi. He was happy to have work to do, and he thought it was good enough to have tea to drink.
These days, how much does a pound of milk candy cost? He just wouldn't touch it no matter what.
"Little one, you eat."
"If I eat, you eat too." An'an's little mouth was already stuffed with a piece of candy.
She placed the candy directly into the hands of the two grandfathers, who then accepted it.
The three of them spent several hours setting up the kang (heated brick bed) in the north room, and then went to set up the kang in the south room.
When the whistle blew to signal the end of training, the few people who had come to help yesterday went to the canteen early to eat before coming back to help with the work.
We can't let the battalion commander treat us to a meal again.
The kang (heated brick bed) in the south room was almost finished, so Uncle Lao Gen asked Lao Ma Zi to take Lu Yang to continue working on it, while he and his group started building the walls.
Many of the people who came had experience in bricklaying, so they worked quickly and well. By the time they left, the two walls were already half a person high.
Uncle Lao Gen and his companion had just left. Song Qing looked at the messy floor in the main room and breathed a sigh of relief.
"It looks like the wall will be finished tomorrow, and the kang (heated brick bed) will be almost done. Uncle Lao Gen said that it will be ready to live in after two more days of heating."
Seeing the once empty house transformed into its current state, I feel tired but also filled with a sense of accomplishment.
The next morning, Song Qing took An'an on a borrowed bicycle to the nearby supply and marketing cooperative.
The supply and marketing station in the family compound didn't have the large iron pot they needed, so they asked Uncle Laogen for directions yesterday and went to buy it themselves today.
As requested by Uncle Lao Gen, I bought two iron pots, one large and one small. The large one cost 21 yuan and the small one 17 yuan, which cost two industrial coupons.
I bought another kettle for ten yuan, and then I bought two jin of white sugar and two jin of biscuits.
White sugar is 80 cents a pound cheaper than in Xin'an; grains are generally cheaper here.
The biscuits are the old-fashioned, tightly packed kind, and they only cost 80 cents a pound without any coupons.
There were other miscellaneous things too. If it weren't for the fact that she couldn't take them all back, I really wanted to buy them all at once.
It cost her almost a hundred yuan. Luckily, she brought a rope and tied those things to the back seat. The two iron pots were hung directly on the handlebars. When she rode the bicycle back, Lu Yang was shocked.
He thought Song Qing was just going to buy two pots, but she bought so many things and brought a child with her, which looked very dangerous. If he hadn't been so busy, he would have gone to buy them himself.
"Perfect timing, take your things back."
She hurriedly carried An'an downstairs, unloaded the things, and rode the bicycle straight to return it.
She borrowed the bicycle from a family living in a bungalow. The family was very pleased with Song Qing for returning the bicycle so quickly, with half a pound of biscuits hanging on the handlebars. They even gave her two Guoguang apples.
This morning, he finally finished preparing the two kang surfaces. Uncle Laogen stuffed two handfuls of straw into the kang hole, lit them, and then ran outside to check the smoke.
"Okay, keep burning it for the next two days, and remember to add more firewood."
The yellow mud used for the kang (heated brick bed) was wet, and as the firewood burned, a layer of smoke rose from it. An'an stared at it with great curiosity.
When the helpers arrived in the afternoon, they had already built the kitchen stove.
Lu Yang spent ten yuan to get a bunch of tiles from Uncle Laogen, and then climbed onto the roof to inspect them.
After it got dark, I locked the door and left. The walls in the main room had already been finished.
————
Bai Rongjun went back to the Bai family home today to talk to her mother about some things, and Chen Hongxia was especially happy to see her.
“Rong Jun, you haven’t been back lately, and I see you’ve lost weight.”
"Mom, where's my older sister?"
"Your older sister went to work."
Bai Rongjun grew up in the Lu family. Although she knew that the Bai family were her biological parents, she preferred Aunt He to be her mother.
"Is your older sister still thinking about that man? She even took medicine for him. Doesn't she realize that he's not good enough for her? He can't even afford a three-wheeled watch and a radio?"
"If only she could marry Brother Lu Yang, then Brother Lu Yang would be my brother-in-law."
"I don't think we can count on her anymore. That man went back to Xin'an. Anyway, I'm not going to budge on the bride price. I want to see if that man has the ability to marry her."
Chen Hongxia stroked her long hair with great affection.
"It's alright, your second sister can also marry Lu Yang, it's just that the Song family member doesn't want a divorce."
"Mom, I don't like Song Qing. If she continues to be Lu Yang's wife, it will affect me sooner or later."
"Mom will think of a way to help you."
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