bookrebus Chapter 263 The old man and the second old man heard about the new house
Chapter 263 The old man and the second old man heard about the new house
When the two old men learned that Li Ju'an was building a new house, they couldn't resist the urge to do the same, even though they were in the county town. They started planning to find someone to build a house on the irrigated land as well.
The old man and the second old man were each allocated three mu of irrigated land, in very good locations. The old woman thought for a moment and said, "We can build our own houses. It only costs 3000 yuan. We just need to find some helpers. We'll need to put in some effort to find old materials and old boards, and we'll need to bribe people and buy some supplies."
When the second uncle heard the news, he was overjoyed and thought that he should get some good bricks, and with some additional resources, he could also install a terrazzo floor. When the house is renovated and looks nice, it will be a sight to behold for everyone passing by in the village.
Every household in the village started busying themselves with building new houses. After the land was distributed to individual households, everyone was full of energy, either doing carpentry work or asking acquaintances to find plywood and veneer.
After building the new house, they still needed to have carpentry furniture made. Old Zhang, the carpenter, was incredibly busy; every day, a long line of people waited to have him make cabinets. Lin Jiadong became the most sought-after person in the village. The young man from the Lin family had learned carpentry last time, and after making lights and furniture for his own house, he was praised by Aunt Lu, and word spread. Now, every household was coming to Lin Jiadong for carpentry work.
Lam Ka-tung grinned from ear to ear. This was practically freelance work coming his way! So many projects—it would earn him far more than the freelance film projection work his cinema operator did.
Lin Mei went to Li Ju'an's newly built house and asked Lin Jiadong to also put a ground lamp on Li Ju'an's house.
This was the most popular ground lamp back then. The lamp post and base were processed in the factory, and people would string them together with wire and staples to form a lamp umbrella. Then, with the help of carpenters, they could make a beautiful ground lamp.
Lin Jiadong received the carp and the little book from Li Ju'an and was wondering how to repay him. He used the leftover wood to make two wooden chairs for Li Ju'an and sent them over.
That day, Lin Jiadong delivered wooden chairs and floor lamps to Li Ju'an. After a great deal of effort, he traveled by oxcart to Changchonggou, only to find that the house inside and out was completely dry. Li Ju'an was working with Zhang Gong and several laborers, demolishing the roof. Zhang Gong instructed Li Ju'an to sift the ash, sorting it by particle size. He first spread a layer of larger particles on the roof, then tamped it down, filled in the medium-sized particles, and finally tamped it down with wooden boards.
Finally, they smoothed it with the finest ash, then pounded it with a wooden board to vibrate it evenly, so that the mortar would float to the top.
Lin Jiadong looked up at the beautiful three-story self-built house, his eyes shining with laughter, and exclaimed, "Brother Li! This house is so spacious and bright, and it doesn't crack at all. It's definitely rainproof."
Li Ju'an, while working, laughed and said, "It even keeps things warm."
Lin Jiadong looked on with genuine envy. After Li Ju'an came down, he handed him the ground lamp and wooden chair and said with a smile, "Brother Li, if I learn from you for four or five days, we won't need to hire any laborers when we build our house."
Zhang, who was pounding ash, laughed and said, "You think you can learn this in three or four days? We apprentices shouldn't bother learning it. These jobs look rough, but there are a lot of tricks to them. It takes one or two years to learn them, and even then, we might not be able to learn them."
Lu Zhiqiang, who was helping out nearby, suddenly called out, "Uncle Zhang, are you still taking on apprentices?"
Zhang Gong said, "What? You go hunting in the mountains, and you still have time to learn this kind of mentally and physically exhausting work from us? Will your old man agree to that?"
Lu Zhiqiang said with a smile, "If the old man won't let me learn, we can ask Lu Jinyang to learn. That kid doesn't have any serious work at the forest farm. He just drinks a pot of goji berry tea every day at work. Let him learn, and he'll take care of all the old man's chairs and tables."
Engineer Zhang laughed heartily and said that he was cunning.
"If you don't learn it, but you make your younger brother learn it, isn't that just being cunning?"
Lu Zhiqiang wasn't annoyed and went along with it, saying, "Of course, I learned this from the old man. That's why we say we're related to him to some extent."
People say he's cunning, but he's not ashamed of it at all. He's very principled, speaks with a straight back, and has a strong voice. Engineer Zhang just laughed and complained of a headache, telling Old Master Lu to send this half-grown boy back home.
Three months later, the Li family's newly built house was completely dry inside and out, the waterproof layer was also dry, and the smell had dissipated, so it was safe to live in.
That day, there was a great commotion at the entrance of the Li family's new house, with gongs and drums and firecrackers. Yang Dezheng, the village head, also came to Changchonggou to see the house and nodded in approval.
Terrazzo flooring, red bricks, and blue tiles. The last self-built house of the Li family to be completed is three stories high, and from the outside it looks like a nice and clean little high-rise. Even villagers from the neighboring Xiaoling Village came to see it, and Old Zhao from Wangxing Village also came to see what was going on.
The children ate peanuts and snacks, laughing and chatting happily, while the aunts, sisters-in-law, men, and others looked at the three-story self-built building with their hands behind their backs, nodding in approval.
"Wow, this little building is beautiful, and it even has three floors."
"This is even more beautiful than the new house of the Zhang family in our village."
"So many floors, how deep must the foundation be? Hey, Li Pao, do you have the blueprints for the foundation and the house? I'll have Engineer Chen build it for me based on that."
The villagers from the neighboring villages looked at the Li family's new house and praised it highly, their eyes glued to it, full of admiration.
The eldest and second eldest uncles of the Li family were hiring workers to build a house on their irrigated land when they suddenly heard that Li Ju'an's new house was already finished. The two families abandoned their own houses and ran to see it.
The old man dragged his aching, cold legs and complained about how remote Changchonggou was and how difficult the roads were to walk on.
"How did Li Ju'an manage to transport the materials in? It's too far. And it's dry land; I wouldn't even want it if it were given to me."
Uncle Er thought so too. When the brigade leader was distributing the land, they discussed it with Li Ju'an and Song Lanhua, and finally quickly took the best irrigated land and gave the dry land to Li Ju'an.
Li Ju'an remained adamant, demanding all the dry land from his mother, Song Lanhua, refusing to concede even a single acre, before his uncles reluctantly agreed. They reasoned that there was no use in having dry land. What good crops could grow there? Besides, Changchonggou was remote, uninhabited, and inaccessible. They planned to borrow the remaining machinery from the production brigade to harvest the grain, but even vehicles couldn't get in.
Uncle Er was too tired to climb any further. He waved his hand, gave up, and shouted, "Forget about that place, I'm not going there anymore."
The two old men couldn't walk, so they stayed with their wives in the fields near the village, cultivating irrigated land. The two old men's sons followed the oxcart to check on them.
When the two sons went to Li Ju'an's new house, they were stunned when they saw it, their eyes almost popping out of their sockets.
The two sons rushed back, shouting anxiously, "Dad! Li Ju'an has built a three-story house!"
The two of them, still breathless and panting heavily, their dog-skin hats askew, rushed in in a panic.
The second uncle was about to scold the two men for being so immature and lacking composure. But when he heard about Li Ju'an's new house, he was equally surprised, his hands trembling, and he strained on his cane as he stood up: "How many floors did you say?"