sjar Chapter 172 Land Distribution and House Construction
Chapter 172 Land Distribution and House Construction
Li Ju'an chatted with the elderly couple for a few more minutes. The old woman asked him why he had come to the county town and even brought his hunting dogs with him.
He wasn't reserved, but he knew some things should be said and some shouldn't. He only said he was in the county town to sell livestock hides, not tiger skins. Some relatives are like that—they laugh at your lack of wealth but resent your abundance. Sometimes, you have to keep your wealth hidden to avoid incurring resentment.
After listening, the old man slapped the table and said, "Ju'an is a hardworking boy. He can even hunt animals in the mountains and sell the hides. His future will definitely be better and better. Later, we must talk to our third brother more and praise Ju'an in front of him."
The old lady quickly gave the old man a look, signaling that he was drunk and talking nonsense, and that it would hurt the child's feelings to mention going to the grave, especially since it was almost the New Year.
The old man looked up, his cheeks flushed from drinking, and said in a strong voice, "I was just so happy for my third brother. Ju'an has grown up and become sensible. This, this is what..."
After he finished speaking, he turned around and saw Li Changqing, who was arrogant and always spouting nonsense. He scolded him impatiently, "You're not allowed to go south. Stay in the commune and work your job. Take it one step at a time, don't dream of climbing the ladder overnight."
Li Changqing rarely disobeyed his father. He slammed his chopsticks on the table, snorted, stood up, and turned to walk into the house.
The old woman slapped her thigh and cried, shedding two tears. She exclaimed that if Li Changqing and Li Ju'an were as sensible as they were, it would be so much easier to deal with them.
Hearing these words, Li Ju'an felt as if he had lived through another life. In his previous life, his aunt and uncle always belittled him while praising Li Changqing to the skies. His second uncle and aunt, and even his mother, all thought that Li Changqing was the most worry-free and promising child in the Li family. Later, when he followed Zhang Yingnian south, he also carried with him the ambition to compete with Li Changqing. People are all about pride.
As it turned out, he did indeed thrive in the south, but he also fell into a trap. Now, Li Changqing is being scolded by his family, while he has become the "other people's child" that everyone in the family praises.
Li Ju'an stood up, sighed, and said, "When the old folks build their houses later, let's include our family in the work of the craftsmen. If we build an extra building, we can negotiate the craftsmen's price."
The old man nodded with a tense face: "That is indeed a matter. If we include the second son, the price can be reduced even further."
Who wouldn't want a low price? Of course, the cheaper the better.
The old man was an impatient fellow. He was drunk and unsteady on his feet. He vaguely asked Li Ju'an to go with him to the second uncle's house to discuss building a house and finding craftsmen.
The second uncle and aunt also live in the county town, helping their eldest daughter-in-law and eldest son take care of their grandson. Their grandson is still young and gets sick frequently, which is exhausting for the elderly couple. Their daughter-in-law and son work in a factory during the day, and they ask the elderly couple to help raise their grandson until he is one and a half years old.
A one-and-a-half-year-old child could go to the factory's daycare. At the entrance to the factory's alley, there were daycares specifically arranged for employees of the government-run institution, where children could be placed. Zhang Cui, the daughter-in-law, and her parents-in-law had finally managed to get through the ordeal until their eldest child was a year and a half old. She insisted that the child go to daycare so the elderly couple could return to their village. But how could the elderly couple possibly agree to that?
The second aunt cried and shouted, telling everyone that her daughter-in-law was heartless. She had finally raised the child to adulthood and was old enough to go to daycare, but her daughter-in-law wanted to kick them out. The eldest son, on the other hand, was always silent and avoided family matters more than anyone else.
Li Ju'an, holding the dog leash, went to his second uncle's house with his grandfather.
To get into the alley, they had to pass through the factory area. They could see a fried lamb skewer shop at the entrance, and then the entrance to the senior class of the daycare center was inside.
The nursery was surrounded by iron bars. The senior class was on the far west side of the nursery, while the junior and middle classes were on the far east side of the building. Before the two even got close, they could hear the second aunt arguing with her daughter-in-law, Zhang Cui, outside the nursery.
Second Aunt and Second Uncle would fight at home, and when they did, it was a fierce and chaotic fight. They would scratch each other's nails and faces until they were covered in marks. Second Uncle was often left with marks all over his body, but he couldn't really retaliate against his wife. He could only sit on the steps, smoking a cigarette, with his face covered in scratches and his belly full of anger.
The daughter-in-law, Zhang Cui, didn't tolerate her stepmother's behavior. When it came to the matter of Da Bao going to daycare, they had a fierce argument.
The eldest son, Li Weiguang, was a careless person. When he saw his mother and wife arguing, he panicked and paced around frantically, trying to persuade one of them but to no avail.
The old man reeked of alcohol, and before he could even speak, the second aunt started making a fuss, pulling at the old man and demanding that he give her his opinion.
“There’s no reason why we should be sent back to the village just because we’ve raised our grandson.”
The old man was a meticulous person. He was happy to help out with any small matters that relatives needed, and he was highly regarded in the family.
After listening, he said, "Where did my second brother go? Come over here for a family meeting."
Seeing that making a big fuss would be embarrassing, Zhang Cui and her second aunt had no choice but to quickly take Li Weiguang back inside to discuss the matter.
When the group sat down and heard about building a house, they all became enthusiastic.
Daughter-in-law Zhang Cui's eyes widened and she said, "Is it a brick house, the kind where the brick goes all the way to the top? It's so impressive."
Li Weiguang quickly stopped his wife and winked at her, saying, "Dad has been saving adobe bricks in his spare time over the years. We can use them to build a courtyard wall; it's better than having a new house without a courtyard wall."
If the courtyard walls are only made of adobe, then the house certainly cannot be made of blue bricks.
Zhang Cui sighed sadly and said, "Now that the land has been distributed to individual households, do we still have to go back to the village to grow cotton? Our family are all city people, none of us have ever grown cotton before. Why should we suffer like this after marrying you?"
Li Weiguang was usually a coward, never daring to utter a sound in front of his wife. But now that Li Ju'an and his uncle were also present, he naturally had to muster his courage and show his wife what a man's power was.
For the first time, he straightened his back and retorted, "Now that the land has been allocated to individual households, we definitely have to build houses."
"Where would the money come from? Building a house is free."
"We have to build it, even if we have to borrow money or incur foreign debt."
He was very determined. His wife, Zhang Cui, snorted and continued to hold and coax Da Bao before turning around and going back into the house.
The second uncle's family was a little embarrassed, because if their relatives saw these family matters, they would always make a fool of themselves.
In Li Ju'an's memory, the old Li family house was built by his grandfather and father using adobe bricks. There was a sycamore tree in the front yard and five old elm trees and a jujube tree in the back. In spring and summer, the elm trees were often sick, and when they were sick, they would grow thick, small wood ear mushrooms. White mushrooms grew on the damp bark of the trees in the backyard.
My mother would pick white mushrooms and wood ear fungus, and stir-fry them with eggs to make him a delicious treat. Back then, eggs were a precious commodity. They were usually taken to the market to exchange for old vests and small pieces of old clothing for him; we rarely kept any for ourselves to cook a dish.
Thinking about the construction process of the old house and how his mother used to plant cotton in the fields, Li Ju'an felt a pang of sadness.
When Li Xiao's mother was pregnant, she had to pick cotton in the fields even with her big belly, because if she was late, the cotton would not be able to be sent to the commune's cotton processing plant.
He watched his mother work with her big belly, and he helped her by pushing a handcart, carrying bundles of cotton that were piled up as high as they could, to the commune cotton processing plant in the whole town. Before dawn, there were long queues waiting for the cotton to be inspected, priced, and put into storage, all so that the whole family could live a better life.
Second Master suddenly looked up and asked Li Ju'an, "Ju'an, how do you plan to build the house after your family's land was distributed to individual households?"