Go back to the prosperous days and become a layman

Chapter 930 929 Leveling the Courtyard
Tang Zhitong did not have lunch in Chunshu Hutong. He gave Director Ye the deadline and went to Dashizuo Hutong.

Wanshan confidently assured us that the work would be completed this morning. As the host, even if we don't provide lunch today, we can't just show up right on time. We should at least go over and boil some hot water for them and leave them a few packs of cigarettes.

The gate to the new home in Dashizuo Hutong was wide open, and laborers were already hauling away unused building materials.

When Tang Zhitong went in, the roof construction was already finished. Standing in the courtyard and looking up, all he could see were black tiles that were neither new nor old, and they were not eye-catching at all.

Only upon closer inspection can one see fresh ash residue under the black tiles, indicating that the area has just been renovated.

Besides the laborers hauling building materials out, several other laborers were dismantling scaffolding, while the master craftsmen were busy painting the interior and exterior walls and pillars.

Before entering the alley, Tang Zhitong stuffed his bag full of cheap cigarettes. He took out a pack, put it on the ground, and shouted, "Thank you, everyone. Come and have a smoke and take a break."

"Then let's take a break. We'll paint the pillars after the scaffolding is dismantled, and then there won't be any dust." The first person to come over was the paint mixer. He put the stick in his hand into the bucket, clapped his hands, and came over to get a cigarette.

"Thank you for your hard work. I didn't expect painting a pillar to be so tedious." Tang Zhitong opened a pack of cigarettes and offered him one.

Before I left yesterday, someone cleaned the old paint off the pillars, doors and windows. When I came today, the old paint on the doors and windows had been cleaned off, and the pillars not only had no old paint left, but also had a layer of white putty.

"In Beijing, things are done with care. These pillars are made of wood and are connected to the ground. Applying a layer of putty first not only prevents moisture but also insects and borers," the master craftsman explained, taking the cigarette with his smoke-stained fingers and showing off his large, yellow teeth.

"I've learned a lot from what Master said," Tang Zhitong replied with a smile.

The architecture of Beijing is very particular. Even though they are all door pillars, different types of buildings have different names. Tang Zhitong calls them all door pillars, since he doesn't make a living from ancient architecture.
Although Tang Zhitong didn't understand it, it didn't stop him from liking the courtyard house architectural style.

In Beijing, almost every building with an old-fashioned architectural style has pillars.

While pillars serve an aesthetic purpose, their more important function is to bear weight.

In this house, for example, the doorposts are there to support the front porch.

The term "front corridor" is sometimes interpreted as a covered walkway or the space that extends out from under the eaves.

The opposite of the front veranda is called the "rear veranda." Some say it is the covered walkway behind the main house, while others say it is a small house built behind the main house.

Neither of them are things that ordinary people can afford to build.

This house in Dashizuo Hutong doesn't have a rear porch; only the main house has a front porch. Even so, Tang Zhitong is still very satisfied.

"Comrade Wan, the construction team is very efficient!" After Wan Shan arrived, Tang Zhitong fully affirmed the work of the construction team.

"You've been serving meals and cigarettes, everyone says the master is kind and generous, so they naturally put their hearts into their work." Wan Shan cheerfully attributed all the blame to Tang Zhitong, without mentioning Director Zhu at all.

"Oh dear, I'm almost embarrassed by what you're saying. Ladies and gentlemen, we haven't prepared any food today, but each of you will need two packs of cigarettes!" Tang Zhitong wasn't a stingy person; the money for the cigarettes was saved up beforehand, so he wasn't worried about Xiao Wang finding out.

"The host is truly generous!"

"Our master is benevolent and righteous!"

The praise from the workers was endless. These days, when you go out to work, you're lucky if you can get half a pound of dry rations for a meal, let alone the fact that Tang Zhitong also added cigarettes.

"Comrade Tang, do you want to repaint these rafters, beams, and brackets? Once they're painted, they'll look really impressive," a master craftsman suggested, puffing on his cigarette.

"Thank you, this is fine. I don't care about these things. The most important thing is that I don't have enough money to support this." Tang Zhitong didn't know what a beam or bracket was, but he knew what "carved beams and painted rafters" meant.

In a few years, this thing will become a hidden danger. Isn't it just asking for trouble to do these things ourselves?

A fresh coat of paint can last for ten years or so. Are you going to spend money now and then pay someone else to repaint it in this unconventional way?
Upon hearing Tang Zhitong say that they lacked funds, the head chef fell silent.

When it came to work, the construction team members worked very hard. Putting themselves in the other person's shoes, the homeowner didn't have many coins left, yet they were still provided with food and cigarettes. How could the construction team not put in their best effort?

This busy work lasted until noon.

The house was painted white inside, and the doorposts, doors, and windows were all repainted. Although it was only a single shade of red, it looked very festive and wouldn't be out of place as a wedding room. Tang Zhitong was very pleased with it.

"Comrade Wan, this is good enough. I'll clean up the mess myself." Before leaving, Wan Shan was about to ask the construction team to help with the cleaning, but Tang Zhitong stopped him.

If lunch were provided again today, Tang Zhitong wouldn't mind the construction team doing a little more work, but since he hadn't made any preparations, he didn't want to trouble them further. Besides, he felt that they had already done a good job to the extent they had done so far.

"It's just a side job, I won't ask you for wages." Wan Shan had just heard Tang Zhitong say that he was out of money, and thought he was worried about his wages, but this was a project that Director Zhu was concerned about, and Wan Shan was striving for perfection.

Tang Zhitong couldn't stop them, but fortunately the finishing work wasn't troublesome. Twenty or so people worked together and quickly finished the bulk of the job, leaving the rest for Tang Zhitong to clean up slowly.

"Comrade Tang, here's the key. Please keep it safe." Wan Shan took the key to the front door out of his pocket and handed it to Tang Zhitong. That was the end of the project handover. As for any acceptance or signature, that was not required.

"Thank you, thank you!" Tang Zhitong took the keys, took out cigarettes from his bag, two packs for each person, and thanked each person, showing great respect to the construction team.

After seeing the construction team off, Tang Zhitong closed the gate, turned on the tap in the yard to wash his hands, and then took a closer look at his new home.

The so-called "white" is actually quicklime mixed with fine sand. It's not as white as gypsum, but it's sturdy and durable. As long as you don't deliberately splash water on it, it can last for thirty or forty years like nothing.

None of the rooms had their ceilings covered. According to Wan Shan, it would be best to wait another month or so until the dampness dissipated before hiring a professional to cover them.

However, what Tang Zhitong lacked most was time, because the chemical raw material company was waiting for him to move there and open a store.

Tang Zhitong inspected all the rooms and finally arrived at the main room.

While the workers were cleaning, Wan Shan led Tang Zhitong on a tour, explaining the main points to note, with the most emphasis on the heated kang (a traditional Chinese bed-stove). It was unclear what method the construction team had used, but the surface of the kang was almost completely dry.

Tang Zhitong touched it with his hand; it was still warm. He then bent down and pulled out the small, wheeled stove, which contained burnt ashes.

Wan Shan instructed that after a few days, once the surface of the kang (heated brick bed) was completely dry, a layer of newspaper should be pasted on it with paste to prevent dust. Tang Zhitong readily agreed, but in his heart he was thinking that he should be careful when choosing the newspaper and not choose one with photos and instructions.

Although the heated kang (a traditional heated brick bed) was almost ready, Tang Zhitong wondered if his mother would refuse to use it because she was worried about wasting coal.

There used to be a lot of people living in this area of ​​Beijing, but most of them were demolished two years ago.

At that time, refractory bricks were needed to build small blast furnaces for steelmaking, but not enough could be found in time. So, ordinary blue bricks were used as a second choice. However, there were not enough blue bricks either. Then, someone cleverly thought of bricks from the kang (heated brick bed). So, the neighborhood mobilized everyone to respond to the call and dismantle the kang to build blast furnaces.

Many people responded to the call. Although the kang (heated brick bed) has advantages in terms of heating, it burns a lot of coal and takes up a lot of space. One kang can take up more than half of a room.

Wooden beds perfectly solved the shortcomings of heated brick beds. They not only took up little space, but also allowed for storage underneath, which led to a surge in the trend of replacing beds.

After inspecting the house, Tang Zhitong used his superhuman abilities to sweep away all the construction debris and dust, inside and out.

Then they went outside and dug down 60 centimeters of the hard ground in the yard.

When planting vegetables in the yard, the plants can only grow this deep. Although some species can grow even deeper, Tang Zhitong did not dig any deeper because digging further would lead to the green clay at the top of the cellar.

Compared to the healthy growth of vegetables, Tang Zhitong values ​​the waterproofing of the cellar more.

However, Tang Zhitong did not lose out on the vegetables that would be settling down here. He mixed the wood ash and excrement he had plucked from Yuquan Mountain, the silt he had plucked from Zhuanhe River, and the soil he had plucked from the transport station, and threw it all into the pit in his own yard, then leveled it out.

The leveling is also carefully done, showing a trend of higher elevation in the northeast and lower elevation in the southwest, because the drainage outlet of the entire yard is located in the southwest corner of the yard.

Even though his hands were clean, Tang Zhitong clapped his hands in satisfaction after finishing, as if they were covered in dirt.

Looking at the masterpiece before him, Tang Zhitong actually thought that becoming a farmer in the future wouldn't be bad, as this would save much time and effort compared to using machinery.

After finishing the floor work, Tang Zhitong started messing with the sewers.

After moving here, it's no longer suitable for the young couple to continue living in the west wing. In the traditional courtyard houses of old Beijing, there's a rule that the elderly and elders of the family live in the main house, the eldest son lives in the east wing, and the second son or daughter lives in the west wing.

Even outside their own homes, many places continued this rule, so even after Cui Yingying went to Puji Temple, she still lived in the west wing.

Tang Zhitong first drilled a hole at the bottom of the wall of the east wing, leading directly to the ground. Then, following the position of the hole, he began to dig a ditch and laid city wall mortar at the bottom of the ditch to prevent sewage leakage. Next, he laid a sewer with city wall bricks towards the southwest corner of the courtyard. After completing the drainage on both sides of the sewer, he finally covered it with soil.

The original drainage hole in the southwest corner of the courtyard wall remains unchanged, used to drain water outwards when it rains. The drainage for the sewer is dug separately in the courtyard wall, connecting to the seepage channel underground.

After finishing all this, Tang Zhitong turned his attention to the west wing. He planned to continue using the west wing as his own bathroom and told Wan Shan about this plan the day before yesterday, asking him to apply a layer of cement to the floor of the west wing.

Wan Shan readily agreed and took care of it that very day.

In addition to the floor, he even coated the walls, which greatly increased the waterproofing.

The east wing and west side room both have concealed sewers, which solves the drainage problem, but it looks a bit out of place. It's convenient for me and my classmate Xiao Wang to dump our sewage, but it's still inconvenient for my mother and sister!

Since he was already in the process of doing this, Tang Zhitong simply installed sewers in all the rooms. However, instead of placing the drains inside the main house and the west wing, he built two small pools at the doorway. The pools were connected to the sewers, so when he went out, he could simply pour the sewage into the pools, and the sewage would naturally drain out through the sewers.

Over time, the small pool will inevitably become clogged to some extent, but that's no big deal, since Tang Zhitong has a cheat code – he can transform into a sewer cleaning expert at any time!
After fixing the drainage, Tang Zhitong didn't stop. He used an external device to precisely "rain" onto the roof facing the yard.

Rainwater dripped from the roof tiles onto the ground in the yard, creating small, shallow pits in the newly replaced soil.

Tang Zhitong pulled out the city wall bricks from the space and laid them out along the edge of the wall until they could catch the raindrops.

If Tang Zhitong were to follow his wishes, he would not only want the entire courtyard paved with blue bricks, but at least half of it, so that it would be more comfortable to live in. However, considering his mother's preferences, he gave up on this idea.

The elderly woman is attached to the old place, and Zhang Guifang will definitely feel a little uncomfortable since the family has just moved here. If the vegetables in the yard can occupy most of her attention, it will alleviate the discomfort brought about by the move.

However, Tang Zhitong still paved several paths in the courtyard with city wall bricks, with a similar orientation to the old house with iron wheel handles. The only difference is that the old house with iron wheel handles had its gate facing east, while the new house had its gate facing south.

After being leveled, the courtyard looked brand new, and Tang Zhitong seemed to see a vibrant scene of life and everything flourishing in the courtyard.

With this cheat code, the advantage is mine!
Wash your hands, lock the door, and go eat at Chunshu Hutong!
"Is everything ready over there?" When Xiao Wang saw her husband come back covered in sweat, she soaked a towel under the tap, wrung it out, and handed it to him.

"Yes, it's all cleaned up. The construction team worked very efficiently and tidied up very well. I guarantee you'll like it." Tang Zhitong took the towel, spread it out, and rubbed his face with it.

"That must cost a lot of money, right?" Xiao Wang's first reaction was not surprise, but worry that the two of them didn't have enough money.

"I still have some left. Take another two hundred when you leave later," Director Ye interjected from the side.

"Mom, not for now. I'll settle the bill at the housing management bureau tomorrow, and I'll come back to get more if it's not enough." Tang Zhitong casually handed the towel to Xiao Wang, refusing to continue leeching off his mother-in-law's family.

No matter how much it costs tomorrow, Tang Zhitong plans to pay for it himself. He can tell others that he borrowed it and will "pay it back slowly" later.

Of course, it won't be very slow either.

Two days ago, Tang Zhitong planned to use the "rabbits" in his space to settle accounts, but after thinking about it again, he felt there were still loopholes. No matter what, domestic rabbits are different from wild rabbits.

If we use fish to balance the accounts, it's easy to explain. Whether in the Yalu River, the Yangtze River section in Wuhan, or the lotus pond, Tang Zhitong has caught a lot of river fish. If he goes fishing in places like Shichahai, Beihai, and Tongzihe, he can catch fish continuously in full view of everyone. If he sells a few, wouldn't that bring in income?
Who knows, it might even lead to a legend of never missing a flight in Beijing!

(End of this chapter)