1983Fishing and Farming between Mountains and Seas

Chapter 211 New House Good Omen

Today's lunch still has fresh spring shrimps and clams, but the dish of stir-fried papaya and snail slices is missing. All three snails were cooked yesterday.

Chen Xiangbei was afraid that he would come back late, so she put some dishes in a small bowl next to him and would serve them to him now.

After dinner, Chen Xiangbei followed him into the room and asked him, "Did you really sell the beads?"

Liang Ziqiang unzipped his waist bag. He was in a hurry to eat right after he got back, and the money was still in his bag.

Chen Xiangbei counted the eighteen bills and smiled happily, "It's almost as much as the money I got from Bao Zhu that time. I've been spending money so quickly lately, and this hundred and eighty is just the right amount!"

After collecting the money and walking into the main room, her mother and Liang Ziqiang's mother were coming out from the kitchen.

Seeing the young couple's happy faces, Liang's mother asked quietly, "Did you sell the little bead you peeled off while cooking yesterday morning for money?"

"I sold it for about 180 yuan!" Liang Ziqiang said in a low voice.

“Is it so valuable? Isn’t it because you need money to build a house that Mazu specially sends you the money?” Liang’s mother gave credit to Mazu after just two sentences.

Mother-in-law Li Jinju was also very happy for her daughter and son-in-law, and said to them:

"We've just put up the gate to our new house, and you two have picked up money. What does this mean? You've built a blessed house, which will bring prosperity to people and wealth. When you move in, you will definitely be rich and prosperous!"

For the same incident, my mother-in-law attributed the credit to the new house that was being built.

It was rare for her mother Yuan Qiuying to agree with other people's opinions so much, so she immediately took over Li Jinju's words and said:
"Yes, that's a good sign for a new house!"

Liang Ziqiang let them play in all directions. No matter whether it was his mother or his mother-in-law, he would just say "yeah, mom, you are right, that makes sense..."

After all, aren't they doing this because they are happy from the bottom of their hearts?
After lunch, the mother-in-law said a few words to Chen Xiangbei, said hello to Liang's mother and Liang Ziqiang, and went back to Huagu Village.

It has been like this recently. My father-in-law and two brothers-in-law helped out for the first few days and then temporarily stopped coming because of something else. My mother-in-law would come over every morning to help out in the kitchen, and after lunch when there was nothing else she needed help with, she would go back to Huagu Village.

Two more days passed, Liang Ziqiang worked with the villagers to build the wall. On the flat ground next to the bamboo grove, the red brick wall rose higher day by day.

Everything was going smoothly, except that the walls looked weirder and weirder as the villagers built them. Every day, people would complain about it.

"Qiangzi, let me ask you, did you confuse this partition wall with the outer wall? This thick partition wall has never been built like this in the village before!"

There were always people who would ask him a few questions when they saw him. At first, he would find a decent excuse to answer them perfunctorily, but later he became a little numb and just said "um" and "ah" and responded without making any comment.

Someone took over the villager's words and said:
"Your wall is nothing. Look at the wall in my inner room. It's thicker than your two partition walls!"

"That's not right, Aqiang. Why must this wall be made thicker than the others? Let me think, is this where you two plan to use it as a bedroom?" Someone standing by the wall estimated.

Liang Ziqiang sensed that something was wrong and that the issue was about to be directed at him, so he quickly came out and gave an official explanation:

"When building a house, you have to use enough materials. You can't just think about whether it will be solid enough for the next generation to live in it!"

"Haha, that's right," someone ruthlessly exposed him, "Your kind of wall is very convenient. You can close the door and raise many next generations in peace!"

"What do you mean, soundproof? Ah Qiang, you would think so! Then this wall really means more children, more blessings!"

"Qiangzi, you built such a thick wall. Does your wife know? Have you discussed it with her?"

"What's there to discuss? His wife is definitely happy! Do you think it's only men who can't help but want to have many children at night? Women want it too!"

"That's right. They are still so young. Once the door is closed, they may have many children and blessings in one night!"

"Maybe the idea of ​​building this wall wasn't even from Aqiang, it could have been his wife's."

The fire was unstoppable and finally burned onto him. The fire was raging. Not only did it burn him, but it also burned the innocent Chen Xiangbei...

Chen Xiangbei hadn't been to Juzipo for a long time, but she happened to come here today. At this moment, she was standing next to Liang Ziqiang. Unexpectedly, she heard a lot of noise as soon as she came in. So many mouths were talking about her and Liang Ziqiang's "many children, more blessings" and so on.

They all sounded like congratulations, but as she stood there and listened carefully, she couldn't understand a single word.

She also heard that it was all because of the thickened wall Liang Ziqiang had built. As a result, everything became clear and in the end the blame was put on her.

Her pretty face turned red almost purple, and she stomped her feet, turned around and went back.

Before leaving, her resentful eyes were like a rasp, rasp-rasp-rasp on him...

Time flies. The green tiles ordered from the tile kiln have been delivered, and a batch of strong and sturdy trees used for beams have also arrived.

The main part of the house had been built. Two days after New Year's Day, January 1984, 1, the first day of the twelfth lunar month of 3, was an auspicious day for everything.

Liang Ziqiang decided to put up the beams for the new house on this day.

Thirty-eight days had passed since the groundbreaking on November 11. Of course, it actually took more than 27 days to build the house, excluding the days when construction was suspended due to rain.

The fact that the main part could be completed as scheduled in nearly thirty days was mainly due to sufficient manpower.

The day of raising the beam is extremely important for building houses in rural areas. It can be said that its importance is no less than that of breaking ground.

For this day, Liang Ziqiang went to the street to buy a lot of candy, and Chen Xiangbei was busy making a lot of steamed buns and pastries.

The best wooden beam was specially tied with red cloth and a copper coin.

Everyone worked together to lift the beam to the roof.

Chen Xiangbei would certainly not be absent on such an important day. Next to her was a small basket of candies and biscuits.

As it was no longer convenient to squat, she placed the basket on a high table, then grabbed handfuls of the colorful candies and put them into round bamboo baskets.

After dividing it, she stopped and looked up.

I saw the big beam tied with red cloth rising little by little between the brick walls. It looked like another kind of sunrise.

A sunrise in which she and her husband were present and could participate.

The beam was covered with red cloth, shining brightly, as if it had climbed to the top of a mountain, appearing on the roof, at its zenith.

The weather today was also really good. The warm winter sun in the sky was splitting out a few of its most gentle and kind rays from its ten-thousand-foot beams, casting them on the red cloth of the roof beams.

She was actually dizzy for a while.

At the same time, she couldn't help but reach out and cover her abdomen. At this moment, she felt a slight tremor in her abdomen.

Fetal movement. She had been pregnant for more than three and a half months, and this was the first time she felt the slightest fetal movement.

It was like a dizziness that spread from her eyes to her abdomen.

Surprise welled up in her heart, but at this special moment she didn't say much to Liang Ziqiang. She just moved a little closer to her husband who was standing beside her.

Liang Ziqiang didn't understand what she meant. He turned his head and grinned at her, then picked up the round bamboo baskets filled with candies on the table and walked towards the roof...

Two chapters have been posted in the early morning. Happy reading, fellow readers!
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(End of this chapter)