My 1978 Hotel

Chapter 70: Building a House and Earning Royalties from Writing Articles

After receiving Han Anjun's confirmation, Li Feng stood up immediately. He had a hundred yuan and some bills. Now he, Li Dafu, was back. "The shed building is done."

"What's wrong? Why are you so silly and happy before we even have the meal?"

"Hey, Uncle Tomita, well, this is just for An Jun's happiness."

Li Feng walked into the house happily. The main room of Uncle Fuguo's house was bright and spacious. The house with half a brick wall was good. It was half a meter higher than the adobe and thatched house.

The floor is also made of gray bricks, which is very smooth. The large long table and the round table in the room make the room look even brighter.

I still have to be a cadre, don't say anything good, Li Feng muttered to himself and sat at the octagonal table, at the door. There was no other way, he was young, fortunately An Jun was there to pour the wine.

But the meal was a little lacking in quality. I had to bring my own fried eggs, fried cabbage with lard, fried eggplant, and fried bacon.

The wine from Xinghua Village is pretty good, only one yuan a bottle, which is considered a pretty good wine.

Regardless of the vegetables, the eggs and bacon are not bad, and Aunt Chunhua’s cooking is pretty good.

"Why is this still a tiger?"

Let's drink, don't say it's exciting, the little chopsticks knocked and shouted, Li Feng followed and clapped his hands. "Drink, drink, drink, Anmin, hurry up."

"Wait, kid, I'll come practice with you later."

"No, no, no."

Just kidding, I don't know how to knock the tiger pole. He knows a little bit about Wu Kuishou and Liuliu, and Little Bee is also OK. "Besides, there is not much wine left, hehe."

"Okay, drink some cat urine and you'll be in trouble."

Han Fuguo glared at Anmin, and Li Feng smiled at Han Anmin.

"Everyone is here, what do you want to talk about building a house?"

Han Fuguo glanced at Li Feng. This kid was not a good person either.

"What else can I say? We're just waiting for the lumber from the team. We can start construction anytime." Li Feng put down his chopsticks. "Uncle Fuguo, why don't you approve the lumber first? Don't worry, I'll hand over the money later."

"Get lost."

Before Han Fuguo could say anything, Han Futian couldn't help but roll his eyes. "You've got a good plan, kid. The team is short on lumber, and I heard you're not only planning to add two more rooms, but you're also going to build beds, tables, and chairs. How much lumber will that take?"

"Uncle Futian is right. Our dam is backed by a mountain, so how could we possibly lack this little bit of wood?"

"shit."

Han Futian glanced at Li Feng. "You know shit." "Fuck, Uncle Futian, how come you're swearing after drinking a little?" Li Feng was speechless. In fact, he didn't know that during the severe drought a few years ago, life was not easy for you as a human, but it was easier for the trees in the mountains.

Not only was the bark peeled off, but the decent trees were either cut down and sold for money or taken home for consumption. Only in recent years have some mature timber grown, which is needed for building houses. I have to make many trips to each family to get the approval for some wood.

Li Feng said it lightly. If he approved all of it, there would be chaos in the dam, and his job as an accountant would be difficult. You know, he withheld some of the wood from his nephew when he approved two houses a few days ago.

"Okay, okay, Uncle Tomita, I was wrong, okay."

Li Feng took the wine bottle and gave it to Han Futian, and Han Fuguo poured a glass of wine. Don't say that this small wine cup is good, otherwise there wouldn't be enough for each person to drink a glass. The wine cup is good, it's small, and one bottle can be poured into dozens of wine cups.

"Hmph, I've approved the lumber for the house expansion."

"Furniture maker, you figure it out yourself."

"do not."

Just kidding, the furniture is the big deal. This guy was detained and Li Feng became anxious.

"Uncle Fuguo, please help speak up for him. Uncle Futian is being too stingy."

"I think it's good. There's no one in your family who can make furniture."

Han Fuguo paused. "If you get married by the end of the year, I'll have Futian buy you some good wood."

"Get married?"

Li Feng was speechless. These people were all talking about being a wife every day. What were they talking about? "Well, I don't want to be a wooden boss, okay?"

"Hehehe."

Han Anbing's wife, Li Hongying, who was serving the dishes, was amused. Some people were reluctant to get married. "Da, there are many young girls in my village. How about I help match them up?"

"Lijiazhuang?"

Everyone's face changed when they saw this guy. Shi Chunhua pulled Li Hongying aside and asked, "What are you talking about?" Even though Li Feng was raising two children, he couldn't treat them like this. "Stop talking."

"Okay, okay, okay. If I can't approve wood, I'll approve some bamboo for you later."

Han Futian thought to himself that the second daughter-in-law of his third brother's family was really something. You don't know what the situation is in Lijiazhuang. Alas, it is a sin to say that Lijiazhuang is also a sin.

How could such a thing happen? That militia captain and instructor of the patrol team actually did such a bad thing. A few days ago, he was reported for having affairs with almost all the women in Lijiazhuang.

Alas, I don't know who to blame for this. There must be something wrong with this instructor. He relies on the policy to put labels on others. Who isn't afraid? Li Hongying's team leader is also not doing his job well. If these bad things happened in Hanjiabao, Han Fuguo would break his legs.

She even suggested introducing Lijiazhuang to Li Feng. Alas, Li Hongying is also ignorant.

Li Feng didn't quite understand what was going on. It seemed like the atmosphere was a little off, so he quickly said with a smile, "Uncle Futian, that won't work. You should at least give me two more pieces of wood so we can make a bed."

"Okay, okay, I'll give you two more."

Han Futian waved his hand. "Drink, drink."

After dinner, Li Feng was still muttering, why did the atmosphere change just because An Bing's wife said something polite. "What's going on? It's really weird."

"No matter what, Ming will take the money and start building the house."

When Li Feng returned home, he told Gao Ju and Gao Cheng about selling the camera, and they were both delighted. "Let's start tomorrow. We won't use adobe bricks, we'll just build rammed earth walls. This will save time."

"It's a pity that the wood given is so little."

Li Feng asked Gao Cheng if he could make bamboo. He remembered that tables, chairs and beds made of bamboo were common when he was a child, but they were rare in recent years.

"I tried, but I didn't do it very well."

"I'll go back to the modern era to download some information and get some handy tools."

Li Feng definitely doesn't know how to do this, so he can only rely on Gao Cheng.

The next morning, Wu Shengnan came over with some money and said she would help Wu Xiaofeng distribute the camera. "Public Security Officer Wu, check it out. If there's nothing wrong with it, we're done."

"no problem."

Wu Shengnan's face was not looking very good, mainly because of the meeting held in Lijiazhuang last night. None of the women in the entire village came on stage. Although Huang Shengnan was angry about this, she could do nothing about it. Even the men in Lijiazhuang did not stand up to speak. They all shrank their necks like dogs.

The entire venue was very quiet, the men were puffing on their cigarettes and the women were hanging their heads, and the final outcome was most likely to be inconclusive.

"Public Security Wu, are you going back now?"

"I have something to do in Lijiazhuang."

"Lijiazhuang?"

Li Feng wondered what had happened to Lijiazhuang, as Li Hongying had mentioned it yesterday. Wu Shengnan didn't say much, but her expression was very grim. "This is strange. Public Security Officer Wu is quite enthusiastic about his work. What's wrong with him?"

No matter what, now that he had the money, Li Feng happily put the money in his pocket and walked towards the brigade humming a little tune. "Uncle Futian, I'm here to pay."

"Wait a minute, I'll do the math for you." Han Futian pulled the abacus over and quickly fiddled with the beads. As expected of the abacus master, he was incredibly skilled with it. "Five long pieces of wood, eight short pieces of wood, and ten pieces of bamboo, eighty-five yuan."

"How much do you pay?"

"Fifty."

Wow, it’s more than Li Feng thought. He can’t pay it all. He doesn’t have much money in his pocket, not to mention the wages. He needs to have enough money to buy rice, noodles and vegetables.

"Give it to Sixty first."

Han Futian glanced at Li Feng. This kid was not reliable. It would be better for him to pay more money to avoid gossip in the team.

"Okay, sixty is sixty."

After paying 60 yuan, Han Futian could get a receipt and go to the warehouse to ask Old Han for wood and bamboo, which were all high-quality woods that could be used directly. "This saves a lot of trouble."

"I also have to talk about hiring someone."

Building a house, just yelling "sister-in-law, Antun, Anchun" is not enough, we have to finish it quickly. It hasn't rained for a few days, who knows if it will rain in a few days. We have to try to finish the house before it rains, so Li Feng went to the team again.

"Hire someone?"

Han Fuguo and Han Futian exchanged a glance. This kid had given them another problem. "Why, your family of three plus settling them down isn't enough?"

"Uncle Fuguo, don't you want to get it done quickly?"

Li Feng said, "As for the three of us, you know Gao Ju and the other two are making furniture, so they don't have the time to help. I also have to take care of the family, so they can only help out. How about this, I hire three or four more people? Don't worry, I'll pay them right away. I won't delay payment or issue a receipt."

"Okay, we know about this. We'll send someone over later."

Han Fuguo looked at Li Feng who was walking out of the door happily. "This kid has given us another job to do."

Sure enough, it didn't take long for word to spread that Li Feng was hiring people to build a house. Half the people in the village came to join the team, earning 80 cents a day and getting good food and drinks, and even the kids at home could benefit from it.

Who doesn't want to go? Besides, it's not too busy at this time of year. For a while, Han Fuguo and Han Futian's homes are bustling with activity.

"Tell me about this kid, why can't he be more at ease?"

Han Fuguo was persuaded by several sisters-in-law and aunts to take care of the people in the yard.

"Oh, you didn't know that my second daughter-in-law came to talk to me about this just now. She wanted An Bing to go to work as well." Shi Chunhua was helpless. Why didn't this second daughter-in-law have any brains?

"What, what does the second brother think about every day?"

Han Fuguo slammed the table in anger. Not only him, but also Han Futian's family could not go there, otherwise there would be chaos in the dam. Even if he suppressed it with his prestige, he would still be gossiped about behind his back.

"I told her that, too."

Shi Chunhua sighed and said, "Look at these wives, none of them is satisfactory. The eldest daughter-in-law is too honest, the second daughter-in-law is too greedy and has no brains, and the youngest daughter-in-law is the daughter of the commune secretary. I'm afraid she will never come back to the dam."

"What do you think?"

"What else can we do? Just follow the same method as last time."

Han Fuguo felt a headache when he thought about the trouble that was going to happen again. It was all because of that bastard Li Feng. Why couldn't he just endure a little hardship? He had three grown men in his family, and building a house for other families wouldn't be a problem. But now, hiring three wasn't enough.

"I'm going to Futian's house to discuss it."

Han Futian was also having a headache. Several of his nephews came running over, as did his sister-in-law. They said a lot, and their words implied that he had not taken care of his relatives this time, which was unacceptable.

"Third brother, please sit down."

"How are your selections going?"

"Take a look."

Han Futian pulled out a piece of paper and handed it to Han Fuguo. "An Youjia, An Yu, An Cheng, this is not bad." The three families and An Dun, An Chun, and the sister-in-law's family are similar. They are poor families, but they are honest people.

"Okay, that's settled."

"I'm afraid I won't be able to have peace for the next two days."

Han Futian smiled. "Third brother, the commune is having a meeting these two days, let's go out and hide for a few days."

Li Feng had no idea that the people he hired were causing quite a stir. "We'll start working early tomorrow morning. It will be almost done in ten days or half a month."

"Just in time to go back."

All told, it took about thirty days to get back to the modern world, which was the longest I'd ever been. "Luckily, I chose the easy level."

"Boss, you're back."

"What are you talking about? It's quite lively."

Li Feng thought to himself that the two brothers Gao Jue and Gao Cheng were quite gossipy.

"It's about the surrounding villages."

Gao said in a low voice, "Boss, I'm afraid no one will mention our little thing anymore."

"What?"

"Several major events have occurred in the surrounding villages."

Gao Cheng told Li Feng about the information he had gathered. "You bastards! Why don't these people just die? Have they been arrested?"

"Oh, this is really infuriating."

Gao Jue whispered, "There was a meeting, but no one testified. I'm afraid this matter will be difficult to handle. I heard that Public Security Officer Wu got angry at the scene."

"Ah, no wonder Public Security Wu looked unhappy this morning."

Wu Shengnan was determined to speak up for the poor and lower-middle peasants, but she didn't know that no one from the parties involved had come forward.

"Don't you know that it's not just Lijiazhuang that's having trouble?"

Gao Jue shook his head as he spoke. "I heard there are several brigades with educated youth these days, and they've been causing some trouble."

"What's going on?"

"Someone reported that the brigade cadres were holding them back from issuing letters of introduction, and it caused quite a stir. I heard some of the educated youth..." Gao Jue shook his head as he spoke. "Well, look, what do these kids know? A few threats and they'll probably agree to anything."

"No."

How much experience can children from ordinary families have? The families of cadres were better off, but they probably all went back a few years ago. Now, the ones who stay are basically the children of ordinary workers. "Well, this matter is infuriating, but we don't have the ability to do anything about it."

"Boss, how about you write a few articles?"

"what."

Li Feng was stunned. He used to be a bit disdainful of scar literature, but now... "Okay, I'll write two, but I don't know if they can be published. Oh, forget it, I'll just consider it a waste of time."

"Scars" could be written with more depth. What's the big deal about a girl reporting her mother for her ideals and being raped while going to the countryside? What's the big deal about not being able to see her mother for the last time? Then she gets pregnant and doesn't know who the father is. In the end, the girl dies in childbirth, and the baby is born with a disease and eventually dies of the disease. This guy has too many buffs.

Damn it! Li Feng thought his writing was quite emotional, very self-media-like. "You know what, this thing doesn't really require much writing skills." Writing went quite smoothly, and Li Feng actually finished it in an afternoon.

It is impossible to modify it, it is too bloody and tragic. Li Feng decided to send it immediately. As for choosing a newspaper, Wenhui Daily will choose it, but People's Literature is afraid that it will not be published. Well, forget it and send it to several more newspapers.

(End of this chapter)