Back to 1984: Earning Money, Raising Kids, and Keeping the Household Busy

Chapter 62 The Reasons for the Haste to Move
Zhang Yongquan nodded in agreement. "Using local materials is indeed a good idea. I'd like to measure it with an ink line in a bit. Later, do you want to cover the entire foundation, or do you not want to cover it completely?"

The foundation is estimated to be over 200 square meters, so this house will be quite large.

Size is secondary; the key is money.

His gaze shifted from Lin Yi to Lin Qin's face.

Lin Qin had discussed it with Chen Wenjun beforehand, and immediately climbed up, pointing to the area to the north and saying, "Cover this whole row. We want to build a two-story cement house with a large hall, a kitchen, two bathrooms, and three rooms. On the second floor, there will be a large hall and four rooms."

We don't have enough money right now, so building it all at once isn't realistic. We can build one layer first, but the roof has to be made of cement slabs, not bricks and tiles.

Upon hearing this, Zhang Yongquan gasped in shock. "That would double the cost, and we definitely won't be able to finish it this year!"

Lin Qin knew what was going on and smiled ingratiatingly, "We know, so we'll have to trouble you from now on, Master Zhang. We'll do as much as we can this year, and we won't force you."

Zhang Yongquan nodded in understanding, and he valued this job even more.

After all, most rural houses are now tiled houses. Unless you're a wealthy family with ten thousand yuan, who would build a two-story cement house like a small villa?

Lin Yi, standing to the side, was clearly surprised. When he heard Lin Qin say that she planned to build it slowly, he swallowed back the words of dissuasion that were on the tip of his tongue.

Who wouldn't want their daughter and son-in-law to make them proud? Especially since he only has two daughters. His eldest daughter married so far away, and nobody knows if she's doing well or not. But his youngest daughter's life has been full of hardships. If his youngest son-in-law really built a two-story cement house, who would dare to look down on him?

After discussing it, everyone immediately got to work.

Time flies when you're working. When the sun comes up, the exposed skin feels scorching hot, and sweat drips down, causing a stinging sensation.

Lin Qin hurriedly went to find the straw hats she had prepared in advance and distributed them to everyone, including the two children.

The two children have helped move a lot of red bricks in the past half day. When they get tired, they go to dig in the dirt and play, so the adults don't have to worry about them.

When Lin Yi heard Chen Wenjun calling, he quickly put down his shovel, used a bamboo pole to go fetch the man, and also cooked lunch.

Lin Qin continued piling up stones.

She and Lin Yi spent the whole day repairing the breach in the wall.

The foundation was dug early this morning, and she just started filling it in. With a little more effort, she should be able to get it about 30 centimeters high by this afternoon.

After Chen Wenjun got ashore, he saw that Lin Qin was extremely busy, so he went over to help without saying a word. He wasn't as good at mixing cement as Lin Qin, so he helped her transport stones so that she wouldn't have to run back and forth.

With Chen Wenjun's help, Lin Qin's speed increased significantly. In the time it took Lin Yi to cook, the two of them had already stacked two rows high.

After the last bit of cement was used up, Lin Yi brought over the food.

The dishes were the rice, tofu and fish soup, and snails in soy sauce that we had discussed yesterday, as well as shrimp cakes and fried dough sticks that Chen Wenjun brought back, and a bowl of braised pork belly, which Chen Wenjun also bought.

Everyone gathered under the big banyan tree to enjoy the cool shade and eat. The food was so delicious that no one had time to talk; they just buried themselves in their food.

Lin Yi kept an eye on Zhang Yongquan, serving him food. Zhang Yongquan refused several times, but he couldn't resist Lin Yi's enthusiasm.

He quickly thanked him and said, "I'll get the basic framework in place today, and position the windows and doors. Tian Qingxiang and the others can do the work tomorrow and the day after. I'll come back to do the rest of the work once they're almost done." Building walls takes at least four or five days. This house is about 180 square meters, and it requires a lot of materials. He didn't know how much money Chen Wenjun had, and if he didn't have enough, it would take him even longer to come back next time.

“Okay, okay! Whatever Master Zhang thinks is best, then we’ll arrange it.” Lin Yi was very cooperative.

After finishing their meal, Chen Wenjun went over to help Zhang Yongquan with some work, and then helped Lin Qin push over a few cartloads of stones. When they felt they had done enough, they rowed the boat to set up fish traps and catch fish.

Liu Yaya and Chen Ping'an had been playing in the dirt in Nanyu all morning and were tired. They were thinking about collecting wild duck eggs and insisted on going with Chen Wenjun.

Lin Qin couldn't persuade them otherwise, so she had to let Chen Wenjun take them away.

As evening fell, when Chen Wenjun rowed over in his boat, the two children excitedly ran ashore, jumping and skipping with joy. "Mom, Grandpa, Ping'an and I found so many wild duck eggs! Uncle said we can earn money for the family now!"

"And stone snails," Chen Pingan added.

Liu Yaya nodded vigorously, "Yes! We also collected a bucket of snails. Uncle said they were really big and really fat, and we could sell them!"

Seeing their little faces flushed red from the sun, Lin Qin couldn't help but feel sorry for them. "Hurry up and drink some sugar water, go rest in the shade, and we'll eat in a little while."

Chen Wenjun moored the boat and was surprised to find that the gap in the wall reached his hip bone. "You're going way too fast!"

Lin Qin stretched her back with difficulty, "Don't you see how many people are working! My dad is working on one side, and I'm working on the other side. We've discussed it and agreed that we'll get it to the top of our heads tomorrow, and then we'll work on it for another day the day after tomorrow. It should be about 2.5 meters long by then."

Add some shards of glass to the top to prevent outsiders from climbing over, or increase the height to three meters and then add shards of glass.

Chen Wenjun seemed to be thinking, "In that case, we'll have to build the main gate."

The two looked at Zhang Yongquan and explained the situation to him. Zhang Yongquan immediately said, "It's just making a door! No big deal! Just tell me the height and width you've reserved, and I'll bring the materials over. It can be done in a day."

Chen Wenjun quickly handed him a cigarette, "Master Zhang, do you think it'll be okay the day after tomorrow? We can repair it to a height of about two meters by tomorrow, which is about right for installing the door."

Seeing that Chen Wenjun was anxious, Zhang Yongquan did not refuse and agreed immediately.

After dropping them off on the other side, Lin Qin asked, "Why were you in such a hurry?"

That door doesn't necessarily have to be built so quickly.

Chen Wenjun's eyes shone brightly, full of anticipation. "It's hot now, and it's stuffy sleeping on the boat. If we open the window, we're bound to run into some embarrassing situations. It doesn't bother us adults, but I'm afraid the kids will overhear."

Lin Qin immediately understood what Chen Wenjun was talking about, and her face turned bright red.

It is human nature to maintain harmony between yin and yang, but this is not the case among the Tanka people. Especially in summer, everyone is afraid of the heat, so they leave their windows open and do things that are not suitable for children. If they make a lot of noise, everyone can hear it, but they just can't figure out which family it is. Once it gets light, the fishing boats sail away, and no one will investigate.

Adults are used to this kind of thing, but children are not. They are easily influenced by what they see and hear and can easily learn bad habits.

When the child was young, Chen Wenjun had no choice but to take care of Chen Ping'an alone and had to return to the port. Sometimes Chen Ping'an would be woken up by those noises in the middle of the night and ask him what was going on.

From then on, Chen Wenjun tried to stay as far away from other fishing boats as possible, but this was not a long-term solution.

(End of this chapter)