Back to my 1980s

"Master Zhao!"

Zhao Hua led his two sisters-in-law to the educated youth settlement and found Master Zhao, who was laying the foundation.

I didn't originally want to hire them, since I didn't expect them to be able to do any work anyway. There are so many children in the family, and they are all still young. My older brothers have gone to work in the fields, so I can't expect my five- or six-year-old nephews to cook for them.

However, after thinking about it again, he realized it was hard to say. Rural children mature earlier. As long as the food is cooked, it doesn't necessarily mean they have to go home to cook. The main thing is that it doesn't matter whether they go to work in the fields early or late. With the midday sun so strong, his older brothers don't have to be roasted in the fields the whole time.

Besides, it's better to establish a connection beforehand, so they don't think I don't trust them and have someone come to keep an eye on them, although that was originally the intention.

"Hey!" He raised his head, then stood up straight and looked at Zhao Hua and the two women behind him.

Zhao Hua glanced at them and saw that there were seven people in total. Master Zhao was building the corner wall, an apprentice was building the outer wall, and the remaining five were carrying water and mixing mud.

There was no running water; people had to fetch water from the well. Of the remaining people, only one other apprentice was male, so it seemed the job of fetching water had been assigned to him.

However, not only was carrying water physically demanding, but mixing mud was also no easy task. Since there were no mixers available, the mud had to be mixed by hand. It required turning the mud over and over with a shovel many times until the mud slurry stuck to the iron shovel and wouldn't fall off. Dozens of loads of mud had to be mixed a day, and one's arms would swell up.

Fortunately, people in rural areas are used to physical labor, and even women are no exception; they can handle these kinds of jobs.

The walls he built were 24 centimeters thick, exactly the length of one brick, and the width of two bricks was exactly the length of one brick. There wasn't much technical difficulty involved. As long as the apprentice followed the horizontal line that Old Zhao had found, there wouldn't be any major mistakes.

Zhao Hua took out a cigarette case from his pocket, pulled out a cigarette and handed it to him, smiling, "Master Zhao, I brought you two helpers. Do you need any more people?"

Master Zhao took the cigarette, put it in his mouth, and looked at the two people behind him. They were from the same village, so how could he not recognize Zhao Hua's two sisters-in-law? He understood at a glance.

Besides, these were people brought over by the host family. They only asked if they needed more people, not whether they needed to reduce their own numbers. Master Zhao quickly and enthusiastically replied, "Great, great, sure, sure. Of course we need more people. We need people to carry bricks and pour concrete. We wouldn't mind having two more."

Zhao Hua chuckled to himself. Building a house was indeed amazing. A family of only two or three, father and sons, could build it, while a family of ten or eight people could build it without complaining. Of course, building a house with fewer people was definitely not as fast as building one with more people.

Mixing mud, moving bricks, transporting materials, and carrying water are tasks that can never be finished. Having more people just makes things faster. For example, carrying water is not only for mixing mud, but also for soaking bricks before they can be used on the wall. If dry bricks are used on the wall without water, they will absorb the moisture from the mortar, turning the joints into dry powder, and the wall will collapse when pushed.

After handing the two men over to Master Zhao, he simply moved two bricks to the shade of a tree, sat for a while at the educated youth settlement, and then moved the two beds from last night back home this morning.

If the workers think the bed is just for them to sit and rest, they won't be able to sleep on it in less than a day. The mud and sand they get on their bodies from working will fall onto the bed. He doesn't want to wash the bed every night, so he might as well move it home.

He had barely sat down when he saw Zhao Ru and Meng Qinghe walking over together. He remained seated, watching them approach.

"Are all the fish sold out?"

"Yeah, sold out. The money's at home."

Zhao Hua nodded and said, "You came back quite early today. How come you sold out so quickly?"

Zhao Ru chuckled and said, "We used to sell pretty fast too. Lots of people at the market already know us. Whenever we go there, so many people come straight to us. We don't even have enough fish to sell anymore!"

Zhao Hua chuckled in surprise, "Oh, not bad, you've even made us a regular customer?"

Zhao Ru proudly raised her chin and laughed, "Wow! Lots of people even waited for us. Some people in the village have far fewer fish than us, but they still can't sell them as fast as we do!"

Zhao Hua picked up a tree branch from the ground, rested his arm on his leg, and supported himself on the ground with one hand. He smiled and said, "Then you can secretly buy the fish that the village can't sell at a discount, and then resell them at the market. You can make quite a bit of money that way."

Zhao Ru rolled her eyes, pulled Meng Qinghe over and moved a few bricks to sit next to Zhao Hua, and laughed, "That won't do, that won't do. It's speculation. If I get arrested, you won't see us anymore."

Zhao Hua laughed and said, "I was just worried you wouldn't have enough fish to sell because you seemed quite happy selling them."

Zhao Ru leaned on Zhao Hua's shoulder and said weakly, "It's alright, but even if we could collect them, it wouldn't be enough. The weather is too hot now, and if we sell a little bit of fish late, they won't be fresh. Meng Qinghe and I were so anxious that we were sweating profusely. We were hot, tired, and thirsty. We'll have to bring a water bottle next time we go."

Zhao Hua paused, his hand, which had been constantly swishing the twig across the ground, and turned to look at Zhao Ru. He asked, "What did you say?"

Zhao Ru looked up at him, then leaned back on his arm and said, "I said even if we could take it now, we couldn't."

"No, that's not it. You said you were hot, tired, and thirsty?"

Zhao Ru nuzzled her head against his arm and said, "Yeah, everyone's tired and thirsty. It's so hot, not only am I tired, Qinghe is tired too." She then turned to look at Meng Qinghe and said, "Qinghe, don't you think so?"

Seeing Meng Qinghe nod, she lay back down and said, "See? Everyone gets tired. It's mainly because the weather was too hot, we were in a hurry, and then we sweated a lot. We forgot to bring a water bottle, that's why we were so tired. We felt much better after drinking some water when we got home."

Zhao Hua stared at Zhao Ru. Her hair, which had been cut off, had grown back a bit. These past few days, she had been selling fish under the market's shade, and her skin had become much fairer. The little girl was getting prettier and prettier.

He smiled and asked, "If you're thirsty, why don't you go buy some water?"

Zhao Ru suddenly sat up straight and said, "Oh right! I should have bought a bottle of orange soda before I came back. Why did I have to wait until I got home to drink water!" As she spoke, she angrily slapped Zhao Hua's thigh.

Zhao Hua glanced at her but didn't say anything. He slowly lit a cigarette and put it in his mouth. As the smoke rose, he thought of someone, someone who had been the richest man in China three times.

That person's position as the richest man was entirely built up by selling beverages bottle by bottle, and the product he sold later became a household name. That product was mineral water, but their county couldn't produce mineral water.