Back to my 1980s

"Do you have any connections to get me some red bricks?"

After returning from selling fish in the county town, Zhao Hua went to Jiang Yue's house immediately. He had already told Meng Qinghe that morning that the house was probably already being demolished.

"What do you need red bricks for?"

"Building houses, what else can we do?"

"Build a red brick house?" Jiang Yue thought for a moment. Given Zhao Hua's circumstances, it didn't seem too difficult. She smiled knowingly and said, "I do have connections."

Zhao Hua waited for her to finish her sentence, but she remained silent.

"And then?" In the end, Zhao Hua couldn't hold back any longer, after all, he needed someone's help.

That's all. Wait for news. Come back tomorrow.

He had learned in the past few days that red bricks could be bought these days, but they weren't easy to find. The village's pigsty had been demolished, and the bricks were only enough to build a foundation, because he wanted to build a yard.

If he wanted to buy more bricks, he would have to buy the negotiated bricks. A negotiated brick was two cents more expensive than a regular brick. The three main rooms plus the courtyard wall would require about 20,000 bricks, which would cost him an extra 400 yuan, enough to buy another bicycle. In the village, red bricks sold for 3.5 cents each, and he wanted to try to get some cheaper ones.

He'd be happy to get his hands on her, but if not, so be it. He headed straight for Jiang Yue's house right after selling the fish. Jiang Yue was the most impressive person he knew, and he was pleasantly surprised to find her there, even though she was a bit strange.

Today in the county town, he discovered that many things no longer require ration coupons, but grain and oil still do.

"Are we going to visit the educated youth settlement again today?"

As soon as the two finished settling the accounts, Zhao Ru looked at Zhao Hua.

Zhao Hua stuffed the money into the drawer, which was already almost full. Without looking up, he said, "I'm not going. There's so much to do. I don't have time to go. It hasn't been raining much these past few days. I need to go to the brigade to pay some money to dismantle the pigsty. I'll go catch fish tonight."

It's been raining occasionally these past few days, but it's been on and off. The weather is quite comfortable for both working and fishing. If it weren't for building his own house and having to use those inferior bricks to lay the foundation, he really wouldn't want to demolish the pigsty.

"Oh, do you want me to come with you?" Zhao Ru stuffed the money into her pocket.

Having followed Zhao Hua for so long, she was quite wealthy these days. So lately, no matter what Zhao Hua was doing, she wanted to stick to him. Zhao's mother rarely asked her to do chores around the house, partly because she thought it was hard work for her to catch and sell fish, and partly because she was worried that Zhao Hua might need her to do something.

Zhao Hua nodded and said, "Okay, isn't it almost been a month? Shouldn't you have bought me the clothes we promised?"

"It's still early, but it'll be soon. You can buy it now."

"Well, just pay attention. You brought this up, so you can buy it for me later. It's not easy for me to buy it; I can't exactly go and ask Meng Qinghe what size clothes she wears." Zhao Hua sighed and continued, "Let's go eat first, then we'll go to the brigade to pay the money later. I heard it's twenty yuan."

Zhao Ru nodded and followed Zhao Hua outside. She smiled and said, "It's quite cheap. If we dismantle it carefully, we can get a lot of bricks. I can't believe it. It's like a dream. In the blink of an eye, our family will be building a red brick house."

"You've been blinking for quite a while now. Sigh, it's cheap, but you have to take it apart yourself."

Zhao Ru blinked and said, "You can call your nephews too. They're all on holiday anyway, and they're just killing time. And what about your friends? Why don't you call a few to help out?"

She paused, scratched her head, and said, "Forget it, you shouldn't invite your friends. Otherwise, you'll have to treat them to drinks tonight, and then you won't have time to go down to the river. It's more cost-effective to ask your nephew. Just give him some candy."

Zhao Hua sat down and glanced at her. She's quite shrewd; she can't let anything interfere with fishing in the river.

"What are you saying? What little nephew?" Zhao's mother walked into the main room carrying a plate of small fish. Hearing the siblings' conversation, she asked curiously. They had been eating fish every day for the past few days and were tired of it. Luckily, they had a cat, so they fed the leftovers to the cat.

Zhao Ru laughed and said, "My brother said he's going to dismantle the pigsty this afternoon. I was thinking of asking my nephews to help out, so why not just buy them some candy?"

Zhao's mother nodded, not objecting. It was normal to have the children help with chores. Some families had children as young as five or six who were already being taken to the fields to help weed. She put the fish on the table and said, "Okay, let's eat first. After we eat, I'll go help out too. Your father went out to build a ship, otherwise I could have called him along."

Zhao Ru asked curiously, "Mother, whose boat did Father go to build?"

Zhao's mother shook her head, sat down with Zhao Ru, and said, "I don't know. I heard that three families are planning to build a ship, and they are all vying to let your father build it at their homes first. They're almost fighting over it."

Zhao Hua chuckled and said, "You've all seen me bringing back so many fish every day, you must be getting anxious, right? But after the rainy season ends, you can still make money, but it won't be so easy to make that much."

Zhao Ru picked up a fish and put it in her bowl, saying, "If more and more people build boats in the future, won't all the fish in our river be caught?"

Zhao Hua raised his eyebrows and said, "It's not that bad. They're all hand-thrown nets. At most, we throw them into the fish passages and along the edge of the wasteland. That's only enough to catch a few fish. Eat up, we still have work to do after we finish."

And that is indeed the case. No one is electrofishing yet, there is no industrial wastewater in the river, and no one is selling trawl nets or other fishing methods that have emerged since then. In such a large river, it takes several hand-thrown nets to catch a few fish. Moreover, they have introduced many economic fish species, such as the Taihu silverfish, which is quite famous in later generations.

After the meal, the group split up. Zhao Hua went to the village branch to pay the money, as his grandfather had already made arrangements. Zhao's mother went to prepare tools to remove the mud from the bricks, while Zhao Ru went to gather her nephews and nieces.

After paying the money, Zhao Hua didn't go home but went straight to the collective pigsty. He originally thought he would need a receipt, since these days you need a receipt for everything. Unexpectedly, after the village secretary took the money, he simply said "I know" and left...

When he arrived at the pigsty, his mother, sister, and a bunch of kids were already circling around it, as if they were figuring out where to start.

He strode over and took a look. There was still a faint stench in the air, since the pig farm had only been abandoned for a short time. Some of the bricks were black and covered in manure. Fortunately, he only needed these bricks to build the foundation.

If you bury them directly in the ground, the stench will disappear. In fact, if you plant some flowers and plants around these bricks, they might even grow more beautifully than in other places.

He followed and looked around for a while. No matter what kind of house is being demolished, it always starts from the roof. But this pigsty is different from the house. It is higher in the front and lower in the back. There is also a long manure storage tank built behind the pigsty.

Climb up from the back; the smell is awful, and there's too much weeds. Zhao Hua even found a snake's shed skin on the bricks behind the pigsty. He suspected that if he kept dismantling it, he might find a few snakes inside.