Back to my 1980s

"Are all the fish sold out?"

As soon as Zhao Hua stepped into the courtyard, he saw Zhao Ru and her mother, who were busy cleaning the cart.

Zhao Ru turned her head and looked over, then smiled and said, "We've sold out. Dad doesn't know. We gave him half and left."

"The cart is with you, but what happened to Dad's?"

"Dad pulled the cart from my eldest brother's house."

Zhao's mother poured a bucket of water onto the cart, then turned to Zhao Hua and asked, "Where have you been?"

Zhao Hua walked up to the two of them and said with a smile, "I just went to the educated youth settlement and took a look. Mother, shouldn't we find someone to dig the foundation?"

These days, there aren't many construction teams. It's usually a master craftsman leading a group of apprentices, or his own nephews and nieces, plus some unemployed women from the village doing odd jobs. Zhao Hua really didn't know who to hire to build a house.

Zhao's mother reached out and held onto the cart handle, standing on one leg, and said, "We do need to find an experienced craftsman to discuss how to build it, and then clean up the house and start digging the foundation. Actually, your father can do it; carpentry and bricklaying are pretty much the same thing, aren't they?"

Zhao Hua's lips twitched. Looking at his mother's one-legged stance, not afraid of lifting the front of the car up, he grinned and said, "Can a carpenter and a bricklayer be the same thing? There's no need to clean up over there anymore. I've already had the house demolished. It's almost done now. All the clods of earth have been broken up. We just need to find someone to dig the foundation."

Zhao's mother was stunned for a moment. She really hadn't been to the educated youth settlement in the past two days. She had spent the whole afternoon dismantling the pigsty and rushed off to sell fish early in the morning. Even the old man didn't have time to build the boat, so how could she have had time to go there and take a look?

"So fast?" She looked up and thought for a moment, then said, "We have to find it. I happen to have nothing to do right now, so go and haul all the yellow mud shoveled from the pigsty to the new house. Put in more soil and make sure it's packed tightly so it won't collapse later. I wanted to say this last night, but it was too late after I finished, so I didn't."

"You go and pull it, I'll go find someone to dig the foundation for you. It would be best to start work this afternoon, otherwise I won't feel at ease with the bricks just piled up in one place without anyone watching them."

Zhao Hua looked at his mother suspiciously, then thought about it and realized that what she said made some sense. At least if the soil was packed down tightly, it would be more difficult for snakes, insects, rats and ants to dig holes.

He glanced at the cart his mother had just cleaned. There wasn't much of a problem. She cleaned it to prevent flies from getting in, and he could cover up the odor by hauling dirt.

He nodded and said, "I understand, I'll go in a bit. You go find someone to prepare to dig the foundation."

After saying that, he waved to Zhao Ru, who was leaning against the wheel of the cart, and then went directly into the east wing. Zhao Ru hadn't counted the money she made from selling fish today.

Zhao Ru pressed down on the cart to get up, causing the handlebars to sag. Zhao's mother stumbled and immediately put her feet on the ground, frantically trying to steady the cart. Seeing that things were not going well, Zhao Ru rushed into the house and closed the door. Zhao's mother cursed a few times outside, but did not chase after her to hit her, mainly because Zhao's mother had important business to attend to at the moment.

"Brother." She took the money out of her pocket and put it on the table as she walked.

Zhao Hua turned his head and glanced at the table, then asked, "How much did you make today?"

As Zhao Ru took out her money, she replied, "I don't know. There were too many fish today, and I didn't have time to count them. I estimate it's about fifty or sixty yuan."

Zhao Hua mentally calculated and picked out more than 300 catties of fish that could be sold. He took more than 200 catties with him, and Zhao Ru and Zhao's father split the rest equally. Recently, it's the rainy season, and there are fish everywhere. There are many more fish at the market, so it's already good that he was able to sell them. He smiled and said, "Impressive. Have you bought the clothes I asked you to buy for Meng Qinghe? She's been helping with the demolition of the house these past few days. Buy them for her as soon as possible."

Zhao Ru nodded and said, "Okay, I'll buy it for her next time. I didn't dare to go see her today because I was with my mother. I was afraid she would nag me again."

He didn't say anything more, picked up the money in front of Zhao Ru and started counting it. He had to count this money every day. Actually, he was too lazy to count the money in his own hands, but he couldn't do that with Zhao Ru's. He had to count the money Zhao Ru made from selling fish because he had to give her a share.

After counting for a while, Zhao Ru sold it for 55.72 yuan, and Zhao Hua simply gave Zhao Ru all the change.

Once the rainy season is over, the profits from catching fish won't be much anymore, so recently Zhao Hua has been giving all the spare change to Zhao Ru.

He has been working hard until now and has saved about 4,500 yuan. Building a house will cost him at most 1,500 yuan.

He still had three thousand yuan left in his hand. The wedding wouldn't cost much. Looking at the money in the drawer, he thought for a moment that catching fish again was actually quite pointless. During the rainy season, he could earn one or two hundred yuan a day, but once the rainy season was over, he would have to go back to catching dozens of kilograms a day, just like at the beginning.

A few dozen kilograms a day isn't a lot, but it's not a small amount either. He clicked his tongue. Back in this era, earning a few dozen yuan a day would be quite impressive, but it seemed like he was wasting this chance to start over.

Besides, having finally gotten a second chance, I'm busy every day either catching fish in the river or selling them at the market, just to make money. Of course I want to make money, but with such a beautiful landscape, it seems rather pointless to confine myself to the river for a little money.

Zhao Hua's handsome face was contorted with a bitter expression. Zhao Ru watched from the side, somewhat curious. Despite earning so much money, why was there no joy on Zhao Hua's face, and why was his brow so furrowed? She asked softly, "Brother, don't you want to go haul that dirt?"

Upon hearing this, Zhao Hua looked up and saw Zhao Ru staring at him with her big, bright eyes. He laughed and, not having any ideas for what to do, decided to go with Zhao Ru to the pigsty to collect the yellow mud that had been shoveled down yesterday.

When the brother and sister brought the mud to the educated youth settlement, they found that there were many more onlookers today. Seeing the two of them bringing the mud over, a villager who had been standing at a distance came over and said, "I heard that your family is going to build a house here?"

Zhao Hua shoveled the dirt off the cart and tilted it to the side of the brick pile, nodded, and smiled, "Yes, we're planning to build a new house."

"Why did you bring so many bricks?"

Zhao Hua stretched his slightly sore neck to relax and said, "I plan to use these bricks to build a foundation."

"Huh? Use bricks to build a foundation? That's such a waste! Why don't you use them to build walls? I see there are quite a few bricks; enough to build at least a few walls. Why don't you build one room first, and then build the rest later?"

Zhao Hua chuckled and said, "Use these bricks to build a wall? I reckon these old bricks are older than me. I'm afraid they'll crack soon after the wall is built, and then we'll have to patch them up again. What's the point?"

"You're right about that, but a brick house is much better than a mud wall. A heavy rain can wash away several houses in the village. A brick house is much better than these mud walls."

By this time, several people had gathered around, from both the west and east sides of the village. Before Zhao Hua could continue speaking, another person said, "This is a good place to build a house. It's spacious, right in the heart of the village, and convenient to go anywhere."

"Of course, this place is unbeatable. My youngest son's house was finished a couple of years ago, otherwise I would have him build one here too."

"Wow, your youngest son has already built a house? Which one is it?"

"Ugh, it's not a good place. It's right at the edge of the village, with no shelter in front of it. The wind just blows straight into the house. It's quite comfortable in the summer. You can move the bed into the yard and it's very comfortable. But it's not good in the winter. The cold wind is so strong that you can't block it at all."

"That's good enough. The village entrance is alright, but you have no idea how bad things are on the west side of the village."

"How so?"

Zhao Hua was also a little curious about how unlucky he was. After unloading the yellow mud, he didn't rush to leave. Instead, he stood there and listened to the villagers continue their chatter.

"What else can I say? It's been raining all day and the water level has risen a lot."

"hold head high."

"Everyone around here knows that in the summer nights, snakes and toads swarm along the riverbank."

"Yeah, I know that."

"Look, the water has risen these past two days, and all those snakes and toads from the riverbank have surged up. You wouldn't believe it, those of us living in the center of the village are doing alright, but those living at the west end of the village are having a terrible time. I heard that one family had a power outage while bathing their child at night, and they didn't have a kerosene lamp, so they had to put the child on the ground after the bath."

He glanced at the people around him who were watching intently, and continued, "The child was still young and couldn't speak clearly. As soon as he landed, he said 'slippery, slippery.' The child's mother thought it was because his feet were wet and the child couldn't stand steadily, so she didn't pay attention. She had the child's father carry the child to the bed and then took a bath herself."

"Just as she finished showering, the power came back on. Good heavens! They said there was a huge red-banded snake nested where the child had just been standing. The young couple were terrified. The child's mother then remembered that he had been saying it was slippery, which meant he had stepped on the snake. She didn't care about being scared anymore and quickly told the child's father. The young couple checked the child all over again but couldn't find any wounds. The child was even pointing at the snake and laughing."

"And then what? What happened to the snake?"

"Later, tsk tsk, I heard that the child's father wanted to kill the snake, but his mother stopped him and kicked it out."

"That's right, you can't hit them. Snakes that come into the house have spirits, you can't hit them. Otherwise, the child would have stepped on them and wouldn't have bitten him. Whose child is that?"

"I can't remember. Snakes got into every household over there. They were everywhere—in the kitchen, in the corners, at the door, in the toilet. Goodness, so many houses had snakes in them. I've completely mixed them up."

Zhao Hua curled his lip. "That sounds nice. Snakes become spirits once they enter the house? Why don't you all hope a few snakes will enter your homes? Why do you say it's bad luck?"

It's because they were afraid of being bitten. Besides, it didn't die immediately; it escaped into the cracks in the wall and roof before it died. If you don't tear down the house to find it, the stench of its corpse will make it impossible to eat properly all summer. But that kid was really lucky; he stepped on the snake and wasn't bitten. But maybe it's just a rumor, and he didn't actually step on it.

Just as Zhao Hua was secretly grumbling to himself, his mother led a person over and introduced him to Zhao Hua. Zhao Hua didn't dare to be negligent, so he took out a cigarette and offered one to the villagers who had just been talking.

These days, bricklayers in rural areas are quite unique. Carpenters, on the other hand, mainly make small furniture, and you can tell the quality at a glance. Whether something is good or bad depends entirely on the skill of the craftsman.

Bricklayers are different. In rural areas, there are countless rumors about bricklayers who take a bad look at you and will leave you with something to hide. The more common ones will not build your house properly, so that it will leak and collapse after a while.

The more sinister ones will deliberately put bat blood or some kind of talisman in your house, or bury a dead cat in the corner. Since the house is so big, they can secretly tamper with it and build up the walls. You won't know if they've done anything unless you tear down the house.

So you have to provide them with good food, drink, cigarettes and alcohol, but Zhao Hua felt it wouldn't be very useful, because that's how they make a living. Your house won't be damaged in a hundred years. They can eat and drink whatever they want. The demand for housing in rural areas isn't actually that high.

He suspected that these people might deliberately cut corners on the less important parts of the walls so they would have enough to eat and drink after a heavy rain.

He led the master chef into the house and took a look. Meng's father and Meng Qinghe stopped what they were doing and looked at the group. Zhao's mother hurriedly stepped forward to greet them, after all, they were helping their family with their work.

The head chef's surname is also Zhao. There aren't many other people with the surname Zhao in their village.

Master Zhao looked at Zhao Hua and said, "This area is quite large. What are your plans?"

Zhao Hua doesn't understand design. It's true that he has worked on construction sites, but those were all pre-designed buildings.

He'd never actually taken over a small house like this before. Was it supposed to be built like those in later generations, with several living rooms and bathrooms? Leaving aside whether the area was enough—it certainly was—how could they eat with the outhouse inside and no flush toilet…?

So he looked at Master Zhao and said, "It doesn't have to be anything fancy. Just give me three rooms: two sleeping areas, one main room, a kitchen outside, and then a courtyard around it."

Master Zhao nodded. These tasks were not difficult for him, and he immediately began measuring the foundation.

Zhao Hua pulled Meng's father and Meng Qinghe aside, intending not to let them do the rest of the work.

Nowadays, building houses is not like it was in the 1990s with clearly marked prices. Usually, a master craftsman takes two apprentices, and the homeowner works alongside them, providing cigarettes, alcohol, and food. In the end, when the house is completed, they receive a red envelope, which is considered half a favor and half payment for labor.

He didn't plan to do that. He planned to pay Zhao enough money so that he could start his own team. There were also families with few members or young children who couldn't help. In those cases, the master chef could call on a few acquaintances and relatives to help with the work and then collect the wages. This kind of work was considered a lucrative job for them.

After measuring back and forth several times, Master Zhao had a good idea of ​​what to do. He said to Zhao Hua, "Okay, I know how to do it now. How do you plan to do it? Do you want me to draw the lines for you and you to dig the foundation yourself, or do you want me to bring people to dig it?"

He knew that Zhao Hua had made a lot of money, and a glimmer of hope appeared in his eyes, after all, the fish that were actually brought ashore every day were real.

Zhao Hua laughed and said, "You can find people to dig it up. Just tell me how much you need for a day, whether you're a skilled worker or a laborer. We won't interfere. Use all your people. Just get it built as quickly as possible."