Reborn in 78, I made my fortune by working in the mountains, supporting three families on my own.

Now that the estrangement between the father-in-law and son-in-law has long since disappeared, Zhao Lei comes here as casually as if he were returning home, and goes up to take the axe and helps chop firewood.

"Dad, the new house is all finished. We're having a thank-you dinner tonight, so I came over to invite you, Mom, my sister-in-law, and my niece to come over for dinner."

Qin Mancang's face immediately lit up with joy.

"It's fixed so quickly?"

"It took about forty days in total, which isn't fast."

"Yes, time flies by. Okay, our whole family will definitely come over when it's time."

Zhao Lei asked questions while chopping wood.

"By the way, where are Brother Dashan and Bowen?"

"Dashan has gone to the fields with the militia to catch up on their work. They were helping you build your house every day recently, so the team has fallen behind on a lot of work."

Zhao Lei felt deeply apologetic and gave an awkward smile.

"It did take up a lot of Brother Dashan's time."

"When a family says they'll be delayed, they'll help each other out so that life can prosper. Isn't that the right way to do it?"

"Father is right. Where is that boy Bowen?"

"Still sleeping in his room."

Zhao Lei put down the axe and walked straight to Qin Bowen's bedroom.

As soon as the door was pushed open, Zhao Lei kicked the edge of the bed.

Qin Bowen was half asleep, muttering and throwing a tantrum.

"Who is it? Let me sleep a little longer!"

Upon opening his eyes and recognizing Zhao Bowen, he instantly woke up from his drowsiness and sat bolt upright.

"Hey brother-in-law, what brings you here so early in the morning?"

"Get up quickly, go to town with your sister to buy wine and food!"

"Why am I the one going? Aren't you going?"

"I have other things to do. You're a grown man now, why are you making excuses when I ask you to do something?"

Qin Bowen groaned with a long face.

"I've been working non-stop with you lately, building houses and hunting in the mountains. I just want to get some more sleep and rest."

"Young people have plenty of energy, but instead of doing more work, they're just thinking about slacking off. Get up!"

Qin Bowen couldn't refuse, so he could only hang his head and agree.

"Alright, alright, I'll get up right away. Brother-in-law, please wait a moment."

In no time, Qin Bowen came out of the house, having finished getting ready.

As soon as he stepped into the yard, Qin Mancang spotted his youngest son, his face showing a mixture of surprise and amusement.

"Hehe, Bowen, only your brother-in-law can cure your habit of sleeping in late."

Qin Bowen complained with a long face, "Dad, please stop making sarcastic remarks."

"You brat, if you ever sleep in again, I'll call your brother-in-law over to teach you a lesson!"

Zhao Lei, standing to the side, gave Qin Bowen a wink: "Bowen, remember what I told you. Your sister is waiting at home, so hurry up and get going."

"Okay, brother-in-law."

Qin Bowen mounted his old-fashioned bicycle and pedaled towards Zhao Lei's house.

After everyone had gone, Zhao Lei picked up his axe again and chatted with his father-in-law while chopping wood.

"Dad, the new house is finished, but I still feel like something's missing."

"What's lacking? It's the only two-story red brick house in the whole town, isn't that respectable?"

"It's respectable, but it's not quite right to rely on kerosene lamps for lighting the whole house. I want to run electrical wires into the house."

Qin Mancang put down the firewood, his face full of doubt: "Why bother with electrical wires? Kerosene lamps are fine enough. Electricity means paying monthly bills, which is just an extra expense."

"Dad, you don't understand. As times get more advanced, every household will have appliances like televisions, washing machines, radios, and electric lights. I can afford to build a brick house, so there's no need to skimp on electricity."

Qin Mancang stroked his beard, understanding his thoughts.

"I think I understand now. You want me to help you get the necessary approval from the village committee?"

Zhao Lei chuckled, handed over a pack of Daqianmen cigarettes, and lit it for his father-in-law.

"Father, nothing can be hidden from you. Is this matter easy or difficult to handle?"

Qin Mancang took a drag of his cigarette and slowly began to speak: "The difficulty lies in the fact that not a single household in our brigade has its own power line. At most, each household has a flashlight and a wall-mounted meter, and they all rely on kerosene lamps to get by."

"If others won't do it, I'll be the first, right? I'll be the first in the whole town to build a red brick house."

"That makes sense. I'll go back to the brigade and ask. As long as the higher-ups give the go-ahead, this matter can be handled."

"Then I'll have to leave everything to you, Father."

Zhao Lei buried his head and chopped a large pile of firewood. He looked up at the sun and realized it was getting late.

"Dad, I have other urgent business to attend to. You can all come to my house for lunch. I need to go to the Taiyang Production Brigade."

"What are you going over there for? The houses are all finished, aren't they?"

"The wages for the previous workers haven't been settled yet, so I have to deliver them one by one."

"Okay, then go ahead and get busy."

After saying goodbye to his father-in-law, Zhao Lei turned and headed to Qin Changlin's house.

When Qin Changlin mentioned hosting a thank-you banquet that evening, he immediately beamed with joy and readily agreed, even saying he would bring some of his family's treasured vintage wines.

Zhao Lei added, "We're hosting thirty or forty people at home, and we might not have enough cooks. If you have time, please go and lend a hand as soon as possible."

"Don't worry, Lei Zi, I'll have Xiao Cui, Xiao Wu, and Xiao Liu all go over and help right away."

As he spoke, Zhao Lei took out a wad of banknotes from his pocket and handed them over.

Qin Changlin was taken aback and didn't reach out to take it: "Lei Zi, what do you mean by this?"

"Uncle Changlin, let's keep things separate. This is your payment for helping me build the house. It's calculated based on market rates. Please keep it."

Qin Changlin waved his hands repeatedly to refuse, saying, "Please don't do that. I went to help you out of pure goodwill. How could I accept your money? If you keep doing this, you're disowning me as your elder."

"Uncle Changlin, you can't say that. The wages should be paid in full. I won't feel at ease if you don't accept them."

"I absolutely cannot take the money. Here's what we'll do: I'll take my whole family out for dinner tonight, and you can prepare plenty of good food and wine. Consider it my way of repaying this favor."

After much back and forth, Zhao Lei finally gave in to the stubborn old man and had to put the money back in his pocket.

"Okay, I'll do as Uncle Changlin says. Tonight's meal will be plentiful."

"That's more like it."

"Uncle Changlin, I still need to go to other places to inform them, so I'll take my leave now."

"Go ahead, I'll call the children to pack their things and go help."

"Thank you for your trouble, Uncle Changlin."

"Don't mention it."

After leaving Qin Changlin's house, Zhao Lei rushed to Wang Zongbao's house.

When the Wang family saw him arrive, they all greeted him warmly.

Zhao Lei got straight to the point, informing them that the whole family would be attending a banquet that evening.

Wang Zongbao looked on in surprise: "Brother Lei, our whole family is going over there?"

"That's right, the whole family is coming."

Wang Shouguo, standing to the side, seemed a little embarrassed: "Lei Zi, we have a lot of family members. If we all go together, it might cause you a lot of trouble."

"What's the trouble? It's just a banquet for all the relatives and friends who helped out, and Uncle Changlin's family will be there too."

Wang Shouguo immediately realized what was going on and his face lit up with joy: "So you wanted our two families to visit each other more often and strengthen our relationship."

"Uncle Shouguo sees things very clearly; that's exactly what he means. Wang San Gong, San Po, Cui Lan, and her children all came over; it's more lively with more people, right?"