Accompanied by a Fool To Do Farming - CH 78

Chapter 78: 盖房

(Building a house)

Since they were planning to build a house, they had to choose a good place, so Zhao Zheng’an and Zhong Ziqi discussed it over and finally decided to build the house next to their current house. Zhong Ziqi didn’t want to build it in the (center of the) village since it would be annoying when he thought of all the people watching them when they went in and out of the house.

The back of the village was really peaceful without all the annoying people and problems. Here was simply their territory.

Zhao Zheng’an also thought the land in the back was good. But to live here, security had to be planned.

“Wife, what do you think, should we build another room? Our stewed meat is made here. It’s only about half an hour from the town to here using the carriage.”

Zhao Zheng’an sat on the Kang bed and asked Zhong Ziqi who was lying lazily in his arms.

Zhong Ziqi squinted his eyes and thought, “That’s also fine! We get a lot of vacant land around us anyway. Regarding the deed of the house and other things, just do as you see fit.”

They originally wanted to set up the stewed meat workshop in the town to make it more convenient. However, it wasn’t easy to find a house in the town. Many houses were at initial prices and it could be found everywhere but either Zhao Zheng’an didn’t like it or the price of the house was especially high.Even if Zhao Zheng’an and Zhong Ziqi were rich, they didn’t want to be the spendthrift and foolish. That was why the marinated meat workshop didn’t have a place to settle in yet. The extent of it had been maintained at ‘Quite Delicious’.

The two of them felt that it was not a good idea to continue like this, so since they could not find the suitable one, they could build it themselves! Apart from being a little troublesome, they could save a lot of money. Buying a house in town would cost them a hundred taels or more, but by building it themselves, they would only have to pay for the bricks and tiles, the labour, etc. But these costs usually did not cost that much money.

But it would just require a lot of effort for the various restaurants to purchase the goods when the moment comes, but there was no worry about selling good things, as long as it was good, he would not be short of people to buy it. Even if it was far away, Zhong Ziqi believed that those people would still come and looking for it.

Now that he had decided to start building the house, Zhao Zheng’an began to get busy. He first went to the Yamen (government office in feudal China) and bought all the land deeds for the area around his house. In fact, the villagers didn’t even think about buying land deeds when they built their houses. Basically, they just built their houses wherever there was vacant land, then their house was there. The county magistrate could not possibly oversee so many people, so most of the county magistrates just turned a blind eye and let it go.

The main reason why Zhao Zheng’an wanted to buy back the land deed was because the area around their house was originally old and had people living in it, so if one day after the house was built, someone came and told them that the place was theirs, then they would be pestered and pestered which was troublesome. So he might as well go through the formalities to avoid any future problems.

After getting the deeds, he found some masons in the village. He also found some people he knew in the town. A few of them were the ones who had done the work for the compound last time, altogether, there were more than ten people.

Once all the people were found, the work began.More than ten people arrived at around seven o’clock in the morning and started working straight away. Zhao Zheng’an and Zhong Ziqi paid them full for their work,but naturally they also provided lunch for them.

It was this meal that made these workers so satisfied that they wanted to come to work every day.

Zhong Ziqi naturally wouldn’t be foolish enough to cook dishes with generous amounts of meat and fish. At best, there were a few pieces of meat in the sour vegetable soup(酸菜汤) once in a while.There were also stewed cabbage vermicelli (白菜炖米分条) and so on, with two big white steamed buns. It looked very simple but in the mouths of these workers, it was really delicious. Zhong Ziqi was always generous with the oil and the seasoning in cooking the meal, no family had ever spent so much oil and seasoning on this simple dish, so even his ordinary dish can attract a lot of praise.

酸菜汤

白菜炖米分条:

Moreover, occasionally there was meat which made life better than at home. Naturally, this group of workers couldn’t bear to leave.

The structure of Zhong Ziqi’s family’s new house was large. Apart from the main house, there were two rows of side rooms to the left and right but they were not next to each other. Because they had the land deed, they could build the house without the slightest feeling of guilt at all. The house was built large and there was plenty of space in the front and back yards. It was not possible to walk from the south to the north without a tenth or an eighth of a mile.

The backyard, in particular, was almost half an acre of land. Zhong Ziqi said that when the weather warms up, a row of fruit trees would be planted so that they could eat it if they want, but if they don’t, they could make it into wine.

Zhao Zheng’an naturally had no objection.On the contrary, he was looking forward to that kind of scene. By the time the fruit trees blossomed and yielded fruit, he was sure their child would be a ‘toddler’ (the original words used walk unsteadily/ learn to walk). He would be able to play with him in his arms. It was a bit exciting to think of that!1

The house was built very quickly, but the slow part was building the fence (perimeter wall) because it was too long and relatively took a lot of trouble to transport the bricks and so on. Zhao Zheng’an had to hire a few people in the village to carry bricks, carry water and make mud, specifically to serve the masons.

The people who were hired were naturally happy, they had heard that they earned two wens more a day by working at their home than they did outside. They were also provided with a delicious lunch every day, which had already made many of the men very enthusiastic. However, Zhao Zheng’an only needed to find five or six people in the village. Most of them were people who were close to their family, others could only look at them enviously. They didn’t expect that it was only a few days later that Zhao Zheng’an came back to look for someone, they were all eager to striving to be first and fearing to be last and recommend themselves but Zhao Zheng’an obviously had a plan in mind, and the people he was looking for were all honest men from the village, who would not be sneaky in their work. Those who were not chosen could only stare helplessly and jealously.

Speaking of this, in the middle of building the house, something else happened in the place where they built the house.There were several houses that had been ruined beyond recognition, Zhao Zheng’an and the others had flattened it all down to the ground. Suddenly, the owners of these houses, who had been instigated by someone, came to Zhao Zheng’an to ask for compensation, saying that his side had taken over their houses.

Fortunately, Zhao Zheng’an was prepared for this and took them to Li Zheng’s house and showed the land deed to him. He read it aloud in front of everyone, then the men immediately ran away dejectedly after hearing it. Now, they had not gotten their money, but had offended the two rich men.

When Zhao Zheng’an told Zhong Ziqi about it, Zhong Ziqi just shook his head mockingly. There are always people who are greedy for other people’s money. Thus they tried to get money into their own pockets by all means and did not dislike getting their hand-burned. (Using bad way to attain it)

The work on the house would be completed in about half a month. All that was left to do was to add the household items, furniture and cabinets to the house then it would be ready.

However, there was no hurry. Zhao Zheng’an had ordered a carpenter in town that specialize in custom made to make the wardrobe, bookshelves, tables, chairs and cupboards for the house. He was waiting for the carpenter to finish it, then he would bring it back when the furniture was ready. Originally he wanted to ask Uncle Huang to help him with the work, after all, he was a carpenter. It was just that Uncle Huang was now helping out every day at ‘Quite Delicious’ plus they had a lot of furniture to make therefore it would be too tiring for Uncle Huang to do it all by himself, besides that, how long would it take? So Zhong Ziqi and Zhao Zheng’an thought about it and decided to find other carpenters in town to order the furniture.

After the new house was built, Zhong Ziqi basically wandered around the new house every day, looking around and touching it, his face full of joy. This one was the house that really belonged to them, bright and spacious. It was a real pleasure to look at it and he could not wait to move in immediately. In the previous house, the thought that someone had died, even if it was only Zhao Zheng’an’s grandparents, made him feel uncomfortable so he couldn’t wait to build the house.

Zhao Amu and the others had also come to see it. They were baffled by the fact that they had built such a big house with only two people in it. They didn’t dislike the spacious and empty house but thought it was quite nice. As they listened to their plans to plant the fruit trees in the courtyard, they felt that the two children were living a life that no one else could keep up with, they were so relaxed and free.They could not help but felt that they were very envious in their heart, but they were also happy for the both of them who had come to the end of their misery and the good times just began for them.

All these enviable things did not come from nothing, they had earned it one step at a time, with painstakingly hard work and dedication. How much hard work had gone into it, how many frustrations and dashed hopes they had encountered, others could never understand it unless they experienced it themselves. That was why Zhao Amu and the others were sincerely happy for both of them.

Zhao Zheng’an chose the marinated meat processing factory to be on the left side of their house, exactly the south side of it. For various reasons, not next to their house, but staggered with their house, diagonally in front of it.

The processing factory naturally could not be small. It was expected to be many times larger than the compound. They might not necessarily use such a large space at all, but there was no harm in making it larger. On the broadside, a side room was built for a person to live in. As usual, a wall of two people’s height was standing around the house, so that no one could enter.

Because there were so many people. The wall of the building that was used as a factory was not as long as the wall of the brand new house. So long, therefore they build (by laying bricks) it quickly.

The end was near in about ten days. During this period of time, the furniture ordered by Zhao Zheng’an was finished. Zhao Zheng’an hired a horse-drawn carriage and brought it straight back.Then, together with the workers, they carried it one by one into the house.The house, which had been spacious and empty, immediately had the smell of human beings.

All they had to do was to wait for an auspicious day and they would be able to move in.

The building that would be used as the factory was thoroughly completed within two days. Everyone was happy after being tired for so long. This meant that their wages would be paid out and that was the most exciting thing of all.

Naturally, Zhao Zheng’an gave the 20-odd people their wages, not stingy at all but he also treated them to a big meal, only then did he send the crowd away.

(He was emotionally moved when he think of it)