Chapter 99: Chapter 99: Officially Building the House
For an average family, who could afford to build this kind of house without some financial strength? Just the cost of materials alone adds up to a huge amount, and everyone in the village has some thoughts about building such a house.
What kind of house to build and how much money is needed, every household may not be exactly sure, but they are pretty close to it.
Just looking at Gu Ruhai’s approach, you can tell this house won’t be cheap.
So, now the latest gossip in Gu Family Village is probably about Gu Ruhai’s house.
No matter how others gossip, Gu Ruhai and Li Xuemei don’t care, and there’s nothing they can do about it either.
Besides, the two of them are so busy they are almost frazzled, as building a house is not the same as playing house; hands are needed both inside and outside the house.
The couple is also reluctant to let go of their business. Now that spring has arrived, with everything in bloom, even though the weather is warming up, the business of fried dumplings, steamed dumplings, and lamb offal is still good. There are still days until the hot weather, allowing for some more time to sell, and after all, it’s still more than thirty yuan a day, which Li Xuemei and Gu Ruhai find hard to give up.
But regardless of how reluctant they are, the house still needs to be built.
To Gu Ruhai and Li Xuemei, this is a major life event and absolutely cannot be postponed, even if it means not doing business, they still need to build the house.
Furthermore, Li Qinghai had heard about it early on and knew that this was a big deal in his son-in-law’s family that required attention.
Help is needed everywhere.
Building this house wouldn’t be possible in less than half a month or twenty days.
So, after pondering for a while, Li Qinghai discussed it with his two sons, because during the New Year when they went for a visit on the second day, Li Weimin and Li Weiqiang gave a portion of the money to Gu Ruhai, but Gu Ruhai and Li Xuemei refused to accept it, to the point where both families almost had a falling out.
In the end, although this issue was temporarily shelved because Gu Xiaoqing suggested that his uncles sponsor his tuition for college in the future,
Li Weimin and Li Weiqiang felt uneasy about it for a long time.
The two brothers’ business of hand-pulled noodles was really good. Later, Gu Xiaoqing even spent some time developing a new flavor of gravy and an improved version of the noodles, turning it into a unique business.
Despite working together, the two brothers never really had any falling outs, at least showing their camaraderie and loyalty.
Throughout the winter, Li Weimin and Li Weiqiang also earned quite a bit.
After calculating, it turned out to be over six thousand yuan.
Most workers and employees still favored this kind of filling noodle, and plus, Li Weimin and the others always gave generous portions and had a variety of gravies. Later on, they also added many side dishes, occasionally giving out some surprisingly tasty small pickles.
Many people liked to eat here, mainly because there was only one state-owned restaurant in town, where the chef’s dishes were not only monotonous but also excessively salty, enough to almost choke someone, and the service attitude was terrible, as if they were doing you a great favor.
Therefore, most people preferred the food from Li Weimin’s small stall. Moreover, with four sides covered with canvas, it almost had the feel of a restaurant.
So business was always good, and that’s how the over six thousand yuan was made.
The two brothers were also planning to consider building a house themselves after some time.
The first thought for rural people when they have some money is getting a house.
Since Gu Ruhai started first, Li Qinghai figured he and his wife could go over and help Gu Ruhai. As an old man, he had the experience to supervise the construction crew, even if he couldn’t do the heavy lifting.
His wife could cook for the workers. Initially, the idea was to bring both granddaughters along, but after some discussion, the granddaughters were sent to help Li Xuemei so she could be free to handle cooking for the workers or making decisions if something came up at home.
This way, they wouldn’t delay their business and could also get the house built properly.
So, on the day Gu Ruhai moved, Li Qinghai and Li Zhaodi came over.
They stayed with Li Xuemei and Gu Ruhai in the broken cave dwelling of the team.
Although called a broken cave dwelling, the house was still solid; only the windows and doors were shabby, but it was still livable.
The day before, Li Xuemei and Gu Ruhai had come over to tidy up.
During the move, Gu Xiaoqing couldn’t help because he had just started school again, and his studies were demanding because Gu Xiaoqing spent a lot of time on his studies, determined not to let this lifetime go to waste, practically studying day and night. He also intended to save some money for the family by aiming to take the high school entrance exam right after eighth grade and try to get into a county high school.
So Gu Xiaoqing could barely help the family with anything, and Li Xuemei felt sorry for the child, especially after Gu Xiaoqing lost a lot of weight in the past few months.
She kept nagging not to overwork, but unfortunately, the child wouldn’t listen.
Besides offering some advice on recipes, Gu Xiaoqing also contributed a little on the house planning, but mostly he couldn’t manage anything else.
Class advisor Fang Nan had high hopes for Gu Xiaoqing too, since this was the first batch of junior high students he taught, and Gu Xiaoqing was an exceptionally diligent student. Fang Nan hoped Gu Xiaoqing could rank first in the county, bringing some prestige to Sishui Middle School.
You see, Sishui Middle School was just an average school within the county, lacking experienced teachers and having mediocre students. While village kids were hardworking, their overall performance couldn’t compete with kids from better schools.
If Sishui Middle School could produce a first-place student in the county, it could at least solve some problems with teachers.
So, expectations were placed on Gu Xiaoqing by both Fang Nan and Principal Gu.
This was hope.
Both of them occasionally gave Gu Xiaoqing additional tutoring, offered extra lessons, and provided the latest county-level exam papers for Gu Xiaoqing to practice first, essentially treating him as a top student.
Gu Xiaoqing did not disappoint. Though he hadn’t taken a formal county-level exam yet, the scores on the papers turned in were very impressive.
So while the family was busy moving, Gu Xiaoqing was in school attending classes.
Early in the morning, Mr. Li and his wife returned by cart.
Li Xuemei saw Gu Ruhai off, and with her parents, began organizing and loading the family’s belongings onto the cart, with neighbors coming to help too. Grandma Zhang’s daughter-in-law and son also came out to help.
Many old neighbors also lent a hand, all thinking to themselves, that now that Gu Ruhai’s family had made it, it was wise to build good relations now, lest they need something from them in the future and struggle to ask for help.
So, bustling with excitement, they moved all of Li Xuemei’s family’s things away.
Meanwhile, the construction crew also officially moved in and started dismantling the house efficiently.
<ahref=http://www.qidian.com>Welcome, book enthusiasts, to visit and read on Qidian Chinese Network at www.qidian.com, where you’ll find the latest, fastest, and most popular serialized works available at Qidian Original!</a><a>Mobile users, please visit m.qidian.com to read.</a>