Spring comes to the desperate place

Chapter 116 Foundation

A workshop is easier to build than a house. The most important thing is to bring water there. Song Dazhuang originally wanted to dig a well directly, but because the distance was relatively close, Song Chunlin suggested that they just connect the water pipe.

"Our well is deep and has enough water. It is more convenient to connect a water pipe than to dig a well."

Song Dazhuang thought so too. Moreover, if they wanted to dig a well, they would have to go somewhere else to find specialized well diggers. There were no professional well diggers nearby, and it would cost a lot of time and money. So he agreed to just pull the water pipe.

Before building the workshop, Song Chunlin first drew a diagram of the sewer. Song Dazhuang led people to dig ditches and also dug a huge deep pit behind the house. He surrounded it with bamboo strips and used the discarded bricks from the old house to build a large pool. The top was reinforced with wooden beams and covered with wooden boards. It became a simple septic tank.

The top of the septic tank can be lifted up, and when it is full, you can take it out. This is natural farm manure, but it is a bit smelly.

The sewer here was completed, and the ceramic water pipes over there were all ready. Song Chunlin went to check them specially and found that they all met his requirements. Song Dazhuang was so satisfied that he gave the tile craftsman half a dollar more, which made the other party smile from ear to ear.

After the water pipes arrived, Song Dazhuang quickly contacted and ordered bricks and wood. There were no such things as construction teams in those days. When building a house in the countryside, people would notify acquaintances and everyone would help out. There was no pay, but the owner had to provide two meals.

Song Qin was still pregnant and Song A'mo was old, so Song Dazhuang specially found three women who were good at work in the village and asked them to help cook two meals. Song A'mo went to help and solved the problem of food for the whole family.

The daily meal plan is two vegetarian dishes and one meat dish, plus a soup. The staple food is either pancakes or steamed buns made from three-grain flour, or dumplings with vegetarian fillings.

Speaking of it, it was the first time for everyone to eat these buns. No one had ever thought of putting stuffing in steamed buns before. After eating them, everyone said they were delicious. Gradually, it became popular in the village to eat buns with various stuffings.

When Gu Fengyun heard that the Song family was going to build a house and was busy, he sent Gu Fengyue over and brought a few carpenters with him to make furniture for them.

When Song Chunlin heard that someone was delivering furniture, his eyes lit up. He tugged at Gu Fengyue's sleeve, pulled her to a corner, and asked in a low voice:

"Can we provide some of the wood for the furniture ourselves? I have good material."

Gu Fengyue didn't ask him what good material he had, but agreed calmly.

After getting a positive answer, Song Chunlin smiled with his eyes curved. Gu Fengyue couldn't help but reached out and touched his head.

Song Dazhuang, who was far away, saw this scene. The tall and handsome young man was standing next to the smiling boy, and the doting look in his eyes was suspicious no matter how you looked at it.

Song Dazhuang narrowed his eyes and fell on Gu Fengyue with a murderous look. Gu Fengyue paused while touching his head. Why did he feel a little cold?

Song Chunlin tilted his head and looked at him curiously with a puzzled look, as if asking him why he was holding his head in his hands.

Gu Fengyue calmly withdrew his hand, looked around and found that Song Dazhuang was staring at him murderously. The boy who had just touched the boy's head immediately looked away guiltily.

Song Chunlin took out the drawings from the last time he built furniture and made some modifications to it to make the style look more similar to current furniture.

The style he requested was relatively simple, and the carpenter agreed. Song Chunlin said he wanted to provide the materials for several of the wooden cabinets himself, and the carpenter agreed, saying that he would make the others first and the rest would be made after the Song family brought them over.

The good materials that Song Chunlin was talking about were naturally the hundred-year-old huanghuali trees in the space. Last year, he asked Dabao to help him cut a lot of them and put them on the ground to dry naturally. The speed of time in the mountains is the same as outside. These woods have been there for several months, and Dabao said they can be used directly.

It was Gu Fengyue who helped to transport these woods. Looking at the full truck of huanghuali wood, Gu Fengyue was stunned.

"Which warehouse are you looting again?"

Song Chunlin rolled his eyes: "Is this how I am in your mind? Humph."

Gu Fengyue: "..." I should have known not to ask and offend people for nothing.

The house built by the Song family was different from that of other families. It took nearly half a month just to lay the water pipes. It was the first time for everyone to do this kind of work, and they were a little uncomfortable. When they heard that the Song family was going to build a toilet in the house, they all thought that they had nothing better to do.

"That toilet stinks. How can we put it in the house? How can we sleep well at night if the smell is so strong?"

The experienced man also advised Song Dazhuang: "Dazhuang, I have only seen people in the city put toilets in their homes. A toilet is already very smelly. You dug a hole directly in the house. Wouldn't it be even more smelly?"

Song Dazhuang patiently explained to them the functions of those water pipes.

"See those pipes? They're used for drainage. I've connected them to the manure pit at the back. When the time comes, all the dirt will be flushed over there, and there won't be any smell in the house."

Even though Song Dazhuang explained it this way, everyone still remained skeptical. Song Dazhuang did not ask them to understand. Anyway, when the squat toilet was installed, they would know after experiencing it.

After laying the most troublesome water pipes and laying the foundation, the remaining wall building became much simpler, because Song Dazhuang bought enough bricks, they made the walls much thicker.

When the Song family was building a house, Song Chunsheng took a special leave and followed Song Dazhuang around every day. He was diligent and didn't talk much. The aunts who came to help wanted to take him back to be their own son-in-law.

"Oh, Chunsheng's mother, I told you last time that it's hard to find someone like your Chunsheng in this area, so you better hurry up. He'll be seventeen next year, and other men will get married at seventeen, and become fathers at eighteen. You can't be carefree."

Song Qin smiled bitterly: "I know what you said, aunt. Before this happened, I was thinking about slowly looking for a few men, but now such a big thing has happened. It will cost a lot of money to renovate the house. The sweet potatoes are gone. Fortunately, the potatoes were not harvested at that time, otherwise I would not know what to plant next year. Alas, with our family in this situation now, which girl or boy would be willing to come?"

The aunt felt helpless when she heard her say that.

"Ah, who said it wasn't true? Hasn't the damn thief been found yet?"

"This..." Song Qin hesitated to speak, with a bitter smile on her face. In fact, the Song family had already known who the mastermind was behind the scenes. Song Chunlin also said that he would vent his anger on his family, but as a mother, she couldn't help but worry that her son would suffer because of this, and she had no appetite for food and drink about this matter.

The three aunts left the Song family together in the evening and prepared to go home, each of them holding some packed meals in their hands.

One of the aunts, surnamed Li, poked the plump Aunt Liu next to her and said, "You are so active today, don't you really want to pair that Song family Dalang with your sister-in-law?"

When Aunt Liu heard her mention her sister-in-law, her face wrinkled up: "I'm not that stupid. You know my sister-in-law is my mother-in-law's daughter who was born in her old age. She is spoiled to death. She is a village girl who is treated like a rich lady. She never does farm work or even household chores. The Song family is still a farming family no matter how good it is. Marrying a girl who can't do anything is no different from marrying a grandmother."

Aunt Wang, who had been relatively quiet, chuckled: "If you want to ask, your sister-in-law has the heart of a lady, but not the fate of a lady. Which lady is dark and skinny?"

As soon as these words were spoken, everyone laughed at the same time, even Aunt Liu couldn't stop laughing. Aunt Wang was right. Aunt Liu's sister-in-law looked very much like her father-in-law. She had dark skin and a thin body since she was born. Even though she ate more than anyone in the family, she was still very thin and not pretty at all. She didn't look like she was going to be able to give birth easily. Who would be willing to marry such a girl?

Aunt Liu felt a headache when she thought about the task her mother-in-law had given her. She didn't know when her sister-in-law took a look at Song Jiadalang, and she was determined to marry anyone else. She even made a fuss at home, asking her parents-in-law to go to the Song family to propose marriage.

Before the Song family's house was burned down, the parents-in-law were quite satisfied with the Song family. They had met Song Dazhuang and his wife several times in private and felt that the couple were quite kind people. They were quite satisfied with this marriage.

But before they found an opportunity to hint to the Song family, something happened to the Song family. The mother-in-law was unhappy, thinking that the Song family had bad feng shui and was prone to disasters. She was unwilling to let her sister-in-law marry into the family. However, the sister-in-law threatened to commit suicide, so the mother-in-law backed down and asked her to go and test Song Qin's attitude.

Now that the sounding of the matter had been done, Song Qinshi refused to give in. Aunt Liu also felt that her younger sister-in-law was not worthy of Song Dalang, not only in terms of appearance but also in character. She felt sorry for Song Dalang if she was not worthy of him.

The three of them walked together for a while and then parted at the intersection. Aunt Liu was still worrying about how to reply to her mother-in-law, while Aunt Wang quickly returned home and asked her husband to go back to her parents' home.

"Why are you going back to your parents' home for no reason?"

Aunt Wang: "Of course I found a good home for my good nephew."

Uncle Wang was confused: "Your nephew? Which one?"

Aunt Wang: "Do you remember the one from my cousin's family? Didn't the third son of his family leave behind a little boy? The third son and his wife passed away early, leaving behind only this one child. My two cousins were not good people. If it weren't for the protection of the clan, the child would have been forced to death by them long ago."

Speaking of that young man, Uncle Wang also had an impression: "You are talking about Ning brother, right? He is fifteen this year. Are you afraid that the two cousins will interfere in his marriage?"

Aunt Wang nodded worriedly: "Ning'er has a hard life. He has finally grown up. My two cousins are evil-minded. Seeing that Ning'er is getting older, I am afraid that they will marry Ning'er off with a bastard, an old widower or something. If that happens, Ning'er will really fall into a pit of fire."

Uncle Wang thought of her two cousins and felt that they were the kind of people who would do such a thing. After all, they wanted to take over the third brother's family property alone. If it weren't for the protection of several elders in the clan, all of Ning'er's family property would have fallen into the hands of the two of them. With their character, there was no way they could raise Ning'er.

It’s just that Uncle Wang was very curious about who Aunt Wang had chosen for Ning Ge’er, and that’s why he was so anxious to ask him to find out.

Aunt Wang raised her chin proudly: "Of course it's Song Dalang. Song Dalang is a handsome man. I have observed him for several days. He works hard and is literate. His character is impeccable. Although his family is large, his father is kind and his sons are filial. I have been working there for so many days and have rarely seen them quarreling. It shows that they are all good-tempered. If Ning Ge'er can marry into their family, I will be relieved."

Uncle Wang had no objection to this. Although he and Song Dazhuang were not close friends, he understood the other person's character. As for the house burning down, he thought that since the Song family was able to build a new one immediately after the house burned down, the Song family's financial situation must not be as poor as others said. Besides, although their family lost sweet potatoes, they still had potatoes. Potatoes were more productive than sweet potatoes. Maybe their family would become rich in a year or two.

There is a saying, don't despise the poor young people. Well, although Uncle Wang is not well-educated, he somehow feels that this saying is very suitable for the current Song family.

So the couple decided on the matter. Uncle Wang would go back to the neighboring village tomorrow to sound out Ning, while Aunt Wang would go to the Song family to ask Song Chunsheng's opinion. She had long seen that Song Qinshi did not want to find a wife for Song Chunsheng, but hoped that Song Chunsheng could find a girl he liked and marry her home.

At this time, Song Chunsheng, who had no idea that someone was eyeing his lifelong event, was lying on the bed and snoring. Next to him was Song Chunlin, who was sitting cross-legged and working in the space with his eyes closed.

Seeing that it was already the second half of the year, Song Chunlin had received news from Gu Fengyue that last year's market had received a very good response, so the emperor decided to hold one this year as well.

Song Chunlin has already asked for everyone's opinions. Just like last year, he will make jam to sell, so now he is frantically peeling the fruits in the space and throwing them into the large wooden barrel next to him.

After accumulating a certain amount, he would throw it into a blender and manually beat it into a puree. The next day, he would take it out and let Grandpa Song make it into jam at home.

Song Xiaojiu and Song Xiaobao now like this activity very much, because Grandpa Song will always scoop a small bowl for each of them and let them eat slowly.

With sweet and fragrant jam to eat, the two human cubs naturally stayed at home obediently and helped their grandfather make jam.

Grandpa Song is old, and Song Chunlin is afraid of tiring him out, so he only makes a pot of jam for him every day and rests after it’s done.

The jars for jam have not been ordered yet. This time, Song Chunlin plans to put his own logo on the jars. As for what to call it, he has been thinking hard for several days but has not come up with an idea. He feels that simply calling it Song Ji seems a bit ordinary, and if it is too difficult to pronounce, he is afraid that customers will not be able to remember it.

Song Chunlin found that naming was not his strong point. He scratched his hair till it was almost bald but still couldn't think of any nice ones.