You Want to Build a House Too?

This program was produced by Tomato Listening.

Episode 17: You Want to Build a House Too?

Spring planting had just ended, and autumn planting had not yet begun. Summer days were long, so once everyone got off work, they could help out together. The house would surely be finished before autumn planting. The matter of building a house was settled.

Lin Yuzhu thanked the village chief profusely, then spent quite a while politely refusing the packet of brown sugar in the chief's wife's hand before hurrying away.

She really would have to rely on the village chief for this house. It would be difficult for her to handle it alone. A newly arrived Educated Youth had no influence in the village, and there were far too many complications involved.

Now that she thought of it, did the brown sugar still seem so precious?

Lin Yuzhu happened to run into Li Xiangwan halfway there. Neither was overly surprised when their eyes met. Meeting on this road made their destination something they both understood without saying.

After all, they lived in the same room. They couldn't meet without even exchanging a greeting.

Lin Yuzhu asked with a smile, "Where are you headed?"

"It's already dark. You should be careful walking alone at night."

Li Xiangwan found the concern rather thoughtful and thought Lin Yuzhu was kind-hearted. She planned to go see the village chief.

Li Xiangwan was carrying something in her hand, and Lin Yuzhu more or less understood her intentions. Besides, no one could hide it if they carried something out. Lin Yuzhu had not deliberately concealed the packet of brown sugar when she left, and there was no need to hide the fact that she wanted to build a house.

They smiled at each other. Lin Yuzhu did not intend to press further and simply said, "Then be careful on the way."

Li Xiangwan nodded. After Lin Yuzhu had passed her and walked more than half a meter away, she called out again, "Ah, Lin Zhiqing, why don't you come with me?"

Lin Yuzhu turned back to look at Li Xiangwan, then at the sky. She guessed Li Xiangwan was worried it would not be safe to return to the Educated Youth Dormitory alone later. Accompanying her would not cost anything, and since they were both building houses, it would be good for them to know each other's circumstances and avoid any mistakes later.

When the village chief saw Lin Yuzhu return with someone else, he was momentarily stunned. He wondered whether she had changed her mind about building the house. Surely she had not come back to ask for the brown sugar? "You want to build a house too?"

The village chief was quite surprised when he learned why Li Xiangwan had come. Looking from Lin Yuzhu to Li Xiangwan, he thought this batch of Educated Youth really was willing to spend money. Their families truly spoiled them, giving so much money to young women. The village rarely saw even a few dozen yuan in a whole year, and some households might have savings of only a few dozen yuan. He privately thought it was terribly wasteful.

But the village chief did not show it on his face. He was delighted inside and wished another two Educated Youth would come by later asking to build houses. The more spendthrift Educated Youth like this, the better.

The moment Li Xiangwan heard the village chief say "too," she knew her guess had been right. Educated Youth Lin had indeed come to ask the village chief about building a house. She showed no sign of discomfort, sitting there with gentle composure as she nodded to the village chief.

The village chief pretended to ponder for a while longer. "Since both of you want to build houses, why not build one together? I can have the villagers make it a little bigger. Maybe you could even squeeze in another female Educated Youth."

The more he thought about it, the more clever he found himself.

Yet Lin Yuzhu and Li Xiangwan merely smiled very gently without speaking.

The village chief coughed awkwardly, his old face reddening.

At a time like this, whoever spoke would be embarrassed, so the two of them tacitly remained silent.

The village chief had lived for decades. How could he not understand what they meant?

He could not continue pressing the matter. He simply felt it was such a waste. Combined, their money could build a larger house, enough for five or six people to live in.

Li Xiangwan was no fool, and her thoughts surprisingly matched Lin Yuzhu's. What she wanted was not much different from the house Lin Yuzhu had in mind, except she did not know how cold Northeast winters were and had not considered adding a porch.

After Lin Yuzhu gave her a small reminder, Li Xiangwan decided to add a porch as well. She was not short on money, and it could serve as a separate place to cook and store odds and ends.

After chatting for a while longer, the matter was finalized.

Lin Yuzhu thought it would be good for the heroine to build alongside her. It might be more convenient if they handled everything together.

Besides, the heroine had the male lead helping her with everything. Well, perhaps Lin Yuzhu could benefit from that too.

For example, when they needed to haul blue bricks from the commune, Li Xiangbei directly took over the job. He borrowed the Ox Cart from the village chief, went to the commune, and conveniently hauled back Lin Yuzhu's share as well.

While marveling at how fortunate the heroine was, Lin Yuzhu thanked the two of them profusely. Her compliments never stopped.

The more she looked at the two standing together, the better matched they seemed. Yes, they were perfectly matched.

Li Xiangwan and Li Xiangbei had not yet crossed that final line between them. Under Lin Yuzhu's gaze, both blushed furiously, yet they somehow felt a little closer to each other.

The patch of wasteland behind the Educated Youth Dormitory was cleared by the other Educated Youth to help them.

Ever since Wang Xiaomei learned that Lin Yuzhu and Li Xiangwan were building houses separately, she had made plenty of snide remarks. Yet when work needed doing, she unexpectedly did not skimp on effort.

Lin Yuzhu found Wang Xiaomei rather baffling. Since she truly could not stand Wang Xiaomei putting chili peppers in every dish, she planned for them to eat separately once the houses were finished.

So Lin Yuzhu and Li Xiangwan temporarily shared meals, waiting for Wang Xiaomei to finish cooking before making their own food.

Every so often, Li Xiangbei would bring back pork, wild chicken, or wild rabbits and seek out Li Xiangwan to cook them. Before long, he naturally began sharing meals with the heroine.

Li Xiangbei also had a childhood friend, Wang Yang. Therefore, whenever Li Xiangbei got something tasty, he would invite Wang Yang too.

Of course, Lin Yuzhu said nothing. She was benefiting from it herself, so how could she look down on another comrade doing the same?

Later, their group of three sharing meals became a group of four.

Normally, eight out of ten heroines were masters in the kitchen. Yet Li Xiangwan happened to be a pampered young lady whose fingers had never touched household work. The only thing she could make was soup, and even that was mostly a show put on to please elders. The family cook prepared all the ingredients, and she only had to put them in the pot for it to count as her cooking.

The task of cooking fell to Lin Yuzhu, since she had benefited from quite a bit of free food.

Was that outrageous?

Watching Li Xiangbei bring back game from the mountains every so often, the Educated Youth at the dormitory began to see him in a new light. Wang Xiaomei even regretted acting so impulsively.

Wang Xiaomei was green with envy, but she only vented with her words.

Zhang Yanqiu, on the other hand, looked at Li Xiangwan with increasingly gloomy eyes.

Sometimes, when Lin Yuzhu caught sight of it by accident, goosebumps rose on her arms. She began to think of keeping her distance from Zhang Yanqiu. That gaze was like a venomous snake, coldly fixed upon its prey.

Once the blue bricks arrived, the village chief helped the two of them make arrangements to buy plenty of earthen bricks from the villagers. The wood was also moved into the Educated Youth Dormitory courtyard. Once all the materials were ready, construction began.

It was not as if they stopped working just because they were building houses. Since things were not busy at the moment, everyone came to help at the Educated Youth Dormitory after finishing their daily tasks.

By the time they calculated it all, Lin Yuzhu and Li Xiangwan only provided dinner together.

Neither of them was stingy. After buying cornmeal and white flour from the production team, they steamed plenty of corn-and-white-flour buns for the villagers helping them.

Even cornmeal was considered relatively fine food at the time. Everyone held their buns with cheerful expressions, and not a single person complained.

Although there was no meat in the dishes, they used plenty of lard. Everyone ate until the corners of their mouths shone with grease, completely satisfied.

Naturally, the village aunties had plenty of sour remarks about Lin Yuzhu and Li Xiangwan building houses. They called them wasteful, said they did not know how to run a household, asked who would dare marry them, and later even claimed that neither looked like she could bear children well.

Neither paid them any mind. Lin Yuzhu had thick skin. There was no way she would make herself suffer over a few jealous remarks.

Besides, both of them knew how the future would unfold. Returning to the city was only a matter of time, so they were not afraid.

Though the village gossip was highly insulting, it was honestly not very damaging.

Later, seeing that the two were completely indifferent, the aunties probably found it boring. Gradually, they grew tired of talking about it, and their topic shifted to whose mother-in-law was tormenting her daughter-in-law and which old man always passed by Widow Sun's home.

In this way, another half month passed in fits and starts before the two houses were finally completed.

The villagers were honest enough. They basically helped until dark every day before leaving. Otherwise, it might have taken even longer to finish.

The houses were not large. A single room like this could normally be built in two or three days.

After construction began, Lin Yuzhu sought out Zhao Tiezhu, the village carpenter, to discuss making furniture.

There was not much furniture they truly needed: a kang cabinet for clothes, a table and chairs for the room, and a few miscellaneous small items.

Once a table was placed inside, there was practically no space left in the room.

Later, considering the need to chop vegetables and set down bowls, Lin Yuzhu asked Carpenter Zhao to make a chopping board with a storage compartment underneath for bowls and basins.

That left one side of the porch with the stove and the other with the chopping board. The small entryway could hardly fit anything else.

Carpenter Zhao's workmanship was not especially good, but the things he made were passable. Lin Yuzhu estimated they would last until she returned to the city.

Other than the kang cabinet being rather expensive, the rest was not too costly. Altogether, it came to only fifteen yuan.

Carpenter Zhao also gave her two small wooden stools with backrests, so he could at least be considered an honest man.

The room was small, and without a window it would feel far too stifling. Lin Yuzhu did not want to mistreat herself, so she had a window opened in the room. Later, a small window was added to the porch as well, allowing cooking smoke to escape. The glass, however, was obtained through Li Xiangbei.

Lin Yuzhu thanked Li Xiangwan and Li Xiangbei again. Li Xiangwan thought speechlessly that if Lin Yuzhu wanted to thank someone, she could just thank Li Xiangbei. Why did she include Li Xiangwan every time?

Yet this gesture greatly pleased Comrade Li Xiangbei. Lin Yuzhu was not deliberately currying favor with them, but it was always good to build connections when possible.

Even if they had helped her as a side matter, they had still helped, hadn't they?

How could she take it for granted and freeload? Naturally, she had to return the favor.

Wang Xiaomei watched from the side and muttered that Lin Yuzhu was such a bootlicker.

Lin Yuzhu glared at her. Seeing that Wang Xiaomei had contributed quite a bit during this time, she decided not to snap back.

Once everything was more or less finished, the total cost of the house came to nearly fifty yuan.

After the houses were completely finished, they heated the kangs for two days before moving in.