You Want to Build a House Too?

This program was produced by Tomato Listening.

You Want to Build a House Too?

Spring plowing had just ended, and autumn plowing had not yet begun. The summer days were long, and if everyone helped after work, the house would definitely be finished before autumn plowing. The matter of building a house was settled.

Lin Yuzhu thanked the village chief profusely. She then declined the village chief's wife's packet of brown sugar several times before hurrying away without taking it.

She really needed the village chief's help to build this house. It would be difficult to handle alone, and a newly arrived educated youth had no influence in the village. There were even more twists and turns involved.

Thinking about it, did that brown sugar still seem worth worrying over?

Lin Yuzhu happened to run into Li Xiangwan halfway there. Neither was particularly surprised when they looked at each other. Meeting on this road made their destination an unspoken understanding.

They lived under the same roof, after all. They could not meet without even exchanging greetings.

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

"It's already dark. Be careful walking alone at night."

Li Xiangwan found those words quite thoughtful. Thinking Lin Yuzhu was kind-hearted, she said she was planning to visit the village chief.

Li Xiangwan was carrying something in her hand, so Lin Yuzhu roughly understood her intentions. Besides, it was not as though taking something out could be concealed. Lin Yuzhu had not deliberately hidden the packet of brown sugar when she left, and there had been no need to hide her plans to build a house anyway.

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

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

Lin Yuzhu turned back to look at Li Xiangwan, then glanced at the sky. She figured the other woman was afraid it would be unsafe to return to the Educated Youth Dormitory alone later. Accompanying her would not cost anything, and since they were both building houses, it was good to know each other's circumstances and avoid any mishaps.

When the village chief saw Lin Yuzhu return with someone else, he was a little stunned. He wondered whether she had changed her mind and no longer wanted to build a house. Surely she had not come back for the brown sugar? "You want to build a house too?"

The village chief was quite surprised to learn why Li Xiangwan had come. He looked from Lin Yuzhu to Li Xiangwan, thinking that this batch of educated youths really was willing to spend money. Their families truly spoiled them, giving a young woman so much money. The village did not see several dozen yuan all year round, and some families might have savings of only several dozen yuan. He thought it was extravagant.

But the village chief did not show it on his face. He was delighted inside and wished that another two educated youths would come along and say they wanted to build houses. The more extravagant educated youths like these, the better.

The moment Li Xiangwan heard the village chief use the word "too," she knew she had guessed correctly. Educated Youth Lin had indeed come to the village chief to discuss building a house. She showed no awkwardness, sitting there with gentle composure as she nodded to the village chief.

The village chief put on a thoughtful expression for a moment, then said, "Since you both want to build houses, why not build one together? I can have the villagers make it bigger. Maybe you can even squeeze another female educated youth into it."

The village chief thought he was truly clever.

Yet Lin Yuzhu and Li Xiangwan both smiled with utmost gentleness and said nothing.

The village chief coughed awkwardly, his old face reddening.

At that moment, whoever spoke would be embarrassed, so the two women tacitly remained silent.

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

He could not continue pressing the issue. He just felt it was too wasteful. Combined, their money could build a larger house, enough for five or six people to live in.

Li Xiangwan was not foolish, and her thoughts were remarkably aligned with Lin Yuzhu's. What she wanted was not much different from the house Lin Yuzhu planned to build, except she did not know how cold winters in the Northeast could be and had not thought to add a porch.

After Lin Yuzhu gave her a reminder, Li Xiangwan decided to add a porch as well. She was not short on money, and it could serve as a separate cooking area as well as storage for odds and ends.

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

Lin Yuzhu thought it was good that the heroine would be building alongside her. It might be more convenient if everyone organized things 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 went to the commune to haul back blue bricks, Li Xiangbei took over the job. He borrowed the village chief's Ox Cart and went to the commune, bringing back Lin Yuzhu's share as well.

While sighing over how lucky the heroine was, Lin Yuzhu thanked the two of them profusely, her compliments never stopping.

Looking at the two of them standing together now, they were simply a perfect match. Yes, an absolutely perfect match.

Li Xiangwan and Li Xiangbei had not yet pierced that final layer of window paper. Under Lin Yuzhu's gaze, both blushed, yet somehow felt a little closer to each other.

The patch of wasteland behind the Educated Youth Dormitory was cleared by the educated youths for the two women.

Ever since Wang Xiaomei learned that Lin Yuzhu and Li Xiangwan were building houses separately, Wang Xiaomei had made plenty of sour remarks. Yet when help was needed, Wang Xiaomei unexpectedly worked quite hard.

Lin Yuzhu found Wang Xiaomei rather puzzling. Since she truly could not stand the amount of chili Wang Xiaomei put in food, she planned for them to eat separately once their houses were finished.

So Lin Yuzhu and Li Xiangwan temporarily cooked together. They waited until Wang Xiaomei was done cooking before making their own food.

Every now and then, Li Xiangbei would bring over some pork, wild chicken, or rabbit to find Li Xiangwan and ask her to cook it. Before long, he naturally began sharing meals with the heroine.

Li Xiangbei also had his childhood friend, Wang Yang. Thus, whenever Li Xiangbei got something delicious, he would invite Wang Yang too.

Naturally, Lin Yuzhu had nothing to say about it. She was benefiting from it herself, so how could she look down on a fellow beneficiary?

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

Logically speaking, eight out of ten heroines ought to be kitchen experts. 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 just a show to please her elders. The household cooks prepared all the ingredients, and she merely put them into the pot, which was then counted as her cooking.

The cooking fell to Lin Yuzhu. After all, she had benefited quite a lot.

Was that bullying?

Seeing how Li Xiangbei could bring back game from the mountains every so often, the educated youths at the Educated Youth Dormitory began to view him in a new light. Wang Xiaomei even somewhat regretted acting impulsively.

Wang Xiaomei was terribly sour about it, but could only vent with words.

Zhang Yanqiu, however, looked at Li Xiangwan with increasingly gloomy eyes.

Sometimes, when Lin Yuzhu happened to catch sight of that look, goosebumps rose on her arms. She began to think of keeping her distance from Zhang Yanqiu. Those eyes were like a venomous snake's, coldly fixed on her.

After the blue bricks arrived, the village chief helped the two women make arrangements to buy plenty of mud 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. This was a slow period, so everyone finished their daily tasks before coming to the Educated Youth Dormitory to help.

All told, Lin Yuzhu and Li Xiangwan only provided dinner.

Neither woman 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.

The cornmeal was considered fairly fine food at the time. Everyone held their buns with smiles on their faces, and no one complained.

Even though there was no meat in the dishes, they used plenty of rendered fat. Everyone ate until their mouths shone with grease, completely satisfied.

Naturally, the village had no shortage of sour remarks from the older women about the two building houses. They called them wasteful, said they did not know how to live properly, asked who would dare marry them, and later even said they clearly did not look fertile.

Neither paid them any attention. Lin Yuzhu had thick skin. She was not about to wrong herself over a few sour words from others.

Besides, both women knew the future trend. Returning to the city was only a matter of time, so naturally they were not afraid.

Though the village gossip was highly insulting, it truly did little damage.

Later, seeing how completely unconcerned the two women were, the older women likely found it boring. Gradually, they grew tired of talking about them, and the topic shifted to whose mother-in-law was tormenting her daughter-in-law, or which old man kept passing by Widow Sun's home.

In this stop-and-start manner, half a month passed before the two houses were finally completed.

The villagers had been honest enough, helping until dark nearly every day before leaving. Otherwise, construction might have dragged on longer.

The houses were not large. Building one room like this should normally have taken only two or three days.

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

There were not many essential pieces of furniture: a kang cabinet for clothes, a table and chairs for the room, plus a few miscellaneous small items.

After placing a table inside, there was truly not much room left.

Later, thinking about cutting vegetables and setting down bowls, Lin Yuzhu asked Carpenter Zhao to make a chopping board with a shelf beneath it for bowls and basins.

That way, one side of the porch held the stove and the other held the chopping board. The small entryway could barely fit anything else.

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

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

Carpenter Zhao also gave her two small wooden stools with backrests. He could be considered an honest man.

The room was small, and without a window it would have been too stifling. Lin Yuzhu did not want to mistreat herself, so she put a window in the room. Later, she also opened a small window in the porch, allowing cooking smoke to escape. The glass, however, was still obtained through Li Xiangbei.

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

Yet this gesture greatly pleased Comrade Li Xiangbei. Lin Yuzhu was not deliberately currying favor with them, but it was naturally best to build connections when she could.

Even if they had only helped her along the way, they had still helped, had they not?

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

Watching from the side, Wang Xiaomei muttered that Lin Yuzhu was such a bootlicker.

Lin Yuzhu shot Wang Xiaomei a glare. Since Wang Xiaomei had put in plenty of effort during this period, she decided not to argue.

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

After the houses were completely finished and the kangs had been heated for two days, they moved in.