Chapter 381: Chapter 381 Building a House_1 Chapter 381: Chapter 381 Building a House_1 Jiang Deding lost his job in the village hospital because no one would come into contact with him due to Liu Yongxia’s case. He was finally driven out by the other rural doctors.
He spent his days drinking at home, hardly leaving.
Then there was the chubby little Jiang Hui, who in normal times was a schoolyard bully. No matter if it was in the school or in the village, he loved strutting his bloated belly around. He relished in laying down false claims about other kids and belligerently shouted at anyone who crossed him.
He deeply absorbed Liu Yongxia’s talent for obscene verbal attacks. Despite his young age, his insults were especially venomous.
With Liu Yongxia in trouble, he was significantly affected. Usually, he was the one bullying others at school. But now that everyone knew his mother was a murderer, no one was willing to play with him. Even worse, he was picked on by everyone else.
He was left battered and bruised day after day, without anyone to share meals with when he got home from school. He’d worn the same set of clothes for ten days straight, never changing them. His face was as dirty as a stray cat’s, probably because he hadn’t washed it in ten days.
Finally, his grandmother, Guan Rufang, couldn’t bear it any longer. She took Jiang Hui into her own home, which led to a slight improvement in his condition.
Nan Fei had been on her toes for these past ten days. She didn’t care about the village rumors or Liu Yongxia’s case. They were building a house at home. Originally, it was a single-floor flat, but now they planned to add another floor to it.
It would become a two-story building.
She had always shared a room with Zhuanzhuan. Even though they didn’t share a bed, they were both grown-ups and could no longer stay in the same room.
It wouldn’t be convenient.
The bricklayers for the house were from Qi Li Town, mostly from various villages and known to them. They purchased bricks and cement. To speed up the work, the labor was intense and went on round the clock.
In the rural areas, it was customary to provide a midday meal for those constructing the house.
Zhang Fengmei and Jiang Dechun were busy with business and didn’t have time to look after this task. So Nan Fei and Zhuanzhuan took it upon themselves to cook meals and boiled water for the workers. Because there were so many people, the amount of food prepared was also substantial. If the food was not well-prepared or lacked substance, they would be talked about behind their backs.
It could be said that Nan Fei spared no effort in cooking. Her cooking skills were average and Zhuanzhuan wasn’t particularly skilled at making large amounts of food either. Their food was only passably tasty, but there was plenty of it!
Nan Fei arranged for Lu Qingtian to supply ten jin of pork belly each day, which they used to make vegetables, or cooked with eggplant, string beans and the like. As for other food, their home produced various kinds of tofu products, from dried bean curd to imitation chicken. They had everything they needed.
The bricklayers had built houses for many families, but they agreed that the meals provided by Jiang Dechun’s family were the most generous.
Even a lot of people in the village were green with envy.
Nan Fei knew that there were people talking behind their backs in the village, but she couldn’t care about that. She couldn’t not do something just because people were talking, could she?
In the future, their family would be talked about even more.
This current house was just a transition. Her ultimate goal was for the entire family, including her grandparents, to move to the provincial city.
Once she earned enough money, the whole family could live in a villa together.
The bricklayers and their foreman were honest people. The Jiang Dechun family never fell behind in paying wages and settled accounts the same day work was done. The food was plentiful, the treatment good, and thus they worked diligently and responsibly.
Originally a fifteen-day project, they managed to finish it in just nine hard days.
However, they couldn’t move into the upper floor right away. The family still had to live on the first floor, mainly because the cement needed a curing period. It had to be left for at least two or three months.
On the day before school started, the family sat down for dinner in the living room after a hard day of work. Seeing their situation improving day by day, the usually frugal Zhang Fengmei became more generous. For dinner, they had dumplings.