Chapter 342: 342. Money for building a house_1 Chapter 342: 342. Money for building a house_1 Song Tan nodded her head but didn’t express any opinion, merely saying seemingly offhand:
“It doesn’t matter whether you come back or not, but uncle, Grandpa plans to renovate the old house in a while. My family just happens to be building a house, and the construction team quoted us 30,000 yuan. If you have time, you could also go back and discuss the floor plan and layout with Grandpa.”
Good grief, this struck her uncle like a bolt from the blue, furrowing his brow tightly–
“Isn’t that old house perfectly livable? Why suddenly renovate it? Building a house in this heat, have they even considered where the old couple will stay?”
His face darkened with righteous indignation, “Your dad, too! He should be encouraging them to take care of the elderly, so how can he not even worry a bit? Just urging them to spend money.”
Mao Li also jumped up, “Exactly! The house isn’t broken or collapsing, so why can’t they live there? At their age, why do they need to build a house? Can they live for much–”
She pursed her lips, realizing the rest of the sentence was better left unsaid.
But she quickly found another angle, “People say ‘old children, old children.’ That old man thinks up one thing after another without considering the enormous financial pressure on his children now!”
“Ziyi is still so young. We spend a good amount of money on tuition classes all year round. And now with this hassle, what, can my uncle just flush money away !”
Her words, they were like the epitome of “shameless.”
As long as rural elders are capable, they never ask their children for support. Her uncle talks a good talk, but how much money does he actually spend on his parents during the year?
Picking up trash earns more than he gives!
Arguing with such a person was utterly pointless. Song Tan simply played innocent, “I don’t know either, but since Grandpa wants to build a house, if you, uncle, don’t want to contribute, I’ll just tell Grandpa when I get back.”
Song Dafang didn’t want to spend the money, but he was too proud to admit it. With a dark grimace, he could only stifle his anger,
“No need! I’ll find time to go back and talk about it.”
“Alright,” Song Tan was not in a hurry, “Uncle, please find time as soon as you can, because my family has already prepared the cement and sand, and that costs money too.”
Mao Li was about to start a fuss when Uncle Dafang snapped at her, “Enough!”
“Day by day, you don’t treat me like family. Such a big matter as building a house and not even a peep to me. I’m the eldest son! Those who don’t know better would think I’m undutiful!”
Song Tan nearly rolled her eyes.
Qiaoqiao had been listening to the whole thing puzzled, and finally couldn’t help saying, “But didn’t you just speak up, uncle? You don’t want to give money yourself, so why say we didn’t speak up.”
“Qiaoqiao,” Song Tan reprimanded him, “Why are you always telling the truth? Uncle doesn’t like to hear it. Hurry up and put down the melons; let’s go home.”
“It’s so late already, without food or water, and not even willing to turn on a fan, why suffer ?”
Qiaoqiao obediently placed the melons on the ground, then with long strides, followed Song Tan onto the car.
His last sentence was said in an ambiguous tone, which had Uncle Dafang and Mao Li puffing up like angered toads, grinding their teeth for a long time.
But once in the car, Qiaoqiao suddenly started laughing foolishly.
Song Tan glanced at him, “What’s so funny about delivering melons to uncle? It’s not like you wanted to give them.”
She didn’t want to bring the melons, but it was to make Grandma and Grandpa happy. After all, the elderly liked it when their children got along–of course, it was only a few melons.
First and foremost, she had to be willing.
“Not that,” Qiaoqiao was both happy and puzzled, “I don’t know why I feel so happy.”
“Before, when uncle spoke, and sometimes it made me very unhappy, Aunt Mao as well. But if I wanted to argue back, I didn’t know what to say, and Dad would scold me… Today, I think what sister said was very good, and I’m so happy!”
Song Sancheng’s bad habit, just like most parents underneath the sky–how can children be so inconsiderate? How can children argue with their elders? How can children…
Be humble, ah, no, modest oneself and praise others.
She laughed, “It seems getting you a tutor was indeed the right decision.”
Teacher Xin teaches well, not rigid at all! I’ll send a reward later!
The car drove steadily on the way back, Qiaoqiao was obviously tired after a day of running around, now yawning in the car seat.
Looking at the backseat, the lonely Ultraman Seiro lay atop several watermelons, far from his morning’s glory.
“I wonder if Brother Yanping and Teacher Xin have helped to feed Dabao and the others…”
“And Datian, who’s been growing particularly cute lately, all fluffy; they probably played with Datian for a while, right?”
Speaking of which, even Song Tan, who wasn’t taken with field mice, nodded, “It is indeed pretty.”
Who knows if it was because it was given a bunch of Spiritual Energy when young, but the field mouse named “Datian” actually had pure golden fur!
Whatever shade gold was, its fur was exactly that color!
With shiny black eyes, it was exceptionally clever. Although still small, one could already see its chubby body.
Qiaoqiao even coaxed grandma to make it a flowery vest, matching the uniform red floral little vests on the others–a short shrug at best in the hot weather, not even covering its belly.
And surprisingly, it was actually kind of cute, to the point where the family had no objections to it.
But there was one thing, the reed cage previously made by Song Youde was now looking increasingly small.
“Should we buy you one of those hamster cages online, the kind with a wheel?”
Qiaoqiao thought about it, and even though it seemed interesting, he still shook his head, “Datian likes to run around, it’s too small inside a cage.”
Field mice have the habit of hoarding food; during a famine, unearthing a mouse burrow could save several lives.
Song Tan warned, “Don’t let me catch him stealing our food, or I’ll give him to Big White, and crying won’t help!”
“He won’t!” Qiaoqiao shook his head, “He’s really well-behaved, and also very smart, he understands.”
Song Tan was reassured.
Not to mention anything else, Qiaoqiao did have a knack for raising animals.
“Have you thought about what job to assign to him in the future?”
Song Tan counted them one by one, “You see, The Kings Big White and Dabao all have jobs, we raise pigs for meat, the chickens and ducks lay eggs and also provide meat, and the two pheasants in the back mountain, that’s out of necessity, who can deny their status?”
“Now, it’s just your Datian that hasn’t been planned for, think of some work it can do.”
This question stumped Qiaoqiao.
I mean, what kind of work can a field mouse do?
Having it watch over the vegetable garden wouldn’t work; it wouldn’t be enough for a weasel, not even capable of driving away a sparrow. It cannot fly, nor can it run, and it can’t even swim.
Ah, thinking about it this way, it’s quite useless!