Lao Song’s family got busy early in the morning again.
But this time, those old men and women from the village with faltering steps were also eager to help, which made Song Tan quite anxious.
Wu Lan hurriedly stepped forward to stop them: "There’s not much, no need for your help..."
"Come, come, take a break!"
"Sit here, no need, no need... I got this!"
"Would you like some tea? I’ll pour you a cup..."
It’s not that she wasn’t enthusiastic; she simply couldn’t stop them!
Grandma and Grandpa had left, but a room on the first floor was cleaned by Aunt Lianhua, ready and waiting for the grandparents to move in.
It’s already October! If we don’t start building a new house now, how can we finish before winter?
Song Tan was quite happy for the old couple to live in her house, but they didn’t feel comfortable, insisting they weren’t used to it.
Thinking about her grandparents’ adamant desire to return home, Song Tan could only accommodate them. It just so happened that the grandparents had completely used up their rush grass and couldn’t weave anything anymore. They were barred from staying up late to work or from picking vegetables, and they were idle, making it the perfect time to build a house!
Now, seeing Old Xu from the construction team building one dormitory after another and hiring locals for constructing the fermentation pool on Riverside Beach, he finally couldn’t bear to miss out on this tremendous fortune and started recruiting workers as well.
Today is the day Song Youde and his wife are moving house!
There’s a lot of miscellaneous stuff, and the plan was to move slowly without rush. But a group of old acquaintances who used to weave mats together came over early in the morning, wanting to lend a hand.
But they are all of such an age, what if they got hurt...
That’s right, Wu Lan got all sweaty with worry early in the morning.
Finally, Song Youde spoke up: "You just can’t sit still, can’t you practice more patterns at home? With our old arms and legs, can we be as nimble as the young folks?"
"Go back quickly, ask Lianhua to teach you, or learn some new patterns from videos!"
He spoke at length and then comforted them:
"I told Tantan, we will have more rush grass next year, and there will be plenty of work! We can keep weaving until winter and it’ll be fine."
"Besides, we are all weaving mats. Look at Lianhua, she weaves beautiful patterns and earns seven or eight thousand a month, are you happy with just two or three thousand?"
When everyone heard that, the difference seemed too vast.
Thinking about this, they also started getting anxious, but still hesitated: "You have so many things, we can help you tidy up a bit..."
That’s when Song Tan came out: "It’s alright, there’s not much stuff. My grandpa said that he has been using these old things all his life, and now that we are building a new house, we don’t need them."
"The construction team over there is waiting to demolish the house. I plan to take only the necessary items. Once everything is organized, we will ask for help if needed."
Indeed, the excavator works much more efficiently than they could. Hearing this, the crowd dispersed in twos and threes.
But after they left, Song Youde wiped the sweat from his forehead: "Really, don’t they know the state of their own bodies? What if they get hurt?"
However, even though he said that, he couldn’t help but smile. Grandma Wang Lifan, who was always cheery, circled around the house several times.
She found it hard to throw anything away, feeling that everything could be of use, even if not now, maybe in the future.
But indeed, without throwing anything away, these old items had piled up everywhere, leaving no room to walk.
No wonder, building a house is a major life event, how could the old couple not be excited?
Song Tan immediately took out the 3D rendering to show them:
"Look, how white the house is painted? Is the flooring well laid out? And the stove is custom-made, guaranteed to keep the smoke to a minimum. Live for two or three years, and the roof will still be spotless white."
It’s not really that good, but nowadays, you talk it up first!
"Such a nice house, not getting some new furniture would be a waste, right?"
"Our old stuff at home isn’t too precious to throw away. We’ll have a storage room for anything you can’t bear to part with. The rest I’ll sort out to this side, once it’s tidied up, I’ll call the villagers to see, anyone who needs something can come and take it..."
She looked at Song Youde: "Grandpa, think quick! Each day the construction team is delayed costs money." Song Youde’s heart fluttered, after all, he was prepared to build the house early, so he quickly agreed.
Their family might be wealthy now, but those old folks who helped with weaving still lived very frugally, and although there weren’t many valuable items in his house, some handy gadgets would indeed be appreciated by someone.
With that said, the reluctance in their hearts seemed to fade away.
Looking at the old adobe house, they couldn’t help but sigh again: "I mixed each and every brick of that house back in the day..."
But Song Tan just smiled: "Grandpa, life is always getting better!"
When the excavator comes tomorrow, it’ll flatten everything in no time. When there are more people, efficiency will increase, and we hope to move in before December! And we’ve saved a room for my aunt’s family as well.
How fulfilling it will be by New Year’s!
At this moment, on a bumpy mountain road, a van suddenly stopped in the middle of the way, and then a middle-aged man stumbled out of the back seat, still carrying an old backpack on his back.
After getting out of the car, he squatted down in the roadside ditch and started to vomit nonstop, looking utterly miserable!
After vomiting for quite a while, he began to feel a bit better, and someone nearby passed him a cup of water:
"Brother, how are you holding up?"
Not caring about much, the middle-aged man eagerly raised the cup and gulped down the water, then rinsed his mouth before gratefully returning the cup.
Seeing the other dressed like a laborer, he was surprised: "Hey, where did you come from? I didn’t see you on the van."
"What?" The other was also taken aback: "I’m not from this van. We came two days ago, on a bus... we’ve already started working."
"What?! A bus?!" The queasy man raised his voice: "That’s quite a lot of you! Weren’t they only recruiting 10 people?"
"How could that be!" The other got agitated too: "Such a big project, they can’t just hire ten people! Across all sections, a hundred might not even be enough!"
"Nonsense, who needs that many people to build a house in the mountains!"
The two talked at cross purposes for a while, before realizing:
"You’re not from our road construction crew, are you?"
"And you’re not from our house-building team, huh?"
Turning their heads, they saw the van driver also getting out to smoke, and a few others were also stepping out for some fresh air, so the two of them took the chance to strike up a conversation—
"How much do you get paid for a day of roadwork? What kind of road?"
"It depends on the work, but you get over 100 for some jobs, even 400 for others. It’s government-funded, they’re planning to refurbish all the village access roads this year... This section is starting first, it seems it’ll lead to some village..."