Hongji and his father took a sip of their tea, and he explained the purpose of their visit to the father and son.
Upon hearing that they wanted to buy the homestead land, the father and son simply fell silent for a moment. As the father, he nodded and said:
"We’re both bachelors, so we don’t need an extra homestead. If you want to build a house, feel free to use it!"
The son, without much thought, also nodded in agreement.
"Uncle, we can’t just take this homestead land without proper compensation. We have to pay a fair price for it,"
Hongji, seeing how hard the situation was for the father and son, did not want to owe them a lifetime of favor on behalf of his father.
His father might be okay with it, but he did not want to have the reputation of bullying others.
"My son is right. We must pay you for the homestead land. We are building a house and cannot owe you money!"
Hongji’s father was very clear that his son was buying land, and others would think the son had made money and was building a big house, adding on rooms. They didn’t yet know about his taking a concubine.
In a few days, everyone would know that he took a concubine to live inside, and that he’d bullied the honest people without paying for the land.
The father, upon hearing their words, did not refuse; their wealthy family did not lack the money.
His own father and son needed the money badly, thinking once they had it, they could find a wife for his son who was already in his twenties.
As for himself, he was old and resigned to bachelorhood, but his son was still young and needed a future.
Eventually, they found the village chief to mediate, and each of them took a piece of paper that was written and stamped; they signed their names.
As it was only the third day of the New Year and the government office was not yet open, Hongji and his son were so eager to build that they paid the money in case the other party had regrets later. A lawsuit would be troublesome if the house was finished and the other party then had second thoughts.
Hongji and his son paid half the money for the land. When the government office reopened, they would press their handprints and pay the full amount.
Afterward, Hongji and his son were not idle. Building a house in just a few days required mobilizing the necessary manpower and resources immediately.
Asking people to work during the third day of the New Year would naturally mean paying higher wages.
Hongji then called on his brother-in-law, Ye Senhai, and began the work earnestly.
Ye Senhai, hearing about his father-in-law and uncle’s project, that they needed to finish building a house so quickly, didn’t have time to understand the reasons fully; he just brought his construction crew and found some additional workers in a group chat.
After all, the father-in-law and uncle said the wages for these few days would be nearly double. As the contractor, he stood to make the most profit. Who wouldn’t want to take advantage of such an opportunity?
Ye Shuying received a notice from her elder brother, saying that she should not come home on the second day of the New Year; she would have to wait until her family was together before visiting her parental home.
Her younger brother-in-law and sister-in-law went to their parental home on the second day of the New Year, whereas she had to work in the vegetable fields outside.
When her sister-in-law returned from the parental home, she boasted about the many gifts her husband had bought for her family and what her family gave in return.
Ye Shuying felt silent resentment; her Mother-in-law was too biased. Usually, she wasn’t allowed to bring gifts to her parental home, yet her Mother-in-law let her sister-in-law take the family-raised chickens there. Didn’t she deserve a share of those chickens, too?
Thinking about bringing home chickens to her parental home in the next few days just to spite her sister-in-law.
Before she could visit her parental home, her husband got busy with work again. Since her husband was occupied, her younger brother-in-law was certainly busy too.
Ye Shuying left the household chores to her sister-in-law and Mother-in-law and went back to her parental home with her son.
The young sister-in-law, momentarily proud, was outmaneuvered by her elder sister-in-law. She bit her lip and dared not speak; her husband still relied on her uncle for money, and perhaps the uncle also needed her elder sister-in-law’s parental home to make money.
Ye Shuying, carrying the family’s chickens to her parental home, faced a usually stingy Mother-in-law who dared not say anything this time. The secretive New Year preparations for the younger daughter-in-law had been inadvertently revealed by the young woman’s talkative nature, and now the elder daughter-in-law had informed her family about it.
The elder daughter-in-law, carrying the gifts to her parental home and leaving the household work to them, left the Mother-in-law with no choice but to delegate the tasks to the younger daughter-in-law once again.
In the many years that Ye Shuying had been married, her visits home were rarely accompanied by gifts—only on a few occasions when she needed her family’s help, she brought presents.
This time around, spurred by defiance, she felt quite pleased to bring gifts to her parental home.
Ye Shuying held her son’s hand with one hand and carried a load of gifts with the other—chickens, pork, and rice dumplings. As a farmworking woman, she was not lacking in strength.
When she arrived at the door of her family home, she saw her husband leading a group of people, already starting to dig the foundation and lay the stone base in the vacant lot next door.