Traveling through the mountains and farming

Today is the day when the construction of Lin Wan’s house begins.

Early in the morning, Li Changyi brought nine people to start work.

Lin Wan knew her second cousin Li Changyi and his second son Li Chongzheng, her third cousin Li Changli, Old Man Wang and his eldest son, Uncle Luo. The other three whom she had never met were relatives from the Li family's side branches.

A team of people came with all kinds of tools. After listening to Li Changyi's on-site explanation of how to transform the equipment, they quickly divided the work and started working.

They left two people to dig the foundation, and the others went up the mountain to cut wood and dig loess.

Lin Wanze and Li Changyi pushed a wooden cart into the city.

After entering the city, they went straight to the brick kiln shop in the West Market.

After Lin Wan stepped into the shop, she quickly glanced around the shop. She noticed that all the materials in the shop were neatly arranged and the goods were extremely complete, including all the materials they needed to build a house.

Soon, they successfully negotiated with the shopkeeper the price and quantity of the blue bricks, quicklime and slaked lime they wanted to buy, and they could take them back after paying.

However, the three stone slabs needed for the septic tank were not of standard size, and one of the slabs required a hole to be drilled to reserve space for the exhaust pipe, which the shop did not have ready-made ones for sale.

After Lin Wan asked if she could make a reservation, the shopkeeper said yes.

She used the paper and pen provided by the shopkeeper to draw the blueprint on the spot and marked the dimensions. After confirming with the shopkeeper that it could be customized, Lin Wan paid the deposit and agreed to pick up the goods three days later.

With the shopkeeper's consent, she once again borrowed paper and pen to draw the pipeline design diagram, which included the pipe connecting the bathroom squat toilet to the septic tank, the two pipes used inside the septic tank, the external exhaust pipe, and the bathroom drain pipe.

The shopkeeper, who was watching the whole process, asked curiously, "Young lady, do you want to customize these pipes of different shapes?" His eyes were full of curiosity as he looked at the drawings in Lin Wan's hand.

Lin Wan was bending over and blowing air, trying to make the ink dry faster.

After hearing the shopkeeper's question, he immediately stood up and replied with a smile: "Yes, I'm going to the pottery shop to ask if I can customize it."

"Our boss has a pottery shop diagonally opposite. You can go and try it." The shopkeeper provided information enthusiastically.

Lin Wan picked up the blueprint and said, "Okay, I saw it when I came here, and was just about to go over there."

"If you encounter any problems, just let us know that you are a regular customer of our store. It may help." The shopkeeper kindly reminded.

Lin Wan smiled and thanked the shopkeeper, then went to the pottery shop across the street alone with the blueprint in her pocket. Li Changyi stayed in the shop and went with the waiter to the warehouse near the shop to pick up the goods they had bought.

After she arrived at the pottery shop, she asked the owner if she could customize ceramic utensils. The owner initially answered yes, but after seeing the drawings given by Lin Wan, he hesitated.

He held the drawing that Lin Wan gave him and frowned, saying, "We used to make all kinds of jars, but what you drew is not a jar, it looks more like a weird-shaped tube."

"Yes, this is a pipe. Can you help me customize it?" Lin Wan nodded in agreement.

After thinking for a while, the shopkeeper said, "It has never been made to order before. According to the principle, it should be possible, but it needs to be specially made by a skilled craftsman."

Hearing that the shopkeeper did not refuse outright, Lin Wan quickly explained that she was an old customer of the brick kiln shop and was introduced by the shopkeeper. After hearing Lin Wan's words, the shopkeeper did not make things difficult for her and accepted her design drawings.

The same deposit was paid and it was agreed that the goods could be picked up after three days.

Before leaving, Lin Wan suddenly asked the shopkeeper whether their shop had any discarded ceramic pieces to sell, because she wanted to buy a cartload of them.

The shopkeeper probably thought that those ceramic pieces were meant to be thrown away anyway, so he said that they could be given directly to Lin Wan, and agreed that Lin Wan could send someone to pick them up tomorrow.

Afterwards, Lin Wan smiled and thanked, then turned and walked out of the shop, and then went to Xishi Street to find her second aunt Wang Yu Niang and others.

Because she and Li Changyi had discussed it before, Li Changyi would go to the warehouse first to load the truck, and the rest would be taken back by Wang Yu Niang and her team's truck.

Lin Wan quickly found Wang Yu Niang and the others. At this time, they had sold out their ice jelly, so she closed the stall with them and went to the warehouse of the brick kiln shop together.

When Wang Yu Niang arrived at the warehouse, she saw the bricks she was going to buy and asked in confusion, "Hey, why are there still bricks? Wan'er, are you going to build a brick house?"

Lin Wan quickly replied, "No, Aunt, look, these bricks, which are only over 300 yuan, are not enough to build a house. They are used for waterproofing the floor of the shower room and toilet."

Wang Yu Niang patted her chest and said, "That's good. Brick houses are very expensive."

"Yes, that's why I bought so little. I have to use it wisely." Lin Wan nodded in agreement.

Everyone started loading the materials that Li Changyi had not loaded into the car.

While everyone was loading the car, Lin Wan slipped out to buy two meat buns and one vegetarian bun for each person, and also bought four meat buns and four vegetarian buns for the two siblings in her family.

When Lin Wan gave the buns, she and Wang Yu Niang had a push-and-pull game as usual. Only after Lin Wan expressed her sincere intention to use the buns as a thank-you gift did they accept it.

But everyone only ate one, and the rest were carefully wrapped up and prepared to be saved for the elderly or children at home.

When they were almost at the entrance of the village on their way back, Lin Wan saw from a distance a little boy squatting beside a pile of straw, digging something with his head down. When she got closer, she saw that it was Li Chongle digging wild flowers by the roadside.

At this time, Li Chongle heard the sound of the cart moving, and immediately turned around. Seeing that the people coming were his sister-in-law and Uncle Changyi, he ran over and said with a smile on his face:

"Sister-in-law, I followed your instructions and went to my great-aunt's house after noon to get some straw."

Lin Wan touched Li Chongle's head and asked softly, "It's so hot, why don't you go back?"

"I was worried that the straw would be taken away by someone else, so I didn't wait long, sister-in-law." Li Chongle scratched his head and replied.

Lin Wan then realized that she had not yet adapted to modern thinking. In this era, there are still people picking up straws.

Seeing Li Chongle's face flushed from the sun, she took out a handkerchief and handed it to him, saying distressedly, "Wipe it off quickly. How can you be so honest? You came here so early to wait. You must have been sunburned."

Then he stuffed the eight buns he had bought for the brother and sister into Li Chongle's hands.

She guessed that when she was not at home, the two children would probably eat very frugally and probably rely on porridge to get by.

Lin Wan turned around and said to Li Changyi and the others, "Please help spread the straw on top of the bricks we bought. Thank you."

She didn't explain much, and everyone else understood. At the same time, they admired Lin Wan's intelligence and her thoroughness and meticulousness.

Everyone quickly finished the job and covered the bricks tightly. Even if someone saw them in the village, they would only think that they were straw that Lin Wan was going to use to build her house.

When they returned to the yard, the group working on the house construction was taking an afternoon break.

When everyone saw Lin Wan and her team returning with the materials, they all stood up to help unload.

Lin Wan went into the house to prepare the ice jelly. Before she left, she told Li Ke to prepare it at noon and serve it to all the people who helped build the house when she came back in the afternoon.

When Li Ke saw Lin Wan, he pulled her to the corner of the room and said in a low voice, "Sister-in-law, I made the ice jelly secretly in the bedroom, and I also picked stevia secretly."

Lin Wan pinched Li Ke's forehead and said with a smile, "You little clever boy." It seems that Li Chongle's confidentiality education for Li Ke is very effective.

Then, the two of them went their separate ways. Li Ke went to the kitchen to get a bowl and a spoon, while Lin Wan went to the bedroom to get the bucket of ice jelly.

After everything was done, Lin Wan scooped the ice jelly at the door, and Li Ke and Li Chongle were responsible for delivering it to everyone.

It was the first time that Old Man Wang and his son heard of and tasted it, the three distant relatives of the Li family had heard of it but ate it for the first time, and the three people from Grandpa Li's family and Grandpa Luo and his son had eaten it before.

Whether it was their first time or many times, everyone enjoyed the meal.

That’s right, Luo Dashan was selling ice jelly at the market in Taohua Village in the morning, and came over to help after he came back.

Their bucket of ice jelly was sold out in less than an hour, making a net profit of 82 cents. After counting the money, the couple was so happy that they almost went crazy.

He came here voluntarily to help and did not intend to ask Lin Wan for any wages.

Grandpa Luo saw that the people who came to build houses today were all those who fled famine and settled down there, and they were all families with good relations.

He quietly told Old Man Wang that Lin Wan asked them to sell ice jelly together, and asked them if they were interested in selling ice jelly at other markets in the village.

When Old Man Wang heard about such a good thing, he couldn't wait to get involved. With the help of Grandpa Luo, he obtained the right to sell ice jelly in Xishui Village Market from Lin Wan.

The Xishui Village market is held twice a decade, on the second and seventh days of the month.