Book Synopsis
Book Tags
Donation Rankings
Comment
0 Comments
You May Also Like
墨書 Inktalez
"I wonder how much money it takes to build a house. What do you think about us moving out?"
"We need to build a house anyway, so we might as well apply for a larger piece of land. That way, we won't have to squeeze in with my parents. Ye Fanghua can be a bit petty about these things. If we're using our own money to build a house, it makes sense for us to live there ourselves. What's the point of building if we're still all living in the same courtyard together?"
Zhao Dali agreed with her. Although he was somewhat favored at home as the youngest son, he certainly didn't benefit much from it. There were four brothers in his family, and being the youngest meant that the first three had already married and taken over the family house, leaving little money behind. They had even faced some hardships during famines.
By the time he reached marrying age, not only was there no money available, but there wasn't even a room for him to live in. Their family had three main rooms and two side rooms. When they were young, all four brothers lived in the west room of the main house. Later, when the eldest brother got married, they gave up the west room, and the three younger brothers moved into the side rooms. When the second brother married, he took one of the side rooms across from them.
As time went on, when the third brother was also ready to marry, Zhao Dali had to move out and live with his parents. Eventually, it became inconvenient for him as a young man to share a room with his parents, so he convinced his three brothers to build a thatched house in the backyard for them to live in together.
Before pursuing Ye Fanghua, Zhao Dali had tried looking for other partners. However, whenever potential matches saw his family's situation, they quickly backed out. It was only because Ye Fanghua was a young educated youth from the countryside, away from her family and unable to endure hardship, that she was eager to find someone to rely on. This is what allowed Zhao Dali to win her over.
"I think we shouldn't aim for a brick house right away. As long as we have a roof covered with tiles and use stones for the walls, that should be fine," Zhao Dali calculated. "If we don't have enough money to build three rooms, let's just start with two."
"Why don't you see what else we might need? While we're still here, I'll see if I can think of some solutions," Ye Fanghua planned to involve her relatives in this endeavor.
Zhao Dali had never built a house before and didn't know exactly what was needed. However, there were stones and wood available on the mountain nearby, so they wouldn't have to worry about sourcing those materials. The real challenge would be buying kitchenware like pots and bowls; that wouldn't be so easy.
"It's nothing much, but if you want to cook for yourself, we need to prepare our own pots, pans, and utensils. We need tickets to buy an iron pot or a kitchen knife; without tickets, we can't get anything.
Also, the bedding at home should be replaced. We can repurpose the old bedding as a quilt for the kang. And we need to get curtains and door curtains as well.
Zhao Dali went on and on about a whole list of things.
Ye Fanghua never expected that living on her own would require so many items. It made her a bit hesitant, and she started to reconsider living independently.
Why do we need so many things? Why don't we just make do at home? Ye Fanghua said hesitantly.
Seeing that his wife was having second thoughts, Zhao Dali immediately comforted her, "Oh, I’m just saying a lot. We’re just country folks; we don’t really need all of this.
If we don’t have an iron pot, we can cook with a clay pot just the same. Curtains and door curtains aren’t absolutely necessary either.
You can ask your family for help; if they can assist us, great. If not, we’ll think of other ways."
Comment 0 Comment Count