Return to the small mountain village in 1983

Chapter 172: Renovate the small courtyard again, the most beautiful building in Hongfeng Village

Caiyun opened the door, and four people, Father Lin, Mother Lin, and his eldest brother and sister-in-law walked in together.

Lin's mother held a pair of cloth shoes in her hand, while Lin's father and eldest brother took a red envelope and handed it to Lin Heng together.

"Mom and Dad, what are you doing?" Lin Heng was stunned, not knowing what was going on.

Xiulan and Caiyun couldn't help but smile, Xiulan said: "It seems that you are really busy and confused. Today is your birthday. Did you forget?"

Lin Heng was stunned: "Today is October 5th of the lunar calendar?"

He really forgot about it. He hadn't celebrated his birthday in so many years that he didn't remember it at all.

"So hurry up and take it. They are all here to celebrate your birthday." Mother Lin said with a smile.

Lin Heng laughed and said, "Thank you, parents, brother and sister-in-law."

Caiyun went to the house and took out a gray woolen scarf and handed it to him. She smiled and said, "Second brother, this is the gift I prepared for you. I knitted the scarf myself."

"Thank you Caiyun." Lin Heng smiled from ear to ear. He didn't expect such a surprise.

Xiulan went to get the bowls and chopsticks and asked everyone to sit down and eat. The birthday gift she prepared for Lin Heng was already worn on his feet.

Lin Heng simply mixed a hot and sour dipping sauce for them, and said with a smile: "Mom, Dad, brothers and sisters, you guys try the hot pot. I was going to treat you to some in a few days."

A few people curiously picked up their chopsticks to eat some vegetables, and soon showed affirmative expressions.

Father Lin showed a surprised expression: "Not bad, very delicious."

"Yes, this is hot pot, it's really good." Lin Yue nodded.

Lin's mother and sister-in-law Liu Juan were curious about how it was done and wanted to learn.

Lin Heng said with a smile: "I made it in a hurry this time. Let's make another one in a few days."

The group of people ate happily. There were not many dishes and everyone ate relatively little. When it was almost over, Xiulan cooked a bowl of longevity noodles for Lin Heng.

In this era, there were no foreign ways of celebrating birthdays in rural areas, let alone birthday cakes. Most people celebrate their birthdays by cooking two dishes and having a meal together as a family, and the birthday boy eats a bowl of longevity noodles.

The situation in Lin Heng's family is already very luxurious. When Lin Heng ate longevity noodles, he even received blessings from his parents and family.

After eating, my mother and sister-in-law helped wash the dishes and left. It was dark and they couldn't stay any longer.

"Here, this orange is not bad." Lin Heng handed the peeled orange to Xiulan's mouth.

Xiulan ate the orange, showed a playful smile and said, "I'm going to take a bath, and you can coax Xiaoxia to sleep."

"Okay." Lin Heng nodded in agreement.

He hugged Xiaoxia and told her stories for half an hour before coaxing her to sleep. At this time, Xiulan just came out of the shower, looked at him and said: "You go and take a shower too, the water is ready for you. "

Lin Heng went to take a simple bath. When he returned to the bedroom, the red candle was still lit and the candlelight was swaying. Xiulan was sitting in front of the bed with a quilt wrapped around her, waiting for him.

"Here, it's for you."

Seeing Lin Heng coming over, Xiulan gave him a bouquet of red flowers, which she made from maple leaves after learning from Lin Heng.

"Thank Wife."

Lin Heng grinned, looked at the flowers and put them aside to kiss her.

Xiulan blocked him and handed him a red scarf with a smile: "Wait a minute, there is another scarf."

Lin Heng put the scarf on the table and looked at Xiulan with a wicked smile: "The biggest birthday gift today is the person in front of me, right?"

He had noticed that Xiulan was wearing white stockings on her long legs, with his favorite black lace stockings underneath.

Xiulan's pretty face suddenly turned red, and she nodded slightly, her voice as low as a mosquito: "Do you like it?"

"Of course, this is the best birthday present."

Lin Heng chuckled, took off the quilt, and carried his wife to the bed.

"Blow out the candles! Woo~"

Xiulan exclaimed, her mouth was blocked before she could finish her words. She was so embarrassed that she quickly closed her eyes and hugged Lin Heng's neck.

Under the flickering candlelight, Lin Heng ate a big meat bun and did what he loved.

It is said that women are made of water. Lin Heng fully realized this with Xiulan. He had to change the sheets every day, otherwise he would not be able to continue sleeping.

Today is his birthday. Xiulan promised him everything. Lighting candles was an unprecedented experience for the two of them.

Especially Xiulan was so ashamed that she struggled to wander between shyness, happiness and reserve.

Until the candle goes out naturally.

"Bad guy!" Xiulan snorted softly, this person is so disgusting.

Lin Heng grinned, feeling happier than a god, and said with a smile: "Call me brother."

Xiulan was afraid and quickly called softly: "Brother, goodbye~"

"Then let's talk again." Lin Heng said with a evil smile.

Xiulan obediently hugged Lin Heng's neck and kissed her, obeying him in everything.

I don't know when the two of them suddenly fell asleep. When they woke up, the sun was already out. Lin Heng and Xiulan were both a little unable to get up today. Lin Heng had pain in his lower back and Xiulan had pain in her legs.

"It's all your fault that I can't get up anyway." Xiulan glared at him and complained.

"It's okay, then I won't get up." Lin Heng smiled and held her in his arms.

After a while, Xiulan crawled to find some clothes and got up, and pinched Lin Heng's face hard. This guy never settles down.

Lin Heng rested for a while after getting up. After dinner, he went to the construction site to see, and then rode to Shimen Village.

Zhang Lei, the party secretary of Shimen Village, saw Lin Heng's smile: "If you don't come again, I will ask someone to inform you that the bluestone you ordered has been opened."

Lin Heng was a little surprised: "Is it done so quickly?"

It's less than a month, and he's here today to check on the progress.

Zhang Lei nodded: "Yes, it's ready. You and I will go check out the goods. If there's no problem, you can take them away. You can just pick up those broken slates."

Lin Heng nodded and went to Qingshi Mountain with Zhang Lei. The cut stone slabs had already been placed at the foot of Qingshi Mountain.

"It's fifty times one hundred. It's different from what I asked for." Lin Heng said looking at the stone slab.

Zhang Lei explained: "One meter by one meter is difficult to drive, and it is difficult for you to transport, so we opened it like this for you, and it can be used in the same way.

You are given six hundred and twenty yuan here, and the extra twenty yuan is considered as compensation. "

Lin Heng didn't say anything. He took a tape measure and measured it. It was one meter long, half a meter wide and five centimeters thick. There was nothing wrong with the specifications, they were all regular.

This kind of bluestone is different from marble. The surface is very rough, with traces of steel nails digging into it.

These are all traces left by the manual stone splitting method. There was no electricity, and the stone was broken by hand.

Workers will first use a chisel to cut a groove in the stone, and then drive steel nails at equal distances along the groove. Each steel nail is struck in turn, and the force must be the same. When all the steel nails are knocked in, the stone will open.

This method is very technical, and the stone may break if you are not careful. But a skilled person can drive stones very quickly.

The stone slabs cut out by this method cannot be as smooth as the marble cut out by industrial machines.

But Lin Heng actually likes this rough feeling, it has a simple feel, and it is not easy to fall when laid on the ground.

Although they temporarily changed the specifications, they added twenty more bluestones, which was considered reasonable.

"Okay, I'll go back now and arrange for a car to come and pull the stones. I'll pay you after the stones are pulled." Lin Heng looked at Zhang Lei and said.

Zhang Lei nodded: "Okay, that's no problem. If you need anything else, you can always come to us."

Lin Heng rode back, called Li Shiwei and his elder brother Lin Yue, and got three wooden carts to pull the stone slabs.

Li Shiwei drove the bullock cart and shook his head: "I think it's not cost-effective for you to get these stone slabs. You can just lay a cement floor. This is a waste of money."

He and Lin Heng are cousins, but their birth dates are only a few days apart, and they have always called each other by their first names.

Although Lin Yue didn't say anything, he still thought so. It was a mud house and there was no need to get a stone slab.

"Things that make you happy are not wasted money. You only have a few decades in your life, so there is no need to make do with where you live." Lin Heng said with a smile.

He didn't care about the one hundred and fifty yuan. Just building a concrete floor would ruin the style of the ancient courtyard in his mind.

"You can be willful when you have money." Li Shiwei sighed. Seeing Lin Heng getting richer and richer, he became more motivated and became more and more determined to make money. Lin Heng smiled and did not respond to the ridicule. Instead, he looked at his eldest brother Lin Yue and said, "Brother, you can take any of the broken stones here. Do you want to take some back and throw them on the ground? I'm going to use cement to crush us this time." The floors of all three houses have been hardened.”

Just laying a cement floor doesn't cost much, so he planned to help his eldest brother's parents harden the floor in the house.

Lin Yue's eyes lit up: "If you can get it for free, then I can move some back some time."

If you don't get free things, you won't get anything. Paving the ground with stones is indeed more beautiful.

After chatting along the way, the two of them arrived at Shimen Village in half an hour.

Li Shiwei looked at the bluestone and praised it: "This stone is indeed pretty good."

"Of course, otherwise I wouldn't have paid this price." Lin Heng smiled.

Putting on gloves, the three of them began to move the stone. This stone weighed 120 or 30 pounds and required two people to move it.

Since the road back to Hongfeng Village is mostly downhill, each car carries 15 yuan, which weighs more than a ton.

The three people made 6 trips in the morning and 8 trips in the afternoon to bring back the good slate Lin Heng bought.

The gravel slabs are not being pulled out yet, we will wait until needed. You can pull it whenever you want. There are so many gravel slabs that no one wants them.

The slates were moved and stacked outside the courtyards of the two families, and many villagers cast curious glances.

After learning that Lin Heng was going to renovate again, I was extremely envious. Lin Heng was the only one in the village who had the money to do so.

The construction site at Hongfeng Mountain is in progress, and I am still in the mood to do these things at home.

During dinner in the evening, Xiulan looked at her husband who had been busy all day and asked, "Are you going to start construction in the next two days?"

Lin Heng took a bite of food and nodded: "Yes, we will start construction in the next few days, but we have to finish the vegetable garden first."

Xiulan said: "Then I will help you tomorrow."

Lin Heng agreed: "Yes, I will have big brother and Li Shiwei to help when the time comes. The more people we have, the faster we can work."

As for the Hongfeng Mountain side, it was enough for his father, third father, and uncle to watch over him.

Early the next morning, Lin Heng called his eldest brother and Li Shiwei together.

The first thing to do is to pull out all the fruits and vegetables in the vegetable garden, regardless of whether they are mature or immature.

After the removal, the kennels, pig and badger pens, and forest musk deer pens were moved to the back mountain to make room for the front yard renovation.

After finishing this, Lin Yue looked at Lin Heng and asked, "Brother, what are you going to do next?"

Lin Heng said with a smile: "Now it's time to improve the soil quality. I'll first lay out the outline of the vegetable garden."

The previous vegetable garden was too messy and the soil quality was not good, so he wanted to re-plan it.

The front yard is 32 meters long from east to west and 12.5 meters wide from north to south. The central axis of the north and south is the previously built corridor.

The corridor is two meters wide and has only eight pairs of wooden pillars, which does not take up much space.

Both sides of the corridor are divided into two parts. The entire front yard has a total area of ​​200 square meters. Before, almost 150 square meters was used as a vegetable plot.

This time Lin Heng planned to reduce the vegetable plot to 80 square meters, with square meters on the east and west sides, and the locations were close to the courtyard walls on both sides. It is planned to build a long vegetable patch of ten meters wide and two meters wide. Four pieces will be exactly square meters, and it will not look too messy if it is pressed against the wall.

Just four vegetable plots are enough for the entire yard. If there are not enough vegetables, the rest can be planted in other plots outside the yard.

The main focus of the yard is aesthetics.

After Lin Heng spread out the outline, four people dug down thirty centimeters, took out the loess and piled it outside.

After doing this, Lin Heng said with a smile: "Let's go to the back mountain to dig some humus soil and mix it in."

"it is good!"

The four of them took the bags and went to the back hill to dig out the black humus soil where the leaves had rotted. Lin Heng brought back a few large bags of pine needles and spread them at the bottom of the four vegetable plots.

After the humus was dug back and mixed with the loess, Lin Heng went to the old house to get some hundreds of kilograms of shriveled millet from this year's threshing and poured it in, then added fermented pig manure and cow manure, as well as some from the sandy soil. The sand and soil dug out, as well as the ashes of burned vegetation.

Mix these seven kinds together and stir evenly, and the loess that is easy to compact will become a planting soil that is very suitable for planting. It will be loose, breathable and fertile soil for many years to come.

Not only is it easier to grow fruits and vegetables in this kind of soil, but the yield will also be significantly increased.

It took four people a day to finish the vegetable garden. Finally, they used bluestone slabs bought by Lin Heng to surround the vegetable garden to divide it and prevent soil from escaping.

It was already dark after all this was done. Li Shiwei looked at the four vegetable gardens and shook his head and said, "These fat planting stones can bloom."

Lin Heng smiled, looked at his elder brother and said, "Do you want to renovate your vegetable garden like this?"

The soil he blends is very reasonable and has scientifically proven proportions. There are some things that even farmers who have been farming for a lifetime cannot understand the principles behind, and they still have to learn.

Lin Yue shook his head: "I'm also going to make the vegetable field square. It's good to mix the soil like this, but it's too troublesome. I'd better throw some cow dung in when planting."

The main reason is that he has planted a lot of fruits and vegetables in his land, and it’s hard to pull them all out.

"That's okay, Xiulan rice is almost ready, let's go eat." Lin Heng said with a smile.

After eating, Lin Heng was a little tired today, so he fell asleep after coaxing Xiaoxia.

Early the next morning, he mobilized his cousins ​​Lin Hai and Li Shiwei to transport sand and cement from Hongfeng Mountain by horse-drawn carriage.

He and his eldest brother Lin Yue leveled the ground at home. This job was a bit difficult for his eldest brother, but it was a familiar task for Lin Heng.

In his previous life, he had done all kinds of hard work to pay off debts, and he had learned a lot of skills. This kind of mason's work was naturally not a problem for him.

Not only was the ground in the front and backyard leveled, but the same was true inside the house. All the stones that were originally paved in the house were removed and piled outside the courtyard wall.

The room with furniture is temporarily vacant, and the furniture will be moved in when the other rooms are ready.

The leveling took a whole morning, and the laying of stone slabs started in the afternoon.

Except for a few small flower beds reserved for planting trees and flowers in the front yard, the rest of the area is paved with stone slabs.

Li Shiwei and Lin Hai worked with Lin Heng to lay the cement mortar, and his eldest brother Lin Yue helped him.

Lin Yue looked at the stone slabs laid by Lin Heng and praised: "Brother, your skills are good, the paving is so beautiful."

"Yes, it's really beautiful." Lin Hai and Li Shiwei also nodded. They didn't expect Lin Heng to have such skills.

Although laying floor tiles may seem very simple, there are still many details that can make it very ugly if not laid properly.

Lin Heng laughed: "I figured it out myself and saw others do it."

It took four people three days to finally finish paving Lin Heng's house. A total of 220 square meters of bluestone slabs were used in the front yard and house, and 30 square meters of bluestone slabs were used in the backyard. In the end, 120 pieces were left.

These slates were not wasted by Lin Heng. He made a set of stone tables and chairs in the front yard, and also built two pools, one for laundry and one for water storage.

Some of the rest can also be used to make pools and water tanks for parents.

"How's it going? Is the room much brighter now?" Lin Heng pulled Xiulan into the yard and said.

At a glance now, the inside and outside of the house are all covered with well-proportioned bluestone floors. The joints are all sealed with cement. There is no trace of loess or unevenness.

Xiulan nodded fiercely: "Yeah, it's beautiful and neat. It makes me feel a lot better when I see it."

Before the construction started, she didn't think there was anything wrong with the home. Now she understood why Lin Heng insisted on renovating it.

The difference before and after is so huge, just looking at people makes me feel much better.

"Great!!"

Xiaoxia also started running in the yard. Now there was no need to worry about her tripping over stones or anything else. The house was flat except for the drainage ditch.

Seeing the smiles of his wife and daughter, Lin Heng felt a sense of accomplishment. She did this for her wife, daughter and family.

Although this house was not big, it actually held a very important place in his heart. The bad memories of his previous life were gradually replaced by the good memories of this cup.

He held his wife's hand and continued with a smile: "But it's not over yet, wait until I hit the cement floor of my eldest brother and my parents' house.

Just buy some gypsum powder and plaster the exterior and courtyard walls. Then you will have real red tiles and white walls, which will be more beautiful and tidy. "

As he spoke, Lin Heng picked up Xiaoxia who ran to him and threw her twice in the air to express his excitement.

Xiulan smiled and said: "No one will talk about our mud house in the future."

Although it is an earthen house, its construction is more beautiful than any brick house in the village.

Facts have proved that even a mud house will look beautiful if it is well decorated.

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ps: This chapter is a bit late, I'm sorry, but I still want to ask for monthly votes.

(End of this chapter)