"Do you really want to build a house?" The two of them walked side by side, Wang Zhong pushing his bicycle and Shuihua carrying firewood.

"Since you are coming back, you must have a place to stay. You can't always live in the old party secretary's house!" Wang Chong said with a smile.

Shui Hua looked at Wang Zhong and said, "It costs a lot of money to build a house!"

"I have saved some money over the years, which should be enough to build a house."

"No wonder!" Shui Hua suddenly said, "A few days ago, I called Uncle Shui and took the villagers to dig out the soil and press bricks for you. You have two meals a day, white flour steamed buns and mutton stewed with potatoes. Everyone said that they eat it during the Chinese New Year.

None of them are that good!

"Everyone works hard for me, but I have to let everyone eat well, right?"

"My fellow villagers are praising you for your generosity before they even meet you."

"······"

The two of them chatted all the way into the village and separated in front of Shuihua's house.

Wang Zhong went straight back to the old party secretary's house, just in time to catch up with the old party secretary coming back from the fields carrying a hoe.

"So many things?" Looking at the pots and pans on the bicycle, the quilt, the thermos bottle, and the large military backpack behind Wang Zhong, the old party secretary quickly put down his hoe.

"They are all necessities of life. Since you have decided to stay in Yongquan Village, you will have to buy more sooner or later, so it is better to do it as soon as possible."

The old party secretary nodded, then frowned, "Don't we all have these in our families?"

"I'm going to build a house now. I'll still have to buy it after it's built."

The old party secretary smiled, said nothing, and helped Wang Zhong move everything into the house.

······

"Brother Wang Zhong! Do you really want to build a house?" Ma Debao asked excitedly as he stood in front of the painted homestead in front of him and looked at the large adobe bricks piled on the empty flat land.

"Of course it's true." Wang Chong said with a smile.

Ma Debao said, "It costs a lot of money to build a house!"

"No matter how much money I have, there is nothing I can do. I have to afford a house. I can't always sleep in the old party secretary's house!" Wang Zhongdao said, "A man must have his own home and his own world. He cannot always rely on others.

As he spoke, he looked at Ma Debao, leaned to his side and lowered his voice and said, "I will marry you in the future!"

"Brother Wang Zhong, you are right!" These simple words made Ma Debao's eyes sparkle. Although he was still a half-grown child, he had a lot to think about and was not low-spirited. Otherwise, this kid wouldn't be able to

I will focus on running away and trying to live a better life.

"I will also build my own house in the future." I added in my mind before marrying Mai Miao home!

Wang Zhong patted his shoulder and said, "You can definitely do it!"

Ma Debao was stunned by Wang Zhong's words and looked at Wang Zhong in disbelief: "Brother Wang Zhong, are you serious?"

"Of course it's true!" Wang Zhong said, "But you are still young now." He looked at the boy up and down and said, "The bones in this body have not grown yet, and the strength is not enough."

"We men are either knowledgeable, well-spoken, and have a lot of beautiful things in mind, or we are physically strong, as strong as an ox, and have a certain craft!"

"You are now, you can still grow in physique and strength, it's just this skill!" Wang Zhong paused as he said, "What can you do?"

Ma Debao was a little overwhelmed by Wang Zhong's question. He racked his brains to think about it, but even if he emptied his mind, he couldn't think of any skills he had!

As for strength, Ma Debao is a thirteen or fourteen-year-old kid, and he is not the kind of person with extraordinary talents. Although he works with his parents all year round, he has nothing to do with meat all year round, so his strength is just like that.

"Brother Wang Zhong is right. You coward, you can either learn from your brother and get a technical secondary school exam to make your father look embarrassed! Or you can learn a trade. This man makes money to support his family. If he doesn't have a trade, then he can just do it."

Like your father and I, we can spend our whole lives digging for food with our backs turned to the sky and our faces facing the loess."

"Are you learning any skills? Is it possible to learn your half-baked medical skills?" Ma Debao was so confused by the glances and words from the two of them that he immediately replied angrily.

"You coward, even your father dares to arrange it!" Ma Huashui's expression changed, he opened his mouth to curse, and bent down to take off his shoes. Ma Debao reacted faster, and when Ma Huashui just scolded, he gave it to him

Ran away.

"I'm going to the fields to help my mother collect rice!"

Before he finished speaking, the person had already run away, leaving only countless dust swirled up.

"You idiot! Run as fast as you can!" Ma Huashui cursed in a low voice at Ma Debao's back.

"Young people are full of energy!" Wang Zhong said with a smile.

Ma Huashui clapped his hands, wiped away the dust on his hands, and said with a smile on his face, "So, are you satisfied with this homestead?"

Wang Zhong nodded and said, "Satisfied, such a spacious place is much larger than the small house in the city!"

Wang Zhong looked at the huge pingchang, which covered almost an acre in front and back.

Ma Huanshui explained, "Now there is no land in the village to allocate to you, so we have discussed giving you more land on the homestead! At least you can grow some vegetables in front of and behind the house!"

Is it a rural area? There is nothing else but plenty of land. However, Yongquan Village is poor and the better fields have long been divided up.

"This was decided by the villagers after discussion and discussion in the village!"

"It's just that the location is a little off!" Ma Huashui shook his head and said with some regret. The nearest future neighbor to Wang Chong's house is still dozens of meters away.

"Thank you, Uncle Huashui!" Wang Zhong guessed that Ma Huanshui and the old party secretary must have contributed here.

"By the way, when do you plan to start construction? Why don't you choose a good day!" Although feudal superstition is not advocated now, people are still used to looking at the almanac and choosing a day, no matter what they do, mainly for good omens.

"Don't rush to start the construction." Wang Zhong said, "Call Uncle Shui, I think these bricks will be almost dry in two days. I plan to use these two days to build a few small earthen kilns first, and then go to the county."

Buy some coal, burn these bricks, and bring back some cement and fine sand, so that they can last longer."

"You still want to bake bricks? Do you know how to dig a kiln? Burn bricks?" Ma Huashui was stunned for a moment and looked at Wang Zhong with some surprise. Every house in Yongquan Village was either an adobe house or an adobe house.

, no house is built with burnt bricks.

Baking bricks requires craftsmanship, and digging a kiln requires even more craftsmanship.

In the original plot, the man named An whom Shuihua married was an example.

I wanted to dig a water cellar to please Water Flower, but I didn't expect the water cellar to be dug. Instead, I became crippled and my lower limbs were paralyzed, dragging Water Flower down for the rest of my life.

Brick-burning cave dwellings require more craftsmanship, especially on this high loess slope, with a radius of dozens of miles. I have never heard of anyone with this craftsmanship. It is expensive to buy it from outside the county. There are only a handful of people with this economic strength, and

The cost is much higher than that of an adobe house.

Wang Zhong said, "I know how to do it, but I haven't actually practiced it. You have to do it to know whether it works."

Ma Huashui looked at Wang Zhong with complicated eyes, "Coal, cement and fine sand, no matter what, they are not cheap!"

Xihaigu is a well-known poverty-stricken area in the country. The people in Yongquan Village depend on potatoes to feed themselves all day long. When they encounter a slightly rotten situation, they have to rely on government relief food to survive.

"Uncle! You spend the money you earn. Besides, a house can be passed on to future generations. Now that I have finished the house, my children and grandchildren will be able to save more money in the future!"

Wang Zhong's words spoke to Ma Huashui's heart, "You are a piece of shit, you don't look like a young man in his early twenties at all..." But halfway through the words, Ma Huashui thought of Wang Zhong's family.

, and then sighed.

Perhaps it is precisely because of the misfortune of the family and the early sacrifice of his grandfather and father that Wang Zhong looks like a middle-aged man in his thirties or forties at such a young age!

Ma Huanshui thought of this and looked at Wang Zhong with a hint of farewell. "You just have to know it in your own mind. I won't say more! Other uncles can't help you, but you need people and strength. Let's rush in."

This is what the folks in Quancun lack most."

Wang Zhong said, "Uncle, you have all helped me with this heavy work. If it's the kiln, I can do it myself. Besides, it's almost time to harvest the rice from the fields. Anyway, I'm not in a hurry here.

You and my aunt should finish the work in the fields first. If you don't mind it, you can let Debao and Gawa follow me to do it for a while. Let's explore together. They are young and have flexible minds.

Once you have read books, you can learn things more easily than adults."

Ma Huanshui was stunned for a moment, and then he looked at Wang Zhong, Debao and Gawa with some surprise. They were all thirteen or fourteen-year-old little kids. Their strength could not compare with adults. Wang Zhong took them to burn together.

Brick, and listening to Wang Zhong's wishes, it seems that he wants to hand over this craft to Debao and the others.

"Uncle, I see that Debao is a man with a lot of heart, ideas, and a flexible mind. If he can really master the art of baking bricks, he will be able to have a similar skill in the future."

Ma Huashui sighed, looked at Wang Zhong, and said in a rather serious tone: "Wang Zhong, you are also a member of our Yongquan Village. I won't hide it from you. It's not just our Yongquan Village, but also those nearby."

In Kushui Village, and even our entire Xihaigu, the food grown in the fields has been getting less and less year by year in the past ten years! The population of every household is increasing, and life is difficult these days!"

"The little food grown on the ground can't be eaten for a year before we have to stop eating, and we have to live on relief food distributed by the government."

"Hey!" As he said this, Ma Huashui couldn't help but sigh again.

In Ma Huanshui's heart, Wang Zhong must know how to bake bricks and kilns. What Wang Zhong said was just a modest statement.

"You can ask Debao and Gawa to help you, but..."

"Uncle!" Ma Huashui didn't say anything, but Wang Zhong interrupted him, "I can't do the kiln burning alone."

Ma Huanshui looked at Wang Zhong, who had a smile on his face but firm and magnanimous eyes, and sighed and said, "As long as you know what's going on."

"By the way, uncle, I will be very busy these days if I have to dig and burn kilns. I also have to build a house in the back, so I won't have time to cook. It happened that Miss Shuihua saved me last time. I didn't have time to repay her. Look.

How about I ask her to come over and cook for us?”

"Why do you ask Shuihua to cook? You can just eat it at my house!"

"Uncle, if I were alone here, I would definitely bother you, but I am asking someone to help me with the work. How can I let you and my aunt spend money?"

"Besides, you and my aunt still have to be busy with things in the fields. After harvesting the bags of rice, we have to chop down the rice bagging poles and bring them back. The fields need to be plowed! There is a lot of work to do!"

Seeing Wang Zhong's firm look, Ma Huanshui knew that Wang Zhong had the right idea in his heart, so he did not continue to persuade him, "Okay, okay! Then I won't be polite to you!"
To be continued...