Three craftsmen came, pushing a wheelbarrow filled with combed thatch, specially used for making roofs.
Under the current conditions of the Xu family, it is impossible to think of tiles. Just this bit of thatch requires half a piece of silk, and this does not include labor costs.
If you include the cost of labor and the cost of reinforcing the wall, a bolt of silk will be wasted.
But no matter what, this money cannot be saved.
It’s no wonder that Mr. Wang wants to buy his own wood to make furniture.
This is the case for the Xu family, but it is even worse for the Wang family. The roof needs to be repaired and the walls need to be rebuilt.
In order to save some material costs, Wang Dayou went out of the city to pick up load after load of yellow mud.
Xu Yue felt that she was very lucky. With Xu Da and Wang around, she had almost nothing to worry about.
They couldn't stay inside while the roof was being laid. The three siblings sat in rows at the door to bask in the sun. Xu Yue's mind had already drifted to the research room.
The three pieces of silk and hundreds of large sums of money that the family had left on their own account were all spent, half of which was used to bribe Liu Rong, a person from Hejian County, to vouch for the two of them, so that they could stay in the county.
.
The remaining half was spent on repairs to the house and furniture panels.
This means that their family is now clearly entering a fiscal deficit stage again.
Fortunately, there are still things obtained from dead people in her research room, which are worth several thousand dollars. They are the family's only savings at present.
It's just that they have no land or land now, which means they are homeless. Next year, they will not only have to pay taxes but also spend money to offset their service. This little savings will definitely not be enough.
Xu Yue held her chin and began to think about the way to get rich.
Just as she was thinking about it, she saw Wang Dayou carrying back a load of loess, sweating profusely, and a flash of light flashed through Xu Yue's mind.
She stood up and called to Wang Dayou who was walking in front of her house, "Uncle Dayou, where did you get this yellow mud?"
Wang Dayou stopped and rested for a while. He just thought Xu Yue was a child who was curious, but he didn't hesitate. He pointed to the outside of the city and said:
"The area in the western suburbs outside the city is full of soil like this, which is used to make mud walls. What, the little girl wants to play in the mud?"
With that said, he knelt down and generously took a piece of yellow mud and handed it to Xu Yue, "Come on, play with it, just be careful not to stain your clothes, otherwise your mother-in-law will spank you."
The corner of Xu Yue's mouth twitched slightly, and she took the mud over, "Thank you, Uncle Dayou!"
"Why are you so polite?" Wang Dayou waved his hand, continued to pick up the burden, and headed home.
Xu Yue carried the mud into the yard. A piece of yellow mud the size of a football was first crushed with a small hoe, and then poured with water. Soon the mud turned into a sticky mass that could be kneaded into any shape.
Xu Erniang originally thought that her sister had some idea when she asked for mud. Unexpectedly, when she came over and saw that Xu Yue was actually playing with mud, she suddenly felt like she was being choked.
Xu Yue noticed that Xu Erniang was speechless, but she had no time to explain to her sister now.
Knead the mud ginseng water into many small pieces. At first glance, it looks like a mini version of bricks, but some shapes are trapezoidal and not as straight as square bricks.
And because the moisture content is different, some are more three-dimensional, and some are just rotten into a puddle.
Xu Erniang squatted beside her and watched for a long time but saw nothing. When she was about to get up, she heard Xu Yue suddenly shouted excitedly:
"By the way, this is it!"
What's right about this?
The whole family looked over, and Mrs. Wang asked with concern: "What's wrong? Are you okay?"
Seeing that her family members were frightened, Xu Yue shook her head in embarrassment, "I'm fine, dad and mom, please come here."
"What are you doing?" Xu Da jumped off the roof and was the first to come to Xu Yue.
The rest of the people also gathered around, looking at Xu Yue...and the ball of mud in front of her in confusion.
"Mom and dad, we can make a fire bed in the house." Xu Yue said while suppressing her excitement.
She had felt that something was missing in the north. She was reminded by Uncle Dayou's mud wall, and suddenly she remembered that there was no fire kang in every household in the north.
It's only the end of September and it's already so cold in Jizhou. When winter comes, wouldn't it mean that people would freeze to death?
But it would be different if there was a heated kang. She had personally experienced how warm the heated kang in the Northeast was when she was on a business trip. As long as the fire was lit, the whole room would be warm, especially the warm kang bed, which made her sweat while sleeping.
However, the family could not understand Xu Yue's excitement, because in their world, the fire bed did not exist at all.
Xu Yue waved to her family members to come over, picked up the ball of mud, and explained and demonstrated at the same time.
Xu Da showed a suspicious look, "It's so ugly, can it keep you warm?"
"Ugly?" Xu Yue was a bit unable to keep up with her father's weird thinking, "Is life or beauty more important?"
Xu Da lowered his head and looked at his hands, which were too rough to see, and fell into sadness and couldn't extricate himself.
Fortunately, her father was unreliable, but her mother-in-law supported her.
Wang nodded and analyzed: "I roughly understand the principle of this fire kang, but we need to pay attention to the distribution route of the kang path to prevent the smoke from overflowing. If the distribution problem is solved, then there will be no problem."
Xu Yue had a flash of inspiration and thought of the fire kang in the northeast. She knew what materials to use, but she didn't know the distribution of the kang paths. Now after hearing A Niang's words, she nodded repeatedly, and her admiration for A Niang increased.
.
Mrs. Wang picked up the mud and worked with it for a while, and finally she had something in her mind. She stood up and pointed to the east room, which had a roof built and was connected to the temporary kitchen, and said:
"Let's try it out in this house first, and we'll renovate the kitchen together."
Xu Da: Just say what you want to see me do?
Wang raised his lips and smiled, "Comrade Xu, if I want to put theory into practice, I have to rely on you."
Xu Yue handed over the shoulder pole and the newly purchased bamboo dustpan, "Dad, Uncle Dayou is leaving the city again. You go with him. He knows where the yellow mud is."
With that said, to show his support, he pushed Xu Dalang out again and coaxed: "Brother, follow my father to dig the soil, and come back to make delicious food for my brother."
"What, delicious?" Xu Dalang asked seriously.
Xu Yue glanced at her brother in surprise. Isn't this stupid? She also knew how to negotiate terms.
After thinking about it, I could still afford half a bottle of eight-treasure porridge. I waved to Xu Dalang to squat down a little and whispered in his ear: "Eight-treasure porridge is delicious."
Eight-treasure porridge...one of mankind's favorite snacks! Xu Dalang seemed to have remembered something and nodded hurriedly.
Xu Da's eyes flew over, Xu Yue smiled slightly, "I have everything."
So, the father and son borrowed another craftsman's wheelbarrow, and happily followed Wang Dayou, who set off again, out of the city to dig soil.
Those who stayed at home were not idle either. Wang made the mold under the guidance of Xu Yue.
After the father and son brought the loess, they crushed it into pieces, mixed it with water in proportion, poured it into a mold and made bricks to dry.
If the weather is dry, it can be put into bed after four or five days of drying.
