"Hey, let's go back and make more things for these two children."
Uncle Niu left muttering to himself, while Li Huan led the strong men to start digging the foundation. Everyone quickly found their best job and started working enthusiastically.
Mother Li smiled and led a group of aunts to build several simple stoves. The fires on the stoves were brightly lit from boiling water in the morning to cooking rice in the evening.
Li Le even took a bunch of children to help her collect firewood at the foot of the mountain. One bundle of firewood was exchanged for two fruit candies. The second sister-in-law gave her a large bag of fruit candies, which made all her teeth fall out.
Cheng Qiao also rides a bicycle between the county town and Xiangyang Village, and every time he can always bring back the ingredients that everyone likes to eat, from chicken, duck and fish to rice and white noodles.
But Cheng Qiao is not stupid. The white rice noodles are mixed with black millet noodles at a ratio of one to two or even one to three, so what everyone eats is the ingredients of Erhe Noodles.
No one would doubt why Cheng Qiao took out so many things. Cheng Qiao was now a big fat sheep in the eyes of the villagers. Taking advantage of this opportunity to eat more was considered a gain.
"Brother and sister, you have really come of age to enjoy the blessings. Cheng Zhiqing hasn't even entered the house yet, and he is so lavish. You have to be more careful."
"What do I care about? If I can't control my son, how can I care about my daughter-in-law?"
Mother Li curled her lips, saying that anyone who asked her to take care of her daughter-in-law was a bad person. She didn't grow up on her own milk, nor did she eat a morsel of food from her own family, so why should she take care of her daughter-in-law.
"It doesn't matter, Cheng Zhiqing has so much money, so it's just like this. Don't you feel bad about it?"
"Why am I feeling sad? It's not my money. Cheng Qiao can marry my Huan'er, but my family is still ahead of the curve. Oops, your food is going to be mushy, please turn it over quickly."
"oh oh……"
Aunt Li is Li Huan's distant aunt. She doesn't often interact with her, but of course she comes when there is something cheap. When she heard that the vegetables were burnt, she quickly picked up the spatula and shoveled it hard a few times.
When she put the vegetables into a big bowl and wanted to wash her mind with Mother Li, Mother Li was already washing vegetables with Aunt Wang. She could only pick up a pair of chopsticks bitterly and take a few bites first.
Three days later, Li Huan's new house has been built, covering an entire acre of land. There is a woodshed, kitchen and farm tools room in the front yard, as well as a large chicken coop.
There is a pig pen built in the backyard. It seems that Li Huan wants to raise working pigs at home. As long as he raises working pigs, he can also raise one.
The vegetable plot next to it has not been cultivated yet. The Li family will naturally plant some drought-tolerant vegetables in two days. By then, there will also be cabbage, radish and the like in winter, which can be pickled for a meal.
The houses are commonly found in rural areas, with two on one, four on one, or even six on one. That is, there is a living room in the middle and houses on both sides. Those with money will build more houses on both sides, and those with less money will build fewer houses.
What Li Huan built this time was two rooms sandwiched between one and one room on each side of the living room. However, Li Huan was also ready to expand. He wanted to see how many children he could have before expanding, otherwise no one would live in the empty room.
Not good.
Everything was ready, and now all that was left was to choose an auspicious day. Fortunately, the day after tomorrow was an auspicious day. They invited the village chief Chen Aidang to preside over the ceremony.
Everyone is looking forward to this day. In this poor era, going to the Liang Liang is a big event. Both adults and children can satisfy their stomachs on this day.
Li Huan, Shouhou and others carried the main beam with red paper on it into the front of the new house, while Mother Li placed pigs, fish, chickens, geese, eggs, tofu on the table. As for the sacrifices such as incense and candles, they were omitted.
Bricklayers and carpenters gathered around the table, saying good things and toasting. This was the beam. After the beam sacrifice was over, several craftsmen lifted the main beam to the roof.
When the beam was being carried, firecrackers were blasting, and Chen Weidang came over wearing his best clothes. He wanted to sing the song of carrying the beam, and he also shouted repeatedly: "Go up the beam, good luck!"
Cheng Qiao watched nervously as they stepped onto the beam, which meant that they were the most important foundation for a stable life in the future.
When I saw them lifting the main beam smoothly and steadily, without moving forward or backward at all, I felt relieved.
After everyone put the main beam in place, Li Huan moved the red cloth bag containing red dates, peanuts, rice, wheat, and evergreens to the roof and placed it in the middle of the beam, which means "good fortune, wealth, longevity, happiness, and everlasting green".
Next is the favorite ritual of all the villagers, throwing the beam.
Chen Weidang stood on the beam and looked at the crowds of people below. He couldn't help but secretly thought that the second-rate guy spent a lot of money this time. Look at what's in the basket. They are all real good goods:
He put his hand into the basket and began to shout loudly: "Throw the beam to the east, and the sunrise in the east will fill the house with red; throw the beam to the west, and the unicorn will bring you double happiness; throw the beam to the south, and the descendants will come from generation to generation."
Be the number one scholar; throw your beams to the north, and hoard white rice every year."
Suddenly, the four directions of southeast, northwest and northwest became a sea of joy. At first, the children were laughing and picking up candies and steamed buns. When someone picked up one cent, two cents and five cents coins, the scene became even more intense.
climax.
The village women swarmed over, their eyes staring at each child's hand. Whenever a child picked up money, the money would definitely be snatched away.
The children who had been robbed of money were furious, and their parents and grandparents were also furious. The men who had just watched the children, women and children being noisy could not sit still anymore and all joined the ranks of grabbing money.
When Li Huan saw something was wrong, he quickly took a small basket from Cheng Qiao's hand and ran out. In this basket was a hundred one-cent coins that Cheng Qiao had exchanged, just to deal with this kind of thing.
"The second-rate guy is throwing away money, hurry up and chase him."
People with sharp eyes saw Li Huan running outside and throwing money into the air. The silver coins shone in the sun, attracting most of the people.
"Oh my God, the second-rate guy really got rich. With so much money, he must have earned several yuan."
"Don't worry about him, the wife he married is Cheng Qiao, an educated youth, and she has a lot of money."
"That's right, grab it quickly, it's good to grab an extra penny."
When Chen Weidang saw most of the villagers chasing Li Huan out, his anxious heart finally dropped. This was too crazy. He must criticize this second-rate man after the beam-laying ceremony was over.
After the beam-throwing is over, everyone exits the new house and lets the sun shine on the roof beams. This is called "baking the beams."
At this time, everyone consciously went home to get bowls, because the master had to cook food and entertain the craftsmen, helpers, relatives and friends, and distribute red envelopes.
Chen Weidang was the first to get the red envelope. He squeezed it slightly and realized that there was a big black card worth ten yuan inside. He shook his head slightly. This boy really knows how to behave.
