Chapter 312

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Protagonist:

Chai Mi

"Qiu Shui, do you think we should buy a car too..." After dinner, Chai Mi suddenly brought this up: "I've saved up some money recently, probably around fifteen thousand. I've been hesitating..."

Song Qiushui gasped, her head buzzing: "No, I've saved less than eight hundred yuan, and you've saved fifteen thousand. How is anyone supposed to live like that. Buying a car is fine, but I think we should build a warehouse."

"Build that thing for what?" Su Wan had finished dinner and was coaxing the children; hearing Chai Mi and Song Qiushui talking, she also came over to join the excitement.

"To store things. Autumn is coming soon, and it'll get cold after a while. We can't go out to buy vegetables every day like in summer." Song Qiushui really didn't want to suffer like that anymore.

Going out early to buy vegetables in summer was fine, but winter is so cold that buying vegetables is obviously not very suitable.

"My house has no place left." Chai Mi pointed at the courtyard.

To the east there was a flock of sheep, and to the west were still the cowshed and Chai Family Old House Neighbor's Garden.

Later, since the main house wasn't big, there was some space behind the house, but building a warehouse behind it would be particularly troublesome.

Nothing would be convenient.

Besides, according to local customs, there was no saying of building sheds behind houses.

It was unreasonable.

What was emphasized here was that the main house overshadowed the side rooms, the side rooms overshadowed the cowshed, and the cowshed overshadowed the storage room.

Overshadowing meant being higher at one end.

"Our courtyard is big..." Song Qiushui pouted and said: "You can't possibly build the warehouse at my house."

Chai Mi rolled her eyes and thought: "It actually works. Anyway, we're close."

Song Qiushui: "Uh..."

Su Wan frowned a little, but didn't say anything.

However, building the warehouse at Song Qiushui's house was somewhat unreasonable.

Whose business would that count as?

But Song Qiushui's house really did have a lot of space; her courtyard was obviously bigger than Chai Mi's. And the road in front of her courtyard was also wider.

That was the main street, so the roads were over ten meters wide. In contrast, the road in front of Chai Mi's house was eight meters wide, and the courtyard was smaller too.

"Seriously, I'll go to your house tomorrow. I'll talk to your parents about this; when the time comes, I'll pay for the storage room, use your place, and you can use it yourselves later. But it'll still mainly be for the things we work and sell at stalls."

Since Chai Mi said so, Song Qiushui didn't refuse: "Fine. I don't care about this; I agree. The rest you go talk to my mom about. By the way, how big do you want the storage room?"

"Four by eight meters is fine. No need to be too big; later we can put the car inside, and also store some vegetables and such."

Chai Mi was now purely doing business in the open air; once it rained, things could only be covered with plastic cloth.

It was terribly troublesome.

But there was limited space at home, and there were cows and sheep, plus they had two dogs.

And Chai Mi's location wasn't very good.

In front was the street where Laozhai was, and the neighbors to the east and west weren't very familiar, with little daily interaction.

As for the back, it was just fields, with nothing there.

Those basic fields basically couldn't let Chai Mi build houses or anything.

And originally, when Su Wan and Chai Youqing came over, this place wasn't very big, which was troublesome.

Song Qiushui's courtyard was fully twice as big as Chai Mi's, and it was all empty, doing nothing, just raising four dogs.

But Chai Mi also knew this matter had to be settled with Song Qingshan first, otherwise it wouldn't work.

Of course Chai Mi was confident, mainly because this was good for Song Qiushui too. Later when the two did business, she would always have to contribute something, so that when she took money, it would be more righteous.

Otherwise, Song Qiushui actually couldn't do much now.

Every day was just going along and coming back along.

Working, she couldn't.

Eating, she was too good at it.

After dinner, Song Qiushui went home.

Chai Mi originally wanted to ask Chai Youqing how much material building a storage room and such would need, but before Chai Mi could speak, Chai Youqing took the initiative to ask: "Chai Mi, your mom said you want to build a storage room at Song Qiushui's house? Putting a house at someone else's place, it's not convenient to use..."

"You... are the sheep calling outside? Did you forget to feed them again? Go feed the sheep." Chai Mi didn't let Chai Youqing talk too much, and urged him to go feed the sheep.

Chai Mi didn't want a settled matter to hear Chai Youqing nagging and reasoning here.

But Chai Youqing was just like that, and there was nothing better to do.

Chai Youqing wanted to say a few more words, but Su Wan said: "What time is it? You forgot to feed the sheep? Calling in the middle of the night, that won't let people sleep. Go check quickly."

Chai Youqing helplessly went.

Chai Mi strolled to the West Room and caught Chai Xiu secretly reading "Tian Ming Zhi Zi": "Hey hey hey, don't read all that chaos all day; calculate, to build a four by eight meter storage room, how much material, how much money."

Chai Xiu was engrossed, and was suddenly caught by Chai Mi, so scared her hand shook, and that thin, cover-blurry "Tian Ming Zhi Zi" comic book almost fell to the ground. She quickly hid the book behind her back, her little face turning red: "Sister! It's not bedtime yet, why are you here so early!"

Chai Mi reached out unhappily: "Stop talking nonsense! Hand over the book! Reading all that mysterious stuff all day, can it be eaten as rice or help you get into Tsinghua? Hurry up, calculate the warehouse thing for me!"

Chai Xiu reluctantly handed over the comic book, muttering: "... I haven't even gone to school, what Tsinghua, I might as well go to Harvard... what am I calculating? I'm not a mason."

"Calculate the materials!" Chai Mi poked her younger sister's forehead, "Four meters wide, eight meters long, how high are the walls? Is the shed roof ridged or flat? How many bricks, how many tiles, how many purlins, how many rafters, how much cement and sand? Don't tell me you don't know; I see your little mouth is very glib usually."

Chai Xiu shrank back from her sister's poke, rubbing her forehead, her eyes rolling: "Oh, who remembers that clearly... let me think..." She actually knew clearly in her heart, just didn't want to be used as free labor. But seeing Chai Mi's impatient look, she had to resign herself to counting on her fingers: "Walls... calculate at two and a half meters high, save materials. A ridged shed roof is good, but if the warehouse is flat, like a single-story house, higher in front and lower in back, rainwater won't pool... Bricks, ordinary red bricks, including loss, about... five thousand yuan? But stone can be used at the bottom, then cement to fill gaps, using only over two thousand bricks. Purlins... not needed, for four meters, no span in the middle, just use small poles, this kind of rotten wood is everywhere, just steal some. Put a layer of oilcloth paper on the roof, then it won't leak, and the roof can be made thinner, saving money and trouble, three or four windows. Two in front, leave a spot for the main door, on the side gable wall put one or not, depending on the actual situation, the back all wall..." She calculated and reported at the same time, speaking very fast, obviously very familiar with it.

Chai Mi listened seriously, silently remembering in her heart. She knew Chai Xiu was mischievous, but this kind of solid accounting work was more reliable than Chai Youqing. "Fine, calculated about right. What about cement and sand? Needed for foundation and filling wall gaps. Is the roof made with cement or tiles?"

"The foundation doesn't need to be too deep, right? It's not for living... half a meter deep, half a meter wide is about right, throw a few number eight iron wires underneath, then it's sturdy... Sand needs... three carts? Cement... twenty bags might be enough?" Chai Xiu wasn't sure, "This depends on how the master does it. Best to find someone who knows to ask."

"Mm, I have a number in mind." Chai Mi nodded, remembering the numbers Chai Xiu reported in her heart, "Your brain, when used in the right place, is still good. Read less of these useless things in the future." She waved the "Tian Ming Zhi Zi" in her hand, "Confiscated! I'll find you a proper arithmetic book to read later."

Chai Xiu wailed: "Sister! I borrowed that!"

"Borrowed doesn't count! If I catch you looking at this again, I'll skin you!" Chai Mi said firmly, tucking the booklet into her pocket, then turned and left the west room. Leaving Chai Xiu rolling her eyes at the door, muttering softly: "Heh, can't even read Liu Xiu Brick anymore, truly no justice in heaven. But this Liu Xiu is really scorching, scorching Cao Nvwang into a trap."

Chai Mi walked into the outer room and ran into Chai Youqing, who had returned after feeding the sheep. Chai Youqing rubbed his hands and asked tentatively: "Chai Mi, that warehouse... is it really being built at Qiu Shui's place? This... this will be so inconvenient to use in the future, our family..."

"Our family has no place." Chai Mi interrupted him, her tone allowing no argument, "Put it in the Song Family Courtyard, it's close by, and Qiu Shui will find it convenient to work. I'll pay for the house, I'll buy the materials, when the time comes they'll find it convenient to use, it's a good thing. I'll go talk to them both about this tomorrow."

Chai Youqing still wanted to say something, but Chai Mi waved her hand: "Dad, this matter is settled like this. You should rest early, tomorrow you still have to worry about the ox. I think the old ox's belly is even heavier, it's just a matter of these two days, you need to be more vigilant." This sentence pulled Chai Youqing's attention back to the ox again. He made an "oh" sound, looked worriedly toward the cowshed, and no longer dwelled on the warehouse matter.

Su Wan held the sleeping child, listening to the father and daughter's conversation, and sighed softly, offering no further opinion. She knew the eldest daughter had sound judgment, and now that the family was getting by, it all depended on her.

Early the next morning, Chai Mi and Song Qiushui set up their stall as usual. Business was still booming today, Curved Leek Dumplings especially popular, with people scrambling to buy them at thirty yuan a portion, leaving Song Qiushui clicking her tongue. After closing the stall, Chai Mi didn't go straight home, but followed Song Qiushui to her home.

Song Qingshan was in the courtyard repairing his broken bicycle. These past two days Song Qiushui had said: a bicycle should look like a bicycle, she liked pink, and wanted the bicycle dyed pink.

The problem was, bicycles these days were mostly black-painted.

As for painting, Song Qingshan wasn't skilled at it.

The problem was, he couldn't oppose it. As soon as he said he couldn't do it, Meng Shi launched into a barrage of scolding: good for nothing, can't even dye a bicycle, lived sixty-plus years for nothing...

Song Qingshan:...

No choice, Song Qingshan had to go to the market and bought a large package of pink cloth, then wrapped it around the bicycle.

To be honest, it looked quite good...

Chai Mi came over and looked at it: "Oh my, your craftsmanship is good. Another day, wrap my bicycle too, really impressive. So stylish..."

Song Qingshan's old face turned red: "Fine, when the time comes push it over, I'll wrap it for you."

"Hehehe." Chai Mi chuckled: "I was just joking, I don't like pink anyway. But I suggest you buy more other cloth strips, in a couple of days Qiu Shui might like red or green again."

Song Qingshan sighed: That was natural, this time he had already gathered all seven colors...

Chai Mi entered the house. Meng Shi was busy at the kitchen. Seeing Chai Mi come, she warmly came out to welcome her.

"Auntie, busy?" Chai Mi greeted with a smile.

"Oh my, Mi is here! Come in and sit!" Meng Shi wiped her hands on her apron and came out to welcome her.

Song Qingshan also followed her in.

Chai Mi got straight to the point: "Uncle, Auntie, there's something I want to discuss with you. I'm setting up a stall with Qiu Shui doing a bit of business, and my stuff is getting more and more. There's no place to put it when it's windy and rainy, leaving it out in the open isn't good either. I was thinking, could we build a small storage room in a corner of your family's courtyard? Doesn't need to be big, just four meters wide and eight meters long, for putting the cart, stove, pots and pans and such. The money for building the house, bricks, tiles, wood, cement, sand—I'll provide it all, and I'll hire the workers. Once built, both families will share it, and it'll be convenient for you to put your farm tools and firewood too. You see... Uncle, Auntie, do you think it works?"

Song Qingshan and Meng Shi exchanged a glance. Song Qingshan pondered for a moment: "Building a storage room is a good thing, our courtyard is empty anyway. But, Mi, you're paying for all this... it's not quite right, we wouldn't feel right using it."

"Uncle, don't be so polite with me." Chai Mi quickly said, "Using our family's place, it's only right that I pay money and contribute effort. Besides, Qiu Shui works with me, this storage room is mainly for storing our business goods. As long as you agree! Of course, building a house at your place, busy and bustling, you still have to provide meals. You provide the meals... it's not free use, you still have to pay for the food."

Meng Shi was a straightforward person, laughing as she slapped the board: "What's not allowed! Build! Chai Mi is such a straightforward child! Once built, we'll all be convenient!"

Song Qingshan also nodded and laughed: "Fine! I'll take care of this matter! This afternoon I'll go ask around. Bricks, tiles and such, do you want me to go ask for a price first, or you..."

"Uncle, just ask the price for me, and I'll go haul it in the end." Chai Mi felt a stone fall from her heart, "Then it's settled!"

"One family doesn't speak two-family talk!" Meng Shi held Chai Mi's hand, "Eat lunch here! Auntie will make you pancakes!"

"No no no Auntie, there's still business at home, my mom can't handle it alone." Chai Mi declined, exchanged a few pleasantries with the Song couple, then took her leave. Song Qiushui saw her to the door, winking: "How is it, I told you my parents would definitely agree! You didn't need to make this trip."

Normally that was indeed the case.

Whatever Song Qiushui did at home, the family wouldn't oppose.

But after all this was using someone else's courtyard, it still had to be settled with Song Qingshan, so that in the future there wouldn't be any barrier in people's hearts.

Rural people attach great importance to homestead land. You see, eating and drinking is no problem, but using a piece of their land, that wouldn't do.

After all, the matter of "letting him three feet and what's the harm" was a low-probability event.