Chapter 58: Enclosing Land and Building Houses

An Yinan took out a sheet of white paper and a pencil, "The current geographical location of the Back Mountain is like this."

While she was speaking, the tip of the pencil moved quickly across the white paper, leaving behind lines, and soon outlined the location of the Back Mountain.

"You are just too amazing." Zhao Qiu Hua looked at the drawing before her; how could she have imagined it would be outlined in just a few strokes?

An Yinan did not answer, but simply circled a spot, "This is where I plan to build the house. It backs onto the Back Mountain, and in front is the entrance to the vegetable garden. This way, picking vegetables and watering will be convenient, though getting water might be a bit difficult to manage."

"I'll take care of the water well," Zhang Qian said, "Do you have a spot designated for the well? Do you know about those hand-pump wells?"

At this, An Yinan was pleasantly surprised, "We can get a hand-pump well?"

"I have a friend who works at the Agriculture and Forestry Department and happens to be in charge of the Water Conservancy Bureau," Zhang Qian said.

A friend? A comrade-in-arms? An Yinan already had her suspicions, but she didn't pry, simply drawing the location quickly on the map, right at a corner outside the vegetable garden entrance.

"Here?"

"That's reasonable." Zhang Qian nodded.

Afterward, Xie Yuanyuan looked at the location; she didn't care about much else and drew hers right next to An Yinan's, while Zhang Qian drew his on one side of the vegetable garden.

No help for it, a matter of gender.

Li Xiue picked up the pen and drew a circle on the other side of An Yinan, "Here?" Zhao Qiu Hua nodded hurriedly.

Now a layout had formed: Xie Yuanyuan and Zhang Qian were across from each other and were neighbors to An Yinan, while across from An Yinan was the entrance to that large vegetable garden, and on the other side of An Yinan were the houses of Li Xiue and the others.

These people could be considered to be looking out for one another!

The few of them dispersed. "Tomorrow I will go find the Captain to discuss this, and then we need to mark the land on-site. For Beibei and me, we will definitely need at least three rooms: two bedrooms and one kitchen." An Yinan wanted a layout like the one in the village, where you enter the door into the kitchen with bedrooms on both sides; she could set up two stoves, one for boiling water and one for cooking, so she wouldn't always have to go borrow pots from Xie Yuanyuan.

"Mine can be a bit smaller, just one stove and a place to live; being smaller means burning less firewood." Xie Yuanyuan stuck out her tongue cutely; she had no strength and couldn't endure hardship, but she had a very accurate understanding of herself.

"Hmm... I'll join the mess later too. My house just needs to be the same size as Xie Yuanyuan's." He didn't need to consider growing vegetables or burning firewood; if that were the case, he wouldn't even need a yard, as long as the house was livable.

What he didn't say was that he could be responsible for wild game in the future, but since there were two people he wasn't familiar with, he didn't make it clear.

An Yinan understood, however. In fact, she could also hunt, and judging by this incident, the group of three was now more solid; before leaving, they would likely stand together.

"Ours don't need to be too big either, just a room with a kang big enough for two people to sleep on and enough space for two cabinets, plus a kitchen for cooking. But we need to enclose a small yard; we need to grow vegetables." Now that there were only two of them, and neither of them were troublesome people, they would be more diligent about growing vegetables themselves. Thinking about it this way, it was much better than living in the Educated Youth Dormitory; it was just that they would have to spend a bit of money upfront, but it would be much more comfortable later, and they wouldn't have to guard against this person or that person.

"That's settled then. We'll go talk to the Captain tomorrow," An Yinan decided.

After the others had gradually left, An Yinan knocked on Beibei's door. After Beibei opened the door, he saw his worried sister.

"Sister."

"Do you resent your sister for suggesting we move out because you got beaten?" An Yinan looked at Beibei's face with heartache.

Perhaps the ointment was very effective, as the swelling had gone down a lot by now.

"Sister, if I said I resented you, wouldn't I be heartless?" An Xiangbei pulled An Yinan to sit down, then rested his chin on An Yinan's shoulder, stretched out his short, thin arms, and hugged An Yinan.

"I know how much you love me, and I know how hard you work for my sake. Sister, we are family; you are the person I love most in the world, forever."

Being hugged by Beibei, his arms weren't very strong, and his tone was a bit flat, but his heart was so burning hot. So, he understood; even though he was still young, only ten years old, he understood.

An Yinan hugged An Xiangbei back, "Thank you, Beibei."

Thank you for your comfort, thank you for your trust, thank you for your unconditional love.

The next morning, the group gathered again and went to the Captain's house. Seeing people who had just started their work and looking at a few Educated Youths, how impatient were they?

"It won't work just by calling me; we still need to call a few people to measure the land," the Captain looked at them helplessly.

An Yinan was all smiles, looking very easy to talk to; where was the ruthlessness from yesterday?

"Captain, who should we call? Shall we go call them?"

Once the Captain heard this, he realized that if he didn't get this done for them in the morning, they would probably follow him around all day, and he wouldn't be able to get anything done.

"You go wait at the Back Mountain, I'll call someone to go fetch them." The Captain tapped his tobacco pouch, and the matter was settled.

"Got it, we'll be waiting for you." An Yinan took the others and went straight to the Back Mountain.

They had specifically skipped work today to get this matter finalized, fearing that if they didn't, others would make a fuss later; it was too troublesome to have no end to it.

After waiting for ten minutes or so, five or six people from the village arrived, and the Captain also walked over slowly with his hands behind his back.

Seeing the vegetable garden enclosed by mud walls, he didn't say anything.

"How do you want to arrange it?" the Captain asked An Yinan. He had figured it out; he had thought she was a simple, honest little girl, but that wasn't the case at all. Among this group, this little girl was the troublemaker; she wouldn't suffer even the slightest grievance.

An Yinan smilingly took out the drawing from yesterday, along with a floor plan she had designed herself. For the sake of security, she had specifically enclosed a small yard. The house wasn't anything too special, and relatively speaking, it wasn't very big, but behind the three rooms, there was an extra room to serve as a storage room, where she planned to put some large vats and dried vegetables.

On the right side of the yard, she had also drawn a shed where firewood could be stored, to keep it from getting soaked by rain or snow, which would make it a real ordeal when trying to heat the kang.

On the left side of the yard, she had drawn a few small plots, representing the space for growing vegetables.

"With such a big vegetable garden, isn't that enough vegetables?" The Captain looked at the blueprint. Not to mention how they would manage it, the drawing itself was truly excellent; all the dimensions were marked, and the design was quite reasonable. The area that the two siblings could be approved for was also just right.

"Heh, it's just sitting empty anyway, and this garden isn't just for me to eat from; there are the two of them as well," An Yinan pointed at Xie Yuanyuan and Zhang Qian.

The Captain didn't say anything else; he compared the two drawings and handed them to Xie Ershu, "Measure the land."

Never mind that there were instructions from above to help the two siblings whenever possible; even based on An Yinan's usual conduct, he would certainly turn a blind eye.