Chapter 79.2

Translated by Aviana

Back at home, when Lin Qingwan and Yao-shi got to know about the purchase, a smile blossomed on both of their faces.

Two days later, following the completion of the documentation and authorization of the title deed, Yang Tiezhu went and collected it from the village chief.

After procuring a title deed, one can commence construction of their house.

In Luoxia Village, when the villagers build their houses, they usually seek aid from their close ones in the village. In return, the owners would provide them with lunch and supper. Thus, typically everyone would assist them in building the houses without demanding wages.

Yang Tiezhu was distinctly aware that everyone in the family had their hands full at the moment. Making Laweixian demanded a significant amount of manpower, while he and his third younger brother would be busy delivering them around. Where will they even have time to still construct the house?

Just thinking about this made Yang Tiezhu’s head swell with pain, wishing to have three heads and six arms .

The third branch’s husband and wife were, too, plagued by the same issue. They had both land and money, yet severely lacked time to build a house. No matter what, they certainly can’t stop making Laweixian, that was indisputable. Just a one-day-long hiatus would lead to a huge loss in earnings. Furthermore, building a house wasn’t a matter of a day or two.

Thus, this time, without needing Lin Qingwan’s advice, Yang Tiezhu promptly decided to hire a team of masons to build a house for them.

Wasn’t it just a matter of wages? The production of laweixian, regardless of the situation, couldn’t be stopped. All of them were acutely aware of how important it was for them to preserve their business in the current situation.

Thus, the third branch’s husband and wife, too, decided to hire masons. Although it might cost them quite a bit, they were making a significant amount of profit from laweixian business. Recently, under Lin Qingwan’s influence and Xia Dacheng’s pieces of advice, the two gradually became aware of how to manage their finances flexibly, at the least in the current situation, they were able to make wise choices.

Once everyone unanimously came to an agreement, Yang Tiezhu put their plan into motion.

Formerly, while he stayed in the town, he got acquainted with the leader of a mason group. Surnamed Li, the leader was in his forties. His acquaintances addressed him as Uncle Lu. He was quite proficient in his trade and had quite a bit of people working under him. Usually, whenever he was hired for bigger houses, he would lead his team for the work. And when he didn’t, he did trivial jobs to make a living.

Yang Tiezhu was very much familiar with him. At that time, quite a few times, Yang Tiezhu also worked under Uncle Li, whenever the latter was short of manpower.

Uncle Lu was honest by nature. To him friendship was friendship and work was work. Whenever Yang Tiezhu worked for him, he always made sure to pay him wages according to his work and industry standards. He was acutely cognisant of the fact that everyone strived hard to feed their family. Thus he never let Yang Tiezhu work for him for free.

For this reason, Yang Tiezhu has always admired Uncle Lu.

After meeting him again, Yang Tiezhu conveyed his intention to Uncle Liu. When the latter heard that Yang Tiezhu was building his own house, without demur, he readily agreed to help him. The wages were decided based on the market prices. Nevertheless, as it was a big house, and there were two houses in total, he agreed to reduce the wages by 10 percent.

Once the two of them came to an agreement, Yang Tiezhu began to discuss the outline of the house with Uncle Liu. To give him an even clearer picture, Yang Tiezhu showed him the outline drawn by Lin Qingwan on the blackboard..

As Lin Qingwan had just casually drawn the outline on that day and was quite simple. Thus things such as Uncle Liu being astonished beyond words upon examining it didn’t happen. On contrary, he just felt that the person behind this sketch was just a meticulous person and has considered all the aspects. Furthermore, the drawings were even slightly crude. How detailed can one even draw on such a board?

Putting in Yang Tiezhu’s explanation along with the outline, he, more or less, was able to visualize the house they wanted.

In the end, Yang Tiezhu also put forth his intention to build a brick wall around the perimeter. After a quick estimation, Uncle Liu smacked his lips and shook his head with a short and simple reply: It will be quite expensive.

How many bricks would they need to build a wall around the perimeter of the 4 mu land?

Taking in Yang Tiezhu’s still clueless expression, Uncle Lu slowly elaborated on how many bricks they would need and the cost per brick to build a courtyard wall as high as two people. Taking the amount of the land into consideration, just building a courtyard wall would cost them about 50 silver taels.

Never had Yang Tiezhu expected a brick courtyard wall to cost that high. He couldn’t help but wonder how much it cost for the village chief to build his courtyard wall. However on second thought, how tall was his wall, perhaps just one person tall? However, his family’s land, conversely, was spread across 4 mu.

A wry smile appeared on his face, ‘perhaps buying that much amount of land was a mistake?’

However, the house plan that he and Lin Qingwan initially came up with would surely consume a large amount of space. The large backyard and their workshop would certainly take up a lot of space and were essential and indispensable infrastructures.

Momentarily he was flabbergasted. He replied that he would go back and talk over with his wife.

Uncle Lu also didn’t say anything before seeing him out.

Soon after going back when he shared about it with Lin Qingwan, she was shocked as well. She was aware of Yang Tiezhu’s intention to build a brick wall but hadn’t expected it to be expensive.

But upon mulling over it for a bit again, she too felt it made sense.

It would definitely cost that much to build a courtyard wall as high as two people around their land spread across four mu.

But to be honest, Lin Qingwan didn’t find the figure to be too expensive either. Taking the number of bricks and labor into consideration, the amount was reasonable.

Yang Tiezhu had also come to a similar conclusion. But, nevertheless, he couldn’t help but feel a bit distressed. Deep down in his heart, spending 50 taels of silver on a building house wasn’t extravagant, but when the 50 taels were solely being spent to build a courtyard wall, it couldn’t be said to be the same. Yang Tiezhu’s this sort of thinking was quite subtle. It wasn’t that he hated to part with the silver, rather he couldn’t help but feel it wasn’t worthwhile.

Lin Qingwan was cognizant of and understood his thinking process. But she thought a bit more. Could they possibly build a mud wall around an extravagant large roof-tiled house?

While there were quite a few roof-tiled houses with mud courtyard walls in the Luoxia Village, Lin Qingwen couldn’t help but feel slightly repulsed by this idea. It was as if she had bought a big diamond ring, which had an authentic and genuine diamond embedded in a ring made up of iron.

After kowtowing 99 times, was there still a need to ponder over paying respect?

Subsequently, Lin Qingwan patiently began to elaborate to Yang Tiezhu about her thoughts. Firstly, the appearance of a brick wall was far better. Secondly, owing to its rigidity and compactness, it didn’t require much servicing and repairs every now and then. Mud wall, contrarily, had too many disadvantages, which Lin Qingwan one by one listed to Yang Tiezhu.

Firstly, due to rain, the mud wall might undergo erosion. Yang jia also has a mud wall, thus Lin Qingwan had witnessed this beforehand. Consequently, the mud wall needs to be repaired every year without fail. The mud wall can’t stand against the wind and rain. It can’t withstand even tab bit of fierce snowfall and rainfall in particular and is easily prone to disintegration. Not to mention, most importantly, with their house being so big, they would need a much bigger courtyard wall. Regularly repairing such a long wall would be inconvenient and exhausting.

Keeping exhaustion aside, they would still be occupied with their expanding business in the future, where would they even have time to repair the wall on a regular basis? They might as well go ahead and build a brick wall in one go, firmly safeguarding from wind and rain. Saving time was of the essence here. With more time, they could go on more trips for their business. Of course, alternatively, one could say, hiring a mason to repair the wall was also feasible, but in that case wouldn’t one have to pay them extra, which in long run might be quite uneconomical?

Yang Tiezhu felt his wife’s reasoning was quite reasonable.

Spend some money now and bluntly cut off any budding future troubles.

Lin Qingwan further suggested building a courtyard wall first before starting the construction of the house. Besides, the villagers weren’t inquisitive enough to come all the way there and inquire. Since they wanted to keep it low profile, they might as well do that. With the high courtyard walls in place, they could build their house as they wish. Once the house would be built, no one would be aware of the interiors of the house. If asked, they can simply say that due to their home being in proximity to the foot of the Luoxia mountain, they built a sturdier wall to ensure their safety.

Yang Tiezhu didn’t have any objection to her suggestion. Besides, he too wished to keep a low profile since the beginning, without eliciting much attention.

The next day, Yang Tiezhu again made a trip to Uncle Liu and conveyed his final decision to have a brick wall to be built around the perimeter. Though Uncle Liu was quite astonished, he refrained from saying anything further. Since the other person had come to a decision, he certainly must have adequate silver in their hands. Yang Tiezhu possessed excellent hunting skills, silver shouldn’t be a problem for him.

Yang Tiezhu further put forth his demand to build the courtyard wall first, implicitly expressing that he doesn’t want to get too much attention from villagers. Comprehending the intention behind this, Uncle Liu readily nodded in understanding.

Young people, it’s better to be low-key than ostentatious.

Once Yang Tiezhu and Uncle Lu came to an agreement, he handed over the construction of the third branch’s house to the latter as well.

Nonetheless, the third branch’s requirements were quite simple – just a simple, big roof-tiled house similar to many other houses in the village, and thus didn’t require much deliberation.

For the next few days, Uncle Liu and Yang Tiezhu looked around to buy the bricks. As the purchase was made in large quantities, they got them quite cheaper, nevertheless, it still cost him quite a bit.

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