Eighties Sweetheart Wife
Chapter 117 Simple Renovation of the Thatched Cottage_1

Chapter 117: Chapter 117 Simple Renovation of the Thatched Cottage_1

Of course, since it was said by the granddaughter, it might actually be true.

Nowadays, the clothes on Song Yunuan’s body were some she had bought herself, and some were made by Xia Guilan.

In the past few days, Song Yunuan had finished designing a floral skirt, and then she designed several summer outfits, including those to match with checked skirts and sundresses.

With two sewing machines, the work was getting done much faster.

Song Liang was preparing the mud bricks and timber, getting ready to start building the west wing.

Song Yunuan told them that the house and land here absolutely must not be lost; if they wanted to go to the city, they could buy another house separately.

Aside from studying and working, whether the household registration was rural or urban would not be so important in a few years.

Song Liang and Old Mrs. Song discussed in secret, planning to move to the city in the future, Old Mrs. Song genuinely did not want to separate from Song Yunuan.

But after hearing what Song Yunuan said, her heart suddenly cleared up.

Now, both Little Nuan and Tingting enjoyed the rationed grain, and if Abo got accepted into a school, he would also enjoy it.

In the future, she and the old man wouldn’t change their household registration.

They say it’s hard to leave one’s native land, and she felt the same unwillingness to leave.

Then, the house should really be well renovated.

Right now, they had enough money to build a house with red bricks and large tiles.

But they couldn’t do it, not yet.

The village was still very poor; better wait and see.

However, she was ready to tidy up the room for Little Nuan nicely.

The west wing wouldn’t be made from bricks and tiles either; mud bricks were just as good for warmth.

It just doesn’t look as strong as one made with red bricks.

But there was a yellow clay field to the north of the village, from which they could draw materials directly, saving a lot of money and resources.

Whatever the family decided to do, Song Yunuan didn’t interfere.

After all, they were all clever in their own ways.

But these past few days, without shepherd’s purse to pick, Old Man Song went to gather or buy old broken bricks and managed to find quite a lot, so they really started to fix up the room where Little Nuan lived.

Song Yunuan then got excited, right, there wasn’t much else to do for now, so it was time to spruce up Xiaocao’s room.

Despite the plan to build a new house sooner or later, there was still a need to enjoy the present.

Actually, even though the mud walls were mottled, they were really clean.

Some people, even if they live in a cave dwelling, can still keep it spotlessly clean.

Her mother, Xia Guilan, was just like that.

Although Qin Siqi wore worn clothes, Xia Guilan kept her very clean.

Song Yunuan wandered inside and outside her room, joyously pondering how to make her bedroom comfortable and bright?

Song Liang gave her a suggestion.

Cover the walls and roof with newspapers, lay red bricks on the floor, and fill the gaps with cement.

Cement could be made at home.

The kang bed was newly built, and the kang mat was newly woven by Old Man Song, so there was no need to change it.

The cabinets on the kang were also fine.

So, the renovation was not at all troublesome.

She went to Old Mr. Ji’s home, got half a cartload of newspapers, and also found herself a large wardrobe from the waste collection station.

As for bedding, of course, she did not use Qin Siqi’s; when she returned, she had already replaced them with Tingting’s.

For pasting the walls with newspapers, Old Mrs. Song didn’t want to use good flour for the paste, but Song Yunuan firmly refused to use flour that had weevils, so in the end, of course, they did as she wished.

And true enough, once the newspapers were pasted and the red bricks laid on the floor, the room suddenly lit up.

Song Yunuan thought of woven grass mats and rushed to discuss it with her grandfather.

In the end, an enthusiastic Old Man Song started pondering about weaving reed mats for his granddaughter.

They were to be placed on the ground, and if they could cover the entire room, that would be even better.

But Xia Guilan said it wouldn’t be easy to clean, Old Mrs. Song thought it would be better to weave mats.

Song Yunuan told them that shoes must be removed upon entering the house.

Otherwise, who could keep up with the cleaning?

Then Old Man Song pondered again, tried a few times, and began to weave.

In two days’ time, he had finished weaving one.

Old Man Sun felt that the Song family was spoiling Song Yunuan too much, but since they were willing, what could he say?

Watching him weave grass mats, he looked a few times and had to admit that the weaving was really good, tight and strong, and he himself became a little tempted to lay one in his granddaughter’s room.

Chu Zizhou came to have a look as well.

Astonished by Old Man Song’s craftsmanship, he placed an order for his own use, planning to send it back to Beidu along with a straw hat for his grandfather.

He ordered one that was three meters by five meters and gave Old Man Song thirty yuan for it.

In fact, a kang mat only sells for a few yuan.

Chu Zizhou insisted on paying that much, so Old Man Song had no choice but to accept it, but he also wove a sugar jar pen holder and ten pairs of shoe insoles out of corn leaves.

Chu Zizhou thanked Old Man Song and felt that the shoe insoles were exceptionally good.

For now, they would not organize the corn leaf weaving; Erdao River was busy enough as it was. Anyway, if anyone wanted to do it, he would connect them with buyers.

But this would have to wait.

Indeed, he got busy.

The straw hat weaving could be considered to have finished the first phase.

He started inspecting, settling accounts, and delivering goods.

He unabashedly borrowed Song Yunuan to help Accountant Li with the accounting.

The warehouse had been tidied up early and racks had been installed—just for temporarily storing straw hats.

They selected thirty inspectors from the village, those who were allocated work on a per-job basis.

It took three days to inspect and store a total of nine thousand eight hundred hats in the warehouse.

They paid immediately for those that met the standards.

Sorry, but they couldn’t accept the substandard ones; people were advised to keep them for their own use.

There were some substandard ones, but not more than a hundred; one could say that everyone had been quite serious about it.

The originally agreed price was eight tenths of a yuan each, but that was changed too. For women’s hats, it became one yuan and two jiao each—that’s forty cents more because they had silk ribbon bows on top.

Others creatively dyed the straw strings with leaves from the wild, turning them brown.

A stripe of the original color followed by a stripe of brown—they looked more elegant and fashionable.

These received praise from Chu Zizhou.

He gave an extra ten cents for each of these.

It goes to show that the wisdom of the masses is indeed boundless.

The one who did this was the Zhou family’s newly-wed daughter-in-law; her hands were truly skillful.

Even Song Yunuan was impressed when she saw it.

She and Chu Zizhou suggested that these hats be sold separately at differentiated prices.

Before they finished settling the accounts, the postman from the county post office came by on his bicycle.

He brought out a large manila envelope for Chu Zizhou—it was unclear what was inside, but it required personal signature.

Chu Zizhou glanced at Song Yunuan, then discreetly looked at the address on the envelope.

It was from the Dragon Aviation base.

A letter from Gu Huai’an?

Don’t scare him; how could Gu Huai’an possibly write to him? The regimental headquarters had a phone, and Gu’s side, needless to say, would have contacted him directly if there was anything important.

Seeing Song Yunuan, who was busy frowning, he quickly put the envelope into the office desk.

When everything was completely finished, the sun had already set.

Old Man Song and Song Liang earned a hundred and twenty-eight yuan; families with more people at home, some actually earned over three hundred yuan in just over half a month.

Chu Zizhou had advanced the money himself.

The villagers, holding the money, were as excited as if it were New Year’s.

Of course, Song Yunuan wasn’t worried; this amount wasn’t anything significant—if they really couldn’t sell it, some organizations could simply use it for employee benefits.

But these straw hats were indeed different from ordinary ones.

These hats were decorative items.

Even now, they were top class among straw hats.

Song Yunuan suggested that they shouldn’t be too cheap; it wouldn’t matter if the regimental headquarters made a profit margin.

A reasonable price would make them easier to sell.

Naturally, Song Yunuan had a point.

Chu Zizhou nodded repeatedly in agreement. He then opened the envelope, which didn’t contain a single word or phrase, just a huge pile of coupons.

They were all military coupons with a complete variety; he even saw coupons for refrigerators and TVs.

Chu Zizhou glanced at Song Yunuan, who was busy with the notebooks. It was crystal clear; these were meant for Song Yunuan from Gu Huai’an.

But how should he give them to her?

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