Grandpa Fifteen's ancestral house was at the east end of the village.
This was the ancestral field left behind from before liberation. Since Grandpa Fifteen didn't have many people, they didn't build a house here, so it was especially wide.
In those ten years, to cut off the tail of capitalism, the rebels asked Grandpa Fifteen to take out the ancestral field in front of his house for the production team, but Grandpa Fifteen didn't agree. At that time, one-third of the working group wanted to hold a meeting to criticize Grandpa Fifteen, but the whole village refused. After the working group's leader was hit with two bricks in the middle of the night, and his son accidentally broke his leg while studying in the village's primary school, they didn't dare to put on airs in Chen Village anymore.
That year, Grandpa Fifteen caught acute appendicitis, and the doctors were all locked up in the cowshed. No doctors could operate on her, and she died. After her death, Grandpa Fifteen, who was bored to death, went to the riverbank to pick up pebbles every day and came back to build a wall. Over time, two walls were built on both sides of the courtyard. They were more than fifty meters long, two meters high, and about twenty-seven or eight meters apart. The area inside the wall was more than two mu. This was Grandpa Fifteen's vegetable garden and ancestral field.
Every time Chen Village's people walked past this field, they would use it as a negative example to educate their children. Look, this is what it means to have a small population! In the late seventies and early eighties, the whole country started to carry out family planning, and this place became a key example of family planning. Even the family planning officials could argue like this. "If you have the ability, go to Grandpa Fifteen's place and do family planning."
No matter what, this old field belonged to Grandpa Fifteen's branch, so it was definitely a good idea! The whole village had no objections.
The ancestral house was very old. Even though it had been repaired several times, the pillars were still a bit crooked.
Touching the pebbles on the wall, Chen Weizheng had an indescribable feeling. Grandpa had been picking pebbles for ten years, and he had been throwing pebbles in the space for ten years. Could it be that all the pebbles he threw were picked up by grandpa? Chen Weizheng felt like he was in a fantasy just thinking about it.
When he heard that he wanted to tidy up the old house, Lord Eighteen came. He asked him what he wanted to do.
First, the two rows of pebbles had to be preserved. Not only did they have to be preserved, they also had to be repaired. Wherever there was a gap, he would go to the river to pick up pebbles to make up for it. He would use cement to make the top of the wall to increase the natural resistance of the wall.
Secondly, he had to make a gate that could be driven in. The gate could not be in the middle. According to the five elements of Feng Shui, it should be on the left side of the front. Inside the gate, a four-meter-wide cement road was built along the cobblestone wall on the left, all the way to the bottom of the courtyard.
The third was the renovation of the vegetable garden. He wanted to dig a fish pond that was about half an mu and two meters deep in the courtyard. He only needed to leave half an mu of vegetable field. He could eat as much vegetables as he wanted!
The fourth was to renovate the old house. If possible, he wanted to build a new building.
Lord Eighteen muttered something under his breath and set up a compass to carefully check the position. Finally, he said, "You're a university student after all. This layout is so clear that it connects the universe and the Yin and Yang. Ah Zheng, you're really talented!"
He shook his head and walked away. When he went back, he told Chen Baoliang, "Ah Zheng wants to renovate the courtyard. You ask everyone to help him when they have time. He doesn't have a woman to cook in his house. Don't go to his house after you've finished your work." There was a custom in the village. If you helped someone, that person would provide you with extra food in addition to the salary. Chen Weizheng would not be able to do it alone, so Lord Eighteen said that.
A few days after the funeral, the county committee sent a notice of secondment. Chen Weizheng was seconded to the county committee office as the secretary of Deputy Secretary Zhao. Chen Baoliang worked in the Excellent Village and was given a job. Lord Eighteen knew that this was all thanks to Lord Fifteen's family, so he was especially enthusiastic about Chen Weizheng.
Chen Xiaomei knew that Chen Weizheng had officially graduated from university and wanted to arrange for him to work in a department in the city so that he could take the civil servant exam next year. Chen Weizheng tactfully refused. He used the excuse that it would be better to stay in the village for a year. He did not know if there would be any sequelae. It would not be too late for him to work after a few years of recuperation in the village. Chen Xiaomei was also a little worried, so he agreed. He told Chen Weizheng that he needed to make a budget for the ancestral house first and told her how much it would cost. Chen Weizheng nodded and said, "Okay."
According to Chen Weizheng's construction plan, the first thing to start was the two broken walls.
This time, there was no need for anyone to do it. Everyone in Chen Village took action. Everyone brought back dozens of pebbles from the river bank. Some picked them up specifically, and some brought them along. The children in elementary school also helped Chen Weizheng pick up the pebbles when they had nothing to do. In just two days, a small mountain of pebbles was piled up outside the gate of Chen Weizheng's house. Not only was there enough material to repair the old walls, but there was also enough material to build a new wall in front of the gate. There was strength in numbers. The words of the great ancestor were really worth ten thousand.
Zhao Changfu asked the county cement factory to send a truck of 15 tons of cement, which was enough to repair the walls, roads, and houses.
Two cement workers worked for five days. The pebbles wall and the cement roof were brand new inside and outside.
Liu Dehou's driver, Master Huang, took advantage of the weekend to find a big truck. He installed an excavator and personally dug out the fish pond in two days. Master Huang's driving skills were as good as his driving skills. Lord Eighteen asked him to dig out the mud in the pond in front of the ancestral hall when the fish pond was dry during the New Year. He readily agreed.
Chen Weigang asked people to send river sand and pebbles. Of course, the cost of the materials was paid by Chen Weizheng.
Chen Baoliang organized all the people in the village who knew how to make cement to work together. They first built the fish pond with pebbles. In one day, the four walls of the fish pond were built. They tried to use large pieces of pebbles, which were strong and beautiful. After the fish pond was built, they paved a circle of marble around the fish pond and made a circle of iron fence about 80 centimeters high.
Then, they paved a four-meter wide path from the gate to the yard. A fifty-meter long cement road. According to the national highway standards, the pebbles foundation was 20 centimeters deep. Then, they paved it with gravel and shook the cement mortar evenly. Between the pebbles wall and the cement road, there was also a 30-centimeter wide and 20-centimeter deep drainage ditch. At the bottom of the ditch, a large PVC pipe was used to go through the cement road and directly into the fish pond.
A reinforced concrete gate was poured, and the door pillars were pasted with large dark red tiles. According to the local aesthetic habits and customs, a herringbone shaped roof was poured and covered with blue glazed cylindrical tiles. A remote-controlled electric and manual rolling gate was installed. It was convenient enough and there was no need to worry about power outages.
Finally, they asked the few old masters in the village who knew how to build pebbles walls to build the 20-meter long pebbles wall at the gate. The yard was considered a great contribution.
Chen Weizheng didn't know how to cook, but he knew how to hire people to cook. The women's director, Auntie Xiuhua, organized a few women to specially cook. Chen Weizheng gave enough money for his meals. There were enough meat dishes for every meal, and there were also cans of beer, which was unanimously praised by the workers.
After entering the gate, there was a four-meter wide cement road in front of them. On the left was a quaint pebbles wall, and on the right was a square fish pond. The fish pond wasn't big, only a little more than half an mu. The water intake and drainage were carefully considered. It was a standard live pond.
Further in, there was a neat vegetable field on the right. The vegetable field was also square and surrounded by iron fences. There was also a small door for entry and exit. Further in, there was a reserved housing site, outside was the fish pond, west was the courtyard road, and east was the pebbles wall. The area was also about half an mu.
In the innermost area, there was an empty house that was about 20 by 25 meters. They were preparing to build a new house. The old house had been completely demolished by Chen Weizheng.
After careful consideration, Chen Weizheng decided to build a two-story brick house with a frame structure. From afar, it didn't look much different from the surrounding villagers' buildings. In recent years, there were more people working outside of Chen Village. Many people built new houses with three or four floors.
The foundation was a four-story foundation. The house was temporarily built with two floors. If there was a need in the future, they could add more.
The first floor was 150 square meters. The specifications were 10 meters deep, 15 meters long, and 4 meters high. The floor was covered with tiles. The four rows of pillars were divided into three areas, left, middle, and right. In the middle was a large iron door. After entering the door, they were greeted by the entire wall of ancestral tablets. Below the tablets was a red Vietnamese eight-immortal table brought back from Qingshui. On one side of the table was a red Vietnamese wooden armchair. This set of belongings made Lord Eighteen jealous for a long time. He said that in the past, their family also had a pear wood set. Ten years ago, someone took it away and burned it.
Turning around the door, they were facing the ancestral tablets. Behind them were the stairs to the second floor and the back door, as well as the public bathroom under the stairs.
According to the theory of the five elements, on the right was a large open kitchen and dining room. There was a double-door refrigerator, a western-style dining table, a wall-mounted super-large disinfectant cabinet, and a super-strong range hood. There was an induction cooker, a microwave oven, a lightwave oven, a combination of knives, tableware, and flavor bottles. There were porcelain bowls from Jing Dezhen, and iron pots from Su Bo. These were all things that people in Chen Village could only see on TV.
On the left was an open living room and a tea room. There was a 60-inch plasma TV, a top-notch home theater system, a large leather sofa, and a western-style coffee table.
On the entire first floor, except for the back wall, which was made of bricks, the other three sides were only made of 80-centimeter bricks. The upper part was made of transparent glass walls.
They went up the stairs to the second floor. In rural houses, people liked to extend more than one meter from the front of the second floor. On one hand, it increased the usable area of the second floor. On the other hand, it also allowed the first floor to have a corridor that could shelter them from the wind and rain. Chen Weizheng thought it was a good idea, so he also floated more than one meter.
Chen Weizheng had stayed in the city for a long time. Influenced by the city apartments, he had to make his second floor into a typical apartment building. At the back of the middle of the second floor was a staircase. After going up the stairs, there was a small hall. The second floor was covered with composite wood floors. There were many of these in the space. There were two bedrooms on the left and right sides. Each room had its own independent balcony and bathroom. The balcony was on the side of the house. Each room was equipped with air conditioning, bedding, and a TV. In the bathroom, the air heater provided hot water 24 hours a day. It was a five-star service.
In front of the hall, there was a small room on the second floor above the door. It was Chen Weizheng's private study. Since the second floor floated more than one meter out, the small study was not small. There was a Korean-style sliding door in the study, which was connected to the room on the right. This room was Chen Weizheng's master room. On the roof, a simple herringbone roof was made of steel. It was insulating and waterproof. A large water storage bucket and a solar water heater were installed. The washing machine was also placed upstairs. It could be washed and dried anytime. It was very convenient.
After the house was built, the open space in front of the house was gridded. The so-called gridding was to make it a bit like the sidewalks and green space in the city. It could not only absorb stagnant water, but it was also convenient for walking. It could also grow some green plants. In the future, it would be good to use it as a parking lot or hold some Mid-Autumn Festival activities.
Building houses in the countryside was really cheap. The land was free. Although the materials were expensive, the government subsidized them. The wages were not high, but the effort was not small. Eating a little work meal and drinking a little beer was nothing!
The older generation basically helped out voluntarily. Lord Eighteen came every day to supervise the work. If you wanted to pay him, he would directly whip you with a steel bar. Uncle Chen Baolong, 73 years old, was one of the nine standing committee members in the village. He was the eldest son of his grandfather and the chief technical consultant of the house building. Every day, he was the first to arrive at the site and the last to leave. The quality requirements were so strict that even Chen Weizheng was speechless. He did not want to be paid, nor did he eat work meals. In the end, he just took Chen Weizheng's pack of Hongtashan every day.
He dug a small fish pond, and the county praised him as a model student who returned to his hometown to start a business.
Before the construction of the house started, the land office had already prepared the building permit. The village director ignored the nearby and went further. He did not provide service to the Chen Village, which was one kilometer away. He drove to the county town, which was ten kilometers away, and personally handed the building permit to Chen Weigang. They were all smart people!
Let's get an internet connection. Otherwise, it would be unprofessional to be an otaku.
Chen Weizheng called number 10000 to inquire. The other party said that he could set up a special line for him and collect some material fees. It was about 2,000 RMB. Chen Weizheng agreed and chose a package. One broadband and a 3G mobile phone number cost 98 RMB per month. 98 RMB could be used as phone bills.
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