Chapter 164: Look at the Foundation

Chapter 164: Look at the Foundation

Chapter 164: Look at the Foundation

Li Changle got on the tricycle and looked at the tide. Although the wind had died down, the waves were still big. It looked like it would take another two or three hours for the waves to recede.

"Dad, let's go to Uncle Dong's house when we get back, pay the money for the land, and then go to Nanshan to choose a land."

"Okay!" Father Li agreed happily. He felt that there was nothing more joyful than seeing his sons building a new house together.

Several children were also chattering, clamoring to go to Nanshan with them to see the foundation. Father Li quickly told them to stop making noise, fearing that someone would find out and snatch away the good spot.

The group reached the corner, and Li Xiaomei pulled her father's sleeve and pointed to the store, "Grandpa, Mei wants to eat sour plum powder."

Before Father Li could say anything, Li Changle waved his hand and said, "Uncle San will buy it for you!" He took out a handful of Mao bills and handed them to Li Xiaoyang without even looking at them. "Bring your sister-in-law and buy what you like to eat."

Li Xiaoyang looked at the money in his hand with shining eyes, "Uncle San, are these all for us?"

"It's all for you."

"Oh! There's sour plum powder to eat!" Several children jumped for joy, and Li Xiaomei also clapped her hands and shouted along.

"Brother, I want a big bag!" Li Xiaotao hurriedly chased after him.

"I don't want sour plum powder, I like shredded figs."

Li Xiaoyang looked at the notes in his hand, adding up to 45 cents. The sour plum powder and shredded figs were the same, a small bag was 3 cents, and a large bag was 5 cents. "Let's buy the large bag. Buy three bags each, and we can take turns eating."

Li Xiaoqing and the others thought this was a good idea, as they could have two flavors at once, so they all nodded in agreement. Li Xiaotao pointed at the money in his hand and asked, "What should I do with the remaining 15 cents?"

"Give it back to Uncle San! He has bought them all. If Mom finds out, she will be scolded."

The brothers and sisters nodded repeatedly and spent thirty cents at a time. Their mother would definitely scold them: "Eat, eat, eat, all you know is eat. Ten cents can buy two boxes of matches."

After a few kids discussed it, they swarmed into the store. Soon, each of them came running over with a bag of snacks in their hands and handed the remaining 15 cents to Li Changle.

Li Changle happily grabbed a handful of each person and said, "Save it and buy some ice water to drink at school when school starts!"

"Oh, Uncle San is still generous."

Father Li thought that the little ones must have spent all their money before coming back, and he praised them happily. He watched his grandchildren pour the powder from the small bags into their palms and lick them with relish, and he no longer felt sorry for the few cents.

As soon as the tricycle entered the alley, Li Xiaoyang and his friends ran home to report the good news to their parents. When Zhou Ruonan and her mother-in-law learned that the rice and fish were sold for 618 yuan, they were all smiling with joy.

Mrs. Li was particularly happy and felt that her decision was quite wise. After working with the third brother for only a few days, she not only earned back the money they had invested in buying the boat, but also had some surplus.

After Li Changle showed the money to a few people at home, he told his two sisters-in-law that they would go to Accountant Chen to pay for the foundation, which was over 600 yuan. Their two families only contributed 20%, so there was still a shortfall of more than 80 yuan. The two sisters-in-law hurried home to bring him the difference to make up for it.

The father and son rode their tricycle to Chen's house to call Chen Yongwei, and then went to Accountant Chen's house together.

Father Li walked into the store happily, leaning on a cane. "Adong, we have decided to locate the land in Nanshan."

Accountant Chen was also happy for him. "I heard someone say this morning that your Ah Le caught another big fish. I guessed that you guys would come to pay today. Those who wanted to go to town to buy goods didn't go."

"What luck, we just happened to meet each other." Father Li looked at his childhood friend happily and said, "Look, your eldest and second sons have already moved into the new building, but my family is still squeezed into one room. It's all my fault for being incompetent!"

Xiaohua often said that among his childhood friends, he was the most stubborn. Adong's family ran a grocery store, and the others were carpenters, bricklayers, or cart pullers. All of them were better than him, an old fisherman.

"A Tang, don't complain about being poor. Your four sons are all capable. That's better than anything else."

"How can I compare with you? The eldest is a junior high school teacher and the principal of a central school. The ones in my family are just fishermen looking for food in the sea."

"It's just a fixed salary per month. Your Ah Le sells one catch, and they have to work for a year to get it." Accountant Chen took out the documents and said, "Have you been to Nanshan to see where you plan to mark the foundation?"

Father Li smiled and said, "After a quick look, the second son said that the land around the corner from Wang Daobiao's house is better facing north and south. We'll go take a look later. If you decide to choose that place, leave a mark first and you can bring people to help mark it."

"Yeah!" Accountant Chen looked at Ah Wei, "You are also in Nanshan?"

"Yes, Fourth Uncle, my grandma agreed." Chen Yongwei is his uncle, and Accountant Chen is quite caring towards his family.

"The housing plot has been approved, so let's build the house and then find a good partner to get married."

Chen Yongwei nodded with a flushed face. After Accountant Chen had prepared the documents and paid the money for the homestead, he took him to Nanshan to select a location.

Father Li sat in the truck bed, while Li Changle and Accountant Chen sat on each side. Chen Yongwei took the three of them past the master's hall, turned around the foot of the mountain, and walked for another ten minutes before reaching Nanshanao.

There is no family along the way, but the good thing is that it is not far from the pier, and it only takes about ten minutes to walk there. It is also only about ten minutes away from the beach. Don’t look at how desolate it is now. In a few decades, this will be the best sea view villa area.

There are only five or six families living in Nanshanao now, two buildings built on the roadside and several stone houses. Like the Jin family, they are all villagers who immigrated from the island.

The wind was strong on the roadside, blowing the orange tree next to the house all over the place, and many small tangerines fell to the ground.

Besides bayberry, people here like tangerines the most. When it’s time to eat tangerines, you’ll see your palms turn yellow, the soles of your feet turn yellow, and your face also turns yellow. It’s not because you’re sick, but because you’ve eaten too many oranges.

In the past, near the foot of the mountain, there was a row of dilapidated stone houses covered with weeds. This was the location that Li Erge had his eyes on.

The two buildings are the two-story brick and tile buildings newly built by Wang Daobiao's brothers. There is a large dam in front of the house and a low house behind the house with a chimney on the roof, which seems to be the kitchen.

There are few villagers coming to Nanshan to build new houses. The residential land here is spacious, and the villagers who come here to build houses will occupy some public land to some extent.

Some even secretly moved the foundation stones of the designated area half a foot, used some stones to enclose a yard behind the house, and then built a few low houses, either to use as kitchens or to raise pigs, chickens and ducks.

As long as you don't go too far, the village committee will mostly turn a blind eye when they find out.

If you know a little bit about this, you can give some cigarettes and alcohol to a few leaders of the village committee, build up their relationships, go to the town's land management office to pay the fine, and then have the extra square meters included in the homestead. Even if the higher-ups come to investigate, they will not order you to demolish the land.

People who don't understand these things occupy public land. It's okay now, but they will be in trouble when the housing land becomes scarce in the future and the land management office inspects rural housing land.

Wang Daobiao's wife saw them coming and came out to greet them with a smile, "Ah Le, you brothers, do you really want to build the foundation here?"

Li Changle smiled and nodded, "My second brother said that your place has good feng shui, so he came over to be your neighbor."

"Welcome, welcome. Your presence makes the place more lively." Zhang Guifang greeted Father Li and Accountant Chen with a smile, then went into the house to do her own thing.

The area where people live at the intersection was okay, as it was overgrown with weeds and it had just rained, so it was wet. My trouser legs were soaked before I took a few steps.

Li Changle asked Li's father and Accountant Chen to wait on the tricycle while he and Chen Yongwei went in to take a look around. The place was quite spacious and could accommodate another twenty or thirty families.

"Awei, which one do you think is better?"

"I think the piece of land that my second brother likes is better, but there are houses there, and it will take a lot of effort to demolish them. I don't know what the village rules are."

"It's in such a dilapidated state. What else can we do with it except demolish it? Let's go back and ask Uncle Dong first." Seeing that he also thought the place was good, Li Changle turned around and went back to where the tricycle was parked.

Father Li and Accountant Chen were chatting with two gray-haired old men. When they saw them coming, they all looked over.

"Ale, are you happy?"

"Awei also thinks the place that second brother mentioned is good. Let's go in and take a look." Li Changle pushed the tricycle and pulled the two of them in.

"Uncle Dong, if we choose this place, then the row of dilapidated houses will definitely be occupied. What should we do then?"

"Just tear it down." Accountant Chen said with a smile, "If you don't mind the quietness here, then choose this place. There is still a piece of land left at the foot of the mountain where you can grow some vegetables."

"The second son's family and Anan both like quietness, and the eldest son thinks a more spacious house is better." Father Li was more and more satisfied as he looked around. "Adong, are the rock slabs on the floor of that row of houses still there?"

He remembered that only the roof was removed, while the stones of the walls and the stones for the foundation were still there. Even removing these could save a lot of money.

The most important thing is that the row of houses does not belong to any one family. They were built by the villagers when they were doing side businesses. There is no need to worry about the homestead being unclean or the houses being built there being inconvenient to live in.

Accountant Chen nodded. "We removed the tiles and purlins from the roof at the beginning. The stone slabs are still there. You can remove them and use them. I'll consider this as the wages for demolishing the house."

"Okay, we'll demolish it ourselves." Father Li said gratefully, "Then please bring someone to mark out the foundation and plant the cornerstone. We'll find time to mow the weeds on the ground and find someone to demolish the wall."

Accountant Chen smiled and said, "You are not a stranger, why are you being polite to me? I will go back and say hello to Secretary Wang, and I will find someone to go to your house this afternoon to ask them to come and measure the foundation together."

"Okay, thank you for your help." Father Li turned to Li Changle and said, "When we sail to Zhangjia Pier this afternoon, please stop by your sister's house and bring your brother-in-law to see him."

Before starting construction, we need to prepare steel bars, bricks, sandstone, and tiles. We need to call the mason to estimate how much materials we need to buy and how much money it will cost. We don’t even know if we have enough money!

Chen Yongwei hurriedly said: "Brother, I will go with you. I have also handed over my house to my brother-in-law."

"Okay, let's leave it to him, so we can save ourselves some trouble."

(End of this chapter)