Chapter 173 Settlement of Accounts

Chapter 173 Settlement of Accounts

Chapter 173 Settlement of Accounts
Seeing that his second brother, whose family was in a more difficult situation than his own, had said so, Uncle Li nodded readily and said, "Okay, when we get it done tomorrow, we'll go find the boss."

Li Changshui couldn't help but wiped away tears, "Second uncle, Third uncle, thank you very much. When my younger sister and I earn money, we will buy food to repay you."

"You don't have to pay it back. As long as you live a good life, your two uncles will be relieved." Li's mother brought out the sand bowl stewed with bean noodles and said with a smile.

Now that the children at home are having a better time, she doesn't mind helping them.

Father Li was relieved after hearing this. He was afraid that his wife would be unhappy, but he couldn't bear to see his nephew suffer.

"It's time to eat. Everything is delicious!"

Aunt Zhou Ruonan and her sister-in-law and Grandma Chen brought old duck soup, bacon and glutinous rice, blanched blood clams, prawns, stir-fried clams with celery, cold jellyfish, braised black sea bream, steamed sea bass, and fried oyster cakes to the table.

The Li family's home today is more lively than during Chinese New Year. There is one table for the children, one table for the women, and another table for the men.

"Wow! Salty pork and sticky rice, I like it the most." Li Xiaotao looked at the food on the table with shining eyes and swallowed his saliva, "Today's food is better than during the Chinese New Year."

"Look at how greedy you are!" Li Xiaoyang picked up the chopsticks and tapped him, "Put your head back, your saliva is flowing into the bowl."

Li Xiaoqing also reached out and tapped him, "That's right, look at Xiaobo and Xiaohui, they are not like you." She still remembered what he said just now, that boys are worthless!
Zhang Xiaohui shrank his neck, "Cousin Xiaoyang and Cousin Xiaoqing are so fierce!"

Li Xiaotao rubbed his forehead and shouted to Mrs. Li, "Look, my sister and my brother teamed up to bully me."

"You deserve it!" Mrs. Li said without even turning her head, "Who told you to be so rude."

Li Xiaotao was so aggrieved that tears welled up in his eyes. "I didn't say anything rude. I just said that the food today was better than during Chinese New Year, and they said that I drooled in the bowl."

"Okay, stop crying." Li Xiaoqing placed a bowl of bacon and sticky rice in front of him. "I've got two eggs for you. I'll give you mine, too."

"Oh, I like eggs in glutinous rice the most." Li Xiaotao laughed immediately.

Several adults looked at the siblings with amusement. Mrs. Li said with a smile, "He's been greedy since he was young. When I'm not at home fishing in the sea, and he's hungry, his sister can just make him some sweet water to appease him."

"He's the easiest to coax." Mother Li smiled and scooped some sand bean stew noodles for Li Yufang, "Yufang girl, eat more."

"Thank you, Third Aunt!" Li Yufang looked at the delicious food in the bowl and thought about her own home. Except for her father who could eat eggs and meat, all the delicious food was sent to her uncle's house.

Turning his head to look at his dark and thin brother, his determination to share the property became even stronger.

Li Changshui turned his head and looked at her, then smiled and said, "Why are you looking at me? Eat your meal well."

Li Yufang said distressedly: "You are not even as tall as Ale Ge'ergen, you are much shorter than him."

Li Changshui: “…”

Li Changle saw that he blushed and said with a smile: "A Shui is not short, it's mainly because I am taller than my brothers at home."

Mother Li: "Your brother Ale didn't grow this tall until he was in his twenties. As the old saying goes, men grow slowly at the age of thirty, while women grow to their limit at the age of eighteen. From now on, you can cook for yourselves. Don't be reluctant to eat. If you have good food, you will grow taller in two years."

"We remember."

The adults were drinking and talking, while the children were eating without even raising their heads, saying that they would have a meal like this again someday.

After three rounds of drinks, Li's father talked about the row of dilapidated houses at the back. Accountant Chen also told them the truth, that is, as long as the higher-ups didn't care about the excess area, the village wouldn't ask about it either.

But in the past two years, more and more families have built new houses. If they want to get their money's worth, they have to spend some money in advance to buy the land. When the house is built and they get the red book, the black words will be written on white paper, and they will not be afraid of anyone checking in the future.

Uncle Li picked up the wine jug and filled Accountant Chen's glass with wine. "My dear, how much does that piece of land cost? Give me a rough idea. If my nephews have money, they can buy it and put it in their accounts to avoid disputes later."

Father Li also nodded repeatedly, "Adong, you know the situation of my family. It is not easy for several children to build a house. I would like to trouble you to help us finish it at once, so that we won't live in unrest in the future."

Accountant Chen thought about the friendship between the two families and the things Li Changle sent home, and felt that the brothers were sensible. "A-Tang, A-Ming, I know you are not outsiders, so of course I will help you if I can!"

"That row of houses is shallow, and the total area is only two houses. One house costs one hundred, which is two hundred dollars. The four of you plus the fine each pay me one hundred, and I'll find someone to take care of the rest for you."

"Thank you, Uncle Adong!" The three Li brothers and Chen Yongwei toasted with gratitude after hearing this.

After eating and drinking, Li Guiming and Accountant Chen left drunkenly, and Li Changshui and his sister also left. Only the Li family and the Chen family's grandparents and grandchildren were left sitting and talking.

The eldest and second brothers Li told their wives the amount Zhang Dejin had estimated, "If we build it as Ah Le said, it might cost more than five thousand."

Brother Li said to Sister Li, "Ah Le said that it's just the difference between owing one thousand and owing fifteen hundred. As the old saying goes, too many lice don't itch, too much debt doesn't worry, I thought why not just owe it all at once and pay it back slowly in the future." Sister Li's mother-in-law and Chen's grandmother looked at the blueprint curiously, "Ah Jin, how much more will it cost to build this?"

"Not much more, just more red bricks, oyster lime and cement than ordinary houses." Zhang Dejin said.

After hearing this, Mrs. Li said calmly, "It looks like this is a comfortable place to live. You only build a house once in your lifetime, so you'll have debts to pay. Just pay it back slowly."

"I think this is good too." Zhou Ruonan had long wanted a house with a toilet and a bathroom, so she naturally had no objection.

Li Xiaoqing and her siblings looked at Mrs. Li and said, "Mother, we also like a house with a shower."

Seeing that they all agreed, Mrs. Li had no choice but to nod in agreement, even though she felt a little headache.

Seeing that they had reached a consensus, Zhang Dejin began to arrange tasks, asking them to clear the homestead and prepare the clay in the next few days.

He went back and calculated the amount of steel bars and cement needed, and Li Changle and his team went to the brigade to get approval to buy these things.

He would ask familiar bosses to bring him stones, stone strips, bricks, tiles, sand and gravel for building the foundation, as well as bamboos for building the bamboo frame.

Nowadays, steel bars are rarely used in building houses, and even cement is not used much. Most of the mortar is made from clay dug from the mountains and oyster ash.

As the name suggests, oyster ash is a building material made by burning oyster shells, clam shells, snail shells, clam shells and other marine shells.

In the old days, this material was used in coastal areas for everything from building city walls and bridges to building houses and repairing ditches.

After the discussion, the Chen family's grandparents said goodbye and went home. When they opened the door, they found that the wind and rain had gotten stronger again. After seeing the grandparents off, the family sat together and talked for a while before going back to their rooms to rest.

After Li Changle and Zhou Ruonan returned to the house, they hurried to check the leaking location. Seeing that water was already seeping down, they quickly took a porcelain basin to collect the water.

After washing up and entering the room, I saw Zhou Ruonan sitting on the bed with a pile of banknotes in front of her.

"Wife, how much money is left at home?"

"Not counting the 360 ​​from my uncle, the family still has a total of 2,630." Zhou Ruonan handed him the account book and said, "This is the money we saved after getting a lot of goods in the past few days, earning several hundred yuan every day."

"I've spent a lot of money during this period. I spent two hundred dollars on the foundation, and today I spent nearly two hundred dollars installing the trawling starter and the slideway."

"Yes!" Zhou Ruonan hid the money and said to him softly, "The gap is a bit big. I'll go back and ask my mother to borrow two thousand. Add the money from selling beads and conch shells, and it should be enough."

Li Changle thought for a moment, shook his head and said, “No need to borrow, there are still thirty-five beads, and there are only four or five of the eighty-one.

The remaining thirty or so pills, if we calculate them at 160 yuan each, will be nearly 5,000 yuan, so we will have earned more than 2,000 yuan, and with these, it will be nearly 5,000 yuan."

"My brother-in-law said that the style you painted is more expensive than the average one. You have to pay the village 100 yuan to buy the broken house. You should prepare enough money so that you don't have to worry."

"When the wind dies down and the tide recedes, we will go to the cave and collect all the Buddha's hand snails we can and sell them. The total difference is only a few hundred yuan at most. If I work hard, I will earn it back soon."

Zhou Ruonan looked at Li Changle, who had become much darker and thinner, and said distressedly, "Ah Le, my mother has already told us to use the money to build a house. I don't want you to be too tired and collapse."

Li Changle took Zhou Ruonan in his arms and said, "If we really can't make ends meet, we will definitely have to borrow from her. Now that we can make ends meet, we can tighten our belts a bit and borrow from her again if we need it in the future."

"Okay!" Zhou Ruonan reached out from under the bamboo mat and took out another account book. "There are still two or three hundred kilograms of dried oyster meat and seventy or eighty kilograms of green snapper heads at home.
Thirty pounds of mackerel heads, ten pounds of dried shrimp, and more than ten pounds of dried eels. When we get to Lucheng, we can give them to my mother to sell and make some money."

"How much does dried oyster meat sell for per pound?" Li Changle knew that green oyster head was only 20 cents per pound, dried mackerel and eel were 1.5 yuan per pound, and only dried shrimp was more expensive, selling for 2 yuan per pound.

Zhou Ruonan thought about it and said, "I remember the last time I went with my mother to buy some better dried oyster meat, I bought it for one yuan per pound."

Li Changle calculated and said in surprise, "Wow, the dried oyster meat business is worth doing. More than four pounds of oyster meat can be used to dry one pound of dried oyster meat, and the profit per pound is almost half."

"The profits from Spanish mackerel and green mackerel are also good, especially green mackerel. You can dry one pound of it at about two and a half pounds, and you can make 12 cents per pound!"

"That's right. When we move to the new house, we will collect fish and shrimp, dry them and sell them."

"If you can do it, I would like you to do this too. Even if you earn less, it is better for the family to be together in peace and security than anything else."

"Not now. I need to make more money while we have a lot of fish in the past few years so that I can spend more time with you when you retire."

"I have a salary, and the house is built. I can just support my two children in school, which doesn't cost much."

(End of this chapter)