Chapter 744 Good News
"Ah--look at my memory!"
He slammed his palm hard on the edge of the kang, causing the wick in the kerosene lamp to shake.
"We were so busy talking about the clinic that we forgot about the founding of the country!"
Yang Huaixi was scooping batter into Yang Huaiqing's bowl when he was startled by the sudden noise and his hand shook, causing the hot soup to splash onto his fingernails.
Wang Jianguo had just put the pipe into his mouth when he was stunned by the words, the pipe bowl hanging diagonally at the corner of his mouth:
"I...what's wrong with me?"
Zhao Shuzhuo simply put the jar on the table and leaned forward so much that he almost fell off the bench:
"The first batch of green bricks from the brick factory has already been fired!"
He cracked his cracked fingers.
"Old Sun specially picked out the three hundred most solid pieces and piled them up at the west corner of the kiln factory, saying he would use them to build a new house for you!"
The light of the kerosene lamp flickered suddenly, and Wang Jianguo's pipe fell onto the kang with a "pop".
He opened his mouth but no sound came out, and his Adam's apple rolled under the rough collar of his cotton jacket.
He Yushui had just come out of the kitchen, and the empty ceramic basin in her hand slammed onto the stove, and the flour on her blue apron fell to her feet:
"Brother Shuzhuo, what did you say? Are the bricks...are they ready?"
“The approval for the homestead has also been approved!”
Zhao Shuzhuo took out an oil-paper bag from the inner pocket of his cotton-padded jacket, and his fingers trembled with excitement as he unfolded it.
"It's just to the east of the clinic, next to the old elm tree, on the slope. Director Song said that when you were laying the foundation, the commune sent animals to help you plow the land!"
The kang room suddenly became so quiet that one could hear the sparks from the coal stove.
Yang Huaiqing secretly glanced at Wang Jianguo and saw that his eyes were as big as the glass jars in the supply and marketing cooperative, and his cheeks were abnormally red from cheekbones to ears.
He Yushui's hands were still suspended in the air, and she didn't even notice that her apron string had come undone. Her lips were trembling as she said:
"Brother Jianguo, can we...can we really build a house?"
Wang Jianguo suddenly raised his hand and wiped his face, pausing when his fingertips rubbed the corners of his eyes.
"Brother Shuzhuo,"
His voice was hoarse as if it had been sandpapered.
"Don't lie to me... I'm an outsider, how can I..."
"What outsider!"
Zhao Shuzhuo interrupted him and slapped him hard on the shoulder.
"You carried sacks in the Great Northern Wilderness for three years and brought a canal to the village. Director Song said that you, Wang Jianguo, are the backbone of our Jianye Village!"
He pointed out the window.
"I've already picked that piece of sloping land. It faces south and is sunny. You can build three tiled houses. The east end will be used as a bedroom, the west end will be used as a storage room, and you can build a herb shed in the yard..."
He Yushui suddenly turned around and ran to the kitchen, and the sound of a drawer being opened was heard.
Yang Huaixi watched her come back with red eyes, holding a red cloth in her hand:
"I left a few feet of floral fabric at the supply and marketing cooperative a few days ago. I wanted to make a new cotton-padded jacket. Now I can sew window decorations!"
She stuffed the red cloth into Wang Jianguo's hand. The cloth still smelled of camphor from the bottom of the box.
Wang Jianguo held the red cloth in his hand as if it were a hot potato.
Yang Huaixi thought of the refugees he had seen in the black market. When they huddled in the corner, there was also this kind of light mixed with fear and ecstasy in their eyes.
"Brother Wang,"
He couldn't help but speak.
"Congratulations......"
“I’ll help you build the house!”
Yang Huaiqing stood up suddenly, and the buttons of his cotton jacket almost broke.
“I can make mud! I learned it on the black market!”
Zhao Shuzhuo laughed when he heard this and patted the boy on the back:
"Good boy! When the day comes to put up the beam, I'll let you hang the red cloth!"
The coal in the coal stove was burning brightly, making everyone's face red.
Wang Jianguo looked down at the red cloth in his palm, then at Zhao Shuzhuo's cracked palms. He suddenly put his pipe back to his waist and stood up abruptly:
"Let's go! Brother Shuzhuo, take me to see the homestead!"
He Yushui hurriedly grabbed him:
"Brother Jianguo, what are you looking at in the dark? Go tomorrow morning!"
She turned around and picked up a quilt from the head of the kang.
"Take a good nap first, and I'll make you some steamed buns for the foundation ceremony tomorrow!"
Yang Huaixi looked at Wang Jianguo's knees that were still trembling when he sat down, and suddenly understood where the warmth of the Great Northern Wilderness came from.
The people here would leave the best blue bricks for strangers, hide approval documents in the innermost layer of their cotton-padded jackets, and use dowry cloth to sew window paper-cuts.
These genuine friendships can heal people's hearts better than any herb on the black market.
When Zhao Shuzhuo began to mutter "the foundation needs to be dug three feet deep" and He Yushui gestured "the windows need to be installed with double-glazed glass."
Yang Huaiqing had spread a red cloth on the kang table and used tree branches to draw an imaginary house on it.
Wang Jianguo stared at the red cloth as if he was looking at a ray of sunlight that finally shone through the frozen soil.
When the kerosene lamp wick on the kang table emitted the last few sparks, the window paper of Zhao Shuzhuo's house had been soaked into dark gray by the night.
The blueprint of the new house that Yang Huaiqing drew while lying on the edge of the kang was curling up at the corners, and the window pattern that He Yushui drew for him with the tip of the scissors was crooked.
The sound of Wang Jianguo's pipe knocking on the brick floor gradually became sparse, and the foundation map that Zhao Shuzhuo drew in the ash on the kang with a branch was blurred by Yang Huaiqing.
When Director Song was planning the sound of his pen in the health center, when Old Sun in the brick factory was firing the kiln, and when the red cloth on the roof of the new house was fluttering.
As they all weave a dense web in the dim light, the ice flowers on the window glass have condensed into spreading vines.
"Take a break. We have to go to the brick factory tomorrow to pick up the first batch of bricks."
Zhao Shuzhuo rubbed his red eyes and stood up, and the dust from the kang fell on his patched cotton shoes.
Yang Huaixi supported the yawning Yang Huaiqing and walked towards the ear room. The bandage on his injured arm was slightly hot under the sleeve, but when he touched He Yushui's newly changed quilt, he smelled the fragrance of dried wormwood sewn into the inner layer of the quilt.
It was the scent of dried wild chrysanthemums mixed with the midday sun in the Great Northern Wilderness.
Wang Jianguo lay on the cold kang in his adobe house, and the dirt debris in the cotton wool hurt his shoulder blades.
The snow particles outside the window hit the wooden lattice window and made a rustling sound, which sounded very much like the sound of a train running across the North China Plain twenty years ago.
He turned over, and the kang mat creaked like an old wooden door, but his mind was filled with Zhao Shuzhuo's rough hand patting his shoulder.
The red cloth with a camphor smell that He Yushui stuffed in, and the crooked crabapple tree that Yang Huaiqing painted on the red cloth with tree branches.
These images flickered like the kiln fire in a brick factory, burning his heart, but he couldn't close his eyelids.
Simply sinking into the depths of his consciousness, he gently pushed open the secret door covered with icy edges in his heart, as if he were untying a rusty chain.
Behind the door was a void with spots of light floating in the air, as cold as the eternal night in the far north.
"Yu Li... Haitang..."
He muttered to himself, and a faint sweetness suddenly appeared on the tip of his tongue, like the lingering taste of the crabapple candy from the supply and marketing cooperative many years ago.
"And...Xiaojuan..."
Before he finished speaking, the light in front suddenly flickered violently.
A translucent shadow staggered over, with star-like sequins hanging on the ends of its pigtailed hair.