Chapter 747: Funding for Building a House
From a distance, Yang Huaiqing's voice could be heard shouting "Brother Wang, come and eat!", but Wang Jianguo just squatted by the well without moving.
The ice cubes in the wooden basin poked his knees, reminding him of the night when he first arrived in the Great Northern Wilderness. He Yushui covered him with the only quilt and huddled in a haystack, shivering with cold. But the next day he said it was "sweating because of the heat at night."
She was always like this, stuffing all the warm and sweet things into his hands, but she herself was like a weed in the corner, absorbing the coldest wind and refusing to bend down.
"Brother Jianguo, why are you still washing?"
He Yushui's voice suddenly sounded behind him, with a warmth that came from a fire. Wang Jianguo turned around and saw her holding a coarse porcelain bowl filled with steaming brown sugar ginger water.
"Hurry up and drink some warm water. Xiaohua said your hands are frozen purple."
When he took the bowl, he felt the thick calluses on her fingertips - they were caused by chopping wood, washing clothes, and digging the ground, and were rougher than his hands when he carried sacks.
The brown sugar water flowed down his throat, warming his eyes. However, He Yushui had already grabbed the wooden basin and soaked the remaining clothes in the hot water. In the steam, her face was reflected red, and the ice beads at the ends of her hair were turning into water drops.
"rainwater,"
Wang Jianguo suddenly spoke, his voice trembling slightly in the morning breeze.
"From now on...I will wash my own clothes."
He Yushui paused while rubbing the clothes, without turning back, and whispered:
"You are tired from work..."
“I’m not tired.”
He interrupted her and looked at the patches on her apron - they were made from his old shirts, and the stitches were as fine as wheat seedlings in the field.
"From now on, I will be in charge of the stove and fetching water, and you..."
He wanted to say "You should take a break", but found something blocking his throat.
He Yushui suddenly smiled, her shoulders shaking slightly, and the steam blurred her expression.
"knew,"
She hung the washed clothes on the rope, and the frozen hems of the clothes made a crisp sound when they hit the wooden poles.
"When your house is built and you have your own well, you can wash however you want."
Wang Jianguo stood there holding the empty bowl, watching her back as she hung clothes to dry in the morning light. The March wind was still chilly, but it couldn't blow away the heat rising from the wooden basin.
Only at this moment did he realize that the hot soup, mended clothes, and eggs hidden in the lunch bag that He Yushui had silently handed to him over the past year had already built a wall in his heart that was warmer and more solid than any bricks.
And what he owed this silly girl was more than just a basin of freezing water.
When Yang Huaiqing came jumping over to call him for breakfast, Wang Jianguo held the empty bowl tighter and looked at He Yushui's hands that were scalded red by the hot water.
Those hands had shielded him from the wind and snow, and kept him warm for meals. Now he finally understood that in this vast northern wilderness, the one who deserved the most care was never him, the man carrying sacks, but this silly girl who gave all her warmth to others.
He looked down at the gradually melting ice in the basin, and remembered what Yu Li said in his consciousness space last night: "Human energy is warmer than spiritual energy."
Suddenly I felt that this basin of ice water was not so icy after all. Instead, it had a warmth that was unique to the Great Northern Wilderness and had a flavor of everyday life.
When the first wisp of smoke rose from the chimney, Wang Jianguo hung the washed clothes on the rope, and the frozen hems swayed like wooden boards.
He rubbed his red, frozen hands and saw He Yushui lying on the kitchen windowsill looking at him, holding a steaming enamel pot in her hands.
The morning sun shone on the ice crystals at the ends of her hair, refracting tiny rays of light that looked very much like the dissipated spiritual light spots in Li Dujuan's shadow, but more real and heartwarming than any illusion.
The ice flowers on the wooden lattice window frames melted into water droplets in the morning light and dripped down the window sill as Wang Jianguo stepped into the main room on the creaking wooden floor.
He Yushui had just brought the last dish of stir-fried wild vegetables to the table, and the edge of the enamel plate was still stained with sparks from the stove.
Yang Huaiqing was holding a corn pancake with his face covered with crumbs. Zhao Shuzhuo was squatting in front of the kang, tying his shoelaces. The holes in the straw rope soles showed through his toes.
"Brother Jianguo, come and eat!"
Yang Huaiqing shouted incoherently, and biscuit crumbs fell on the patched tablecloth.
Wang Jianguo responded, but his eyes fell on Zhao Shuzhuo's shoulder - his cotton jacket buttons were not fastened tightly, revealing his patched blue cloth shirt, and his cuffs were stained with brick dust from yesterday's mud mixing.
"Brother Shuzhuo, are you leaving now?"
Wang Jianguo was breaking a corn cake and saw Zhao Shuzhuo put his pipe on his waist, the pipe bowl hitting the edge of the kang, sparks flying.
The man nodded:
"We have to go to the brick factory and keep an eye on the bricks coming out of the kiln. Old Sun said the first batch of bricks will be ready today."
When he stood up, the kang mat creaked, startling the sparrows on the beams and causing them to fly away.
"etc!"
Wang Jianguo suddenly put down the pancake and his coarse trouser legs swept across the bench.
He rushed into his room and pulled out two oilcloth packages from under the kang mat. The edges of the newspapers were worn and became hairy.
When Zhao Shuzhuo turned around in confusion, he had already stuffed the package into the other person's hand:
"Brother Shuzhuo, take this."
The package touched the calloused palms of Zhao Shuzhuo's hands, and the hard object hurt.
He looked down and saw the words "Health Center" and "New House" written in pencil on the newspaper. He couldn't help but pinch them:
"This is......"
Wang Jianguo rubbed his hands and exhaled:
"The share for the clinic is for the purchase of wood, enough for three loads of red pine; the share for the new house is the down payment for the craftsmen. I have to keep an eye on the brick factory and the foundation recently, and as for the house..."
"Don't worry!"
Zhao Shuzhuo put the package into his arms, and the oilcloth rustled against the cotton jacket.
"Xitun Carpenter Liu has the best craftsmanship. He doesn't use nails to make furniture! I personally supervised the digging of the foundation and made sure it was dug three feet deep!"
He suddenly lowered his voice.
"Carpenter Liu said that your homestead is a treasure land, and you will definitely give birth to a big fat boy in the future!"
Yang Huaiqing chuckled, but Wang Jianguo's eyes were hot. The corner of the package sticking out of Zhao Shuzhuo's pocket was made of the oilcloth he used to make an apron for He Yushui last year.
"Brother Shuzhuo, thank you for your hard work..."
Before he finished speaking, Zhao Shuzhuo suddenly tore open the newspaper wrapped around the "new house" -
The neatly arranged banknotes and silver dollars gleamed in the morning light. They were stacked into two piles and tied with red ropes, with bank seals on the corners.
Zhao Shuzhuo's face sank as if he was burned by the heat from the kiln factory. He stuffed the package back into Wang Jianguo's arms, and the pipe was swinging violently at his waist:
"Jianguo! What do you mean?"
His voice shook the salt shaker on the table, and Yang Huaiqing was so scared that he dropped the cake on the ground.
"You were the one who built the supply and marketing cooperative, and you went to the city to exchange for supplies without any hesitation."
"The brick factory ran out of firewood, so you led everyone to cut trees for three days! Now the brick factory produces 2,000 bricks a day, and the supply and marketing cooperative has sold three boxes of brown sugar alone. How could they need your little money?"
He Yushui came out of the kitchen carrying hot soup and almost dropped the bowl when she saw this scene.
Zhao Shuzhuo became more and more excited as he spoke, and slapped his rough hands on the table:
"You build a house, the commune approves the residential land, the brick factory reserves the best blue bricks, and the villagers all say they want to help you carry the beams!"
"You're giving me money now because you think Carpenter Liu's craftsmanship is not worth the money, or because you think I, Zhao Shuzhuo, can't do a good job of building the foundation?"