novelraw Chapter 31 I'll steal all your ill-gotten gains!
Chapter 31 I'll steal all your ill-gotten gains!
This courtyard is quiet. The nearest neighbor is about 100 or 200 meters away. Next to it is a large grove of trees in the village, planted by humans, and logging is not allowed.
In late autumn, many children gather dry branches and fallen leaves in the woods to burn as firewood, but the villagers here still prefer to burn corn, sorghum stalks, and straw. Therefore, there is still a pile of straw and corn stalks in the woodshed in the front yard, not much, just enough to burn for two or three days at most.
The cowshed is less than 300 meters away, which is quite close. But even closer is the collective pig farm next to the cowshed, which houses more than 20 pigs. In the summer, the smell of pig manure must waft over.
No wonder the brigade leader didn't recommend this place. It's remote, smelly, and there's nothing inside. Someone even died here. It would be a bit creepy for a family of women to live here.
"Uncle Chen, I think we should rent this place!" Tong Yuheng's decision surprised the captain. Was it just because the place was spacious?
"Can you make this decision? Don't you need to discuss it with your mother again?" the captain asked. What he really wanted to say was: What kind of shabby place are you renting? Are you sure your mother won't beat you?
"I can decide. How much is the monthly rent?" Tong Yuheng smiled, revealing eight white teeth.
"Same as that, two yuan a month!" The captain thought that was too much and thought that if she bargained, he would lower the price by a few cents.
"Okay! Two yuan a month, twenty-four yuan a year. I'll rent it for ten years. I'll pay the money in a bit!" Tong Yuheng agreed readily.
"What? Ten years? That's 240 yuan, enough to build a new house!" The captain found it unbelievable. Was this girl crazy?
"Uncle Chen, how can two hundred and a half be enough to build a new house? There are eight of us, so we need to build three large rooms. It should cost at least five or six hundred, right?" Tong Yuheng thought to himself, even if they allocated me a plot of land to build a new house, I still wouldn't accept it. Where else is there a place closer to my grandfather?
"Our family only has girls, and they'll all be married off in about ten years. Then my mom can stay with each of her daughters for two months at a time, so we won't have to rent anymore!"
"Hehe, you've got a good plan. What you're saying makes sense. Let's go to Accountant Zhang's house to write the lease. Here's the key to this house!"
"Uncle Chen, if I add something to this place, will it be stolen when I go back in a few days?"
"Don't worry, these are your personal belongings, they won't get lost. Our village has a pretty good atmosphere. But if you're going back, it's best not to leave your valuables here."
You can see the stove here, but there's no pot. I kept it at the brigade headquarters because I was afraid it would get stolen. I can only provide one pot; I don't have any more.
"Okay, I understand, Uncle Chen!"
Tong Yuheng went to Accountant Zhang's house with the brigade leader, quickly wrote up the lease, and paid the rent. When she left, she even took out two handfuls of candy as a thank you.
The lease stipulates that if the Tong family does not move out voluntarily during the ten-year lease term, the village cannot take back the house. They also cannot arbitrarily raise the rent or rent it to someone else simply because they offer a higher price.
The Tong family will repair the house properly and make some modifications as needed. These modifications do not require the village's approval, and they will pay for them themselves.
Then the brigade leader took her to the village secretary's house. Chen Deyin declined the gift several times, but finally accepted it. Tong Yuheng then went to tidy up the house she had rented.
First, check for any leaks and make a note of them. Since it's winter, we can't heat the asphalt, so we'll have to wait until the weather warms up. We removed the windows from the side room and measured their dimensions. We'll just step on the old, broken windows to prepare for starting a fire.
At noon, at Aunt Xiufen's warm invitation, we ate a big pot of stew she made. The slices of meat in it were cut from the piece of meat she had brought.
Aunt Wang's stew was indeed delicious; she ate two large cornbread pancakes. The team leader was quite pleased—if she could eat, she could work!
At noon, Tong Yuheng went to town to catch a bus to the county to buy some necessities. He also took out the old furniture from the space in a secluded place, preparing to hire someone to take it back.
She was very lucky to run into Li Chensong, who was in the county on business. Their military base was not far from the county seat. He lent her a car and helped her deliver the pile of junk she had salvaged from the scrap yard to her home. He also helped her repair and reinforce the gate and door of her house.
Tong Yuheng: Do you think it matters a lot whether the gate is sturdy or not, given that the courtyard wall is only 1.2 meters high?
The first thing she planned to do after arriving was to build a wall, make it two meters high, and then insert glass plates on top of it!
In the afternoon, she exchanged a few mats with an older woman in the village and laid them on the kang (heated brick bed) in the west room. She then laid out the coarse felt blankets she had brought from Yanshi (a city in Shanxi), set up the stove, and started a fire.
Aunt Xiufen also came to help, and the surrounding villagers, out of curiosity, came to watch the commotion and lent a hand to carry the things. Tong Yuheng gave each of them a few pieces of fruit candy, and the men casually greeted her and left. The aunties and older women were very interested in her, but Aunt Xiufen sent them away, saying they could chat another time.
The kang (heated brick bed) was quite warm and easy to use, so Tong Yuheng planned to sleep there tonight. She could already see her relatives in the cowshed glancing at her busy figure more than once.
That evening, she went to her grandfather's house again. This time, she filled a ten-pound plastic jug with spring water and made sure everyone in the family drank it.
Yang Guiping is feeling much better today after drinking this water last night, realizing how precious this "medicine" is. Grandpa also understands the importance of this water and secretly hid it away, intending for everyone to drink a little each day so they would have the confidence to face the next round of criticism.
Over the next few days, Tong Yuheng ran around the village several times a day, buying supplies and making repairs here and there. Finally, after all that effort, the house was habitable!
She had collected some broken tables and chairs made of good wood in her space. With some repairs, they could still be used. In order to prevent people from recognizing what kind of wood they were made of, she simply painted them with paint, covered them with a plastic sheet, and no one could see their original appearance anymore.
In the past couple of days, she'd also found out about the brat who hurt her aunt and the director, "Money-grubber." She planned to teach them a lesson before she went back!
In the dead of night, Tong Yuheng dressed himself up and first went to put the sack on the radical Little Red Soldier, beating him several times until he suffered internal bleeding. If he didn't recover properly for a year or two, he could forget about ever fighting again.
Being young and naive, or being misled, are not excuses for his intentional harm to others. This kid just wanted to use the opportunity of criticism and struggle to unleash the evil within him. Why didn't others go to such extremes as he did? He's a born bad seed!
As for that scoundrel "Money Enthusiast," isn't he insidious and greedy? Very well! I'll steal all your ill-gotten gains!
Tong Yuheng found many valuable items in his house: gold, silver, banknotes, various tickets, jewelry, and jade artifacts—all of which they had taken during the ransacking of his home!