novelraw Chapter 48 Tong Yuheng repeatedly used her deceased father as a scapegoat
Chapter 48 Tong Yuheng repeatedly used her deceased father as a scapegoat
"Sis, you should ask Linglong for help with this. Five hundred words isn't enough for me to write!" Linglong was familiar with this kind of work because she often got into fights with boys at school and frequently had to write self-criticisms.
"Second sister, don't ask us to do this. Let Xiao Liu write it. It'll be a good opportunity for her to practice her handwriting!" Linglong quickly shifted the blame.
Xiao Liu immediately rolled her eyes at them and then mocked my poor handwriting: "My bad handwriting is still better than bad test scores. Third Sister, Fourth Sister, you're just making fun of me!"
"Little Six, you've got some nerve! Daring to bring up our grades! I'll spank you!"
"Haha, catch up with me first!" Xiao Liu Yuxuan took off running, and Linglong started chasing after her. The sisters laughed and joked around.
Watching the children chasing and playing with each other, the gloom that had been weighing on Tong Jiahui's heart for many days finally dissipated. As long as the children are lively and happy, that's all that matters.
Tong Yuheng went to the brigade leader's house to get a letter of introduction and approval slips. They needed to repair the house and buy 10,000 bricks.
"What? You want ten thousand bricks! Are you repairing a house or building a new one?"
"I need to rebuild the courtyard wall. There are only women in the family, and the wall is too low and inconvenient."
"Fine, do whatever you want, but when you leave, you're not allowed to dismantle anything, and the bricks have to be put back in their place."
"We know, we know. Don't worry, Uncle Chen, we definitely won't tear down the wall."
Tong Yuheng agreed with a smile. She wouldn't tear down the wall, but she wanted to tear down the kang (a heated brick bed)!
Tong Yuheng didn't care what time it was and dashed out of the village. Once outside, he took his bicycle out of his spatial dimension and rode it. When he arrived at the brick factory, he found the factory manager, showed him a letter of introduction and approval slip, and said that he wanted to have the wall repaired before the New Year.
She also mentioned that she wanted to build a stove and partition walls inside the house, so she was worried that there wouldn't be enough bricks. She wanted to buy some extra bricks, which would cost 10,000 yuan. She asked the factory manager to think of a solution.
Two cents per brick, ten thousand bricks would be two hundred yuan each. Tong Yuheng paid first. Then he took out fifty yuan and said, "Director Yao, could you please help me out and approve a few more? I can spend a little more money to pick them up in batches."
The brick factory was a collective factory run by the commune. Including the factory manager, the gatekeeper, and the tractor driver, there were only ten people in total.
Apart from him and the old gatekeeper, everyone else did manual labor and their wages were low. The factory manager would try to find ways to provide some benefits for everyone.
If this girl asks for 10,000 more bricks, we can fire two more kilns and get them out in just two or three days. These 200-plus bricks can be distributed to everyone for a dozen or so more, and we can buy some things as New Year's gifts. It doesn't count as embezzling collective property, right?
"Living off the land where you live," isn't that the gist of it? There's plenty of earthen riverbed for making bricks, and it costs almost nothing.
"Well, building a house isn't easy, so I'll approve another 10,000 yuan for you. You can keep an extra 50 yuan of that, no need for a permit. We won't take advantage of you much. All those messy piles next to the brick kiln, including the defective and half-bricks, are yours. Take what you need!"
"Director Yao, you're so generous! I'll take the ten thousand yuan with the approved permits today!"
Tong Yuheng took the note given to him by the factory director and ran to find the tractor driver who delivered the bricks.
She offered him a pack of cigarettes: "Sir, could you please take me to Chenjiatun Brigade first?"
"Ten thousand yuan, that's a lot? Girl, it's not that I don't want to haul it for you, but the tractor is broken, and the repair shop is too busy to fix it. There's nothing I can do!" the driver said helplessly.
"When did it break? What happened?" Tong Yuheng asked.
"It broke yesterday. I went to the repair shop, and those bastards said they were booked until after the New Year and didn't have time to rest! I think they just don't want to work and want to get benefits before the New Year!" The mechanic complained.
"Let me see if I can fix it. My dad taught me how to fix trucks before, so I'll see if I can fix a tractor."
"Really?! You're a young girl who can fix cars?"
"That's about right, I can give it a try, it's free!" Tong Yuheng thought to himself, I can fix more than just cars, I can fix home appliances and computers too!
The driver went to find Factory Director Yao, who then remembered that the tractor had broken down. No one had bought bricks these past few days; who would build a house during the Lunar New Year?
"Girl, you're really good at fixing cars!?"
"Yes, my dad taught me. We don't have any boys in my family, so we raised the girls like boys. I can not only fix cars, but I can also do carpentry and bricklaying!"
"Then give it a try. If you fix it, I'll give you another two thousand good bricks, okay?"
"Okay! I'll go take a look now."
Tong Yuheng went over, shook the handle, and knew it wasn't a big problem. She removed the engine, fixed the broken belt inside, replaced it with a spare, reassembled it, and with a shake of the robotic arm, the tractor sputtered to life. All done!
She went up to look around, listened for any unusual sounds, and then jumped down.
"You can even drive!" Factory Director Yao had never seen such a capable girl before.
"Yes, my dad taught me." Tong Yuheng repeatedly used her deceased father as a scapegoat; I wonder what he would think if he knew.
Tong Yuheng loaded over two thousand bricks onto the truck and said, "Master, if you trust me, I'll haul it back myself. It's already noon; you should go home for lunch!"
"Is this a good idea?" The master was tempted as soon as he heard that he wouldn't have to do any work.
"What's wrong with that? I'm the one who transports the bricks for my own house, isn't that what I should do? I'll make two trips around noon, and I'll have the truck back for you before 3 p.m.!"
"Okay, then I'll take a break and go home first!"
Including the money she earned from repairing the car today, she has a total of 12,000 bricks, enough to build a new house. She doesn't need to haul the other 10,000 bricks today; she plans to bring them back after the wall is built, so they're less likely to get lost.
The landlord's house was built with decent materials and was quite sturdy; there was really no need to demolish and rebuild it. So many bricks were unnecessary, but Tong Yuheng had other plans, and these bricks might not even be enough!
The bricks in the brick factory were stacked in neat piles of three thousand each. The workers pointed to four piles next to her and said, "These are yours. Get someone to load them. Don't take the others; they've already been ordered."
"No problem, everyone, don't worry, I definitely won't take an extra brick," Tong Yuheng assured him.
It was lunchtime, so they all went home to eat, not caring how she managed to load so many bricks onto the truck! They even offered her extra money for helping them load the truck.
"Alright, we trust you! Director Yao said you can have the waste bricks over there too. You can carry them yourself, and it's best to take them all so we don't have to clean them up again!" A young man, seeing that she was pretty, gave her a break.
"Thank you very much. I have two packs of cigarettes here, please have some!" Tong Yuheng quickly took out two packs of cigarettes. There were four workers on duty, and it would be awkward for them to accept half a pack each.
At this point, everyone in the factory except the gatekeeper had left. Perfect timing, time to go move bricks!