They've all separated, so what does it matter to me if they get poorer and poorer?

Chapter 138 The New House is Completed
Xu Zhichun was pleased to hear everyone's excited chatter, praising and admiring him. The atmosphere was perfect, and Xu Zhichun was quite happy. He took Liang Mingxuan on a tour, pointing out each place to him.

The main house has three rooms and two courtyards, with a total of two floors. The bedrooms are all upstairs, bright and dry. The kitchen extends outwards from the main house on the east side, and is also very spacious, with the dining room also located there.

The spacious backyard was also divided into sections, including a pigsty, chicken coop, woodshed, storage shed, outhouse, and shower room. Along one wall, they planned to build a row of bricks thirty or forty centimeters high to serve as a flower garden and vegetable patch, where they would plant roses, hydrangeas, peonies, jasmine, and other flowers, as well as celery, garlic sprouts, chives, cilantro, scallions, strawberries, tomatoes, chili peppers, and so on.

In addition, a special area was built specifically for making konjac tofu, konjac noodles, and the like.

The front yard is incredibly spacious, perfect for drying crops, planting one or two magnolia trees, and building two small flower beds.

She whispered to Liang Mingxuan, "I've already made arrangements with someone to dig a well near the kitchen entrance on the northeast side. That way, we'll have more convenient access to water."

Although it's a bit expensive, costing seven taels of silver, it's worth it if it can be used continuously.

Liang Mingxuan walked around and listened to his sister-in-law's explanation. He was very happy. "I'll listen to whatever you say, sister-in-law. This new home is really nice. Thank you for your hard work, sister-in-law."

Xu Zhichun smiled and said, "A place where we live for a long time should naturally be built better."

That evening, Xu Zhichun personally cooked at Liang Lizheng's house: stir-fried pork slices with green peppers and garlic sprouts, pan-fried tofu with half a braised pork knuckle, braised the other half of the pork knuckle, and stir-fried green beans and eggplant.

Her cooking skills couldn't compare to Aunt Pearl's, but she made up for it with more meat than vegetables. She added soy sauce and soybean paste, making it very flavorful, and the whole family loved it.

Aunt Liang chuckled and sighed, "You've only been here a few days, and this is already the third time you've bought meat. You can't buy it again next time; if anyone should buy meat, it should be our family. It's not right for you to always spend money like this."

Xu Zhichun smiled and said, "Aunt Liang, please don't say that. If it weren't for your help in building the house, I don't know how things would have turned out. I can afford this little bit of money."

Taking advantage of the situation, Zhao laughed and said, "Yes, Mother, Zhichun can build such a big house, what's this little bit of money? I thought you guys weren't making any money selling those gray tofu and bean curd strips, but I didn't expect you could build such a big house in such a short time. Zhichun, do you need any help? If you're too busy, I can help out. I'll take the same wages as my third sister-in-law. Not to brag, but I'm sure I'm much more efficient at work than my third sister-in-law, haha."

The atmosphere was stagnant.

Zeng Xiaoyan was speechless. "Second sister-in-law, food can't shut you up. Even if we need someone, we might not call you."

Zhao said, "What are you saying, Third Sister-in-law? If you need someone, why can't you call me? You're siding with outsiders."

"It's not my business, how can I be biased towards outsiders? Sister-in-law Zhichun said long ago that even if we need to hire more people someday, we'll choose from various households in the village, not just from the same one. Aren't you making things difficult for us?"

"How am I making things difficult for anyone? Other families are other families, but can our family be the same? Zhichun, don't you think so? How can the relationship between our two families be the same as that of other families?"

"Alright," Liang Lizheng frowned slightly and scolded, "Eat your food properly. Why say so much? Zhichun has her own ideas about what to do. As the village head, I'll help any family in the village if they need anything. There's no difference. Second son's wife, it's better for you and the eldest son's family to take good care of the sweet potatoes and potatoes in the fields. Why are you thinking about all this nonsense?"

The eldest daughter-in-law, Liu, quickly agreed with a smile, and then said with a smile, "Those sweet potatoes are really good stuff. We've cut several batches of vines and planted them. After watering them with fertilizer, they're back in a big patch in just a few days. With so many sweet potato vines, we won't even need to gather pig feed anymore in a few days. These sweet potato vines are even more tender, much better than wild pig feed. It's both convenient and good."

Xu Zhichun laughed and said, "It's the same in our family. Two pigs can't possibly eat all those sweet potato vines, so we don't need to cut pig feed."

When it comes to sweet potatoes and potatoes, everyone is excited and full of hope, counting down the days until the harvest.

Zhao opened her mouth, feeling extremely annoyed. It was all Zeng Xiaoyan's fault for interrupting and upsetting her, leading her astray. She had originally wanted to ask Xu Zhichun how much money he could earn a day selling those gray tofu and such, but now it wasn't appropriate to ask.

Afterwards, Aunt Liang specially comforted Xu Zhichun, reassuring her and telling her not to take Zhao's words to heart.

Xu Zhichun smiled and shook his head, telling Aunt Liang not to worry.

Her grand business plans had already begun to unfold, and she would need to hire people many times in the future. For the sake of the village head, she would definitely hire her two sisters-in-law, Zhao and Liu, one day, as long as they were willing.

She wasn't afraid of losing control of Zhao Shi at all. If Zhao Shi broke the rules and caused trouble, it would be her own fault. Given the Liang family's nature, she probably wouldn't even need to say anything before Zhao Shi was taken away.

Liang Mingxuan rarely came back to stay for two days, so Xu Zhichun didn't go into the city to set up a stall during those two days; only Zeng Xiaoyan and the others went.

Many hands make light work, and by around 3 p.m. that afternoon, the entire courtyard wall was successfully completed. Xu Zhichun paid them for a day's work, and instead of leaving immediately, they helped clean up all the construction debris and other odds and ends inside and outside the wall.

The uneven ground outside the yard has been filled with soil and compacted.

This afternoon we'll install the courtyard gate. Tomorrow we'll start paving the courtyard and backyard with blue bricks, and at the same time, we'll build a stove in the kitchen. After the courtyard is paved, Qi Tian and three or four others will build a pigsty, a storage shed, etc. Finally, we'll move in the furniture, choose an auspicious day, and hold a simple housewarming party. That'll be it.

It sounds easy, but there are actually a lot of things to do. It will take at least four or five days to get everything completely sorted out.

Xu Zhichun was already quite impatient; the new house in the high-walled compound gave her a great sense of security.

Liang Mingxuan felt the same way, thinking the house was particularly nice, especially the tall walls, which made him feel at ease.

He only has two days off, and he'll be able to move into the new house when he comes back next time.

Xu Zhichun prepared braised meat, a jar of chili sauce that keeps well and goes well with rice, and stewed a braised pork belly for him to take to the county school to eat.

A few days later, everything was completed, and Xu Zhichun finally moved into her new home.

On the day of the move, villagers flocked to watch the excitement.

Xu Zhichun prepared two full baskets of peanuts and melon seeds for everyone to eat as they pleased. Seeing how generous she was, everyone showered her with compliments.

"This house, this yard, wow, it's really nice!"

"It's all built with blue bricks, how could it not be good?"

"I wish my family could build a house like this someday."

"That's what I think too."

"Then you two can dream together, you can have anything in your dreams."

"Hahaha!"

Uncle Liang and Uncle Liang couldn't resist coming over to see as well.

I felt a pang of sadness and a very unpleasant feeling.

How much money did the Xu family actually make? And how much money did Minglang give to Liang, the village head?

It's infuriating to think that everyone is so wary of their own family members but trusts outsiders.

Unfortunately, they are no longer even qualified to "care" about the affairs of the third wife.

After the villagers had all left, Uncle Liang said, "You can hold your housewarming party later, after Cui'er gets married."

(End of this chapter)