Courtyard House: Passing through the Silly Pillar, Activating the Blessed Cave Heaven

37

Since this house ended up in my hands by some twist of fate, I will come to burn paper money and offer sacrifices to your family every year from now on.

No sooner had he finished speaking than a sudden gust of wind blew by, swirling up the burning paper money as if in response to his words.

Looking at the ashes of the paper scattered everywhere, He Yuzhu nodded and said, "It seems you have agreed."

Rest assured, I will keep my word and come to pay my respects to your family every year.

After the paper money had completely burned out, he opened all the doors in the house and saw that the room was covered with dust.

Just as he was figuring out how to repair it, a shout came from outside the door.

He Yuzhu went outside and saw a man in his forties or fifties standing at the door.

The other party spoke first: "Master Liu from the brokerage said that you just bought this house and want to renovate it, so I'm the plasterer he sent."

"That's right, it was I who asked Master Liu to help me find someone to repair the house."

"You came very quickly." He Yuzhu said as he led him into the courtyard, "This house has been vacant for so long, it's impossible to live in it without proper repairs."

May I ask your name? I'll need your continued assistance with the subsequent repairs.

"My surname is Lei, you can just call me Master Lei."

He Yuzhu's eyes lit up, and he quickly asked, "Could you be a descendant of the Lei family, who built the imperial gardens back then?"

Master Lei waved his hand and said with a smile, "It's all thanks to my friends, they just gave me this nickname." He didn't expect that this young man knew his family's background.

"You are too modest."

"If you can build even a royal garden, my little courtyard is nothing more than a piece of cake for you." He Yuzhu pointed to the courtyard and said, "This courtyard wall needs to be rebuilt. I don't know who took away many of the bricks."

Please also carefully inspect the roof and replace any tiles that need replacing.

The room was already empty of furniture, which saved us the trouble of cleaning. We just needed to scrape off the old plaster from the walls and repaint them with a fresh coat of whitewash.

He then pointed to the gate and said, "This gate is too narrow. I want to widen it to seven feet. I'll have to tear down a section of the courtyard wall on both sides."

There's a road right in front of the gate, so we can just pull a cart straight into the yard from now on.

A few steps were built in the middle, with ramps on both sides to facilitate vehicle access.

I also plan to renovate the outhouse in the southwest corner.

Dig a pit on the north side of the latrine, build a pool around it with blue bricks, and then build two walls inside the pool to divide it into three small pools.

Leave two openings between each pool and insert ceramic tubes. The second opening should be positioned slightly lower than the first.

Once the first pool is full, the sewage flows through the first ceramic pipe into the second pool, and once the second pool is full, it flows into the third pool.

The top of the pool was covered with stone slabs, and then a layer of soil was laid on top. Each pool had a manure removal opening.

The three pools are all three feet wide, five and a half feet deep, and three feet, two feet, and one foot long, respectively.

Western-style toilets were to be installed in the outhouse. After using the toilet, the toilet would be flushed with water, and the excrement would be discharged into an outdoor pool through underground pipes.

I'll get you the blueprints later; see if you can find someone to fire the ceramic pieces you need.

"In addition, I also have some ideas about windows."

Winters in Beiping are particularly cold. Could we replace the windows with double-glazed windows? We also need to install some partitions and doors inside the house.

The roof is planned to be made of wooden planks, with an attic built above it for storage.