Courtyard House: Drunk and tipsy, the whole courtyard exposed at the start.

Building proper houses, especially those similar in style within traditional courtyard houses, requires approval from the local street office.

You can't just buy a 400-square-meter courtyard house and build a 400-square-meter house, let alone a five- or six-story one. That would be ridiculous.

But if you build a small wooden house, which is like a gazebo, then you don't need any approval procedures.

Director Wang and Master Lei looked at Zhang Dabiao's design drawings. The design was 2 meters wide and 4 meters deep, exactly the same as the Stable. The shape was also similar to the Stable. The main entrance on the south side had only one door and one window, and it was extremely simple.

There was another room inside, which was equivalent to two 2x2 squares...

However, this room has the same ceiling height as the stable, 3.5 meters, so it doesn't feel cramped. But this space is so small—smaller than a side room—and you've divided it into two rooms...

What exactly do you want to do?

Director Wang and Master Lei looked at the design drawing with a puzzled expression.

"Da Biao, it's fine if you want to build this, no approval is needed. But what are you going to do with it after you build it?"

"So small? If you were to say you wanted to build a larger wooden house, that wouldn't be impossible."

"The open space between your side room and the stable could be used to build a 40-square-meter house, but instead of building a big house, you built a tiny 8-square-meter wooden hut, and even divided it into two rooms..."

"What exactly do you want?"

Zhang Dabiao pretended to be troubled and said, "Isn't that stable used as a storage warehouse for the mutual aid society? They even grow mushrooms and store supplies in there. It's not very convenient for me to do design work or study in there."

"At this point, it's not a good time to back out and say that the stables should be taken back, because there's nowhere to put all those things anyway."

"One of my side rooms is a kitchen, and the other is a sleeping area. It's quite noisy when I cook."

"I'm going to skip a grade in junior high, so I need a quiet study space, but building a big house would be too expensive and not the right time."

"So I thought of building a small wooden cabin, away from the side rooms, quiet, and not too expensive, and the exterior style would match the stable."

"When I want to build a big house in the future, I can dismantle it for timber, or I can keep it as a storage room if it's comfortable to live in."

"Isn't this all about saving money and convenience? Plus, it's quick to build this way too."

Director Wang and Master Lei exchanged a glance, and Master Lei nodded.

"Indeed, all you need is wood and paint."

"I ordered some from a lumber mill. His little log cabin isn't very big, so it doesn't need particularly long beams. The carpentry work is quick, just like putting together building blocks."

"Then we'll paint it and waterproof it, extend the tiles over, and since the house doesn't need a foundation, we'll use gravel and coarse sand underneath, and then elevate it to prevent water from accumulating and causing rot at the base."

"Custom-made wood splicing, painting, and waterproofing... it only takes a little over a week from start to finish."

"The price is about 200 yuan, which is much cheaper than building a brick house."

Upon hearing that it would only cost 200 yuan and take a week, Zhang Dabiao clapped his hands and exclaimed, "It's settled then!"

All he wanted was a facade, an unimportant storage room!

To test whether it would be accepted by the rules, it was "stitched" into the homepage!

Once the connection can be made, there will be an additional anchor point, thus opening up the passage from Hong Kong back to Beijing.

Even if it doesn't work out—it's only 200 yuan, the cost of trial and error isn't high, and it's something we can afford to do.

As for why it was divided into two rooms?

Of course, it's for the inner door to serve as a "joining" point, so that entering and exiting is both concealed and safe.

Zhang Dabiao paid 300 yuan upfront, promising to refund any overpayment or collect any underpayment, and urged Master Lei to get started quickly.

Master Lei said he had another job to do and would have to wait a few days.

Zhang Dabiao said that he would be provided with one meal a day, consisting of one meat dish and one vegetable dish!

Master Lei shouted loudly—

"You should have said so earlier!"

Then he dashed off to the lumber mill to order timber.

You should have said earlier that you were providing meals with meat!

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That evening, Zhang Dabiao went to the Xiangjiang Village House to test it out. He moved one of the chairs away, but it didn't refresh after midnight. Apart from being able to connect to "Little Nest" and act as a spatial anchor point, there was nothing unusual about this village house.

So Zhang Dabiao shook his head, locked the windows, drew the curtains, and returned to the courtyard house.

But his actions startled the villagers who were patrolling outside the village houses at night.

Then, a light mysteriously appeared again at night, and one of the stools in the main room was missing!

What a ghost!

This village house is haunted. No wonder the original villager insisted on selling this ancestral home, saying he wanted to go to the city to make his fortune—it's clearly haunted! If it was haunted, why didn't you say so earlier? You're just harming the people in your village!

Should we hire a Taoist priest to exorcise the ghost?

But who will pay for it?

------------

When Zhang Dabiao returned from school the next day at noon, Master Lei had already transported the materials to the Central Courtyard. Everyone was curious about the pile of wood, gravel, sand and the like—what was Zhang Dabiao up to now?

I heard Zhang Dabiao is going to build a small wooden house?

Only 8 square meters?

So everyone lost interest in watching.

If you say that Zhang Dabiao is going to build a red brick house, a house of about 3 square meters, bigger than Sha Zhu's three main rooms, then everyone will want to join in the fun.

But an 8-square-meter log cabin?

That's just a storage room, even smaller than a side room. It's obvious that Zhang Dabiao is broke.

Even when He Yushui came home from school in the afternoon, she asked Zhang Dabiao, "Are you out of money? If you don't have any, I'll lend you some."

Xu Damao—Da Biao, just say the word if you need money.

Liu Guangqi—Da Biao, didn't I just give you a bonus a while ago? Did you spend it all?

Zhang Dabiao was speechless.

He had to repeat his excuse again before everyone finally understood.

A small wooden cabin, sufficient yet unassuming, is actually quite suitable these days.

In half a day, Master Lei and his team leveled the open space, laid gravel and sand, and then assembled the elevated structure and wooden base. It was a mortise and tenon structure, and Master Lei had put a lot of thought into it.

Moreover, the wood had been pre-treated; the surface seemed to have been coated with tung oil, the ends were sealed and painted, and some of the wood even showed signs of high-temperature carbonization—Zhang Dabiao didn't understand, but he just let Master Lei do it.

According to Master Lei, he will take care of all the work, including waterproofing, corrosion prevention, and termite prevention, but you have to be careful about fire prevention yourself. It's best to put a large water tank at the entrance for firefighting purposes.

The only troublesome thing about the all-wood structure is that the main structure of the nearby stable is also made of wooden beams, pillars and bricks, so you have to be careful.

In addition, check and repaint the protective paint and oil every 2-5 years. Although it is a bit troublesome, it can be regarded as a renovation. You can do it yourself or hire someone to do it. It won't cost much.

Zhang Dabiao said he understood; not only was he afraid of fire, but most of the old houses in Beijing were, and that taking proper fire prevention measures would suffice.

While he was busy building the small wooden house, Xu Damao sneakily ran over and pulled him aside.

"Da Biao, tell me the truth, you're not going to marry Lou Xiao'e, are you?"

Seeing his serious expression, Zhang Dabiao nodded: "Of course, I have a girlfriend, and besides, Lou Xiao'e is several years older than me, so it's not appropriate."

Xu Damao finally breathed a sigh of relief: "Then I believe you. You said it, and a man's word is his bond; you don't go back on your word!"

"Absolutely! What's wrong?" Zhang Dabiao was a little puzzled. She'd come all this way to ask him about this; could it be...?

"Brother, I'm going to the Lou family to propose marriage tomorrow!"