Chapter 85

After Xu Ran got home, he gave the paper money to Liu Tong and told him that he was going to build a new house. Liu Tong felt a little uneasy with money borrowed, “Ran, you’ve borrowed so much money. When can we return it? Why not just return the money right away? You see we can still live in our current house.”

Xu Ran shook his head and insisted, “No, it’s still so cold living inside our house. Our children can’t stand it, either. The house is good in summer, but it’s definitely bad in winter. You see, my hands are still raw with chilblains.” Xu Ran then stretched out his hands to show Liu Tong.

It was too cold in winter without heating or a down-filled coat. Xu Ran had chilblains in his hands not long after the first snow. Later, his hands were raw with more and more chilblains, so that both of them were swollen like radishes. It was not until after the first month that the chilblains on his hands began to heal slowly.

Liu Tong had a check on Xu Ran’s hands. He found that the chilblains there had not recovered. He felt pity for him. Xu Ran seldom showed him his hands. Even when he was sleeping, he hid his hands well. Thus Liu Tong didn’t know exactly what was going on in Xu Ran’s hands. He just tried not to let him work.

Now that Xu Ran had taken himself as an example to convince him, Liu Tong felt it was not good to refuse it. He thought that although five hundred taels of silver was a large sum of money, as long as their family had always been selling chili paste, they could make money to pay off the debt. Thus Liu Tong nodded, “Ran, just follow your arrangement.”

“Great!” Seeing Liu Tong agree with it,  Xu Ran smirked, “Let’s find someone to see when it’s appropriate to start building, and where to build the house. Finally, we’ll discuss who to build it.” In fact, Xu Ran had considered about building a house for a long time, so he had a clear mind at the moment.

There was indeed someone in the village who specialized in geomantic omen and knew some basic fortune telling skills. Although Xu Ran didn’t believe this, he still planned to invite the geomantic master for help in order to make Liu Tong feel at ease.

There was wine at home, so Xu Ran poured some out and put it in a bamboo knot. And because of such a gift, the geomantic master naturally took his work seriously.

Xu Ran first asked him to choose the most recent and best time to start the construction, and the answer was the 25th of the first lunar month. As it was the 19th of the first month already, and there were only few days ahead, the time was too tight.  Thus, Xu Ran asked him to change to a later time.

The old master showed him another day, the 15th of the second lunar month. Xu Ran thought about it and felt that this time was okay. The preparation for the early stage would be fine if they could work effectively.

Thus both of them thanked the master and hurriedly returned home, ready to work on other related matters.

It was also necessary to find someone to choose a good place, but Xu Ran wanted to choose something he liked most. Thus he planned to go and see it himself first. He believed the new house should not be too far from the current house, and their industries were around there.

Liu Tong went to Wu Mei’s house. Xu An was not at home. He often went to work in the town. Xu Ran suggested Liu Tong to ask if there was any good team  in the town who specialized in building houses. It was much more convenient to invite a construction team to cover up the house building than to manage everything by themselves.

At the moment, in Wu Mei’s family, Wu Mei felt surprised to hear the news from Liu Tong.

“Yes? Your family wants to build a new house? Haven’t you just built this current house? ” asked Wu Mei.

Liu Tong felt a little helpless, “It’s Ran who wants to build it. He said that bamboo house is cold. We can’t stay warm and our children are still young. I agree with him, plus we have some spare money at the moment. We might just build it first. If money is used up, we can earn it back, but as human beings, we have to eat well and live well.”

Hearing Liu Tong’s words, Wu Mei was still a little unhappy, “As for your husband, he is really too delicate. You are a Ge’er and you haven’t complained about anything yet. He just feels cold. You are spoiling him!”

In the end, Wu Mei also felt funny. He knew well that it was not a day or two for Liu Tong to pamper Xu Ran. As their friend, he should have got used to it.

Seeing Wu Mei laugh, Liu Tong himself also laughed, “Indeed, I’ve been pampering him for so many years, and I’m used to it. Now that we can afford to build a new house, we might just do it first! Please help me to consult Xu An whether he can find such a construction team to help us.”

“All right. You can go back first. I’ll ask him about it later. If he cannot help you, you can go and find the person who came to your family last time. He lives in the town and he will definitely know about it.”

Liu Tong nodded. However, he felt shy to tell him that he had borrowed money from that person.

After Liu Tong arrived home, Xu Ran got back too. Tangtang and Guoguo were still busy working behind the house burning a big pile of ash.

Xu Ran went to take the two children home. Both of the children looked like two dirty cats and their clothes were all dirty. Xu Ran patted the ashes off their clothes while telling them, “Daddy has cooked water for you. Let’s take a bath first. You’ve really done a hard day’s work.”

Both children shook their heads smilingly, “Dad, we are happy. We can work well.”

Obviously, they were not asking for credit. They were really happy because they felt they could do something for the family themselves.

Xu Ran patted them and nodded with a smile, “I see it. You are both Dad’s good treasures, smart and capable.”

The two children ran to take a bath happily while Xu Ran walked to the kitchen. Liu Tong was cooking water there. At the moment, his tall figure blocked the firelight, and Xu Ran gazed at him from behind. This was the person he wanted to be with all his life, and this was also the family member he wished to care about all his life.

At night, Xu Ran and Liu Tong had a careful discussion about their plan again. The construction of the new house was thus decided. Xu Ran wanted to build quadrangle dwelling house of two floors. Covering such a big area, the new house surely would cost as much as 500 taels of silver, they knew.

Both of them were still figuring about the money issue. They didn’t expect their two children to give them a big surprise the next day.

……

Tangtang and Guoguo were about to finish their breakfast in the morning when they were called away by a group of children outside. Both of them put down their bowls and rushed outside. They didn’t even care about their dogs and just let them run behind.

Seeing that they were running in a hurry, Xu Ran also stopped eating after taking two more mouthfuls of rice. He said to Liu Tong, “Tongtong, I’ll go out and have a look. Why are many children  coming?”

Liu Tong nodded, “All right. Don’t let our children be bullied.”

For some reason, Xu Ran always felt that their children wouldn’t be bullied, but he still nodded and replied, “Don’t worry, I will look after them.”

As they were a large group of children, it was an easy target. Soon, Xu Ran found that the group of children had gone to the back of their house, where Tangtang and Guoguo had burned a lot of ashes yesterday. Xu Ran also followed them behind secretly.

Tangtang and Guoguo led the group of children to the big pile of ashes. Tangtang took out over a dozen of copper coins from his bosom, and then took a step backward. Guoguo took two steps forward and announced seriously, “Today I invite all of you here to give you a chance to make money. As long as anyone burns so much ash, he can take a copper coin here away from us. If you are willing to work for us, you can stay; if you don’t, you can go now.”

Hearing that they could make money, the children present of among 5 to 8 years old were very excited and no one left.

Dahu was also there in the crowd. He was a little older, so he touched his head and asked Guoguo, “Guoguo, how is this ash burned?”

“Yeah, yeah!”

The other children followed suit.

This scene was similar to that when Xu Ran was looking for people to help develop their wasteland then.

Guoguo put his hands on his back and tried his best to look serious, “You can either go to cut some hay or get firewood in the mountain. But it is easier and faster to cut the hay. You should use your own sickles. You should keep an eye on the fire. You can’t burn anything else. The person who burns the most ash will be rewarded with an extra copper coin a reward.”

While Guoguo was talking about the reward, Tangtang deliberately swayed the copper coin in his hand.

When the group of children saw the copper coin, their eyes were shining with stars. All of them expressed that they had no different opinion about it, and then they broke up in an uproar and went home to get their combat tools.

Xu Ran watched all these from behind and praised his two children in his heart. He was thinking triumphantly, “They are really my sons!”

The group of children didn’t see Xu Ran and  he also didn’t want to disturb Tangtang and Guoguo. He just went back home with his hands behind his back.

After everyone had left, Guoguo felt relaxed right away and rushed towards Tangtang, “Elder Brother, it’s really tiring to have spoken so much!”

Tangtang hugged him and stroked his head, “Well then, in the future, let me do this kind of thing and you can just be my assistant.”

Guoguo nodded happily, “Great!”

There on the hillside, they two were just like two peas. Both the brothers were the same in their look, height and even wearing the same clothes. And at the moment, they were hugging together. What a beautiful scene!

Back in the house,  Xu Ran could not help praising their two children in front of Liu Tong. Although both of them were still very young, they were acting quite like generals, which was really rare. Then Xu Ran also flattered Liu Tong, saying that all this was because of his good education.

Even though Liu Tong felt shy being praised, actually he was indeed happy in his heart. He felt that having such two children in such bad times was really his great blessings after several generations of cultivation.

Soon, they heard the children’s cheering screams from outside. Standing in the yard, Xu Ran watched Tangtang and Guoguo leading a team of children towards the wasteland and everything was in good order and well arranged.

Many children saw Xu Ran and greeted him with a smile, and Xu Ran responded them happily.

For the next ten days, Xu Ran could hear the cheering screams, laughter, and shouting from these children every morning. They were really energetic, full of vitality.

The issue of Xu Ran’s new house building was already on the schedule. They had decided on the building site. At the moment,  Xu Ran and Liu Tong started to run around to look good building bricks and tiles.