Chapter 112

Xu Ran, who was finally free, lived a comfortable life, staying at home accompanying his spouse, teaching his children, or reading books by himself.

At the end of June, Foreman Li came to tell Xu Ran that the house was built.

Since the building work of the house was handed over to Foreman Li, Xu Ran hadn’t been to the scene very often. Upon hearing Foreman Li say that the building was completed, he couldn’t help praising their speed.

However, on second thought, he understood. After all, they were old hands in the field and they had to work hard to support their families. Naturally, they were proficient and efficient.

Xu Ran followed Foreman Li to check the new house. He felt quite satisfied. It was only pity that there was no furniture there. It looked empty.

It was built according to Xu Ran’s original requirement of a quadrangle dwelling. There were not many rooms in it. The layout was the same downstairs and upstairs, each with eight rooms, but each one was quite large.

There was no cellar under the new house. It seemed that if they had something to store in the future, they should go back to the bamboo house.

However, the courtyard was quite large and the house was surrounded. If people didn’t enter the house, they couldn’t see anything inside.

When designing the house, Xu Ran had already planned well what each room would be used for and what to put inside.

Xu Ran told Foreman Li about his plans and asked him to help to make some changes in a few rooms. According to Xu Ran’s plan, the rooms on the second floor were used for family living. Except for two rooms on the first floor for the reception of guests, all the rest would be changed into storage and production rooms.

The kitchen was located on the westernmost side, and eating would be also done there. One or two stone tables could be added to the yard, while a few fruit trees could be planted.

Xu Ran knew that these alterations would cost some more money, but he felt that as long as the new house was comfortable for the family and looked good, this sum of money was nothing compared with that much money that had been spent anyway.

The new house still needed to be painted with lime. In this way, it looked brighter inside. Every room should be equipped with windows that could be pushed open directly. The overall construction effect of the new house was quite good.

Taking into account the improvements to be made later and the time to ventilate the new house after the lime painting, Xu Ran felt that his family would definitely be able to live in the new house before the coming Spring Festival.

After discussing the improvement of the new house, Xu Ran said, “Foreman Li, today the house is basically completed. I’ll invite your team to have a good meal. You can order whatever you want. I’ll buy the food if I can’t make it.”

Xu Ran was particularly generous as he was speaking, so Foreman Li didn’t stand on ceremony with him. He immediately went out of the yard to call his people. Soon the team all came out to order what they liked. The point was that all the dishes they ordered should have meat, and all of them should be fat meat. At the thought of so much fat meat, Xu Ran couldn’t help feeling a little sick. He didn’t understand why they liked to eat such fat meat.

Xu Ran couldn’t remember the names of so many dishes, so he simply went home and took a writing brush and paper to note them down.

He took the matter so seriously that it made the people around busy ordering food feel quite ashamed.

Xu Ran had been staying with them for a few months. Although they were all busy and didn’t talk much, he understood what was going on with their minds seeing the sight. Thus he said smilingly, “You guys have built the house for me. I am grateful to you. This is the only opportunity that I’ll treat you to a good meal. If you don’t catch it, there will be no more chances!”

Hearing this, the group of simple and unpretentious men all laughed, and they gave up standing on ceremony in front of Xu Ran.

After noting down the menu, Xu Ran dried the ink on the paper, folded it and put it in his arms. He then took Foreman Li to the town to buy vegetables and meat with him, and asked Liu Tong to invite Wu Mei’s and the other two families for dinner. Xu Ran also planned to discuss about the furniture with Xu An.

Xu Ran really spent a lot of money on this treat. Just in buying meat, he had spent 30 taels of silver. In the Xu Village, so much meat was estimated to be enough for many people to eat for their lifetime; let alone Xu Ran had also bought other food.

They bought quite a lot of wine too. A group of rough men couldn’t get together without some wine. Although Xu Ran didn’t drink much, he could still cope with the occasion.

It was already noon after they bought all the food back. The construction team had waited for a long time but they didn’t see Xu Ran and Foreman Li come back, so they simply made some noodles. Each of them had only eaten a bowl of noodles, because they wanted to leave more room in their stomachs for the evening feast.

Xu Ran and Foreman Li indeed returned with a full load. When they got back, each of them had a bowl of noodles for lunch, too.

After Xu Ran returned, the workers started to get busy. Wu Mei and Shao Yu also came over for help.

After eating the noodles, Xu Ran ran around the mountain, and then decided to invite the village head over for dinner. After all, the dinner last time was not very pleasant, plus he had been busy recently, so he did not visit the village head so far.

Tonight, he felt he had better invite the village head for dinner. After all, this was a joyous occasion. The building of their new house was completed.

However, Xu Ran hesitated when he reached the gate of the village head’s house. Last time Zhang Yue got off the carriage at the gate of the village head’s house. Xu Ran didn’t know if he was still there. If he was still there, it would be not good not to invite him. But if he did invite him, people would gossip about it. It was really a dilemma. How he wished Zhang Yue would not be there at the moment.

Xu Ran wandered around at the gate of the village head’s house and was just seen by Daddy Chen who came out to pour water. Daddy Chen opened the door of the courtyard and called Xu Ran, “Xu Ran, what are you doing? Why are you here? Why didn’t you knock at the door? There’s someone at home.”

Now that he was found, Xu Ran had to give up struggling in his heart about Zhang Yue. He followed Daddy Chen and went into the yard. Then he touched his head and said, “Daddy Chen, the building of my new house is basically completed. I’m going to invite the friends to have a good meal tonight, so I want to see if you and the village head have time to come.”

“Hey, that’s a joyous occasion. Why didn’t you dare to come in just now? The village head isn’t at home right now. I’ll tell him later and we’ll definitely go at night.”

Xu Ran nodded. Daddy Chen was amused when he noticed how Xu Ran behaved there– about to speak, but saying nothing.

He smiled, “You are wondering if Zhang Yue is still here, right? Don’t worry. Zhang Yue is home now and he and Xu Cheng have already divorced. He probably won’t come to our Xu Village anymore in the future. You can rest assured now!”

Xu Ran was relieved when he heard that Zhang Yue was not there. Xu Ran was more relieved at the latter news. It was clear that there was no need for him to feel bad about it in the future.

After reminding Daddy Chen again that they must come to the dinner in the evening, Xu Ran went back and immediately shared with Liu Tong the news about Zhang Yue’s divorce from Xu Cheng.

Liu Tong only commented that Zhang Yue was also a poor person, and then he didn’t say anything further about it.

Xu Ran thought about it and agreed that Zhang Yue was indeed a pitiful person, but half of his pity composition was caused by himself, while the other half was because of the Xu Family. It was said that poor people must be hateful. Thinking about what Zhang Yue had done before, Xu Ran really didn’t want to forgive him.

Xu Ran shook his head and told himself that he was no longer in the Xu Village now, so why should he think so much?

Then he immediately shifted his position and talked to the unborn child in Liu Tong’s belly. Of course, he was talking to himself actually. Sometimes Liu Tong couldn’t bear to listen to it anymore and knocked on his head. It was such a sweet scene.

The dinner started when the sun was setting, and everyone got what they wanted to eat. All kinds of dishes were served on a large table.

Apart from those who couldn’t drink, all the others had a small glass of wine. Xu Ran had bought a lot of wine. Those who could drink well had started to compete in drinking.

Xu Ran sat next to the village head, clinked glasses with him and apologized for what had happened last time.

The village head didn’t care about it. He pulled Xu Ran and said, “Xu Ran, I understand what you think, but I am the village head after all. It’s better not to know something than knowing it but can’t be used to help people in the village. Okay, I’ve been the village head here for some years. I watched your younger generations grow up. From a young age, I think you are the most promising. At that time, you could go up the mountain to find some mountain produce and sell them in exchange for money to pay your private tutor. You are literate and smart. You don’t know how pity I felt when you became a fool at that time. Fortunately you have recovered, and you have created a family business yourself. I am so happy for you.”

Speaking of all this, the village head was very emotional. Xu Ran was moved, too, so he made another toast to the village head.

Xu Ran was not a heavy drinker. Worse still, what he drank was all alcohol, and he didn’t eat something before drinking. Thus, after a few cups of alcohol, he was slightly drunk. He kept chatting with the village head. After that, he even went to grab some food to eat from Liu Tong’s bowl.

This made Liu Tong at a loss whether to cry or to laugh. He could only let Xu Ran eat something. After watching him drink a few more cups, he helped him back to their bedroom.

The weather was hot and Xu Ran had been working outside all day. Liu Tong went to prepare some hot water and asked him to take a bath before going to sleep.

Xu Ran was not cooperative at all, but Liu Tong said that he would be unhappy if he disturbed the unborn child in his belly. Xu Ran immediately obeyed and acted very obediently.

Others were still eating. Both Tangtang and Guoguo were playing with their friends. No one paid attention to them at this moment. Liu Tong thought it was lucky that Ran was obedient, otherwise he really couldn’t take care of him alone.

However, this thought only lasted for a while. After taking a bath and got into bed, Xu Ran started to toss about. This time, he didn’t disturb himself, but he disturbed Liu Tong.

He kissed, stroked, and even wanted to take off Liu Tong’s clothes. Liu Tong had never seen Xu Ran behave like this. Before, there was time when Ran’s passion was hard to suppress. However, at that time, they were both clear-headed, and Liu Tong himself was not pregnant. Thus he would let him be. Now that he was pregnant, the situation was completely different.

Liu Tong said to Xu Ran while stopping him from tearing his clothes, “Ran, Ran, don’t do that. I have a baby in my belly and you will hurt the baby…”

The drunken people were not sober at all and their strength would be much greater. Liu Tong dared not push Xu Ran too hard. As a result,  his clothes were stripped off by Xu Ran after a short while.

Liu Tong wanted to cry. He could not understand why Ran changed like this when he was drunk.

After taking off the clothes, it was time to take off the pants. Liu Tong grabbed his pants tightly and tried not to let Xu Ran succeed. Xu Ran deliberately chose Liu Tong’s sensitive parts to start. Seeing that his pants were about to be stripped, Liu Tong finally compromised and hugged Xu Ran to kiss and comfort him,

“Ran, don’t move. Listen to me. I’m pregnant now. You can’t mess around and hurt the baby. If you really want to do that, just listen to me, okay?”

Liu Tong’s tone of coaxing the children at last worked and calmed Xu Ran down.

Liu Tong didn’t care about other people outside now. He just wanted to appease Xu Ran first.

Liu Tong took off the clothes for Xu Ran that had just worn for a short while, took off his own remaining pants and then climbed onto the bed. Then Xu Ran, who was drunk, couldn’t hold himself anymore. He did it anyway.