Rebirth in the 50s: The Couple with the Hidden Space novel Chapter 138

Chapter 138: Chapter 109: The New Courtyard (Part 1)

It was past two in the morning when Ping’an woke up on time with a loud "wah," startling Zhang Guoqing, who looked to his left and couldn’t find his son, making him sweat in fear. He turned over to see Zhou Jiao feeding their son with sleepy eyes; the two foolishly stared at each other for a moment before Zhou Jiao snapped out of it and told him to sleep first. She would go back to sleep after Ping’an finished eating and changed his diaper.

Zhang Guoqing watched her with eyes wide open, seeing her confidently burp their son after he was full, gently patting his little back to prevent milk from spilling. This made him feel reassured.

When the rooster crowed, Zhang Guoqing woke up and checked his watch; it was just past four. He didn’t plan to get up so early today, so he lay quietly in bed, closed his eyes to rest, dozed off for a while, and woke up at 5:30 before getting up gently to put on his clothes. Watching the two of them cuddling together, he smiled cheekily before carefully walking out the door.

After washing up, he changed into patched clothes, took the dirty clothes and pants, along with his son’s diapers, to the well to wash, and hung them on the bamboo pole in the courtyard to dry.

He went to the backyard, saw them pulling weeds and fertilizing, greeted them from a distance, and picked up a shovel to loosen the soil, breaking the clumped dirt, and threw away the old grass roots. The four of them, father and sons, busied themselves with the backyard. They returned to the main room to listen to Mr. Zhang’s rough plans for the day.

After breakfast, Zhang Guoqing went back to the room to see Zhou Jiao was already up and had breakfast, sitting in the living room, humming children’s songs while holding their son.

"Jiao Jiao, I need to help with the new house next door this morning. If you need anything, have Xi Zi and the others call me. After lunch, I need to return the car to the provincial city and drop by the principal in the county to inquire about college entrance examination matters. See if there’s anything you need to bring, jot it down on a note, and give it to me when I return at noon." Zhang Guoqing said while checking the coal in the stove.

He picked up the fire tongs, went outside to get a piece of coal, came back to replace the burnt coal at the bottom of the stove, poked it in the opening, and placed white fungus on the coal stove.

"Remember there are two boiled eggs in the kettle; eat them later. Also, drink the white fungus soup. Don’t do any work yourself; have them call me." Zhang Guoqing tidied up and, not at ease, gave instructions once more.

After she responded, he kissed the mother and son, reluctantly leaving.

The two courtyards quickly took shape in just a few days. Many people gathered around to work busily. In between the two courtyards, there was a large pile of blue stones, earth bricks, and straw materials. Early in the morning, people were coming in from the foot of the mountain carrying rocks. In the main house and the east and west wings of the two courtyards, you could see the apprentices of the stonemason masters bustling around instructing the helpers. From afar, it looked like a race, with no one taking a break, fiercely rushing the work.

Looking at the two courtyards, Zhang Guoqing raised his eyebrows in surprise, was this splitting classes at the same time?

Zhang Guoqing greeted everyone with a smile and quickly walked over to Mr. Zhang. Listening to the stonemason masters and Mr. Zhang talking, he had some understanding.

This morning, he worked on making earth bricks with Da Ni. He watched as Mr. Zhang and the others were busy mixing those clays, straws, hemp, mud, and sand with water, and then mixing them into slurry, the more sticky, the better.

He didn’t understand, doing whatever he was told, just felt that the more mixed, the stickier, the stickier, the more tiring, and that they had to add water repeatedly. Four or five people worked hard shoveling and mixing. Eventually, they didn’t want to talk, holding their breath to work. This work had to be done continuously, working with the stonemasons.

Zhang Guoqing looked not far away at the small courtyards gathered in threes and twos. He suddenly understood why in the village, those households with few strong laborers couldn’t build houses, with three generations sleeping on a single bed. I bet it’s because working with Da Ni is too exhausting. Even when you have blue stones, earth bricks are still labor-intensive work and must be prepared in advance.

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