A century of poverty

Chapter 81 Building a Brick House

My second brother wanted to join the army, and the whole family supported him. He passed the physical examination for three consecutive years but did not enlist.

His marriage proposal to Xia Xia was unsuccessful.

Father began planning to improve my second brother's living conditions: build him a house. Demolish the mud house and build a new brick house.

At that time, apart from a few brick houses belonging to the households on the main street, the village was mostly made of earth.

After my older brother started working at the brickyard, he was highly regarded. He first worked with a large cart to haul coal, and later followed his master to learn how to fire bricks and watch the fire in the kiln. He was greatly appreciated by his superiors.

Father and eldest brother discussed it and talked to the leaders to first ask for large trucks to bring in coal, and then use the spare kilns to fire two kilns of bricks. They would keep enough for their own use, and the money from selling the rest could be used for other purposes.

My father was originally a bricklayer. He took my eldest and second eldest brothers, along with Zhang Chunye's son Zhang Zhizhi from our hometown, and hired two laborers to solve the labor problem. We cut the reeds ourselves, ate coarse grains, and sold some rice. Building five brick houses was no problem.

Everything went according to plan. One autumn, Dad pushed my younger brother around and used a small cart with a bearing to cut enough reeds for five rooms.

With the help of his younger brother, the second brother worked day and night to plow enough earth for the house's foundation. This time, Father explained that the house would have five rooms, with the second and third sons each getting two and a half rooms, and the eldest brother getting nothing. The eldest brother would help with firing the bricks.

In the spring of 1981, my sister-in-law took her child back to her parents' home.

My family demolished our old house and set up a temporary shed in the yard.

When construction began on the new house, Zhang Zhizhi arrived, bringing a friend along. Unexpectedly, Guo Kaiguang from Xiaoliujia Village also came to help. He said, "I'm happy. It's a good thing that our fellow villagers are building new houses; it makes us proud and gives us face. I have to support it!"

Liu Huaxin, who also lived in Xiaoliujia Village, came to offer her congratulations with her third son. Her white, pockmarked face had a pair of cunning little eyes that blinked frequently. She wore an acrylic cardigan over a floral sweater, beige trousers, and leather shoes that were rarely worn by rural women.

As soon as he entered the courtyard, he shouted, "Brother-in-law! I've come to congratulate you! We're from the same village and relatives. You've built a new house, so I had to come and see! My third son, Yu Hai, is a stonemason. He's really good at breaking stones. Let my third son break this big stone of yours. Others charge twelve yuan a day, but you only need ten!"

Dad agreed, "Great! Great! That's perfect." He thought to himself, "Ten yuan a day is a lot of money."

Liu Huaxin wandered around the yard, looking here and there, and finally stopped in front of the old carpenter who made the purlins and started chatting.

Wang Yuhai took off his new coat, put on his work clothes, and went to the pile of stones. He used a sledgehammer to break the stones.

After working in a rage, he went to the cramped makeshift kitchen, picked up a ladle, and drank water by the water vat. After finishing, he didn't leave but made conversation with his fourth sister.

I thought to myself, "You can just sit aside and drink water for a while. Don't you see we're getting in the way while we're washing vegetables and cooking?" You just lean against the water tank and don't move.

Fourth Sister chatted with him with great interest.

During dinner that evening, the old carpenter remarked, "Master, this young man from Broken Stone Village is quite something! He's so young and already knows this craft."

Father: "Yes, fellow villager."

Old carpenter: "How about I act as an introducer and give him my fourth niece?"

Father: "I can't agree to that right away. I have to talk to Fourth Sister first."

My family all heard it, and as soon as the carpenter left, the whole family objected in unison: "No way."

We all know Liu Huaxin very well; we were quite familiar with her back in our hometown. We also had some interactions when we visited Jinhai.

If you didn't know about this kind of family, that would be one thing, but since you did know, how could you just walk into their house?

The whole family objected, but the fourth sister alone was willing.

It turns out that back when Fourth Sister was making bricks, Liu Huaxin and her third son were waiting by the roadside on their way to cook, and Liu Huaxin had already "smitten" Fourth Sister. At this time, Liu Huaxin asked the carpenter to act as matchmaker, intending to break the ice.

Our family was kept in the dark.

The whole family was still against it, but the third sister found a man with good character and family background for the fourth sister to meet. The fourth sister strongly resisted, saying loudly, "Even an eight-bearer sedan chair can't carry me there!"

Her whole family tried to persuade her, presenting facts and reasoning to stop her, but she remained deaf and blind.

Father objected in his own way. He said to Liu Huaxin, "These days, it's not common for older people to ask for a bride price, but my fourth daughter is being betrothed to your family, so I can't refuse. I want it."

Liu Huaxin: "How much do you want? Just tell me."

Father: "Two hundred."

Liu Huaxin: "I'll go for it."

Father: "Listen carefully, I won't spend a single penny of this two hundred on my daughter; I'll keep it in my pocket."

Liu Huaxin: "Two hundred yuan? A piece of cake. Here you go."

Father: "Also, when the children get married, you have to provide three rooms, and everything in the rooms will be provided."

Liu Huaxin: "Sure, I would have done it even if you hadn't said so. My two mud houses were never big enough to live in anyway."

Her family was still trying to persuade her not to go to the Wang family, but she wouldn't listen.

Building houses was a complicated and demanding task, keeping the whole family busy, except for the eldest brother. He had a "very good" reason: while his two younger brothers were building houses, he wasn't involved. He was credited for overseeing the firing of two kilns of bricks. So no matter how busy we were, he always found time to sleep. Father was strict with all of us, but he always let the eldest brother have his way.

After more than a month of hard work, five brick houses stood out among the earthen houses on the east side of the road. People once again looked at the Zhang family with new respect, giving them a thumbs up. "The Zhang family is really something," they said.

Some people even spread rumors that Old Zhang's family had "a lot of money," otherwise how could they have built five large brick houses so easily?