Chapter 112 Bathhouse and Toilet

"His father, have you asked someone to call Yingzi back? Today I heard that several families in our village want to introduce their daughters to Qiangzi. If she doesn't come back, Qiangzi will be snatched away by someone else!"

Tian Guixiang sat down on the edge of the kang and asked anxiously.

As the saying goes, the more a mother-in-law looks at her son-in-law, the more satisfied she becomes.

Since the first day she met Li Guoqiang, she had a good impression of this young man who spoke nicely, was thoughtful, smart and good-looking.

Later, as Li Guoqiang contributed money and effort to help bury Xu Guangshan, and strengthened his body through boxing practice, she could not help but want to recruit Li Guoqiang to be her son-in-law.

However, before she and Xu Guangfu could discuss it, Li Guoqiang suddenly demonstrated his ability to go into the mountains to hunt, which made her even more excited. Xu Guangfu nodded in agreement with her idea and prepared to further investigate Li Guoqiang's character and abilities.

However, this investigation was very successful. Li Guoqiang went into the mountains and killed a blind bear. He immediately earned six or seven hundred yuan and became Xu Guangshou's last disciple. He became a popular figure in everyone's eyes.

You know, after working hard in the fields for a year, a strong laborer can only earn forty or fifty yuan.

Therefore, apart from anything else, just based on this hunting skill, it is worth it for everyone to send their daughters to Li Guoqiang for selection.

Thinking that her daughter is almost 24 years old now, she couldn't help but feel a little anxious and angry. She quickly slapped the table on the kang and asked angrily, "Hey, did you hear me talking to you? Do you really want your little girl to be an old maid for the rest of her life?"

"Alright, alright!"

Hearing this, Xu Guangfu glanced at Tian Guixiang, and then said unhappily, "I think you are just worrying about nothing. Qiangzi is from the old city, and he doesn't even like those pretty girls in the educated youth group, so how could he possibly like those ugly girls in our village?"

"Besides, if he gets married here, he won't be able to come back to the city. Do you think he would be the kind of person who would do things without considering the consequences?"

"I originally planned to help him get the position of production team leader, so that he would owe me a favor and then I could talk to him about marrying our Yingzi. But who would have thought that he would not take the initiative at all. He even came to me this morning and refused the position of correspondent."

"I guess so! He must have known that we wanted Yingzi to marry him, so he pushed it so hard. He didn't want to owe us a favor."

"That"

Tian Guixiang was slightly stunned, then quickly asked: "What should we do now? We have been looking for so many years, and finally found such a handsome, well-behaved, and capable young man. We must not miss him!"

"Ugh!"

Seeing Tian Guixiang's anxious look, Xu Guangfu sighed softly, then said in a deep voice: "The only way now is to let Yingzi come back and get to know Qiangzi first, and then let her decide for herself whether to continue the relationship with Qiangzi."

"This"

Tian Guixiang frowned, then asked hesitantly, "Will this work?"

"if not?"

Xu Guangfu rolled his eyes, and then said unhappily, "Do you think arranged marriages are still possible in the old society?"

Tian Guixiang: “.”

"Uncle Fu, Uncle Fu, are you home?"

"Here, there!"

Hearing Li Guoqiang's voice, Tian Guixiang was delighted and quickly responded.

Then she quickly got up and walked out, warmly inviting Li Guoqiang into the house. She also asked her daughter-in-law Li Xiuqin, who was cooking, to make a cup of honey water for Li Guoqiang.

"Need not!"

Seeing this, Li Guoqiang was immediately shocked by Tian Guixiang's enthusiasm, then he waved his hand and said, "No need, I just want to ask Uncle Fu a question, and I have to go back after that!"

After saying this, he turned around and went into the inner room without waiting for Tian Guixiang to say anything.

When Tian Guixiang saw Li Guoqiang like this, her heart sank slightly and a trace of sadness appeared on her face.

"Mom, do we still need to soak in this honey water?"

Li Xiuqin took the bowl, walked to Tian Guixiang, and asked hesitantly.

"no need!"

Tian Guixiang waved her hand, then said with some disappointment: "Go on and cook!"

Although she really wanted Li Guoqiang to be her son-in-law, she was not the kind of person who liked to force others, and she didn't want people to think that she was begging Li Guoqiang to marry her daughter.

"Ok!"

Li Xiuqin opened her mouth as if she wanted to say something, but in the end she didn't say anything. She just nodded in agreement and turned back to work at the stove.

In fact, compared to Xu Guangfu and Tian Guixiang who were anxious to marry Xu Yuying off, her sister-in-law did not want to marry Xu Yuying off so soon.

After all, if Xu Yuying had not married, her salary and food subsidy would have to be handed over to her family on a regular basis, but if she got married, the money would belong to someone else.

However, Li Xiuqin didn't dare let Tian Guixiang know her thoughts.

Not long after, Li Guoqiang walked out of the inner room, said hello to Tian Guixiang and Li Xiuqin, and hurriedly left Xu Guangfu's house.

According to Xu Guangfu, if he wanted to cut some wood to build a house, he only needed to apply to the production team in advance, and he could carry an axe and go up the mountain to cut wood openly at any time.

After all the materials are cut and brought back, the material cost will be calculated based on the amount of firewood.

In addition, due to climatic reasons, there is no longer an environment for the growth of large bamboo forests here. Even if there are still wild bamboos growing in some places, they are scattered.

In this regard, Xu Guangfu also gave a suggestion, saying that there was a large area of ​​reeds growing in the upstream area of ​​Xiaohewan, which could completely replace bamboo to meet his requirements.

Upon hearing the good news, he immediately asked Xu Guangfu to go up the mountain to cut wood early the next morning, and go to the upper reaches of Xiaohewan to cut reeds early the day after tomorrow.

Soon, he returned home and told Qu Yinfeng about his plan to build a bathhouse and toilet in the yard.

After listening to this, Qu Yinfeng didn't say anything, but just let him handle it himself, and expressed that she could go with him to cut wood and reeds.

Li Guoqiang naturally disagreed with this. After all, he was planning to use the small world to collect wood and reeds, and he certainly couldn't let Qu Yinfeng follow him. So he hurriedly found an excuse, saying that he was going to ask Luo Weixiong and Xu Yuchang for help, and asked Qu Yinfeng to stay at home to help clear the area for building the bathhouse and toilet.

Hearing him say this, Qu Yinfeng did not insist and hurried to prepare the axe, saw and other tools at home.

Afterwards, she brought the freshly prepared clear-boiled bear meat soup to the table on the kang, satisfying the appetite of Li Guoqiang and Xu Dani.

As for the four bear paws, she put them away for the time being, planning to wait until New Year's Eve to make a dish of braised bear paws for Li Guoqiang to taste, and also share some with the brigade cadres to earn some favors.

Soon, it was the next morning.

Li Guoqiang practiced a few skills at home as usual, and then without wasting much time, he put the axe, saw and other tools on the sled, and then went to the back mountain with Dahuang.

Since he would get an extra reward of ten trees for every tree he chopped down, it only took him less than five hours to collect 220 pieces of wood as thick as an adult's thigh and branches weighing tens of thousands of pounds.

Then, he used his small space to quietly move 20 pieces of wood and thousands of kilograms of firewood to the foot of the mountain, and then used a sled to pull the wood and firewood back home little by little.

Having said that, he now lives with Qu Yinfeng and Xu Dani. Everything about it is good. The only downside is that it is more difficult to get supplies back from outside.

If he lived alone, he could use the little space to quietly move his things back home at night.

In this way, even if someone sees something suddenly appear in his house, they will not be suspicious, and may even think that he is a hardworking person.

After working for an entire afternoon, he finally managed to successfully bring all 20 pieces of wood and thousands of kilograms of firewood back home.

When Qu Yinfeng saw so much wood and thought about having to pay at least 4 yuan in material fees to the production team, a look of heartache appeared on her face. She felt that Li Guoqiang was just building a bathhouse and a toilet, and there was no need to spend so much money.

But in the end, she held back and didn't say it.

At this time, Li Guoqiang was unaware of Qu Yinfeng's thoughts. He immediately took a pen and paper to draw the construction drawings and calculated how many reeds were needed. His heart was full of anticipation for the completion of the bathhouse and toilet.

By the time we estimated the number of reeds needed, it was getting dark.

He had been busy all day, and after eating the chicken stewed rice made by Qu Yinfeng, he fell asleep in bed soon.

When he woke up the next day, he found that his personal attributes, in addition to the improvement in skills from routine practice, also increased by 0.01 points of physique and 0.02 points of strength, and his mood instantly became very good.

Then he quickly packed his stuff and headed straight for the reed marsh with Dahuang.

When passing by the small river bend, he suddenly thought of the small ditch in his little world, and felt that when he had time in the future, he should come over and catch some fish and put them in the ditch to raise, so as not to waste such a good resource.

However, there is no rush for this matter. The area of ​​the small world is less than 50 square meters. Even if you want to raise fish, you probably can't raise many fish.

Besides, he didn't have any fishing nets or fishing rods, so he had to find a way to make them.

With this thought in mind, he went upstream along the creek bay and soon saw a large area of ​​withered yellow reeds.

It is said that there used to be some wild ducks in this reed marsh, but since they were severely beaten by the villagers a few years ago, they are rarely seen now.

I don’t know if he can see wild ducks this time. If he can, he won’t have to worry about having ducks to eat in the future.

Soon, with the expectation of a better life, he walked into the reed marsh, and then used his small space to collect the snow on the roots of the reeds. He did not stop until he had cleared an area of ​​ten meters in radius. He felt a little unsatisfied.

The feeling of being able to take things away with a wave of the hand can really make people feel a little addicted, and it can even be said to be very stress-relieving.

If it weren't for the limited capacity of the small world, he would probably be able to play like this all day long.

Then, without wasting any time, he bent down with a sickle to harvest the reeds, and then put them into his small world.

Compared to cutting down trees, cutting reeds is undoubtedly much easier. You can cut a small handful in just a few strokes.

The only trouble is that you have to be careful not to get scratched by the reed leaves.

After working like this for more than two hours, he successfully collected more than a thousand kilograms of reeds.

Since these reeds were of different lengths and had leaves and flower spikes, he did not ask Father Jin to issue an extra tenfold harvest reward right away. Instead, he planned to pick and clean these reeds first and then take the reward.

In this way, he could directly obtain ten times more good reeds, thus saving a lot of work.

And those reed stalks, leaves, flower spikes and other things that cannot be used will not be wasted and can be used as firewood.

After finishing the work, more than two hours had passed.

Then, he took out more than 2,000 kilograms of processed reed stalks, used a small space to quietly move them to Xiaohewan, and then from Xiaohewan, he pulled them back home in batches using a sled.

By the time he pulled back the last bundle of reeds, it had already gotten dark.

Qu Yinfeng looked at the pile of reeds weighing several thousand kilograms and asked in confusion, "Hey, Qiangzi, are you planning to build a hut? Or are you planning to build a house?"

"Ah!"

Li Guoqiang was delighted when he heard this, and then he quickly replied with a smile: "This hut is just a house! They are almost the same!"

After hearing this, Qu Yinfeng finally understood and a look of surprise appeared on her face.

It turned out that the outhouse that Li Guoqiang wanted to build was a outhouse that looked like a house, and not the small compartments she was familiar with, which were just built with a few wooden sticks and thatched curtains!
After understanding it, she immediately felt confused and puzzled, wondering why Li Guoqiang did this?
Is it really worth spending so much money and effort to build a house just for taking a shower and using the toilet?

Li Guoqiang had no intention of explaining this, because people living in this era, especially those living in the countryside, would find it difficult to understand his idea of ​​pursuing quality of life.

That night, he revised the construction drawings again, trying his best to make the bathhouse and toilet he built more practical and sturdy.

At the same time, this also successfully activated his construction skills and acquired some basic construction knowledge taught by Dad Jin, which immediately made him more confident in building a bathhouse and toilet on his own.

In the blink of an eye, it was the next morning.

After a small string of firecrackers was lit at the gate of the courtyard, construction of the bathhouse and toilet finally began.

(End of this chapter)