Chapter 69

A pair of silver bangles, they looked to be at least half a tael, worth at least 500 copper coins at minimum.

The pawnshop only offered 300 wen, it was very unfair.

Wan Old Lady's situation was also very difficult, but Li Yao didn't agree to exchange her bangles.

"Wan auntie, I don't really need these bangles."

Seeing that she was unwilling to exchange, Wan Old Lady was a little anxious: "Li Yao ah, just do me a favor, it's as if I've pawned them to you, next year after the harvest I'll redeem them back."

"Wouldn't that make me a pawnbroker?" Li Yao said, "Auntie, it's getting late, you should hurry home."

An extreme disappointment showed in Wan Old Lady's eyes, but she didn't say any more in the end, putting away the silver bangles she turned around and walked towards home.

"Mother," He Xiaoya heard Li Yao's voice and walked out from the kitchen, "Who were you talking to?"

"It was Wan auntie."

"Did she need something?"

"She wanted me to buy her bangles cheaply," Li Yao said, "but I didn't buy them."

He Xiaoya asked: "Mother, why didn't you tell her about the sweet potatoes?"

"It's not that simple," Li Yao said, "If everyone knows now that there are a lot of sweet potatoes in the valley, they would definitely swarm up to grab them."

He Xiaoya nodded, mother considered things much more thoroughly than her.

"Mother," Wang Erji brothers also came over, "Then when will you tell everyone?"

Li Yao could see that the children all wanted to resolve everyone's food problems as soon as possible. To tell the truth, they were still too kind.

Kindness wasn't bad, but a lot of times it would bring trouble for oneself, so they had to teach them that while being kind, they also had to protect themselves well. "Tomorrow," Li Yao said, "It happens that the new houses are completed over there, I'll ask the Village Chief to help inspect them tomorrow, I'll tell him about it then."

...

Looking at the new houses in front, Li Yao had a feeling of returning to the countryside in her past life.

Five houses of blue brick and blue tile were arranged in a circle, connected by two and a half meter high enclosing walls between each building.

In order to be sturdy, whether it was the house walls or enclosing walls, Li Yao had the bricklayers build them very thick, after all as commoners in this kind of world, they still didn't have much sense of security.

The pillars at the entrance were made from two one-meter diameter monolithic stone pillars.

In order to obtain these two pillars, the Village Chief led some stonemasons to chisel away in the mountains day and night for several days, and mobilized dozens of people to haul them back.

The entrance gates were not yet installed, because she didn't want wooden doors, but had the blacksmiths forge two large iron gates instead. Because it consumed a lot of iron and was not easy to make, it would probably take a few more days.

After entering the gates, there was a courtyard the size of half a football field, the ground was all paved with blue bricks, and there was drainage underneath.

This way even if it rained, water wouldn't accumulate in the yard.

Each house had 3 meter wide eaves, so no matter if it rained or was scorching sun in the future, they could rest under the eaves, and children could also play under them.

Although the walls were not whitewashed, the brick powder was very carefully inscribed, as if drawn using a ruler, looking very comfortable.

The doors and windows were newly made, having just been painted, still exuding a strong odor.

The interior of each room was fitted with a solid wooden ceiling, the benefits were keeping warm in winter and cool in summer. Through the small holes left in the ceiling, things could also be placed in the space between.

The only regret was no glass, the windows could only be temporarily papered for now, but locations for installing glass were left.

Glass wasn't hard to make, it would definitely be figured out later.

Although there would be five families in the future, it would be best for each to have their own space, but that should be a matter much farther in the future, so this time Li Yao had only arranged for one kitchen and bathroom.

The kitchen was a separate room, with two rows of stoves and six pots, as the braised food business would need to continue in the short term, so many stoves and pots were necessary.

Finally, Li Yao entered the bathroom, this was the most important place.

The bathroom was partitioned into three sections, the outermost part had five wash basins, the countertops and sinks were all chiseled blue stone according to Li Yao's specifications, the surfaces polished extremely smoothly, not at all inferior to marble.

The inside had male and female toilets, and further inside was a spacious bathroom.

The floors of the entire bathroom were paved with blue stone slabs, rather than blue bricks, bare feet against them was also very comfortable, and wouldn't slip, even better than ceramic tiles from her past life.

The drainage was also carefully designed by Li Yao, all the sewage flowed from underground culverts, draining directly to the closed biogas pool behind the houses.

Biogas was a good thing, as long as safety was noted, it would definitely bring great convenience to life, adding copper pipes they might even be able to build a water heater. "Li Yao," returning to the courtyard, the Village Chief asked, "Let me know if there's anything you're not satisfied with, I'll have them change it immediately."

"No need, everything is quite good," Li Yao said. "Village Chief, thank you for helping to keep watch these days."

"Hehe, we're all family, no need for such polite words," the Village Chief said. "Since you're satisfied, can we settle the wages for these craftsmen so they can go home?"

"No problem."

Accepting the ledger handed over by the Village Chief, Li Yao didn't look closely, she believed the Village Chief wouldn't mess around with this.

But in the ledger there was only the work days and wages for the craftsmen recorded, not a single villager who came to help was written down.

"Village Chief, what about the villagers who came to help?"

"They don't need wages," the Village Chief said. "We've always been like this, when a family builds a house, people from other families send people to help. And to work at your family's place, they get to eat meat every day. This kind of good thing is hard to come by even looking for it, they even fight to come help, why pay them wages?"

Li Yao shook her head: "Eating is one matter, but wages can't be short a single wen. Village Chief, please help calculate it again. Every person who came to help work, 30 wen per person per day."

"Really no need..."

"If you don't want it, then don't come help my family work in the future."

Seeing she insisted this way, the Village Chief could only say: "Only you would be so generous."

After busy working for half a hour, the Village Chief calculated all the wages clearly, and had people call over all those who had helped.

Hearing they could still get wages, the villagers were overjoyed.

The most received over 500 wen, the least also over 300.

"Sister-in-law Li is so kind, giving us meat every day, and so much wages too."

"That's right," Wang Yuanbang said, "I do hard labor at the docks, and don't even earn 30 wen a day."

"Alright alright, take your wages and go home," the Village Chief said. "Remember to hand over the money to whoever manages the household, use it frugally to buy some food, money isn't easy to earn nowadays."

After the delighted villagers left, Li Yao took out a one tael silver ingot, handing it to the Village Chief.

"You...what are you doing?" The Village Chief quickly waved his hands, "I didn't do any work, how could I take your money?"

"You kept watch all this time, how is that not working?"

"I'd be idle at home anyway," the Village Chief said. "And I'm the Village Chief, whenever someone builds a house I have to go keep watch, it's my duty. This silver, no matter what I cannot accept!"

Li Yao thought for a bit, then said: "Village Chief, I have a way now that can let everyone in our village eat their fill until the wheat harvest next year. If you don't accept this money, I won't tell you about it."