Chapter 199: Chapter 199: New Home

Unlike a few other families, the Qi Family directly invested in building a brick and tile house.

The cost was high, but it reduced the trouble of later maintenance and the upheaval of demolishing and rebuilding.

Especially now that the boys in the family are growing up, like Qi Dalang and Qi Erlang, who are seventeen and fifteen and have reached the age for marriage proposals.

Previous marriage arrangements had to be canceled due to the famine, so they couldn’t delay the children’s marriages just to seek out former in-laws.

Currently, there are no suitable matchmaking prospects, but that is just a matter of time.

Waiting to find a suitable partner before building a new house not only delays time but also risks unfair division of property.

Therefore, it was better to build the house in advance and divide it, so that when it comes time for marriage proposals, it would also serve as an asset.

Thus, the Qi Family got busy once again.

The matters of the noodle stall were handed over to the women in the family, while the men started early mornings driving to the land to dig foundations.

Now, not only the Qi Family and the nearly households in the two courtyards wanted to build houses, but other people who settled from outside Concord City also wanted to build houses.

Some people lived in local villages, either wanting to buy land to build houses or were busy reclaiming land for farming; they were all bustling about.

Meanwhile, the entry fee for Concord City was also lowered.

As long as they had the government-issued plaques, they needed only to pay fifty coins per person per month, and there would be no limit on the number of times they could enter or leave the city.

This expense was not paid by the Qi Family; other nearly households could manage it.

Even Ji Hu and his group had saved several hundred coins, so they could at least afford this expense.

However, hiring someone else to build the house was not an option.

At the start of spring, all kinds of craftsmen in the city were busy, and without an introduction from acquaintances, it was basically impossible to book anyone ahead of time.

Fortunately, the Qi Family had many members, and the house in their hometown was also built by the family, saving them this expense.

In the blink of an eye, it was July, and a long row of courtyards appeared on those two hundred acres of wasteland.

The most noticeable one was the Qi Family Mansion.

It was indeed a mansion.

The other three families each bought two acres of land but only used half an acre for the house; the rest was either yard space or vegetable gardens.

As for the Qi Family, their houses alone took up nearly four acres of land.

There were two long rows of main houses, and the wing rooms were used as storage rooms or woodsheds.

Every two rooms shared a kitchen, with the kitchen opening to the courtyard through a door.

The two rooms in the middle of the back row were for Qi Zheng and Mrs. Qi, while the house opposite was left empty, not arranged for any children or grandchildren.

On the east and west sides were the homes of Qi Dafu and Qi Ercai, then further out were the homes of Qi Sangui and Qi Quanjin, and beyond that were the homes of Qi Quanyin and Qi Quanli.

Each family had two main houses.

The long row of houses in the front, with a central hall that was seventy to eighty square meters, served as a place for hosting guests or where the whole family had meals.

The layout on both sides of the hall was similar to the back row, with a door connecting two rooms.

The overall area was smaller than the back rooms, but it allowed for more rooms to be sectioned off.

On the east side of the hall were Qi Dalang, Qi Sanlang, Qi Wulang, Qi Qilang, and Qi Jiulang.

On the west side were Qi Erlang, Qi Silang, Qi Liulang, Qi Balang, and Qi Shilang.

Although many of the young lads in the house were still too young and slept with their parents, the rooms were prepared in advance.

Qi Manman, as the only cherished girl in the family, was either held to sleep by her mother or embraced by her grandmother due to her young age.

When she grows up, the house opposite the two elders is prepared as her boudoir.

The side rooms, storage rooms, and four bathing rooms lined the two sides of the front and back courtyards.

The front courtyard was turned into several vegetable plots.

The back courtyard housed two restrooms on the east and west, a stable, and the reserved spots for the chicken coop and pigsty.

These places were separated from the rear houses by vegetable fields, so they weren’t too close.

During this time, the Qi Family learned that in Concord City, during summer, the prevailing winds came from the south, so the odors from the backyard wouldn’t blow to the front yard.

In winter, the prevailing winds came from the north, but by then the cold weather and tightly shut doors and windows made it hard for the odors to drift in.

The Qi Family’s courtyard was big and had many houses. By the time it was finished, the other families had already moved into their new homes.

Qi Zheng had Qi Quanjin find a fortune-telling old man in the city to select a day, and the whole family moved into the new house.

By then, it was already mid-July.

The weather was getting hotter, but everyone didn’t feel tired at all; instead, they started clearing land.

There were still over a hundred acres left, and it was too late to plant crops this year.

After discussing, everyone decided to plant a plot of green vegetables for every acre they cleared. They would finish clearing the land this year and worry about the rest next year.

Of course, the other families came over to help.

The Qi Family paid them wages, ten coins a day per person, including three meals.

Since there were many daughters-in-law in the Qi Family, cooking three meals a day wasn’t a problem.

But this meant that the noodle stall business was completely put on hold.

Luckily, everyone believed that farming was more secure, so apart from a few daughters-in-law feeling sad about losing their income for a few days, everyone else was fine with it.

Originally, when building the house, they wanted to set aside a separate house or even a yard for the two doctors.

But Yin Cheng was stubborn and refused a separate house or yard, saying that if the Qi Family didn’t keep him, he would just stay in the city.

Having no other relatives besides him, Qin Minglang couldn’t go against his senior brother, so he had to choose to stay with Yin Cheng in the Qi Family, living in the room prepared for Qi Shilang.

One person per room.

This arrangement also made it convenient for the children in the family to continue learning medicine from them.

One morning, the family children, as usual, came over for lessons with the doctors, while in Yi Meng’s room, Qi Manman was still sprawled out on the kang bed, sound asleep.

Looking through the windows in front and back, although there wasn’t much breeze, it wasn’t as stifling as outside.

Yi Meng brought in lukewarm water, smiled, and shook her head when she saw her little girl sleeping soundly.

Last night, the little girl ran wildly around the courtyard with her brothers and fell asleep exhausted when she returned.

Seeing this, if no one woke her up, she might sleep until noon.

Although no one in the family forced her to learn a certain number of words or read a certain number of books, the little girl enjoyed studying with her brothers.

In the past, if no one woke her for studies, she would wake up and throw a tantrum.

So Yi Meng walked to the side of the kang softly, gently patted her daughter’s bottom, and tenderly called, “Manbao, it’s time to get up and study!”

“Mumble.”

The little girl, not knowing what she dreamed of, muttered a word, turned her body, and continued sleeping with her back to Yi Meng.

“Manbao, if you don’t get up, you’ll miss morning class.”

Yi Meng patiently continued to coax her daughter.

Qi Manman grumbled a couple of times but still didn’t open her eyes.

The child loved to sleep and was tired from last night, so Yi Meng sighed helplessly and was about to let her daughter sleep a while longer when suddenly, she heard the little girl mumble something.

Yi Meng’s actions paused as she looked at the small figure on the kang with a bit of fear.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep