Text丨Li Chengyuan
After the reform and opening up, especially in the 90s, the villagers went to the city to work and earn money, and they all became rich. A meager salary is just for the children to study, often beyond their means, and they have to borrow debts, let alone build a house!
When I retired, my sons and daughters got married and bought their own houses in the same city. And our old couple still live in a dilapidated mud house, which is renovated every year. At that time, six or seven families in our small village all moved out as if they were rushing out, building new small buildings near the road, and they wanted to have convenient transportation with the outside world, so that they could earn money and make it convenient for their children to go to school.
Our family stayed in the old house, used to living, the gold nest and silver nest are not as good as their own soil nest, living quietly, peace of mind. However, after a long time, I occasionally encountered the contempt of a few neighbors who moved out. The human heart is so weird, you are stronger than him, he is jealous, you are worse than him, he mocks.
After retiring in 2004, he spent most of his time with his children, and rarely in the old house, for more than ten years. The two children couldn't bear to let their parents go back to the village to live in an old house. The son temporarily rented a house in Macheng City, arranged for his parents to live and look at the house, and traveled all over the city for more than a week, but returned in vain.
We weighed the pros and cons of urban and rural areas, living in the countryside with a superior natural environment, breathing fresh air, drinking sweet mountain springs, and eating green fruits and vegetables with distinct seasons. When people are old, they are not suitable for urban life, they like to be quiet, and it is more suitable for them to retire in the countryside. At that time, the transportation was inconvenient, and the medical conditions were worse than those in the city, and I believe that it will gradually improve in the future. So the vision of building a new house in the old place was born.
At the end of 2014, after some twists and turns, I finally made up my mind to build a new building in my hometown.
For a century-old plan, the first thing is to choose a good plot. I asked a feng shui gentleman to look at the plot, and it was only two or three hundred meters away from the old house.
The land is well located and the newly built country road passes through it, providing easy access to the world beyond the mountains.
Then, he handed over the money to the village committee to apply for the homestead, which was quickly approved.
Then, the auspicious day of the zodiac was chosen, the ground was started, and an excavator was invited to open the mountain and level the foundation of the building. We invited a local stone masonry master with exquisite craftsmanship to lay a good foundation according to the house plan we designed and drew by ourselves.
In 2015, on a good day in spring, the great cause of building houses was launched as scheduled. I lit firecrackers to greet the construction masters, and the vehicles carrying steel bars, cement, sand and gravel, and bricks also rumbled from the newly built highway one after another to participate in the grand event of building my family's house. Villagers from the neighborhood rushed to hear the news, and some families even sent baskets of fresh vegetables. Everyone congratulated one after another. The fields, where people are not surprised by people on weekdays, suddenly became lively, and the newly opened construction site was full of joy.
High-rise buildings rise from the ground. The first phase of the project, that is, the first floor, according to his son's opinion, must be made into a solid wall, so that the floor foundation is stronger and the seismic performance is strong. Even if the cost is higher, it can't save labor.
Adhering to the principle of quality first in the century-old plan, steel bars, cement, wood and even sand and gravel were selected at any cost and of good quality in the local area at that time.
The masons and carpenters hired are well-known for their craftsmanship, and the work is carried out in a safe and orderly manner.
The footing exposed to the ground is poured with steel and concrete, and the carpenter master first erects the formwork, and then asks the craftsmen who open the mixer to pour and form it at one time, which we call "ground hoop".
Began to build the wall, the master is a husband and wife partner, they go out early and return late, and the time for work is arranged in an orderly manner, never doing the work of the nest worker, the work efficiency is very high, and the quality is first-class.
Seeing that the walls are the same every day, the openings of doors and windows are also reserved, and the hall, bedroom, and kitchen have revealed their prototypes. The roof of the first floor was then poured.
After the first floor is formed, work is stopped for a period of time to allow the new wall to sink and stabilize, which is called "resting the wall", and then the second floor is started.
To the second floor capped, the whole rough house area of more than 200 square meters, from the beginning of spring to June took half a year.
After autumn, it is the placement of kitchen, bathroom and other equipment, the laying and installation of water and electricity pipelines, the painting of external and internal walls, the installation of doors and windows, the installation of stair handrails and the maintenance of steps, and so on. These are meticulous work with long construction period and high technical content, and the materials and accessories have certain specifications, and the slightest mistake will affect the entire system. The materials, equipment and installation of water and electricity are all checked by his son.
At the beginning of winter, the interior and exterior painting decoration was completed, the guardrails around the top floor of the second floor were installed, and the building was capped and completed, with a construction period of one year.
The building project was finally completed safely and smoothly, and I pasted a couplet on the door of the new house: Say goodbye to the mountains and rivers and have no way out, and enter another village with clear weather.
That night, I tossed and turned and couldn't sleep, so I occasionally turned into a limerick poem:
寒窑虽破避风雨，儿女不让往里钻。
Renting and buying a house is a blind toss, and thinking about it is not as good as it should be.
When people come to seventy years old, what will happen if they will live?
There is no way out of the mountains and rivers, and we will do our best in one go.
It is easy to buy land and build a house, and the building materials on the construction site are piled up.
All walks of life are indispensable, and don't slack off with three workers and six craftsmen.
The family is not idle in building a house, and the children are uneasy outside.
There is no trivial matter in the hundred-year plan, and there is no small matter in the heart.
The old man has a lot of strange tempers, and it is quite difficult to communicate with each other.
I hope that your children will be more considerate and misunderstand your good ideas.
It has been a year since the start of construction and completion, and I am fortunate that my life is still preserved.
The masturbating old couple is alive, and the dream of moving arbor is sweeter.
At the end of 2015, the children rushed back, and the little grandmother ran and shouted as soon as she got out of the car: "Grandpa and grandma have a small villa, so beautiful!" Everyone reunited in their new home and celebrated the first happy Chinese New Year's Eve.
In 2016, the first spring of the new house came, and every day when the door was opened, the first rays of sunshine in the east would be bathed, which made people feel refreshed, contrary to the cold atmosphere of the old house sitting south to north.
At the foot of this verdant hill, in the green fields, once upon a time a brand new building was erected, and fireworks rose in the world, attracting the attention of passers-by.
Some acquaintances half-jokingly said to me: "Mr. Li, I am retired, I am seventy or eighty years old, and I am still building a house, and I am ready to live two lives!"
There are also people who sarcastically unequivocally: "You retired people, sitting every month to receive a salary, is there a lot of money and nowhere to spend, and there is no place to be powerful, isn't it okay to enjoy happiness?"
Some people, out of concern, suggest buying a house in Macheng City, which is convenient to live in, and there is a chance of appreciation in the future.
I have to thank the villagers for their comments, they are all honest from the heart. I replied to them by justifying myself: drunk and drunk, the country road has been built, and finally caught the last train for everyone to build a house!
My hometown is Futianhe Town, upstream of the Jushui River at the southern foot of Dabie Mountain. It was my birthplace, where I had a wonderful childhood, and I went through the years of studying. In 1960, the government mobilized the residents of small towns to devolve to the countryside, with the slogan "We all have a pair of hands, and we don't eat idle in the city". So, my brother led the whole family to settle down in this remote and poor mountain village.
In 1963, when I graduated from high school with no hope of going on to higher education and finding a job, it was the first major turning point in my life as my family moved here.
Here, an intellectual young man has been transformed into an authentic farmer in 16 years.
Here, start a family and start a business, have children and raise daughters. Year after year, he worked hard, worked hard, worked hard, worked hard, pinned his hopes on the next generation, and poured the family's financial resources into his education for them. Thankfully, they have lived up to the painstaking expectations of their elders.
Here, after the reform and opening up, my life ushered in a new opportunity to become a glorious people's teacher.
Our family has formed an indissoluble bond with this land, although we have tasted the ups and downs of building a house, but we have no regrets, we are willing, and we are happy in it, after all, our wishes come true.
My new home is located on the West Hill, facing the sunrise, and the name of the mountain is "Le Ma Huitou", and the house is nestled on the horse's belly near the front legs. This hill is the remnant vein of the distant mountain "Phoenix Village", she is independent and lovely, like the hills in the Beihai or the Summer Palace, if you go deep into the forest after the Qingming Festival, there will be the fragrance of orchids refreshing. In front of the new house is a vast green field, and in the distance, there is a winding undulating green mountain range, which is called "Longmen Case Bijia Mountain", which echoes with the building. To the north of the field, a large river flows gently from northeast to southwest, silently nourishing a fertile field here.
People working in the fields, children going to school, and vendors going to the countryside passed by in groups. Motorcycles, farm vehicles, and passenger cars travel through the newly built roads, as well as cattle and sheep grazing by farmers, and this place is full of life and vitality.
Spring is coming, and the early birds are chirping and hovering over the fields. The wheat seedlings and rape in the fields are exceptionally fresh and tender green in the early spring sunshine, and the breeze blows green waves. The Camellia oleifera trees under the mountain stretch out shiny new shoots and grow upward.
Not only in front of you, but spring brings warmth and vitality to all living beings in nature.
But isn't it, a serious illness that began in June last year tormented me to death, and my condition did not improve until the cold winter of Layue, and I had a premonition that I would not be able to get through the New Year. Heaven is beautiful, this spring came early, blessed with another spring of my life, so that I smoothly entered the old age.
I hope that our wretched husband and wife will nourish our bodies and minds in the embrace of green mountains and green waters, raise flowers and vegetables in this ploughable and livable countryside, splash ink in this small study with bright and clean windows, enjoy the happy life of peace and prosperity, and spend more than a year together, this life is enough!
I am convinced that in the near future it will be better than it is today.
I hope that after their parents grow old, children will not forget this hot land, because she is where your roots are, even if your home is thousands of miles away.
On April 5, 2024, Lee Seung-won was eighty years old
☆About author:Li Chengyuan, male, born in 1944, from Macheng, Hubei Province, senior teacher, hobby of writing and calligraphy art; after retirement, he published many essays and modern poems in Macheng Literary Micro-journal; creator of "Today's Headlines", published dozens of articles on calligraphy theory and techniques and a large number of calligraphy works.
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Editor: Yi Shusheng