Chapter Seventeen The House is Completed

  The construction of the house has been going on for about 7 or 8 days, and the house is almost half finished. Every day, the whole family is exhausted and just wants to lie in bed without talking much. The women in the household are always busy in the kitchen cooking meals for nearly 20 people, which is still a bit challenging.

  Lin He just helped out with some chores, washing vegetables and whatnot. Zhou Shi was in charge of chopping the vegetables, Xu Shu was responsible for cooking the main dishes, and Huang Shi was the one holding the big spoon. Every day, the four of them were busy running around. And on top of that, Huang Shi had to deal with her mother-in-law's unreasonable demands, it was really exhausting.

  These days, Lin He also discovered a problem. Although Grandma Zhao was a bit overbearing and unreasonable, she could still get along with others, even treating the youngest daughter-in-law, Zhou Shi, with a warm smile, and being extremely fond of her several grandsons.

  It's just that towards Huang, it's indeed a bit like finding fault in an egg, as if everything Huang does is wrong. After all, Huang is still a junior and can't go against her mother-in-law, so she can only endure it. Fortunately, it's just these few days. Huang thinks that once the house is done, her mother-in-law will leave and finally feels relieved.

  Lin He, a modern person, often saw her grandmother intentionally making things difficult for her mother-in-law and couldn't help but feel a bit fed up. On this day, seeing that Xu Shu and Huang Shi were not around, she secretly asked Zhou Shi what was going on.

  The Zhou family quietly revealed that Zhao was extremely fond of his second son, Er Niu. Er Niu had been filial since childhood and was most favored by the elderly. When it came time for Er Niu to get married, Zhao had originally planned to arrange a marriage between Er Niu and his own older brother's daughter, who was also Er Niu's paternal cousin. The two families were willing, but then Er Niu fell in love with Huang at first sight during an accidental encounter and insisted on proposing to her family. Zhao refused, but Er Niu would not back down, and in the end, Zhao gave in.

  This was the fate that awaited Huang as soon as she arrived at the Lin's house, her mother-in-law would not tolerate her presence. Later, Eldest Three also married and moved out, Zhao took care of the eldest son together, then the whole family of Eldest One moved to the town, which made them even more estranged. Moreover, Huang was a honest person, she knew that her mother-in-law didn't like her, so she never tried to please her, so their relationship became increasingly distant.

  Lin He heard all this, and fortunately at that time her father did not marry his own cousin. If he had married his cousin, it would have been a close relative marriage, which would have been troublesome. These ancient people really thought that marrying within the family would be better, but they didn't know about all the harm it could cause. However, if her father had married her cousin at that time, there wouldn't have been any of these troubles with those few little rascals.

  Lin He thought it was better for her grandmother not to live with them. If they lived together, the relationship between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law would be strained, which wouldn't work out well. It would also make things difficult for those in between. Anyway, after a while, grandma left. Later on, when their family's situation improved, they could visit her more often.

  Lin Lao Die and Zhao Shi originally thought that the Er Niu family was just casually rebuilding their house, dividing it into a few more rooms. Now, seeing that their son's new house is built with green bricks and the family doesn't seem to be short of money, they finally feel at ease.

  They also asked Er Niu where he got so much silver, and Er Niu repeated what he had said to the clan head. This made the Zhao family look at Lin He's granddaughter with even more favor, often muttering "Our family's Er Ya is clever and pretty, we should find her a good husband in the future".

  Lin Lao Die listened to her nagging all day and said, "Erya is still so young, when did she get married? Besides, isn't she still worried about Er Niu's wife? Why do you worry so much as an old woman?"

  "Zhao said, 'It's just that if I had a mother-in-law like Madame Huang, I'd be worried. Could someone like her teach Er Ya well?'"

  However, Lin Lao and Zhao Shi were also relieved. When the third child was still around, they were most worried about this second family. With many people in the household but little labor, they could hardly make ends meet all year round, with more than half of the days being difficult to get by.

  Now things are going well, and from time to time they still support the Third Family. Speaking of the Third Family, it's also a worry, Zhou Shi is still so young, and the children are small. If Zhou Shi wants to remarry, they can't stop her. From their hearts, they don't want Zhou Shi to remarry. If Zhou Shi remarries, what will happen to these two little ones?

  If she takes the child away, who knows what kind of life the child will have in the future. The life of being a burden to others is definitely not easy to live with. As grandparents, they can't bear to see their grandchildren living that kind of life. If they leave the child at home, there's no one to take care of it. It seems that the two old folks will also have to return to their hometown, and they can still take care of the child a bit.

  The son of their own family is gone, and the daughter-in-law is so young that she can't let her spend the rest of her life in widowhood. This is a sad thing for the Lin family to do, and it's also boring for the two old men to live in town every day with nothing to do.

  In recent years, several sons have been filial and had some spare money. At that time, they will find the second elder to take care of them and see if they can come back to buy a few mu of thin fields for themselves. In case there is a place for the Zhou family to go in the future, their own grandchildren can also take care of it.

  Lin He and Huang didn't expect Lin Lao Ye and Zhao's plan, but that's for later. Now building the house is the priority. The workers are rushing to finish on time, and Lin He also told Huang to make sure the food is well prepared. The house that was supposed to take almost a month to complete was finished in just over 20 days.

  The day the house was completed, the villagers were invited to come and drink wine, which is a local custom. On this day, the workers also helped to clean up the house inside and out, and many people from the village came to help. This was the most lively day since Lin He arrived here.

  Almost everyone in the village has arrived, and the villagers have come to drink wine. Basically, it's one household per person. Linjia Village also has over a hundred households, and there are over a hundred people. Some people even brought their children, but the children don't count as heads. Adding my own relatives and construction workers, we've got fifteen tables of wine.

  On this day, many women in the village also came to help with the wine ceremony. Lin He saw relatives he had never seen before, such as his paternal grandparents and their two aunts, as well as some clan relatives. Lin He's maternal grandparents, seeing that their daughter's family had built such a good house, held Huang Shi's hand and said, "My child's hard days are finally over, and from now on, we will live a good life."

  Huang's eyes also turned red, thinking of the past days that were indeed bitter and tiring, also holding his parents' hands without speaking. But this day was crowded with people, and there was no way to have a good conversation. The lunch dishes at noon were also extremely sumptuous, Linjia Village rarely held such a grand celebration, Er Niu said that he would spare no expense to make the banquet successful.

  Each table was filled with five dishes, all of which were meat dishes. The staple food was white steamed buns. Every guest ate until their mouths were oily. Whose family's dishes could compare to this? This was the best in Linjiacun Village. Everyone knew that Lin Erniu's family had really become rich, living in such a good house and hosting such a lavish banquet.

  Many people come to fawn on Er Niu, but he just scratches his head foolishly and doesn't say much. However, he's not a fool after all. In the past when his family was poor and really struggling to get by, he also went to ask for help from villagers, but how many people actually helped him? Now that things are a bit better at home, so many people come to fawn on him. Indeed, "many add flowers to brocade, but few send charcoal in snowy weather."