524 Bricks and Tiles
Those two children were clearly more mature than some adults.
Jiang Yue had already followed Xue Yan out of the central room. There were still some strawberries in the bamboo basket. She passed the basket to Lu Zhuangniu and let him eat the strawberries.
“Thanks!” Lu Zhuangniu had always been a straightforward person, so he did not stand on ceremony. He grabbed a large handful and washed it in the basin at the side. Then, he began to eat. As he ate, he asked, “Then are you coming with me now or later? Now that the rice has been harvested, we only need to dry the rice. In fact, you’re probably not that busy now either. You should come with me right now to settle the matters early.”
“Is Chief Lu at home now? If he’s here, I’ll go and find him with Jiang Yue now.” Xue Yan said.
“Yes, I ran into that guy when I just came out of my house. Now he’s gone. Fine, fine, let’s go to my house and check.”
After that, Xue Yan and Jiang Yue followed Lu Zhuangniu to his house.
When Chief Lu saw Xue Yan and Jiang Yue and heard their intentions, he immediately smiled, “Your family should be allocated a big piece of land and build a big house. No matter what kind of big house it is, I hope everyone will be able to live in it well. We all know how much all of you have to squeeze in that house. It’s good to build big brick houses. In this village, only your family can afford to build them. Alright, alright, I’ll lead you guys to see some land. Let’s mark out the land first, then we’ll come back to write documents and get the title deed.”
“Okay, thank you, chief.” Jiang Yue and Xue Yan both thanked him.
“You’re welcome.” Chief Lu laughed. This had always been his business as the village chief. “Do you really want to choose the land next to Xue Dagui’s house?”
It wasn’t strange for him to ask this. Ever since Xue Dagui had built a house near the paddy field, no one had built it there for many years. They had all built it next to other people’s houses because they didn’t want to be neighbors with Xue Dagui.
Xue Dagui did have a neighbor, but that couldn’t be helped. That person had built a house there first, and when Xue Dagui wanted to build a house, he had to choose a piece of land. That was where he had chosen it, and that family had been forced to become Xue Dagui’s neighbor.
In the past, when Zhang Meili was still around, there were endless quarrels. Now that Zhang Meili and Xue Zhuzhi are gone, Xue Dagui has changed a lot!
“Xue Dagui is doing fine now, and my father has a bottom line. Since my father said that we’ll go there, and no one else in the family has any objections, we’ll go there.” Xue Yan said.
Chief Lu looked at Jiang Yue.
Jiang Yue nodded along. She didn’t really care.
“Alright, alright, then let’s go to see the land.” Chief Lu said with a smile. “Zhuangniu, get some ashes, ropes, and other things to mark the land,” he shouted.
Then he smiled at Xue Yan.
“I heard that you are good at drawing. You should look at it carefully. Don’t make me draw like a caterpillar. When you are done, mark the size on the corners and edges. I will sign and stamp my thumbprint.
“Then I will send it to the Chief Officer for the signature and stamp. Then, the Chief Officer will bring it to the government to officialize it. As long as the land is not too big, you won’t have to pay much.
“However, if it exceeds the size stipulated by the government, you will have to pay a certain amount. I’ll make it clear to you first. This isn’t like the barren land on the mountain where you can toss around a dozen acres of land.”