Chapter 847: Relying on a Great Tree for Shade

Seeing the water from the spring flowing away to waste, Wang An thought about digging another large pit and building a larger pond.

As for this pond, Wang An's idea was very simple: it was for raising fish.

Yes, raising fish—specifically, expensive and delicious varieties.

Of course, Wang An had this idea before, but he hadn't decided where the fish pond should be located.

Mainly, if he didn't dig a pond, the open space in the courtyard would just be sitting idle.

Crucially, Wang An's courtyard, which spanned a full 30 mu—over 20,000 square meters—was truly a bit too large; it had to be utilized fully.

Of course, the size of the place was only one factor. On the other hand, when Wang Shuai and Wu Dong had planned to send cement and sand to Wang An, they had miscalculated.

At the time, Wang Shuai calculated that each house needed 11,200 jin of cement, which he rounded up to 12,000 jin, as construction materials should always be plentiful.

However, when converting units, Wang Shuai mistakenly said 12 tons instead of 12,000 jin. In reality, 12,000 jin equals 6 tons.

But at the time, Wang An's mind was entirely occupied by the fact that he had been cheated out of 240 yuan when buying cement, so after Wang Shuai spoke, Wang An didn't do the math carefully.

Furthermore, not only did Wang An fail to calculate it, but even Wu Dong didn't give it a second thought.

Consequently, after Wang An finished building the main house, the side rooms, and the livestock pens, he not only had nearly 14 tons of cement left over, but also twenty-five or twenty-six cubic meters of extra sand.

The reason the proportions of leftover sand and cement didn't match was that the concrete used for bricklaying in Wang An's home had a cement-to-sand ratio of approximately 1:3 to 1:3.5, which is considered the optimal ratio.

With so much extra sand and cement—aside from the 4 tons of cement bought by Mu Xueli's family and the 2 tons bought by Wang Li's family—the remaining materials were just right for building a fish pond.

Since the materials were available, he got straight to work. Right after finishing his meal, Wang An started up the crawler tractor and began pushing the large pit for the fish pond at the far northwest corner of the new courtyard.

To prevent the water in the pond from freezing solid during the low temperatures of winter, Wang An pushed the depth of the fish pond to over 4 meters.

However, doing so invisibly increased the danger of the pond.

Therefore, a perimeter wall had to be built on the side of the pond closest to the courtyard.

Fortunately, whether it was building the pond or the wall, it was work that required little technical skill and didn't take much time.

Thus, amidst the hustle and bustle, a week slipped by unnoticed.

Just yesterday, once the white lime wash was applied to Wang An's two new houses, the entire project was basically complete.

The reason for using the word "basically" was that the glass had not yet been fitted into the windows.

Normally, the completion date should have been three days earlier.

Because once white lime is soaked in water, as long as the color changes from grayish-white to white, it is actually ready for use.

This process usually only takes about one to two hours.

However, there is a high possibility that such lime has not fully matured.

To be safe, he let the lime soak in water for an extra three days, which pushed the completion date back by three days.

During these seven days, the new houses for Wang Li's family and Mu Xueli's family also broke ground.

Mainly, it was already late July, and the vegetables in the garden had all been harvested; only at this time were there enough vegetables to feed the hired laborers.

After seeing Wang An's spacious and bright new house, Mu Xueli's family and Wang Li's family changed their previous plan of building only three large tiled rooms, deciding instead to follow Wang An's house structure and build five large tiled rooms.

It had to be admitted that the house Wang An designed was the most reasonable and practical for a place like Heilongjiang Province, where winters are long.

Whether it was the design of the underfloor heating, the fire walls, or the northern kang, it could be called perfect for this era.

Moreover, the structure of Wang An's house had become completely famous in Xing'an Township, and people from neighboring villages often came to visit out of curiosity.

Of course, this was quite normal; no matter what it is, once someone starts, those who follow the trend will inevitably appear.

What was unexpected was that the house Wang An designed would later become a model; almost every new house or renovated house would be built according to this template.

Of course, that is a story for later.

Due to the sudden change in building plans, Wang Li and Mu Xueli had been exhausted over the past few days.

This was because the various construction materials they had previously prepared were no longer sufficient.

Fortunately, both families had horse-drawn carriages and walk-behind tractors, making it very convenient to buy things.

Additionally, Wang An's two circular saws were each taken by one of the families. However, since the walk-behind tractors used to power the saws were limited, the two families had to swap them back and forth or use their own tractors.

Similarly, they had to take turns using Wang An's crawler tractor for pushing foundations and the chainsaw he had borrowed.

It must be said that with a great tree like Wang An to lean on—or rather, such a strong backer—many of the major difficulties these two families would have faced were solved simply by Wang An.

The phrase "leaning against a big tree makes for good shade" was absolutely fitting for Wang Li and Mu Xueli.

To be honest, even Wang An envied these two—envied them for having such a powerful, "cheat-code" fourth brother or brother-in-law.

But Wang An could only envy them in thought; after all, within the entire circle of relatives, he was currently the only one capable of carrying the heavy load.

Early this morning, after eating breakfast, Wang An drove his four-wheel vehicle toward the county seat. As for Wang Li and Mu Xueli, they were currently busy enough to be breathless, so Wang An didn't call them along.

However, in the bed of Wang An's vehicle was a pile of straw mats and a triangular wooden frame.

The reason Wang An was carrying these things was that he was going to the county seat to buy glass.

Transporting glass is incredibly tedious. Even with so many cushioning materials, Wang An still felt uncertain.

Mainly, driving a four-wheeler carrying glass over gravel roads—who wouldn't be nervous hearing that?

Fortunately, Wang An had a good mindset: if it breaks, it breaks; if it's gone, it's gone.

Thanks to "Big Account Empire Emperor" for the reward, thank you, thank you, a thousand thanks!

(End of Chapter)