Chapter 41: It’s Worth Working Hard All Day for a Bite of Delicious Food

Chapter 41: It's Worth Working Hard All Day for a Bite of Delicious Food

Brick and Tile Factory

Deng Shirong explained his purpose and said, "I plan to build a large house with blue bricks and tiles. The building area will be about 580 square meters. I'll need a lot of blue bricks and tiles. I wonder what the price of blue bricks and tiles is here?"

This was a big order, and Deng Changbao was instantly excited. He greeted Deng Shirong warmly, "Uncle Jiu, come over here and sit down. There's a chimney here. You can light a couple of cigarettes first. I'll give you the best price for these blue bricks and tiles."

Deng Shirong nodded and, at Deng Changbao's invitation, went to the factory to sit down and smoke.

While Deng Shirong smoked, Deng Changbao explained, "Uncle Jiu, I usually sell blue bricks for 5 to 6 cents apiece. Since you're ordering so many, I'll give you the cheapest price: 4.5 cents apiece. How does that sound?"

Deng Shirong exhaled his cigarette and said, "4.5 cents apiece is fine, but I want the best quality blue bricks."

Deng Changbao smiled and said, "Of course. The blue bricks I give you, Uncle Jiu, will be of the highest quality."

Deng Shirong said, "I'll order 35,000 bricks first, and I'll make up for it if it's not enough. How much do you charge for tiles?"

Deng Changbao replied, "Uncle Jiu, I usually sell small green tiles for 1.8 to 2 cents apiece. For you, I'll charge 1.5 cents apiece."

Deng Shirong nodded and said, "I'll order 90,000 small green tiles first. If that's not enough, we can make up for it later."

Deng Changbao smiled and said, "No problem. My brick factory has a kiln of green bricks ready to be fired. When will you need them, Uncle Jiu?"

Deng Shirong said, "I'll dig the foundation of my house on the 16th and lay the brick foundation on the 21st. You can send the bricks to me as soon as they're fired."

Deng Changbao nodded and said, "Okay, but firing blue bricks takes quite a while. It'll probably take until the end of the month to finish. Once the kiln is opened, I'll send the bricks to you as soon as possible, Uncle Jiu."

Deng Shirong smiled and said, "The end of the month is fine. I'll be using stones for the foundation first. Once the foundation is ready, your kiln of green bricks should be ready too."

Deng Changbao breathed a sigh of relief and said, "As long as it doesn't delay your progress in building the house, Uncle Jiu."

Next, the two discussed some details. Deng Shirong emphasized the issues of payment in batches and delayed payment, and Deng Changbao readily agreed.

After all, in Deng Changbao's eyes, Uncle Jiu was not only highly respected in the Deng clan of the Help and Correct Brigade but also one of the owners of the tile factory. He was confident that Uncle Jiu would pay, and as long as it didn't affect the operation of his brick factory, a slight delay in payment was acceptable.

After finalizing the deal and leaving the brick factory, Deng Shirong went to Double Prosperity to inquire about purchasing cement.

If Deng Shirong wanted to build a house like those in later generations, he would need a large amount of cement. However, since he chose to build a large blue brick and tile house, the demand for cement was relatively small. It would only be used for laying the foundation. After the foundation was set and the blue brick walls were built, lime would be used instead of cement.

This wasn't because lime walls were better than cement walls. The main reason was that Deng Shirong didn't plan to paint the exterior walls. For aesthetic purposes, blue bricks paired with white lime were a perfect match. If cement were used, the exterior walls wouldn't look as appealing.

Building a house, whether now or in the future, is a very tedious task.

Over the next few days, Deng Shirong was busy with this project. For example, he organized people to move stones from the brigade's stone mountain and transport them back with ox carts. He also had to organize people to collect sand from the river. The lime pit had to be prepared, and the lime had to be soaked in advance.

Things like stones and sand didn't require money—just enough labor to gather them.

Now was the time when every household was busy planting rice. If it were anyone else in the village, it would be difficult to mobilize enough people to do these tasks.

Fortunately, Deng Shirong still had good standing in the village. After word spread, more than a dozen strong young men came to help.

This was already impressive. After all, this was voluntary help without pay. People were even skipping their own work to come and assist, so Deng Shirong naturally couldn't treat them unfairly.

Paying wages wasn't an option. It wasn't that he couldn't afford it, but he couldn't set a precedent. In the village, when someone built a house, everyone helped each other. If Deng Shirong paid wages this time, then when it was someone else's turn to build a house, would they have to pay wages too?

Therefore, to avoid this awkward situation, Deng Shirong couldn't pay wages. Instead, he focused on providing good meals.

So, from the day the young men in the village came to help, Deng Shirong prepared different meals for them every day.

In his system space, he had hundreds of kilograms of pork, five-spice pork, pork hind legs, and braised pork. He also asked the village children to help catch fish, eels, snails, and frogs. With Deng Shirong's cooking skills and his willingness to use oil, the dishes he made were incredibly delicious. The dozen or so young men in the village were practically licking their plates.

It was no exaggeration to say that they had never eaten such delicious meals in their lives!

Deng Shirong was also very thoughtful in his cooking. He prepared at least three meat dishes for each meal, but the portions of these three dishes weren't enough for more than ten young men to eat casually. Of course, the portions weren't too small either, and they could be paired with other vegetarian dishes to make a satisfying meal.

In short, after eating the food prepared by Deng Shirong, the young men worked with great enthusiasm, and stones and sand of all sizes were constantly being transported back.

The news of how delicious the food at Deng Shirong's house was spread throughout Thatchfield Village through word of mouth among the young men. Even people from nearby villages heard about it.

In later generations, many foodies would drive thousands of miles just to eat a single dish.

In this era, when people could eat meat less than once a month, everyone's desire for delicious food was far greater than that of foodies in later generations. For people today, being able to eat a bite of delicious food was worth working hard for an entire day.

Therefore, after the news of Deng Shirong's family's food spread, several more young men came to work voluntarily.

If it weren't for the critical moment of transplanting rice seedlings, even more people would have come to help.

In this regard, Deng Shirong accepted them all. It was a great deal to exchange meals for so much labor.

While Deng Shirong's family was busy, the first batch of goods from the tile factory was successfully fired and removed from the kiln. Deng Yungui didn't waste any time. He immediately contacted a truck, loaded it with goods, and headed to Hepu County with Deng Yuntai to sell the products.

At the same time, following Deng Shirong's advice, they planned to go to Beihai after selling the goods to inspect the tile market there and see if the prices were higher than in Hepu.

Even if the prices were the same, they needed to open up more markets. After all, their tile factory would continue to produce goods. If they only focused on the Hepu market and sales slowed, they would face big problems.

With multiple markets to sell in, they wouldn't have to worry about this issue.

(End of this chapter)