Rebirth of Bayi Fishing and Hunting in the Northwest

Chapter 1420 Nephews and nieces build new houses, Li Long plans the area

Over the next two days, Li Long noticed that Sun Jiaqiang was looking at him strangely. He didn't pay much attention to it because Liu Gaolou had brought in a lot more stuff. At this point, the main focus was on the supplies. They had to unload the cars, scrap copper, and specialties brought from Central Asia, and then load them with canned goods and sugar before hauling them away.

After two days of finishing up all these things, Sun Jiaqiang couldn't help but seek out Li Long.

He said to Li Long, "Boss, do you still have that bunch of grass you gave me last time? If you do, could you get me some more? If not, could you tell me where you can find it and I'll go get it?"

Li Long then remembered the "Howling" rifle he had used to experiment on Sun Jiaqiang, and asked with a smile, "So, did that thing work?"

Sun Jiaqiang nodded a little embarrassedly, scratched his head, and said, "I tried it, and it seems to be quite effective."

Li Long said, "I have some more at home. I'll bring them to you when I come over after lunch this afternoon. I found them in the mountains and just picked some."

"We probably can't sell them in our market. Maybe I'll see if I can find any when I go into the mountains again, or you can come with me when you have time. We'll see how much we can gather."

Sun Jiaqiang eagerly awaited Li Long's arrival that afternoon. Li Long, thinking he wasn't particularly useful and knowing where the thing grew, brought all the things that were drying on the rack at home.

He simply tossed the things aside and forgot about them. When he went to look for them again, he found that some had fallen to the ground and been swept away as trash, and only a few remained.

As Li Long was packing up the grass leaves, Gu Xiaoxia, who was getting ready for work, asked:

"What is that thing? It looks a bit like a willow leaf, but the back is bumpy. I wonder if it has worms in it."

Li Long told Gu Xiaoxia that this thing was a kind of herb that Sun Jiaqiang wanted, but he didn't say anything about its specific effects and just glossed over it.

When Li Long gave the leaves to Sun Jiaqiang, he specifically explained that they hadn't been preserved well and there weren't many left.

Sun Jiaqiang didn't pick and choose, carefully holding the handful of dry grass leaves and putting them in a cardboard box. Seeing Sun Jiaqiang's expression, Li Long even doubted whether this stuff was really effective. He was already a bit too hungry and weak, and needed a lot of nourishment.

That afternoon, while Sun Jiaqiang was working at the purchasing station, he found a teacup and brewed this thing.

After drinking six or seven cups, I was overjoyed, thinking that I could still show my prowess tonight. But when I went to try it out with great enthusiasm, I found that it seemed to be different from before.

The effect isn't as strong anymore, and the stamina isn't as good either.

Faced with the somewhat resentful Tillandsia, Sun Jiaqiang was also full of doubts. The grass and leaves were fine. Could it be because he had soaked the semi-dried leaves before that it was effective? Or was it because of something else?

He couldn't figure it out, so he thought he'd take some time to go into the mountains with Li Long, pick some fresh leaves, and experiment with them before making a decision.

After finishing up Liu Gaolou's matter, Li Long had a few more days of free time, so he drove back to the Fourth Team.

At this time of year, when things aren't particularly busy, there aren't many people in the fields. You can occasionally see small four-wheeled tractors with tillers weeding and loosening the soil.

The cooperative's courtyard is currently where the working group works.

So Li Long didn't go over there; he drove directly to his elder brother's house. To Li Long's surprise, Li Junfeng, Li Junhai, and Chen Qianjin were all discussing something in his elder brother's yard. Seeing Li Long arrive, these nephews and nieces greeted him one after another.

Chen Qianjin, the only one who called Li Long "brother," was a little shy. After Li Long responded to each of them, he smiled and asked, "What are you all talking about? Look how many people have gathered here."

Li Junfeng said, "Junhai and the others have their household registration transferred to our team, right? Now that they have a little more free time, they're thinking of contacting the team to finalize their homestead and then planning to build houses."

Li Long knew this matter was quite important, so he asked, "Where are you planning to get the land for the house?"

Junhai pointed south and said, "I'm planning to see if I can build another house next to your front yard, Uncle Xiaolong. If I can't, I'll move to the side."

Li Junfeng said from the side, "They all want to live with you, Uncle Jianguo and Uncle Xiaolong, so that you can stay close by and look after each other."

Sitting by the door, Du Chunfang, the old woman, said with a smile, "Once you finish building the house, bring your parents from your hometown over. Then you'll have more familiar faces, and you can chat with them when you have free time."

Li Long looked around and found that everyone had the same idea.

He said, "That won't do."

Li Jianguo, who hadn't spoken until now, asked, "Why not? Is there no more land for building houses here? If not, we can move to the west or east. There are still large vacant lots to the west. Or we can move south of Junfeng's house, where we can also allocate land for two families."

Most of these Li family members, including his nephews and nieces, were brought here by him and Li Long. Li Jianguo was quite agreeable that they could all live together. So he was particularly interested in hearing why Li Long said that.

Li Long said, "Our settlement here, and the settlement over at Dongzhuangzi, won't last much longer. In the future, the village will be unified and centralized, and our team's settlement should be the western settlement by the reed ditch."

If new houses are built, they'll all be planned in that direction, which means our current settlement here won't count. After three or four years, we'll have to demolish the old houses and move to the west again, which isn't worthwhile. It's better to apply for the houses there all at once, and then move there one family at a time.”

Li Jianguo asked in confusion, "How did you hear this news? The team didn't mention it, and none of us village representatives know about it. Is there some new policy coming out?"

Li Jianguo wasn't suspicious of Li Long; he was just puzzled. Li Long usually managed to get some new information, and it always turned out that Li Long was right. He found this a bit sudden; the village's settlement was doing well, so why merge it?

Li Long smiled and said, "This is a major policy from the autonomous region, which is to conserve arable land. If people live in scattered settlements, the residential areas are divided haphazardly, and a lot of land is wasted, which does not conform to our country's policies. Therefore, we will definitely have to gradually merge them in the future."

"And as you should know, our village's original settlements were mainly on the west side. The east side originally had a few scattered families who were among the first to move in, which were later expanded into a larger settlement. Now it's just a matter of merging the residential areas to free up farmland."

Li Jianguo was well aware of this. When they first settled in the fourth team, they built houses in the western residential area. Their first house after getting married was also in the west, but the houses there were rather simple, so they later moved to their current residential area and built new houses.

Back then, the top-down development model was to expand the living area as much as possible and open up more farmland. When building houses in the current residential areas, the idea was to be as close as possible to the work area. After all, in the 1970s, there were no bicycles, and private individuals basically didn't have horse-drawn carriages, let alone tractors or cars.

So back then, you had to walk to work in the fields. As the old saying goes, "An ugly wife is a treasure if she lives close to the land." The land you farmed was close to your house, which saved you a lot of trouble.

However, the development model has changed. With high-horsepower tractors, clearing land for farming is no longer a problem. Every household has bicycles, donkey carts, small four-wheeled tractors, or even cars, so distance is no longer a major issue when it comes to working in the fields.

Now, the villagers in Team Four all understand that farming needs to be done on a large scale to make big money. Li Long's cooperative has set a good example for everyone, so now all the idle wasteland in the village has become the focus of everyone's attention.

However, most of the easily cultivated wasteland has already been cultivated. The remaining land is either too saline-alkali or too far away to be irrigated.

So now that Li Long has brought it up, Li Jianguo thinks it makes a lot of sense. After all, if both settlements are demolished, at least several hundred acres of land can be freed up, and if drip-irrigated cotton is planted on those acres, the yield would be considerable.

Therefore, Li Jianguo said, "Xiaolong is right. The settlement on the west side has the most orderly planning. Of the remaining two settlements, one is built next to the main canal and is not square; the other is our settlement, which has many alleys and is built in a somewhat messy way."

Therefore, the settlement to the west is the easiest to expand. Junhai, why don't you guys just apply for a residential plot there? Maybe we'll move there in a couple of years.”

Seeing that his elder brother had listened to his advice, Li Long felt relieved. In fact, this incident happened two years later in his previous life. At that time, the team announced that all residential land would be allocated to the western area, and no more houses would be added to the two eastern settlements. Moreover, the existing houses would be gradually demolished, and all residents would gradually have to go to the western settlements to allocate their own residential land.

At that time, the wealthiest families in the village had two newly built houses in the central area, but they had to be demolished after less than two years. The village committee didn't offer any compensation, so the tens of thousands of yuan were essentially wasted. There was nothing they could do but accept their bad luck.

Not only the villagers' own houses, but also the old horse house and the preschool next to the old team headquarters were demolished.

In this life, however, Li Long bought the old horse ship and applied for land to build a drip irrigation tape factory and a cooperative courtyard, so at least this area of ​​buildings has been preserved.

Having worked under Li Jianguo and Li Long for the past few years in northern Xinjiang, Li Junhai and his group had long been accustomed to obeying their orders. Therefore, wherever Li Jianguo said to apply, they planned to apply there. Of course, this matter still required Li Jianguo to coordinate with the team leader; allocating five plots of land for residential use at once wasn't an easy task.

After the location of the homestead was determined, Li Long specifically reminded his elder brother: "Brother, do you remember there's a large alkaline pit in the eastern part of the western residential area?"

Li Jianguo nodded and said, "Of course I remember. That alkali pit was extremely saline, covered with a layer of white salt crust. Stepping into it would leave one pit after another. No grass grew there, not even reeds."

Li Long said, "When you go to discuss it with the team leader, you must be careful to avoid that alkali pit. Don't carve the land there, otherwise you won't be able to grow vegetables or fruit trees in the garden."

Li Jianguo laughed and scolded, "Do you think I'm stupid? Of course I know about this. You brought such a big project to the team, so the team leader is willing to give you this much face. The residential area in the west is still a bit far from the alkali pit. I've been thinking about it these past few days to see where it would be more convenient and better to draw the map."

It was them. Li Long then inquired about the work progress of the team over the past two days. Li Jianguo told Li Long, "The team has now built about ten pumping stations, four of which are confirmed to be unusable. Of these four unusable pumping stations, the pumps from three can be dismantled and recycled, while the remaining one cannot be used because the pump's specifications do not meet the requirements."

Fortunately, the pumping stations of the cooperative were all compliant and usable, and the canals that Li Long had funded to build were also retained. The working group even praised the cooperative for this.

Li Jianguo then told Li Long, "The working group has been inquiring these past two days about which engineering company built the pump house. They said they're planning to start building the pump house and could hand over part of the project to the original company. This way, we can save money by hiring so many more people from other places."

Li Long thought to himself that Meng Hai was really busy; after making a name for himself, this kind of work came his way.

Li Long then said to his elder brother, "I'm going to call Meng Hai now and tell him. This project is worth several million. Even if we only get one-tenth of it, it would be great."

Meng Hai wasn't at the company; he was at the construction site. Li Long told the person who answered the phone to go to Team Four as soon as he got back. If he had any questions, he could call Li Long to ask.

After hanging up the phone, Li Junhai said to Li Long, "Uncle Xiaolong, we'll need you to take care of things when we build the house."

Li Jianguo also said to Li Long, "Usually when we build houses, we all work together, but now we don't have that kind of time. Just laying the foundation takes a lot of effort."

If your construction company has any spare workers, bring them in and have them build the houses. Junhai and his team have saved some money for the construction; if that's not enough, I'll cover the difference.

This is a big deal, so we definitely need to get it done quickly. I just called Meng Hai, but he wasn't there. I'm planning to go to the company this afternoon to find Meng Hai and arrange this.

In his view, the people who were repairing the road, including Feng Guoqing, could have come and built the houses themselves. The houses for the five families didn't necessarily have to be built together; they could be built one by one, and one construction team would have been enough.

Moreover, Feng Guoqing and his team can finish repairing the road in two or three days. If there are no other plans, they can simply start building houses instead.

After this matter was settled, nothing else happened; everyone just chatted and passed on the torch.

Li Long asked his sister-in-law for a piece of frozen pig lung, and also got a rod and fishing line, planning to go to Xiaohaizi to catch some crabs. He hadn't been to Xiaohaizi for a while and wanted to check on the situation there.

When Li Long mentioned wanting to go crabbing at Xiaohaizi, the others laughed. Li Junhai said, "We should ask Junfeng about this; he knows the most."

Li Long asked them what was going on, and Li Junfeng said embarrassedly, "My dad hasn't had much to do lately, so every afternoon he goes to the small lake to set up the nets, and then goes to retrieve them early in the morning."

After catching the fish, I'd ride my bicycle to the county's morning market to sell them. I didn't do much, just three or four nets a day, catching about ten kilograms, which would earn me a few dozen yuan. After selling the fish, I'd come back, collect the nets, test them, and then go back to fishing in the afternoon. It was like a job; I was never idle, and I went every day.

Hey, isn't this just like the fishermen in the village in later generations? They rely on the small lake and the big lake for their livelihood.

Li Long then asked Li Junfeng, "Can your dad catch crabs when he sets up a net?"

Li Junfeng thought for a moment and said, "Dad uses nets with three, three and a half, and four fingers, hoping to catch big crucian carp. He can occasionally catch a few crabs, and also some water chickens, wild ducks, and water rats."

Li Jianguo said, "The crabs don't have roe yet, right? Isn't it too early? After the dredging last year, there were fewer crabs in this small lake, right? These things have to dig burrows, and the dredging destroyed their burrows. After that, it's hard to say whether they can survive the winter."

Since Li Long had nothing else to do, he said, "I'll bring the net too. If I can catch crabs, I will. If not, I'll cast the net a few times and catch some crucian carp to eat."

Upon hearing this, Li Junfeng, Li Junhai, and the others were also interested in going, so they decided to drive two cars. Li Long, as usual, drove his Land Cruiser, carrying nets and crab-catching equipment. Li Junfeng drove the minivan he had left with Li Jianguo, taking the others along. The two cars, one after the other, arrived at Xiaohaizi. Li Long was surprised to find that there were quite a few people fishing along the East Dam and North Dam lines again.

After getting off the bus, before Li Long could speak, Li Junfeng and the others surrounded the fishermen, loudly shooing them away. Despite the clear signs prohibiting fishing at the small lakes, the fishermen ignored them.

Li Long initially intended to let them off the hook, but upon discovering that some were actually fishing for crabs, the matter couldn't be resolved. Some of the anglers were repeat offenders who knew it was a privately contracted reservoir, so they quickly packed up and left. Some tried to argue, but Li Junhai and his men weren't going to tolerate them. They confiscated their fishing rods and catches, pointing at the sign and saying, "Are you blind?"

Li Long wasn't heartless; this had happened once before. He had no problem with fishing, but he wasn't happy about the crabs and shrimp he'd painstakingly obtained from fish fry.

Li Long was also thinking about whether he should leave someone here specifically to watch over the area and collect fishing fees. Otherwise, if word got out, the entire area around the small lake would soon be teeming with anglers. He looked at the crabs that Li Junfeng and his group had confiscated from these people; they were of varying sizes. The larger ones were the size of a palm, clearly two or three years old; the smaller ones were barely bigger than a silver coin, just newly hatched fry. These people were indiscriminate in their choices, taking whatever they caught.

After everyone was cleared out and the place became quiet, Li Long finally had time to take a closer look at Xiao Haizi.

After the dredging, the small lake became noticeably neater. The reeds and cattails along the embankment were gone, and you could see directly into it from the side without any obstruction, which was much more convenient.

The reeds and cattails growing on the water's surface, having had their withered parts burned off in winter, are now lush and green, giving the area a distinctly waterside feel.

Occasionally, you can see fish leaping in the water, or whitebait swimming swiftly on the surface, leaving a trail in their wake. Bathed in sunlight, the water shimmers and sparkles, a beautiful sight.

The sounds of toads and frogs mingled together, and wild ducks could be heard calling from time to time, indicating that the wild animals inside had grown to a considerable size.

Looking at and listening, Li Long felt very satisfied: "This transformation is truly a success."

Since someone had already caught crabs, it meant there must be quite a few crabs in the lake. Li Long decided to pack his things and fish some more, planning to have a nice lunch.

Just as Li Long had hung up the lungs and found a relatively flat spot, intending to cast his line into the water, he smelled a foul odor.

It smells terrible, like the stench of a decaying animal carcass; it's very pungent.

Li Long looked around but didn't see any bodies. There were none on the water either. He glanced at the others; Li Junfeng and the others were busy adjusting their poles and hadn't noticed anything.

Li Long simply stopped fishing. He picked up the rod with the lungs hanging from it and followed the scent, soon arriving at the sluice gate in the northeast.

This sluice gate is not the one he built; it's the original sluice gate of Xiaohaizi, specifically used to release water into the fields for irrigation.

Standing on the edge of the cement ditch below the sluice gate, Li Long remembered that he had paid for the construction of this ditch, which the locals commonly called the cement ditch.

Below the sluice gate is a four- or five-meter-long straight cement canal, and further down is a three-way water diversion canal, with two smaller sluice gates responsible for water distribution. To my east is a main canal built with money from Li Long, leading to a large area of ​​land, and to the north is a canal leading to the rice paddies south of the western residential area.

The smell was coming from the small sluice gate to the north, where the canal was still an earthen canal, unchanged.

Li Long jumped over the dry canal, reached the sluice gate, looked down, and oh my, felt so disgusted he wanted to wash his eyes.

Below the sluice gate is a concrete channel over a meter long, and below that is muddy ground. Water is frequently pumped through it, and the large volume of water flowing down the concrete channel washes a large pit into the muddy ground. Once the water is full, it flows downstream.

Even when the land is not being watered, this pit will retain water and then slowly dry up.

The pond has now dried up, and it was once filled with fish, nearly half of which were crucian carp, ranging in size from a fingertip to a palm. The largest ones were about the length of a chopstick, and there were also a few silver carp.

At this moment, the fish were covered with flies, and white maggots were crawling around on their bodies, which was disgusting!

The stench is coming from here.

When Li Long jumped over, he startled the flies. Suddenly, it felt like a dark cloud had rolled in, and the flies took off and scattered in all directions, buzzing as loudly as a helicopter flying by!

This reminded Li Long of a crosstalk routine by a certain soldier: When the education bureau inspected the school toilets, more than 20,000 flies pushed him out of the toilet! Two minutes later, the bell rang, and when he went back into the toilet, the flies were gone. He asked the principal, who said that the cafeteria was open for lunch... the flies had moved to a different spot!

They're essentially the same thing, aren't they?

Li Long knew that this was routine. As long as Xiaohaizi existed and these farmlands needed watering, this scene would occur after each watering.

Until all the channels are converted into cement canals, and there are no more puddles formed under the branch gates, these fish will no longer live in such places. They will only be swept into the ground and die scattered there.

Of course, now that the entire village's 10,000 mu of farmland is undergoing a major transformation, the fate of these fish will be better. The smaller ones will pass through the filter screen and enter the filter pond, where they will live for a while. The larger ones, however, will not be able to pass through the filter screen and will be caught and eaten.

Li Long stopped looking at the fish that had been eaten by maggots—with the current blazing sun, the fish would be completely dried out in a day, and the maggots would die along with them.

He was a little curious as to why no birds came to eat the maggots. Was it because they smelled too bad?

When Li Long reached the dam line, he heard Li Junhai shouting loudly—he had caught a crab.

When Chen Qianjin saw Li Long return, he assumed Li Long had gone to the restroom and asked:

"Brother Xiaolong, is your stomach upset?"

"No, I smelled something rotten, so I went to check and found a pit full of dead fish," Li Long explained. He glanced at the spot he had chosen earlier and decided to abandon it. He planned to find a spot upwind so he wouldn't have to smell that odor again.

The new location wasn't as good as the first, but at least the air was fresh. Li Long tossed the lung, with the string tied to it, into the water and waited quietly.

Three or four minutes later, it was lifted up steadily, and two small crabs were hanging on it.

He used a pole to shake the crabs into the bucket he had brought, and then continued.

By noon, the group had caught a total of four or five kilograms of crabs, including many large ones with long hairs, which were very active, baring their claws and spitting out bubbles.

"Let's go, let's go back. If we don't go back soon, my older brother will drive over and call us to dinner." Li Long called out, telling everyone to pack their things and go eat.

Fishing is an unstoppable phenomenon. Nowadays, everyone has their own things to do, and it's impossible for everyone to keep an eye on things like last year. So let people fish if they want; as long as they don't run into trouble, no one can control them forever.

Let's see who's unlucky.

When I got back to my older brother's house, the food was already ready.

We're all family here. For lunch today, we made hand-pulled noodles, along with other standard dishes: fried chives, fried celery, and spicy mutton stew with garlic.

Li Jianguo makes noodles, Liang Yuemei makes dry noodles, and Du Chunfang, the old lady, tends the fire. The cooked noodles have already been rinsed with cold water, and there's a big bowl of them.

"Come and eat, the noodles were just cooked a short while ago." Liang Yuemei hurriedly called out as she saw people return.

Although Li Junfeng's whole family is staying here, and Li Junhai and his family have started cooking for themselves, Li Jianguo's family has clearly prepared meals for everyone today.

They were all family, so they didn't stand on ceremony. They took chopsticks and enamel basins, scooped out noodles and mixed vegetables, and ate heartily.

Li Long then set up a fire under another stove, intending to steam the crabs.

"Xiaolong, don't worry about it. I'll steam it after we finish eating!" Liang Yuemei called to Li Long. "Hurry up and eat!"

Li Long then stuffed two pieces of firewood under the stove, and then went to wash his hands and eat.

During the meal, Li Long asked his older brother:

"Big brother, isn't Juan about to graduate? Has she told us where she'll be assigned?"

Li Jianguo put the last six dough pieces into the pot and said, "She said she's been assigned to the autonomous region. She said that based on her grades, she should be in Wucheng, the autonomous region's main city, but she hasn't said which specific unit yet."

This was within Li Long's expectations, since given Li Juan's school and her grades, it was unlikely that she would be assigned to a prefecture or county.

I guess she'll be back soon.

I don't know if she and her boyfriend have reached the stage of discussing marriage. Of course, Li Long is just thinking about these things. It is his older brother and sister-in-law who should be worried.

After lunch, Li Junfeng and the others chatted under the pergola in the yard, discussing the design of the house they were going to build and when they would bring their relatives from their hometown over.

Liang Yuemei steamed some of the crabs and put the rest in a bucket, intending to have Li Long take them back.

Li Long ate a few crabs, then carried half a bucket and drove back. On the way back, he saw someone riding a bicycle to Xiaohaizi, but he didn't pay attention to it. He just let things take their course.

After arriving in the county, Li Long put the crabs back in the courtyard and then went to find Meng Hai.

Meng Hai was still not at the company. Li Long learned from the staff who stayed behind that Meng Hai had gone to the section of road under construction, so he drove to look for him.

Upon finding Meng Hai, Li Long saw him directing workers to boil asphalt and went over to talk to him.

“Building houses? No problem.” Meng Hai clapped his hands, left the sweltering asphalt melting plant, and said, “Boss, Feng Guoqing’s work is almost finished. Once they’re done, we’ll bring the truck to your village, how about that?”

“Hey, you and I are thinking the same thing,” Li Long said with a smile. “I reckon they’re the only ones here who have a lot of free time.”

“Indeed. Guoqing and his team have built houses before, both in the city and the countryside. They have experience, so hiring them won’t be a problem,” Meng Hai said. “I’ll tell him about this when he comes back after he finishes repairing the road.”

Since he shared the same idea as Meng Hai, Li Long didn't say much more on the matter. He brought up the work group for the 10,000-mu (approximately 667 hectares) large-scale farmland renovation project in the fourth team, and said to Meng Hai:

“Since they’ve approved of the pump house and filter you built, then we can proceed with this project. I think it would be better if you could take some time to meet with the working group. If there really is a project, we should make the money.”

“Okay, I’ll go take a look tomorrow.” Meng Hai is used to it now. He goes to several construction sites in rotation, keeping an eye on safety and quality at the construction sites, and running around for projects outside of the construction sites. He is very responsible.

At the same time, Li Jianguo drove to the home of team leader Xu Chengjun.

Xu Chengjun was repairing his family's tiller in the yard.

Li Jianguo stepped forward to lend a hand, explaining the matter of the homestead while helping with the work.

“Even if you hadn’t come to me, I would have told you anyway. I heard the news in the township that from now on, each village will be concentrated in one residential area, with only one residential area allowed. It’s said that they are piloting building apartments for large villages, with the entire village moving into apartments. If the pilot is successful, it will be rolled out to other areas.”

“Screw it, how is that possible? If we move it upstairs, how am I supposed to manage all those tractors? We’d have to feed the pigs and chickens!” Li Jianguo didn’t believe it. “Ordinary people need to have yards; they can’t live like city people.”

"I heard about it too. By the way, it's quite wise of you to include those five family homesteads here. Now that some old homesteads can be included, the vegetable gardens won't need to be tended anymore," Xu Chengjun said.

“I’ll mark out the area for you, and you can divide it among the five families. I won’t get involved in the specifics. Each family can’t exceed 1.7 mu. If you build now, you have to build a wall around the yard and dig a ditch. That will be the standard from now on.”

"Why is it so complicated?" Li Jianguo said with some dissatisfaction.

“There will be more and more rules in the future,” Xu Chengjun said. “We’re a model village for achieving a moderately prosperous society, so people will come to visit. We need to make it look presentable, otherwise people will gossip.”

Well, since someone's come to visit, there's nothing we can do about it.

Li Jianguo wrote down these terms and planned to go back and explain them to Li Junhai and the others in detail.

Anyway, that's settled.

P.S.: I have two things to say. One is about typos. Since I got sick, I mainly type by voice, so it's difficult to check for errors on my phone. I will try my best to overcome this.

Secondly, it's authorized by Himalaya and Lazy Audiobooks. (End of Chapter)