Soon the Villagers arrived and looked at him curiously as they got on the cart, the village head looked at them “you guys are back, this is Hung Ju-Long he wishes to settle in our village so I invited him to take a look.”
The people stared at him for a second before nodding and started greeting him, they all settled in the cart and then it set off to the village it was an hour before they arrived at the head of the village and many of them got off and handed the village head tow coppers each before leaving. The cart continued to drive until it stopped in front of a large wooden house, Ju-Long got off and waited at the front of the house for a while before the village head came back dressed in a different set of robes that had simple designs on them.
He was welcomed into the house and saw three other men, who each had a woman sitting at their sides while another stood behind the village head, the village head introduced each of them, they were his wife Sun Ai-Huan, his three younger brothers Yan Kang-Feng, Yan Kang-Li and Yan Kang-Rong and their wives Wei Ming-Nuo, Mao Qi-Shun and Hsiung Tai-Zheng, their children and grandchildren had been sent out so they could talk to him.
The village head had him take a seat after they all greeted each other and smiled “so you say you wish to settle here, are you looking to rent a house or to buy land and build your own?”
“Eldest uncle Yan, I wish to purchase my own land and buy a house but in the meant time I am willing to rent.”
Eldest uncle Yan nodded “We currently have four houses available for rent, the smallest only has two rooms available, for sleeping, resting, and cooking with the outhouse at the back and there isn’t much land to do anything with and the most expensive one is equipped with six rooms, three of them have Kang bed’s, one is used for the kitchen and the rest can be used as you wish, while the other two have five and four rooms each.”
Hung Ju-Long nodded and they agreed to go and take a look at it in a bit. “As for the land we have a lot available because the government recently allowed us to expand our village, so we have dead land, low-quality land, mid-quality land, and high-quality land, if you wish to just live there then buying low-level land would be best but if you wish to plant your own vegetables then I recommend eighth mid-quality or high-quality land depending on how much you wish to spend.”
Hung Ju-Long nodded and Aunt Sun came over to take the children along with her sister-in-laws so he could go out with the men to see the land, they walked for a while before stopping in front of a large house and Hung Ju-long thought it was ridiculous to live in such a place when it was just him and the children and he would only be renting for a month at most. So they continued to look around and finally settled on renting the five-room house for the month while his house was built, mainly because of the bigger stove.
When that was done they went to see the high-quality land and he purchased several mu, he bought a large portion to build the house on while a small portion was near the land of the other farmers in order for him to grow crops. Within one day the documents were settled and he left the babies with the village head and went over to clean the house, it was kept in good condition so it was just a matter of sweeping out and wiping down.
It didn’t take him long to be finished before he took out a paper, brush, and ink in order to make a list of the things he needed and also consulted with Aunt Sun, when it was done he set out to town and went around to buy the things he needed. It was too much for him to handle alone so the village head had two of his sons, Yan Yun-Zhao and Yan Yun-Zhi, go with him to help him carry his things, by the time they returned it was already after lunch, but he still went over to pack up his house since Aunt Sun said she had already fed that children.
He packed everything well and then looked around the house to make sure nothing was missing and if it was he just took note of it to buy when his house was done in a month, when he was finished he went back to the village head’s house and was invited to have a meal. He didn’t refuse but promised to host a house warming once the new house was built, after eating he stayed to talk for a while before taking his children to the rented house saying that the next day they would meet to discuss the design of the house.
When he got in he fetched some water and put it to boil before mixing it with cold water, he carried it to the outhouse and took a bath while the children were still sleeping, when he was done, he took out some of the fine grain he bought, along with some red dates and brown sugar and set it on the counter. Then went out and brought some of the firewood that the village head had sent over and added to the fire, he set the pan over it and put in the rice, added the water, and let it boil for a while before reducing the fire and adding the dates and sugar, leaving it alone for a while.
He out the fire and then went to check on the babies only to find that Ming-Yue was already awake but was playing quietly on her stomach as her brothers slept next to her, he picked her up and took her to the kitchen, and took the pan off the fire. He scooped out the porridge and set it on the table to cool, once it was cool he fed her some until she was filled and ate the rest, he used another pan to hot some more water and then gave her a bath with the soap he had purchased.
When she was cleaned he took her out and dried her off taking her to the room, she was dried off and dressed, he held her and walked around the house until she fell asleep back and then set her back on the bed, at that time Ming-Ru and Ming-Sheng woke up so he warmed up some of the milk he bought and fed it to them before bathing them and walking around the house with them when they fell asleep, he put them down on the bed and placed pillows around them so they didn’t end up rolling off the bed.
