He just wanted to protect the meager living expenses that Grandma Juying earned from digging wild vegetables and picking bamboo shoots.
"What will happen in the future? You can hide it for a while, but you can't hide it forever!" Jiang Yu laughed, but couldn't help but worry about Grandma Juying's life in her later years.
He thought Jiang Xiaoman's method was good, but it wasn't a long-term solution.
After all, Jiang Xiaozhu has become addicted to sponging off his parents, and Grandma Juying and her generation are particularly good at saving money. They will save up all the money from selling wild vegetables and honey, and when their son comes back at the end of the year, won't he be wiped out in one fell swoop?
"I'll help if I can. If they really would rather starve to death than not support their son, what can I, an outsider, do?" Jiang Xiaoman sighed, feeling a mixture of love and resentment towards elders like Grandma Juying.
He believed that if it were his father, Jiang Youliang, who heard that he was owed wages and so poor that he couldn't even afford to eat, he would definitely send him money without hesitation and would not doubt whether his son was lying to him.
Parents, especially the older generation, really want to worry about their children for a lifetime!
It's still the kind of thing where there are no regrets.
His father used to tell him that as long as he could get into university, his father would sell his blood to support his studies.
Jiang Xiaoman never doubted the truth of his father's words, because he believed that if his father didn't have enough tuition fees, he would really sell his blood... So he had been working hard to earn and save money, just so that his father wouldn't have to sell his blood to raise tuition fees for him.
Jiang Youliang was like that, and so was Grandma Juying.
Parents' hearts are always full of love and worry!
Unfortunately, some children know how to be grateful and repay their parents for raising them.
Some children seem to be born only to collect debts from their parents...
However, Jiang Xiaoman was worried that Grandma Juying's money had really been swindled away by her son, so in the next few days, she coaxed Grandma Juying to take the money she had earned from selling wild vegetables and mountain products in the past few days and use it to buy rice, flour, oil and other things to store at home.
That way, even if my son swindles all my savings again, at least I won't be starving.
Surely Jiang Xiaozhu wouldn't be so heartless as to steal rice, flour, and oil from his own home to sell for money?
Poor Grandma Juying, worried that her son wouldn't get his wages, called him twice, but he was probably busy and didn't answer her calls...
After hearing Grandma Juying's worries, Jiang Xiaoman was speechless.
What's keeping you so busy that you don't have time to answer the phone?
He's clearly afraid his mother will ask him for money for medical treatment, so he's not even answering calls from his hometown, is he?
Jiang Yu, who was standing next to her, couldn't help but comfort her: "Grandma, you should think of it this way. The fact that your son hasn't called home means he's received his salary and is financially secure. He would definitely call home if anything happened!"
Jiang Xiaoman suppressed a laugh, thinking to herself that Jiang Xiaoyu was truly wicked, she was killing him by hurting his spirit!
Sure enough, when Grandma Juying heard this, her furrowed brows relaxed.
"That's right! My son Xiaozhu is very hardworking at the factory! He often works overtime at night, and he even told me to call him as little as possible so as not to disturb his work."
...
Watching Grandma Juying's unsteady departure, Jiang Xiaoman and Jiang Yu were at a loss for words.
However, he soon became too busy to dwell on the matter.
The provincial TV station finally sent a film crew to his house. Along with them came An Miaomiao, the head of the "Old House, New Home" program, designer Yan Xuanxuan, and the renovation company's project supervisor, Zhou Liu.
The name "Saturday" is somewhat magical, so much so that Jiang Xiaoman couldn't help but want to take a day off whenever she heard the supervisor's name.
However, he is quite different from his name. He not only dislikes taking holidays, but is also a complete workaholic!
Despite Jiang Xiaoman's repeated polite requests that there was no need to rush the project, he decided to rent a house in the village on Saturday so that he could personally oversee the project and complete it as soon as possible.
That's really unnecessary!
However, Jiang Xiaoman soon found out why this guy had given up the comfortable life in the big city and insisted on coming to their small mountain village to settle down on the construction site and make contributions.
One evening, Jiang Xiaoman didn't need to pack and ship anything. Thinking about how the supervisors and workers at the renovation company had been exhausted from rushing to meet the construction deadline for his house, he went to the town market and bought a few pounds of pork, a bag of frozen chicken legs, and asked Jiang Yu to save him a seven-pound black carp. He also brought over some small river fish that he had caught with a fish trap the night before, all packed in a bucket.
"Hehe~ Xiaoman, can I help you pick out these small fish and shrimp? Can you cook lunch for three more people? My Shanyan went into the mountains again, and I'm taking care of two girls by myself, so it's not easy for me to cook." Jiang Yu shamelessly came over to freeload a meal.
"Okay! Then go back to my uncle's vegetable garden and get me some vegetables, cut five lettuce stalks, one cabbage, cut two bunches of chives, and also pick some tender peas and broad beans..." Jiang Xiaoman ordered this freeloader around without any sense of entitlement.
Jiang Yu stared at him dumbfounded, wanting to say that his uncle hadn't hit him for a week and that he was clearly asking for it... However, since it was Jiang Xiaoman who was going to get beaten, he could just focus on eating. Principal Baichuan was very kind to the parents, so he definitely wouldn't beat him up too!
That evening, Jiang Xiaoman cooked a large table of dishes and also bought two bottles of Niulanshan beer and a case of locally produced beer.
On the borrowed octagonal table, a large pot of ham stewed with bamboo shoots was placed in the center. Bamboo shoots were in abundance at this time of year, and they were cheap and delicious. Jiang Xiaoman didn't feel bad about using them to cook, and stewed a whole big pot!
Next to it were two large bowls of braised pork belly with preserved mustard greens, braised pork with potatoes, fish head stew with tofu, braised fish chunks, cold shredded lettuce, cold houttuynia cordata, dry pot cabbage, steamed broad beans with salted pork, and stir-fried eggs with chives...
There was also a plate of steamed peas with minced meat and a bowl of steamed egg custard, which were nutritious, soft and delicious, and were specially prepared for the two sisters, Shan Guo and Shan Hua.
A table full of delicious food excited the men who had been craving wine. After a round of toasts, Supervisor Zhou was also encouraged to drink a few cups. He suddenly grabbed Jiang Xiaoman's shoulder and started sobbing.
"Brother! I'm having such a hard time! I don't even dare to go home now!"
Jiang Xiaoman turned her head to look at him with a dark expression, and sized him up. Zhou Jianli, who was 180 cm tall and had a strong build, did not look like someone who would be abused by his wife.
However, soon after, on Saturday, he poured out his heart to everyone, recounting his miserable experiences—
"Me, hiccup~ My wife had a son as her first child, and this son is a money-devouring monster! He's only two and a half years old! We've already spent over 100,000 yuan on him, and haven't even heard a ripple!"
"Now that the three-child policy is in effect, my wife wants another little girl. Hiccup~ My parents are joining in, saying that one child is too lonely, and if we have another granddaughter, then we'll have both a son and a daughter, and be as happy as gods. Pshaw! Aren't they the ones who earn money to support the family? It's easy for them to say that!"
"A son and a daughter? What if she's not pregnant with a sweet girl, but with a disappointing child?"
"I'm already exhausted with just one son. If I have another one, it's not like I'm giving my child a companion! It's like I'm giving myself an ancestor!"
"Xiaoman! Listen to your brother, if you don't have at least a million or two in savings, don't even think about having children! Kids are all money-devouring monsters! Regardless of whether they're boys or girls!"
"Look at me, I'm too scared to go home now, I'm terrified my wife will make me have a baby! Why is she so desperate? Waaah..."
Supervisor Zhou, with two bottles of Niulanshan liquor in his mouth, cried like a homeless child.
Everyone at the table was nearly bursting with laughter, except for one middle-aged man who genuinely had two sons. He clinked glasses with Supervisor Zhou with a sympathetic expression, offering him words of encouragement to run away from home.
"Brother! You made the right decision to hide! Let me tell you, my wife thought the same thing. She had a son as her first child and wanted a daughter, but when the baby was born, wow! It was another son!"
"You don't know, nowadays, all the families in our village with daughters try to avoid my wife and me!"
"Even the matchmaker in our village said that if a family has two brothers, even if they've bought a house in the county town, they'll still be picked on when they go on blind dates... Sigh! My life is ruined by these two boys. Brother, you have to hang in there!"
"Waaah..." Supervisor Zhou and the kind-hearted man hugged each other and cried bitterly.
Jiang Xiaoman was speechless. She turned her head and saw Jiang Yu squatting happily by the small table, feeding her two precious daughters. The other families, who only had sons, looked at Jiang Yu with envy.
I heard he has three daughters! Wow! What's there to worry about for the rest of his life? Just wait to enjoy life!
The drinking session left the craftsmen with sons at home feeling extremely worried. They were concerned about the lack of a wedding home for their sons and the absence of any dowry money. They could hardly sleep all night and got up to work before dawn the next day.
Jiang Xiaoman felt heartbroken when she saw this, so she specially rode her bike to town and bought a lot of oily and filling fried dough sticks and pancakes. She also cooked a big pot of sweet potato porridge for them.
Driven by the money-devouring beast, the renovation of Jiang Xiaoman's house progressed at breakneck speed, and the overall framework was completed in less than half a month.
This time, An Miaomiao did not lead the team herself, but only sent a cameraman to reshoot some of the middle scenes.
With the help of Yan Xuanxuan's company's renovation team, Jiang Xiaoman's family's original rustic two-and-a-half-room house has visibly become more stylish...
Chapter 156
In order to open this express delivery station, Jiang Xiaoman had visited several express delivery stations in the county town, only to find that they hadn't even been renovated!
If you have decent conditions, rent a storefront, paint the walls white, put up two rows of secondhand shelves, place a table by the door, and set up your computer, printer, QR code payment system, etc. on the table, and you can open for business.
Some courier stations located inside residential communities don't even have a storefront; they simply rent someone's garage for a monthly rent of two or three hundred yuan and can then receive and send packages.
He never thought about decorating his family's courier station too nicely. According to his original budget, he only needed to paint the first floor white, put a few shelves and a table, and then put a small warehouse next to it, which would also make it convenient for him to receive mountain products and the like.
However, since she had already agreed to the program, and the other party was providing the money and effort, Jiang Xiaoman couldn't just stand by and interfere.
Most importantly, he went back to watch the old house renovation cases designed and decorated by Yan Xuanxuan's team in the previous episodes of this program, and found that this designer is really good at doing some down-to-earth designs, unlike some designers who call themselves artists and always do some down-to-earth designs...
As it turns out, Yan Xuanxuan did not betray his trust.
Looking at the semi-finished frame in front of her, Jiang Xiaoman was absolutely delighted and couldn't wait to finish decorating and move in!
The original empty two-room house on the first floor has been divided into several functional areas by Yan Xuanxuan using flower walls and cabinets of different designs.
Upon entering, you are greeted by a perforated floral wall. When the red brick wall was built, individual shelves were intentionally left out to display frequently used items, flowers, and green plants. Originally, if a full wall of wooden shelves were built in this location, the cost would be at least several times that of brick, and it would also be prone to damage over time.
But building it directly with bricks would be much sturdier and more durable. In addition, Yan Xuanxuan specifically asked the decorator to tile the inside of the partition, which would also make it easier to clean.
A huge countertop was built directly under the flower wall using a single piece of wood, with the entire area underneath raised. This way, when Jiang Xiaoman packs packages, she can simply place the crates under her feet, packing one package at a time and putting it in. It's very convenient, and the flat surface makes it easy to clean.
Next to it, a corner table was built with bricks and wooden boards, which can be used to place a computer, printer, etc., so that the workbench and the office area can be separated.
There was room for a few stools next to the table against the wall, but Yan Xuanxuan thought the stools took up too much space, so she simply asked the workers to build a whole row of booths along the wall. This way, more people could sit, and they were also more sturdy than ordinary plastic stools.
Diagonally opposite the flower wall is a semi-open partition wall, under which a row of shelves can be placed for villagers to pick up their packages. The open space above allows for ventilation, making the air inside the delivery station fresher.
It seems that the great designer Yan has probably been to the courier station converted from the garage quite a few times to pick up packages, as he even considered ventilation.
Beyond the flower wall, there was a small room on the other side. Originally, there was only one small window in the back, but Yan Xuanxuan felt it wasn't bright enough for a bedroom, so she added a load-bearing column to each of the two walls, embedding it in the wall structure. She then directed the demolition workers to smash the walls, creating a large window in each of the other two walls.
The custom-made bed is against the wall, opposite which is a bright glass window. The window next to it is framed and designed as a bay window for storage. There are also two large wardrobes on both sides of the bay window, so there is a place to put clothes, and Jiang Xiaoman does not need to buy an extra wardrobe.
Opposite the entrance, Yan Xuanxuan utilized the corner space to create a small office area for Jiang Xiaoman using plywood. The spacious desk could easily accommodate three desktop computers without feeling cramped. Two rows of floor-to-ceiling bookshelves were built against the wall behind it, and even the small space near the window wasn't wasted; a small tea-making table was constructed for Jiang Xiaoman using red bricks and tiles, with space even reserved underneath for a teapot and teaware…
It can be said that every square meter was used to its fullest potential!
No wonder he was voted the top designer of the program by the people!
...
Next to the small bedroom is the staircase leading to the second floor. Originally, according to the custom of building houses in their rural area, this staircase was built on the side. Yan Xuanxuan specially asked the construction team to change it to the middle so that it could separate the bedroom from the warehouse. After all, there are all kinds of things in the express delivery, and the smell is quite strong. With two walls in the middle, it feels much better.
The staircase was also cleverly designed. Several rows of shelves were built under the stairwell to serve as shoe cabinets, and there was also a place to hang umbrellas. Next to the staircase was a bathroom with separate wet and dry areas. The layout was very simple, with only an extra sink for rinsing mops.
“There are so many people coming and going on the first floor, the bathroom will still be dirty no matter how much you clean it. I put the shower room and your own bathroom on the second floor for you. It’s just a little inconvenient to go up and down every day,” Yan Xuanxuan explained to Jiang Xiaoman.
"What's so troublesome about that? When I was a child, my family didn't even have a shower room. In winter, my dad was afraid I'd catch a cold if I took a shower, so sometimes I would only take a shower once every two weeks. Even now, there are still many families in our village who haven't installed shower rooms." Jiang Xiaoman didn't think there was anything inconvenient about it. It's just a matter of going up one flight of stairs.
The rest of the first floor is a large warehouse, so there's not much to see there.
Up on the second floor, in an area of less than 100 square meters, there were five rooms, and next to them was a nice sunroom. Passing through the sunroom, you would find the communal restroom.
The bathroom was specially designed in three sections: the innermost section is the shower room, the middle section is a squat toilet, and on the walls to the left and right of the toilet are two thin wall-mounted cabinets for storing commonly used bathroom items such as toilet paper and toiletries. There is a door between the bathroom and the outer room, which leads to a double-basin washbasin. Next to the washbasin, there is space reserved for a washing machine.
"Once the interior decoration is done, if there's still a bit of budget left, I'll install an automatic clothes drying rack here for you. After you wash your clothes, you can just put them here to dry, and you won't have to worry about forgetting to bring them in when it rains," Yan Xuanxuan told Jiang Xiaoman, pointing to the sunroom.
"Hehe~ Thank you, Sister Yan!" Jiang Xiaoman did not refuse. She knew that the program team had a budget from sponsors for each episode. As long as the budget was not exceeded, the success of the renovation of the old house of the person seeking help depended mainly on the designer and the project supervisor. One was good at saving money, and the other was good at spending money.
Jiang Xiaoman wasn't worried about the supervision at all. Supervisor Zhou seemed to want to be sent to Africa by the company to build houses. He was more attentive to this house than he was the owner. You could say he put all his energy into the renovation.