Peasant families had no such rule as "no speaking while eating." Li Menglan glanced at her father, whose face was full of smiles: "Dad, how much did today's sugar-roasted chestnuts sell for?"
Li Menglan planned that if her family had money and the weather was good, she would first build a house. In this ancient era, there were no such things as air conditioning or heating. If even the house was dilapidated, once the weather turned cold... Li Menglan really didn't know if her small frame could endure it.
Therefore, in Li Menglan's plans, the most important thing for this family was—building a house!
Li Dazhu didn't know why his daughter was asking this, but he still replied in an old-fashioned manner: "Mm, today's sugar-roasted chestnuts earned a total of more than nine taels of silver. Daughter, why are you asking? Do you want to buy something?" Li Dazhu suspected nothing, thinking his daughter wanted to buy some food or daily necessities.
"Dad, didn't you say last time that if we built a house, it generally wouldn't even cost ten taels of silver?" Li Menglan blinked her eyes and stared at Li Dazhu as she said this.
"Little sister, you mean... our family is going to build a new house?" Li Zhiming's mind turned quickly. The moment Li Menglan opened her mouth, Li Zhiming knew what she was planning. He looked at Li Menglan with surprise. Was this still their timid little sister?
Heh... This fellow had completely forgotten that ever since Li Menglan recovered from her serious illness, she had been like a completely changed person.
In a flash, everyone in the Li family looked at Li Menglan. Some were surprised... some were incredulous... and some were endlessly gratified...
Zhang Yuniang sighed even more emotionally: "I don't know which family's rotten brat our daughter will end up benefiting in the future."
Zhang Yuniang's words caused Li Menglan's head to fill with black lines. Uh... Mother dear, the owner of this body is merely a ten-year-old yellow-haired girl. Aren't your words a bit too early?
Li Dazhu hesitated slightly: "Daughter, if all this silver is used to build a new house, then the family will have no money left." Li Dazhu deeply understood the hardship of a family without money, so he was somewhat hesitant.
"Dad, didn't I also make several hundred persimmon cakes? Tomorrow, let's take the persimmon cakes and make another trip to Qingshui Town. I reckon... these persimmon cakes should sell even better than the sugar-roasted chestnuts." Li Menglan smiled slightly and stated her plan.
"This money can be spent and then earned again. After the new house is built, we can wander around the mountain again; who knows, we might find some more treasures?" Li Menglan had long since made her calculations: "Dad, Grandpa and Grandma are both getting on in years. If we don't build a house... what will we do this winter?"
The health of the two elders, Li Fujin and Lin Sanniang, was what Li Menglan worried about the most.
Li Menglan's words caused the last bit of hesitation in Li Dazhu's heart to vanish without a trace. Nothing was more important than his own parents' health: "Alright, we'll listen to our daughter. We'll build a new house first."
The matter of building a house was thus finalized with a single decision under the approval of Li Dazhu, the head of the Li family!
Since they had already resolved to build a new house, the Li family began discussing how to build it.
After everyone had chattered noisily for a while, Li Fujin finally threw the decision-making authority back to Li Menglan, fed up with the noise: "Good granddaughter, you are the one in our family with the most ideas. Tell us, how should we build this house?"
"Right, little sister, you just make the decision; we'll all listen to you." Li Zhihao was the first to state his stance.
Not to be outdone, Li Zhiming immediately followed up: "Little sister, what your second brother said is very correct. We two brothers will both listen to you."
The couple Li Dazhu and Zhang Yuniang, though they didn't speak, also stared at Li Menglan without blinking.
Uh... Li Menglan suddenly felt an unbearable headache. The pressure was immense!
Privately, Li Menglan felt that with such a large family, the best option would actually be... to build many wooden multi-story buildings like those in rural areas of later generations. However, in this Yunliang Kingdom... Li Menglan seemingly hadn't seen any family build such multi-story houses.
Li Menglan felt it was better to keep a low profile. As they say, the bird that sticks its head out gets shot first. She didn't have any powerful golden finger, nor had she thought about reaching heaven in a single step. So she might as well follow the proper sequence!
"Grandpa, Dad, our family has many people. Um... in the future, big brother and second brother will both have to take wives. Why not build three large houses that look separate but are actually connected together!" Li Menglan thought for a moment and said.
"The large house in the very center will be divided into one main hall, one rear hall, and two bedrooms. Later, Grandpa, Grandma, Dad, and Mom will each live in one room. The large house on the left will be divided the same way as the middle one, but with one room as a bedroom. Of the remaining two rooms, one will temporarily serve as a storage room; the other can temporarily serve as a guest room. When big brother and second brother get married, it can be directly tidied up to serve as bridal chambers."
Li Menglan's words caused the two brothers, Li Zhiming and Li Zhihao, to smile awkwardly.
"The house on the right will also be identical to the one on the left, except that one room will be my bedroom. As for these two large houses and the middle large house, they will all be linked together. The left side will be equipped as the kitchen; the right side will be equipped as the latrine. Um... also build a small room for bathing." Li Menglan thought again and added.
"Mm... good granddaughter, this method is not bad. It saves us from being accused of favoring one over the other when the eldest and second get married later." Li Fujin nodded first.
"Daughter, then aren't we going to build a pigpen?" Li Dazhu suddenly came out with this completely unexpected remark.
"Dad, I was thinking the pigpen should be built separately on one side. What do you think?" Li Menglan said weakly: "Actually, the latrine can also be built together with the pigpen."
Zhang Yuniang was the most practical: "Daughter, if it happens this way... the family's nine-plus taels of silver might not be enough?" Zhang Yuniang had already done a rough calculation in her heart. Clearly, according to Li Menglan's plans, they were still several taels short.
"Mom, don't worry. I've already carefully calculated the accounts. After the persimmon cakes are sold, there will even be silver left over." Li Menglan said with a smile. Um... she also planned to find someone to build a heated kang bed. That way... this winter wouldn't be cold.
"Dad." Li Menglan suddenly thought of something. She still didn't know of anyone here who could build houses: "We haven't found anyone to build the house yet. What do we do?"
"There are several people in the village who specialize in helping others build houses. I'll go find them later." This matter didn't stump Li Dazhu. Shangliang Village had several craftsmen who could build houses.
"Mom, I remember our little uncle seems to know carpentry? Right?" Li Menglan had accepted the original owner's memories. She remembered that Zhang Yuniang's maiden family had a brother who specialized as a carpenter. Li Menglan, holding to the mentality that family benefits shouldn't flow to outsiders, planned to have Zhang Yuniang invite her family's brother over to make furniture for their home.
Zhang Yuniang's maiden home was in Xialiang Village. The family only had two elderly people and one younger brother. Zhang Yuniang's family only had the two siblings, and their financial situation wasn't good. Because they doted on this only granddaughter, they had sold all valuable things to raise money to treat Li Menglan's illness. Who knew it would still be useless, only to end up benefiting Li Menglan—this girl had transmigrated over.
Shangliang Village and Xialiang Village were only separated by a Yun River. Because there was no bridge over the Yun River and one had to take a detour, it was rather far.