Seventies Sweetheart: From Breakup to Billionaire-Chapter 150: Leaky Roof

"Tomorrow I’ll go with you to set up the stall and see what the situation is, and then think about any possible solutions."

That’s the only option.

Mrs. Lin was in a bad mood, and along with being quite tired, she went to bed early.

After Lin Xiang finished washing up and prepared everything for tomorrow, she only then lay down and quickly fell asleep.

Just as she was sleeping soundly, Lin Xiang was shaken awake by Mrs. Lin with considerable force.

Upon opening her eyes, Lin Xiang discovered that their room had turned into a waterfall cave.

Rain was leaking everywhere, except for the area around the bed where it was leaking a bit less.

The sound of the continuous rain outside was making people anxious.

Mrs. Lin’s voice had a hint of crying, "It’s been two or three years since we’ve had such heavy rain. It came so suddenly without any warning. What are we going to do now?"

"Don’t worry." Lin Xiang hugged Mrs. Lin’s shoulders to comfort her, "Mom, I’ll move the valuable things onto the bed first, so they don’t get ruined by the water."

The space on the bed was small; the head and foot of the bed were also wet from the rain, leaving only a small section in the middle where the mother and daughter could sit cross-legged.

The fabric was locked in the five-drawer cabinet, and its surface was also wet from the rain.

"I don’t know if the fabric is still usable. There’s quite a bit of fabric in there."

"Even if the fabric gets wet, it won’t get ruined. Once the sun comes out, we can lay them out to dry properly in the sunlight."

We just need to take out the iron box with the money and tickets.

The rain outside continued relentlessly with no sign of stopping.

The bed was no longer usable, so the mother and daughter had to sit back to back.

"Niuniu, how much money do you have?"

"I haven’t spent much lately; I’ve been saving most of it. I’d say there’s at least a thousand or eight hundred."

Mrs. Lin carefully calculated, "Red bricks are three cents each, five cents for two. Green bricks are two cents each, five cents for three. To build a house with red bricks, including labor and materials, it would cost about a hundred bucks, and around seventy or eighty with green bricks."

"Niuniu, why don’t we rebuild the house, what do you think?"

Mrs. Lin’s voice carried a tinge of pleading and hope.

"Sure." Lin Xiang agreed readily, "Once the rain stops tomorrow, I’ll go find the team leader and ask for approval. Mom, should we build a small two-story house?"

Mrs. Lin slapped Lin Xiang’s arm, "Really, money burning a hole in your pocket! Not just our Li Hua Team, but the entire commune hasn’t seen anyone build a two-story house. Now that your brother has joined the army, it’s just us, the ’helpless mother and daughter’. Renovating the house just so it can be lived in without leaking is enough."

If the house is built too well, wouldn’t that be blatantly announcing to everyone that our family is rich?

If the family were larger, it would be fine; no one in the village would dare bully them.

Now it’s just the two of them. If thieves came, they could only lose some money. But if the thief had more sinister intentions, what could they do?

Lin Xiang touched her arm, feeling wronged, "I was just joking with you. But speaking of which, should we include my brother’s part when we rebuild the house this time?"

"Leave him out of it."

"Didn’t you save money for his bride price?"

"Saving for the bride price is one thing, but building a house is another." Mrs. Lin was firm, "He’s in the army now and will probably stay in Beijing in the future. Why should I build a house for him here?"

"I hope he never comes back; I don’t want to take care of his kids!"

Lin Xiang: That’s her true feeling, isn’t it?

The rain gradually stopped in the second half of the night, but the bed was still wet, and there were no spare quilts at home. The mother and daughter just sat back to back all night.

By the next morning, Lin Xiang felt like she was carrying someone heavy on her back, nearly breaking her waist.

Mrs. Lin looked at the bright sun outside, "It looks like it won’t rain again anytime soon. Shouldn’t we rush to fix the house?"

"No, it must be fixed!" Lin Xiang pounded her lower back with her hands, "After breakfast, I’ll go find the team leader."

Just because it won’t rain in the short term doesn’t mean it won’t rain later on.

Lin Xiang didn’t want to experience the exhaustion of sleeping sitting up again.

When she entered the kitchen, the sight devastated Lin Xiang.

The bacon and sausages hung on the beams had been soaked by the heavy rain all night and had turned pale.

The rice bin was covered so it wasn’t hit by rainwater, but the flour bag was not so lucky.

Even the stove had accumulated a lot of rainwater.

Ten minutes later, the mother and daughter, carrying their bowls and chopsticks, knocked on Fifth Uncle’s door.

It was Chunya who opened the door. Seeing Lin Xiang in a somewhat disheveled state, she asked worriedly, "What happened? Did something go wrong?"

"Don’t even mention it." Lin Xiang sighed heavily, "We watched the rain all night inside the house. This morning, the kitchen got hit too; the stove can’t be used, so we shamelessly came to your house to ask for a meal."

Chunya quickly stepped aside, "Come in quickly, my mom just finished cooking, and we haven’t started eating yet."

Fifth Aunt handed Lin Xiang and Mrs. Lin each a steamed bun, "There’s no way to go to the big market today, so after breakfast, let Old Wu go to the brick factory and buy some tiles to patch up the leaks."

Lin Xiang angrily took a bite of the bun, "In that case, we’ll have to redo the entire roof."

"Is the leaking that bad?"

Lin Xiang and Mrs. Lin nodded in unison.

Fifth Uncle quickly finished the braised congee in his bowl and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, "I’ll call Yu to help patch up the roof again. This place doesn’t rain often, so it’s not necessary to replace everything with tiles; that would be too expensive."

Fifth Aunt glared at him, "It doesn’t rain often, but when it does, it’s a nightmare! If the bed weren’t dry enough to sit on, with the rain hitting in this weather, we’d definitely get sick sooner or later."

Fifth Uncle awkwardly scratched his nose, "I was just thinking it’s not easy for Niuniu to make money, so I wanted to save some for them."

"What’s more important, life or money?"

As Fifth Uncle and Fifth Aunt were about to quarrel, Lin Xiang and Mrs. Lin exchanged a glance, and said in unison, "We’ve decided to rebuild the house."

Fifth Uncle, Fifth Aunt, Chunya, and Dong Sheng all turned to look at the mother and daughter.

"Rebuild the house?"

Lin Xiang nodded, saying, "Our house was built when my dad was still alive, over ten years ago. It can block the wind but can’t keep out the rain. I did a foreign exchange order for the cotton spinning factory last time, and Director Chen gave me a bonus. Although it was only a little over a hundred bucks, it’s enough to repair the house."

"Fifth Uncle, my brother went into the army, and we don’t have anyone else reliable at home. Can you help supervise the work and try to finish it before the Chinese New Year?"

Fifth Uncle patted his chest, assuring, "No problem, Fifth Uncle will definitely ensure the house is repaired well for you."

Chunya whispered, "If my dad supervises the house repair, are we still selling spicy vermicelli?"