Song Ying thought for a moment and asked, “Uncle, how many people do you usually have working?”
Zhang Shaoquan said, “We usually have seven or eight people—including me, four bricklayers and three or four laborers.”
Song Ying said, “So, Uncle, you calculated based on the speed of seven or eight people working, right? If you had twice as many people, would the house be built twice as fast?”
“Of course. With twice the people, the main structure would be done in ten to fifteen days.” Zhang Shaoquan laughed.
Song Ying asked, “Uncle, how do you charge?”
Song Guozheng said, “Their bricklayers charge 350 a day, and laborers 200 a day. Contracting might be a bit different.”
Zhang Shaoquan smiled. “Right, but it’s not much different.”
Song Ying said, “Uncle, can you calculate it for me? How much would the labor cost?”
Zhang Shaoquan did the math. “Yingzi, to build the house in this drawing… the labor cost would be about eighty thousand, around eighty thousand.”
“Whether I contract it or you hire bricklayers and laborers yourselves, the price is about the same.”
Song Ying said, “Uncle, contract both of our houses. I’ll give you this amount.” She held up two fingers.
“But I have one requirement—can the main structure of the house we’ll live in be finished within half a month?”
She had done a rough calculation just now. The labor cost for eight people over a month was about the same as fifteen or sixteen people over half a month, so she might as well hire more people and finish sooner.
As for giving him two hundred thousand, it wasn’t too much at all—two hundred thousand for the main structure labor of two houses. And with Zhang Shaoquan contracting the work, they’d work faster. Otherwise, they’d drag their feet, since every extra day meant more money.
Zhang Shaoquan wasn’t stupid. He naturally knew that the two fingers Song Ying held up didn’t mean twenty thousand, but two hundred thousand.
He said, “Sure, I can bring in a few more bricklayers and laborers. We can finish within half a month. More hands make faster work.”
Song Ying said, “Uncle, then it’s settled. I’ll transfer half the money to you first.”
“Uncle, we don’t have each other on WeChat. Let’s add each other first.”
Zhang Shaoquan pulled out his phone. “Alright.”
After adding each other on WeChat, Song Ying transferred him one hundred thousand. How to put it—seeing that one hundred thousand, Zhang Shaoquan’s heart thumped. In all his years as a bricklayer contractor, this was the first time he’d seen a client pay so readily.
Most people would drag it out for days or even half a month before paying.
And even then, it wasn’t much—just a few thousand. But this girl Song Ying gave away one hundred thousand without a second thought.
He asked with a smile, “This is the money from selling the sheep yesterday, right?”
Chen Shuqin smiled. “Yes and no. Yingzi saved up some money herself too…”
Zhang Shaoquan understood. He thought to himself that daughters were better after all—sons wouldn’t even save money, let alone not make you spend money on them.
Song Ying said, “Uncle Zhang, help me arrange the bricks and cement too. I don’t know how much we’ll need. I’ll go with you to pay when the time comes.”
Zhang Shaoquan said, “Sure, that’s a small matter.”
He thought for a moment. “Yingzi, are you free tomorrow? If so, we can go to the banner town and haul over the bricks and cement.”
Song Ying said, “I’m free. I’ve got nothing to do at home anyway.”
Zhang Shaoquan said, “Then it’s settled. We’ll go tomorrow.”
They chatted a bit more about the house details, and then Zhang Shaoquan headed home. When his wife saw him return, she asked, “The Song family is building a house?”
Zhang Shaoquan didn’t say anything—he just took out his phone. “Look, the labor fee Yingzi transferred to me.”
His wife was shocked. “One hundred thousand? That much money? What’s going on?”
Zhang Shaoquan told his wife about his conversation with Song Ying at the Song family home. “Yingzi wants to build two houses—one for them to live in, and one for a restaurant.”
“That house is going to be huge—eight or nine rooms.”
Most people in their village lived in houses with three to four rooms, five at the very most.
But Song Ying’s house was going to have nine rooms. Nine rooms for the residence—that was enormous.
Zhang Shaoquan’s wife didn’t understand. “Why does she want to build such a big house? A restaurant makes sense, but why does her residence need to be that big?”
Zhang Shaoquan said, “I don’t know. She wants to build it, so I’ll build it. I’ve taken on both projects. She’s paying me two hundred thousand in labor costs, and she’s already given me half upfront.”
At this, Zhang Shaoquan grew excited. “Wife, I did the math. We should be able to make about thirty thousand from this, and that’s not even counting my own labor wages.”
He was a mason, earning 350 yuan a day. With a crew of about ten people, both houses could be finished in a month.
That’s over ten thousand in labor wages alone for a month.
As a contractor, he was bound to make some profit on top—it was just a matter of how much.
His wife said, “That’s really good. This girl pays promptly. She’s trusting you with that much money, so you’d better do a good job for her.”
Zhang Shaoquan said, “Of course I’ll do a good job. Yingzi even hired a designer to draw up the plans. Let me show you.” He pulled out his phone.
“Look, this is roughly what it’ll look like after construction and finishing. Do you think once I’ve built it, I could use it for… you know, publicity?”
If people heard he’d built that house, more people would definitely come to him for construction work in the future.
His wife took a look. “This house is beautiful—it looks like one of those houses on TV. Has Yingzi made a fortune out there? Building a house this nice… the total cost must be at least a million, right?”
Zhang Shaoquan said, “She’s a writer now—she writes novels and has made a good amount of money… See, daughters are better.”
His wife said, “Daughters depend on the person. Her daughter being impressive doesn’t mean your daughter is impressive. Your daughter can’t even save money—it’d be a miracle if she doesn’t overspend her monthly allowance.”
The couple had a son and a daughter. Their son was in elementary school, and their daughter was in high school. She got five hundred yuan a week in spending money—just pocket money, not including meals, phone bills, clothes, or shoes.
Five hundred yuan of pure spending money, and they had no idea where it went. The school didn’t allow students to leave campus, and she only had one day off each week, but somehow she always spent it all.
Zhang Shaoquan said, “That’s normal. A young girl shouldn’t be without money, especially a high schooler like our daughter. On Sundays she goes out to eat with classmates, shops around, buys some stationery.”
His wife said with mild exasperation, “Aren’t you considerate.” Then she sighed. “But you’re right. If a kid has no money, she’d lose face going out with her classmates.”
Zhang Shaoquan said, “Eh, anyway, we earn money to spend on those two kids.”
“Wife, this year I’ll be working just for Uncle Song’s family, and I estimate I’ll earn at least sixty thousand.”
“Before I came out, Yingzi talked to me. After the main structure is done, she wants me to build the courtyard wall, the sheep pen, and then do the interior tiling and floor tiles.”
All of that was mason work.
His wife listened and said with surprise, “At that rate, it’s more than sixty thousand—could even be eighty thousand.”
“You don’t need to work for anyone else this year—just work at her place. Once the two houses are done, build them a sheep shed, then the courtyard wall. After August, you can start tiling and laying floor tiles.”
Zhang Shaoquan smiled. “That’s exactly what I was thinking.”
His wife said, “Really great. Let’s count it up—this year we should be able to make three hundred thousand.”
The income from the fields was around a hundred thousand, selling the calves brought in about the same, and with her husband’s masonry work on top of that, it added up to three hundred thousand.