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Chief Sun clearly hadn’t expected that people in the village would actually use red bricks to build their houses, and looked at Lin Yuan in surprise, kindly reminding her, "Girl, I’m not criticizing you, but folks in our village don’t need to use such good materials.

It’s sturdy, sure, but it’s also too expensive.

Besides, you have to get those red bricks from the Ma family Manor in town, and over these ten miles, they’re the only ones with a brick kiln, so the red bricks are even pricier.

However, if you used mud bricks, it would be much easier to talk about.

There’s a mountain right behind your house, just dig some soil and mix it into mud, and that’s it. "

In fact, Lin Jiaxin had told her about the red bricks before, but Lin Yuan was thinking that since she currently had some spare silver, building a sturdy and beautiful house would be no problem at all.

Moreover, she was going to earn more and more silver in the future, and making her family’s life more comfortable was the ultimate goal of earning money.

"Uncle Sun, I know what you’re saying, but I’ve already discussed it with my dad, and I have enough silver on hand right now to build a house of red bricks," Lin Yuan always accepted well-meaning advice with an open mind, and speaking softly after finishing her point, she counted on her fingers and calculated the total cost of building the new house, then asked, "Uncle Sun, how much silver do you think I’d need if I built the house entirely with red bricks? "

Hearing Lin Yuan say she had silver, Chief Sun and Loudmouth were both a bit shocked, as the whole set of the house would cost at least fifty taels of silver, especially since the red bricks from the Ma family Manor were surprisingly expensive!

Chief Sun stretched out his hand and replied gravely, "At least this amount."

Fifty taels, a little less than she had expected. However, it was still a fair price, considering the house that Xia Zheng had found for her in town was only eighty taels, and that price was due to the urgency of the sale.

Lin Yuan immediately knocked on the table to seal the deal.

Seeing that the girl was serious, Chief Sun’s interest was piqued as well.

He wasn’t exactly a formal contractor since he still had a superior above him, the real boss.

Usually, it was the boss who acquired work and then distributed it to his subordinates, and due to Chief Sun’s honest nature and dislike for flattery, the work assigned to him was often the leftovers from others.

He seldom had the chance to work on building houses with red bricks.

However, although he didn’t build them often, his craftsmanship was solid and he definitely wouldn’t construct a shoddy house for Lin Yuan.

Given the sizable amount of work for Lin Yuan’s house and the tight schedule, Chief Sun planned to bring all his men to work together, approximately a dozen people, who could finish the job in a month or two.

As for their wages, of course, Lin Yuan, as the employer, would have to pay, since people here did not work on a lump sum basis but rather needed the materials purchased by the employer, who then paid the workers separately.

Lin Yuan found this too troublesome, as she had the tofu shop to manage and was also looking to set up Rice Flower Fragrance.

If she had to spend a month or two solely on building the house, it would be too exhausting.

Moreover, as a young girl, how could she know where to buy materials?

Therefore, Lin Yuan suggested offering to pay Chief Sun fifty taels of silver to take care of the building work; the wood, which was to be purchased by Lin Ershuan, wasn’t included in this lump sum.

Fifty taels would be enough to cover both the construction and the wages.

Chief Sun was quick on the uptake. After some calculation, he had a clear idea of the project as he usually dealt with suppliers while contracting work.

If he did the purchasing, it would surely be less expensive than if the employer bought the materials themselves.

Subtracting the cost of materials and the workers’ wages, he would even be able to save several taels of silver for himself, which would be the contractor’s share.

Delighted, Chief Sun agreed readily while also thinking that he could recommend this approach in the future when he received another house-building job. If the employer agreed, he could earn more silver than usual.

With the silver settled, the next issue was feeding the workers. Typically, they would eat at the employer’s house since they came from all over the place, and eating there saved time: at most, they would rest for two hours at noon before continuing their work.

So Lin Yuan was more than willing to take care of the lunch, as her family would be cooking anyway.

It would just be a bit more of a hassle to prepare lunch for over a dozen people.

But with more people came strategies for larger groups, like making communal dishes and steaming buns.

It would require a lot of white flour, but fortunately, sister-in-law Gui Zhi had been dealing with the grain shop quite a bit due to making cold skins recently, and getting her help to buy a hundred pounds of white flour would save quite a bit of silver.

They chose an auspicious day to start the work, and Chief Sun hurried back to gather his crew. Since Lin Yuan couldn’t handle cooking alone, she also asked Loudmouth to help. Despite Loudmouth’s typically cool and harsh manner, he was actually very warm-hearted, agreeing in an instant.

"Since my second kid is also coming here to work, I’ll just come along with him!" With a casual wave, Loudmouth briskly walked away.

Building a house was a major event, and with the start date just a few days away, Lin Yuan had to hurry to get things ready.

She had sister-in-law Gui Zhi help buy the white flour, and she also made a special trip to town, where she arranged with Pork Rong to deliver fifty pounds of pork, as Xia Zheng was visiting Lin Yuan’s house daily, so he could just bring the pork to the village every day.

As for other vegetables and such, she entrusted them all to Shopkeeper Liu, since the Fuman Building required a large amount of vegetables and would surely be cheaper than if she went to the vegetable market herself.

Shopkeeper Liu already had a favorable view of Lin Yuan, and because of Lao Fan and Xia Zheng, he regarded her with even more respect and courtesy.

Lin Yuan was somewhat unused to this, but she didn’t think too much of it, gave Shopkeeper Liu a nod, and quickly moved on to reserve a number of bowls and chopsticks at Old Ma Grocery Store.

Seeing those bowls and chopsticks, she suddenly remembered that she needed to replace the pots at home as well, which meant another trip to the blacksmith’s shop was necessary.