August 14th.
The deity of the Hall is in power, the Joyful God is due south, and the Fortune God is to the southwest.
Good for breaking ground, good for starting construction, good for moving into a new home…
Very auspicious!
On this day, Yang Ge was up before dawn, efficiently lighting the fire and kneading the dough to cook a large pot of noodles.
"Cock-a-doodle-doo..."
The crowing of some family's rooster filtered into the yard.
Sitting side by side outside the kitchen, both Yang Ge and Huang lifted their heads from their noodle bowls.
Yang Ge: "Burp."
Huang: "Burp."
Yang Ge looked at Huang, "There's still some noodle soup in the pot, do you want a bowl? It's easy to digest."
Huang licked his lips and wagged his tail playfully at him.
Yang Ge stood up, "Alrighty then!"
He carried the big sea bowl into the kitchen, lifted the lid off the pot, scooped up a full bowl of noodle soup, and then carried the big sea bowl out again, pouring half of it into Huang's large bowl.
"Cock-a-doodle-doo..."
That annoying rooster crowed again.
Both master and dog simultaneously lifted their heads and let out satisfied belches.
Yang Ge looked at his dog-son, "Eat your fill?"
Huang got up and pushed his large bowl towards Yang Ge with his paw.
Yang Ge rolled his eyes irritably, "Just leave it be, don't miss the auspicious time!"
He stood up, placed the sea bowl on the side of the stove, and walked unhurriedly to the woodshed with his round belly swaying. He rummaged around and picked out a hoe to place on his shoulder, strolling along the courtyard wall to the back of the house with Huang following at his feet, matching his every step.
There was an earthen wall at the back of the small courtyard.
Yang Ge leisurely made his way to the middle of the earth wall and took two digs at it with the hoe.
The uneven wall symbolically shed a few clumps of dirt.
Yang Ge didn't mind and muttered under his breath, "This counts as the groundbreaking ceremony, doesn't it?"
He remembered the news he'd seen before, with a crowd of big shots in suits and shoe covers going to the construction site to symbolically scoop a bit of earth as a groundbreaking ceremony…
So why didn't his couple of hoe digs count?
With this thought, he immediately felt justified in putting down the hoe, spread his feet apart in a firm stance, tightened his belt, and delivered a powerful front kick, shouting, "Ta-da..."
"Thud."
The earth wall cracked, Yang Ge's right leg punched straight through the wall, protruding out the other side.
"Wow, it's pretty sturdy…"
Yang Ge quipped in a strange voice, pulled out his right leg to stand firm, took a deep breath, and once again kicked out fiercely, shouting, "Ah ta-ta..."
"Boom."
Half of the earth wall collapsed thunderously, and the splendid autumn sun burst forth to envelop Yang Ge in its embrace.
He lifted his cheeks, squinting directly at the sunrise, his crow's feet seeming capable of trapping a mosquito!
"Woof woof..."
Huang jumped on the spot, squinting as he welcomed the morning sun.
Yang Ge bent over to pick him up, grabbing his paws and pointing to the other side of the mud wall at the dilapidated courtyard, "Son, this is going to be our home too. Are you happy, excited, thrilled?"
The day before yesterday, he had completed all the procedures for buying a house and registering his residence, tightly binding his name to the plot of land behind.
From now on...
If he got into trouble outside, the authorities would first send someone here to arrest him.
If he caused a disaster outside, his enemies would also prioritize coming here to lie in wait for him.
Thinking about it this way, isn't it heartwarming?
Whether Yang Ge was really happy, excited, or thrilled, he didn't know, but Huang was indeed very thrilled, licking his mouth and "mm-mm-ing" away.
He had grown up in the little courtyard in front, which was his entire world, and now his world was about to become so much bigger, how could he not be thrilled?
Yang Ge smiled, turned to shield Huang in his arms, and with his retracted leg, once again produced a deep and powerful explosive sound, kicking heavily against the remaining half-wall.
"Bang."
The half-wall that was like a threshold directly crumbled away, scattering chunks of mud across the entire courtyard.
"Woof, woof, woof..."
No sooner had Yang Ge put down Huang than the little fellow dashed into the courtyard like a shot, going wild with excitement in the junk-filled yard, his ears flapping like a rabbit's.
Yang Ge stepped over the "earth gate," facing the sunlight, his hands on his hips and a matronly smile on his face as he watched Huang frolic...
He had paid a property tax of 124,600 plus.
Due to the recent surge in prices, the cost of the house was more than half higher than during normal times.
But Yang Ge felt... it was all worth it.
After a while, he finally let out a long breath and, clenching his fist, said to Huang who was scattering flowers beside him, "Son, let's get to work!"
Huang: "Woof, woof!"
...
Compared to the reconstruction project of the front courtyard, the renovation work in the back courtyard was much simpler.
In Yang Ge's renovation plan, this courtyard, which was almost two hundred square meters, would be divided into three sections.
The first section, of course, was the vegetable garden he had longed for.
Both his parents came from rural areas, and although they had bought houses in the city later, after getting a bit older, both of his parents yearned to return to their hometowns, especially his mother, who dreamed of having her own vegetable plot. To fight for the little bit of space available on the roof of her building for gardening, she had engaged in countless battles of wits with the property management and never gave up despite many failures.
The second section was the planned chicken coop.
The rectangular chicken coop would be built parallel to the vegetable garden, with only a narrow path left in between for access. This setup would not only facilitate the chickens' movement but also make it convenient for him to later transfer the organic fertilizer produced by the chickens to the vegetable garden.
The third section was a multifunctional workroom, located in the north of the back courtyard.
This multifunctional workroom could serve as a storage room for large items such as grains; it could also be used as a utility room for tools like hoes and machetes; furthermore, it could act as a carpentry and blacksmith workshop, providing space for furniture-making.
After the two courtyards were connected, the total area was nearly 400 square meters, with perfect functionality and reasonable division of zones, fully meeting the needs of a single elderly man's lifestyle... just perfect!
Thinking of the back courtyard being completed, with a house and fields, a dog and chickens, and being able to pick fresh young garlic sprouts for his noodles in the morning, Yang Ge's demolition work became even more vigorous!
In just one day's time, he had completely flattened all the existing buildings in the courtyard.
Even the foundation stones were all removed by him one by one, and stacked aside...
Having a martial arts prodigy with Innate Divine Strength and fully developed Inner Strength do this kind of work was indeed a bit unfair!
Until the sun went down, Yang Ge still didn't feel tired and continued working by the bright moonlight, swinging the two-hundred-pound foundation stones to tamp the ground.
He was wholly absorbed in his work at hand and even thought the moonlight was exceptionally bright that night.
It was only when he unintentionally looked up and saw the moon as large as a millstone that he suddenly realized.
"Oh, it's almost Mid-Autumn Festival, huh..."