Chapter 6 5. It is difficult for Ye Meilan to stay with her parents, but Sha Dangdang bravely pretends to be her mother-in-law's house

Sha Dangdang received a call from her family before Christmas that her parents were going to Guangzhou for the Spring Festival.Mama Sha simply said on the phone that firstly, she was very excited when the new house her daughter bought was handed over, and she must visit it; Parents meet and see how their home is like. After all, this is a life-long event for a daughter, and an old lady has to come to the front line in person. Sha Dangdang understood her mother's personality, and both of them were important matters. Moreover, even if she could bring Ye Tao to Chengdu to show her parents, she couldn't move the house to Chengdu.I can't stop it, Sha Dangdang wanted to delay it, but her mother said: "My father and I usually have to go to work, and when the Spring Festival is free, your brother will book the air ticket." Very resolute, there was no room for Sha Dangdang to delay at all, and Sha Dangdang had no choice but to express a warm welcome.

Shadang is not worried about anything else, but looking at the 60-square-meter two-bedroom unit of Ye’s house, he can’t understand where Ye’s house got so many sundries, the hall is dark and crowded, and the bedrooms are also old and messy. In the kitchen and bathroom, the bare concrete is exposed on the ground, and the walls are either greasy and black, or crawling with wet mold spots, which is simply shameful!In such an environment, wouldn't her mother reveal her secrets after seeing it? If you don't make a complete revolution to this small unit, it's not easy to change the appearance!If you want to do a decent renovation, where will the money come from?The background of the Ye family and the temperament of the Ye family have already been cleared up in Shadang, and Ye Mao is louder than anyone else. In fact, with the little money in his passbook, he is not even as good as the cleaning lady in Shadang's company!As for Sha Dangdang herself, in the first half of 2006, she was greatly encouraged by earning a ticket on Vanke. After deducting the cost of moving into a new house, she tried her best to invest nearly 50,000 yuan to buy it at an average cost of 5.5 yuan. After buying 9,000 shares of Vanke, she had no spare money to invest in it. Now Vanke has gone crazy like a horse and it has risen to more than 15 yuan. Even with interest, her stock account has a market value of 140,000 yuan, but she is really reluctant. Selling these stocks, these "Vankes" are her reassurance during the days when she has to repay the 11,000 yuan mortgage every month, which can make her sleep less nightmares.Ever since she started repaying her mortgage, Sha Dangdang had to weigh up even buying an expensive dress. If she didn't cash out the stocks, where would she go to raise money for the decoration of Ye's family?Sha Dangdang was so anxious that he didn't sleep well for several nights, with big dark circles under his eyes, he still couldn't figure out where to start.Seeing that Sha Dangdang had been listless for several days, Ye Tao asked her what was on her mind with concern. Sha Dangdang was worried that Ye Tao found out that he thought his family was not decent, so he didn't mention that his parents would come to Guangzhou for the New Year and planned to visit his house. He said that he didn't have a good rest because of the high pressure of work.

There are also endless people, and after holding back for a few days, Sha Dangdang really thought of someone who could help her.His surname is Zeng, and he is a capable painter. When Lesney was decorating the office, Sha Dangdang met him by chance. She recognized that Master Zeng had a Mianyang accent, and she was a fellow villager very close to her, so she warmly talked to Master Zeng. We chatted for a few words.At that time, Sha Dangdang happened to have a batch of small promotional gifts in her hand, such as towels, peanut oil, etc. Although the value was not high, they were all needed at home, so she casually gave Master Zeng a few of them.In Sha Dangdang, it was just a small favor, and the generosity was the generosity of the public, but Master Zeng kept it in his heart, thinking that Miss Sha was a generous person.

Now that Sha Dangdang made up his mind, he went to Master Zeng to find a way.Finding a time when Ye Mao and his wife went out to play mahjong, Sha Dangdang took Master Zeng to Ye's house for field inspection.Master Zeng looked at the house carefully, and said to Sha Dangdang: "Miss Sha, this house is too old, and it will cost a lot of money to decorate it well." Sha Dangdang sighed, and complained: "Master Zeng! To be honest, my boyfriend and I don't work long hours, and now we are offering a house, so we don't dare to take a breath! But we have guests at home, so it looks like this It’s really disrespectful to people—I’ve thought about it, this house should just be refurbished and then pulled down, I just hope it’s not so dark and messy, as long as it can be seen by people!”

Master Ye said: "Then how do you want to renovate?" Sandangdang fidgeted and calculated: "I would like to ask you to paint all the walls with white paint. Wouldn't the room be new and bright? Now the furniture is old and the colors are different, messy, I I also want you to paint it all, just like buying a new house of furniture! By the way, let's paint all the doors and windows again!" Master Zeng heard Sha Dangdang's wishful thinking, and hurriedly called out: "Miss Sha!" to tell her to stop. Before he could continue speaking, Sha Dangdang stopped him, first put a top hat on him and said: "Master Zeng, I know your craftsmanship, I can trust it!"

Master Zeng explained: "Miss Sha, you don't know. Looking at the wall, I'm afraid it has been around for 20 years! Just brushing the paint like this is not enough! You have to shovel off the floating dust first, and then fill up the wall. It is the first coat of paint, and when the first coat is completely dry, a second coat of paint is required, and a total of three or four coats are required to make it look good and last longer." Sha Dangdang didn't know that there were so many processes in painting the wall before. After hearing Master Zeng's explanation, she was stunned for a moment, and said in disbelief: "I used to rent a house in this community, and I just hired a part-time worker to help paint a layer of paint. I didn't even do the shoveling of floating ash to repair the wall you said, and the effect is pretty good!"

Master Zeng is a skilled craftsman, and he is used to the decoration of Grade A office buildings. He instinctively disapproves of Sha Dangdang's fake and shoddy projects. People with skills have a bit of a temper. Master Zeng refuted Sha Dangdang honestly: "Miss Sha , If you are as sloppy as you said, you don’t need to ask me to come, you can find any migrant worker on the roadside! You ask me to do it, don’t you want to make things more beautiful! Besides, if you want to come home It’s okay if you only deal with customers for one month, but you can’t do it if you want to deal with it for three months! The painted paint will float up and fall down within a month, and the dirty old background will soon disappear. To be exposed sparingly."

The last two sentences of Master Zeng left Sha Dangdang speechless. She herself knew the prestige project of renting a house at that time, but it was exposed in a month or so. Moreover, although her mother could handle it in a month, the wall The roughness can't hide from her mother's eyes.Besides, after a month passed, once the old undertones surfaced, the Ye family would definitely feel that she was playing tricks, maybe making Zhu Bajie look in the mirror—not a human being inside and out. Sha Dangdang was a little hesitant, she was still thinking about it, Master Zeng asked her: "Also, Miss Sha, you said you want to paint all the old furniture, what color do you want to paint?"

Sha Dangdang said: "How about painting it in the red cherry color of 'Red Apple' (a furniture brand)? I think our company's office furniture uses this color. It's very good, generous and joyful!" When Master Zeng heard that Sha Dangdang was talking in layman's terms again, he shook his head again and again and said, "Your old furniture now has several different colors, and the colors are still very heavy, deeper and darker than red cherry color - if you want to paint The red cherry color will definitely not cover the base color, and it will be very weird then!"

When Sha Dangdang heard that there were still difficulties, he couldn't help being a little discouraged, so he asked Master Zeng, "Master Zeng, give me some advice on what to do! I just want to save money and make the house more decent." Master Zeng said: "The safest way is to sweep the paint by hand. In this way, the wood grain will not be visible, but the color can be unified, and the original various background colors can be completely covered." Sha Dangdang only wanted to solve the problem. She knew that Master Zeng was a skilled craftsman, and she was sure he was right, so she simply agreed: "That's great, just use your hands to sweep the paint!"

Master Zeng said: "If you brush the paint with your hands, the whole piece of red cherry color may not look good, and it will be a little shocking. I can adjust a small piece for you to see, and you will understand after seeing it." Sha Dangdang trusted Master Zeng's skills very much, and he hurriedly said: "Master Zeng, what color do you think is good to use?" Master Zeng looked around the room and said: "This house is relatively small, the floor height is not high - I think it is only 2.55 meters at most, and the lighting is not good enough, so if we can paint the furniture, doors and windows uniformly milky white, The room can look bigger and higher.” Sha Dangdang said happily: "That's great! Just listen to you!" Master Zeng loves to be praised, the more you praise him, the more he will try his best to do things beautifully and show off his skills.Sha Dangdang's trusting attitude made Master Zeng very happy. He became more active, patted the big and stupid sofa and reminded him: "Miss Sha, look, the living room is so small and the furniture is so big. , and it looks very crowded, I am afraid that no matter how much I paint, your living room will not be beautiful." Sha Dangdang was not embarrassed when he heard this, and he said happily: "I happen to have an extra set of red cherry-colored living room furniture, which is small in size and very suitable for this place. I can replace all of these in the living room now." Master Zeng said, "That's the best." The two went to look at the kitchen and bathroom again. The tiles were only pasted half the height of the wall, and they were the most common tiles. Going up to the ceiling was ordinary interior wall paint, which had been used for a long time and was already too dirty. Sha Dangdang resolutely refused to use plumbers, electricians, carpenters, masons, etc., but only relied on Master Zeng as a painter to call the sun and the moon a new look.Master Zeng was a little dumbfounded by the excessive trust, he scratched his head, and said to Sha Dangdang: "Then, the walls in the upper half of the kitchen and bathroom must not be done with ordinary paint, so we should use milky white cement paint. It’s not much more expensive than paint. As for the white tiles on the lower part of the wall, I asked my wife to help clean them all. If there is any damage, I will use white cement to help you ditch it. The improvement after renovation should be more obvious Yes." Sha Dangdang nodded after listening. Master Zeng looked at the cabinet. This cabinet was bought by Ye Meilan for her natal family before she got married. It was not a good item in the first place, and Ye Mao and his wife didn't know how to cherish it. After using it for many years, the stones on the countertop were soaked by various condiments. The colors are mottled, the door sides of the cabinets are a little rotten, and the hinges are falling apart.Master Zeng sighed and said, "This cabinet really should be remade." Sha Dangdang also felt that it was difficult to renovate the cabinet, so he hesitated and asked Master Zeng, "How much does it cost to rebuild it?" Master Zeng said: "The cabinets are all made of 'Oupai' now. According to the plan of this kitchen, if you choose a special color, it may cost 10,000 yuan." Sha Dangdang jumped up and said: "Then I won't do it! It's better that you help me paint all the cabinet doors with a white hand-sweeping paint!" Master Zeng can't laugh or cry, the things used in the kitchen are different from those used in the bedroom, they have to be waterproof and fireproof, besides, the side of the door is a bit rotten, as if it has been chewed by a puppy's teeth, how to renovate it? Reluctantly, Sandangdang was as firm as a rock. Master Zeng inspected the cabinet carefully, and had to agree to her: "Okay! Later, I will replace and tighten all the hinges of the cabinet doors for you. It looks like it's about to fall!" Before the work started, Sha Dangdang had already deeply felt the greatness of skilled workers. She followed Master Zeng and coaxed Master Zeng with praise. Master Zeng finally asked her: "What about the floor?" Before Sha Dangdang could answer, he stomped on the deformed composite floor and said: "It's all deformed, it's so high! You really don't call me paint, it's boring! I advise you to change to a new composite floor, which is ready-made The manufacturer of the material provided the installation package, and the masons will not be touched!" Sha Dangdang hesitated and asked how much it would cost.Master Zeng volunteered and said that he could help to get the goods from the decoration material city according to the price of the decorator. He said considerately: "You don't need to pick expensive ones. The goods around 80 yuan per square meter are fine. Your house is not expensive. Big, even the kitchen is spread together, less than 50 square meters, the total will not exceed 4,000 yuan. I suggest you choose light walnut color, the base color of this color is actually beige, mixed with light walnut color, the color It is bright and not easy to get dirty. The advantage of laying this color is that the room looks bright, feels larger, and is easy to maintain.” After listening to Master Zeng's introduction, Sha Dangdang felt that the cost performance of the floor was really high, so he agreed after a bit of ideological struggle.After all, for decoration, no matter what, the walls should be painted and the floor laid. Master Zeng has learned how to behave, and without waiting for Sha Dangdang to speak, he consciously expressed his opinion: "I took a look, and the cement floor of the balcony and bathroom is fairly flat. I will find a suitable color for you and paint it with a paintbrush. -The paint will definitely fall off in the future, let’s talk about it after it falls off.” After careful calculation, Sha Dang thought that if the decoration effect was to be good, Master Zeng's complete plan was too economical, so he asked Master Zeng: "Not counting the cost of the floor, and you will cover the rest. How much money should I prepare?" ?” Master Zeng said bluntly: "Miss Sha, I will not ask you for a high price--with labor and materials, the whole set of work is done, and the price is 18,000 yuan! I will also cover the price of 18,000 yuan for you. Replace the bathroom with a new white ceramic washbasin, and replace the living room and two bedrooms with new energy-saving ceiling lamps. They all use good local brands in Foshan. You can rest assured of the quality--I think the current lamps are very old. Not enough, the light is too dim; the washbasin in the bathroom has a hole - I only charge you 1,000 yuan for these two items, you can go to the decoration material city to find out by yourself, 1,000 yuan is the cost If you don’t want to change the lamp and washbasin, I’ll only charge you seventeen thousand.” Before Sha Dangdang could speak, Master Zeng confessed again seriously: "Miss Sha, let me tell you, if my boss bids for this, even if the price is doubled, he may not be willing to take your job - it's all based on Refurbishment is very troublesome and labor-intensive. It’s like a tailor. He would rather make you a new one from scratch than change your old clothes. I, anyway, use my spare time to pay more for my own work. It doesn’t matter if it’s less, it’s just a favor for you, but the quality is absolutely guaranteed. We always work slowly and meticulously. As a person, if you ask me to do the work so-so, it will make me more uncomfortable than not making money! " Sha Dangdang listened to Master Zeng's quotation, and after she calculated it, including the new floor, the total was 22,000 yuan.Sha Dangdang immediately breathed a sigh of relief - these days, to do such a decoration in Guangzhou, with such a skilled master, where can I find such a price!Moreover, 22,000 is also a number that Sandangdang may accept. If it is more, even if she has enough cash in her hand, she is reluctant to give it to the Ye family. Who knows whether she will have a share in this house in the future! It's a matter of the future, so there's no telling.90% of Sha Dangdang believed Master Zeng’s confession. She was very grateful to Master Zeng and said from the bottom of her heart: “Master Zeng, it’s all up to you. I will remember your kindness. When I make money in the future, I must Give you a big gift!" Master Zeng patted his chest with a smile and said: "Miss Sha, I will definitely make you satisfied, so that you can entertain guests here happily." Sha Dangdang was worried about the construction period, and asked: "Master Zeng, we have all moved out these few days to make room for renovations. When will you be able to finish the project?" Master Zeng thought about it and said: "My brother-in-law is also a very skilled painter, I can ask him to help with it. However, I usually have to go to work, so I can only come to you in my spare time--how about it, I'm trying to finish it in a month." Sha Dang was impatient and wanted to see the fruits of his labor sooner, so he bargained: "Can you hurry up?" Master Zeng explained: "Painting furniture is the same as painting walls. The walls must first be shoveled off floating dust, filled with putty and leveled before painting. Old furniture must be sanded before painting. After the primer is applied, You have to wait until it is completely dry before you can paint it, and you have to paint it three or four times to ensure the quality. I try to be as fast as possible, but it is estimated that it will take a month." Things are settled.Master Zeng instructed Sha Dangdang to protect the electrical appliances and daily necessities in the room so as not to be polluted by paint and paint, and left after explaining.Sha Dangdang sent it to the stairs, and solemnly told Master Zeng, "Master Zeng, if my family members ask about money, you must not disclose it to them." Master Zeng smiled and said, "Don't worry, I'll just say that I don't know the price, it's the boss's business, I'm just a part-time worker." That night, Sha Dangdang took advantage of watching TV on the sofa with Ye Tao, and said to Ye Tao: "The New Year is coming soon, let's find a decoration team to renovate your parents' house, do you think it's okay?" Ye Tao was very surprised to hear Sha Dangdang mentioning this topic suddenly, he said hesitantly: "That's good, but my parents' house probably cost a lot of money to decorate." Sha Dangdang said confidently: "I know, I will come out." Ye Tao was even more surprised now, and he immediately objected, "But now, you are under so much pressure to repay the loan every month, and I can't help you, so how can I ask you to pay for my parents' renovation?" Sha Dangdang kissed him on the face, and said affectionately: "Aren't your parents my in-laws in the future? Besides, I decorated them, and in the future, they won't call me 'Laomei' even secretly. You also have face in front of relatives and friends." As soon as Sha Dangdang mentioned "Laomei", Ye Tao remembered that time when his parents chewed their tongues and said bad things about Sha Dangdang. Sha Dangdang was very useful, and said with a smile: "I know a decoration team, the little boss is from my hometown, and his skills are very good. I have already said hello to him. Just wait for your parents to vacate the house, and the decoration team can enter the venue." It's under construction." Ye Tao didn't expect Sha Dangdang to do it, he said in surprise: "In such a hurry?" Sha Dangdang copied a desk calendar and showed it to Ye Tao: "Here, the 18th of February is the Spring Festival. No matter how you say it will take a month to decorate, and at least half a month after the completion, let the house be well ventilated. Then people can live in, otherwise the smell of paint is too strong and it is not good for health-so, the sooner you start work, the better, so that your parents can live in a renovated house before the Spring Festival, and the elderly will definitely like it!" Ye Tao felt that Sha Dangdang was not only very kind to his family, but also very thoughtful. He was so happy that he said to Sha Dangdang from the bottom of his heart: "Dangdang, I am so lucky to have such a good girlfriend as you. " "Good girlfriend" reminded him: "Then why don't you call your dad as soon as possible and ask them to pack up in these two days and come to your sister's house for a while." Ye Mao was overjoyed when he received his son's call, and his wife couldn't believe such a good thing happened, and said, "Ahh! The gold ingot fell from the sky and hit me!" Ye Mao proudly said: "Look, I told you earlier that Sandangdang will pay us for the decoration! You still don't believe me!" The old lady was overwhelmed with admiration, and even said that she had no experience. She patted her thigh with her hand and sighed, "Oh, how could I have thought of such a good thing!" Ye Mao thought about it and said, "Don't tell me, there's one thing I really didn't expect—she brought it up before we could ask! A Tao has a good eye, and she found a really good wife!" The only person who was worried was Ye Meilan.She knew that Sun Jiandong didn't think much of her natal family, how would he be happy if the nice old couple suddenly wanted to come and live for a month and a half. Ye Meilan was in a dilemma for a long time, but still hesitated to discuss this matter with Sun Jiandong.Sure enough, Sun Jiandong became impatient when he heard this: "No way! Our house is such a small place, and they are here, how can we rest well!" Ye Meilan murmured and argued with her husband: "Ye Tao and Sha Dangdang paid for their parents to renovate the house. I am embarrassed to ask my parents to live with them again. I have to do something." Sun Jiandong said disdainfully: "You are stupid! How much money do you usually give them piecemeal? Don't talk about them, have you figured it out yourself? Ye Tao is really promising, and he will do a renovation. I can see it!" No matter what Ye Meilan said, Sun Jiandong just disagreed.Later, he became angry and told Ye Meilan, "This is my home! If you must get them here, then I will go out!" Ye Meilan didn't dare to say any more, she was stunned for a long time. Ye Meilan couldn't think of a good solution, and her natal family was pressing hard. She didn't dare to tell the truth to her father and younger brother, so she had to secretly tell her mother about her difficulties.Ye Mao's wife is soft-hearted. Ye Meilan has been subsidizing her natal family all these years. She has always been worried that Ye Meilan and Sun Jiandong will quarrel, and now this worry is really confirmed.Although the old lady loved her daughter very much, she still didn't dare to tell Ye Mao the truth. Both mother and daughter were worried that he would unwittingly ask Sun Jiandong to play the old man's prestige, which made Ye Meilan even more embarrassed in the end. The two sat opposite each other for a long time, but Ye Meilan finally thought of a way, her eyes lit up and she said, "Mom, why don't you tell Ye Tao that we live on the ninth floor, you and my dad are getting older, so we should climb up and down." It’s inconvenient to get down, so why don’t you live with Ye Tao and the others, they have an elevator building, and their house is bigger than ours, and there are fewer people than us, so my dad would definitely be more happy to live with them.” After hearing this, the old lady also thought it was a good idea, and she was famous for following her teacher.Unexpectedly, Ye Tao faltered as soon as he heard it, he knew that Sha Dangdang would definitely not want his parents to live here, besides, Sha Dangdang had already paid for the decoration, so it seemed unfair for her to accept his parents to live here.When the old lady heard her son's hesitation, she immediately thought of the fact that she had secretly said that Sha Dangdang was a "sister girl". Even though Ye Tao failed to achieve her goal, Ye Meilan felt that, anyway, it must be the right idea to excuse her parents' inconvenient going up and down the stairs.The situation was threatening, and her mind, which was usually not very good at adapting to the situation, was struggling non-stop, and finally she thought of a way out, she said: "Mom, didn't Aunt Jin's house in Building 6 of our community just moved out- -The last time I came here, I met Aunt Jin. She told me that she wanted to rent out the house here. She kept the old furniture and did not move it. She also has a water heater and a gas stove. The house is on the second floor. You and my dad Living in the past is convenient for everything. If you are willing, I will contact Aunt Jin immediately, and I will pay the rent." Ye Mao readily accepted the above proposal - he is used to living in this community, and he can find a partner to play chess and mahjong with him every day, so why not do it?The problem was finally resolved satisfactorily. When Sha Dangdang heard about this arrangement, he immediately warned Ye Tao: "The decoration master I hired is very skilled, but he is also a tempered person! You should vaccinate your parents and avoid going to the construction site to treat others. Pointing fingers and directing blindly, don't turn around and make the master unhappy, and don't want to do it for us."