Reborn as a Landlord-Chapter 792 - 404: Late Autumn_1
Second watch of the night, seeking pink powder.
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The layout of Lian Manman’s new home is a two-entry courtyard. The first entry is the outer courtyard; upon entering through the main gate, one finds themselves in a spacious courtyard—with a small pond at its center. The water in the pond is living water, drawn from the river ahead through an aqueduct and settling ponds, before congregating here.
Now, being autumn, the small pond merely contains a pool of clear water and a few brocade carps. Next spring, Lian Manman plans to plant some lotus flowers there.
The main rooms of the front courtyard are separately a living room, a study, and Mr. Loo’s bedroom. An alcove with a heated brick bed has been partitioned off inside the study, where Wu Lang and Xiao Qi can study or rest.
There are no wing rooms in the front courtyard; instead, there are large interconnected yards on both the east and west sides, housing the threshing area, storerooms, a winery, a Pickled Vegetable Workshop, a pigsty, and livestock sheds.
Passing through the front courtyard’s corridor leads to the second entry courtyard.
Exiting the corridor, there are covered walkways on both sides. Descending the steps, a blue-bricked path leads straight to the main building. The second courtyard, which is also Lian Manman’s inner courtyard, has an Upper Room layout of five rooms - one main and two secondary - the arrangement is similar in general to the Lian Family Old Mansion, and is also a common layout among tenant farmers’ houses.
At the foot of the main building’s steps, by the side of the path, are four pomegranate trees of each kind. These are mature pomegranate trees that have been transplanted, said to bear fruit next year.
The depth of the inner courtyard is not as extensive as the outer courtyard, and there are no wing rooms built. For the Lian Manman’s family of six, plus Mr. Loo, seven people in total, the current rooms are more than enough. Building wing rooms would be a preparation for Wu Lang and Xiao Qi’s future.
"It’ll be a good few years before my brother and Xiao Qi will need their rooms. If we rush to build them now, what if they don’t like them when the time comes? Besides, if we build them now, we won’t be able to occupy them, and an unoccupied house deteriorates quickly. It would be better to leave the space open for now and build later according to circumstances then, right? Whether to construct wing rooms or to build within the interconnected yards, everything should be decided based on the situation then," Lian Manman had said at the time.
Wu Lang and Xiao Qi had no objections.
Lady Zhang and Lian Shouxin also thought that Lian Manman made sense.
"Whatever they say about big family houses, one room per person, I couldn’t get used to it. Living together, there’s a sense of closeness," that was Lady Zhang’s thought.
On both sides of the inner courtyard there are interconnected yards, where various fruit trees have been planted, rather than buildings.
Entering the west interconnected yard from the inner courtyard’s Moon Gate and walking a few steps along the cobblestone path, one arrives at the bathroom designed by Lian Manman.
On one side of the bathroom is a fire wall; on the other side, the large kitchen built in the front west interconnected yard. During winter, the fire lit in the large kitchen can transfer heat through the fire wall to warm the bathroom. Additionally, a large water tank for supply is installed inside the large kitchen. On top of this water tank, two water pipes are attached; the two pipes pass through the fire wall—one supplying water to the flushing toilet’s cistern, and the other leading to the bathtub.
The bathroom is divided into two sections, one fitted with a wooden bathtub acting as the bathroom, and the other section equipped with a flushing toilet.
The drainpipe is made of thick ceramic, buried underground. For insulation against the cold, the pipe is wrapped in a thick layer of cotton wadding and straw padding, buried more than a meter deep.
The drainpipe’s outlet is located outside the west wall. Due to freezing in winter, arrangements must be made for daily clearance. This has already been discussed by Lian Shouxin with the latrine cleaners; he offered them extra wages to take responsibility for cleaning twice daily, morning and evening. In spring, summer, and autumn, however, the wastewater can flow into the manure collection pit through a special underground channel.
In the front courtyard, next to the large kitchen’s attached room, there’s another similar bathroom intended for Mr. Loo’s use.
Lord Chiang had all the parts of the flushing toilet brought in and watched the artisans install it.
Observing the assemblage of the sewer, Lian Manman couldn’t help but wonder about one issue. The two sections of pipe, including the flushing toilet and the cistern, though accurately sized for connection, but how to seal them?
"That’s Liaodong Prefecture’s most renowned kiln craftsman," Lord Chiang pointed to an old man with slightly grey hair, "Just show him any item—there’s nothing he can’t fuse perfectly, guaranteed to be so airtight that not even a breath of air could escape."
Households of tenant farmers never discard broken bowls, pots, ladles, and the like. So, what to do when these broken utensils start leaking and become unusable? There would be artisans weaving through the streets, hawking their services—repairing bowls and big jars, fixing those broken items. Whether they were made of copper, iron, porcelain, or clay, no matter if it’s as large as a water jar thick enough for two people to embrace or as small as a sake cup a baby could grasp, the kiln craftsmen could mend them.
