Chapter 56: Working as a Laborer (2)

  "Then how much would it cost to replace the roof?"

  Liu Chao smiled and said, "It's probably around 4 or 5 thousand yuan. It might be a bit more, but it won't be much more than that. The insurance company has already sent someone to take a look, and they've compensated us with almost 7,000 US dollars. This amount of money is enough."

  "Are you going to change your roof insurance company and still get compensation?" Ju An Qi asked strangely.

  Liu Chao looked at Ju An with the same gaze as when he was looking at the turtle and said, "Didn't you buy house insurance? The insurance company will of course be responsible for compensation if the roof is damaged. What's the point of buying house insurance if not?"

  "Ah, I'm sure my house is paid off. When I first came, I bought a bunch of insurance policies - health, home, property, and even real estate taxes were all paid for. I hired a lawyer at the time who told me it was best to pay them all off in one lump sum. What a bloodsucker!"

  Liu Chao said, "In the future when you go to the hospital, when the hospital sends you a bill by mail, be careful. These hospitals are black-hearted and sometimes they will send you two invoices. Don't pay twice, if you don't mention it, they won't refund your money at all. Your sister-in-law discovered this last time and they overcharged us by more than $1,000."

  "It seems that doctors from any country are not angels in white coats, but rather gatekeepers of the devil! Alright, I'll be careful. I was thinking that American medical care would at least be much better."

  Liu Chao said: "Nonsense! The medical security in the US is not even as good as Canada's."

  Just as they were condemning the evil US medical security system, they heard Zhao Nan's voice coming home. Liu Chao then brought Ju An back to the living room and continued chatting on the sofa.

  When Zhao Nan changed her clothes and came downstairs, Liu Chao said to Zhao Nan: "Wife, get some food ready, Anzi and I haven't eaten yet. We just had some fruit and cookies at the company, and we're a bit hungry."

  Zhao Nan smiled and said: "Then what would you like to eat?"

  "Hey sister-in-law, is there any egg fried rice? If so, just get a bowl of it."

  Liu Chao immediately chimed in: "Yes, if there's fried rice, I'll have a bowl too."

  Zhao Nan said: "Fried rice needs to be cooked first, so I'll go rinse some rice now and cook it." Saying that, he headed towards the kitchen.

  "Hey, sister-in-law, the rice is a bit hard, I'll go stir-fry it myself later. Do you have some scallions and chili sauce? If so, can you get some ready? We don't have these things at home."

  Zhao Nan's voice came from the kitchen: "Yes, you and your senior fellow apprentice are from the same place, with similar tastes. We have scallions, chili sauce, soy sauce, shredded meat, and salted duck eggs at home."

  Liu Chao said, "Alright! Just cook the rice and that's it. It's been a long time since I've had An Zi's fried rice. Back in college, this kid would always come to our dorm to fry rice and eat."

  "Ah, I forgot to buy chili sauce from my place, so this time I'll buy a whole box from you to take back and enjoy slowly. And also get some of those small onion seeds from our country, it's convenient for cooking noodles or stir-frying rice later on. The ducks at my place have started laying eggs already, my mom is collecting them now, planning to make some pickled ones in a jar, by the time you guys come back in autumn, they should be ready to eat. And when you come back in winter, we'll have a hot pot with beef and mutton, plus my fish and shrimp, it's going to be so satisfying!"

  Zhao Nan smiled in the kitchen and said: "No wonder your senior brother calls you a foodie, I just came back for a while and you're already bringing up food."

  He said with a carefree tone: "The desires of the mouth and stomach are one of life's greatest pleasures. Now my pursuit is to be able to eat what I want, and then find a wife, have kids, and live a warm life. When my son goes to college, I'll buy him a Rolls-Royce to take him there, and then buy him a Ferrari or something in school, so he can focus on chasing girls. All the things I wanted to do in college but didn't get to do, I'll let this kid fulfill for me."

  Liu Chao and Zhao Nan burst out laughing.

  Zhao Nan had finished buying rice and put it in the electric cooker to cook. He then went upstairs, leaving his two brothers-in-law sitting in the living room drinking and chatting.

  Liu Chao said: "Next time alumni association you go or not, if you want to go I will inform you at that time".

  "You are all doctors and masters, I am just a undergraduate, what can I do there? It's embarrassing, besides, I don't know many people, I won't go!"

  Liu Chao went on to say a lot, but in the end, he couldn't get Ju An to open up. Originally, Ju An was someone who would rather have one less thing to worry about than one more, and seeing some unfamiliar people really didn't spark much interest in him.

  After waiting for a while, Ju An went to the kitchen to take a look and found that the rice was already cooked. She unplugged the cooker, opened the lid, and let the rice cool down a bit. Then she took out a few eggs from the refrigerator, picked some scallions, removed the dead leaves, washed them in the sink, and chopped them into scallion flowers on the cutting board. After that, she shouted to her senior brother in the living room: "Senior brother, is there any lard at home?"

  Liu Chao then got up and went to the refrigerator, took out the lard and handed it to Ju An. Ju An put a flat-bottomed pan on the stove, lit the fire, and first heated the pan.

  After the pot was heated, two or three tablespoons of lard were added to melt, then the pot was shaken back and forth to cover the bottom with oil. The eggs in the bowl were beaten and stirred, poured into the pot, and scallions were sprinkled on top. After a few gentle stirs, the rice was added to the pot and stir-fried. During the stir-frying process, some soy sauce, MSG, and salt were added. Before long, two plates of shallow chestnut-colored fragrant fried rice were ready.

  Liu Chao couldn't sit still after smelling the aroma, so he came over to help cut a duck egg in half. Then, he brought the chili sauce to the dinner table and started devouring it with Ju An. Zhao Nan went downstairs halfway through and entered the kitchen, praising, "Anzi, this fried rice is really fragrant, just smelling it makes me hungry."

  Just as Ju An was scooping the chili sauce into his bowl, he said: "There's still more than half a bowl left in the pot, sister-in-law, why don't you come and have some too?"

  Zhao Nan also took a small bowl and sat down at the table, eating a mouthful and saying: "It's really not bad".

  Liu Chao said while eating: "Your sister-in-law cooks fried rice, she doesn't like to use lard, all use olive oil, she's afraid of getting fat, but Anzi's fried rice has the flavor of our hometown, it's refreshing."

  Zhao Nan said as soon as he heard: "Working in an office all day, originally having high blood lipids, eating so much lard is not good for the body".

  "Ah, yes! Brother, your figure has changed, you need to keep it in shape."

  Zhao Nan ate a small bowl and went upstairs. Ju An and Liu Chao divided the remaining food in the pot into two portions, and the two of them sat on the sofa eating, rubbing their bellies with satisfaction, it was indescribable.

  On Saturday morning, Ju An was woken up by Liu Chao. When he looked out the window, it was still a bit dark outside. Liu Chao shouted at Ju An to get up quickly and brush his teeth. He would go buy breakfast at KFC soon, and his friends would arrive later. Also, the truck delivering materials should arrive around 7 o'clock, so let him keep an eye on things downstairs.

  After finishing, he pulled Ju'an up from the bed, and she got up dazedly to brush her teeth, change clothes, and go out of the door. It was really bright in summer, and it didn't take long for the sky to be fully lit. Ju'an sat on the swing in the yard, swaying back and forth while looking at the intersection. The delivery truck hadn't arrived yet, but Liu Chao had returned with some hamburgers and a bucket of fried chicken.

  Just as they finished taking down the breakfast, a small pickup truck came over, and four or five more pickups arrived one after another. Eight or nine foreigners got out of them, among whom one was almost as old as Ju'an's father. Ju'an secretly wondered if this old man could still climb up to change the roof, what if he fell down?

  A large group of people came down and then took down seven or eight ladders. It turned out that each foreigner had brought a ladder.

  Liu Chao also took out two ladders from his home. Ju An asked, "Do these foreigners bring their own ladders?"

  Liu Chao laughed and explained to Ju An: "These old Americans go out to help with work, all of them bring their own tools, wait a bit and you'll see, they've got hammers, shovels, pliers and that sort of thing."

  Ju An nodded calmly, and Liu Chao introduced him to this group of foreign friends. After a brief greeting, they started eating breakfast.

  After finishing breakfast, they rested for a few minutes before seeing a large crane approaching with a big platform carrying over twenty packages. Liu Chao saw the crane coming and said to Ju An, "The delivery truck has arrived," as he called out to the two foreigners to climb up the ladder onto the rooftop.

  When the crane approached the house, a white driver in his 40s got out of the car, holding a remote control. He used the boom to lift up more than 20 packages from behind and slowly placed them on the roof. Liu Chao and two foreigners on the roof were responsible for receiving these items. When everything was placed on the roof, one of the foreigners made a gesture and shouted loudly: "OK!"

  The driver then operated the crane remotely and drove the crane away.

  At this time, Liu Chao came down and Ju An stepped forward and said: "The material is still delivered like this, the service is really good, it's free to help you hang things."

  Liu Chao said: "The competition here in the US is fierce, I'm telling you, if you were to buy cement domestically, it would definitely be a bag at a time, and you'd have to buy sand and other things yourself and mix it by hand. Here, you just call the water company and they'll deliver pre-mixed cement right to your doorstep, with service! The US is indeed ahead of China in many ways, but that's just the way it is. Labor costs are high here, so if you were to hire a few people to mix it for you, it would be more expensive than having the cement company do it."

  "Right, I agree. The service consciousness of the Americans is indeed much stronger than in our country. Just having goods delivered to your doorstep is already not bad, and they even help you mix it, you're thinking too highly of them."

  Liu Chao took a look and said, "Don't talk nonsense! Hurry up, today you'll be responsible for sucking up the iron nails that fall down with that old gentleman, as well as collecting the debris. He pointed to the white-haired old man who was about the same age as Ju An's father, then handed Ju An a rope with a circular magnet tied to it.