The ancestral hall was built on an open space to the south of the village, chosen only after a Feng Shui master had inspected the site, at MoFang's suggestion. Mo Yan spent two taels of silver to purchase this plot of land, which was about an acre and a half in size.
The hall's size did not need to be large, usually consisting of a main hall for the enshrinement of ancestral tablets, enveloped by an outer courtyard would suffice, and this would generally cost no more than thirty taels. Nevertheless, Mo Yan still allocated two hundred taels of silver, planning to construct a central hall, two wing halls, and alongside each, two rows of houses with three rooms per row, totaling six large rooms.
"Most of the houses in the village are thatched and come winter, when fierce winds blow and snow keeps falling, there's the danger of houses collapsing! These rooms will remain empty normally, but if someone's house becomes uninhabitable, they can temporarily move in here."