The door of the courtyard house has been welded dead

The Spring Festival of 1967 was like a distinguished guest wrapped in silver fox fur, quietly approaching the capital city in the rhythm of a strong wind and snowstorm.

The capital city was shrouded in one strong wind and snowstorm after another, and the entire city seemed to be covered with a thick white quilt.

On the green tiles of the courtyard, the snow was piled up to half a foot thick, shining coldly in the morning light.

Every morning when the neighbors open their mottled doors and lift aside the thick quilt curtains to come out, they always look up at their own roofs first, with their brows knitted into knots, and check their roofs with fear and trepidation.

I'm afraid that the fragile beams of the house cannot withstand the heavy pressure of the heavy snow for several days, and I'm afraid that the thick snow will crush the weathered beams.

When the snow stopped and the sky cleared, the courtyard was as lively as a boiling dumpling pot and seemed even more lively than in previous years.

Every household brought out rusty wooden ladders, and the men wrapped themselves tightly in patched cotton jackets and climbed up onto the roofs on the crunching snow.

The "sizzling" sound of the shovel scraping against the tiles, mixed with rough shouts, echoed in the yard.

I don’t know why, but even without the old Yi family, the trouble-making Jia family, Xu Damao, and the deaf old queen mother, the festive atmosphere of the New Year has not diminished but has instead increased.

The days are much better than the same period in the TV series.

The children could wear new clothes and new shoes openly, and the adults, who had saved up a year's wages and coupons, could spend freely at the end of the year. They could bring home chickens, eggs, fish and meat openly without any scruples~!

Although the conditions are difficult, it does not mean that there is no supply for the New Year's Eve dinner. After all, this is the capital city. Lao Liu can still eat an egg a day. If there is a formal worker in the family, he will not be unable to buy meat and vegetables for even 1.8 yuan.

I can only say that only when you are really in this era will you discover that in TV dramas, each household in the courtyard house is deliberately hiding.

Why do we say it was intentional? It can only be said that the Jia family is a troublemaker and is too powerful. In addition, Yi Zhonghai is keeping an eye on them from time to time. If any family dares to eat good food, they have to worry about being slaughtered like fat pigs by the people in the Central Courtyard.

When the Yi family was gone, they still tried to cover up the matter a little during the New Year. But now even the two widows of the Jia family are gone, who would still hide it? Just have a good meal and the adults and children will be happy too.

The old house of the Jia family in the central courtyard was becoming increasingly dilapidated. The collapsed rabbit hutch had a big hole in it, and weeds were growing out from the cracks in the bricks, covered with a thin layer of snow, looking like the toothless mouth of an old man.

Ever since the Jia family moved out, the house has been deserted, leaving only an empty corridor with long icicles swaying in the wind.

The windows were foggy and the room was pitch black. The pair of sinister eyes that used to like to hide behind the curtains and look at people were no longer anywhere.

Through the glass of the kitchen window, you can see a big collapsed hole in the southwest corner of the house, which is where the Jia family's kitchen is located. Once a house loses the care of its owner, the speed at which it falls into disrepair is visible to the naked eye.

In the middle of the yard, the children were rolling around in the snow like happy little animals.

They stuffed small firecrackers into the snow cave, lit them and ran away, covering their ears tightly with their hands but staring at the smoking snow piles with bright eyes.

The loud bang startled the sparrows on the treetops and made them fly away in panic. The two mules in the west wing also kicked up and down in fear.

Liu Yin stood at the door of the room, her apron still stained with flour, her brows furrowed into the shape of the Chinese character "川".

This morning the water boiler went out for some reason, and she squatted in front of it and fiddled with it for a long time before it got back on again. There was coal dust on the ends of her hair.

What made her even more worried was that the brothers Liu Qiang and Liu Lei had returned to their hometown early after finishing their work of storing vegetables for the winter, and their son had gone to live in Xinzhong Street. Now there was no help in the yard, and she looked towards the west wing of the yard from time to time, fearing that some naughty kid would throw firecrackers in and scare the animals.

As he was muttering, a silver bell-like laughter came from the gate of the courtyard.

Li Feng was pushing a 28-inch bicycle with a pink ball-like little person tied to a chair on the beam. It was Huihui who had grown up a little.

The little girl was wearing a white velvet cotton hat. The red pompom on the brim of the hat danced happily with the bumps. Her pink floral cotton jacket wrapped her up like a chubby little panda.

"grandmother!"

As soon as Huihui was carried down from her seat by Li Feng, she jumped into Liu Yin's arms with her short legs, and her babyish voice was so sweet that it melted people's hearts.

Liu Yin's wrinkles were all smiling, and she gave her granddaughter a kiss on her red, frozen face, but Huihui hurriedly pushed her to the west wing.

"Ride the big horse! Ride the big horse!"

The little guy was obsessed with the two mules. After riding them once, he even looked down on the small seat on his father's bicycle. To a child, the cold seat light was not as attractive as a tall horse.

Seeing her precious granddaughter was about to ride a horse, Liu Yin immediately took off her apron and happily took her over.

The New Year is a time of celebration. The demons and monsters in the courtyard will eventually be swept into the garbage dump of history. Li Feng took out a cigarette box from the inner pocket of his cotton-padded jacket and generously distributed cigarettes to the men who were busy working in the courtyard.

Even Yan Jiefang, who was on the roof, threw one up and stuffed another one to Yan Bugui who was waiting with squinting eyes on the side.

Although Old Yan doesn't smoke, he puts the cigarette between his ears as if it were a treasure. He knows that the cigarettes that Li Feng can distribute are all good ones.

"I heard that the factory has good welfare this year, even the school teachers can benefit from it!" Before he finished speaking, there was a crunching sound of snow being stepped on outside the gate, and Guangqi's wife Lili came in, holding the child and carrying a bulging cloth bag in her hands.

The bags contained a mixture of coarse and fine grains mixed with canned fruits. The yellow peaches and orange segments swaying in the glass bottles glowed attractively in the sun.

"Guangqi is back with the car. The car from the day before yesterday should be here by now!"

"Really, Xiaofeng~!"

Guangqi was not at home. He planned to visit his parents-in-law before the New Year. Lili, who was taking her children back to her parents' home after the New Year, suddenly had a strange look in her eyes.

She was so anxious that she glanced outside the courtyard gate from time to time. Last year, her husband was transferred to Inner Mongolia because he was involved in Qin Huairu's scandal. For the past six months, she had been counting the days on her fingers, looking forward to a reunion with him.

At the beginning, when he didn't understand the situation, he secretly complained about Li Feng. For no reason, he separated the couple. Later, Qin Huairu's incident and his father-in-law's bad things made Guangqi be sent to another place, which was really the lightest punishment.

"Chinese New Year is all about happiness and reunion. There's no construction work at the construction site in winter, right? Do you miss your dad?"

Li Feng squatted down and pinched the face of Guangqi's child. The little guy was different from Li Hui. He was a little shy. He hid behind his mother and looked at the strange uncle timidly.

"Hey, not only the children want it, the adults definitely want it too. This time we come back, we'll definitely have a little brother next year~!"

Yan Jiefang, who was squatting on the roof, was no longer a newbie. I don't know who he learned it from, but he made everyone in the front yard laugh. He made Lili blush so much that her eyes were about to bleed.

"You can't spit out ivory from a dog's mouth, Yan Jiefang, get off my feet!

Lili was furious and it was not the first day she married into the courtyard. She pointed at Yan Jiefang on the roof of the old Yan's house and threw a snowball at him.

"Yan Jiefang, I've noticed that you're becoming more and more unruly. Are you itching for trouble?"

"Guang Qi~!"

Lili stood up suddenly, and the child hiding behind her also kicked her legs excitedly.

Guangqi strode into the courtyard from the back room, his military coat still covered with dust, his hair messed up by the wind, but he couldn't hide the joy in his eyes and brows. After criticizing Yan Jiefang who dared to tease his wife, he looked towards the hall with a smile.

"Dad~!"

He opened his arms, and Lili's eyes turned red as she threw herself into his arms. The child giggled and burrowed into Guangqi's neck.

The neighbors immediately gathered around and asked all kinds of questions. The yard suddenly became warm and even the icicles under the eaves seemed to be melted by the heat.

Li Feng watched this scene with a smile, and without disturbing the couple, he turned and went into the kitchen to add coal.

The flames in the stove crackled and made the person's face glow red. He poured a cup of hot tea, held it in his hands to warm his body, lay down comfortably in the chair, and could not help muttering to himself.

"Isn't this what a romantic drama is? What kind of TV drama is this? Art comes from life and cannot be separated from life~!"

In the yard, someone turned on the radio with a "click", and a lively storytelling was heard.

"Since we got married, things haven't been this lively for some time!"

Guangqi had just settled his wife and children, and was not in a hurry to rest. He lifted the quilt curtain of the Li family and ran straight into the house to find Li Feng.

The fire in the house was burning brightly, the kettle on the stove was bubbling with steam, and Secretary Li was lying on a recliner, looking very comfortable.

Guangqi knew he was in the wrong, so he took out the crumpled drawing from his pocket and spread it on the table.

"Secretary Li, the main structure of the school on the grassland has been completed! It's just the doors and windows. They will be finished next year..."

The two were talking excitedly when suddenly a thunderous roar came from the backyard.

"Hey, where's my money? Who stole it?"

The voice was obviously from Shazhu. The two people in the room who were discussing the hope of school construction temporarily stopped the discussion and looked at each other.

Sha Zhu stood in front of the door of his main house, with the buttons of his cotton jacket askew and his hair standing up like a chicken coop, showing the mental outlook of an older single man.

Inside the room, the wooden box pulled out from under the bed was wide open, and all the tickets that were originally at the bottom were gone, all in one go.

Sha Zhu's eyes turned red, and he overturned the stool next to him like an angry bull.

"Why is the money in my box gone?" (End of this chapter)