Era: Craftsmen in the Siheyuan

Chapter 274 What is supposed to come will always come

No matter what happened outside, our vigorous construction movement was in full swing inside. Steelmaking became a top priority and almost no one could stay out of it. Those who had the strength contributed their strength and those who had the iron produced their iron.

As the saying goes, "A blast furnace rises from the ground and steel forms a river."

People are needed to work, but there are not enough people in the cities, and "the food problem has been basically solved," so they recruited people from the countryside. As a result, tens of millions of people threw away their hoes and went to the cities to become workers.

As a result, not only were there tens of millions fewer laborers producing grain in the fields, but there were also tens of millions more people who needed grain in the cities. In addition, grain production was falsely reported in various places... With this back and forth, one can imagine the future situation.

Moreover, during the autumn harvest, the crops could not be harvested in time due to delays in steelmaking and other activities, resulting in a loss of about 10% of the grain.

Fortunately, this year was a year of bumper harvest, so people’s lives did not encounter any major problems and procurement tasks in various places were basically not delayed.

……

In a blink of an eye, it is the second half of the month.

At noon, Xu Deyong rode a tricycle with Cai Quanwu and Ma Liansheng back to the cafeteria of the tavern. The three of them collected some old ironware and sent them to the blast furnace on the street. They were busy and a little dusty. In addition, the "autumn tiger" was very severe, so the three of them gulped down boiled water.

Everyone has been very busy in the past half month, and fewer people come to the tavern to drink in the evening, but the canteen's business has not been affected much.

After all, you can go a day without alcohol, but if you don’t eat for a day you will feel hungry.

Seeing that everything was normal, Xu Deyong did not stay for long and went straight back to his home in the backyard and took a quick shower.

Xu Huizhen said in a somewhat low spirit, "I'm back."

"Baba..."

When Ping'er saw him coming back, she happily jumped towards him.

Xu Deyong picked up the little guy and held him high, then looked at Xu Huizhen and asked, "What's wrong? Are you feeling unwell again?"

Xu Huizhen said: "No, it's just that the weather is a bit hot and irritating, and your precious daughter is restless as long as she is awake."

Hearing this, Xu Deyong smiled and patted Ping'er's little butt and said, "You are not at home and you are not being honest. You made your mother angry!"

"Hehe..." Ping'er rubbed her little head against Xu Deyong's shoulder with a laugh. Such a cute human cub is really nice when it doesn't cry, but when it cries, it's really annoying.

Xu Huizhen complained a few words but didn't say much. She asked, "How is the steelmaking in the neighborhood committee going? Is our tavern the one that has donated the most scrap iron?"

Xu Deyong laughed and said, "The furnace is about to be closed. The donation from our tavern will definitely be among the best in this area."

Xu Huizhen glanced at him and said, "It's fine to be at the top, but don't let Chen Xueru's silk shop surpass you."

Xu Deyong grinned and said, "No matter what she does, just stay at home and take care of your baby. Let's not compete with her."

"Hmph." Xu Huizhen snorted softly and said, "I'm not competing with her. She was the one who showed off when we met a while ago. No, our tavern must surpass her silk shop."

"Okay, okay, super, super." Xu Deyong nodded. The hormones of this pregnant woman are abnormal. You can't mess with her. You have to stroke her.

Xu Huizhen stood up and said, "You can't just brush me off. I'll go out for a checkup tomorrow. The doctor also said I should move more."

Xu Deyong shrugged and said, "Okay, then we should learn from their advanced practice and donate all the iron objects in our home."

"Donate it if you want, but keep the iron pot for cooking..."

As they were talking, there was a noise outside, and it sounded like Chen Xueru and Elena came together.

Xu Huizhen couldn't help but glare at Xu Deyong.

Xu Deyong blinked innocently and said, "Looking for you."

Ping'er imitated the words in his arms: "Looking for..."

Xu Huizhen ignored him and turned around to greet them with a smile. Soon, the three women came in with smiles on their faces.

Chen Xueru raised the wine and food in her hand, looked at Xu Deyong and said with a smile: "Manager Xu, is it okay for me to borrow your expensive place for food and drinks?"

Xu Deyong smiled helplessly and shook his head, "Okay, you are embarrassing me again, but I can have some of the beer that Elena brought."

Xu Huizhen said, "Xueru, you guys are here to tempt me even though you know I can't drink now."

Elena smiled and said, "Okay, let's drink beer."

Ping Er looked at them and said happily, "Ha..."

Everyone laughed at once, then went into the house and sat down to drink and chat.

Xu Huizhen couldn't drink and could only eat vegetables, so she asked, "Yelena, I see you and Xueru come here often recently, isn't your business busy?"

Elena curled her lips slightly and said, "It seems that there is a problem between our two countries. Recently, some of my compatriots have returned, and the party and business have been affected."

Xu Deyong remained calm. He naturally knew something. The relationship between the two sides was drifting apart. Of course, they still had to maintain it on the surface. It had not yet come to the point of a falling out.

Chen Xueru said: "Okay, those major events between countries are not something we can control, so let's talk about current affairs."

"What's the matter?" Xu Huizhen asked.

Chen Xueru said, "Of course it's a matter of each family donating steel. Now the first and second place should be between our two families. I met Zhang from the neighborhood committee before, and he said that your tavern has surpassed us again today. It's obvious that they want us to fight each other. We can't be fooled."

Xu Huizhen smiled and said, "That's it. Our tavern is number one."

Chen Xueru said, "That won't work. The furnace hasn't been sealed yet. What I mean is, let's not get too excited and we can't surpass each other by too much in the end."

"After all, you just want to compete with the tavern for the first place." Xu Huizhen said.

Chen Xueru said: "Your tavern is the first in public-private partnership, you are the first in literacy class, you want to be the first in everything, why can't our silk shop be the first in the first place!"

The two women started to argue with each other.

Elena raised her wine glass and clinked it with Xu Deyong's. They looked at each other, both revealing a trace of helplessness.

Hey, two strong-willed women!

……

After eating and drinking, Chen Xueru and Elena said goodbye and left, and Xu Deyong and his wife saw them off to the door.

After closing the door, Xu Huizhen said, "Deyong, go to each alley and collect two more cars in the next two days. Don't let Chen Xueru overtake you."

Xu Deyong said: "Well, you are paying for happiness."

"I'm happy to do it. It doesn't cost much anyway." Xu Huizhen said and yawned.

"Okay, okay. I have something to do this afternoon. I'll go out for a walk tomorrow morning. You can take Ping'er to bed and have a rest..."

The next day, after breakfast, Xu Deyong rode his tricycle to send Xiao Lier to kindergarten. On the way back, he heard a whispering voice coming from the alley next to him: "Brother-in-law!"

Xu Deyong didn't pay any attention to it. Then the voice caught up with him and said, "Xu Deyong!"

"Yeah." Xu Deyong stopped the car and looked in the direction of the sound, his eyes narrowed immediately.

……

(End of this chapter)