Courtyard Houses: Starting with the principle of hard work paying off

Chapter 143 A Chance Encounter at the Market: Jia Zhangshi Defiances the Law and Commits a Crime! (5k)

"Old Liu?"

As Yan Bugui and Li Hongbing left one after the other, Yi Zhonghai couldn't help but call out to Liu Haizhong.

Liu Haizhong knew what he meant, but didn't react.

Seeing this, Yi Zhonghai turned to Du Jianguo beside him and said, "Old Du?"

Du Jianguo ignored Yi Zhonghai's actions.

Obvious.

Yi Zhonghai wanted the two senior administrators to call back Yan Bugui and Li Hongbing, who had ignored the entire college meeting.

Let's continue what we just discussed face-to-face and criticize their current behavior.

However, neither Liu Haizhong nor Du Jianguo were stupid. Doing this would not only offend Li Hongbing, but also Yan Bugui.

Moreover, Li Hongbing has already exposed what happened earlier, so is there any need to discuss or study it further?
Seeing the two of them like this, Yi Zhonghai didn't say anything more, but secretly despised them.

With this kind of attitude, he still has the nerve to act like a big shot in the management department.

But Liu Haizhong and Du Jianguo thought differently.

Yi Zhonghai was tough at the time, but what was the final result?
The key point is that Yi Zhonghai wasn't very tough at the time. After Li Hongbing caught him red-handed, he publicly backed down more than once. Don't think that just because the matter is over, they've forgotten all about it.

"Oh dear, why have you all left?"

"Old Yang's wife, do you need any grain? How about I share some with you?"

"How much? Can you give me a discount?"

"No way, I bought all of this with real money. I'll just sell it to you at the original price and not make any money off you. You'll also save yourself the trouble of queuing up at the grain store to buy grain. Isn't that a great thing?"

"No, we have enough food at home."

"Silly Zhu, do you need any grain?"

"Jia Zhangshi, do you think I'm a fool? Who in the courtyard is short of food right now? We can't even finish eating it all."

"Silly Zhu, you don't appreciate kindness!"

"..."

As everyone was about to leave, Jia Zhangshi hurriedly searched everywhere for someone to sell off the extra grain she had stored at home, but no one paid any attention to her.

If Jia Zhangshi were willing to make concessions, even just a small one, everyone would consider it.

After all, grain is a durable commodity, and although most people in the courtyard had stockpiled some, they hadn't stockpiled as much as Yan Bugui and Jia Zhangshi.

However, Jia Zhangshi didn't want to lose a single penny and treated them like suckers. Naturally, no one wanted to benefit Jia Zhangshi, let alone buy the space for nothing.

"Dongxu's master, please help me think of a way."

Having no other options, Jia Zhangshi had no choice but to seek help from Yi Zhonghai.

Faced with this situation, Yi Zhonghai said somewhat helplessly, "Sister-in-law, why don't you keep it and eat it slowly? Anyway, grain doesn't spoil easily. As long as it's stored properly, it won't be a big problem if you keep it for a while."

What can he do about this?

"Master, please give us some advice. It's not a problem of whether we can finish eating it all, but the main problem is that all this food is taking up space at home! There's almost no room to move around."

Jia Dongxu was somewhat embarrassed, but he had no choice but to step forward.

Upon hearing Jia Dongxu's words, Yi Zhonghai was immediately shocked and asked, "How much have you stockpiled?"

What does it mean to have so much grain that there's no room to walk in your house?
soon.

Yi Zhonghai and Wang Guihua followed Jia Dongxu and the others home. As soon as they entered the house, they were stunned to see that the house was almost overflowing with grain.

Jia Dongxu's apprentice is "honest" and didn't lie at all.

Not only the outer room, but also quite a few inner rooms.

Inside the house, the grain that the Jia family had stockpiled during this period totaled more than twenty bags.

I knew the Jia family had stockpiled a lot recently, but I didn't expect it to be this much. No wonder Madam Jia Zhang reacted so strongly outside just now.

Yi Zhonghai roughly calculated that there were about 200 jin of rice, more than 500 jin of cornmeal, plus 200-300 jin of other grains.

If you add it all up, it would probably exceed 1,000 jin (500 kg).

Why are you stockpiling so much?

Yi Zhonghai was speechless.

Those who didn't know better would think a famine was coming when they saw the Jia family hoarding so much grain.

After silently doing some calculations, Yi Zhonghai felt even more distressed.

Rice is currently 1480 yuan per kilogram, so 200 kilograms would cost around 300,000 yuan. Cornmeal costs 1080 yuan per kilogram, which would be over 500,000 yuan. If you add other grains, the total would be at least over 1 million yuan.

The key issue is that Jia Dongxu's salary has been reduced to only 180,000 yuan a month, and the poverty relief he received is no longer available. Yi Zhonghai has to provide them with subsidies every month.

Yi Zhonghai knew that Jia Zhangshi must have some private money that she was unwilling to give out, but he didn't expect it to be so much.

They can afford to spend over a million yuan to buy and stockpile grain, yet they still complain about being poor every day. Yi Zhonghai felt like a complete idiot.

Willingness to provide subsidies is one thing.

Being taken advantage of and fooled is a different matter altogether.

Even if you're going to invest, this isn't the way to do it.

Knowing that Yi Zhonghai and his wife would have all sorts of thoughts upon seeing so much grain in the house, Jia Zhangshi quickly explained, "Dongxu's master, to buy this grain, I used all my savings. The bulk of it was borrowed from my younger brother after I made a special trip back to the countryside..."

After hearing Jia Zhangshi's explanation, even though he knew she was most likely lying to him, Yi Zhonghai felt much better.

There's nothing I can do if you don't accept it.

Unless they want to break ties with the Jia family and completely abandon Jia Dongxu as their future caregiver.

"It's all Old Man Yan's fault. I thought that since he's so shrewd and stingy, he never does anything that doesn't make a profit, and he's the head of the management office, he might know some inside information. I saw them buying bags of grain to their house, so..."

seriously.

Jia Zhangshi genuinely believed that a food shortage was imminent, which is why she kept hoarding grain at home.

Before liberation, such things happened frequently, and she was afraid.

In the years since the founding of the People's Republic of China, the supply and price of grain have been relatively stable. However, the sudden restriction on everyone's purchase of flour and the special issuance of flour purchase certificates made Jia Zhangshi suspicious.

Understanding Jia Zhangshi's thoughts, Yi Zhonghai sighed helplessly.

In fact, everyone had similar concerns. Every household in the courtyard had stockpiled some food at home, including him.

But no matter what, worries are just worries.

In addition, people outside had been scrambling for several days. Apart from some sales points on the first day, grain stores did not experience any shortages of grain supply afterward. There was no further prevention or restriction on people buying other staple grains. People gradually lost their enthusiasm and put aside their concerns.

In terms of hoarding grain, apart from Yan Bugui, Jia Zhangshi was the most fanatical among everyone in the courtyard.

“Sister-in-law, Dongxu, I’ve checked, and there is quite a lot of grain, but there are four of you in your family now. If you save it and eat it slowly, it will last until next year’s New Year at the latest, so it’s not a big problem.”

If you asked Yi Zhonghai to come up with a solution, he really couldn't think of anything right now.
After thinking for a moment, Yi Zhonghai spoke again: "If you really don't want to keep so much grain at home, I have an idea. You'll have to suffer some losses. You can sell some of it to the people in the yard at a slightly lower price. Maybe someone will want it."

"That won't work!"

Faced with Yi Zhonghai's idea, Jia Zhangshi shook her head without hesitation and refused on the spot, saying, "If we do that, wouldn't our family suffer a huge loss?"

They had to make countless trips to the grain store to buy this grain. It would be one thing to sell it to someone else at the original price, but how can they do this at a loss?

If Jia Zhangshi had wanted to do that, someone might have already wanted it.

"Then there's nothing I can do."

Yi Zhonghai helplessly shrugged.

He is indeed Jia Dongxu's mentor, but he is not omnipotent.

Whenever the Jia family encountered difficulties or problems and came to him, there was usually a good solution or outcome. This was not entirely because Yi Zhonghai was so capable, but because they were carrying the burden for the Jia family.

There are only two people in their own family, and they consume less food than the Jia family every day. They have also stockpiled a lot of food recently, but they can no longer help the Jia family.

“Master, having too much grain isn’t the problem, the main problem is having nowhere to store it.”

Jia Dongxu reiterated the issue, saying with some helplessness, "With so much grain stored up inside, we're finding it very inconvenient to move around except for eating and sleeping."

Yi Zhonghai had already thought of a solution for the Jia family regarding this issue, but Jia Zhangshi disagreed.

There is a cellar, but it's a shared space for everyone in the yard, so it's not appropriate to store grain there.

After hesitating for a moment, Yi Zhonghai finally suggested to Jia Zhangshi and her son Jia Dongxu, "Sister-in-law, Dongxu, if you trust me, you can leave some grain with us first, and come back to pick it up when you need it later."

Their own family had two rooms, which was obviously much better than the Jia family's situation.

However, this involves a trust issue.

If it weren't for his mentor-student relationship with Jia Dongxu, Yi Zhonghai wouldn't have easily proposed this plan.

Upon hearing Yi Zhonghai's idea, both Jia Zhangshi and Jia Dongxu hesitated.

Jia Dongxu was somewhat inclined to agree. After all, Yi Zhonghai was his mentor, and since he had taken the initiative to bring it up, it would be inappropriate for him to refuse rashly. Moreover, he trusted Yi Zhonghai's character.

Before he could even speak, Madam Jia said, "Master Dongxu, let's not trouble you. It's fine if you take up space, we can manage. We've created this trouble ourselves, we don't want you to be affected by it."

Jia Zhangshi's words sounded nice, but they only conveyed one meaning—disagreement.

The brothers are still settling accounts!

If so much grain is stored at Yi Zhonghai's house, what if it gets mixed up instead of being too little?
"In that case, let's do as you said, sister-in-law. If there's nothing else, we'll head back now."

Yi Zhonghai's expression was not good. He forced a smile and said those words before leaving the Jia family with his wife.

He was extremely disappointed by Jia Zhangshi's actions just now.

Is Yi Zhonghai the kind of person who would covet the Jia family's grain? As a senior fitter at the steel rolling mill, Yi Zhonghai earns several hundred thousand yuan a month.

The grain stored up by the Jia family was worth a lot of money, but at most, it was only worth two months' salary for him, or even less.

not to mention.

Even though Yi Zhonghai had his own selfish motives, he still did a lot to help the Jia family after taking Jia Dongxu as his apprentice.

Putting aside how much he has helped over the years, the fact that Jia Dongxu's salary was reduced this year, as well as most of his expenses during his sick leave, were all "borrowed" from him.

The money the Jia family "borrowed" was basically gone forever.

In the past two years, the Jia family has needed more and more "help" in various areas, and their needs have become increasingly greater.

For the sake of his future retirement, coupled with past sunk costs, Yi Zhonghai has no choice but to continue investing, and tacitly considers it an investment.

Yi Zhonghai treated Jia Zhangshi and Jia Dongxu as his own people, but Jia Zhangshi played tricks on him.

“Master, that’s just my mother’s personality. She doesn’t mean anything by it. Please don’t take it to heart.”

Fortunately, Jia Dongxu came out at this moment, which made Yi Zhonghai feel a little better. So he said, "Dongxu, what are you saying? I know your mother doesn't want to trouble us, but I really can't help you with anything."

Upon hearing Yi Zhonghai's words, Jia Dongxu breathed a sigh of relief.

After returning home.

Wang Guihua closed the door and couldn't help but sigh to Yi Zhonghai, "This Jia Zhangshi, it's been so long, and she's still not on our side."

"What Jia Zhangshi is like is not important. What's important is Dongxu. Besides, you've known her for a while now, so don't overthink it."

Upon hearing this, Yi Zhonghai offered his advice.

"Or perhaps we should focus more on Sha Zhu?"

Wang Guihua hesitated for a moment, then tentatively asked.

"not good."

Yi Zhonghai thought for a moment, then shook his head and said, "That kid Shazhu is sometimes too reckless. He doesn't even necessarily listen to me. Besides, he's getting close to Li Hongbing now. I'm worried..."

Faced with Yi Zhonghai's concerns, Wang Guihua sighed silently but said nothing more.

……

Five days later.

Li Hongbing's days off.

Early in the morning, Li Hongbing began practicing Baduanjin (Eight Pieces of Brocade) in the courtyard.

His Eight Pieces of Brocade skill has now been upgraded by one level in the past year, from level 3 to level 4.

Every movement was not only fluid and graceful, but also imbued with an indescribable artistic conception.

[Physique +1]

As he was about to finish his morning exercise, Li Hongbing's physical attributes once again achieved a breakthrough.

[Host: Li Hongbing]

【Age: 17】

Strength: 72, Agility: 70, Constitution: 74, Intelligence: 87 (Standard adult value is 60)

skill:
【Clothing Design: lv2 (1425/2000)】

[Running: lv2 (382/2000)]

[Cycling: lv3 (4217/10000)]

[Calligraphy: lv3 (7156/10000)]

[Cooking Skill: lv4 (12143/50000)]

【Eight Pieces of Brocade: Level 4 (3492/50000)】

……

In the past year, Li Hongbing's four physical attributes have all increased in all aspects, breaking through the seven mark.

Li Hongbing had a feeling that with his current physical condition and strength, he could kill a bull.

Of course.

Li Hongbing wasn't sure if his feeling was accurate, since he hadn't tried it and didn't intend to.

In terms of skills, except for calligraphy, almost everything else has been upgraded by one level.

The cash and physical rewards obtained from the system are naturally quite substantial.

The cash rewards alone have already accumulated to 27 million, but most of them have been spent by Li Hongbing to stockpile supplies. Currently, including his salary, he only has a little over 5 million in savings left.

It wasn't that Li Hongbing was spending money extravagantly, but rather that there were simply too many supplies to prepare.

It's not just Li Hongbing alone; it includes his sister Li Hongmei's family, Chen Xueru and her mother, and even his future children—these are all things that need to be considered for the next few decades.

Basic survival supplies are no longer a major concern.

The items that Li Hongbing hoarded and purchased were mostly for the purpose of improving his living standards, and many of them were not cheap.

Just like boneless pork with skin, the price is now 7,500 yuan per jin (500 grams), so 100 jin would cost 750,000 yuan.

The prices of boneless beef and mutton are 5,800 and 6,700 per jin respectively, eggs are 6,500, granulated sugar and white sugar are 6,700 and 6,100 respectively, while high-end consumer goods such as tea cost around 50,000 to 80,000 per jin for good quality.

Li Hongbing has always used the method of purchasing from multiple locations over a long period of time; otherwise, he would have run out of money long ago.

Fortunately, the rationing system was not perfected and implemented all at once. At present, only flour purchase certificates and grain purchase certificates have been implemented, so the impact is not too great. Otherwise, Li Hongbing would have had to drastically shorten the preparation time.

After having breakfast at home, Li Hongbing rode his bicycle out to begin his shopping trip for the day.

Over the past year, the system space has accumulated a considerable amount of supplies. While not entirely sufficient, Li Hongbing is under little pressure, so today's procurement is very casual and free.

The main shopping locations in the morning are farmers' markets near the city's outskirts. People come there to set up stalls very early every day, and there is a large flow of people. As long as you don't come every day or are too conspicuous, you will not attract attention.

Here, you can also discover some little "surprises" from time to time.

For example, villagers with hunting skills often bring their catch to sell here, such as wild ducks, pheasants, rabbits, and pigeons.

Li Hongbing has bought it many times.

If you're lucky, you might spot a wild boar, or even a top-quality prey that would later earn you a government job.

There are currently no animal protection laws.

"Auntie, how much are these eggs?"

"Six thousand six per jin."

"Okay, I'll take them all."

"You want them all?"

"I want them all, but you have to give me that basket of eggs, otherwise I can't carry them."

"No, I need to take this basket back!"

"Auntie, your eggs are a hundred yuan more expensive than those sold in the city. I didn't even try to bargain with you. You can't even afford a basket of them?"

"Uh... alright then! You're honest, young man, so I'll give you this basket."

"..."

When buying things here, as long as the price is within a reasonable range, Li Hongbing usually doesn't bother to haggle.

The rural people from now on will not have an easy time.

It's winter now, and starting this month, grain has been completely subject to unified purchase and sale, and private buying and selling is not allowed, so there aren't many good things to buy.

After going around in circles, Li Hongbing's bicycle only had five more wild rabbits and three pheasants, along with some dried persimmons and walnuts.

After leaving this place and arriving at a secluded spot, Li Hongbing directly stored all these items into his system space.

Because the system space couldn't hold living creatures, the rabbits and pheasants that entered it immediately died.

This saves Li Hongbing the trouble of having to deal with it first before he can put it in.

When it's time to eat them, just take them out while the pheasant or rabbit is still warm and the blood hasn't clotted. You can immediately cut their throats to bleed them out; there's plenty of time.

After finishing these tasks, Li Hongbing headed to the next suburban farmers' market.

We've made our way to the third market today.

Just as Li Hongbing bought a bag of chestnuts, a voice that sounded incredibly familiar suddenly appeared beside him, and the content of the conversation caught Li Hongbing's attention.

"Brother, wanna buy some grain?"

"Buy grain? Doesn't the government now prohibit people from buying and selling grain privately?"

"Shh! Brother, I'm selling this for a cheaper price than you paid. If you buy it, we can continue our conversation; if not, we can pretend we never met."

"how much is it?"

"..."

They dare to come here to sell grain so soon after the implementation of the unified sales and purchase system; they've got some nerve!

Following the direction of the sound, Li Hongbing looked over and saw that the other person had wrapped their head with a floral headscarf, covering themselves up completely, with only their eyes showing. They were obviously afraid of being recognized.

Just as Li Hongbing looked at the other person, the other person seemed to notice him as well and subconsciously looked over.

Eye to eye!

Jia Zhangshi?
(End of this chapter)