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

Chapter 152 Yi Zhonghai Gets Beaten Up, Crying for Help in Vain (4k)

Li Hongbing left Dong Congyou's house, riding his bicycle in a somewhat cheerful mood.

There are various speculations about the relationship between Sha Zhu, He Daqing, and Yi Zhonghai. Li Hongbing also had some doubts. Now that some of the mysteries have been solved, it has satisfied his curiosity.

Today, by seizing the opportunity, we managed to find a weakness in Yi Zhonghai, which can be considered a great achievement.

However, Li Hongbing doesn't need to worry about what happens next, and it's not appropriate for him to get involved.

After all, this is a matter between Dong Congyou and his apprentice Sha Zhu, He Daqing and his son Sha Zhu, and Yi Zhonghai.

Li Hongbing doesn't need to do anything else; he just needs to wait and watch the show.

After visiting Dong Congyou, Li Hongbing did not return to Fengzeyuan.

Since I've already taken the day off, I might as well take a break.

With nothing else to do besides purchasing supplies, Li Hongbing could only go to Qianmen Street to find Chen Xueru.

"Why are you here?"

The shop wasn't busy at the moment, and Chen Xueru was clearly surprised to see Li Hongbing come over.

If she remembered correctly, today was not Li Hongbing's day off.

Chen Xueru remembered Li Hongbing's days off and when his next day off would be even more clearly than Li Hongbing himself.

"I'm taking the day off today."

Seeing Chen Xueru's surprised expression, Li Hongbing couldn't help but smile, gestured to the back of his bicycle, and said, "Get on, I'll take you for a ride."

"Now?"

Upon hearing this, Chen Xueru was taken aback.

"Your shop doesn't seem too busy right now, so you should be able to get away, right?"

Li Hongbing had already noticed the situation at Chen Xueru's shop, so he spoke up.

"Of course, wait for me a moment."

After Chen Xueru finished speaking, she went back to tell the two shop assistants what she had done, and then came out again.

Because of the issuance of cloth ration coupons, all cotton textiles were subject to unified sales and purchase, and the store lost a major category of fabric selection, resulting in a significant decrease in customer traffic and consequently, less business.

Currently, the silk shop mainly deals in silk products, which is consistent with the name on the signboard.

"How's business today? Is it as good as before?"

As Chen Xueru got into the car, Li Hongbing casually asked.

Li Hongbing asked this question because the issuance of cloth coupons and the revocation of private ownership of cotton textiles had a significant impact on Chen Xueru's silk shop, but it wasn't all bad.

Customer traffic dropped sharply, but apart from the first day, the silk shop's turnover increased instead of decreasing.

the reason is simple.

Just like when flour purchase certificates were issued.

Flour was rationed, but rice and other grains were unavailable, leading to a frenzy of buying.

With cotton cloth now restricted from purchase, many people are worried that fabrics like silk will also be restricted in the future. As a result, more people are coming to the store to buy silk fabrics and make private custom orders.

There is no shortage of wealthy people in Beijing right now.

When Li Hongbing asked about this, Chen Xueru couldn't help but worry and said, "There aren't as many customers in the store as there were a few days ago, but the production time for custom-made clothes is already scheduled until after the New Year."

There were originally only two experienced tailors in the shop, and I hired another one, but they're still too busy. I'm thinking of hiring a few more, otherwise many customers will have to wait a long time to receive their custom-made clothes..."

"There are three experienced chefs in the shop, which is quite a lot."

Hearing Chen Xueru's anxious question, Li Hongbing reminded her, "I think you shouldn't hire too many people at once. Otherwise, after a while, when the peak season is over, the store won't be as busy as it is now. If the experienced workers have no work, it will be a troublesome thing to lay them off. But if you keep them, it's not good to support them for nothing. The monthly salary expenditure will be a problem."

The current surge in orders for silk shops is only temporary.

If we recruit too many tailors because of this, it will be very difficult to manage later.

It is easy to ask God but difficult to send Him away.

Although they are now privately owned sole proprietorships, they cannot dismiss employees at will, as this could easily lead to labor disputes.

This is not a good thing.

A shop employing three master tailors is still quite a lot.

With the store's current customer base, there shouldn't be any major problems.

Moreover, if we hold on a little longer, it will only take a little over a year before the public-private partnership is fully implemented, and then it won't be Chen Xueru's concern anymore.

According to Li Hongbing's understanding, the public-private partnership has begun to expand its scale from the current stage.

However, this mainly targets private enterprises and large businesses with significant influence and a large number of employees; Chen Xueru's silk shop is not currently included in this category.

Despite their growing reputation, the shop only has six employees in total, including Chen Xueru, three veteran tailors, and two female shop assistants—less than a dozen.

Chen Xueru took on all the responsibilities, including accounting and purchasing.

They are just small businesses, not as sophisticated as large industrial and commercial enterprises.

"That's true, then I'll do as you say."

Chen Xueru, sitting sideways on the back of the bicycle, with one arm around Li Hongbing's waist, nodded thoughtfully.

In fact, Chen Xueru had considered these things, but she was still undecided.

The store is currently receiving too many orders. If they don't hire more tailors, customers will have to wait a long time. But if they do that, Chen Xueru is afraid that the problems Li Hongbing mentioned will occur later.

After Li Hongbing said that, Chen Xueru also felt that it was better to be cautious and not be so radical.

who knows.

After a while, there will be policy changes or other events.

This time, the government revoked the private ownership of cotton textiles. Although it did not have a serious impact on my silk shop, some of the cloth shops outside that mainly sold cotton fabrics were in dire straits and had to close down.

As a result, silk also became scarce.

Fortunately, she recently brought back a batch of goods from Suzhou, so she doesn't need to worry about that for the time being.

Even Li Hongbing praised Chen Xueru for her good luck in this matter.

Li Hongbing hadn't actually anticipated the issuance of cloth coupons and the unified purchase and sale of cotton textiles.

Although Li Hongbing knew a lot about this era, he didn't know everything, or the things he knew weren't all very specific.

For example, regarding ration coupons, Li Hongbing only knew about the key points of flour purchase coupons and grain ration books, as well as the landmark event of the subsequent nationwide issuance of grain coupons.

Because many types of goods were only gradually included in the unified sales and purchase system after the national grain coupons were issued, Li Hongbing assumed that cloth coupons were a later matter and did not give Chen Xueru any indirect reminders in advance so that she could make some preparations and arrangements.

After a brief chat, Li Hongbing and Chen Xueru stopped discussing business matters.

Next.

Li Hongbing took Chen Xueru for a bike ride, and the two bought some food and drinks along the way. Then they went to Beihai Park for a picnic, rented a small boat, and went boating on the lake to enjoy the scenery, starting their pleasant day of dating.

……

the other side.

Not long after Li Hongbing left Dong Congyou's house, Dong Congyou asked his wife to find his eldest apprentice, Wang Baoguo.

Even if he were physically unable to get involved, he wouldn't normally need to be directly involved in such matters.

If you want to investigate and understand the situation, the quickest, most convenient, and most effective way is to find out through connections and inquiries, rather than simply walking around and asking indiscriminately.

As Li Hongbing said, at their level, who doesn't have connections and relationships?

The fact that Sha Zhu joined the steel rolling mill wasn't a big secret; anyone could find out with a little effort.

“Master, if it really was that Yi Zhonghai who interfered and instigated Sha Zhu to do such an unruly thing, rest assured, I will definitely not let him off easily.”

Having learned the details of what his master wanted him to do, Wang Baoguo naturally understood the inside story and was immediately enraged, clenching his fists.

This is too reckless; they don't respect their master and fellow disciples at all.

"Don't act rashly. Just find out the details for me, and I'll take care of the rest. Don't be reckless."

Looking at his eldest disciple, Dong Congyou gave him a warning, and then added, "Don't tell your junior brothers about what happened today. Also, remind them not to go looking for trouble with Sha Zhu on their own. And don't let him know about my current situation."

This is not just about Yi Zhonghai and his master and apprentice; it also involves Sha Zhu and He Daqing, which is why Dong Congyou made a special exception.

He wanted to figure out what happened yesterday first, and once he had recovered a bit, he planned to go to Baocheng in person.

"Master, that brat Sha Zhu is already in such a state, why are you still protecting him?"

Thinking about what happened yesterday, especially since Dong Congyou had fallen ill because of it, Wang Baoguo felt angry and somewhat sorry for his master.

If Dong Congyou hadn't stopped them yesterday, these fellow disciples would have already given Sha Zhu, that unfilial and rebellious junior brother, a good beating.

Even in today's modern society, I've never seen a disciple "force" their master to let them graduate.

Seeing his eldest apprentice Wang Baoguo's reaction, Dong Congyou sighed helplessly and said with some self-reproach, "This isn't entirely Shazhu's fault. I know he's always wanted to graduate as soon as possible, but I think his cooking skills are good enough, but he's too impatient. So I wanted to keep him by my side to temper his temper, but I didn't consider his feelings, and I never expected him to be used..."

There was another reason, which Dong Congyou didn't mention.

With Sha Zhu's culinary skills, he had long since reached Dong Congyou's previous standards for graduation. However, because Li Hongbing, Guo Youzhong's last disciple, had made a stunning debut, Dong Congyou had to raise his standards and wanted Sha Zhu to hone his skills and learn more by his side.

Unexpectedly, Sha Zhu was so impatient, eager to graduate on his own. Without consulting his master Dong Congyou, he had already found a new job and position in advance.

Without any choice.

When Sha Zhu came to confront him, Dong Congyou had no choice but to maintain appearances for both master and apprentice and let Sha Zhu graduate on the spot.

If it weren't for He Daqing, and the three-year master-disciple relationship, Dong Congyou would have been overjoyed if he had directly expelled Sha Zhu from the school and dismissed him from the lineage.

No one will sympathize with or feel sorry for Sha Zhu.

Now that they know the truth, even though Sha Zhu's problem remains, Dong Congyou directs his anger at Yi Zhonghai.

Someone has to bear these burdens.

"That Yi Zhonghai is truly despicable!"

Upon hearing Dong Congyou's words, Wang Baoguo couldn't help but grit his teeth inwardly.

Leave from here.

Wang Baoguo naturally followed his master's instructions and went to find people to investigate and verify the facts, wanting to find out how Sha Zhu joined the steel rolling mill.

This is not difficult.

In the afternoon, Wang Baoguo learned that the steel rolling mill was indeed looking to hire a cook who could cook for private kitchens and had professional culinary skills in this area. Sha Zhu had indeed gotten this opportunity through Yi Zhonghai's introduction.

With Sha Zhu's current skills, passing the assessment and getting the job would be no problem at all.

This level of quality is more than enough to prepare special meals for the factory's guests.

Even if you want someone with higher qualifications, it will be very difficult to hire them.

Both their compensation and future career development were restricted.

All are not fools.

No further verification is needed; it is enough to know that Yi Zhonghai was involved.

"Good good..."

When Dong Congyou learned of this, he was so angry that he laughed and said "good" three times.

Before the master could even speak about his apprentice's future career development, Yi Zhonghai was already planning it out for him.

The relationship between Dong Congyou and Yi Zhonghai was merely that of acquaintances; they didn't have much of a close friendship.

The fact that the two sides were able to cross paths was entirely due to Sha Zhu and He Daqing.

After Sha Zhu joined Emei Restaurant, Dong Congyou and Yi Zhonghai basically had no contact, except for the day Jia Dongxu held his wedding banquet, when they met again.

only.

Sha Zhu would often tell him about things that happened in the courtyard.

He mentioned Yi Zhonghai, also known as Uncle Yi, quite often. Dong Congyou knew that Sha Zhu treated Yi Zhonghai as an elder, and he genuinely thought that Yi Zhonghai was kind to Sha Zhu, so his impression of him was never bad.

but now……

Wang Baoguo took in his master Dong Congyou's reaction but didn't say anything more.

But after he left, he went straight to several of his junior brothers.

night.

As night fell, Wang Baoguo and his fellow apprentices arrived outside No. 95 Nanluoguxiang and began to stake out the area.

"Senior brother, are we going to clean house?"

"Pah! What nonsense are you talking about?"

"But isn't this where that idiot Zhu lives?"

"Don't worry about it. Just listen to my instructions when I say to do it."

"As for that kid Shazhu, Master has his own arrangements, so don't interfere..."

"..."

Because of his master Dong Congyou's instructions, Wang Baoguo did not tell them the truth, but he was determined to give Yi Zhonghai a good "lesson" so that he could vent his anger for himself and his master.

at last.

After waiting for half a day, Wang Baoguo's eyes lit up when he saw Yi Zhonghai come out to use the restroom.

It was very dark around, and the streetlights were barely visible.

Wang Baoguo only recognized Yi Zhonghai when he got closer to the toilet.

"on!"

After Yi Zhonghai finished using the toilet, on his way back to the courtyard, Wang Baoguo, who had been lying in ambush, gave the order, and his fellow disciples rushed at him.

"who!"

"Oh dear, you guys..."

"save……"

"Ah~"

"Aah~"

"..."

Wang Baoguo and the others remained silent throughout the entire ordeal. The only sounds around them were the sounds of punches and kicks, and Yi Zhonghai's screams and cries for help quickly echoed in the surroundings.

(End of this chapter)