Courtyard House: Starting as an engineer, crushing a yard full of poultry

At noon, Li Xiangdong treated Li Huaide to roast duck, and then hurriedly returned.

Li Xiangdong spent the whole afternoon making furniture, still working in the old deaf woman's old house. As for the furniture in this room, he could just move it to the side.

Li Xiangdong set up a large desk and two wooden sofas and chairs. Yu Li watched from the side the whole time.

"Dong-ge, I didn't expect you to be such a good carpenter!" Yu Li said with a look of surprise.

"Not bad. From now on, I'll make all our furniture myself," Li Xiangdong said proudly.

As the two were talking, Yi Zhonghai and the deaf old woman walked over.

"Chief Engineer Li, you're making your own furniture, so could you give the old lady the old furniture for 2.1?" Yi Zhonghai said, "You have no use for it."

“Yes, yes. How about I pay some money…” the deaf old woman said excitedly, “I’m shy around strangers. I really won’t sleep well if the bed is changed.”

"How about this? I'll give you a hundred yuan! Buy all of this furniture."

"We need to move now, otherwise it will disturb you. Just leave the keys down tomorrow morning. I'll find someone and they can move everything in one morning!"

"You two should get as far away as you can," Li Xiangdong sneered. "Don't make me unhappy."

The deaf old woman, seeing this, knew things were going badly. She had no choice but to take Yi Zhonghai back.

"What's in that old lady's house?" Yi Zhonghai asked.

At this time, they were all in the deaf old woman's small house.

"You're so smart, Xiao Yi. We were in a rush last night and couldn't bring some things back," the deaf old woman said. "But it's alright, we'll find a chance to get them later."

“This is a good idea.” Yi Zhonghai frowned and said, “And that Jia Zhangshi, if she doesn’t come back, we will suffer every day.”

"Go and see Jia Zhangshi tomorrow," the deaf old woman said. "Give her some sweet treats, and she'll be fooled in a few days."

"But there's one condition! When Jia Zhangshi asks for money, you should give her almost all of it."

“Jia Zhangshi will definitely use this opportunity to extort money from us. But if she has something on us, then we can only pay her to keep quiet.”

"Don't worry, I'll pay for it," the deaf old woman said.

"No need, no need, I'll pay for it. Jia Zhangshi has such a foul mouth. Tsk tsk!" Yi Zhonghai said with a fawning smile.

“It doesn’t matter who pays, Grandma, I’ll go now,” Yi Zhonghai said.

As they were talking, they saw Sha Zhu walk over and look at them in a nonchalant manner.

"Zhu Zi, how are you? Even if you don't have money, you still need to eat your fill," the deaf old woman said.

Chapter Seventy-Two: Liu Haizhong, the Warrior of the Shithole (Seeking flowers and votes!)

When Sha Zhu came in, he was hunched over, and his cotton-padded coat was tattered.

"I've already eaten, I still have money for food." Sha Zhu's old face was full of embarrassment.

Yi Zhonghai shook his head and said, "Zhu Zi, you absolutely can't be so foul-mouthed in the workshop anymore. Otherwise... sigh!"

"Pillar, don't you have any other clothes? What's this outfit you're wearing?" the deaf old woman said, somewhat exasperated. "You think you can find a wife like this?"

"Where does your salary go?"

Sha Zhu smiled awkwardly and said, "I'll go buy a cotton coat tomorrow, but no one has introduced me to anyone yet. I'll think about it later."

"What can I say to you? There were two big rooms, which I left to you after I was gone. Who knew they'd turn out like this..." The deaf old woman sighed and said, "Go and buy some clothes and clean yourself up."

"Xiao Yi, find someone to find a wife for Zhu Zi."

Yi Zhonghai's eyes darted around, and he said with a bitter expression, "I found him several girls. But Zhuzi didn't like any of them. You know about this, Grandma."

Yi Zhonghai knew Sha Zhu's requirements for a partner: she had to be as beautiful as Qin Huairu, and have an urban household registration and a job.

Sha Zhu doesn't even look at his own circumstances.

"Zhu Zi, I'll have your uncle introduce you to someone else, then you can't be so picky anymore," the deaf old woman said helplessly.

"But what kind of introductions did that old man give me?" Sha Zhu said aggrievedly, "I'm a chef, I earn thirty-seven yuan and fifty cents a month, I have two rooms, I'm fed and my family isn't hungry..."

Sha Zhu talked about his own strengths, feeling that he was more than good enough for the princess.

"Silly Zhu, do you think you're so great? You really are stupid!" the deaf old woman said angrily. "You're a head chef now? Do you really think you only have yourself to worry about and no one else to feed?"

"It's exactly what you said, but what kind of conditions are these? Look at yourself, you make yourself look like a beggar all day long, and you don't even know how to take care of yourself."

At this point, Yi Zhonghai directly attacked Sha Zhu's self-esteem: "Zhu Zi, I also have to tell you the truth, you have to be down-to-earth."

"Your conditions are what they are, not very good. Besides, your appearance makes you look older than you are, like you're in your forties."

"And what are you dressed like? Don't you ever pay attention to your appearance? Once your reputation is established, it's very difficult to change it."

Sha Zhu was utterly defeated by these two.

"Then..." Sha Zhu was very unwilling.

"Now that I'm 26, I won't hide it from you anymore. You want to find a virgin. If you want someone from the city, then don't think about pretty girls or anything like that," Yi Zhonghai said.

"If you're looking for someone from a rural area, you can find a pretty one."

"Yeah, yeah, as long as she's about the same level as Yu Li, that'll be fine," Sha Zhu said excitedly.

"Can you afford to support someone similar to her?" Yi Zhonghai said viciously, "If you find someone from the countryside, then two people will have to eat the same amount of food as you."

"What will you do if your future children also have rural household registration?"

"And your father-in-law's family needs your help, can you really say no?"

"Unless you have the ability of Li Xiangdong to get the woman's household registration transferred and find her a job."

Sha Zhu instinctively blurted out, "If I had his skills, I wouldn't be a country bumpkin at all. I could pick and choose from city people."

“You know that too,” Yi Zhonghai said. “If you don’t have their skills, don’t even think about good things. If you want to get married, you only have two choices.”

"First of all, you can only marry someone with a city household registration. Right now, you're not in the kitchen, so you can still bring food back. Even if you're transferred to the kitchen later, you won't be able to bring food back then."

"If you want to marry a virgin, you can only marry someone of average appearance. If you want to marry a beautiful woman, you can only choose a divorced woman."

"Um, this..." Sha Zhu frowned, "Am I really that bad?"

“Compare yourself to the young people in the courtyard, but don’t compare yourself to Li Xiangdong. Compare yourself to Yan Jiecheng and Liu Guangqi,” Yi Zhonghai said. “You can tell me about your appearance yourself.”

Yi Zhonghai knew that Sha Zhu would definitely want to find someone good-looking, someone even a young widow would be acceptable. This was perfect opportunity to bring him and Qin Huairu together.

Of course, that will have to wait until Qin Huairu gives birth to her child and then becomes pregnant with Yi Zhonghai's child.

"I... I guess Sister Qin is actually pretty good," Sha Zhu said, stroking his chin.

"What? You want to be with that vampire?" the deaf old woman exclaimed anxiously. "She has four children in tow..."

"Not three?" Sha Zhu asked, bewildered.

"That Jia Zhangshi is not counted?"

The deaf old woman's cane thumped loudly on the ground. She truly treated Sha Zhu like her grandson.

“That’s easy. We can send Jia Zhangshi back to her hometown. I can handle that.” Yi Zhonghai’s face showed joy. “As for the three children’s household registration, that’s not a problem at all.”

“Qin Huairu used to have a rural household registration, but now that she’s working in a factory, her household registration can be transferred to a rural household registration. The child’s household registration is with the mother.”

“I’ll take care of these things. But if you’re thinking of marrying Qin Huairu, Zhuzi, you’ll have to wait. Wait until she gives birth to the child, and then another three to five months.”

Seeing the old deaf woman's unhappy expression, Yi Zhonghai quickly changed the subject, saying, "Of course, in the meantime, I'll introduce you to some other young women and see if I can find one you like."

"But what you need to do now is take a shower, shave your head, and change your clothes."

Upon hearing this, Sha Zhu grinned and said, "Okay, okay. I'll go right now, I'll go right now!"

Sha Zhu turned and ran away.

"Xiao Yi, I know what you mean. You want to pair Sha Zhu and Qin Huairu together so that they can take care of you in your old age." The deaf old woman's expression wasn't very pleasant.

“Yes, if we let Sha Zhu marry a woman whose background we don’t know and who we can’t control, then what are we supposed to do to support him in his old age?” Yi Zhonghai said directly, “Grandma, I’ll take care of your matter.”

"But I need to find a place to stay, don't I!"

The deaf old woman frowned and said, "That's true. It's such a pity to have Sha Zhu and Qin Huairu together. Such a young man..."

“Zhu Zi himself is happy to do so,” Yi Zhonghai said. “Don’t worry, once Qin Huairu gives birth to a big, healthy son for Zhu Zi, you’ll definitely be happy.”

"Zhu Zi will never lack money in the future. Can I take the money I earn with me? The house and the money are all his! Plus what you left him, hehe, this silly boy is lucky."

The deaf old woman said proudly, "Zhu Zi is just a fool with a fool's luck. Otherwise, I would have chosen him when he was young to take care of him in his old age. Of course, you, Xiao Yi, shouldn't be mistaken either."

"What about that Li Xiangdong, old lady?" Yi Zhonghai was still unwilling to give up.

"Don't make a move for now, there's plenty of time anyway," the deaf old woman said viciously.

I'll deal with him slowly. I won't rest until he's completely ruined!

The deaf old woman had a fierce look on her face, and she looked like an old dog whose spine had been broken.

The next morning, Li Xiangdong stood in the backyard with great satisfaction, looking at the seven houses with a sense of pride.

"For now, we can only build these seven houses. Once the strong winds subside, we should be able to buy all the houses in this yard," Li Xiangdong thought to himself.

The westernmost wing is the kitchen, and this house used to have running water pipes. They no longer needed to fetch water from the central courtyard pool.

There are two large water vats in the kitchen, each about 1.5 meters high and 1 meter in diameter. Both vats are filled with water.

At that moment, Yu Li was making breakfast in the kitchen.

Liu Haizhong walked out of his house and saw Li Xiangdong's smug look. Liu Haizhong was furious.