Courtyard House: Starting as a mediocre engineer

After reviewing the accounts, Zhuang Zhongchen made a discovery: among these debts, the majority were owed to relatives and colleagues, while the debts to friends and neighbors were relatively small. This was quite different from his own situation, where he seemed to have taken on almost everyone, leaving debts scattered everywhere.

There's a reason for this. Everyone knows Da Chan gambles, so people he knows well are definitely unwilling to lend him money; only relatives and colleagues, the kind of suckers, are willing to lend him money.

In fact, Zhuang Zhongchen had considered how to repay the debt—he certainly couldn't push the creditor to the brink, otherwise it would bring endless trouble.

In other words, it's necessary to reassure the creditors and give them hope that you can repay your debts. How much you repay is uncertain and depends on the specific circumstances, but at the very least, you need to demonstrate your sincere intention to repay.

In that case, several priorities need to be established:

First and foremost, they're likely facing financial difficulties and urgently need money. These people are prone to making desperate, even drastic, decisions, so it's best not to take that risk.

Secondly, there were grain coupons and meal coupons.

You must understand, this was during the three years of hardship. Money wasn't the most important thing; what mattered was food coupons, including the meal tickets issued by work units that required them.

Even during this period, people wouldn't stay for a meal when visiting relatives; there was practically no such thing as freeloading. If you wanted a meal, you needed food coupons. This shows just how scarce food coupons were.

Also, there are the neighbors in the courtyard and colleagues from work.

In this respect, the original owner of this body appeared rather naive and lacked emotional intelligence. Undoubtedly, even a rabbit knows not to eat the grass near its burrow.

If I offend these people too much, they might not be of much help, but they could definitely cause a lot of trouble. What would I do if things turned out that way, especially during those turbulent years?

And now there's another priority—Mi Cuicui's debt.

Because the original owner of this body had an indescribable relationship with Mi Cuicui, if Mi Cuicui's debts were to go bankrupt, it would easily implicate Zhuang Zhongchen.

After all, this was an era where hooliganism was a crime, and relationships between men and women were quite conservative. Without a job and without official status, one would be in deep trouble.

There's no need to complain about the original owner here. It's impossible to only enjoy the benefits of the original owner's life without being willing to bear the consequences. Those who only complain are simply incompetent.

As the old saying goes—since we're already here, let's face reality!

However, as a seasoned veteran of society, Zhuang Zhongchen already had extensive experience with this kind of debt restructuring.

"Cui Cui, I just checked. Your family's debts can be divided into three parts: one part is debts to outsiders, totaling 284.7 yuan. This part of the debt will be transferred to me, so you don't need to worry about it."

"Uh? Brother Chen, is this alright?"

"It's alright. To outsiders, I call it brotherly loyalty, and you, as a woman, wouldn't be in the public eye anyway. But in front of outsiders, you still need to maintain a secrecy. Just leave me an IOU. Actually, you don't need to repay the money. Just write that it will be 20 years from now, after Da Chan gets out of prison. To put it more clearly, it's for outsiders to see."

"oh oh."

Although this part of the debt wasn't a huge amount, it was the most troublesome and the most likely to collapse. Zhuang Zhongchen simply decided to take it on himself.

"Some of them are from my colleagues at the shovel factory. I checked, it totals 421 yuan. Here's 10 yuan for you, can you scrape together 21 yuan?"

"There should be... right!"

"That's good. Go to the shovel company again next week and find their workshop director to return the money to them. Tell them that you and your daughter are a widow and are struggling to make ends meet. But you'll definitely pay it back slowly. If you do that, their colleagues won't be too troubled, and it should give them at least two or three months to recover!"

"What about two or three months from now?"

"I'll pay back another thirty or fifty, and we'll see how things go then. It's impossible to pay it all back in one lump sum, but we need to give them hope. Don't worry, I'll continue to support you every month from now on, and I'll make sure you and Xiaoxue don't have any financial difficulties."

"Uh-huh."

"Finally, there's the part about relatives. You take Xiaoxue to Dachan's parents and cry your heart out—the money will definitely be repaid, but it will take time. Ask Dachan's parents to help persuade the relatives. At least this money isn't urgent."

"Is that so?"

"See? At least for the next two or three months, you won't need to worry."

"Oh? Really?" Mi Cuicui was overjoyed. She snuggled into Zhuang Zhongchen's arms and said sweetly, "Good brother, thank goodness I have you as a man. Eat more, the food is getting cold. Hehehe."

"hehe."

"..."

The next morning, before dawn, Zhuang Zhongchen got out of bed in his boudoir.

Mi Cuicui, who was beside him, was also awakened. She was like a flower bud just beginning to bloom, exuding a captivating charm. She wrapped her slender arms around Zhuang Zhongchen's neck and said, "You bad man, you always cause trouble. I'm not talking to you anymore."

"hey-hey."

"The package is on the table. Don't forget to take it with you when you leave."

"Um."

"Hey, are you coming over tonight?"

"You little devil, let's see how you behave."

"Sir! Come on then~! I did a great job~! Hehe."

"..."

They returned to their courtyard home without incident. Zhuang Zhongchen opened the package and took out the lunchboxes one by one.

To be honest, there were no refrigerators back then, and food couldn't be preserved for long, so it had to be eaten within one or two days.

However, the package contained far too much food, including four pan-fried crucian carp in each serving, which could be used to make fish soup. Therefore, in the end, Mi Cuicui only took a small portion, and Zhuang Zhongchen took the majority home.

This shows that for time travelers, personal space is the real necessity!

However, Zhuang Zhongchen was extremely satisfied with his performance last night—a perfect 120%! He seemed to have inexhaustible energy. He even truly achieved six strikes per second.

Holy crap! That's the legendary six strikes in one second!

That said, Mi Cuicui is indeed a charming little vixen. After working so hard all night, I should go back to sleep first...

"The neighborhood committee is here! Bring your food ration book and non-staple food ration book, come and collect your food coupons!"

Zhuang Zhongchen was startled awake from his sleep and found that the sun was already high in the sky, and the entire courtyard suddenly became noisy.

He quickly dressed, retrieved his ration book and food ration book from the house, and hurriedly ran towards the courtyard gate...

Half an hour later, Zhuang Zhongchen returned home and successfully received his ration coupons for the following month. He received a total of 21.6 jin of grain coupons, 5.4 jin of flour coupons, 2 liang of meat coupons, 3 liang of oil coupons, 2 jin of vegetable coupons, and several other coupons including cigarette coupons and match coupons.

According to Zhuang Zhongchen's monthly ration, it was 27 jin of grain. Of this, 10% was in the form of flour coupons, which could be used to buy high-gluten flour; and the other 10% was in the form of rice coupons, which could be used to buy rice. These were all high-quality grains, and the flour coupons and rice coupons were roughly the same price, so this time the neighborhood committee simply issued flour coupons for the entire amount.

Grain coupons could only be used to purchase coarse grains such as mixed flour, cornmeal, millet, and sorghum.

Just to clarify: there is no such thing as a "coarse grain coupon." Grain coupons are for coarse grains. Refined grain coupons are for flour and rice. They are completely different types of ration coupons.