Courtyard House: Starting as a mediocre engineer

As an old classmate, Li Dahai has also started working. He joined the bus company and became a ticket seller.

Furthermore, Li Dahai was the eldest son in his family and had always been honest and simple-minded. Therefore, the original owner of this body tended to bully honest people, borrowing 16 jin of grain coupons and 27 yuan from him.

Perhaps for people like Yi Zhonghai and Lou Xiao'e, this amount of money isn't a large sum. But considering Li Dahai's family circumstances and the fact that he had just started working, it was a huge sum of money.

"Hai Zi, what brings you here?"

"I...I...I've been arranged to marry someone by my family."

"That's great! It's almost noon, stay for lunch, we have fried rice with eggs."

"No, no, I can't let you spend money."

"Don't mention it. My home is your home too. Let me help you heat up the food."

"Oh, oh oh."

"Are you mute? When are you getting married?"

"It's...it's early August. The date is already set. I'll invite you then."

"Even if you don't invite me, I'm still going. What's our relationship? Do I owe you money?"

"No...no no...it's just that we don't have a new house yet. My family is planning to build one in the yard. Hehe."

"Then it's settled? I don't have any food coupons here, but I'll make you some noodles later. I'll scrape together the money for you when I get paid next week."

"Hehehe. Chenzi, thanks!"

"Don't mention it. We're brothers, no need for thanks. You helped me so much back then, did I ever thank you?"

"Damn it! You want to be the older brother? I was pregnant longer than you!"

"Hahaha!"

In this day and age, dating without the intention of marriage is considered immoral.

Therefore, once the engagement is arranged, there is no slow warm-up process at all. After the first meeting, if both parties agree, they immediately proceed with the marriage process.

In other words, either you reject them outright after the first meeting, or you have to go through with it, even if it means tears. This applies to both men and women!

Moreover, divorces after marriage are rare; the principle is "once it's done, it's done." Take Mi Cuicui, for example. Even though Da Chan went to jail for 20 years, she could only wait for him, clinging to her love.

Therefore, Zhuang Zhongchen was very happy that Li Dahai was able to settle down and start a family.

Given Li Dahai's honest nature, would you really expect him to swallow his pride and go to collect a debt? He'd probably ramble on for half a year before getting too embarrassed to get to the point.

Now that they've talked things out, the two have returned to being good friends.

Just then, Zhuang Zhongchen suddenly had a bright idea: "Hai Zi, get a bowl of fried rice with eggs and some tofu. I'll take it to the deaf old lady next door."

"Of course."

Zhuang Zhongchen was just doing this as an experiment; could this be considered a good deed? He wondered if it would trigger the system.

Carrying two bowls of food, Zhuang Zhongchen arrived at the deaf old lady's door and called out loudly, "Grandma, we have some good food at home, just in time to show our respect to you."

Even though it's an experiment, it doesn't stop me from building a good reputation. Otherwise, wouldn't the fried rice be a freebie?

Sure enough, everyone in the courtyard looked over. Even the deaf old lady quickly opened the door. Suddenly, she was no longer deaf or mute, and became agile, beaming with joy: "Oh, it's Chenzi? Good child, quickly put it on the table."

"Grandma, I'll return your 10 yuan to you when I get my salary."

"Money isn't urgent. I'm too old to need it. I just want to find a good meal, then I can die in peace."

"Not at all, you'll definitely live to be a hundred!"

After a few words of coaxing, Zhuang Zhongchen took his leave. But when he tried to log back into the system, he found it remained completely unresponsive.

Holy crap! Does helping out in a courtyard house mean you're not doing a good deed at all?

Nothing more to say. You old hag, you're useless now!

After heartlessly abandoning the deaf old woman, Zhuang Zhongchen returned to the house and began to eat and drink heartily with Li Dahai...

Li Dahai was overjoyed to be able to eat so much oily food after a long time.

After devouring the food in a whirlwind, Li Dahai reluctantly put down his chopsticks and said politely, "Chenzi, don't touch the rest of the dishes. You can manage to have another meal tonight."

Zhuang Zhongchen shoved a steamed bun into his hand: "Eat more, don't starve to death in my house. I'm going to change my clothes."

"what?"

"Isn't your family building a house? I'm going to go help."

"Okay, okay. I'll wait for you then."

Since we're doing an experiment, let's just do it a few more times.

Furthermore, in this era, a good reputation is extremely important in work and life. Otherwise, why would an old man like Yi Zhonghai cling to a moral high ground? In the end, by morally blackmailing Sha Zhu, does he himself become a moral paragon?

In fact, the original owner of this body also gained a lot of moral benefits because of his reputation as a "filial son." If he weren't a filial son, who would lend him so much money? It's because ordinary people have that simple idea—a filial son would never default on his debts.

Since that's the case, it's good to have a few more halos. They're like protective shields. It's just helping a friend with chores, it won't interfere with anything.

After changing into old clothes and carrying a bag of mixed noodles, the two walked towards Li Dahai's house, chatting and laughing.

In fact, the house that was built was, strictly speaking, an illegal structure that was later constructed.

However, housing in Beijing was extremely scarce, and in order to solve the housing problem, every household was haphazardly building structures wherever possible. In the end, wouldn't all the traditional courtyard houses become overcrowded tenements?

On the contrary, No. 95 Nanluoguxiang is quite rare. The residents here are either childless, deceased, or have left, and none of them have children. Even Bang Geng and his family's housing is sponsored by their stepfather, Sha Zhu, free of charge. Therefore, there is no such need, and no need for haphazard construction.

However, this brought another unexpected surprise. Without the messy illegal buildings, at least there was a place to hold the whole courtyard meeting, which brought many memorable scenes to the courtyard.

On a side note, property rights were quite chaotic back then, and the government generally didn't interfere with these illegal constructions. It was first-come, first-served; whoever grabbed it got it. This included later demolition policies. Such illegally constructed housing was also counted towards the demolition area.

So, even though Li Dahai built a very simple house, it was worth at least 1 to 200 million yuan later on.

Before long, the two arrived at Li Dahai's house. They saw Li Dahai's parents and three younger siblings all working together, and even his grandmother was busy boiling water inside.

"Grandma, Uncle, Aunt."

"Hey, Chenzi, you've come to visit." Upon seeing Zhuang Zhongchen, Li Dahai's parents' expressions were somewhat unnatural.

"These are two kinds of noodles, considered as repayment of Hai Zi's food coupons. Please count them."

"No need, no need," Li Dahai's parents finally smiled. "Why are you being so polite, child?"

"By the way, Uncle, what should I do?"

"Well... help me move the sand! Don't tire yourself out, okay? Have a smoke."

"hehe."