Courtyard House: Starting as a mediocre engineer

A gentle, warm breeze caressed the treetops.

Under the shade of a tree, a beautiful couple was chatting and laughing, seemingly having endless things to talk about...

"Really? Is this true? Brother Chen, can I start working at the district library?" Wen Yumei was overjoyed, her big, bright eyes sparkling as she looked at Zhuang Zhongchen.

"Are you satisfied?" Zhuang Zhongchen chuckled.

"I'm so happy! You're so good to me. I feel like I'm dreaming. I'm a full-time employee now. Hehehe."

Of all the job positions, Zhuang Zhongchen specifically chose the librarian position. It was close to his home, and the work was quite easy. Furthermore, it belonged to the Bureau of Culture, so the benefits were quite good. Not to mention, a librarian? It sounded like a truly amazing job!

In those days, with limited entertainment options, the Bureau of Culture provided the vast majority of them. In other words, it controlled almost the entire domestic entertainment industry.

The film industry alone contributes over 1% of the national fiscal revenue in taxes and profits annually. This doesn't even include book publishing, theater, crosstalk, and other industries. These are all pillar industries in China.

Therefore, those later high-grossing movies? They were utterly pathetic! In terms of audience numbers, they practically crushed those later flops.

For this reason, after Xu Damao got married, his father, Xu Gui, left the entire courtyard house to his son, transferred him to work as a projectionist at a movie theater, and the Cultural Bureau's film company also allocated him new housing.

Imagine, they even allocate housing? That shows how good the welfare benefits are.

As for the district library, it mainly caters to ordinary people, allowing them to read books. Therefore, it is more accessible to the general public and there are fewer hassles.

Okay! Actually, Zhuang Zhongchen had his own selfish motives. This way, Wen Yumei could take better care of the family in the future.

At this moment, Wen Yumei was overjoyed. If they weren't in a public place, she would have loved to throw herself into Zhuang Zhongchen's arms: "Brother Chen, will I be even more powerful than Second Brother in the future? Hehe, he's just a small group."

"Keep a low profile! We need to keep a low profile! Keep this form safe and report to your workplace when you have time. Once you start working, your personnel file will be transferred from your school to the district library. Only then will the job be truly accomplished."

"Is that so?"

"Don't tell anyone except your family. Make sure your family keeps it strictly confidential. Most importantly: don't tell anyone else. Although the chances are slim, you still need to be wary of others causing trouble."

"No way?"

"Of course they would. Jealousy can distort a person completely. Just ask yourself: if you have a job while your classmates are unemployed at home, how would they feel?"

"Okay, okay! I'll do as you say." Wen Yumei carefully put away the job offer form. "Brother Chen, how did you do that?"

"These are our company's employee benefits. They're very valuable, so you must keep them in mind. Do you understand?"

"I know, I know. It's so annoying. You're like an old woman." Wen Yumei chuckled. "Brother Chen, I have a job now! You're useless now! Hehehe..."

"Too late, girl. My workplace has already registered you as my girlfriend. Just accept your fate!! You can only repay me with your body. Hahaha!"

"Oh? What should I do? If my dad finds out, he'll kill me!"

"Huh? Your parents still don't know?"

"My mom secretly asked me, and my dad... well, he pretended not to know. But you haven't even come to propose yet, have you? How can you... what do you mean by 'later'?"

"Act first, report later. Actually, a more accurate way to put it is—make it a fait accompli! Hahaha!"

"Pah! Pah! You've already done it!" Wen Yumei stamped her feet in frustration. "They'll laugh at me. I'm so ashamed!"

"..."

As mentioned before, dating is quite conservative these days. Once two people go public with their relationship, they're determined to see it through to the end, even if it's painful. No one is allowed to back out unless both parties agree to terminate the engagement. Even if they do call off the engagement, it's a devastating blow to the entire family. It's not just about the individual's reputation being ruined; the whole family suffers social strife along with them.

Especially for someone like Zhuang Zhongchen, since Wen Yumei has already registered with her workplace, it's almost impossible for her to escape the clutches of that scumbag.

Of course, the little girl didn't care about these things; she was more concerned about "correct procedure".

Generally, a formal marriage proposal is only made public after the man personally visits the woman's family to formally propose. Otherwise, wouldn't that be considered a secret engagement?

During this period, the marriage process was still highly valued, and the emphasis was on formal marriage.

There are many rules involved. Although things have been simplified a lot now, none of the basic steps can be omitted.

Here's a little-known fact: the groom does need to make a betrothal gift, but it's mostly symbolic. He mainly covers expenses like the house, furniture, and wedding banquet. In ancient times, two geese would suffice. If money was tight, two geese or two ducks would do.

The bride's family then prepares her dowry. The more lavish the dowry, the more prestigious the bride's family is considered. The bride's relatives are also expected to contribute financially to the dowry. The most prestigious dowry is a long, elaborate procession.

Therefore, marrying off a daughter is a huge financial drain, and even the bride's family has to go to great lengths to maintain appearances. The term "money-losing daughter" reflects both a preference for sons over daughters and an excessively large dowry.

As for He Yuzhu and Wu Xiaoya's situation? That's essentially a buyout, colloquially known as selling a daughter. From then on, everything is unrelated to her family. It's actually a step below a proper marriage.

Generally speaking, if this were a marriage to a legal wife, it would be considered an insult to both the man and woman. Either the older man would marry a younger woman to become a second wife, or he would simply buy a concubine. This would be ridiculed by outsiders; respectable families would never marry off their daughters in this way.

Decades later, the tables suddenly turned, and the bride price became exorbitant, with red envelopes being given to the bride's family during the wedding procession.

That's one thing, but how did it become a traditional custom? Doesn't traditional custom mean that formal marriage is no longer necessary? Does everyone have to happily become a concubine?

This seems to be the worst attack on traditional culture ever!

Therefore, Zhuang Zhongchen was also helpless. He really didn't know that such broken rules still existed in this era.

Fortunately, it wasn't a big deal; I could just appease her more later. So I changed the subject: "Meizi, I just received a notice that I have to go to militia training the day after tomorrow."

"Huh? How long will it take?"

"About one or two months!"

"Then be careful, don't overexert yourself! By the way, do you guys know how to practice shooting?"

"Probably! And they'll throw grenades too."

"Are you sure you can do it?"

"That's definitely not going to work. I've never served in the military."

"Tch, you're so useless. Hehe. I thought you could do everything."

"..."

Currently, there is a lot of militia training, with the requirement that everyone be a soldier. Regardless of age or gender, everyone needs to receive a certain level of military training. And this time, it just so happens that Zhuang Zhongchen is in charge of this training…