Courtyard House: Starting as a mediocre engineer

A gentle breeze is blowing; it's another day off.

Inside the restaurant, Zhuang Zhongchen was having breakfast. He was drinking a large bowl of fried liver when the waiter brought over a basket of scallion-flavored pork buns.

A few people at a nearby table were chatting: "Have you guys been to the grocery store? Lately, they've been selling eggs at negotiated prices. My husband just bought two pounds yesterday."

"Oh? Is it still available today? I'll go check."

"Probably! Even in the wet market, there's price negotiation for pork. Last week, a truckload of live chickens and ducks arrived..."

In those days, besides rationed goods supplied by coupons, most stores had counters for negotiated-price items. These negotiated items didn't require coupons and were slightly more expensive. However, availability wasn't guaranteed; it was first-come, first-served, so many negotiated items also attracted panic buying from the public.

As mentioned before, the government had a wide range of regulations during this period, and the production and sale of goods were planned.

For example, the Beijing market supplies 10,000 jin (5,000 kg) of eggs daily. However, if a chicken farm has a bumper harvest, producing 11,000 jin (5,500 kg) of eggs, what should be done with the extra 1,000 jin (5,000 kg)? Should all these eggs be thrown away? Wouldn't that be insane?

So these 1 jin of eggs were offered as a negotiated commodity to the capital market. It didn't matter if ordinary people couldn't afford the egg coupons; they could just pay a little more.

Therefore, sales clerks are in high demand these days, mainly because they can get these negotiated prices on goods. Sometimes they can even buy some in-demand items.

This shows that the difficult period is indeed over. Having already suffered from hunger, the production of various agricultural products is booming. And black market prices will definitely see a sharp drop.

Fortunately, I didn't have any coupons or receipts with me; I had already sold them all to scalpers.

After finishing breakfast, Zhuang Zhongchen went to the post office. He took out two newly arrived money orders and withdrew all the money. Then he went to the People's Bank next door, took out 200 yuan, and deposited it as a three-year fixed deposit.

In those days, there was only one bank in the entire country—the People's Bank of China. This bank functioned as both a central bank and a savings bank.

There is also the Bank of China. However, this bank mainly focuses on international business and has almost no branches in China.

Post offices also offer savings services, but the interest rates are lower, although deposits and withdrawals can be made in different locations. Generally speaking, it's more convenient to go to a post office for savings when traveling to another city. For local deposits and withdrawals, people usually choose savings offices of the People's Bank of China.

After completing the deposit procedures, Zhuang Zhongchen thought for a moment and decided to first take a stroll through the farmers' market and grocery store. A little over an hour later, he had a pound of eggs and a piece of pork liver in his hands, ready to treat himself to a nice meal today…

The reason for this sudden "extravagance" was that Zhuang Zhongchen wanted to celebrate.

Just this month when I got my paycheck, the loan I owed to the union was finally deducted. That means I'll have an extra 20 yuan in income each month, which will allow me to repay the loan much faster in the future.

And as experience points continue to increase, the broken system is ready to be upgraded again.

Name: Zhuang Zhongchen

Age: 20

[Level: Fifth Floor (4220/1000000)+]

【技能：语言lv2；驾驶lv2；厨艺lv1；射击lv1；钓鱼lv1；野外生存lv1；狩猎lv1；搏击lv1；医术lv1；追蹤lv1】

[Daily Necessities Supermarket; Intelligence Center; Skills Shop]

Shopping voucher: 427

Skill Points: 141

After doing some mental calculations, I realized that the last level up required 10 experience points and took almost half a year. The next time it would require 100 million experience points, which would be at least several years from now.

Therefore, there's no need to consider daily necessities supermarkets and skills malls, as they are not needed for the time being.

The supermarket has been upgraded to a department store, and the selection is indeed much wider. But I wouldn't dare use them after buying them! Should I buy a refrigerator or washing machine? I wouldn't even dare buy a microwave!

After the skill shop is upgraded, in addition to the existing life skills, some professional skills will also be available. Leaving aside whether professional skills are useful or not, I already have so many skills; trying to learn too many at once is counterproductive. Do I really want to learn a whole bunch of beginner-level skills?

Therefore, the remaining task is to upgrade the intelligence center. After the upgrade, a new option appears—in addition to the previous regular intelligence, you can now purchase special intelligence, each requiring 50 shopping vouchers.

I glanced at my shopping coupons. I'd already spent quite a few after the last gold coin giveaway, and now I only had a little over 400 left.

I've accumulated 141 skill points, and spent 100 points to upgrade my language skill from level 2 to level 3. I'll continue specializing in that skill.

I assessed my language proficiency and found it to be roughly at the level of my native speaker. In other words, I can read and write fairly smoothly in daily life and work, but I still need to improve my skills in more professional situations.

This is already quite good, though. Currently, there's not much of an environment for using foreign languages. However, communicating in dialects can still bring a lot of convenience.

As for the remaining 41 points, Zhuang Zhongchen spent another 10 points to upgrade his combat skill from level 1 to level 2. Now he should be able to fly over the wall while holding up his pants... right? Of course, he definitely needs to have pants; it's a matter of attitude.

Keep accumulating the rest! On the one hand, you can continue to specialize and upgrade later; on the other hand, if you need them urgently, you can quickly add points.

Back at the courtyard house, Zhuang Zhongchen took out a stack of banknotes and began to repay the money to each household.

"Sister Fu, here's the 15 yuan I owe you. Keep it safe!"

"Second Uncle, I still owe your family 34 yuan. I'll pay it all back this time."

"Grandpa, here's your money. Damn, I've finally paid it back. I'm so touched!"

"Thank you! Thank you so much to all the elderly folks and gentlemen in the courtyard. I'm finally alive!"

"No problem, no problem. Chenzi, do you have any other debts?"

"Of course there is. We're all family here, so I prioritized paying off the debts of the people in the courtyard, and that's been going on for over a year! We still have a mountain of debts outside, which should take another year or two."

"Oh? You have that much? Are you able to find some on hand? Do you need it...?"

"No need, no need. It's just robbing Peter to pay Paul, and now we can finally catch our breath. See? That's why I bought eggs and pig liver. Gentlemen, Da Maozhu, how about we have a few drinks tonight? It's been a long time since we've had any fun!"

"Great! That's definitely something to be happy about."

With all the debts in the courtyard house cleared, the two "most dangerous" places—the workplace and the courtyard house—finally regained their creditworthiness.

There are only three major debts left: more than 400 yuan owed by himself; 300 yuan owed by his colleagues at work; and more than 400 yuan owed by his parents and relatives.

There's no need to rush to pay off these debts. We'll try to settle all of Da Chan's debts before the end of the year.

I also have 200 yuan in savings, which I can keep on hand for emergencies. I really should save more for my future wife!