Courtyard House: Starting as a mediocre engineer

Upon opening the food stall, Zhuang Zhongchen discovered that the goods inside were mostly ordinary food items, with not many varieties.

One shopping voucher can buy one food item. A standard food item is either 5 jin (2.5 catties) of high-gluten flour or 5 jin (2.5 catties) of rice.

也可以换算成其他食品。比如：一份7.5斤二合面；一份10斤棒子麵；一份1斤鸡蛋；一份1斤牛羊猪肉；一份1斤豆油、菜油、猪油；一份1斤白砂糖；一份半斤奶糖……

It's just some very common food; there's no seafood, Wagyu beef, or other high-end food.

In other words, one grandmother is roughly equivalent to one pound of high-gluten flour. Okay! Forget about grandmothers; they seem to have become a unit of measurement.

After a moment's thought, Zhuang Zhongchen came to a conclusion—the system encouraged doing good deeds. However, the rewards for good deeds were meager. They might provide enough to make a living, but they certainly wouldn't make you rich.

After closing the food stall, Zhuang Zhongchen opened the intelligence center again. He found that all the other selection buttons were dimmed and not activated. The only one activated was "Regular Intelligence," which required 5 shopping coupons to purchase.

Since I have 17 shopping vouchers, I might as well buy a piece of information and give it a try.

After clicking to purchase, 5 shopping coupons were deducted, and a message popped up quickly.

[General Information: Liu Guangqi's Runaway]

Next Sunday, Liu Haizhong's eldest son, Liu Guangqi, is getting married. That very night, Liu Guangqi absconded with all of Liu Haizhong's family's property and ran away from home with his new bride. They never spoke to each other again, and he never returned to the courtyard house.

Note 1: This intelligence can be used to gain corresponding benefits. All benefits are personal rewards, but one must also bear the corresponding consequences.

Note 2: You can stop Liu Guangqi from leaving, help him, or even pretend you don't know anything. The consequences of each choice are unknown and will be settled according to your contribution value after the event ends.

Note 3: If the contribution value is negative, shopping vouchers will be deducted. If the shopping voucher balance is insufficient, deductions will continue until the balance is fully repaid.

After reading the information, Zhuang Zhongchen frowned slightly. He finally remembered that Liu Guangqi was indeed getting married next Sunday. According to the original plot, Liu Guangqi and his wife would leave the courtyard house and settle down in another city.

I just don't know why Liu Guangqi went to such extremes. He left, but he also took all of Second Uncle's family's assets with him? No wonder they'll never see each other again.

Perhaps Uncle Liu Haizhong and Aunt Liu believed that family scandals shouldn't be aired in public, so they kept the matter a secret. But they had nowhere to vent their anger, so the two brothers, Liu Guangtian and Liu Guangfu, unfortunately became Liu Haizhong's punching bags?

Putting all that aside, Zhuang Zhongchen realized that this task seemed to offer a great deal of freedom, as if any choice was possible, but it was also a gamble. There was a possibility of gaining benefits and rewards, but there was also a possibility of losing everything.

After thinking it over, Zhuang Zhongchen decided to put it aside for now. After all, there was still more than a week to go, and he could make a decision in a few days.

As for "obtaining corresponding benefits," to be honest, Zhuang Zhongchen wouldn't even consider it.

Let me ask you, can you explain what exactly constitutes "corresponding benefits"? It's nothing more than Uncle Liu Haizhong's family fortune. No matter what, there's no enmity between them, yet you want to covet someone else's property? Doing this is utterly immoral. Brother, I can't bear the shame!

However, this shows that the system is indeed quite rudimentary. It will take some time to gradually explore and figure out its underlying principles.

Even if you're going to give up, at least you should do it comfortably, right?

……

As time passed, people returned to their courtyards after work, and families began to eat dinner.

People in those days were very frugal and rarely turned on the lights at night. Coupled with frequent power outages, there was practically no nightlife. So, dinner was usually finished before dark. Once it got dark, the whole family would turn off the lights and go to sleep.

The happiest people are the young couples, who can enjoy the only nighttime entertainment of this era; the most troublesome are the middle-aged and elderly men, who wonder why their wives are always causing trouble.

Therefore, when night fell, the entire courtyard was plunged into darkness. Following the original owner's memories, Zhuang Zhongchen climbed out of the back window and scaled the courtyard wall to the alley outside.

The alley was now deserted. After turning a few times, Zhuang Zhongchen arrived at the back of another courtyard house. There was a small door there; he took out a key and quietly opened the door to go inside.

In the darkness, a hot, delicate body rushed into his arms, and Mi Cuicui's coquettish voice rang out: "Chenzi, you've finally come! I've already sent Xiaoxue to her grandma's house, no one will bother us. Hehe."

Xiaoxue is Dachan and Mi Cuicui's daughter; she's still a breastfeeding baby. This girl is definitely not Zhuang Zhongchen's.

With a soft laugh, Mi Cuicui pulled Zhuang Zhongchen into the house. They saw that dishes were already laid out on the kang table in the inner room, and a dim oil lamp was lit.

Under the lamplight, Zhuang Zhongchen sized up Mi Cuicui a few times. He found her petite, with a beautiful and charming face, and a youthful air about her. If Qin Huairu was the epitome of mature womanhood, Mi Cuicui was the epitome of innocent charm.

By this time, Zhuang Zhongchen was becoming increasingly familiar with the original owner of this body. He was a rather complex character, difficult to describe in just a few words. He was indeed rather immature and a bit of a womanizer, but also quite responsible and concerned with his image…

You can doubt the original owner's intelligence, but never doubt their judgment. Both Qin Huairu and Mi Cuicui were exceptionally beautiful, one in a hundred.

Noticing that Mi Cuicui had also gotten onto the kang (heated brick bed), sitting cross-legged beside him, Zhuang Zhongchen didn't bother with formalities and simply put his arm around her slender waist: "Tell me! What exactly happened?"

"Yes, yes. I've already gone to the shovel factory to ask. You're right, he borrowed even more from his colleagues, over 400 yuan. Also, I listened to you and have written down all the debts. How could this happen? Is he trying to ruin us?"

Zhuang Zhongchen smiled and held out his hand: "Let me see the account book."

"Here you go." Mi Cuicui took a small notebook from beside her pillow and handed it to Zhuang Zhongchen, then casually sat on his lap. "Chenzi, I owe you way too much. Don't do anything rash, okay? If it really comes to it, I'll just renege on the debt. Just don't drag you down with me. Anyway, I'm yours, so you can secretly support us both."

"Come on! It's not that serious." Zhuang Zhongchen chuckled. He then opened the notebook and began to read it carefully...