Courtyard House: The Chef's Intelligence System

With about ten days left until the Lunar New Year, batches of supplies arrived in Beiping.

Most of it is pork, because people like it, and of course, because they can afford it.

Chickens and ducks are sold individually, costing two or three yuan each, which is too expensive, and they don't yield much oil.

In terms of cost-effectiveness, pork is the most economical, costing only a few cents per pound, and you can even render some oil from pork belly.

Don't underestimate this little bit of oil; many families rely on it to survive.

As for the beef, forget it. It has no oil at all, and it wouldn't taste good even if you cooked it at home. The average family's cooking skills are too poor, so we wouldn't dare to buy it.

Residents of Building 95 can generally afford to buy beef, so why doesn't anyone eat it?

First, I can't buy it; second, I don't know how to cook it; and third, I'd feel a little guilty if I ate it.

After all, beef has become so important these days that not only ordinary people, but even officials dare not eat it. Even if they do, they have to point out that it's beef and call it pork, because it would have a bad influence.

If someone with ulterior motives finds out, they might not report you, but they'll definitely gossip about you.

Li Jiuzhou didn't dare to openly cook beef at home. It was one thing for him to be able to get his hands on it, but he didn't dare to tell anyone.

If word gets out that Director Wang from the neighborhood office will definitely come to the courtyard to chat with you.

What conditions?

Everyone else is so poor, and you're still eating beef at home?

In courtyard number 95, if we were to name the family that doted on their child the most, it wouldn't be Li Jiuzhou, nor Jia Zhangshi, but Yi Zhonghai.

In the dead of winter, Bang Geng said he wanted to drink soda, so Old Deng happily went and bought a dozen, even bringing back the glass bottles.

Normally, glass bottles for soft drinks are recycled, but of course, you can sell them to them if you pay more.

Bang Geng was incredibly smug, drinking soda and showing off among a group of little kids.

Banggeng doesn't like to share with the kids; he drinks alone.

As a result, all the children were so envious they cried. This included Li Jiuzhou's son, Tie Niu.

She came back crying, saying that Bang Geng had soda but wouldn't let him drink it, which made the child feel extremely wronged.

Shanhe came back from his holiday and couldn't bear to see his nephew being wronged, so he took him to buy a dozen bottles of Arctic Ocean soda.

Tie Niu was drinking soda in front of his house, and Yan Jiekuang, the third son of the Yan family, was drooling with envy.

Tie Niu took pity on him and gave him a few bites.

"Banggeng, Tieniu gave me a sip, so give me a sip too. If you don't, I won't play with you anymore." Yan Jiekuang hadn't had enough and asked Banggeng for more.

Liu Guangfu, the third son of the Liu family, chimed in, "Yes, it's a great spice. Let us have a taste too."

Banggeng looked at the empty bottle in his hand, his eyes darting around:

"Okay, you wait here, I'll go home and get it."

When Bang Geng got home, he didn't let his dad open a new bottle at all. Instead, he hid at home and peed all over the bottle.

I just needed to pee...

"Hey, you guys can take it and drink it." Banggeng lied without batting an eye when he returned to the group of children.

"The color of this is wrong, and there are bubbles too," Yan Jiekuang said, somewhat puzzled.

"I just shook it a few times, don't worry." Bang Geng remained completely calm.

Yan Jiekuang was in a hurry, so he took it and gulped down several mouthfuls.

Seeing that Yan Jiekuang had taken several sips, Liu Guangfu quickly snatched the bottle and started pouring it down his throat.

The other children followed suit, grabbing the pouches and pouring them down their throats before Yan Jiekuang and Liu Guangfu could even look at them with displeasure.

Yan Jiekuang only realized what was happening after the last child finished drinking:

"This isn't soda, it's pee!"

The other children realized what was happening; they weren't vomiting, but they did feel a bit unwell.

They were naturally familiar with the smell of urine, as they had tasted it before and often mixed urine with mud when they had nothing to do.

Liu Guangfu's face turned bright red. Even at his young age, he knew that urine was not to be drunk. He pointed at the stick and cursed:

"Hey, you actually made us drink urine! Brothers, beat him up!"

As soon as he said that, all the little kids clenched their fists and started punching the stick.

Tie Niu was sitting at his doorstep watching the commotion when he heard that a fight was about to break out. He casually threw down the empty bottle in his hand, then rushed forward, waving his little fists and yelling.

Seven or eight children engaged in a chaotic brawl in the open space of the front yard.

At first, everyone was just making jokes, but it took a turn and they started fighting amongst themselves.

The children's wails and cries naturally caught the attention of the adults in the yard, and everyone was stunned when they saw what was happening.

For a moment, no one stepped forward to stop it. It was only after Li Jiuzhou heard the commotion and came out that he shouted:

"What are you all standing there for? Hurry up and pull them apart!"

Everyone snapped out of their daze and pulled their children away.

The children were still small and didn't have much strength; at most, they took a few small punches and their clothes got a little dirty.

But Bang Geng is different. His eyes are swollen. I don't know which little brat hit him, but he's crying and rolling around on the ground.

Jia Zhangshi picked up Banggeng and, seeing how badly swollen her grandson's eyes were, felt heartbroken. She then began to grumble and curse:

"Which little bastard did this? Look what he did to my hamster."

Yi Zhonghai also came over and felt sorry for Bang Geng when he saw him like this.

The parents started bombarding the children with questions about what had happened.

Yan Bugui asked while brushing the dust off his son:

"Jie Kuang, tell your father, why did you fight?"

Yan Jiekuang pointed at Banggeng with his little finger: "Banggeng filled the Arctic Ocean soda with urine and gave it to us to drink."

"We hit him because we were angry. Guangfu and I drank Banggeng's urine."

The parents turned green with shock. Good heavens!

You're really something, Bang Geng!

Li Jiuzhou's expression also turned somewhat grim, and he asked his son:

"Son, you drank urine too?"

Little Iron Ox's eyes darted around, and he whispered, "Dad, I didn't."

Li Jiuzhou was stunned for a moment: "Then why did you fight with them?"

Little Iron Ox grinned: "They said they were going to hit me with sticks, so I rushed over, hehehe..."

Li Jiuzhou was both amused and exasperated upon hearing this: "You brat."

He also breathed a sigh of relief, as long as he didn't drink urine, otherwise it would have been too disgusting.

It's no big deal for kids to get into a fight.

The parents were furious when they learned the truth; their son drinking urine was his own stupidity.

They were unhappy about being tricked into drinking urine and demanded an explanation from Jia Dongxu.

Liu Haizhong was the first to stand up and denounce Jia Dongxu:

"Dongxu, I'm not trying to be mean, but how did you raise your child? I've never heard of anyone using such degrading methods before."

Yan Bugui echoed:

"Old Liu is right. It's one thing for the kids to pee and play in the mud normally, but now they're drinking urine. If word gets out, what will people think of our yard? We'll lose all face."

Other parents also condemned Jia Dongxu.

Jia Dongxu was speechless and dared not refute what he had said.

At this moment, Banggeng shouted at the top of his lungs while in Jia Zhangshi's arms:

"They wanted to drink the soda that my grandpa bought for me, and when I refused, they said they wouldn't play with me anymore, so I peed on them and made them drink it."

"Oh my god~" The parents were both annoyed and amused by Bang Geng's words.

The pissing toy is funny because the toy is so young yet it's playing a threatening game, just like it did when it was a kid.

If my friend has food but won't share it with me, then I'm not going to play with you anymore.

This kind of thing happens often, but they didn't expect that the stick would actually cause such a big problem.