Courtyard House: The Chef's Intelligence System

The workers' temporary accommodations were arranged in one morning, thanks to the advance preparations made by the leaders of the commune.

Li Jiuzhou also noticed that many young girls and widows had their eyes gleaming with lust when they looked at a group of young workers.

The young men from the countryside, however, glared at them fiercely.

Damn it, they've come to steal our food.

It's understandable that girls want to marry into the city and get a government-subsidized job.

But this makes the young men in the countryside feel bad, because some of the girls are the object of their affections.

Who could be happy to see their beloved girl giving flirtatious glances to a young man from the steel mill?

They're already showing good temper by not rushing over to fight.

If all the girls marry into the city, where will they find wives?

This is ridiculous, but there's nothing they can do about it.

Repairing irrigation ditches and carrying stones both require manpower, and they don't have that much labor force.

It's possible to fix it ourselves, but it's too slow. Once the rainy season comes, everything will be ruined. We can't wait, so the commune leaders went to the city to recruit people.

Li Jiuzhou also saw the girls' gazes and knew what they were thinking.

The main reason is that Changping is very close to the city, and many women are lucky enough to marry into the city and receive government-subsidized grain rations.

This is the goal they admire and strive for; they are truly role models!

Just like Qin Huairu, who in the surrounding villages doesn't know her?

Her husband used to be the head chef at Fengzeyuan Restaurant, and now he's the deputy director of Hongxing Steel Rolling Mill.

Elderly people from the surrounding villages often tell stories about girls like Qin Huairu and Tong Jie who married into the city.

Which girl wouldn't be tempted by that?

As for love?

In this day and age, we talk about the twisted feelings of a mother's husband!

In some families where food was scarce, a few pounds of wheat flour were enough to marry off their daughters.

You're talking about love?

Accept the facts, kid.

Times change, and so do the ways of marriage.

Rural areas have their own rules for survival, and it's too difficult to change them.

Li Jiuzhou didn't think the girls' behavior was wrong. Striving for a better life is not wrong, but it's important to use the right methods.

It's wrong of you to call your father and older brother to get the young man drunk and then force yourself on him.

No matter how much you want to live a good life, it has to be based on mutual consent.

Li Jiuzhou decided to give the girls in the countryside a more intensive training session and bring them together.

In the middle of the threshing ground was a square table, and Li Jiuzhou stood on it, holding a megaphone, ready to speak.

"Hello, fellow villagers, I'm Li Jiuzhou, the deputy secretary of Hongxing Steel Rolling Mill!"

"Our factory is here to assist with the construction, and I hope we can all get along well during these ten days."

"I also urge all my fellow villagers to keep a close eye on the young girls in their families."

The smiles on many people's faces vanished instantly after Li Jiuzhou said those words.

But Li Jiuzhou ignored him and continued talking:

"Of course, I don't object to young people finding their own partners, but I hope it's a mutual consent process."

"Anyone who dares to use underhanded tactics should not blame me for being impolite. Even if they succeed, I will break them up."

"Don't doubt it, I have the ability!"

"I would also like to give my colleagues in the factory a piece of advice: anyone who dares to harass women will be dealt with seriously. I guarantee that he will be fired and his worker status will be revoked."

The workers, who had been smiling, stopped smiling and put on serious smiles.

"I like to be upfront about things. If young people are mutually attracted, that's a good thing. I won't stop them; in fact, I'll encourage them."

"I hope we can all get along peacefully for the next ten days!"

"Clap clap clap..." The applause resounded through the sky.

Li Jiuzhou jumped down from the octagonal table with satisfaction.

After that, he basically had nothing else to do. After having lunch at the commune's communal pot, he went on patrol.

They started working immediately that afternoon, with only ten days to prepare. The commune leaders treated the city people like cattle and horses.

Sha Zhu's job is to cook in the cafeteria. The ingredients are simple, but the old ladies in the kitchen can still make delicious meals under Sha Zhu's guidance.

When it came time for dinner, almost everyone was starving.

But don't rush, everyone gets the same portion, you can't eat even one more bite, there's no such thing as unlimited food, but you definitely won't go hungry.

There are naturally people who don't want to hide anything, but I was mentally prepared before I came. No matter how tough or tiring it is, it will only last ten days. I can just bear it and it will pass.

Li Jiuzhou drove back to the city around 4 p.m., which took about half an hour if he drove fast by himself.

Li Jiuzhou goes to Changping every day, since he is in charge of this matter and also needs to take care of the factory.

As long as the factory is operating normally, that's fine. There's also a deputy director in the logistics department.

By the fifth day, many people in the factory were already showing signs of fatigue.

It's physically demanding work, and while there's some savory stuff, the lack of meat to eat makes me feel uneasy.

Li Jiuzhou naturally noticed this situation as well.

On the contrary, the young men from the countryside showed no signs of fatigue even when doing heavy work; instead, they were full of energy.

These tasks are just routine for them; this is nothing compared to what they've accomplished.

To promote harmony between the two sides, Li Jiuzhou planned to prepare some meat for them to eat.

Li Jiuzhou never even considered going into the mountains to hunt.

It's only June, and the weather is so hot that wild boars don't like to come out. You can only encounter them in the morning and evening, which is such a waste of time.

There's a river in Changping. Li Jiuzhou used his connections to get fishing nets and, along with Sha Zhu and Xu Damao, rowed a boat to pull them in.

The fishing net is only a little over two meters deep, so it won't sink to the bottom.

Li Jiuzhou would set his net in relatively deep water, then throw stones upstream and use bamboo poles to slap the water's surface; this was called "driving the fish."

Throughout the afternoon, the nets were hauled in three times, yielding a catch of nearly eighty pounds of fish.

This amount of fish isn't even enough to fill a tooth gap, but it can be used to make fish soup.

They got a lot of tofu, and with Sha Zhu's cooking skills, several large pots of tofu and fish soup smelled incredibly delicious.

No one complained, and the smiles on their faces never stopped while they ate.

Life in the countryside was indeed difficult; the food in the communal canteens was limited, so people barely managed to avoid going hungry.

Li Jiuzhou couldn't help. He had stored up food, but it was for his own family. Only a fool would act like a saint; it would be fatal.

In the past few days, Yan Jiecheng and Liu Guangqi would go to Qin Jingru's place whenever they had something to do, just to chat.

Sha Zhu naturally noticed as well, but he didn't say much. Instead, he felt a little sorry for Yan Jiecheng and Liu Guangqi, those two unlucky guys.

Sha Zhu understood his cousin's thoughts perfectly; she wanted to go to the city.

Qin Jingru had also approached Sha Zhu, and her own wife had also spoken to him.

Sha Zhu had promised her that he would arrange something for her when she reached a certain age, provided that she behaved herself and didn't go around talking about it, not even her parents.

Qin Jingru isn't stupid; she understands everything. How could she not know what Yan Jiecheng and Liu Guangqi are thinking?

The matchmakers brought by young men from all around were practically wearing down his doorstep.

If Qin Huairu hadn't told his parents to wait, they might have already arranged a marriage for him.

Although Qin Huairu didn't explicitly tell her uncle's family, they both understood what she meant.

Since their niece had spoken, Qin Jingru's parents naturally wouldn't let the matchmaker into their home again.

Qin Jingru is also just giving up now; she'll solve the problem once she gets older and goes to the city to live with her older sister.

She's not looking for a boyfriend right now, but she still knows how to take advantage of deals.

In just five days, they obtained more than a dozen pieces of gold from Yan Jiecheng and Liu Guangqi.

Today they make an excuse to buy shoes, tomorrow they make an excuse to buy clothes. The excuses are lame, but they can't resist the two unlucky guys who are willing to give them money!