Courtyard House: A Leisurely and Contented Life

Having discussed Qin Huairu, let's now talk about Yi Zhonghai. Who is he plotting for?

For myself.

When did it start? From the day He Daqing went to Baocheng with the widow, and Sha Zhu and the girl were sent back after looking for a boyfriend.

how many years?

Who instilled Sha Zhu's mindset after he grew up?

From the very beginning, who was it that kept nagging him, "It's not easy for Widow Qin all by herself"?

Who is it that keeps trying to brainwash him and make him take on the burden of Qin Huairu's whole family?

All for the sake of having Sha Zhu take care of him in his old age and see him off in his final days.

If Shaju dies unexpectedly, Bang-geung will take over, and someone will still take care of him in his old age.

Yang Jianye's calculations, from his earliest memories to the new era of reform and opening up, demonstrate his far-sighted planning.

This old man is so insightful!

So Yang Jianye felt disgusted just looking at him. If he saw him every day, he would starve to death. He would feel nauseous and vomit, and he would not be able to eat. He would starve to death.

"Jianye, why aren't you saying anything?"

Yang Jianye fell into thought, while Sha Zhu was getting really annoyed by him. What's wrong?

Still not saying anything?

Is there something you haven't figured out?

Jianye dared not say...

Can't you?

The brain becomes more active and cleverer the more it's used.

Sha Zhu felt that something was wrong with his life, but he couldn't figure out what was wrong.

Thinking about it any deeper gives me a headache!

"Master He." Seeing him scratching his head and getting increasingly agitated by constantly drinking, Yang Jianye decided to say a few words. Whether he listened or not was up to him.

An honest person shouldn't necessarily end up being a scapegoat.

"What do you think of what Granny Jia said last time?"

Upon hearing this, Sha Zhu became furious: "That's utter nonsense! I'm just an old woman, I won't argue with her, so why should she use my family's grain to help outsiders? What kind of rubbish is this? Is it her family's grain? How dare she take advantage of her? How shameless!"

"That old hag Jia thinks she's right," Yang Jianye said expressionlessly, as if he were talking about someone else's business.

Seeing the change in Sha Zhu's expression, Yang Jianye said calmly, "Let me tell Master He a story. Once upon a time, there were two men who were so close that they were inseparable. When they grew up, the first man fell on hard times and begged for food on the streets, sometimes going hungry and sometimes not. The second man, although not rich, was still doing alright and couldn't bear to see his friend go hungry, so he gave him five yuan every month."

Five yuan is enough for two people to eat for a month these days.

Without a second thought, Sha Zhu said, "This friend is really nice. Five yuan a month. Even my own father wouldn't be that good."

Yang Jianye didn't respond, but continued: "At first, A was extremely grateful to B, always praising his friend to everyone. As time went on, a year or two later, A gradually got used to it and took the five yuan for granted. One day, B came to A and said that he was getting married and could no longer help him."

After a pause, Yang Jianye picked up his chopsticks and started eating.

Sha Zhu, his eyes bulging with anxiety, asked, "Jianye, don't make things difficult for me. What happened next? What did Jia say?"

Seeing that he had taken it to heart, Yang Jianye's eyes flashed: "Grandma Jia slapped him and said, 'Why are you using my money to support your wife?'"

Sha Zhu covered his face, feeling as if he had been slapped hard.

That night, he left Yang Jianye's house with a gloomy face.

He glanced at the Jia family mansion as he went outside, a flicker in his eyes.

Sha Zhu had insomnia again. He drank four ounces of liquor with a goose, and Yang Jianye told him a story. He slept very soundly and woke up to find it was already daylight.

After getting up, Yang Jianye went to the yard to wash his face, went back inside to stoke the fire, and then cracked five eggs, scrambled them, and steamed them.

As usual, I sat on a small stool in front of the stove to "sign in."

[Sign in for five consecutive days this week and receive two laying hens, ten pounds of cornmeal, and a plumbing upgrade card.]

Hey, just when you're sleepy, you get a pillow! I'm on a lucky day!

Just as I was having a good time, a little figure appeared outside the house—it was Xiao Dang.

Glancing at Xiao Dang, who was now much cleaner, Yang Jianye smiled and said, "Xiao Dang, why aren't you eating at home?"

"There's no food, Grandma won't give it to me... I'll give it to my brother." Xiao Dang licked his fingers, looking sullen.

I feel wronged, but I'm getting used to it. He always gets the best food, the most food when there's not enough grain, and the best clothes.

I should just scavenge the leftovers; as long as I don't starve, that's fine. I'm a money-loser anyway...

Xiao Dang just doesn't understand what a "money-losing product" is.

"Come in." Yang Jianye beckoned and let Xiao Dang into the house.

He moved a chair for himself and left a small stool for Xiao Dang.

The little girl sucked on her fingers, her eyes fixed on the stove. The aroma of steamed eggs was already wafting out, making her stomach rumble.

But since Uncle Yang didn't offer, she didn't dare take it. Uncle Yang had said that she could only take what others gave her, otherwise she would never be able to eat meat again.

Thinking of the meat she ate that day, Xiao Dang's mouth watered.

"Don't listen to your grandma. Girls aren't a waste of money." Yang Jianye squatted down to be at Xiao Dang's eye level. "Women hold up half the sky, as the great man said, you know?"

Xiao Dang nodded, keeping the words firmly in mind, and then whispered, "Uncle Yang, Xiao Dang wants to drink water."

"Thirsty? Uncle Yang will get you some." Yang Jianye smiled as he stood up, picked up the kettle, and found a bowl to pour water. Behind him, the girl's soft voice added, "No, I'm not thirsty. Little Dang is hungry. Will water fill you up? I'm not hungry."

The hand that was pouring water suddenly trembled.

Yang Jianye felt as if his heart was stuffed with a ball of water-soaked cotton, heavy and suffocating, yet also filled with a subtle sourness.

He couldn't quite describe the feeling, so he silently poured half a bowl of water and handed it over, saying, "Drink slowly, Uncle Yang will give you steamed eggs later."

Little Dang, holding the bowl, suddenly brightened up: "Can I eat this?"

"Yes, of course we can eat it. We can share it." Yang Jianye smiled and rubbed her greasy head. Her hair was covered in soot from the stove and felt rough to the touch, but it warmed his heart.

After drinking half a bowl of water, she wasn't so hungry anymore, so Xiao Dang moved her small stool and joined Yang Jianye in watching the stove. She remembered that the steamed eggs smelled especially good, but what exactly did they taste like?

Last time, her older brother Banggeng and grandma ate all the steamed eggs. She only licked a little bit of crumbs from the bottom of the bowl and didn't taste anything, but she felt really happy, like she had secretly kept a piece of fruit candy.

"The eggs are ready!" Yang Jianye lifted the lid of the pot, and steam carrying the aroma of eggs wafted out.

Xiao Dang stood up, staring at the golden steamed egg in the bowl, her eyes crinkling into crescent moons with a smile.

Yang Jianye added soy sauce and a drop of sesame oil, then used a spoon to cut it in half and poured half into the bowl where Xiao Dang had been drinking water: "Eat up!" He also handed over the spoon.

Xiao Dang quickly picked up the bowl, obediently sat back on the small stool, put his legs together to hold the bowl, and blew on it several times. Just as he was about to scoop up a spoonful, he looked up at him again and said, "Thank you, Uncle Yang."

"Sigh." Yang Jianye smiled with relief and picked up his bowl to eat.

The spoon scraped against the edge of the bowl with a "sizzling" sound, and in the end, the spoon was sucked until it shone. This girl even licked the bottom of the bowl clean.

After Yang Jianye finished eating, Xiao Dang looked up and laughed, "Uncle Yang, you're done eating."

"Impressive." Yang Jianye looked at his empty bowl with a hint of distress. "Uncle Yang can't eat anymore, can Xiao Dang still eat?"

"Yes, yes, yes!" Xiao Dang nodded quickly and turned over the remaining steamed egg in Yang Jianye's bowl.

After she finished eating, Yang Jianye wiped her face with a towel, poured her a bowl of water to rinse her mouth, and then saw her out: "Remember, don't tell anyone."

"Hmm! Grandma and Mom didn't tell either," Xiao Dang counted on her fingers, then suddenly tilted her head and added, "And my brother didn't tell either!"

"Go on!" Yang Jianye waved his hand, cleared the dishes, and it was time for him to get to work.

After eating his fill, Xiao Dang didn't go home. Instead, he ran around and played wildly in the yard, finding a tree branch to squat by the wall and poking at ants.

After everyone in the courtyard had gone to work and Banggeng to school, Jia Zhangshi finally remembered her granddaughter and shouted at the top of her lungs, "Xiaodang! Xiaodang! Where have you been?"

Hearing his grandmother call, Xiao Dang dropped the tree branch and ran back.

As soon as Jia Zhangshi saw her running out from behind the house, she started cursing, "Is there gold behind that house? Always sneaking in there, who wouldn't even know if she got kidnapped one day! A money-losing brat, always causing trouble..."

The middle-aged woman lying inside sighed. If this were her daughter, she would spoil her rotten.

But nobody wanted to mess with this crazy woman, otherwise it would be a shame!

She watched Jia Zhangshi's retreating figure and sneered inwardly: The Jia family will be ruined by this old woman sooner or later.

As for the old man's scheme, she had no idea. With this old woman around, how could Bang Geng learn properly?

But she only dared to think these words in her heart. In those days, men were everything. She was weak and had never given birth, so she didn't have the confidence to speak.

The old woman chuckled to herself, closed her eyes, and leaned back against the headboard, listening to the commotion in the yard. She figured she'd just take it one day at a time.

Yang Jianye first went to the factory to ask for leave. When the director learned that he was going to the woman's family to discuss marriage, he smiled and said, "Congratulations!"

"Thank you, Director. Please come to the banquet sometime when you have time." Yang Jianye was also happy.

The director waved his hand: "Then I'll be waiting..."

Joking aside, whether or not we'll attend the banquet depends on the final decision.

Then he said seriously, "Master Yang, getting married is a big deal, and I shouldn't be urging you. But the workshop has heavy workloads, and we might get orders any day now, so you have to hurry."

"If we really run into each other, I can't approve leave." The director was telling the truth; last time there was an emergency mission, he didn't even have the authority to approve leave.

Yang Jianye straddled the Phoenix 28-inch double-bar bicycle, the bell jingling as it broke through the morning mist, the food coupons in the basket rattling loudly.

The grocery store is the "information center" of the street.

He had just stopped the car when he heard someone shout, "Give me a pound of melon seeds and some milk candy!" Everyone in the room stared wide-eyed, as if they had just won the lottery.

"Comrade, five catties of melon seeds and ten packs of milk candy, please." Yang Jianye slammed the ticket on the counter, his voice clear and loud.

The saleswoman looked up at him, her hands pausing slightly as she held the clips: "From the steel mill? Giving out wedding candy at the factory?"

"Good news, good news." Yang Jianye smiled, not saying more, for the more he said, the more mistakes he would make. "You guess!"

Buying so much is not only for visiting Li Ying's home, but also to prepare wedding candies for the factory, the courtyard, and the neighborhood office.

Not enough to send later? Save it for the New Year! Others worry about dampness, but he has "time freeze" as a backup, more reliable than the tin cans from the supply and marketing cooperative.

"Give me two more packs of cigarettes and a peaked cap." Yang Jianye pulled out cigarette coupons from his pocket, his fingertips stained with the sugar frosting from the grocery store.

In those days, cigarette brands were more popular than in later generations: people in Beijing recognized "Qianmen," while the high-end brand was "Zhonghua," which had a noble lineage and only produced a few thousand cartons a year. Even top leaders couldn't bear to smoke it, and it was nowhere to be seen by ordinary people. They had to take a boat to Hong Kong or Macau to buy it.

The "Crown Prince" cigarettes available to the general public were exclusively for the People's Liberation Army soldiers: peaked caps, sailor uniforms, and iron eagles. Smoking these cigarettes was equivalent to being "in sync" with combat heroes, giving them both prestige and prestige.

He stuffed two peaked caps, a pound of melon seeds, and two packets of milk candy into the bicycle basket, then headed to the market: three and a half pounds of crucian carp, and ten eggs in a cardboard box he bought for one cent—a "generous gift that city dwellers would envy."

How significant is this gift?

In ordinary families, receiving half a pig as a wedding gift is considered a "big deal".

Yang Jianye's gift is enough for an ordinary family to have a prosperous New Year.

But he was happy to do so, because he wanted his future wife to be able to show the neighbors that she had married a "capable and caring" man.

If you marry well, you'll be treated like royalty when you visit your parents' home; if you marry poorly, even a dog won't want you. That's reality, and he understands it.

At the entrance of the courtyard alley, Aunt Liu was already rubbing her hands together, waiting.

Seeing the "big bags and small packages" in Yang Jianye's bicycle basket, she secretly exclaimed, "Jianye is really generous! Yingzi is going to be lucky in the future."

The earthen courtyard of the supply and marketing cooperative's family compound had a main road in the middle, with neat rows of red brick houses on both sides. At the end was a communal kitchen. Next to the communal water pool in the courtyard, there were also several rows of scallions and garlic. In those days when every penny counted, every penny saved was precious.

"We're here, this is the one." Aunt Liu stopped in front of the three rows of houses, lifted the curtain, and called out, "Old Li, Jianye's here!"

Li Ying's mother was chatting with Old Li when she heard the sound and got up, but her eyes were fixed on the young man in the yard: tall and big, with a crew cut, regular features, and a slightly naive look in his eyes when he smiled. His sleek old-fashioned bicycle was parked in the yard, with cigarettes, candy, fish, and eggs hanging on the back rack, looking like a mobile warehouse.

"Yingzi! Aunt Liu has brought her boyfriend!" Li Ying's mother called out, but her feet unconsciously moved into the yard, her heart already beaming with joy: This young man is honest!

The door wasn't closed. Yang Jianye heard footsteps coming from inside, so he quickly steadyed the bike and straightened his clothes.

The aroma of scallions mingled with the sweet scent of the grocery store wafted into the courtyard, and Li Ying's mother's laughter was as crisp as an icicle under the eaves: "Oh dear, this gift... it's so heavy!"

On their first visit, they brought such a generous gift that all the neighbors crowded into the courtyard, craning their necks to look at the Li family's house.

"Yingzi is really lucky now, she's found a good match!"

"Absolutely! I heard that earning a hundred yuan a month is enough to eat refined white flour every day!"

"Look at what you're saying, you need tickets for that!"

"Hey, you can earn a hundred yuan and not have a ticket? Can you go to Hongqiao without a ticket?"

There were many markets in Beijing: Hongqiaokou, Fahuasi, Ciqikou, outside the Temple of Heaven, and Nanluoguxiang were all places where rural farmers would carry their own grain, vegetables, livestock, and eggs to exchange for money.

There are rules for setting up a stall. It's not allowed during the day; you have to pack up before 8:45 am and can only set up after 5:35 pm. It's even more risky at night, as there's a risk of trouble. You have to leave by 9 pm at the latest. You either have to go to a relative's house or spend the night in a teahouse or park. In short, you can't do business openly.

They also have keen eyesight: when they encounter inspectors, whether they can escape or not depends entirely on their skills; when they see someone with a red armband coming over, they should put down what they are carrying first, and not count or accept money in front of people, otherwise who else will they arrest if not you?

Nowadays, the policy turns a blind eye to "markets." As long as it's not excessive, the higher-ups don't investigate, and the lower-ups are happy to pretend they don't see it. After all, officials need to eat too, right?

The country has just recovered from difficulties, and supply and demand are tight. It is understandable that people want to eat vegetables, meat, eggs, and have enough to eat. It is not a fundamental mistake for villagers to grow too much grain and vegetables and exchange it for money to buy seeds or raise their children.

Even the "market trade" organized by the supply and marketing cooperatives in the suburbs is thriving. As long as people don't hoard and resell, who would deliberately cause trouble?

As they were talking, Yang Jianye stepped into the house and was immediately surrounded by a group of people. Li Ying's parents, two younger siblings, and Li Ying herself—a family of six—surrounded him, their twelve eyes scanning him from head to toe.

"Yingzi's mom, take a break and don't make Jianye feel embarrassed!" It was Aunt Liu who spoke up and helped him out of the predicament.

To be honest, being watched by six people made me feel very tense, and it was really unpleasant.

"Uncle, Aunt, these are gifts for the family. Please accept them." Yang Jianye placed the gifts in front of Yingzi's mother before finding a place to sit down.

"Wow, so many melon seeds and candies!"

"Old Li, look, there's another fish! Oh my, they even brought the eggs!"

"Jianye, you're too kind!"

Yingzi's mother laughed so hard she almost fell over, her voice so loud it could be heard outside. It's not like you're secretly going on a blind date to discuss marriage; you have to be open about it when you should. Otherwise, people will talk behind your back, and who would put up with that?

Yang Jianye glanced at Li Ying and smiled, "It's not easy for you and your wife to raise Yingzi, it's only right. I don't have any elders in my family, so someone should have come to take care of her. I'm sorry to trouble you, Aunt Liu. But don't worry, Yingzi will only enjoy happiness with me. I, Yang Jianye, guarantee that I will never let her suffer the slightest grievance."

Ever since he met Li Ying, his thoughts have never changed: he wants to find a wife and spoil her rotten.

Let those who want to envy us envy us; life will only get better and better.