Courtyard House: A System Connecting Two Worlds, Resources for the Nation

In fact, Zhou Feng knew perfectly well that it was basically impossible for him to get his hands on that ring today.

But he wasn't in a hurry. In this day and age, who else but him had the leisure to tinker with these old things?

This treasure will stay with Master Cha. When the other party is struggling to make ends meet, they will naturally come to him for help.

The price will definitely be different then!

Now that Yan Bugui had offered him a way out, he took the opportunity to walk to the octagonal table and carefully examined the pair of colorful porcelain hat stands.

In the light streaming through the window, he immediately recognized it as a piece from the official kilns of the mid-Qing Dynasty.

The painting is exquisite, and the glaze is rich.

However, if we look at it in later generations, its price would only be around ten thousand, which is worlds apart from that of the thumb ring.

But it's better than nothing!

Master Cha was also watching Zhou Feng's movements. He then turned to look at Yan Bugui, and finally sighed, putting the thumb ring back on his thin finger.

He was truly reluctant to part with this imperial treasure, which represented the glory of his ancestors!

If we could exchange other items for some grain, that would be perfect.

"These hat tops... Comrade Zhou, how much would you be willing to give?"

Cha Ye's voice carried a hint of cautious probing; given the price quoted for the thumb ring, it probably wouldn't be much higher.

Zhou Feng gently lowered his hat, clapped his hands in a mock disgust as if they had been dusted, and frowned.

This was naturally his tactic to lower the price; the hat stand was polished to a shine by Master Cha, so where would the dust come from?

"Fifteen catties of rice, I suppose."

After hesitating for a few seconds, Zhou Feng directly quoted his price.

Their condition was indeed far inferior to that thumb ring.

Master Cha's face turned pale, his lips trembled, and he couldn't utter a word for a long time.

These colorful porcelain hat stands are treasures that have been passed down for decades, and they're only worth a bag of rice?

A surge of anger rushed to his head; he wished he could kick Zhou Feng and Yan Bugui out immediately, otherwise his chest would feel so tight!

Seeing that Master Cha didn't speak, Yan Bugui immediately leaned close to his ear and lowered his voice.

"Mr. Cha, take my advice, know when to quit while you're ahead!"

"What's the situation like right now? Rice is more expensive than gold! If you switch to cornmeal, it'll last you a month or two!"

"No matter how fine this porcelain jar is, can you eat it like cornbread?"

After persuading Uncle Cha, Yan Bugui turned his gaze to Zhou Feng, a slick smile plastered on his face.

"Comrade Zhou Feng, Uncle Cha is indeed having a tough time. How about you add... five more eggs? Consider it helping out the older generation, okay?"

Zhou Feng glanced at Master Cha and knew that Yan Bugui was the one who helped him make this happen. The price had been brought down to a reasonable level, so he reluctantly nodded.

"Alright then, for the sake of Third Uncle and out of respect for your status, Master Cha, fifteen catties of rice and five eggs."

He also knew that people like Master Cha valued their identity the most, and even if no one recognized them now, they were still proud of it.

"identity…"

Uncle Cha closed his eyes, his chest heaving violently a few times, before he managed to squeeze out a few words through clenched teeth: "Take...take it away..."

Ha... Considering his status, he still has to share the same worth as Yan Bugui, which is only worth two and a half eggs...

Yan Bugui's face immediately lit up with a smile. He took out a faded old cotton cloth from his pocket, quickly wrapped the two hat tubes, and stuffed them into Zhou Feng's satchel.

Uncle Cha seemed to have been ripped out of his wits, silently following the two men as they stumbled and trudged toward the courtyard.

"Uncle Cha, you have to think more positively. In these times, nothing is more important than having food in your belly..."

"Those old things, you have to let go of them when it's time to let go. Nostalgia can't put food on the table!"

On the way back to the courtyard house, Yan Bugui kept talking, trying to instill his ideas in Master Cha. His words were all about getting him to spare a few more items to exchange for Zhou Feng.

Uncle Cha remained silent, but his tightly pursed lips and shifty eyes clearly showed that he had taken the words to heart.

Once the three entered the courtyard, Zhou Feng took out the cloth bag that Uncle Cha had brought with him, scooped rice from the rice jar with an enamel mug, and filled it to the brim, which took some effort to tie.

Then I found another small cloth bag and carefully counted out five eggs and put them in.

"You can weigh it yourself; there's definitely more rice than you'd like, and the eggs are right here."

Zhou Feng handed over the items; he never cheated on these kinds of things.

It's supposed to be 15 jin, but it'll actually be 17 or 18 jin.

This small favor is also for the purpose of casting a long line to catch a big fish.

Once Master Cha runs out of food, he will naturally think of exchanging treasures for it.

Having already established a foothold with these hat stands, he certainly wouldn't have as much resistance to selling other things.

After watching Grandpa Cha's hunched back disappear through the courtyard gate, Yan Bugui rubbed his hands together and went into Zhou Feng's room, his small eyes behind his glasses gleaming.

"Zhou Feng, look at what happened today... I've been running around doing all this..."

Zhou Feng immediately understood, turned around, scooped out about three or four pounds of rice from the rice jar in the corner of the kitchen, put it into an old cloth bag, and stuffed it into Yan Bugui's hand.

"Uncle, you've worked so hard. In the future, we'll need your help to make connections for such good things."

"No problem, no problem! Leave it to me!"

Yan Bugui bowed and scraped as he took the bag of rice, clutching it tightly in his hand. His face crinkled into a wide smile as he returned to his house in the front yard, completely satisfied.

As he walked, he kept thinking, "This is much better than me having to fumble around with the tables and chairs myself!"

There are plenty of wealthy old men and young men in Beijing. If he could connect them all and act as a middleman, how much would he not benefit?

Indeed, people can only gain more by using their brains and scheming more.

As evening fell, the residents who hadn't been in the yard during the day returned home.

In the Jia family compound, Jia Zhangshi sat cross-legged on the kang (a heated brick bed), cracking melon seeds while glancing sideways at Qin Huairu, her words dripping with sarcasm.

"What can you even do? I just saw Old Man Yan bring back a bag of stuff from Zhou Feng's house again, it's all rice and flour! How come you got kicked out of there with just a few words?"

Qin Huairu was kneading cornmeal by the stove when she retorted irritably, "Mom! The things Uncle San sent over were all exquisite old items! Our two broken stools are so worn they wobble just sitting there; no wonder Zhou Feng wouldn't even look at them!"

"Aren't they all just wooden stools? Why differentiate them into different grades?"

Jia Zhangshi rolled her triangular eyes and suddenly lowered her voice: "What does he want to do with all those old things? Hoard them to resell later? That's speculation, and he'll be eating peanuts!"

Qin Huairu was so startled that she stopped what she was doing and quickly said, "Mom! Don't think such things! If you report her without any evidence, you'll make a huge enemy!"

"Do I need your instruction? You should be thinking about how to trade those two stools of ours for something else! If we don't have rice or noodles, we can trade them for a few eggs!"

As Jia Zhangshi was speaking, a loud male voice came from outside the door: "Sister Qin, are you home? I was helping out with a wedding banquet today and brought back some good dishes!"

The mother-in-law and daughter-in-law exchanged a glance, and Qin Huairu quickly wiped her hands on her apron and lifted the curtain.

Sha Zhu was standing at the door, dressed in dark blue overalls, looking quite pleased with himself.

He was carrying a net bag containing several aluminum lunchboxes, which he lifted up and down when he saw her, looking quite smug.

As soon as Jia Zhangshi saw Sha Zhu enter the house, her eyes lit up.

The next second she started patting the kang mat, and began to sigh in a drawn-out tone, "What's the point of eating anything good anymore... I'm so angry I'm full!"