I Have a Lake as I Walk Through the Courtyard

Yang Laowu was truly amazed. In the north, although he also lived in a large courtyard, life there seemed to be much better than here. It was not unusual for people in the courtyard to eat meat every few days. Here, apart from them, it seemed that no one had ever eaten meat!

Hearing the murmurs of the crowd, Yang Laowu finally understood. These people were just envious. He interrupted Lin Feng and pressed his hands down to stop them. "Alright, alright! I see now. Meat is indeed hard to buy in the capital. I understand everyone's desire to eat meat. How about this, whoever wants to eat meat, raise your hand."

"I...I..." Almost everyone in the courtyard raised their hands!

Then I saw this. "Liu Haizhong, you want to eat meat too? Easy! I had someone bring this meat over from the north, it wasn't cheap, and I still have some left at home. How much do you want to buy?"

"Do you want more money?" Liu Haizhong blurted out instinctively.

"Isn't that obvious? You want to eat meat without spending money? Where can you find such a good deal? Why don't you introduce me to someone, and I'll go too!" Old Yang looked at him like he was an idiot.

"You, a level 7 worker, surely don't think you can't afford to eat meat!"

"How is that possible? How much did you say your meat cost per pound?"

"My family spent a lot of money to buy this venison. The cost of having someone bring it over was about five or six yuan per pound. If you really want it, I'll charge you six yuan per pound, but I won't take money. That's speculation. You have to exchange it for something else."

Upon hearing this, Liu Haizhong gasped. "Six yuan a pound! That's so expensive?"

"That's definitely the price!" Sha Zhu rushed in carrying a lunchbox, looked at Qin Huairu with tears in her eyes, and stood behind her listening for a long time.

"Gentlemen, this is venison! It could cost seven or eight yuan a pound on the black market."

Sha Zhu's words caused an uproar among the neighbors in the courtyard. Yang Laowu rolled his eyes disdainfully at Liu Haizhong, who looked pained by the price. "If you think venison is too expensive, you can buy pork! It's hard to find on the black market, but it's not impossible. Who among you wants to eat meat these days?"

"Everyone knows the market price, right?" Hearing this, everyone fell silent. Old Yang looked at the two old men beside him. "I see now! You yourselves are reluctant to eat meat, but you forbid me from eating it, and you call that disrupting unity? What a huge accusation! Tomorrow I'll go to the factory and have Director Yang judge this! See how eating meat earned through my own labor disrupts unity?"

Yang Laowu's sudden outburst made the two old men turn pale, especially Liu Haizhong, who, despite his own high rank, was treated completely differently from Yang Laowu. "Uncle, it was a slip of the tongue, a slip of the tongue..."

The third uncle was a little embarrassed. "Ahem! Now let's discuss the matter of the Jia family's mother-in-law and daughter-in-law!"

Yang Laowu sat down disdainfully, looking at the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law standing in the middle. "Right, where were we? These two distracted me and I forgot everything!"

Lin Feng chuckled as he looked at Jia Zhangshi's liver-colored face. Yang Laowu, momentarily dazed, seemed to suddenly remember something. "Oh right, are you remarrying? That's great! Who have you taken a fancy to? I'll go and talk to them for you."

"Bullshit! Who said she was going to remarry? My daughter-in-law just said she didn't want to remarry!" Madam Jia suddenly became agitated. "How can you act like such a boss?"

Old Yang was even more confused after hearing this. "You said your daughter-in-law won't remarry, so what's going on here?"

Jia Zhangshi was taken aback by Yang Laowu's question. A word caught in her throat, stuck in her throat, and it took her a long time to finally utter a single sentence: "She is my Jia family's daughter-in-law, she is my family in life and in death!"

"That's where you're wrong! That's outdated thinking, and it should be criticized. The government encourages widows to remarry now. Your daughter-in-law is only 30 years old; she has a bright future ahead of her. You have no right to confine her for life! If you think like that, then I'll have to send you to the neighborhood committee office. You need to get some serious education on your ideology!"

"Yang Laowu! You're determined to persuade my daughter-in-law to remarry, aren't you? Believe me or not, I'll hang myself on your doorstep tonight!"

Yang Laowu glanced at the two elderly men beside him. "I think this man has serious ideological problems. Let's send him to the neighborhood committee for re-education. What are you two thinking?"

"I think it's feasible!" Yan Bugui didn't have a good impression of this old woman in the first place!

"That's right, this thinking is wrong! Let's send it to the neighborhood committee then!"

The three of them quickly settled the matter of Jia Zhangshi's affairs, and surprisingly, no one in the courtyard objected. Lin Feng, standing at the back, looked at Yang Laowu again and realized that this guy with thick eyebrows and big eyes was not someone to be trifled with.

Qin Huairu was really anxious when she saw Liu Guangtian and Yan Jiecheng coming up to grab her mother-in-law. Although her mother-in-law was a bit unreasonable, as long as she was there, no one would dare to bully her!

"Wait, everyone! Don't arrest my mother-in-law! If she's gone, my child is still young, and I'll be at work with no one to take care of her! She just spoke offhand; please don't take it to heart by arguing with a rural woman like her!"

Yang Laowu turned to look at Qin Huairu. "You two, mother and daughter-in-law, are really something else. Are you treating us like it's Sunday? You're the ones causing trouble, and you want things to stop? Not so easy! Take them away!"

Jia Zhang struggled frantically, finally realizing the truth: Yang Laowu was not Yi Zhonghai. "Please let me go! I won't cause any more trouble! I won't make a scene anymore, waaaah!"

Qin Huai knelt down in front of Yang Laowu. "Uncle, I beg you, please let her go this time. She's just a country woman, please don't stoop to her level, I beg you!"

Sha Zhu seized the opportunity to stop Yang Laowu. "Uncle! We're all neighbors, there's really no need for this..."

Many women in the courtyard frowned upon seeing Jia Zhangshi's miserable state and pleaded for her life.

Old Yang sighed. "Why are you making a scene? Everyone knows the reason! You just want to take advantage, right? But are there so many freebies in the world? If you want meat, it's simple. Just help your daughter-in-law get promoted. Once her income increases, she can eat meat, right? Why do you have to resort to such underhanded tactics?"

After being reprimanded, Jia Zhangshi dared not talk back. With no one to support her, she lowered her head and dared not cause any more trouble.

"Neighbors! I've lived in this courtyard for over a month and I've noticed a strange trend: whenever someone eats meat, someone always comes to ask for some, especially you!" Yang Laowu said, pointing mercilessly at Qin Huairu.

"Everyone in this compound is a worker. Eating meat a few times a month is nothing unusual for us. It's because of black sheep like you that everyone hides anything good they have. Is that necessary? There's a difference in wages, so there's bound to be a difference in living standards. That's for sure. If you want a better life, then work hard and stop thinking about nonsense. I don't care how things were in this compound before, but from today onwards, I'm telling you this: anyone who dares to come here to borrow meat and disgrace the working class, especially if they're from the steel mill, I'll make them carry iron for a month! If you don't believe me, come and try, and see if I have the ability!"

Old Yang glanced at the neighbors below, and everyone held their breath. "And you! You're supposed to be a liaison officer, yet you accuse me of something serious just because I ate meat? What kind of trash are you? You hide in your room eating scrambled eggs all day, do you think I don't know? Meeting adjourned!"