Courtyard House: Is Xu Damao a childless man? Let me help.

So when the store’s regular customers saw Liu Guangtian like this, they were naturally a little frightened. So it turns out that behind your smiling face you have such a face?

With this in mind, some of the regular customers stopped coming to eat here, while others stopped coming not because of Liu Guangtian's attitude, but because they saw through the true nature of the matter.

This group of people were those who lived near where the conflict started. They knew that the old man who caused the trouble was Liu Guangtian's father. The shop owner treated his father this way, and no one could say for sure how wicked he was, so they didn't dare to come.

Chapter 350: Grandpa Yi's Diabetes

However, while the diners might not want to come back, they wouldn't tell Liu Guangtian, so Liu Guangtian wouldn't find out about it for the time being.

Meanwhile, Liu Haizhong, after searching everywhere for help, finally realized that it's better to rely on yourself than on others, so he turned around and started looking for ways to earn money on his own.

Of course, he's already considered an old man with frail bones, so finding a proper factory job is definitely out of the question, since his physical strength and stamina are probably no longer up to par.

But what about those odd jobs done by the neighborhood committee? Then Liu Haizhong can still do a little bit of work!

That's right, it's the subdistrict office again! There's no way around it, since subdistrict offices these days have a lot of responsibilities. Not only do they need to go door-to-door like neighborhood committee aunties, but they also manage things like resident registration.

These things will be directly handed over to government officials for handling in the future, but for now, they are managed by the street offices, so the street offices can actually arrange a lot of work for 27.

Of course, although they all came to the subdistrict office to find work, and the subdistrict office would indeed help arrange some work as appropriate, Liu Haizhong's situation was obviously better than Jia Zhangshi's, so the work arranged for Liu Haizhong by the subdistrict office was naturally not as easy.

After a brief discussion, Liu Haizhong was assigned a job repairing pipes. This job was indeed not much trouble when there was no busy time, but it was really busy once it got going.

Moreover, at this time, Beijing was undergoing a major construction boom, so the pipes in many places often had problems. If there was a problem with the pipes in the area that the street office was responsible for, Liu Haizhong could be sent to handle it.

So although this job can be quite relaxed at times, it is actually quite 'busy' most of the time.

Of course, the reason he was assigned this job wasn't random; after all, he had a long period of 'work experience' in the toilets of the steel rolling mill.

And so, Liu Haizhong was forced to return to the workforce after retirement, starting to do manual labor in order to earn an extra twenty yuan a month to buy medicine and pay for Aunt Er's medical treatment.

Well, actually, Liu Haizhong wasn't really that 'selfless'. At first, he even considered getting rid of Aunt Er as a 'burden'.

Unfortunately, Aunt Er was still quite shrewd. When she moved out of the courtyard house, she had a plan, so when she bought the apartment they now live in, she put both of their names on the deed.

In that case, if Liu Haizhong wants to get rid of his "burden" directly, then he shouldn't blame Aunt Er for forcibly "dividing his property" to save him.

So Liu Haizhong gave up the idea of ​​running away and started working wholeheartedly to treat Aunt Er's illness.

. . . . . .

That's basically the situation in Liu Haizhong's family. Although his sons are doing quite well, Liu Haizhong and his wife are barely making ends meet.

So we've already talked about the situation of the Yan family and the Liu family in the original courtyard house. Now what about the Yi family?

We've already given a partial overview of the Yi family's situation. After retiring, Yi Zhonghai spends his days at home playing with his birds and going out for walks. His life is quite leisurely and comfortable.

Aunt Yi's life has improved significantly compared to when she lived in the courtyard house. At least her social circle has expanded considerably, and she occasionally goes to the neighborhood committee as a "red armband-wearing auntie."

However, all of this happened before Bang Geng was released. Not long after his release, he successfully found Yi Zhonghai, and then... naturally, the story from before unfolded.

Even after Banggeng's restaurant went out of business, Yi Zhonghai still didn't give up on Banggeng. Instead, he gave Banggeng an idea to enter the foreign trade industry.

What happened next... well, you all know. But what happened after Banggeng Foreign Trade suffered a complete financial loss?

Yi Zhonghai also suffered as a result, because Bang Geng's small amount of capital was definitely not enough to enter the game, so in the end Yi Zhonghai also put some money into it.

In the end, Bang Geng lost everything, and naturally, Yi Zhonghai couldn't get his money back either. However, Yi Zhonghai was still a bit smarter than Bang Geng, so when he gave Bang Geng the money, he made it clear that it was a loan to Bang Geng.

So after Bang Geng lost money, Yi Zhonghai actually stabbed him in the back, teaming up with those who had lent him money to sue Bang Geng, which is why Bang Geng ended up in jail.

However, since Yi Zhonghai has been so ruthless, how is his life now? The answer is... not very ideal.

Perhaps it's because they've really done too many bad things. In the original drama, it was supposed to be Aunt Yi who was in poor health, but now, it's Yi Zhonghai who's health is the first to suffer.

Less than six months after Bang Geng's second stint in the hospital, Yi Zhonghai was diagnosed with diabetes during a medical check-up.

When Yi Zhonghai learned that he had the disease, he could hardly believe it, after all, compared to other diabetic patients, his diet was not that irregular.

There was no overeating or excessive sugar intake, so Yi Zhonghai always thought that his diabetes was a misdiagnosis.

However, as his body's reactions became more and more obvious, Yi Zhonghai realized that he had really been "infected".

At that time, although insulin injections were already used to treat diabetes abroad, this technology had only just been developed overseas, so it could not be introduced to China.

In other words, for Yi Zhonghai, his condition is currently practically incurable.

Of course, Yi Zhonghai was unwilling to just sit and wait for his death, so he quickly thought of traditional Chinese medicine. After all, diabetes was a disease that was discovered in traditional Chinese medicine more than a thousand years ago, although it was called "Xiao Ke Bing" (wasting and thirsting disease).

Chapter 351 The Old Villain Meets the 'Old Traditional Chinese Medicine Practitioner'

Since Western medicine has not yet offered any effective treatments, Yi Zhonghai can only try to find some folk remedies, hoping that traditional Chinese medicine can save his life.

However... Traditional Chinese medicine, although it has been passed down for a long time, and in ancient times it did indeed have ways to deal with diseases like 'diabetes'.

However, the ancient method of "inheritance" was not as "generous" as it is now, so many ancient prescriptions have actually been lost.

As a result, the number of experienced traditional Chinese medicine doctors who know how to treat diseases like diabetes is actually quite small.

Moreover... there is another very important issue: Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) suffered a severe crackdown for a period of time, so the number of reliable TCM practitioners that can be found now is quite limited.

On the contrary, the number of fake doctors who swindle people under the guise of traditional Chinese medicine is increasing day by day. There's nothing we can do about it. The medical security system in this era has not been fully established yet, so when ordinary people want to see a doctor, money just flows out of their pockets.

What do some people do when they can't afford medical treatment? Western medicine is too expensive, so they naturally turn to traditional Chinese medicine practitioners. It is in this environment that fake TCM practitioners have found fertile ground to survive.

Yi Zhonghai's luck was clearly not particularly good, so the "old Chinese medicine doctor" he found, who was also an "old military doctor," was actually someone who had only read a few medical books and had not even fully understood many of the principles of Chinese medicine.

However, since they are contestants who are out to scam money, they still need to understand the most basic sales pitches. In addition, Yi Zhonghai hurriedly revealed that he had diabetes as soon as he came on stage.

This gave the other party a clue, so the fake TCM doctor gave him some medicine and started ordering all sorts of foods to avoid.

The whole process looked quite professional, but Yi Zhonghai had no idea that the medications prescribed for him were actually of no use whatsoever for his condition.

However... this old Chinese medicine doctor who came out to swindle people was quite clever, so although the prescription he wrote wasn't the right one, it didn't do any harm to the person's body.

Therefore, there have been no cases of poisoning after taking Chinese medicine.

This is understandable, since they only wanted to scam money, not kill. Money-making and murder are two completely different crimes if caught.

So, in order to avoid losing his life unexpectedly, this old Chinese medicine doctor put in a little effort to memorize some basic prescriptions.

The prescription that this old Chinese medicine doctor is giving Yi Zhonghai is the most basic Xiao Chai Hu Tang in Chinese medicine, which is also one of the first prescriptions that Chinese medicine students encounter.

However... diabetes, simply put, is a problem with the pancreas, which is unable to synthesize insulin on its own. Without insulin, the pancreas cannot effectively break down sugar in urine, leading to high urine sugar levels.

In other words, the main problem with diabetes actually lies in the pancreas, but... the Xiao Chai Hu Tang prescription given to Yi Zhonghai by the traditional Chinese medicine doctor primarily functions to treat liver diseases and suppress liver fire.

To put it bluntly, it was completely the wrong treatment, so after taking Chinese medicine for two months, Yi Zhonghai's diabetes did not improve at all.

Although the illness did not improve, it was only right to pay for medical treatment. In addition, with the cost of medicine and other necessities, the Yi family's originally relatively good financial situation suddenly began to deteriorate.

After all, Yi Zhonghai's previous retirement pension was over sixty yuan a month. With that pension, he only needed about thirty yuan a month to live on.

However, now Yi Zhonghai needs to spend more than 40 yuan a month just on medicine and medical treatment. So if the elderly couple wants to maintain their original standard of living, Yi Zhonghai's monthly pension is definitely not enough.

Alternatively, they could only take a portion from Yi Zhonghai's savings as emergency funds, but as mentioned before, a significant portion of the money Yi Zhonghai had saved over the years had been lost to Bang Geng.

Therefore, Yi Zhonghai's savings were not actually that much. Considering his future living expenses, relying solely on savings was definitely not enough. So, Yi Zhonghai had no choice but to take another path, which was to 'cut expenses'.

Therefore, Yi Zhonghai's illness instantly reduced the Yi family's standard of living to about the same level as Liu Haizhong's.

However, Yi Zhonghai believes that such a 'sacrifice' is worthwhile, since once his diabetes is cured, he should no longer need to take medication, right?

Then the money for medication will be saved, and the quality of life will naturally return to normal.

The idea was good, but unfortunately, Yi Zhonghai had no idea that the Chinese medicine he was taking was not the right medicine for his condition at all.

Not only that, but this old Chinese medicine doctor wasn't the kind of person who would just run away after being fooled once. Instead, he relied on his "experience" to start all sorts of shady tactics.

Every now and then, Yi Zhonghai would come for a 'follow-up examination.' After the examination, the old Chinese medicine doctor would tell Yi Zhonghai that his condition had been suppressed and that he could relax his diet a little for the next period of time.

Then they would give a long list of things to avoid, speaking in a very convincing and proper manner, and they would also make some slight changes to the prescription given to Yi Zhonghai.

This gave Yi Zhonghai the feeling that the old Chinese medicine doctor was 'prescribing the right medicine for the illness'.

Therefore, Yi Zhonghai was still full of confidence that his illness could be cured. Little did he know that, due to the 'delay' caused by the old Chinese medicine doctor, his condition had begun to deteriorate step by step.

And what about that old Chinese medicine doctor? He remained calm and collected, showing no remorse for deceiving others or delaying their treatment. Instead, he took advantage of Yi Zhonghai's trust to continue earning a considerable amount of money from Yi Zhonghai.

. . . . . .

Leaving aside how Yi Zhonghai outwitted the old Chinese medicine doctor, that's roughly the situation of the three old men in the courtyard. However, there's another important character in the courtyard who hasn't been mentioned yet: the troublesome Xu Damao!

Chapter 352 The Disgusting Xu Damao

Xu Damao is actually quite similar to Liu Guangtian. Both of them followed in the footsteps of Ye Jianchuan and Sha Zhu at the beginning of the reform and opening up, and chose to go into business.

So although the path Xu Damao chose at the time was not ideal, he still made a lot of money during the period immediately following the reform and opening up.

Unfortunately, the path this guy chose wasn't very promising, which is why the grain and oil store eventually went bankrupt.

As for Xu Damao's boxed lunch restaurant, although it was a good business for a short time, it eventually closed down because he cut corners too much. He was not only fined, but the restaurant also had to go out of business.

So what was Xu Damao doing for a while after the boxed lunch business failed? Surely he couldn't have been doing nothing, right? He's no pushover!

Xu Damao was naturally not going to sit idly by, because after paying a lot of fines, he started looking for his own way to make money again.

　337 It has to be said that Xu Damao's brain is actually much smarter than that of Liu Guangtian or Bang Geng, so even though this guy didn't have enough capital, he quickly set his sights on the clothing business again.

The domestic clothing market is not yet fully developed, and there are still some families who cannot afford ready-made clothing, so they usually have to buy fabric to make their own clothes.

Aside from those who make their own clothes, there are two other types of people: those who can afford well-made ready-made garments.

Whether it's the Zhongshan suit, which isn't particularly popular anymore, or T-shirts, shirts, suits, or other items imported from abroad, as long as you have enough money, you can buy whatever you want.

Another type of person has a little money, but they still can't afford to buy imported complete sets of clothing. This is where Xu Damao's role comes in.

Xu Damao's business involved importing relatively cheap clothes from Guangdong (698925850) and then transporting them to Beijing for sale.

This could actually be considered a very profitable business, because at that time, the largest port for foreign trade in China was in Yuezhou, so many 'export clothes' from other countries flowed into the Yuezhou market.

Xu Damao was there to buy these clothes and then transport them to Beijing to resell. The reason for this business was very simple: those "export clothes" were just too cheap.

How cheap is it? It's roughly the same as the clothes that cost three yuan a piece in the market now, which would cost about three yuan per kilogram in the wholesale markets of Guangdong.

That's right, it's not even calculated by the number of pieces anymore, but by weight. As for things like size and style, those are issues that Xu Damao will consider after he takes them back.