The strong fisherman in the courtyard

Look, Father Li is still mumbling now.

"What bad luck! I saw Shazhu when I went out early in the morning."

Father Li brought back the breakfast and put it on the table, cursing. His daughter wanted to eat braised pork, so Father Li went out to buy it, and ended up running into He Yuzhu.

Mother Li looked at her husband helplessly. Her husband was good in every way except that he was really vindictive and petty. If he met someone he didn't like and provoked him, he would curse and grumble for a whole year. He was nothing like her eldest son!

"Okay, Dad, why bother with that idiot? He's just a big idiot, relying on his craftsmanship, he acts like the boss every day."

Li Ming also looked helpless. Although he also held a grudge, he never talked about it. Whenever he got the right opportunity, he would do the same as he did to Jia Dongxu.

"Hmph, don't let that stupid pillar hit my hand, or I'll have to punish him once!"

Father Li stuffed the stew into his mouth angrily and muttered.

Li Ming smiled and rode his bike with his old man to the steel mill. Along the way, he met many workers and greeted each other. Of course, Yi Zhonghai and He Yuzhu from the courtyard were exceptions.

As for Jia Dongxu, he is still in bed! Last time, Qin Huairu helped him out to bask in the sun. Li Ming saw him once. I have to say, he is so damn white!

The Li family also spent some time in peace and stability as time passed until the arrival of November.

During this period, there were several things worth talking about in Siheyuan. One of them was that Jia Dongxu had recovered from his injury and had started working again at the steel rolling mill. However, rumors about Jia Dongxu were flying all over the place. It felt as if time had passed, but rumors about Jia Dongxu still existed.

When Xu Damao had nothing to do, he would come to Li Ming to chat and smoke, and their apparent relationship had improved a lot. Once, Jia Dongxu passed by the front yard and deliberately touched Li Ming. As a result, before Li Ming could say anything, Xu Damao directly scolded Jia Dongxu, and in the end, a meeting of the whole hospital was held and the matter was left unresolved.

Wang Da and Wang Er have made a lot of money for Li Ming in the past few months, so naturally they have also received a lot of dividends, more than 200 yuan, so you can imagine how much Li Ming has made in the past few months. However, they didn't make much, and the Wang brothers strictly followed Li Ming's requirements, seeking stability while surviving, and seeking stability while surviving.

Otherwise, the three of them would earn even more than they do now!

Of course, the best thing for the Li family is that Li's mother was promoted to a level 23 clerk, receiving a level salary of yuan per month, becoming another pillar of the Li family after Comrade Li Weiguo.

However, the subdistrict office did give Li's mother a task, which was to be responsible for the winter vegetables in their courtyard. It was not necessary to be responsible for everything. How should I put it? It was just a figurehead! The most important point was that the entire subdistrict office still remembered the original grudge of the Jia family.

Many aunts and grandmas are waiting for this day to put some eye drops on the Jia family! This is enough to prove how popular Li's mother is in the street office.

Chapter 80 Salty Fish Daily Life

"Mom, are we going to stock up on winter vegetables at the street office tomorrow?"

Li Ming brushed his teeth while looking at his mother. His mother had recently received a salary increase and she looked a lot younger and was full of energy every day.

"Well, we'll announce it tonight, and someone from the street office will come and tell every courtyard about it."

"That's fine, as long as we are not notified. Otherwise, who knows what kind of trouble these things in our yard might cause."

Li Ming rinsed his mouth and spat out a splash of water.

"But your mother will be in charge of this job tomorrow, so I finally got the chance."

Li's mother fully demonstrated the Li family's tradition of holding grudges. None of the four members of the family are people who don't hold grudges, and the family tradition is very positive.

Li Ming smiled and said, "Do I need to help tomorrow?"

"Go ahead. You and your dad should get up early tomorrow. I'll save our food in advance. You two can just bring it back when you get there."

"If you two are done and have nothing else to do, go over and help. Although there are comrades from the police station to maintain order, I don't think they are enough. There are so many people every year that it's hard to squeeze through."

"Okay, leave it to me tomorrow."

After finishing his breakfast at home, Li Ming followed his father to the steel rolling mill. Tomorrow was a holiday, and there would surely be many people stocking up on winter vegetables, which would cause a lot of trouble.

In previous years, one of the families would come to help out after receiving their own winter vegetables as a family member of a clerk in the street office. This is one of the reasons why the aunties and grandmas in the street office like Li Ming.

In the 50s, the season for stockpiling winter vegetables in the old city was usually in autumn and winter, but the first batch was usually in November. Usually in early November, that is, before the arrival of winter, the residents of the old city would start purchasing winter vegetables.

This is because November is the time when winter-stored Chinese cabbages are put on the market. Buying them at this time can bring relatively cheap prices and ensure the supply of vegetables for the winter.

The local street offices will also make unified arrangements at this time to facilitate people's purchases.

The temperature is low in winter, vegetables grow slowly, and the supply is relatively small. The winter in the old city is relatively long, so it is necessary to start stockpiling vegetables in the fall to ensure the supply of vegetables in the winter.

During that period, the citizens of the city needed to prepare a winter supply of cabbage when winter came. The government would also organize a "winter storage of cabbage" campaign, calling on citizens to buy and store cabbage and other easy-to-store vegetables in the fall for the winter. These vegetables would usually be eaten up over the winter months.

In addition, there will be a famine next year. In recent times, many families have realized that there is not much food left in the city, and they are all waiting for the first wave of winter vegetables. If nothing unexpected happens, this will be the last batch before winter. In previous years, there was one batch every month. No matter how much, there will always be some.

This year is quite strange. Li Ming heard a few days ago at the steel mill that many people wanted to take advantage of this opportunity to tinker with the food at home. The vegetables are cheap and plentiful at this time, and this thing can be useful when there is not much food to eat.

The salted fish office of the steel rolling mill.

The atmosphere inside is much less lively today, as everyone is discussing how much to buy for winter vegetables tomorrow.

"I have to buy more today. I bought too little last year." Xu Qiang lit a cigarette and talked about the stupid things he did last year.

Zhou Tian glanced at him and said, "Then you should buy more this year. I guess this year will be more difficult than previous years."

"I plan to line up at four o'clock tomorrow morning."

"Me too. I went there at five last year, and the team was so fucking far away on the road."

"I'll wait here." Zheng Ping also complained about the problem of hoarding winter vegetables every year.

"By the way, Mingzi, your family of four will have to make a lot this year, right?" Wu Gang saw Li Ming pushing the door in and handed him a cigarette.

Li Ming nodded. "We have a big family, and we need to pickle the cabbage, so we have to prepare more."

“All four of us in our family love this.”

"My daughter loves to eat kimchi, haha. Our family makes a lot of kimchi every year." Section Chief Xu brought over a tin kettle and motioned Li Ming to pour a cup. It was already very cold in November.

No one in the department talks about purchasing. Now they can't even get anything. Everyone from the factory manager to the workers knows that the only things that keep the steel mill running are the things in the fixed plan of the first and second shares each month. Even the food in the plan is reduced every month.

It would be better for everyone to drink hot water, smoke cigarettes, and talk about what time to go tomorrow? Talk about who lives close to home and keeps company with whom.

In the 50s, pickled Chinese cabbage was a very popular vegetable in winter. Due to the lack of fresh vegetables in winter, Chinese cabbage became the "main dish" on the winter table because of its easy preservation, affordable price and rich nutrition.

People buy a lot of Chinese cabbage in autumn to pickle or make kimchi. The method of pickling Chinese cabbage is very simple. Generally, the cabbage is washed, put into a jar, add appropriate amount of salt and water, and then seal the jar mouth and wait for pickling. When eating pickled Chinese cabbage in winter, you can cut it into small pieces, stir-fry or stew it, and it tastes sour and delicious.

In addition to pickling, people also make kimchi from Chinese cabbage. The method of making kimchi is similar to pickling, but some auxiliary ingredients such as pepper, ginger, garlic, etc. need to be added to increase the taste and flavor. The prepared kimchi can be used as a side dish or snack. It tastes sour and spicy and is rich in nutrition.

"Oh, by the way, Mingzi, I heard that when winter vegetables are stockpiled every year, the street office usually distributes them first. Is that true?"

Wang Jun remembered something he had heard before and asked about it. There was a slight silence in the room for a moment. After all, everyone knew Li Ming's family conditions. Now Wang Jun, this idiot, asked this, fearing that Li Ming would think that Wang Jun was saying that their family was getting special treatment. However, Li Ming didn't care at all.

Chapter 81: The Small Stage in the Siheyuan

Li Ming nodded generously, "Of course, it's like this every year. If you don't distribute the winter vegetables to the people in the street office in advance, won't it be more troublesome when you distribute them to the residents?"

"Only when the street office staff have no worries can they do their work properly."

Wang Jun regretted asking this question. In fact, he was just purely curious. What bad intentions could Xianyu have?

The atmosphere in the room became lively again after Li Ming finished speaking.

Section Chief Xu slapped Wang Jun on the head and said, "Be careful with your words next time. Mingzi, this is a family affair and we don't care. Are you not afraid of being remembered if you say this to outsiders next time?"

Wang Jun came down the stairs and apologized, "Hey, Mingzi, don't mind it. I'm just a big shot."

"Well, what the hell is this? Besides, where in our department are there such evil-minded people?"

Comrade Li Ming is still very good-tempered towards his colleagues in the department. After all, those people in his own hospital are worse than what Wang Jun said.

How did that saying come about? It was all thanks to his peers. Wang Jun's pure curiosity was not as loud as Jia Zhang's fart in their courtyard.

In previous years, the Jia family was the one that spoke foul language. This year, the Li family really plans to try it on the Jia family. We can't let others keep saying no, so we have to satisfy them now that they have spoken foul language.

There is also a saying, when others suspect that you have heavy firepower, you'd better really have it! There is no doubt that the Jia family will have to taste the bitter fruit this year.

Li Ming is looking forward to this, which is why he will go to the scene to help tomorrow. If the Jia family really dares to take action, it will be even simpler. Just let Jia Zhang go to the police station to take a few more days off.

After all, the security department has been there, so wouldn’t the experience be missed if we don’t go to the police station?

"I feel like the food in the second cafeteria isn't very tasty these past two days."

As they were talking, they ended up talking about lunch. It was no surprise that this was their section chief.

'It's been a long time since we had meat in the canteen, day after day. We are still better off, but look at those working in the workshop.'

"I always feel like they twitch when they walk." Zhou Tian muttered while touching his nose.

"I saw someone complain to our factory leaders the day before yesterday, but in the end the matter didn't fall to our purchasing department."

"Just make do with it. Who knows when the canteen can bring back two pigs, and then we can improve things."

"Why don't you go fishing with me? Fish is meat after all." Li Ming said this while looking at his depressed colleague.

"Don't go."

"I won't go even if you beat me to death."

“There are more people than fish.”

"That is, we couldn't catch any fish when there were a lot of fish, let alone now when there are not many fish."

Li Ming felt helpless as he looked at his colleagues who were shaking their heads like rattles. If you want to describe what a salted fish is, then there is no doubt that these three people meet the criteria of a salted fish.

For the whole day, the three groups of colleagues were immersed in a meaningless and joyful atmosphere of slacking off. Li Ming felt that this situation was not much different from retirement. The only difference might be that they were not old.

The courtyard of the steel rolling mill.

The Li family members have all returned from get off work. The yard seems to be noisy at this time. Listening carefully, they are all discussing the matter of stockpiling winter vegetables for tomorrow, which is the most important thing before the Chinese New Year.

Mr. and Mrs. Li were cooking in the house, while Li Ming and Li Rui were carrying stools and listening to the fun in the yard.

"What time are you leaving tomorrow?"

"Well, why are you in such a hurry? It's time to go back."

"Bullshit, you said the same thing last year. I went there at six in the morning, and you walked past me with a cart."

"I really didn't plan to go early this year. It's too cold this year."

This was a conversation caused by the betrayal by a friend last year.

"Shall we go together tomorrow?"

"Okay, don't fail to get up this time! Last year I called you for half an hour!"

"Can we discuss this year? Don't call me at 12 o'clock in the morning. I just went to bed."

"You weren't even diligent in stocking up on winter vegetables, no wonder you failed the Level 5 fitter exam."

"Then I am better than Jia Dongxu, who can't pass the third level in three years."

"What are you talking about! If Jia Dongxu hears you crying to his mother and wife, and then lets Jia Zhang come to find you?"

"Oh, sorry, I forgot. I'll pay attention next time."

This is a conversation that has gone astray.

Li Ming and Li Rui laughed so hard that their eyelids almost narrowed into slits.

"Brother, when are we going tomorrow?"

Li Ming waved his hand. "We can go anytime. Mom has already made arrangements for our family."

"But I still have to keep an eye on the Jia family tomorrow to prevent those bastards from causing trouble. I guess I have to go early, around five o'clock."

"Then I won't go. I'll go after I wake up." Sister Li Rui pouted. She had been looking forward to having a good rest on this day, and she couldn't bear to get up so early.

The most important thing is that the Li family does not lack her strength. Li Ming is worth three people!

"Don't go, wait until you wake up."

"Yeah, I see. Will the aunties and grandmas from the street office come over to discuss things with us later?"

"Just be careful and safe. It's like this every year. Don't worry about it."

Li Ming sniffed the aroma of food in the air. Because he had to get up early tomorrow, the Li family specially prepared a big pot of food with meat tonight to nourish the two men of the Li family!

"Let's go eat! It will definitely be better."

Li Ming picked up the stool and walked into the house with his sister. He was very considerate and closed the door, fearing that others could not bear the stimulation.

. . . . . .

Father Li glanced at his two children and said, "I was just about to go out and call you in for dinner."

"Hey, my brother smelled the aroma and said the food was ready, so we came in."

Li Ming nodded in agreement and looked at the table. Each person had a big bowl, and the table was full of steamed buns and, wow, there were also pickles from Liubiju.

After all, he has not experienced the events of the future, so his nose is working well now. But after what happened back then, Li Ming couldn't smell anything for half a year, and what was even more unfortunate was that even his sense of taste was misfired for half a year!