Siheyuan: Starting from 1958

The front yard of the quadrangle.

Although Yan Fugui's family had already had dinner, no one went back to their rooms to rest.

Sitting around the table, waiting for the two daughters-in-law to come home.

They all knew that today was the day when Dongjun Hotel paid salaries.

According to the agreement, both daughters-in-law had to hand over ten yuan to Yan Fugui.

In order to avoid accidents, after receiving the twenty yuan, Yan Fugui decided to wait until his two daughters-in-law returned home to hand in their wages before letting everyone go back to their rooms to rest.

The two daughters-in-law appeared at the door together, chatting and laughing. Seeing that the whole family, young and old, were waiting for them by the table, it was clear what they were waiting for.

They looked at each other, as if they had discussed something beforehand, and without saying a word, each sat next to their husbands.

Yan Fugui, who was eagerly waiting, said decisively: "I heard that Dongjun Hotel will pay all employees' salaries tonight... Juanzi... Have you all received your salaries?"

Zhang Juan knew that her father-in-law had set his eyes on the ten yuan pension that the couple had promised him. Plus, she really wanted to go back to her room and share the good news of her high salary with her husband, so she didn't waste any time and directly took out the thirty-one yuan she had prepared in advance from her pocket.

"father……"

"I've already received my salary. The basic salary is thirty yuan, almost one yuan, a total of thirty-one yuan."

After that, he took out a big unity from the three big unity cards and handed it to Yan Fugui, and continued: "This is the ten yuan pension money that Jie Cheng and I promised you. Now I give it to you..."

"We will save the remaining money for our son's schooling."

Although Yan Fugui was jealous of the twenty-odd yuan left in his daughter-in-law's hand, he had no intention of taking the money.

It was already good enough to be able to get ten dollars from each of his two daughters-in-law. If he really took all their hard-earned wages into his own hands, he and his son might become enemies because of this.

Although Yan Fugui is very stingy, he still has some sense of propriety.

After getting his twenty dollars, he went straight back to his room and deposited the money into his own piggy bank without saying anything.

At the same time, Zhang Juan brought her man Yan Jiecheng back to the room.

After closing the door and making sure that no one was eavesdropping outside, he took out several dozen dollars from his other pocket and placed them on the bed.

"Juanzi, where did you get so much money?" Looking at the big Tuanjie on the bed, Yan Jiecheng asked with his eyes wide open and a look of shock on his face.

"Of course I earned it." Chen Juan answered with pride on her face.

"These are the wages the hotel gave me today, a total of seventy-nine dollars."

"Thirty yuan is the basic salary, and the remaining forty-nine yuan is the basic bonus and performance bonus..."

"Because I just got here this month, I made a lot of mistakes during my work, so I only received 35 yuan in basic bonus."

"If I make fewer mistakes next month, my basic bonus will definitely increase to 45 yuan. If I get more performance bonus, maybe my income next month will exceed 100 yuan."

Seeing his wife getting more and more excited, Yan Jiecheng could no longer find words to describe his shock at the moment.

I have worked in a steel mill for more than ten years, and my monthly salary is still less than 50 yuan.

It turned out that his wife, who had just started working and was working as a waitress in a restaurant, a position he despised the most, actually received higher salary than him in the first month.

To say I wasn't shocked would be a lie.

Then the whole person was overwhelmed by surprise.

Because according to my wife's current income, even if she gives Yan Fugui ten yuan every month, the two of them can save more than one hundred yuan a month.

If everything goes well, I can save enough money to buy a house in three or four months. I quickly put the money on the bed and handed it to my wife, reminding her seriously: "Juanzi..."

"You must not let Dad know about your salary at Dongjun Hotel, otherwise Dad will definitely ask us to pay more money home."

Chen Juan nodded immediately: "Don't worry..."

"My sister-in-law and I have already discussed it..."

"From now on, when the hotel pays us wages, we will all tell Dad that we received 31 yuan in salary, and not a penny more."

"To be on the safe side, let's start looking for houses during this period."

"We have already saved about 400 yuan. With this month's salary, it will be no problem for our savings to exceed 500 yuan."

"If I save for another two months, I'll be able to break through 700 yuan, which is enough to buy a bigger house."

"Let's buy the house first. If my father finds out my real salary and wants me to pay more money to the family, we can separate from them."

"By then, apart from the ten yuan pension every month, we won't even have to pay for living expenses, and we can live our own lives."

Yan Jiecheng wants to leave this family more than his wife Chen Juan.

It’s just that Yan Fugui is too stingy.

If he had not started working at the steel mill and had not been able to eat in the mill canteen at noon every day, given Yan Fugui's stingy personality, Yan Jiecheng might not have been able to eat meat for ten days or half a month.

Of course, this is not what makes Yan Jiecheng most discouraged.

After getting married and having children, Yan Jiecheng paid 20 yuan of living expenses to his family every month. He did not eat at home at noon, which meant that the 20 yuan of living expenses only provided three meals for his wife, two sons and daughter.

If my wife Chen Juan cooks alone, it is okay to have meat once every two days, even if we don't have to eat meat every meal.

After the money fell into the hands of father Yan Fugui, they could only eat meat every ten days or half a month, and the meat that each person ate was distributed by Yan Fugui himself, five yuan per person, not one yuan more or less.

A meal of this standard would surely cost less than twenty bucks.

It goes without saying that the remaining money was embezzled by Yan Fugui.

Yan Jiecheng told Yan Fugui about this matter, but Yan Fugui still did as he pleased.

Who made their family of four live under someone else's roof and the house they lived in belonged to Yan Fugui?

In this situation, no matter how excessive Yan Fugui's actions were, the couple could only endure it.

Now that he had a good opportunity to separate from Yan Fugui and live on his own, Yan Jiecheng would certainly not let it go and immediately responded, "Okay..."

"I'll look for houses when I get a chance..."

"Let's buy a house as soon as possible, so that if we have a falling out with our parents one day, we won't be without a way out."

At this point, Yan Jiecheng seemed to have thought of something, and his brows suddenly frowned: "If we separate from our parents and both of us go to work, what will happen to our son and daughter?"

"You can't just let them stay at home by themselves, right?"

"That's not a problem..." Chen Juan smiled and answered confidently.

"Our boss, my neighbor Wang Dong, took into consideration that many of the front desk waiters had children who had no one to take care of them, so he set up a daycare center on the fifth floor of the hotel to look after the children. He also arranged two daycare teachers to take care of them, and the hotel also provided them with lunch and dinner. Each child only needs to pay eight yuan a month."

"Three dollars is for food, and five dollars is for custody." (End of this chapter)