Courtyard House: My Wife is Xu Huizhen

The people involved were all business owners or shopkeepers in the vicinity. They noticed workers coming and going these past few days and knew the house had been taken.

Today, a door opened and they started selling cigarettes and alcohol, so a few of us came over together to see who our new neighbors were.

Seeing that He Yuzhu was relatively kind and smelled strongly of scallions, the group asked him about his background.

They were all quite surprised when they learned that He Yuzhu was also a chef in the kitchen of Taifenglou.

Taifenglou is one of the eight famous restaurants in China. If a chef from the kitchen of Taifenglou is selling braised dishes for breakfast, the taste should at least be pretty good.

After chatting for a while, the group got up to say goodbye, thus concluding their initial contact.

By evening, the master's wife, along with her own daughter and goddaughter He Yushui, came to help.

With more people, the work gets done faster, and everything was quickly tidied up, ready for trial operation.

He Yuzhu then realized that he hadn't posted the job advertisement yet.

The master's wife said, "Isn't this simple? I'll find you a few hardworking aunties. Find two first, and then gradually add more as business improves."

"Alright, thank you, Master's wife."

"If you keep being so polite, you'll start hitting people," the teacher's wife said, glaring at him.

He Yuzhu could only smile sheepishly.

Xu Huizhen said, "Someone just came over to get some wine and asked if we had any snacks to go with it. Why don't you prepare some? Maybe someone will come over tonight?"

He Yuzhu thought for a moment and said, "Okay, then I'll go buy vegetables and meat."

Half an hour is usually enough to marinate meat until it's flavorful. Of course, if you want it to taste really good, you'll need to cook it for a little longer. Right now, I have all the ingredients, so I just need to buy them and cook it fresh. It will be ready by evening.

"Then hurry back, I'll make preparations first."

After Xu Huizhen finished speaking, she went to pack her things. She had been working with He Yuzhu for a while and had already gotten the hang of these things.

He Yuzhu rode his bicycle to the meat stall and circled around. Since it was already this late, there wasn't much good meat left, so he just asked for some bones.

In the past few days, He Yuzhu had bought a lot of meat and vegetables in advance, which were stored in his space. He didn't buy them directly from the stalls, but took them out and put them in his pockets on the way back.

I started packing as soon as I got back.

The most common braised dishes eaten by people in Beijing are pig's head meat, beef, mutton, dog meat, donkey meat, horse meat, etc., and of course, various offal.

Less common meats include venison and camel meat.

He Yuzhu only took out a portion, and then the group cleaned it up together and put it in a pot to braise.

As soon as it got dark, the cold dishes and braised dishes were all prepared. He Yuzhu moved a table outside the door, then made four cold dishes and two hot dishes, and started eating and drinking outside.

A moment later, someone asked curiously, "When did this little tavern appear here?"

Then he walked in, saw that the environment was relatively clean, and nodded in satisfaction: "Boss, give me two ounces of sorghum liquor and a peanut."

"Okay."

There was a special two-ounce small bottle for liquor. Xu Huizhen poured the liquor for them and then brought them a plate of cold dishes.

The guest said, "Can I move a table outside to eat? It's too hot inside."

"Sure, but I can't let you move it."

As she spoke, Xu Huizhen beckoned He Yuzhu to come over and move the table out.

Yandaixie Street is a commercial street, more than 10 meters wide, where many neighbors come to cool off in the evenings.

Two tables of customers were drinking outside the tavern. The rich aroma of sorghum liquor combined with the strong smell of braised meat whetted the appetites of many, and several bottles of liquor were sold in no time.

People in Beijing have a habit of going to taverns in the evening to drink and chat, especially when three or five friends get together, drinking and talking about the topics that matter most right now.

They talk about everything from national policies to trivial matters between neighbors.

When Xiangcao saw people coming up, she got up and got busy. In the blink of an eye, all five newly made tables were full of people.

The master's wife smiled and said, "It seems you made the right decision to open a tavern here."

He Yuzhu said with some emotion, "I never expected that setting up a stall would bring such good business."

Fortunately, it's summer now, and it gets hot inside at night, so people come out to cool off. After all, not many people are willing to buy ice every day to cool down.

I'm just here today to do some preliminary work. I was hoping to find someone to help me get the breakfast business started in the next couple of days, but I didn't expect the tavern to start doing business first.

When Master Hong Henian brought Ye Xiangqun over, he was quite surprised to see that the room was full of people.

"You're open for business already?"

He Yuzhu said, "I didn't expect it either, I only started drinking today."

Hong Henian laughed and said, "It seems that this move was the right one. There are no small taverns on Yandaixie Street yet. This is a unique business for you."

I was a little worried about He Yuzhu before, but judging from his appearance today, he should be fine.

He Yuzhu brought over half a jin of liquor and a few side dishes. Hong Henian opened the lunchbox he had brought, and the group began to eat their late-night snack.

He picked up the glass, smelled it, took a sip, and said, "Did you bring me this undiluted wine especially for me?"

“Master, I’ve decided not to dilute any of these. That way, we can do business in the long run.” This was something I had agreed upon with Xu Huizhen beforehand.

Hong Henian nodded and said "Okay".

Today is the first day of operation, and there are some shortcomings. The braised dishes were stewed for a relatively short time, so they were not chewy enough.

There weren't enough kerosene lamps with glass shades, so it was quite dark when eating outside. There weren't enough wooden tables either, so later arrivals had to eat and drink on the curb by the roadside.

He Yuzhu also noticed other shortcomings and planned to make improvements tomorrow.

They were busy until after 11 o'clock, when the crowd gradually dispersed, and the group of people were all smiling after tidying up.

After seeing her master and mistress off, Xu Huizhen said happily, "Brother Zhu, we made more than seven yuan today."

"So many? How much can you earn?"

"It's less than three yuan, I didn't calculate it carefully." The main reason was that Xu Huizhen didn't know the cost of the braised food, she only gave an approximate estimate.

"It's already very good. In the long run, these neighbors will become regular customers."

"Yes, they all do business with the neighborhood."

After washing up, the three of them lay down to sleep in the courtyard, each on a single soft bed.

This type of bed is no longer seen in later generations. The frame and legs are made of wood, but the middle part is not a wooden board, but a net woven from thick hemp rope.

Laying down a straw mat and lying on it, swaying gently, is quite comfortable.

The three sat side by side, gazing at the stars in the sky, chatting softly about their beautiful aspirations for the future.

Before they knew it, the three of them drifted off to sleep.

The next morning, He Yuzhu got up early and started getting busy, first buying some meat and vegetables.

He Yuzhu bought a lot of each type of meat, put them into cloth bags, and secretly stored some of them in his spatial dimension when no one was looking.

Now that He Yuzhu has his own braised meat stall, no one knows how much meat he can sell. No matter how much He Yuzhu buys, people will only think that his business is good.

When they returned, both pockets were filled with raw meat.

Meat is cheap now; pork is 34 cents a pound, and mutton is only 27 cents a pound, about the same price as beef.

This is all good quality meat; if you buy offal or other cuts, the price will be halved.

The price was cheap in the market, but back in 1950, a pound of pork only cost 22 cents.

Eggs, on the other hand, are the most expensive, costing as much as 78 cents per kilogram.

A 50-kilogram bag of Bayi wheat flour costs 16.6 yuan, and that's where things get interesting.

Two years ago, major floods occurred in all major river basins across the country, leading to reduced grain production. In order to reduce waste and increase food rations, higher-level leaders changed the standards for grain processing in March of that year.

The higher authorities stipulated that all public grain stores were allowed to sell only coarse rice and coarse flour, such as 92-meter rice and 80-meter noodles.

The so-called "August 1st Flour" refers to the fact that 100 jin of wheat is milled to produce 81 jin of flour.

The same principle applies to 92 meters; compared to refined rice and flour,

The 8-sided and 9-sided grains retain more of the aleurone layer and germ.

In addition to improving nutritional value, it can also prevent beriberi.

Moreover, if everyone ate 80% rice and 90% rice, the country could have an extra 12.8 billion jin of grain per year, enough to feed more than 2 million people.

The same goes for rice and noodles. After buying meat and vegetables, He Yuzhu made two more trips, buying five bags of each item. However, when he returned to the tavern, he only had one bag of each item.

Xu Huizhen reminded him, "Brother Zhu, don't do anything else today, go to the Military Control Commission and get the rental contract sorted out first. We can't mess this up."

After last night's trial operation, the two are confident that they can run the store well.

The most important thing right now is to finalize the rental agreement.

"Okay, I'll go right away."

He Yuzhu didn't delay and went to the Military Control Commission as soon as it was time for work.

First, find Tian Zao and say, "Sister, I'll rent that house for five years."

"Great, you've decided so quickly?"

"Yes, I tried running it for one night last night and it went quite well, so I'm thinking of renting it for five years first."

In 1955, the public-private partnership began and ended in 1956. The entire process was completed, and He Yuzhu proposed that a five-year lease would be sufficient.