Courtyard houses: Those who are capable are rewarded, and many children bring many blessings.

"Third Sister, you're not angry, are you?" Qin Xueru asked cautiously.

"Why would I be angry! I've been eating and drinking at your house all day long, and people are already gossiping. If I ask Dazhuang to buy me some clothes, my wife might get suspicious. I'll have Dazhuang call his three brothers over later, and I'll take their measurements."

At this moment, Qin Ningru grabbed Huairu's hand and said in a coquettish tone, "Third sister, I also want to learn how to cut clothes, can you teach me?"

"I'm only a novice myself. If you want to learn, I'll teach you. Did your brother-in-law promise to buy you a sewing machine? Things aren't like they used to be. You need an industrial ration coupon to buy a sewing machine now."

"I don't necessarily have to buy it. It can't hurt to learn it first. I'll buy it when I've collected enough industrial vouchers."

"That's the right way to think. Don't let this cause any conflict with Dazhuang." Qin Huairu said in a bossy tone.

The three sisters chatted in the outer room, but their hands were also busy with various tasks.

Niu Dazhuang woke up in the inner room after sleeping for about half an hour, enjoying a rare moment of peace.

Niu Dazhuang didn't rush to get up. Instead, he put his hands behind his head, crossed his legs, and wholeheartedly entered the space. He tidied up the space and took stock of his gains.

The space was still empty; the things brought in from Ma Xingbang's house were all placed in the corners of the space.

The furniture, beds, and silk quilts were all put together. The stove was also piled up, along with several tons of smokeless coal.

There were more than a dozen baskets woven from wicker, filled with cured meat, probably weighing at least seven or eight hundred pounds. There were also two baskets with fresh meat. Niu Dazhuang looked at them and saw that one was beef and mutton, and the other was pork.

There were seven porcelain urns, each about knee-high, filled with grains: one of wheat flour, one of rice, one of millet, and so on.

There's also lard, wow, that's a real treat. And a whole jar of peanut oil. That jar of peanut oil must weigh at least seventy or eighty pounds.

We no longer need to worry about oil.

We ordinary folks pickle white radishes, while they have several large pickling jars, all neatly categorized.

One jar contained pickled garlic, another contained cucumber and green beans, another contained bell peppers, and another contained a mixed vegetable dish. The smallest jar contained pickled white radishes.

Line them all up.

Then there were fourteen bags of wheat flour, five bags of rice, half a bag of cornmeal, half a bag of sweet potato flour, red beans, mung beans, glutinous rice, and a sack of raw peanuts.

Niu Dazhuang looked at the staple food and thought it was at least four or five thousand catties, but it still wasn't enough! He roughly calculated that each person could eat one and a half catties of staple food a day, so for seven adults, it would be about three thousand eight hundred catties a year, and over ten thousand catties in three years.

Although there were quotas during those three years, Niu Dazhuang didn't want to rely on those quotas. Besides, the quotas were all coarse grains, which were hard to swallow!

Niu Dazhuang didn't know much about antiques; he just kept scroll paintings on the bookshelf.

Niu Dazhuang didn't touch Ma Xingbang's wife's jewelry box, leaving it and the dressing table aside.

What interests me most are the tobacco and alcohol. I collected these in a small room below the living room and hallway on the first floor: five cases of Moutai, eight cases of Fenjiu, a few more cases of Erguotou (a type of Chinese liquor) at twelve, and fifteen jars of Shaoxing wine, each jar weighing about ten jin (5 catties).

There were no cigarettes with filters that year, including Huazi cigarettes, and there were also a few cartons of imported cigarettes with foreign letters on them.

That's really extravagant! The Hua Zi cigarettes are all in boxes, there are six packs of Mudan cigarettes, a little over thirteen packs of Da Zhong Jiu cigarettes, and a few packs of Da Qianmen cigarettes.

Niu Dazhuang didn't even glance at the imported liquor in the wine cabinet. There was a phonograph and a radio. These things were definitely not usable now; they would just stay in his space collecting dust.

Looking at the twenty-two large yellow croakers in the wooden box, Niu Dazhuang was still dissatisfied. "Too cunning! There must be some places I missed. How come there's only so little yellow stuff!"

Counting the banknotes again, there were over 30,000, and the national grain coupons were also quite numerous, over 2,000 jin, with the capital's grain coupons alone amounting to over 5,000 jin, and these were all for fine grains.

There was also a bicycle ticket and more than thirty industrial tickets.

Niu Dazhuang planned to use all his grain coupons to buy cheap grain and store it in his space. As for bicycle coupons, they couldn't be used yet. He had only been working for a short time, and buying bicycles for the two sisters would obviously be inconsistent with his income.

This isn't food; you can eat better, and it's not that conspicuous. A bicycle, on the other hand, is a big-ticket item; you can't just buy it with money.

This life is much more comfortable than being transported together; this is the life of the elite.

After tidying up the space and taking inventory, he sat cross-legged on the kang (heated brick bed) and pulled over the kang table: "Xueru, make a pot of hot water. I also made some jasmine tea; come in and have a taste!"

Although she was calling Xue Ru, Ning Ru knew it was her job, so she got up before Xue Ru could move.

Ningru opened the stove's damper, filled a copper kettle with water, and the three sisters went into the inner room.

"You're living the high life, even better than the old landlords. I haven't seen you for days. What have you been up to?" Qin Huairu said, sitting on the edge of the kang with one leg to the side, and placing the half-torn cotton trousers on the kang.

"With so many mouths to feed in this family, I have to take care of all their food and drink!"

"Come on, Big Bear and his gang aren't just sitting around doing nothing. And your grandpa is even less of a threat; their monthly salary isn't much higher than ours! It's just us three sisters."

"Yes, six mouths!"

Before she could finish speaking, Qin Huairu's hand was already there: "Get lost! Xue Ru and I haven't given you any trouble lately!"

"Third sister, haven't you realized yet? She's not happy with us two sisters." Qin Xueru sided with Qin Huairu without even thinking.

"You have to put up with it even if you're not satisfied. If you just bloom but don't bear fruit, what will outsiders say about us sisters? How's your house purchase going?"

"Ah! Then I've found the right one."

"Dazhuang, I think you have money but don't know how to spend it. These days, everyone gets their own rooms, right?"

Why do you have to buy a house? If the house is close by, that's fine, but if you buy a house in the south of the city, are you going to abandon your grandpa?

Qin Huairu was conflicted. At first, she agreed to buy a house for the sake of her sister's reputation, but when Dazhuang actually wanted to buy a house, which was so far away, Qin Huairu agreed again.

"My uncle will definitely take care of it, we'll deal with it slowly. Forget about renting a place, I'll just stay here."

As they were talking, the water outside boiled, and Qin Ningru first took four wine bowls and placed them on the kang table.

"Brother-in-law, how much should we put in?"

"Just a small handful will do."

Nowadays, there aren't so many rules about drinking tea; people just take the kettle and pour it into the small wine bowl.

"I can smell the aroma even before I've tasted it! Where did you get it from?" Qin Xueru asked.

"It's only fair to reciprocate; drinking tea like this is such a waste. I'll find a teapot to collect when I have time!"

"You should be grateful for such fragrant tea, so don't bother. In a bit, go to the backyard and bring over all the old men's cotton-padded clothes they've changed out of. I'll take them apart and wash them!"

"Hehe, this wife was definitely worth marrying!"