Courtyard House: Drunk and tipsy, the whole courtyard exposed at the start.

Zhang Dabiao ate a whole box of instant noodles, a bag of beef patties, and a dozen eggs for breakfast...

Forget it, if this keeps going, I might as well just open a breakfast shop.

After tidying up, everyone went to the east courtyard to take advantage of the good weather and do some more cleaning.

You Hongjuan helped everyone boil water and make tea. Liu Guangqi brought Guangtian and Guangfu, Yan Jiecheng brought Jiefang and Jiekuang, and also led Yan Jiedi. The young people in the courtyard, Da Tou Hu Zi Liu Gen, Xu Damao, and several girls also came to help.

Zhang Dabiao was generous; anyone who came to help today either had lunch provided or 5 jin of cornmeal per person.

So everyone was happy to help, and even Sha Zhu came over to lend a hand.

You could call him stupid or despicable.

But he's always willing to lend a hand to anyone in the neighborhood who needs help.

Eighteen young people (Yan Jiedi was playing on the side and didn't count as labor) tidied up the 400-square-meter east courtyard in one morning.

The stable is 4 meters deep, 10 meters wide, has a floor area of ​​40 square meters, and a height of 3.2 meters.

This area was the hardest hit, with a jumble of bricks, stones, clods of dirt, and rotten firewood... all of which had been cleared together.

This area probably needs to be disinfected with lime water, and the bottom surface needs to be leveled.

Zhang Dabiao had no intention of demolishing the stable. He planned to repair it and use it for cooking, dining, or as an open-air art studio. The area was spacious and bright, and all he needed to do was repair the broken wooden door and fence.

The stable is on the east side, and there is a 10-meter distance from the wall of the side room to the stable. Zhang Dabiao plans to build a house here, 3.3 meters wide and 4 meters deep, similar to Sha Zhu's main house.

However, he only has 1200 in his pocket right now, which is barely enough to build a house, but if he also needs to repair the stables or if there are any special material requirements for the renovation, this amount of money will be insufficient.

Zhang Dabiao plans to save up some more money in the next few months, and then do it after he finishes the grade skipping project. He doesn't need a place to live right now.

The rest of the land is just empty space, which we plan to level before thinking about planting.

This area was originally a garden used for growing flowers, so the soil quality is still quite good.

As for what to plant—Zhang Dabiao suddenly thought of the potatoes in his "little nest".

Those were high-yield potatoes from later generations, which shouldn't normally be able to be brought out, but Zhang Dabiao was able to bring them out during his experiments. The same goes for Sunshine Rose potatoes, which aren't from this era, yet they were able to be brought out as well.

This conflicts with the rules for the entry and exit of supplies in the "small nest".

So Zhang Dabiao wanted to test whether there were any loopholes.

What if, what if these potatoes can survive... then we'd really be rich!

We'll see later whether we should plant some chives, or mint, cherry tomatoes, or something like that...

We'll talk about it later.

At noon, Zhang Dabiao prepared a lot of flour and cornmeal, combined them, and made steamed buns and cornbread.

There were too many people to cook, but there was plenty of steamed buns, chili sauce, and pickled vegetables.

Don't complain, this is a delicacy that many people can't afford these days, at least none of the young people in the courtyard house complain about it.

The girls all went to make cornbread, and you know what, it felt a bit like the commune's youth shock brigade.

I'll tidy it up a bit more this afternoon, and I reckon it'll be almost done. Zhang Dabiao can clean up the nooks and crannies himself.

Director Wang came by again in the middle of the day. It was about a small matter at the neighbor's house in the backyard. Seeing Zhang Dabiao and the other young people busy in the courtyard, their enthusiastic manner infected her: "Dabiao, now that's more like it."

"It's better for everyone to work together than for you to mess around all day."

Zhang Dabiao rolled his eyes, as if I liked to cause trouble. Wasn't it always others who provoked me?

"Director Wang, what brings you here?"

"The Fang family in the backyard received a document, so I brought it over on my way."

"Stay here and have something to eat together tonight."

"Then no thanks. I told you not to be so extravagant; it's better to be low-key these days. There are so many people out there..."

As he spoke, Director Wang frowned, shook his head, and let out a long sigh.

"Eh..."

Zhang Dabiao stopped what he was doing: "The situation outside... in the countryside, is it bad?"

Director Wang nodded without saying anything.

Zhang Dabiao scratched his head. This matter was nationwide, and it was none of his business as a young upstart. Worrying about it wouldn't do any good anyway.

However, Zhang Dabiao pointed to the open space and said, "Director Wang, I've finished clearing this area. Even if I were to build a house, I wouldn't need such a large area."

"Can I grow some land, raise some chickens and ducks, and raise some fish or something?"

This was originally a whole garden, but somehow it was divided into three parts. The back part was converted into shops by the government, and the front part was transformed into a large tenement.

In the middle, there's a 400-square-meter area with a stable and a small pond; it should have been a garden for planting flowers.

I'm not sure about the soil quality, but if it's suitable for growing flowers, it should be suitable for growing crops, and it should also be able to support fish in the small pond.

Director Wang frowned and thought for a moment: "There are documents from above that encourage people to use vacant land to grow vegetables. Teacher Yan in your front yard has always been growing scallions and such in flower pots, but the competition between grain and vegetables for land is prominent, and large-scale grain planting is not allowed by the authorities."

"However, this is only half an acre of land, and it's a private yard. I'll submit a report to the district office tomorrow to inquire about it."

"After 59, privately raising poultry was prohibited, but some people still did it at home. If someone else raised a few large animals, people would just ignore it, but if you did, someone would definitely report you. So, forget about raising chickens and ducks. If the policy is relaxed in the future, I will let you know."

"Fish farming? There's no policy that says it's forbidden, but there's no policy that says it's allowed either. You can decide for yourself. Even if a new policy comes down, you can just catch all the fish, kill them, and salt them. It'll only take half a day or a day. But fish are not easy to raise, so you should keep that in mind."

Zhang Dabiao's eyes lit up as he listened—[Wow, Director Wang has learned to exploit loopholes too?]

"But do you know how to farm?"

Zhang Dabiao shook his head and admitted, "I don't know how, but it's taught in the labor and life skills class. I'll learn to plant it. Anyway, I'm idle, so I might as well harvest something. Who knows how long this famine will last?"

That's true. It won't recover until at least 62. Even if you only grow two or three hundred catties of coarse grains a year, that's still grain, isn't it?

"Besides, there's Qin Jingru, she knows how to do it."

Director Wang glanced at Qin Jingru, who was still boiling water and pouring tea for everyone at the stable, bustling about like a little bee.

"You really treat her like a servant?"

That would be a fundamental mistake!