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

The following day, February 25th, the 2th day of the first lunar month, was a Thursday.

Early in the morning, Yan Jiecheng ate two steamed buns at home and then prepared to go to Zhang Dabiao's place to report for duty.

The train station operates on a one-day-on, one-day-off schedule, and sometimes there's no guarantee of work even if you go. So, besides his work at the station, Zhang Dabiao's job is a side job, and he gets a meal and cornmeal. Yan Jiecheng's enthusiasm was immediately boosted; at least he could eat his fill, and he had something to look forward to.

"Jiecheng, are you really going to go farm with Zhang Dabiao?"

As he was leaving, Yan Bugui, who had just returned from sweeping the floor, called out to him.

"Otherwise what? If I don't farm, what will I eat? Why don't you buy me a workstation?"

Yan Jiecheng was a little annoyed by Yan Bugui's questions. Asking them wouldn't solve anything, so what was the point of asking them all the time?

"Workstations are so expensive, and you know our situation. Let's wait a bit longer."

"What else is there to say? Am I just going to stay home and lie around instead of going to farm? There's no work at the station today."

Yan Bugui said with difficulty, "But it doesn't sound good for a high school student like you to work the land for half-grown boys."

Before even leaving the house, Yan Jiefang muttered under his breath, "You, a teacher, aren't you farming now?"

Yan Bugui flew into a rage: "You brat, what did you say?"

Yan Jiefang immediately grabbed Yan Jiekuang and rushed out the door, running quickly towards the outside of the yard: "We're going to school!"

He didn't want to get entangled with Yan Bugui over this issue—[It doesn't sound good to others, so if you're so capable, why didn't you make things difficult for Zhang Dabiao in the first place?]

Yan Jiecheng was speechless: "Dad, what exactly are you trying to say?"

"I mean, you're still a high school student, so what? Doesn't Zhang Dabiao have to give you some money?"

"Five yuan a month isn't a small amount, and ten yuan isn't much either, is it?"

Yan Bugui instinctively started to calculate. Zhang Dabiao had taken such a large labor force for free, and the Yan family didn't get a share of the harvest from the land. Why should they?

What a loss!

Yan Jiecheng took a deep breath and said expressionlessly to Yan Bugui, "Dad, I don't care if you scheme against others, including our own family."

"But you can't scheme against Da Biao."

"Giving me money would be like hiring someone to farm. Even if Zhang Dabiao offered me money, I wouldn't take it." Yan Jiecheng would never ask for money. He knew that many people in the courtyard were watching Zhang Dabiao, and he absolutely couldn't open that door, otherwise he would be harming Zhang Dabiao.

"I'm not helping him because of how much money his son, I am, am worth, but because of how much cornbread Zhang Dabiao is willing to give. He treats me as a friend, so I'll take whatever he's willing to give."

"Even if he refuses, I'm still willing to help."

"Anyway, according to the agreement, I give my family 5 yuan a month, and my family provides me with two meals a day."

"There's still over 100 yuan left in that ledger. Once it's paid off, I won't owe the family anything except for your retirement money."

"Don't worry about anything else."

Yan Jie slammed the door shut and walked out, leaving Yan Bugui at home stomping his feet in anger.

"You idiot, do you even realize you've lost out?!"

"If we hadn't schemed, would our family have survived until now?"

"Eating and dressing won't make you poor; it's not how you manage your money that will make you poor! I've told you this for so many years, why don't you accept it now?"

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Yan Jiecheng arrived at Zhang Dabiao's yard, took off his coat, spat twice, picked up a hoe, and started turning over the soil.

Zhang Dabiao still needs to study and doesn't have much time for this.

Planting on this 300-square-meter plot of land is not as simple as it seems. It takes a lot of time to loosen the soil, turn it over, weed, fertilize, and water it.

Zhang Dabiao brought over a bowl containing a large cornbread bun, a boiled egg, and a small portion of pickled vegetables.

"Hey, eat before you get back to work."

"Da Biao, I ate breakfast before coming here."

"Come on, everyone knows how stingy your dad is, stop talking nonsense."

"Even an emperor wouldn't starve his soldiers. They can eat their fill before they start working. I'm entrusting this area to you."

"I still need to study. I have to take the grade skipping exam in two months, so I don't have much time. Jingru is young, and she also has to do laundry, cook, and clean. But if you don't understand anything about farming, you can ask her. You'll mainly have to rely on her."

Zhang Dabiao shoved the bowl into his arms. When dealing with grown men, giving orders is more direct than empathizing with them.

As long as he feels useful and that he deserves the reward, everything is negotiable.

This young man doesn't need sympathy, he needs respect.

Yan Jiecheng laughed: "Then I won't stand on ceremony!"

They finished eating in no time, and then hurriedly picked up their hoes and started turning the soil.

Zhang Dabiao went to the street office and found Master Lei and his team. He paid them some money to renovate the stable. At the very least, the roof had to be repaired and reinforced, the walls had to be leveled, waterproofed, the ground leveled, and the gate repaired. This place would then be used as a workshop, and electricity had to be connected.

The walls of a stable cannot be completely sealed off; if they are sealed off and a door is added, it becomes a room.

If this affects his eligibility to build a new house, then it will be troublesome.

As existing buildings and not residential, the stables are fine to leave there. However, even if it's your own yard, you still need to register with the local street office if you want to build a house. You can't just build a four- or five-story villa out of thin air just because you have land. Everything is subject to standards and planning.

According to Director Wang, you can build a maximum of three main rooms here, like the one in Shazhu's house. The length, width, and height cannot exceed those of the main rooms, and the style must be consistent with that of a traditional courtyard house.

The side room is too small and poorly lit. If you combine the two rooms, you can use it as a kitchen or storage room without exceeding the limit. In this way, Zhang Dabiao will have 4 rooms: 3 living rooms and 1 kitchen, which is already the limit for a household.

If you build more houses, according to regulations you have to entrust the street office to rent them out on your behalf, otherwise it won't be worthwhile for you to build the houses.

There are a lot of workers who don't have houses to live in right now. If you set up five, six, seven or eight rooms for one person, you can't live in that many rooms. Isn't that a waste of resources?

Therefore, Zhang Dabiao has no plans to build that many houses for the time being.

The stable renovation was quick, taking only a day; Master Lei and his team were very efficient.

Including materials such as bricks, tiles, cement, paint, wood, wiring, etc., plus labor costs, the total is only 20 yuan.

The stable was originally supposed to be located in the corner of the garden near the front yard. I don't know how the original owner of this courtyard house renovated it to make it look like this.

However, it didn't matter to Zhang Dabiao or Master Lei, especially Master Lei. He had repaired and renovated all kinds of traditional courtyard houses in Beijing, and he had also done jobs that completely changed their appearance. He just did whatever the owner asked.

Because Zhang Dabiao provided lunch: cornbread and noodles, a soup base made with a small portion of hot pot broth, and a lot of pickled cabbage.

So the workers led by Master Lei were very happy. Although there was no meat, the food was oily and flavorful, and they were full.

So in the afternoon, Master Lei suggested to Zhang Dabiao that the stable be renovated and "upgraded" a bit. The original semi-open stable was to have two brick walls added to both sides.

The middle section was originally a wooden fence, but it could be replaced with a door like the traditional shop doors with wooden panels.

Normally, if you remove the door panels, it's an open stable. If you put the doors back on, you can live in it, but the lighting will be very poor.

Small windows were added to several walls for lighting and ventilation. They were a bit small compared to normal housing, but they were sufficient.

Zhang Dabiao's eyes lit up—this is a good idea!

If they install a roller shutter door in the 80s or 90s—won't that just be a small warehouse-style factory?

A 40-square-meter apartment with a 3.2-meter high ceiling can be converted into a two-bedroom, one-living-room home!

So they added another 100 yuan—

Go ahead and modify it as much as you like!