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

Master Lei had no other requests, just that meals be provided, the same as today's lunch.

In addition, besides the portion of wages that has to be handed over to the subdistrict office, can the rest of the wages be exchanged for grain?

Zhang Dabiao agreed, but the family was really short of coarse grains; they were all made of refined rice and flour, and they could also "get" pork and chicken, which they could switch to however they wanted.

So both sides were very satisfied, but the maid Qin Jingru had to work hard again and get busy.

Zhang Dabiao didn't mention the toilet at all. The sewer pipes were a huge project, located dozens of meters from the municipal sewer system. He could pay extra to take over, but the work was massive. However, there was a practical problem—

If your pipe gets blocked or bursts, who the hell are you going to call to fix it?

Unless there's a collective plan to lay the pipeline, there's no point in even discussing it.

In just two days, Zhang Dabiao's workshop was completed. Chairs and benches were moved in, and he could read near the entrance where the sunlight was at the perfect angle, making the area very bright.

Zhang Dabiao was quite satisfied with it. From the outside, it was just a semi-enclosed stable, and the small windows on the wall didn't look like a place where people lived.

Moreover, the gate is only 3 meters wide and has only a wooden fence that is half a person high—whose 40-square-meter house has a gate that is only 3 meters wide?

Isn't that a sign of illness?

This stable doesn't even have a door, so it can't be considered functional housing.

Because Zhang Dabiao had put those door panels aside and put them away, since they weren't needed on ordinary days.

From a modern perspective, this is definitely a stable, uninhabitable.

But Zhang Dabiao could use this place to store miscellaneous items, as a study, or even as a temporary guest room, though inserting the door panel would be a bit of a hassle.

But, to his utter surprise, less than two days into his studies, this place had become the domain of Xu Damao and Liu Guangqi—

It's a card and chess room!?

As soon as dinner was over, the guys would gather here, smoking, eating sunflower seeds, drinking tea, playing cards, and sticking stickers on paper...

Because there was nowhere else in the yard for them to gather and play!

Zhang Dabiao was trembling with anger and cold!

I still have so much to learn!

I want to skip a grade!

------------

Ever since Zhang Dabiao started setting up his small courtyard, Mu Wanqing has been coming over to help whenever she has time.

She doesn't know how to farm, and she's not as good at cooking as He Yushui and Qin Jingru, but she can still manage to do some tidying up and planting some flowers and plants.

In the past, when young people wanted to get together and have fun, there wasn't much space available, as everyone's home was only so big.

You said you wanted to talk about something in the covered walkway of the Intermediate People's Court. It's fine if there are two people, but if there are three, the noise level will get a bit high.

Not to mention five or six people, that's simply impossible. In the backyard, the old deaf woman chased them away, saying they were disturbing her rest. In the middle courtyard, when they started making a little noise and were a bit happier, the old hag Jia would gossip and criticize.

But once Zhang Dabiao's little courtyard was set up, everyone had a place to go, though it was only for a few people who got along well with Zhang Dabiao.

Xu Damao and Liu Guangqi would occasionally come over for a meal, and they would bring their own dry food, alcohol, and meat.

He Yushui would spend her free time studying recipes with Qin Jingru.

Mu Wanqing, on the other hand, was planting flowers and plants, because Zhang Dabiao needed to plant some mint, which would be useful for making desserts and drinks in the future, as well as plants that could repel mosquitoes.

This open space is so big, what will happen when there are a lot of mosquitoes in the summer?

He happened to smell a minty and floral scent on Mu Wanqing, so he asked her about it.

Then Mu Wanqing went to the temple fair and the pigeon market to get him some seedlings and rhizomes of mint, mugwort, and patchouli, and came directly to help him with the cuttings.

The group simply built a flower bed around the stable and the yard with bricks, and planted mint, mugwort, patchouli, as well as some scallions, ginger, garlic, and chili peppers.

Zhang Dabiao's "little nest" produced high-yield potatoes, but the breeding failed!

Whether it's kept in a small nest or taken outside to be cut into pieces for breeding, it won't sprout.

Zhang Dabiao pondered for a long time before he finally understood: it was possible to bring them out, but in this era there were no sun-dried grapes or high-yield potatoes, which only proved one thing.

The rules state that there are grapes and potatoes of this size in this era. No matter how they change, they are still grapes and potatoes, not the synthetic ingredients in medicine. Those ingredients have not been invented yet, so they cannot be brought out.

And it is still possible to find wild grapes and potatoes all over the world.

But the potatoes and onions in the "little nest" never sprouted and just rotted naturally like the vegetables outside, which Zhang Dabiao couldn't understand.

Could it be that because they are resources in a "small nest" that automatically refresh at 24:00, their lifespan is only 24 hours? Is their natural reproduction ability being taken away?

Zhang Dabiao curled his lip. Could this be considered a vulnerability being patched?

It didn't matter, though. I bought some potato seedlings from the street. After cutting them into pieces, the sprouting effect was pretty good. I plan to plant them once the seedlings are all ready.

And then there are sweet potatoes. They produce a lot of fruit, and you can even eat the leaves. We need to get some sweet potato vines for cuttings.

Zhang Dabiao also specifically asked Qin Jingru about her family's private plot of land, which had been taken back to the collective after 58 due to the "1 leveling and 2 relocation" policy, and they were no longer allowed to grow anything on their own.

People used to grow them secretly in the city, but now that there's a call for "vegetable substitutes," they've loosened the restrictions a bit, and Zhang Dabiao has caught up with the times.

Therefore, Qin Jingru has experience in what to plant in her private plot.

Intercropping corn with sweet potatoes, or intercropping corn with green beans, allows the tall corn stalks to grow while the short sweet potatoes or green beans are also growing.

Potatoes, sweet potatoes, corn, pumpkin, green beans, spinach, bok choy...

What else is there to say? Let's plant them!

Zhang Dabiao doesn't understand farming, but he respects the opinions of farmers. He'll harvest whatever he can, since he's idle anyway.

He was thinking about just one thing: what if he was having hot pot in the yard sometime in the future, but there were no vegetables?

Just grab a handful from the corner, wash it, and you can eat it right away—how satisfying!

------------

That day, everyone was busy in the fields when someone called from outside the courtyard—

"Da Biao, someone's looking for you!"

Zhang Dabiao put down his hoe and walked over. He saw four farmers standing in the covered walkway outside the small courtyard fence, their faces gloomy.

"Da Biao, they say they're your great-uncle, your second uncle, and your cousins. Do you...do you know them?"

It was Yang Ruihua, the former third aunt, who led the person in. She also looked on with surprise, as if she had never heard of it before.

If Yan Bugui were home, he would question them repeatedly; Yan Bugui is a professional doorman—unless he encounters someone he can't stop.

But Yang Ruihua, that timid woman, heard that the other party was from Zhangjiatun, Zhangzhen, Shunyi, and was a relative of Zhang Bansian, so she brought him in...

"What? My great-uncle? My second uncle? My cousin?"

"Never seen it before?"

Zhang Dabiao didn't open the gate. He genuinely had never seen them before. Zhang Banxian had never taken him back to his hometown, and no one from his hometown had ever visited Zhang Banxian in Beijing during festivals. Therefore, the original owner had no impression of these people.

"Are you Zhang Dabiao? Zhang Qianshan's son?" asked the oldest farmer among them.

"yes."

"Then I am indeed your great-uncle. Your elder has arrived, and you're not even opening the door to greet him? Didn't Zhang Qianshan teach you manners?"

Zhang Dabiao got angry. "Are you saying I have no manners? And you're even belittling my dad?"

Then he lost his temper.

"Who the hell are you? You think you can just open the door whenever you want?"

"Aunt Yang, go and call Director Wang, and have the neighborhood committee come over to verify their identities."

"Let's figure out their identities first!"