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

The captain briefly explained to him that they didn't have many rules, and he had only studied with a wandering martial arts master for half a year. He just needed to "not bully the weak" and "love the collective and obey production."

It feels weird...

And you must be especially careful not to strike recklessly, because if you accidentally kill someone with a slap, even your master can't save you.

The battalion commander used this tactic to intimidate others after liberation.

There's no rule against him learning from other masters. Once Zhang Dabiao has mastered the "Hongmen Iron Wire Palm" to a certain extent, we'll introduce him to a few other masters.

The captain was mainly worried that Zhang Dabiao would try to learn too much but not master it. Moreover, with so many resources divided among the mentors, not only would he get less, but Zhang Dabiao would also be under a lot of pressure.

That evening, a feast was held at the home of the brigade leader and clan chief, Qin Dingsong. The brigade leader also invited several of his apprentices from the clan, as well as several clan elders to witness the event, including an old hunter. There were only five apprentices, including Qin Dashan and Qin Dahe, and several other uncles of Qin Jingru.

So—Zhang Dabiao's seniority in Qinjiatun is quite good; he's of the same generation as Qin Dashan and Qin Dahe.

Is Zhang Dabiao the junior apprentice?

Qin Jingru and Qin Huairu should address him as their senior uncle?

Isn't this getting a bit chaotic?

But it doesn't matter anyway. It's not some family-inherited skill, so there's no need to be so serious about it.

The ingredients prepared by Zhang Dabiao, along with the cooking skills that Qin Jingru had recently learned from Yushui and Shazhu, made the meal quite delicious. Everyone ate with gusto.

The only one who was unhappy was the old hunter—"Da Biao, if you want to learn kung fu, you can come to me!"

"It's not fair to just let this old geezer get away with this. I can teach you how to use a gun! I'm a crack shot!"

Zhang Dabiao used to send all the good stuff to him in exchange for game, like wolf skins and tiger bones.

Now that Zhang Dabiao has a master, he naturally has to go to his master for the best things.

Zhang Dabiao was a little embarrassed. How should he answer this?

"Old Leather (the hunter's nickname), you're teaching people how to handle guns? What's the point of practicing?"

"He still has to go back to the city to go to school, and he can't bring a hunting rifle with him when he goes to school."

"You should be willing to learn from your hunting and trapping techniques when the winter vacation comes around during the Lunar New Year."

At this point, the old hunter fell silent. That was his family's traditional skill. If he taught it to Zhang Dabiao, Zhang Dabiao would turn around and steal his livelihood. How would his family survive?

However, considering that this kid will most likely stay in the city as a purchasing agent in the future, I can teach him a few tricks. But, just like Qin Dingsong said, we have to wait until the end of the year when school is out for the holidays.

After the meal, the old hunter went with Zhang Dabiao to the brigade headquarters, picked out some items, and then took him to his home to exchange them.

There haven't been many hunted recently, but the old hunters still have quite a lot of stock at home.

Zhang Dabiao traded some wolf skins, tiger bones, and dried game for a wild ginseng root. The old hunter said it was a wild ginseng root that was over ten years old. He didn't know much about it; the chances of getting such a thing were extremely slim, and it had to be handed over to the commune anyway, so he simply ate it himself. This was the remaining root.

So they symbolically accepted 100 yuan from Zhang Dabiao. The high-quality rice that Zhang Dabiao brought was a lifesaver for their family's urgent needs. His son genuinely couldn't digest coarse grains, not because he was delicate, but because his health had been damaged a few years ago, and his digestive system wasn't able to absorb nutrients well, so he desperately needed refined grains.

Moreover, Zhang Dabiao also brought white sugar and milk candy. In those days, white sugar could be considered a strategic resource!

So the wild ginseng was essentially sold to Zhang Dabiao and given away for free. He also told Zhang Dabiao that he must come to the village during his winter vacation, and that he would take Zhang Dabiao hunting in the Yanshan Mountains.

Zhang Dabiao didn't know how old this stuff was, but it was better than the artificially cultivated red ginseng slices and American ginseng in his "little nest," right?

Let's keep it for now and see what happens.

That night, Zhang Dabiao stayed at the brigade headquarters, while Qin Jingru went home. The next morning, she went back to trading and buying things from the villagers.

These past few days, Zhang Dabiao has been staying in the village, practicing the basics of "Hongmen Iron Wire Palm" while receiving guidance from his master, Qin Dingsong. Qin Jingru also needs to stay home for a few days because of the supplies she brought back, and her family is quickly settling her older brother's marriage.

Zhang Dabiao didn't hide anything and told his mentor about the vertical planting project. He explained that in recent years, private plots of land have been banned, and the policy changes frequently.

But if we plant them in flowerpots and build trellises in each person's yard, without touching the ground, then there is no issue of occupying arable land.

It's hard to say what else to plant, but planting leafy greens, the fast-growing kind, should be no problem. They've already promoted this in Nanluoguxiang. As for the results, naturally it's not as good as farmers who know how to grow vegetables, but adding one or two pots of vegetables a month is no problem.

Qin Dingsong hesitated for a moment, then said that he needed to first inform the commune and ask.

Zhang Dabiao even had a wedding banquet in the village, and it wasn't until the fifth day that he returned to Beijing with Qin Jingru.

When he left, he specially asked Qin's mother to bake more than 50 large pancakes for him, because he liked the taste!

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

When I got back, I went to the comprehensive utilization plant to deliver the goods. I didn't earn much on this trip, about 20 yuan. I purchased the agricultural products in the name of the plant—that is, I bought them with money and ration coupons. The plant has a set price, so I didn't dare to set a price arbitrarily.

The factory didn't offer a high price for the goods, so Zhang Dabiao only needed to complete the tasks assigned to temporary workers.

But whatever he traded for rice, flour, sugar, or tea, that became his own; that's the benefit of having a purchasing permit.

Anyway, Zhang Dabiao barely managed to meet the factory's monthly targets, keeping the price difference to around 30 yuan per month. Then he would sell a little of his own supplies to the factory, which was practically a zero-cost business, earning him about 30-50 yuan.

Zhang Dabiao dared not do more than 80 yuan. He still vividly remembered the lesson of the guy who went to the black market to buy a courtyard house and got his head blown off.

Unless the factory has special requirements, Zhang Dabiao wouldn't dare to show off like this. He's a temporary purchasing agent, and everyone knows he has two exclusive purchasing points. Without a basic salary, earning less than 100 yuan a month is already considered quite impressive.

You're just a temporary worker earning two or three hundred, four or five hundred a month—how are the regular purchasing staff supposed to feel about that?

Besides, the processing capacity of the comprehensive utilization plant is only so big, because it is a subordinate plant and has only about 60 employees.

However, the logistics director, Tian Baocheng, and Liu Guangqi made their own purchases, which were done privately.

In addition to the needs of Li Huaide and the food processing cooperative, the occasional visits from members of the mutual aid society to exchange or borrow grain, and the output of the small courtyard—

Zhang Dabiao's net monthly income fluctuates around 200, and his total assets have now reached more than 1200 (600 was spent to help Mu Wanqing buy a job). He plans to build a house in the next year or the year after. These days, if others can't even get enough to eat and you're still building a house, that would make you too hated.

Moreover, the grain, vegetables, meat, and other supplies in his stables totaled nearly 1000 jin, so he had no worries about food and drink.

When they came to deliver the goods today, Tian Baocheng and Liu Guangqi were both sighing.

After taking the money, Zhang Dabiao tossed a cigarette to each of them: "What's up, you two?"

"What's making you all so worried?"

The two of them slumped in the office, looking utterly hopeless. After taking a drag of their cigarettes, they finally told each other what had happened.

It turns out the recycling plant was doing very poorly. Simply put, after deducting the cost of raw materials, their monthly profit was only about 3 to 5000 yuan, but the salaries of their 60-plus employees were government-funded, amounting to 2200 yuan. Daily expenses for food, drink, and other necessities added another 1000 yuan or so…

When business is good, things are okay on the surface; when business is bad...

It is said that the comprehensive utilization plant has accumulated debts of 20,000 to 30,000 yuan in recent years and is only kept afloat by government funding.

There's news from above that they're planning to streamline and merge these factories, meaning all employees will have to go back to the steel rolling mill for reassignment. Some family members of the workers will lose their jobs, and others will be laid off and sent back to their hometowns.

The salary level remains the same, but I'm under someone's control, and it's not as easy as working in this factory.

Most importantly, it would be embarrassing to return to the main factory without achieving any results.