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

"Flour is 6 cents, rice is 6 cents. Can you deliver to my door? I need quite a lot."

"Oh, a big customer! How much do you need, sir? Where would you like it delivered to?"

"300 jin of rice... to be delivered to Agongyan Village."

"Is that all you want?" The boss's face immediately fell.

"Huh? This is still not enough?" Zhang Dabiao was a little puzzled. 300 jin would be at least several large bags, that's not a small amount!

"Do you see that pastry shop on the street? They buy at least 500 catties of flour from our shop every week. You also have to deliver 300 catties of rice to Agongyan Village. The road there is bumpy and difficult to travel on. I have to call a truck. There's really no profit to be made."

Zhang Dabiao was speechless; he was even being told the quantity was too small. Thinking that they were already in Hong Kong, there was no need to be so stingy about buying a little food, he gritted his teeth and made up his mind.

"Boss, here's 500 yuan. I want to buy rice and flour, half of each. My family runs a pastry business, so I only need regular quality, but it has to be guaranteed. If it works well, I'll buy from you every week. Delivery included, is that alright?"

Ah Xiang panicked and quickly grabbed him: "Yao Yang, how can you possibly finish all this food? Be careful it doesn't get damp and spoil if you leave it for too long, then it'll be a waste."

"Don't worry, I'll use it to research how to make new kinds of pastries. It won't go to waste." How could Zhang Dabiao explain to him that he would use the Five Ghosts Moving Technique to take it away that night?

Seeing that Zhang Dabiao was genuinely running a legitimate business, the shopkeeper figured a long-term partnership would mean a stable customer base. His face lit up with a smile, and his attitude became more than twice as warm. "Oh, boss, don't worry! Our goods are absolutely top-notch! I've been doing business on this street for over twenty years. If you have any problems, feel free to come and smash my signboard! I'll give you a discount of 5 cents for rice and 6 cents for flour. How about that price? Consider it making friends!"

"Give me some more oil, peanut oil and lard!" Zhang Dabiao had his eye on their cooking oil again. It came in a large tin can with no fancy printing, just a square red paper label indicating the type of oil. He didn't like the strong smell of rapeseed oil.

"Boss, this oil isn't cheap! But since I love making friends, I'll give you 20 jin for free! This jar weighs 5 jin, two jars of peanut oil, and two jars of lard, how about that?" The boss grinned like a shrewd merchant. The oil, made in a small workshop, wasn't a big brand and wasn't worth much.

Zhang Dabiao knew immediately that the boss could still make a profit, but he decided to leave it at that and focus on the emergency food supply.

"I made the packaging bag plain, without any writing!"

"Boss, your request is strange, but what a coincidence, we actually have it here. Don't worry, we'll load it onto your truck in a bit!"

"Wait a minute, I still need to buy some salted fish. I'll leave these things here with you and take them with me later, is that okay?" Zhang Dabiao put the household items he bought into the shop.

"You can rest assured, just go to the third shop on the left to buy salted fish. Just say Ah Lang recommended it. The owner's name is Lao Mo. His salted fish is fresh, high quality, and reasonably priced!"

Upon hearing the name Lao Mo, Zhang Dabiao's heart skipped a beat. Could it be the Lao Mo from "The Storm"? The profession does seem quite fitting.

I spent another 100 yuan on salted fish, picking out a large mackerel. The rest of the fish I bought were sole, as well as squid, shrimp, small miscellaneous fish, etc. I bought whatever was cheapest, and the total amount was about 70 jin (35 catties).

The last truckload of goods was taken directly back to Agongyan Village. The boss was really honest; he calculated it at 500 yuan per item, half for each item, which should have been a little over 870 Hong Kong dollars. The boss even added ten tubes of noodles, making it a total of 880 jin! He said it was for good luck.

Zhang Dabiao was feeling smug when Ah Xiang's words almost made him vomit blood: "Yaoyang, I actually know another store that's much cheaper and the quality isn't bad either. With this money, you could buy at least 50 more kilograms."

"..."

Why didn't you say so sooner?

Why the hell didn't you say so earlier?

Why didn't you say so sooner?!

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

Zhang Dabiao invited A Xiang to stay for dinner that evening, as A Xiang had been a great help that day.

But Ah Xiang didn't dare go into his house, fearing it was haunted, so the two of them simply ate some instant noodles in the yard. Zhang Dabiao said he brought it back from outside, which startled Ah Xiang, because he had never seen it before.

He ate two large bags by himself!

Zhang Dabiao gave him another 5 yuan as payment, and told him that he needed to rest for a while to organize his thoughts and work on his art. He told him not to bother him unless necessary, and that Zhang Dabiao would come to him if needed.

Ah Xiang didn't understand, but he had heard that artists liked peace and quiet, so he nodded. He still had to go to the fishing village to help out tomorrow.

After seeing Ah Xiang off, Zhang Dabiao changed all the locks on the courtyard and house, and did a simple cleaning and tidying up.

I went to check the second floor and other rooms. Zhang Dabiao had climbed over the wall as soon as he arrived today, so I hadn't had a chance to look around properly.

Lou Bancheng said this is a 1,000-square-foot luxury mansion, with a building area of ​​83 square meters, a two-bedroom, one-living room structure on each floor, and a small two-story layout. The yard is also 80 square meters, so overall it's quite nice.

Of course, it can't compare to the old man Chen's house we visited this morning. That was a standard three-room, two-corridor village house, comparable to a courtyard with one or two courtyards in Beijing.

Zhang Dabiao's place was a combination of a village house and a hut, nothing special, but it was big enough for him.

All the rooms had only simple furniture, were fairly clean, and were spacious and bright. In a corner on the first floor, there was a makeshift outhouse enclosed by bamboo; it was the kind where you dig a hole in the ground and cover it with soil or wood ash, but the excrement underneath had long been cleaned up. In addition, there was a well in the yard, a small vegetable garden enclosed by bricks, and a clothes rack.

Zhang Dabiao simply arranged the personal belongings, deciding to deal with the rest later.

He moved the grain to the main room on the first floor. The grain and salted fish totaled 950 Hong Kong catties, or 1140 Chinese catties.

It sounds like a lot, but if we calculate based on an adult male weighing about 120 pounds, that's about the weight of 9 and a half people. If you're thinner, it's about the weight of 10 people.

What about the volume?

Because there are gaps between the bags, the total volume is only a little over one cubic meter, not even two cubic meters.

This is about half a month's worth of food supplies, enough to feed more than 400 people for half a month.

Zhang Dabiao was a little at a loss for words. Each person was only given 5 jin of supplements per month, and they were already kneeling down to him like that.

He genuinely felt a pang of guilt, but he was currently out of money. Furthermore, frequently exchanging RMB would arouse suspicion, but exchanging gold bars was both too risky and too expensive.

In addition, I need to inquire about the situation at the Zhang family's place in Shunyi. My salary (excluding bank savings) is only one or two hundred yuan a month, and it's impossible to solve the problem of purchasing so much food with just one or two hundred yuan.

This is what troubles Zhang Dabiao the most.

Regardless of anything else, Zhang Dabiao opened the window in front of the main room on the first floor, connecting it to the "main base nest," and carried the grain over one bag at a time.

Then I tidied up the "little nest" a bit more. The six boxes of treasures have already been moved to the master bedroom, and the living room is filled with food.

The space of the "little nest" is fixed, and there is already a lot of furniture and miscellaneous items in his own home, as well as 6 boxes of treasures and the antiques given by Liu Gen. Zhang Dabiao is not comfortable putting them in other places, but the space of the "little nest" will not increase.

My head hurts!

After finishing, Zhang Dabiao went straight back to the small wooden house in the courtyard and went to sleep.

Let's talk about tomorrow's problems tomorrow.