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

Why is Sha Zhu making things so complicated?

There was no other way; he dared not cook in the yard now, not even Zhang Dabiao!

By the time we got back to the courtyard, it was completely dark.

Sha Zhu walked to Qin Huairu's door and gently knocked.

Qin Huairu opened the door, and a rich aroma of bone broth immediately filled her nostrils.

"Sister Qin, quickly take this inside for the children to drink, to help them recover."

Sha Zhu lowered his voice and shoved the aluminum pot into Qin Huairu's hands.

Qin Huairu looked at Sha Zhu's work clothes, which were covered in oil stains and bone fragments.

Looking at his ingratiating smile.

She carried the heavy aluminum pot, her heart filled with mixed emotions.

"Silly Zhu, what are you doing...?"

She was moved that Sha Zhu was willing to risk his life to help her at this time.

He was also saddened that his family of five could only survive on these discarded bone fragments.

Qin Huairu closed the door and leaned against it.

Her eyes gradually turned fierce.

This can't go on any longer; she has to completely tie Sha Zhu to herself.

Even if the whole hospital criticizes me behind my back, even if I'm called shameless.

She also wanted to make Sha Zhu willingly hand over all his wages and food coupons to her!

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

It was completely different from the lifeless and bleak scene of the former Intermediate Court.

At this moment, an extremely tempting salty aroma wafted from the stables in the east courtyard.

You can only smell it when you get close, because there's no fire burning; it's all salted fish and cured chicken.

Today is the day for the Youth Mutual Aid Association to "distribute the spoils." Da Biao, Liu Guangqi, Xu Damao, and Yan Jiecheng sorted out the "reserve grain" that should be distributed to everyone this month, wrapped it in newspaper, and then Xu Damao, Liu Guangqi, and Yan Jiecheng delivered it to each family.

There wasn't much food: one pound of salted fish, two pounds of cornmeal, one pound of rice, and one pound of wild vegetable biscuits that each member had saved up.

4.5 jin (2.25 kg) may not seem like much, but it's quite juicy and oily, enough to keep the family happy for several days.

This is all the savings we accumulated by picking wild vegetables, farming, and raising fish together. We usually store it in the cellar and give it to people in fixed rations every month to prevent nutritional deficiencies in the event of food shortages.

With vegetables, meat, and staple food, what more could you ask for?

Xu Damao tore off a piece of salted fish, took a bite, and chewed it, muttering indistinctly.

"Da Biao, we used to think you were just making trouble by hoarding food, especially salted fish and wild vegetable biscuits, but now that I think about it—it's still better to stick with you and have meat to eat!"

"I passed by the Intermediate People's Court today and saw Sha Zhu looking so dejected with an empty lunchbox. I almost burst out laughing."

Liu Guangqi nodded repeatedly, grabbed a piece of salted fish, and stuffed it into his mouth.

"That's right, who could have imagined the food shortage would be this bad? While downsizing urban workers, they continued to reduce rations, and yet, each person gets less than a pound of food a day... Sigh..."

"If it weren't for your foresight, Da Biao, we'd probably be swollen up like this now."

"Even if you have money and ration coupons now, you can't necessarily buy food."

Yan Jiecheng also sighed, "Fortunately, I've worked a lot these past two years, otherwise I wouldn't have been able to save up all this grain."

"Da Biao, to be honest, I feel more at ease storing my work points as grain with you than with my dad!"

Xu Damao and Liu Guangqi immediately laughed: "Your dad won't embezzle or make mistakes in the accounts, but he will charge you management fees and storage fees!"

"If you can get half a pound back after going in a pound, then Uncle San has a conscience."

"Hahahaha—"

Zhang Dabiao leaned back in his recliner, holding an enamel mug in his hand, filled with sorghum husks.

He didn't eat the meat; he just watched these guys eating so ungracefully.

"Alright, you can eat meat, but keep your mouths shut."

"Our little granary has been storing half a year's worth of reserve grain. If anyone tries to take it from us again, I really won't be able to hold on."

"You really can't buy anything with money these days!"

Zhang Dabiao's tone wasn't harsh, but the weight of his words made the group of people instantly stop chewing.

Everyone still vividly remembers the neighborhood committee's previous act of taking advantage of the situation. Back then, things weren't as tense as they are now. People just felt a bit cheated, but they were still happy to contribute, after all, it was the collective's small granary.

but now……

Anyone who dares to mention sending food again will face their wrath!

Xu Damao and the others quickly nodded, then wrapped the grain in newspaper, left the courtyard, and delivered the grain under the cover of night.

After locking the wooden gate of the side room, Zhang Dabiao went to Hong Kong through his "little nest"—

The typhoon has already made landfall over there. Although arrangements were made a long time ago, I still have to go and check it out, otherwise I won't feel at ease.

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

Hong Kong on September 1st.

The unprecedented super typhoon "Wanda" has just passed through, leaving behind a scene of devastation.

The entire island of Hong Kong and the Kowloon Peninsula looked as if they had been ravaged by a giant beast, with collapsed shacks, broken trees and shattered glass everywhere.

Seawater overflowed, turning the streets into murky waterways.

Wearing a raincoat, Cheung Yiu-yeung (Cheung Tai-piu) stood in the small wooden house in the backyard of his Mixue Ice Cream flagship store on Shau Kei Wan East Street, wading through half a foot of puddles.

He walked from the backyard to the front door. The shop sign was blown away and only half of it remained. The roller shutter door was severely deformed, and the glass doors and windows were shattered into a spider web.

Qin Mancang and A Xiang, along with several shop assistants, were carrying brooms and shovels, looking distressed as they cleaned up the water and trash in the shop.

"Brother Yang, this is a huge loss!" Qin Mancang said with a mournful face when he saw him coming. "Just the renovation alone will cost a lot of money, not to mention that we can't do business for the next few days."

Ah Xiang sighed as well: "Yeah, it's like this all over Hong Kong. I heard that the roofs of many factories have been ripped off, and half of the containers at the docks have fallen into the sea. This awful weather!"

Cheung Yiu-yeung remained calm and simply walked around the store.

The refrigerator and ice maker weren't damaged because the power was turned off beforehand, but they were still soaked in water.

There was a typhoon warning a while ago, so Zhang Dabiao got a lot of snakeskin bags and sand to make flood control barriers and put them in front of the shop.

Overall, the losses aren't too great. As for the glass doors and windows—just a few more floor-to-ceiling glass doors and windows in the "small nests," the ones between the balcony and the living room, and the ones in the kitchen and bathroom. There are a total of 5 doors. We'll move 5 doors every day. As for the windows, there are even more. Then we just have to wait for them to be refreshed.

He patted Qin Mancang on the shoulder: "Alright, stop looking so gloomy. Let's go to the small wooden house in the backyard and move the building materials over first. Getting it fixed as soon as possible is the most important thing."

A few days ago, when he heard that there was a typhoon, Cheung Yiu-yeung instructed Ah-cheung to bring back some building materials first. He prepared a lot of various kinds of wood, cement, templates, nails, and hardware.

Over the next two days, under Zhang Yaoyang's personal direction, the stores were bustling with activity.

With the tools and materials prepared in advance, the shop, which was originally expected to take at least half a month to repair, was completely renewed in just three days.

The shop has been repaired, but a problem has arisen—Hong Kong already faces a water shortage, and then a typhoon hits—

The well water is unusable!