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

"Dad, this was given to me by my mutual aid society. I need to take it back to my room," Yan Jiecheng said coldly.

Yan Bugui was stunned: "What kind of talk is that? You're my son, so your things belong to the family. Besides, can you and Yu Li even eat that much?"

"We'll save what we can't eat!" Yan Jiecheng gritted his teeth. "Dad, when I was in debt, when I needed to buy a workstation and a house, you absolutely refused to lend me any money, always calculating how much I earned. Now that the mutual aid society is giving out supplies, you suddenly remember I'm family? No way!"

"Anyway, I've paid off all the money I owe my family. We've already separated our households, so what's mine is mine!"

After saying that, Yan Jiecheng carried his things back to his room without looking back and slammed the door shut.

Yan Bugui stood there, trembling with rage: "He's rebelled...rebeled! This is a heartless ingrate! He'll never go poor from eating or dressing, but he'll go poor from not being able to scheme. I've schemed my whole life, how did I end up with such a son!"

He suddenly remembered something—when Zhang Dabiao first regained consciousness in the early 60s, he said that none of his children would take care of him in his old age!

Yan Bugui's face turned pale: "No way?"

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

Around 8 or 9 p.m., Lou Bancheng discreetly entered the east courtyard under the cover of darkness.

"Da Biao, this is this year's interest of 100,000." Lou Bancheng placed a heavy leather bag on the table.

"Regarding repayment, Yu Fan will contact the Ministry of Foreign Trade in a few days, and they will exchange it for RMB for you then."

Zhang Dabiao poured Lou Bancheng a cup of hot tea: "Uncle Lou, thank you for making the trip yourself. Did things go smoothly in Hong Kong?"

"Smooth sailing, so smooth sailing!" Lou Bancheng was beaming. "Yu Fan's factory is growing bigger and bigger, and your brother Zhang Yaoyang is truly a genius. Now we control half of the plastic bucket market and one-fifth of the plastic catering supplies market in Hong Kong."

The Lou family had been hostile towards Zhang Dabiao and Zhang Yaoyang before, after all, they had been tricked—even though it was the Lou family who broke the rules first.

Moreover, Zhang Yaoyang also slashed Lou Yufan's hand with a knife. Although it was later reattached, it was no longer able to exert much force and could only be said to be still usable.

But now—

The Lou Clan Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong survived thanks to Zhang Yaoyang, and it's estimated that they can pay off the money they owe Zhang Dabiao in another two or three years.

So now Lou Bancheng believes everything Zhang Dabiao and Zhang Yaoyang say. His personal visit to deliver the money today is a great show of respect for Zhang Dabiao.

After exchanging a few words, Lou Bancheng, fearing he would attract attention, went over to check on his daughter Lou Xiao'e and grandson Xu Xiaojun before hurriedly leaving.

Zhang Dabiao locked the courtyard gate, went back into the inner room, and emptied the money from his bag—a full 100,000 yuan! This was something that had been agreed upon beforehand, because the Lou family had misappropriated his patent fees, and he would have to pay 100,000 yuan in interest every year.

Zhang Dabiao began to take stock of his assets over the past year.

I don't know, I was taken aback.

"Damn, so much money, how am I supposed to spend it?" Zhang Dabiao grinned, a cigarette dangling from his lips.

You can't spend it all, you absolutely can't spend it all!

My current domestic savings total a full 400,000 RMB! The 1 million I spent on clearing out the inventory of cultural relics, antiques, and calligraphy and paintings was all gone—it went to boost Director Zhao's performance targets. Now, in less than two years, I've saved it all up again.

In an era when the average monthly salary is only thirty or forty yuan, this is a staggering sum of money.

Two million two hundred thousand Hong Kong dollars have already been deposited into HSBC in Hong Kong!

As for the actual items, there's no way to count them all.

The small and large yellow croakers weighed more than 50 kilograms together and were heavily pressed at the bottom of the cellar box in the village house of Agongyan Village.

As for antiques and calligraphy, the items collected from Qinjiatun, Zhangjiatun, Lao Jintou, and Master Lei, as well as those salvaged from scrap yards, plus the inventory from the Ministry of Foreign Trade, Xinhua Bookstore, and some other government-owned cultural relics stores, have exceeded 100,000 pieces.

Although most of them were folk kiln porcelain and scrap metal acquired for a few cents or dollars, decades later they will all be priceless treasures. We only care about quantity; we'll buy whatever we can.

Regarding houses, there's Old Jin's, the teahouse in Lishuiqiao Village, the one given by Lou Bancheng, the two-courtyard house in Sesame Alley registered under Mu Wanqing's name, the ones allocated by ministries, and the connections she has with various ministries...

"It's all settled." Zhang Dabiao exhaled a smoke ring, but he was also troubled by something.

I'm currently doing things haphazardly, without any particular goals or plans, and more importantly, I don't dare to do them right now.

I'll have to wait until the strong winds subside before I can have a proper job. Right now...

Let's wait until Mu Wanqing graduates before we talk about marriage.

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

Director Wang came again at the beginning of January.

She stood in the courtyard of the siheyuan (traditional courtyard house) holding the documents.

All the residents of the compound listened with their hands tucked in and necks hunched.

A cold wind was blowing.

"This is the 'Resolution on Mobilizing and Organizing Urban Educated Youth to Go to the Countryside,' which was just issued from above." Director Wang slapped the document loudly.

"All eligible people in our institute who didn't get into university or don't have formal jobs are included in this mobilization effort."

Director Wang read out several names.

In the front yard of the Yan family, Yan Jiefang was fifteen years old, and Yan Jiekuang was fourteen years old.

In the backyard, Liu Guangfu, an eighteen-year-old man, lived in the Liu family compound.

There's also Qi Xiaoli, the seventeen-year-old younger sister of the Big Head family.

These people are close to this range, but have not yet directly reached this standard.

There's no one in courtyard number 95 within the designated area, so this is just a reminder. Also, it's unclear how many years this mobilization meeting will last, which means—

Either you get into university yourself, or you find your child a job as soon as possible, otherwise you really don't know what the future holds.

The expressions on the faces of the families changed immediately.

Zhang Dabiao sat under the eaves, holding an enamel mug and drinking hot water.

He listened to the contents of the document and understood everything.

The prelude to the strong winds has truly begun.

After the meeting, everyone went home.

In the front yard, inside the Yan family's house, Yan Bugui closed the door tightly and immediately took out an abacus.

He fiddled with it for a while.

"Liberation, this policy is a good opportunity." Yan Bugui pushed up his glasses.

"The government provides resettlement compensation, 185 yuan per person."

"Go to the countryside and train, and leave this money at home. Our family will be better off."

Yan Jiefang's eyes widened, and he stood up abruptly.

"Dad! Are you planning to sell me for money?!"

"I'm only fifteen years old, and you want me to go to the countryside to farm?"

"You won't get poor from eating or dressing, but you'll get poor if you don't plan ahead. You're contributing to the country." Yan Bugui tapped the table.

"Don't try to intimidate me with those words!" Yan Jiefang shouted, pointing at Yan Bugui's nose.

"If you force me to go to the countryside, I'll go to the school and talk to the principal tomorrow."

"I'm reporting you for accepting dried sweet potatoes and cabbage from students' parents."

"I also said you took school chalk home to use."

Yan Bugui turned pale with fright and suddenly stood up to cover Yan Jiefang's mouth.

"Shut up, you little beast! You can't just spout nonsense like that."

"Didn't you eat the dried sweet potatoes and cabbage too?!"

"So what? At worst, I'll go to the countryside, you'll lose your job, and we'll go our separate ways!"

"Nobody's going to live!"

Yan Jiefang broke free, slammed the door, and went back to his own room.

Yan Bugui stood there, seething with rage, but there was nothing he could do but stand there in a helpless fury.

Suddenly, I remembered what Zhang Dabiao had said—

He has four children, and none of them will support him in his old age!

……

Then I'll have to get my retirement money back even sooner!

That's right!