I feel right at home in the world of the courtyard house.

After entering the house, Li Jing'an sat down on the sofa, opened his briefcase, and took out a brown paper envelope.

This was given to him by Deputy Director Liu of the Second Cotton Mill branch after lunch today.

"Wow, quite a sum," he muttered to himself, dumping the contents of the envelope onto the coffee table. It was a stack of coupons. He counted them carefully: fifty one-foot cloth coupons and ten one-pound cotton coupons.

The cloth ration coupons could make enough fabric to make four or five sets of clothes.

The supply of goods is still tight. Ordinary citizens in Beijing only receive three feet of cloth coupons per person per year, which is barely enough to patch clothes. Making a new set of clothes is out of the question.

The situation will only gradually improve next year. Deputy Factory Director Liu's "good intentions" are indeed quite profound at the moment.

As for why the other party acted this way, it has something to do with Li Jing'an's "golden touch." He calls this ability "network of connections."

Deep within his consciousness hung a semi-transparent "net," with ten clear squares evenly distributed across it.

Each box allows you to choose to establish a very strong "friendship" with a specific person. Of course, it's just friendship; they won't unconditionally help you. You can't violate their principles.

Once a target is selected, their name will appear in a box. Initially, the name is white; once it turns a striking red, it signifies that the binding conditions have been met and the relationship is officially established.

The requirements are quite straightforward: you need to have had multiple substantive interactions with the target person, the other party should be quite familiar with you, and have a generally good impression of you.

Once the binding is successful, it cannot be broken unless the other party passes away. Therefore, you cannot use up your quota casually.

To date, Li Jing'an has only been bound to two people.

The first one is Gao Zhenye.

In 1948, the original owner, who was only sixteen years old, ran to Huairou and joined the guerrillas. The leader of the base area at that time was Gao Zhenye.

Seeing that the original owner was young, Gao Zhenye kept him by his side as a messenger.

After liberation, the troops were reorganized. The original owner followed the main force south, while Gao Zhenye stayed in Beijing and went to work in a government department.

He is now the director of a department under the Ministry of Metallurgical Industry. His career is thriving; he is certainly cut out for this path.

Li Jing'an transferred to the Hongxing Steel Rolling Mill, a subsidiary of the Ministry of Metallurgical Industry, more than two months ago, and was only assigned to the Second Guesthouse as its director a week ago. His monthly salary is 110 yuan for an administrative level 16 position.

The second one was named Sun Mingyuan. The original owner's guerrilla unit was later incorporated into Sun Mingyuan's army.

From the War of Liberation to the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, the original owner was promoted from a common soldier to company commander by Sun Mingyuan because of his bravery and outstanding performance in combat.

After the war, Sun Mingyuan transferred to the Second Commercial Bureau of Beijing, where he is now the deputy director.

Thanks to his solid relationship with these two "partners," Li Jing'an found himself at the intersection of two key networks, allowing him to get to know many people and build a valuable network of connections, including some executives of food companies closely related to the Second Commercial Bureau.

Today, Deputy Director Liu of the cotton mill was trying to connect with the Dahongmen Meat Processing Plant through Li Jing'an. With the Mid-Autumn Festival approaching, the factory wanted to acquire some surplus, in-demand goods to provide some benefits for its employees.

Today's lunch is being held at the Tongchunyuan Restaurant in Xicheng District, hosted by Deputy Factory Director Liu.

Li Jing'an not only invited the director of the meat processing plant, but also the head of the fruit factory, intending to let the cadres in charge of "supplies" get to know each other and make things easier for each other. As for how much they could actually reach an agreement, that was their private matter. Whether it came to fruition or not, Li Jing'an didn't interfere; he was just a matchmaker.

Also accompanying them was Li Huaide, the current director of the logistics department of the steel rolling mill.

Director Li also knew the heads of these two factories. After all, he worked in logistics and had business dealings with them.

So we invited him to keep us company, and he was quite happy, even bringing two bottles of Wuliangye liquor. This Tongchun Garden was the restaurant recommended by Director Li.

Li Jing'an carefully put away the cloth and cotton coupons. He wasn't after the coupons themselves, but rather Old Liu. It would be another connection he could make later.

This newly woven "network of relationships" will be the foundation for his future security and gradual progress.

Knock knock knock

There was a knock at the door.