Courtyard House: In this life, I have a new home!

Secretary Zhang nodded, "But you also need to take care to rest."

"Oh, by the way, have Nan Yi send over some of the cured meat he made."

Li Weidong said, "I'll stew fresh fish with salted pork tonight."

"Now that you mention it, I'm tempted to try it."

Li Huaide laughed and said, "Next Sunday, I'll come over to your house for a meal."

Li Weidong waved his hand and rode away. It was almost four o'clock, and a large, butchered rooster was now on the handlebars.

He plans to make a big plate of chicken for dinner.

As soon as they arrived at the gate, they saw the passageway piled high with all sorts of junk. Yan Bugui was squatting there, picking through the junk.

"Yan Bugui, what are you doing? Get these things away right now!"

Li Weidong's tone was cold: "This passageway is where everyone walks, not your warehouse!"

There was a draft in the passageway, which made it quite cool for Yan Bugui to work there, and he never thought about whether it would block the way. He had been collecting these things for a while, and planned to sort and sell them.

"It'll be ready soon."

Yan Bugui looked displeased. "It's neither your house nor mine; anyone can use it—"

"As a teacher, don't you have any sense of public morality?"

Li Weidong raised his voice, "You've blocked the entire gate, and you still think you're in the right?"

"Don't think I can't do anything to you. Your school is an affiliated primary school of the steel rolling mill, and it's under the jurisdiction of both the education department and the steel rolling mill."

Upon hearing this, Yan Bugui shuddered as if he'd been electrocuted, and quickly shouted, "Yan Jiecheng! Come here quickly and move these outside!"

Yan Bugui and Yan Jiecheng were in a panic and threw all the scrap outside the gate.

As he worked, Yan Bugui smiled apologetically, "Chief Engineer Li, is this alright now? Please, please! I wasn't thinking things through earlier, I'm so sorry!"

Li Weidong ignored everyone and pushed his bicycle directly into the yard.

Yan Jiecheng stared intently at the large rooster hanging on the handlebars, wishing he could pounce on it and take a bite.

After Li Weidong had walked away, he turned around and muttered resentfully to Yan Bugui, "Dad, why were you so polite to him?"

"You're too kind? I just remembered something."

Yan Bugui's face was a little pale. "Our Hongxing Primary School is under the jurisdiction of Hongxing Steel Rolling Mill. I had completely forgotten about that."

It's really not Yan Bugui's fault. He's just a first-grade Chinese teacher; how could he possibly know about all the intricacies of things going on up there? Besides, he's always been a teacher who just coasts along; he'd rather not teach and still get paid, and his real job is fishing by the river every day to earn some extra money.

"I remember now, you mentioned before that Hongxing Primary School was built with money from the steel mill. Your salaries were also paid by the steel mill."

Yan Jiecheng slapped his forehead, "This compound is also the staff quarters of the steel rolling mill."

"That's right. If Li Weidong wants to deal with me, it's just a matter of a word."

Yan Bugui said with a bitter face, "One phone call and they could fire me. No, it's unlikely they'd just fire me outright."

"But if you ask me to be a menial school janitor, I'd definitely take it!"

Yan Jiecheng muttered, "That son of a bitch... he'll have our whole family under his thumb."

As the father and son were reminiscing, they saw Yan Jiefang riding back on his bicycle, with Ding Xiaojuan on the back. A wild rabbit was hanging on the handlebars.

Liu Guangtian arrived shortly after, with Chen Xiaoyu on the back. The basket contained some vegetables, which were then placed in bags.

Judging from this, the two families will be having dinner together again tonight.

Chen Xiaoyu and Ding Xiaojuan, having nothing to do, waited for Yan Jiefang and Liu Guang to finish work at the factory gate. On their way back, they bought some things.

These two are both flush with cash right now, and they just got promoted today, so it's a good time to celebrate. Liu Guangtian also has a pound of fatty pork in his bag.

When they arrived at the entrance, everyone got out of the car and pushed it inside.

Yan Jiecheng's eyes reddened, and he shouted, "Yan Jiefang, you eat and drink well every day, don't you ever think about showing filial piety to our dad? Take this rabbit home and stew it! Let Dad have a couple of drinks too."

If it's really cooked at home, Yan Jiecheng can also benefit from it.

"Pshaw! Filial piety? I give him five yuan a month."

Yan Jiefang scoffed, "How much did you, Yan Jiecheng, pay in a month?"

"I also paid five yuan..."

Yan Jiecheng shouted at the top of his lungs.

"That's your meal money! I didn't eat at home, so Dad just took that five yuan for nothing."

Yan Jiefang retorted directly.

"Okay, okay, I'll eat at your place, alright?"

Yan Bugui stared at the fat rabbit, his mouth watering.

"Why don't you come to my place for a meal? That's fine too."

Yan Jiefang pouted, "Then can I eat at home too?"

Yan Bugui was speechless for a moment, and could only wave his hand awkwardly in the end: "Forget it then."

Liu Guangtian waved his hand and left with Chen Xiaoyu, with Yan Jiefang quickly following behind.

At this moment, Yi Zhonghai and Liu Haizhong returned together, followed by Sha Zhu, their faces ashen as if they had swallowed flies, while Qin Huairu looked smug.

Yi Zhonghai's face was as black as the bottom of a pot, and he kept talking with spittle flying from his bangs.

"Old Yan, why are you messing around with all this junk?"

Liu Haizhong stood with his hands behind his back, his belly protruding, his eyelids rolled upwards, and his nostrils pointing directly at Yan Bugui, his nose hairs practically sticking out.

"What junk? This is called scrap material! It can be sold for money; it's recycling waste."

Yan Bugui said, "I'm doing this in response to the call from higher authorities to work hard and persevere..."

"Yes, yes, we must work hard!"

Liu Haizhong quickly chimed in, instinctively agreeing with the words of his superior.

Yan Bugui curled his lip, too lazy to pay any more attention to Liu Haizhong, and turned to Yi Zhonghai, saying, "Old Yi, think it over carefully. I'll do this for you and lose a hundred yuan. If you don't give me a hundred, eighty will do... seventy... sixty... fifty yuan! No less than that."

"We'll split this loss in half!"

Yi Zhonghai was seething with anger, wanting to vent but unsure who to direct it at. Now that Yan Bugui had come along, he wasn't about to hold back.

"Old Yan, did I send you to take advantage of me? No way!"

Yi Zhonghai got angry. "With your scheming nature, you're going to have a lot of bad luck ahead of you."

"You want money from me? You think I'm easy to bully?"

"If that's what you think, then it's simple. Come to my house and take whatever's valuable!"

Yan Bugui's eyes lit up upon hearing this: "Okay, then I'll move the electric fan... Uh, are you kidding me!"

Yan Bugui caught a glimpse of Yi Zhonghai's cold gaze and realized that Yi Zhonghai would never allow him to move things. This was clearly a sarcastic remark directed at him.

"Forget it, let's not ruin things over such a small amount of money. How about this, I'll treat you tomorrow night."

Liu Haizhong smoothed things over, saying, "To celebrate my promotion, Lao Yan and Lao Yi both have to come."

Liu Haizhong was a little disappointed today. Shan Dahai wasn't at work, so he couldn't get the clerk-level job he wanted to get done with him.

"Okay, okay, I'll definitely be there tomorrow!"

Yan Bugui was extremely excited.

For Yan Bugui, this meant getting another free meal and saving on his own food rations, making him a big winner.

When Li Weidong got home, he took the watermelon that Xiao Xi handed him, took a couple of bites, and then told He Yushui how to make braised chicken.

"Make more noodles, then we'll have a staple food too."

Li Weidong concluded by saying, "Oh, and kill another grass carp. Stew half with the cured pork, and salt the other half to save for next time."

"We don't have any cured meat."

He Yushui said in a sweet, coquettish voice.

"The wild boar I hunted is already cured into salted meat, it'll be delivered right away."

Li Weidong said, "I'll wait at the entrance, otherwise the tricycle won't be able to get in."

"Brother, I'm going too!"

Xiao Xi skipped and hopped along to catch up.

"On such a hot day, it's so nice to stay home and eat watermelon."

Li Weidong shook his head, his tone becoming serious, "Xiaorou, try not to go out these next few days, and be careful."

"What are you being careful about?"

He Yushui looked completely bewildered.

"In short, be careful and don't let anyone into the house."

Li Weidong said, "You will understand in time."

As soon as he finished speaking, he walked towards the gate of the compound. Just as he got there, he saw Ma Hua riding over on a tricycle.

"Chief Engineer Li, this is for you."

Ma Hua's eyes were full of envy as he clicked his tongue and said, "Wow, this whole truck is full of meat."

"Okay, come on, let's push the car in together."

Li Weidong nodded.

Yan Bugui and his son Yan Jiecheng had just returned from selling scrap. Yan Bugui was overjoyed; he had earned 43 cents, and he had even managed to bargain for the remaining two cents.

As soon as they reached the door, the father and son's eyes were glued to the tricycle. The pile of salted meat on the vehicle was so bright that they couldn't see anything else.

What are you two doing?

Li Weidong was startled by the two of them.

The two men's eyes were practically glowing with lust as they stared intently at the meat, their mouths slightly agape, drool practically dripping from their lips. They looked like they wanted nothing more than to pounce on it and devour the raw flesh.

Li Weidong's words woke up Yan Bugui and Yan Jiecheng.

"Oh, Chief Engineer Li, we just wanted to lend a hand."

Yan Bugui wiped his mouth. "So much salted meat! Is it from that wild boar you hunted last time?"

The news of Li Weidong hunting wild boar had been circulating in the courtyard for several days. Some people even said they would share the meat, but nothing happened after waiting for so long. Now, seeing the salted meat, Yan Bugui realized that it had all been made into salted goods.

"Tsk tsk, this stuff is good, it won't spoil no matter how long it's kept."

Yan Bugui thought to himself, "If each family gets about ten jin, it'll be enough to eat for five or six years."

Yan Jiecheng stared at the salted meat, pondering which piece to choose later, and asked, "Li Weidong, is this what we brought back to share with everyone?"

He'd already set his sights on a piece of fat meat.

"Share it with everyone? Dream on."

Li Weidong looked disgusted. "Go somewhere cool and stay there."

"Jiecheng, what are you thinking about! Hurry up and help push the cart."

Yan Bugui immediately rebuked, "You think you can let Chief Engineer Li do it himself?"

Yan Bugui quickly reached out to grab the tricycle, but his palm landed directly on a bunch of soft things and didn't touch the frame at all.

Yan Jiefang glanced at it, then immediately followed suit and reached out to push as well.

After pulling the car into the yard, Ma Hua, too lazy to ask Yan Bugui for help, pushed it directly towards the central courtyard. Li Weidong shook his head and followed.

This kid is still too young. He thought Yan Bugui was trying to flatter him, and he didn't notice the smug smiles on the faces of the Yan father and son when they withdrew their hands.

"Quickly tell your mom to boil some water, and we'll skim off the oil and keep it. We'll use it for soup tonight; we won't even need to add any oil."

Yan Bugui lowered his voice and said to Yan Jiecheng, "Tsk, this vegetable soup is guaranteed to be delicious tonight!"

Li Weidong followed the tricycle into the courtyard, where there were quite a few people. Some were fanning themselves with palm-leaf fans to cool off, while others were squatting in front of the stove, busy at work.

Yi Zhonghai and Sha Zhu sat side by side, whispering to each other. The deaf old woman sat not far from Sha Zhu, her eyes fixed on him like they were blazing green fire. Na Yumei was busy preparing dinner.