The Life of a Son-in-Law in a Courtyard House

Yang Dalin had consulted Aunt Qi before he spoke.

Aunt Qi nodded; she had bought candy for everyone last time.

This time, they donated canned food from someone else's donation to a family with a sick member.

Others would only praise Yang Dalin for his benevolence and righteousness.

Qin Huairu was pondering how she could get a share of the good stuff.

Niu Dali and his wife Liu Cuihua came up to bow to Yang Dalin, but Yang Dalin quickly stepped aside. Qi Yulan stopped the couple, saying, "Alright, you two, don't be so polite. We didn't have this before, and I couldn't help you even if I wanted to. This was given to you by someone who saved a child. If Dalin says he'll give it to you, then he will. I'll have Dalin take it to you later. Just live a good life, no need to be so polite."

Niu Dali and his wife then stopped bending over.

After Yang Dalin spoke up, several families who were probably on good terms with Niu Dali's family donated money.

Nowadays, many families have donated some money, but there is really not enough food. So, more money was donated to Niu Dali's family, although most of it was only one or two yuan, but it was still more than the money Qin Huairu's family received.

Yang Dalin also saw that even people as poor as Zhang Meiyun donated one yuan, and Grandpa Zhao's family also donated one yuan.

I have to say, sometimes I, a poor person, have too good a conscience.

There were 21 households in the courtyard. After removing the first four households, and then removing Yang Dalin's and Uncle Qi's households, the remaining 15 households donated 25 yuan to Niu Dali, along with 10 jin of mixed grain flour and 10 jin of cornmeal.

The amount donated far exceeded that of Qin Huairu's family; even the deaf old lady Yi Zhonghai donated one yuan on her behalf.

Even though the deaf old lady didn't show up.

When no one else stepped forward, Yi Zhonghai said, "Today's meeting was a victory, demonstrating the excellent spirit of unity and mutual assistance in our institute."

On behalf of both companies, I would like to thank everyone again.

Okay, if there's nothing else, let's call it a day.

If anyone encounters difficulties in the future, please contact me privately, and we can discuss it further.

Qin Huairu's face turned even uglier. She finally couldn't hold back anymore. She felt that she had been taken advantage of. Why should someone else get the lion's share of the credit for her good idea?

So he couldn't help but jump out and say, "Hey sir, wait a minute. I know Brother Niu's family is in trouble, but we're supposed to help each other this time."

Please help me with both families. Should I split the money and goods equally between them?

Is that fairer?

Upon hearing this, Yi Zhonghai was somewhat displeased, but then he noticed his apprentice with his head bowed.

With a pang of heartache, she still spoke up, saying, "That's right. Everyone has donated so much, but only two families need help. The money should be split equally between the two families."

Many people were dissatisfied with Yi Zhonghai's words. They said that he only didn't like Qin Huairu and that's why he didn't donate the money to her family. Why did he insist on splitting it equally?

Grandpa Qi's mixed noodles and Yang Dalin's canned goods were indeed donated specifically to Niu Dali's family.

I never intended to donate to Qin Huairu's family in the first place. Everyone in the courtyard has a few people they get along with, and some they don't.

Besides, Qin Huairu's family isn't satisfied with having received so much?

Yang Dalin noticed the murmurs around him. How could the two families split his can of food equally? Should each family take half?

Yang Dalin spoke first: "Uncle Yi, at first Uncle Liu told everyone that we would form pairs to help each other. We voluntarily formed pairs, and then Sister-in-law Dongxu said we would split the profits equally."

My can of food doesn't contain much, so how can the two families split it equally?

Besides, Dongxu's family got quite a lot, fifteen yuan for eighteen jin of cornmeal. Did they think they didn't have as much as Dali's family?

The reason Dali's family has so much stuff is because they have a sick person in their family.

You must treat everyone fairly, right, Uncle Liu?

Upon hearing Yang Dalin mention what he had said at the beginning and call his name again, Liu Haizhong immediately spoke up: "That's right, what I said at the beginning was to form pairs to help each other."

We've already donated quite a bit to the Jia family, and then everyone saw that Niu Dali's family had a sick person, so they donated a little more. I think that's fine.

Qin Huairu wanted to say something more, but Jia Dongxu pulled her away.

Yi Zhonghai also gave Yang Dalin a deep look. Although he felt uncomfortable, he knew that his apprentice's wife was going too far.

Hearing that his second uncle, Liu Haizhong, had agreed, and hearing the surrounding neighbors' discussions, he knew that he should hurry up and finish this.

Some people take things for free and then want more; they're really greedy.

He also hoped that Jia Dongxu and Yang Dalin would interact more in the future.

I didn't want to say too much. Yang Dalin is still young, and he has a bad temper. I shouldn't say anything more to provoke him.

Yi Zhonghai continued calmly, "Good gun, everyone has no objections, so let's leave it at that. The donations from everyone else should go to Dali, and the donations from the four families in front should go to the Jia family."

It's getting late, you should head home soon.

Yang Dalin followed Grandpa Qi to his house and bought five jin of mixed flour. Grandpa Qi's mixed flour was good; it was made from both soybean flour and corn flour.

Although there's no white flour, these two are already quite good.

When Yang Dalin got home, he asked Aunt Qi for a can of yellow peaches and then put five yuan under the can.

Indeed, Yang Dalin heard from Grandpa Qi that the son and daughter-in-law of this family were good people, and Yang Dalin felt that he could help them more.

She's better than Qin Huairu, who's insatiable.

If you lend a helping hand now, you may sow a good seed for the future.

Most of those who donated money gave it on the spot, and Liu Haizhong also made a record of it.

Those who are donating items need to go home and pick them up themselves.

Yang Dalin did not object to this approach. Although donations required the approval of the street office, as long as he did not donate to one family each time, Yang Dalin did not need to offend everyone.

Even if they report it to the neighborhood committee, at most the committee will criticize them.

It's not a big problem, after all, Yi Zhonghai and Liu Haizhong did help Niu Dali's family.

It did not completely favor the Jia family.

If Yi Zhonghai were truly that biased, he would have been forced to quit long ago. It's impossible for him to be so obviously biased towards the Jia family, as depicted in some novels set in the courtyard era.

People aren't stupid. Try donating only to the Jia family. Even without Yang Dalin, someone would have reported Yi Zhonghai.

Yang Dalin and Grandpa Qi carried their things and slowly walked towards the backyard.

Some people who delivered the grain quickly returned immediately. Most families that donated grain only donated one jin (500 grams). People like Sha Zhu, Yi Zhonghai, Xu Damao, and Grandpa Qi were truly wealthy.

No wonder Yi Zhonghai's tone was too high, and Sha Zhu followed suit with Wu Jin.

Otherwise, even a pound of tree bark flour would be considered good now, let alone five pounds of cornmeal mixed with corn stalk powder.

Five catties of grain, that's quite a lot.

Yang Dalin kept greeting the people who returned.

The main reason was that there were too many people, and Niu Dali's family couldn't all sit down. Everyone expressed their good wishes, and then they all returned quickly.

Otherwise, seeing the emaciated old lady of the Niu family and the three short, withered, yellow hair from hunger, everyone was afraid that they might not be able to squeeze out any more food for their own families.

The scene was so chaotic, I couldn't possibly sit down.