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

Aunt Qi thought to herself that this was indeed something that should be stopped.

She said kindly to Ma San, "San'er, I'm very happy that you have this thought in mind."

We don't have that rule in our family. You don't have a formal job, and your income is unstable. Don't follow your brother Lin's example; he has his own ways of making money.

Just take care of yourself, okay?

Qi Yanhua also said, "That's right, San'er, it's good that you have this thought. I also want to thank you. You're younger than Dalinzi, so it's the elders and older sisters who should give you red envelopes. I'm not working, so I'll take this opportunity to give you the red envelope that your brother Dalin gave me."

Ma San was too embarrassed to accept it and kept declining.

On the first day of the Lunar New Year, Brother Lin was not home, so Aunt Qi treated everyone equally and gave herself a one-yuan New Year's money as well.

Sister Yan wants to forward the red envelope she received to herself.

I wouldn't dare ask for it.

Originally, I was thinking of following Brother Dalin's example and giving red envelopes to Aunt Qi and her daughter.

Ma San firmly refused.

Yang Dalin said, "How about this, San'er, you haven't officially started working yet, and you're earning your money through hard work. Since you have this intention, I won't stop you. Just take one yuan and send it to Xiaoning as a red envelope, that'll do."

Because she's younger than you, she's considered your younger sister.

Let's leave it at that, and you shouldn't compare yourself to me.

Besides Sister Yan, I'm the eldest brother in this family who has a job. Since the eldest brother is more capable, he gives more. You're the second brother, and since the second brother isn't as capable, he only gives to Xiaoning, and less. Giving more or less is just a token of my appreciation.

"When you're more capable and make a lot of money in the future, I'll give you more, how about that?"

Yang Dalin can be said to have fully considered Ma San's feelings.

Ma San nodded: "Okay, I'll listen to you, brother."

Then Ma San opened the red envelope he received and saw that it contained ten one-yuan bills. He took one out and handed it to Qi Xiaoning: "Xiaoning, this is a red envelope from your brother."

Qi Xiaoning took it and said happily, "Thank you, Brother Ma."

Qi Xiaoning knew her mother wouldn't take the one yuan.

It is relatively safe.

Any larger tickets would definitely be confiscated without mercy.

It's best to secure your gains.

Seeing that Yang Dalin had resolved the matter, Aunt Qi urged everyone to eat quickly.

After finishing his meal, Yang Dalin opened the several bags he had brought.

There were mountain products such as pine nuts, hazelnuts, dried mushrooms, and black fungus given to us by others.

There were also some local specialties that I bought myself.

They were all entrusted to Aunt Qi for safekeeping.

They also brought some small gifts for the Qi sisters and Ma San.

Everyone was chatting happily about everyday things.

There was a knock on the door.

Yang Dalin gestured for everyone to pack up their things.

A voice came from outside the door: "Dalinzi, are you back? Come over to my place and we'll play cards."

Yang Dalin replied, "Okay, Brother Zhu, you go first, I'll be right there."

Yang Dalin talked to Aunt Qi and then took Ma San to visit Sha Zhu's house.

Ma San went out and said, "Brother Da Lin, you go ahead. My face isn't healed yet, so I won't go."

Yang Dalin knew that this young child was very proud, so he said, "Alright, then you go back and rest first."

I'll have three days off, you rest for another three days, and then we'll go out to work together on the first day I go back to work.

Ma San said, "Okay, I'll be going now, brother."

When Yang Dalin entered Sha Zhu's house, good heavens!

Several of the younger generation were present in the courtyard.

There were six people in total: Xu Damao, Yan Jiecheng, Yan Jiefang, Liu Guangtian, Shazhu, and Yang Dalin.

Everyone sat in the main room of Shazhu.

As soon as Miya saw Yang Dalin arrive, she quickly poured him a glass of water: "Dalin's here. You guys have fun. Help yourselves to refill your water if you're thirsty, don't be shy."

After saying that, Miya went to the inner room.

Yang Dalin noticed that Sha Zhu seemed to be doing quite well with people lately.

Everyone comes here to play cards.

I guess they came here for his convenience.

He's the eldest in his family, and since he doesn't have parents to supervise him, it's okay for him to argue a little.

The second Miya has a cheerful and generous personality, and she is always very polite to everyone who comes to her home.

The sister-in-law even offered to pour water for her.

That's good.

Children usually have to be mindful of how other families feel when they go out to play. Why didn't they go to Xu Damao's house, or Liu Guangtian's house, or Yan Jiecheng's house?

I guess Xu Damao's wife is afraid of noise, and both families have adults, who have to go to work early tomorrow morning.

Sha Zhu can work a little later during the day, it's fine, he doesn't have to go to the factory to make breakfast.

So everyone started coming to Sha Zhu's house.

Yang Dalin thanked Sister-in-law Miya, then looked at the table and, noting it was clearly not a deck of cards, asked, "What kind of cards are we playing?"

Xu Damao said smugly, "Brother, you weren't home for the New Year, so you don't know, but recently a new game called 'Gouji' has become popular in Beijing. It's a game with four decks of cards and six players."

"I'll teach you in a bit."

Yang Dalin smiled but didn't say that he was the one who spread the game of Gouji.

Xu Damao, that grandson, sat next to me and was going to teach me how to fight.

That means it's not a federation with itself; in Gouji federations, you only become a federation if you're separated by one person.

The person sitting next to you belongs to the other federation.

Xu Damao's neighbor across the hall is Sha Zhu.

Yan Jiecheng sat across from Yang Dalin.

Yan Jiefang's neighbor across the hall is Liu Guangtian.

Now it's Yang Dalin, Sha Zhu, Liu Guangtian's gang.

Xu Damao, Yan Jiecheng, and Yan Jiefang's gang.

Yan Jiecheng even clamored that he would smash Yang Dalin to death tonight and make him keep paying tribute.

Yang Dalin pretended not to know, and after Xu Damao explained it once, Yang Dalin said that he understood.

The fight begins.

In the first round, Xu Damao said, "We've all played together before. This is Dalinzi's first time playing, so we'll just draw. The main purpose is to teach Dalinzi a lesson."

Let's just play casually next time, okay?

Everyone agreed.

Yang Dalin started acting strangely in the very first hand. He left first, becoming the first player to leave, and then pretended to shuffle the cards.

While shuffling the cards, I used my fingernail to mark several jokers, twos, and other special cards.

Then he secretly hid six twos in his sleeve.

There are variations of Gouji that involve at least four hands, and also six hands.

There are too many cards; they're hard to remember.

Just keep more good cards hidden.

Yan Jiecheng, that half-baked guy, dares to boast that he'll keep paying tribute to us? He's dreaming.

Yang Dalin steals more points to make it easier to play single cards and small cards.

As long as a lot of single, small cards are played, the game will open.

That would make burning cards easier.

Xu Damao sat next to Yang Dalin and glanced at Yang Dalin's cards several times, but Yang Dalin didn't deliberately block the cards.

Xu Damao tried to be more open-minded several times, but Yang Dalin scared him so much that he dared not go upstairs.

Meanwhile, Yan Jiefang, on Yang Dalin's other side, was quite cunning. After Yang Dalin won a small hand, Yan Jiefang tried to win with a higher hand. Yang Dalin held up his hand, spread it out for Xu Damao to see, and, feigning weakness, asked, "Brother Damao, can I burn him?"

Xu Damao glanced at Yang Dalin's cards, and couldn't very well say he couldn't burn his own federation's cards.

And you can't stop him, plus he can ask his own Federation.

He could only nod and say, "Yes, it can be burned."

As a result, Yan Jiecheng was unable to open a shop.

Yang Dalin then went for the first customer again. In the next round, Yang Dalin ate one stick of tribute, one stick of roasted tribute, and two sticks of the first customer.

Then Yang Dalin shuffled the cards again, this time hiding two twos and four sharps, and he was going to declare Yan Jiefang in the next round.