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

For some reason, Ma San knew as soon as Da Lin returned that Yan Jiecheng's blind date was named Yu Li.

But he still asked, "Brother Lin, what if Yan Jie's blind date isn't named Yu Li?"

Yang Dalin didn't say he disliked Yu Li that much; whether Yu Li was stingy or not had little to do with him.

He is Yu Haitang, the younger sister of Yu Li who dislikes her.

That woman is definitely not a good person if the wind picks up.

Don't let this woman be led into the yard.

They're really good at stirring up trouble.

When the wind picks up, these kinds of people will be incredibly eager to take things too seriously.

I don't want to be targeted.

If it weren't for Yu Li, Yang Dalin would have thought it would be good to spread the Yan family's ways a few times.

How could we let the Yan family get married so easily?

If you treat someone else's daughter this way after you get married, aren't you just harming her?

Yang Dalin took out a stack of money and handed it to Ma San: "San'er, this can only be done three times at most. If you don't call Yu Li three times, then forget about it."

This is a minor issue, and we can't keep harping on it.

"Give them a lesson, that's enough."

Ma San took the banknotes from Yang Dalin's hand and felt them before realizing they were money.

He immediately tried to return the money, saying, "Brother Dalin, this is nothing, it doesn't cost any money. Besides, I have my own, I don't need your money."

"Alright, listen to me, take it."

The reason I'm giving you this is so you don't have to personally inquire about the information, and I don't want the Yan family to know that the people behind the scenes are the two of us brothers.

If you ask someone to do it empty-handed, who's going to do it?

"Brother Dalin, it's not good to give money. Grain is hard currency these days. If you could exchange it for dozens of kilograms of cornmeal or something, it would be several times more useful than this money."

Because even if you have money now, you can't necessarily buy food.

Upon hearing this, Yang Dalin realized that Ma San's words made sense.

Get the money back.

"Okay, I'll bring you fifty catties of cornmeal tomorrow."

Divide it into several small bags and find several people.

The message has been confirmed.

Wait a few days before having someone spread the news.

Don't be in such a hurry.

"Get the information first before you act."

"Okay, I understand, Brother Dalin."

"Then I'll go back and rest."

"Okay, go ahead."

By the way, I'm off for three days starting tomorrow. Go back to work if you need to, but don't wake me up in the mornings for those three days.

"Okay, I got it, bro."

Yang Dalin returned home.

He saw Aunt Qi sitting in the living room, dressed in cool clothes, waiting for him.

As soon as Yang Dalin returned, Aunt Qi closed the door and asked cautiously in a low voice, "Dalin, did you put all the grain and dried meat in the rice jar?"

"Yes, Auntie, I traded some game for it when I came back. I brought it back from out of town."

It came back in a sack, and nobody saw it.

Aunt Qi patted her chest: "That's good, you scared me to death."

In the future, try not to exchange grain in the forest; it's too dangerous.

The crackdown in Beijing has been very strict lately; several black markets have already been shut down.

Yang Dalin's heart skipped a beat. Could it be that a large-scale crackdown on the black market had begun?

Yang Dalin explained, "Auntie, don't worry, the ones I took were all exchanged from other places."

I brought them back and hid them well so no one else could see them.

We should just be mindful of what we eat at home and make sure Xiaoning and the others keep their mouths shut.

If I receive a last-minute business trip assignment next time, you won't need to be so frugal with this food.

And you don't need to be stingy with my rationed food, I don't lack food.

"We're really short of food. I'll go hunt a wild boar, and I can exchange it for several months' worth of grain."

Qi Yulan waved her hand and said, "No, I know you can hunt, Da Linzi. I'm just worried that the place where you exchange things isn't safe."

To appease Aunt Qi, Yang Dalin said, "Auntie, you're overthinking it. We in this line of work have special places for exchanging things."

It has nothing to do with the black market in Beijing.

Many of them are located near train stations in various places, but only we insiders know about them.

Outsiders rarely go in, and the places are all small and not large-scale.

Many of us were transferred or swapped among colleagues.

For example, our colleagues at the bus station who frequently travel to Tianjin brought back some fried dough twists from Tianjin.

Because he went there so often, he didn't feel like eating fried dough twists anymore. So he would take them out and trade them with his colleagues who brought back local specialties from other places for things he wanted.

These are all acquaintances, so we exchange things with each other without spending money.

There won't be any problems if we do this. Even if the police find out, it won't matter.

Moreover, we have our own internal police force, so the local authorities have no jurisdiction over us.

Aunt Qi works at the neighborhood office, although she is just an employee who does odd jobs in logistics.

But he still knows a few things.

Hearing this, Aunt Qi felt much more at ease.

Each department will protect its own people, right?

Very normal.

Aunt Qi was relieved and went to sleep.

Yang Dalin knew that Aunt Qi was worried about him, so he had to explain things to her, otherwise she would keep thinking about him.

Yang Dalin was about to fetch a bucket of water.

I went back to my room to wash up before going to sleep, because I had sweated a lot from drinking the mutton soup.

That's the downside of summer; you sweat easily even when you eat something hot.

Yang Dalin wondered if the side room on the south side could be converted into a bathroom.

At this time of year, taking a bath in the summer in northern cities is really inconvenient.

It's okay for a guy like me.

In the summer evenings, you can just wear a pair of shorts to the Central Court and take a quick shower.

Many of the men living in the compound do this, so it doesn't seem out of place for me.

As you walk into the middle courtyard, you see several men from different courtyards taking showers right there, wearing only a pair of shorts.

There's no need to go home to clean it. There are drainage pipes in the yard, and some of the water just sinks underground. It's not a big problem. It's not winter. If it froze directly in the yard in winter, it would be inconvenient for people to walk, which would definitely not be good.

Besides, nobody bathes in the yard during winter.

They all go to the public bathhouse.

Yang Dalin arrived at the Intermediate Court, where the main lights were off. He happened to run into Sha Zhu and Yi Zhonghai.

It's clear that Yi Zhonghai and Sha Zhu have become much closer.

Yang Dalin quickly washed up, greeted them and said he would talk to them again during the day tomorrow, and then went home to rest.

Lying in bed, Yang Dalin was still thinking about how inconvenient it was to take a bath in the north these days.

Sometimes I sweat so much in a day that I have to take several showers.

It would be even more inconvenient for my aunt and Sister Yan.

Yang Dalin thought it would be great to convert the south side room into a bathroom.

I'll discuss it with my aunt tomorrow. If it goes well, I'll take three days off and have time to renovate a bathroom in the house.

That side room was basically used as a storeroom, so it was no longer needed. It would be nice to convert it into a bathroom for Aunt Qi and the others.

The next day, when Aunt Qi was having breakfast, she disagreed with Yang Dalin's idea.