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

Upon hearing this, Yi Zhonghai's eyes lit up. "That's right!"

"Old woman, please tell me properly."

Wen Xiumei tidied her hair behind her ear and said, "You know, the deaf old lady values ​​Sha Zhu more. Sha Zhu is good at cooking and can cook a few dishes."

Although I haven't had much contact with Yang Dalin, I can tell that he is a responsible and filial child.

Let's tie Dongxu to them.

Dongxu is honest and obedient, and he will take care of us in our old age. Shazhu and Dalinzi will help Dongxu in the future.

This way, Dongxu won't be bullied, he'll have two good helpers, and the young people can get along well. Isn't that great?

Sha Zhu has a small burden and is looking for a wife. See if you know anyone suitable to introduce to him. If Yang Dalin's situation doesn't work out, when you are promoted to level eight worker, find the factory manager some gifts and find him a job in the factory.

Then let Dongxu mentor Yang Dalin, which will tie the two of them together, right?

You found him a wife, and you found him a stable job, giving him a fixed income.

These two people are still not completely devoted to you.

"If you just have them protect Dongxu a bit more, wouldn't that solve the problem?"

Yi Zhonghai's eyes lit up as he listened. Yes, it's not very safe to leave an elderly person alone.

Jia Dongxu is burdened with too much responsibility and is too honest. If he were to take care of three elderly people, things would be much better.

In his excitement, Yi Zhonghai picked up Wen Xiumei.

Wen Xiumei blushed deeply.

"Honey, why are you so smart today?"

Wen Xiumei, her face flushed, nestled against Yi Zhonghai's chest: "How could I have thought of that? These past few days, when I went to talk to the old lady about things in the courtyard, it was all the old lady who taught me."

Upon hearing this, Yi Zhonghai realized that it was true and that he would have to have a good talk with the old lady tomorrow.

Yi Zhonghai released Wen Xiumei and said, "Good idea, good idea. Find a way to cut two ounces of meat tomorrow, and I'll go talk to the old lady tomorrow night."

Wen Xiumei stood up and replied, "Okay, it's just that meat is really hard to buy."

Knowing that meat was really hard to buy these days, Yi Zhonghai said, "If you don't like it, try buying some cooked food, like pig's head or offal. Buy it quietly so no one sees you."

Yi Wenshi understood and nodded, "Okay, I understand."

Yang Dalin was, of course, unaware of the schemes orchestrated by Long Yi and his companion.

As for Yi Zhonghai's concern about Yang Dalin not addressing him as "Uncle" at the meeting, Yi Zhonghai didn't seem to care much at the moment.

It's just a title, it doesn't have any real benefits. If we can really link Sha Zhu and him together, what's wrong with calling him Uncle Yi instead of Uncle Yi?

Yi Zhonghai's mind is mostly focused on the practical issues of elderly care; other matters can take a backseat.

He really thought he was willing to take care of some of the messy things in the yard.

He's just waiting to retire and enjoy his old age, he doesn't care about anything else.

When it comes to his retirement, everything else is secondary.

At the Yan family home, Yan Jiecheng sat opposite Yan Laokou.

"Dad, how did I behave today? How about you forgive my twenty yuan debt?"

No wonder Yan Jiecheng worked so hard today; he even knew how to behave at the meeting.

It turns out that Yan Bugui taught them all.

Yan Bugui, that old miser, wouldn't even spare his own son when it came to money, ration coupons, and grain.

Yan Jiekuang and Yan Jiefang also stood eagerly in front of Lao Kou.

"It's Dad, and it's us too. We need to have twenty dollars waived as well; that fifty dollars debt from last time was too much."

Only the Yan couple could be so sophisticated and unconventional in their calculations when it comes to their own son and daughter.

Yan Bugui adjusted his glasses, which weren't yet bandaged.

"Eldest brother, second brother, third brother, Dad knows you put in a lot of effort today and did a great job, but twenty is too much. We only got twenty-five yuan back today."

"I'll give you a 20 yuan discount per person, that's 60 yuan. I'll still have to add 35 yuan to that, that won't do. At most, it'll be 2 yuan per person, no more."

Despite the desperate pleas of the three Yan family sons, they could not change Old Man Yan's stingy decision.

According to Yan Laokou's statement, a laborer outside can only earn a maximum of two yuan a day.

You worked for half an hour and only earned two yuan. What's there to be dissatisfied about?

With a father like that, if the children he raises are not filial to them in the future, they can't blame anyone else.

To hold your children accountable like this, who could stand it?

Yang Dalin and Sha Zhu chatted for a while before going home.

Sha Zhu's main point is that Xu Damao is a scoundrel who only likes to play dirty tricks.

Let's stay away from him from now on.

Yang Dalin brushed him off, saying, "Okay, okay, you're right."

But when facing Xu Damao alone, all he could say was, Damao did the right thing, keep it up next time.

Of course, Yang Dalin was only watching how Yan Laokou dealt with him. If Yan Laokou dared to mess with him, Yang Dalin would definitely beat him to a pulp.

Yang Dalin is also a typical hypocrite.

That's human nature; there aren't that many truly fair and just people, and everyone has their own selfish desires.

As the old saying goes, judge by actions, not intentions; no one is perfect when it comes to intentions.

When Yang Dalin got home, he saw the heated kang bed, the quilts laid out, a thermos next to the table, and a clean teacup on the table. Yang Dalin felt incredibly warm inside.

The next morning, before dawn, Yang Dalin got up.

Today I'm helping Aunt Qi buy cabbages for winter storage.

Aunt Qi and Qi Yanhua also got up, but Yang Dalin told them to go back to sleep and that he would go by himself.

Aunt Qi said, "I'm already up, I'm not going to sleep anymore. Last time I didn't get any meat because of the long queue. Today there are so many people queuing to buy cabbage, there will definitely be fewer people at the meat shop. Yan Hua and I will go buy some meat, I think we can get some today."

Upon hearing this, Yang Dalin realized that it was indeed true.

He nodded and said, "Then, Auntie, you can take all three jin of meat coupons and buy as much as you can."

Let's buy them and marinate them, otherwise who knows when we'll be able to buy them again!

Aunt Qi asked with a hint of heartache, "You bought them all?"

Yang Dalin said, "Yes, we bought them all. We should buy more fertilizer so we can render some oil. If they don't sell us that much, we'll buy as much as we can."

Aunt Qi hardened her heart and said, "Alright, then let's take the few ounces of meat coupons we have at home. We'll buy as much as we can, and we'll be frugal and eat until the New Year. If we can't buy that much, we'll buy some more next time."

Aunt Qi and Qi Yanhua went to queue up to buy meat without having eaten breakfast early in the morning.

Yang Dalin and his neighbors in the courtyard lined up to buy Chinese cabbage.

The winter-stored Chinese cabbages were delivered to the entrance of the alley by the vegetable market; everyone just needed to line up at the entrance.

However, there are quite a few people at the entrance of this alley; there are more than twenty households in courtyard number 95 alone.

In normal years, a family of four could buy 200 jin (100 kg) of cabbage.

The Qi family of three used to be able to buy 150 jin (75 catties), but last year they could only buy about 100 jin (50 catties).

This year, there probably won't be many more, which is why Yang Dalin got up early to queue up today.

Even so, we still waited in line for almost two hours.

As a result, they bought 105 jin (52.5 catties) of goods, and didn't even use Grandpa Qi's cart; they just put them in sacks and carried them back.

In those days, cabbages were very small, not as heavy as the ones that weighed over ten kilograms each in later generations.

Next to the south side room of the Qi family's house was a small cellar, where Yang Dalin carefully stacked the cabbages one by one.

The Qi family's cellar was shared by several families in the front yard.

Yang Dalin rode Grandpa Qi's cart and helped several neighbors in the courtyard who had difficulty transporting cabbages back home.

For example, Yang Dalin can carry back 200 jin (100 kg) of cabbage from Grandpa Zhao's house all by himself.

However, there are other families who have handcarts but don't use them, so they don't have to carry the load themselves.