All the heavens begin with the love in the courtyard.

The living standards at Qin Huairu's house were practically back to 1961. The two little girls would deliberately get close to He Zhen and Xu Xiaonuan for a bite to eat, intentionally playing with them and occasionally visiting He Yuzhu's house for a quick snack.

When Banggeng first saw them, he still dragged his two younger sisters home by their hair. However, as Qin Huairu's family's living standards declined too quickly, and Banggeng perhaps grew up a bit, he understood the idiom "to endure hardship and bide one's time," so he began to let his two younger sisters go to He Yuzhu's house to freeload.

He Yuzhu didn't skimp on food for the two girls. He believed that small favors were appreciated, while excessive favors were resented. These small acts of kindness would only make the two girls more grateful to him.

Bang Geng's decision to go to the countryside after graduating from junior high school was definitely related to his family's living standards. With Bang Geng's departure, Qin Huairu seemed to feel relieved, and a smile appeared on her face that she hadn't seen before.

He Yuzhu occasionally caught a glimpse of Qin Huairu's smile, but this only heightened his vigilance. Fortunately, Qin Huairu seemed to realize that He Yuzhu was no longer the naive bachelor she used to be, so she didn't approach him.

On the contrary, she does laundry and cooks every day, chats with the women and elderly in the courtyard and helps them, which has earned her a good reputation. Some people even take the initiative to introduce her to potential partners.

After all, He Yuzhu is already married and a father of two. The gossip about her and He Yuzhu has long been forgotten by everyone as time has passed.

He Yuzhu breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that she didn't intend to continue flirting with him. Qin Huairu no longer held the same appeal for him as she did back then.

Even when facing Ran Qiuye, he no longer has the passion that used to get hard at the slightest touch. Men, you know, old married couples gradually transform love into familial affection.

When anything addictive becomes a routine task, it loses its original appeal, regardless of whether you're a man or a woman.

At the end of 1969, Ran Qiuye still went to get an IUD. After discussing it, the two of them felt that two children were enough. Now, with a boy and a girl, the couple couldn't take care of them all and often had to ask an elderly couple to help look after them.

As the 1970s slowly arrived, He Yuzhu seemed to have completely integrated into this world. He could no longer tell if he had ever had another name, Zhang Peng, because every night when he woke up, the woman on the other side of his pillow was still the woman named Ran Qiuye.

As the child grew older, all sorts of little annoyances arose, and He Yuzhu realized that being a stay-at-home dad wasn't so easy!

As the tide gradually stabilized, Ran Qiuye, who used to say she wanted to continue being a teacher a few years ago, now has two children to raise and has long since given up that idea.

That's life. Plans can never keep up with changes. At the end of 1970, the deaf old lady fell again. This time, the fall was quite serious. She could hardly walk anymore and sometimes even talked nonsense.

He Yuzhu knew that the deaf old lady wouldn't make it through this ordeal. She was supposed to be ninety years old next year, and he didn't know if she could hold on until then.

Seeing that the old lady's spirits were declining day by day, He Yuzhu discussed with the old man and his wife whether they should hold a birthday banquet for the old lady in advance. The old man agreed, and the deaf old lady held He Yuzhu's hand and agreed as well.

And so, after the Spring Festival in 1971, He Yuzhu held a 90th birthday banquet for the deaf old lady. Almost everyone in the compound attended the banquet, and even a department in Beijing sent someone to offer their congratulations. The old lady was in particularly good spirits that day and was happy all day long.

He Yuzhu even specially asked Master Wang from the steel mill's photo studio to make a special trip to take many photos of everyone, preparing to take a group portrait of the entire compound.

The deaf old lady also specifically requested to have a few individual photos taken with the children, and He Yuzhu complied with her wishes.

In one of the photos, the deaf old lady is holding He Hua's hand with her left hand and chubby Xu Xiaonuan's hand with her right hand. He Zhen, who is sucking her fingers, is standing at her feet. Xiao Dang and Xiao Kuihua, two older girls, are standing behind her, looking at the camera with curious expressions. The deaf old lady is smiling with her wrinkled face, revealing her mouth with only two teeth.

Ten days after the birthday banquet, the deaf old lady passed away peacefully on a rainy night. That night, He Yuzhu also showed a long-lost sadness!

Chapter 78: The 76th year has arrived.

After the deaf old lady passed away, apart from the house, she left behind almost nothing of value. The money she had wasn't even enough to cover her funeral expenses. However, He Yuzhu and Uncle Yi were in charge of all the funeral arrangements.

The old man could practically be considered the deaf old woman's son in name, as he and his wife had been taking care of her for years.

As the grandson of the deaf old lady, He Yuzhu naturally had to wear mourning clothes for her.

Before she passed away, the deaf old lady had originally decided to leave the house to her eldest uncle, but he insisted that she leave it directly to He Yuzhu.

The old man explained that since the room would eventually be given to Zhu Zi anyway, and his two rooms would also be left to him, he might as well just submit a report to the neighborhood committee and settle the matter.

In recent years, after He Zhen and He Hua were born, the old man and his wife treated the two children like their own grandchildren, and He Yuzhu also let the old man and his wife spoil the two children.

As early as the Spring Festival New Year's Eve dinner at the end of 1968, He Yuzhu said in front of the deaf old lady that he would definitely take care of the old man and his wife in their old age and see them off when they died.

It wasn't that he was after the two houses owned by the old man and his wife, but rather that He Yuzhu had indeed received a lot of help from them over the years. After losing his parents, He Yuzhu and his sister were able to survive in this courtyard entirely thanks to the help of the old man and his wife.

The kindness shown to them in the past, coupled with the fact that their two children have been calling them grandpa and grandma since they were little, shows that people are ultimately emotional beings. He Yuzhu doesn't have any grand ambitions; he just wants to live a peaceful life.

I had thought about moving out of the compound in a few years, but after my relationship with Qin Huairu ended completely and we grew distant, I gradually got used to this kind of life. After having a home, I gradually developed a sense of attachment and affection for the old place.

Time flies, and before we know it, several years have passed.

The deputy directors of the steel plant have changed time and again, but Director Li remains the same. However, nothing lasts forever, and many things change with time.

Xu Damao, the former deputy director, is now forgotten; no one even mentions his name anymore, as if the crimes he committed have long since faded away with time.

However, by mid-1975, He Yuzhu had already noticed a different trend spreading. The big boss, who had been away for several years, had returned to Yanjing once again. Although the big boss no longer held any position, his return to Yanjing at this time spoke volumes.

He Yuzhu immediately went to the big boss's house and hosted a welcome feast. The big boss was in a good mood and, after eating He Yuzhu's cooking again, repeatedly praised He Yuzhu's improved culinary skills. Upon hearing that He Yuzhu was already a father of two, he was greatly impressed and said that he would definitely bring him over to see him if he had the chance.

The two were like old friends, without any distinction between superiors and inferiors, or any barriers between a cook and a big shot. He Yuzhu felt as if he had entered the home of an old friend, cooked a meal, ate a meal together, played a game of chess, and chatted about everyday life, the changes of the times, and those years and events!

When the bigwigs talked to He Yuzhu about the possibility of earth-shattering changes happening in the country, He Yuzhu smiled calmly and then said...

"People change, and times change with them. One day, we will re-examine this special period, and it's never too late to correct our mistakes!"

The big boss gave He Yuzhu a deep look, and then the two smiled at each other, everything understood without saying a word!

At the end of that year, Bang Geng, who was already 21 years old, ended his career as an intellectual and officially returned to the city, becoming a proud unemployed youth.

Besides Bang Geng, in the past two years, there have been more and more people who knew about the situation returning to the city. Among them, several had already married and had children in the countryside. Some unfamiliar faces have also started to appear in the compound.

He Yuzhu hasn't been idle these past few years. After having a wife and children, his previous salary was enough to support a family of four, but he definitely couldn't afford to eat and drink extravagantly anymore.

So in recent years, He Yuzhu has started taking orders again, for all kinds of weddings, celebrations, and funerals. As long as the price is fair, He Yuzhu and his apprentice Ma Hua and a few others will book the whole venue.

Thanks to this side income, He Yuzhu has saved up a considerable amount of money over the years. Although it's only a couple thousand yuan, it's a huge sum of money in this day and age.

He Yuzhu didn't have a strong urge to make money. He'll only be born in 76 next year, so even if he wanted to make money, there was no rush.

The greatest happiness for He Yuzhu in this story is for his family to be safe, sound, and healthy.

In contrast to the happiness of He Yuzhu's family, the Qin Huairu family across the street is experiencing renewed conflicts as Bang Geng returns.

The first issue is housing. Qin Huairu's family consists of three children, an elderly person, and herself, a total of five people, yet they live in two small single rooms.

This room includes the dining room and living room. The inner room is where we sleep, with just a large earthen kang (heated brick bed) where the whole family sleeps. When we were little, Banggeng was still young, so we managed to sleep together.

Now even Xiao Dang and Xiao Kuihua are almost adults, and Bang Geng is almost over puberty. It's quite interesting to see the whole family crammed into one hole.

So Qin Huairu had no choice but to set up a folding four-poster bed in the front living room for Bang Geng to sleep on. With four women and one hot-blooded young man in the house, life was incredibly awkward.

Sleeping was passable, after all, they had a home here. But another major issue concerning their survival was always weighing on the Qin family's mind: Bang Geng's job.

These days, getting a formal job is harder than getting into a top-tier university like a 985 or 211 in later generations. At least in later generations, you could apply to any university and, if you worked hard, you still had a chance to get in.

These days, every job is already filled, and every industry is already full of saturated jobs. Where are there any new opportunities?

Even if there are vacant positions, not to mention how many people with connections will compete for them, even factory workers, once you retire, you can have your children take over your job, so where are there any vacant positions to give to others?

As for Qin Huairu, she is only in her early forties and not old enough to take over the family business, so Bang Geng can only squeeze together with a few women every day for the time being, becoming a depressed unemployed youth!

Bang Geng's years of rural life haven't changed his personality; on the contrary, they've made him even more withdrawn. Now that he's reached the age to get married, he still has a deadpan expression, as if someone owes him eight hundred yuan.

Although, over time, and also due to Banggeng's absence while he was away from home during the Down to the Countryside Movement, the relationship between Qin Huairu and He Yuzhu's family has improved somewhat in recent years, it is still far from the closeness of the past. In fact, He Yuzhu has always been wary of Qin Huairu.

On the contrary, He Zhen often took her younger sister He Hua to Qin Huairu's house to play with the two sisters, Xiao Dang and Xiao Kuihua. The children had a good relationship, at least it seemed to be better than the adults.

As they got older, He Zhen and He Hua didn't like playing with Xu Xiaonuan as much anymore.

Xu Xiaonuan, this chubby girl, has been chubby since she was a baby. Xu Damao only has this one daughter, so he listens to her every word.

Qin Jingru doted on her precious daughter like her own heart and soul. She had always been deeply troubled by the fact that Qin Huairu had poisoned Xu Damao, so she was terrified that her precious daughter would be poisoned by Qin Huairu. Therefore, she never allowed Xiao Nuan to go to Qin Huairu's house to play from a young age, and she was even more forbidden from playing with Xiao Dang and Xiao Kuihua.

Although the two are sisters, their families have the worst relationship in the compound, and they haven't spoken to each other for many years.

Xu Xiaonuan was spoiled by her parents from a young age, and He Yuzhu often secretly fed her, making her strong and healthy. She was almost a head taller than He Zhen. From a young age, she also had a haughty and arrogant personality, which gave He Yuzhu a lot of headaches. He always felt that his daughter was a waste.

Chapter 79: Brother... what's wrong with you?

Even if He Yuzhu had grievances about his adopted daughter Xu Xiaonuan, there was no one to tell him. Several times he couldn't help but bring up the issue of the child's education with Qin Jingru, only to be met with her nagging about minding her own business.

Qin Jingru was unsure whether the child was He Yuzhu's or Xu Damao's, but she kept telling herself that it was her and Xu Damao's child.

After all, she and He Yuzhu only had one time, no, only two. Although those two times were indeed equivalent to more than ten times with Xu Damao, it didn't mean that the child was definitely He Yuzhu's, considering that she and Xu Damao had lived together for so many years.

Over the years, she has always avoided letting people know about her relationship with He Yuzhu, as it concerns a woman's reputation. Although Xu Damao keeps nagging about having a son, the two of them are not fertile enough, so what can she do?

At least, Xu Damao has always treated Xu Xiaonuan like his own daughter, and his doting on her is definitely better than that of his other children.

Seeing that he couldn't persuade Qin Jingru, He Yuzhu could only let things take their course. However, when Xu Xiaonuan came to his place, she was always given food and drink as usual. Even many people in the compound said that He Yuzhu and Xu Damao, who were sworn enemies, were actually quite good to the child!

He Yuzhu's children are still young and carefree, without any worries or troubles, while Qin Huairu's children are becoming more and more worried every day.

In the middle of the night, Xiao Dang couldn't hold it in any longer and wanted to go to the toilet, but he was scared in the dark. In the end, he shook his younger sister, Xiao Kuihua, awake and asked her to go to the toilet with him. Xiao Kuihua got up groggily.

The two dared not turn on the light, afraid of waking others. Holding hands, they walked out of the inner room. As soon as they reached the outer room, they heard Banggeng's heavy breathing in the darkness, growing more and more urgent...

Xiao Dang and Xiao Kuihua, two innocent young girls, were naive and thought something had happened to their older brother. They cried out in alarm in the darkness.

"Brother...brother, what's wrong with you!"

The sound startled Banggeng so much that he almost jumped out of his skin. He quickly covered himself with the blanket and pretended that nothing had happened. But the two silly girls had no idea that something had happened to their brother. When they heard no sound, they immediately shouted into the inner room.

Qin Huairu and the old woman were both woken up by the noise. They turned on the light and rushed out of the house to ask what had happened.

Bang Geng felt the shame of his life to the extreme. When Qin Huairu questioned him, he didn't dare to say a word. He just covered his head with the blanket and didn't dare to say a word.

Qin Huairu didn't know what was going on. She thought something had happened to her son, so she quickly reached under the covers to feel around. When she touched something sticky, she froze for a second before her face turned red with embarrassment. She immediately scolded Xiao Dang and Xiao Kuihua, who were watching the commotion, and told them to hurry up and go to the toilet.

That night, the incident with the stick kept Qin Huairu tossing and turning in bed, unable to sleep, her mind filled with countless thoughts.

She recalled all the ups and downs of her life over the years, filled with countless hardships and tears, but she had managed to raise her three children.

In the blink of an eye, Bang Geng has grown up and is now a young man, almost at the age where he should get married and have children.

I'm already in my early forties, but life is still so hard to bear.

It's really inconvenient to keep Banggeng in this house any longer. We have to find him a job no matter what. Once he has a job, he can move out. In a few years, when Xiaodang and Xiaokui get married, things won't be so difficult.

Thinking about it is one thing, planning it is another, but finding a job is not so easy.

My situation isn't even that difficult. Many of my coworkers at the steel plant have four or five sons, all of whom are adults now. Their families, numbering over twenty, are crammed into tile-roofed houses. Those are the truly agonizing lives.

But Qin Huairu was not one of those honest people. At this point, she began to think that no matter what, she had to find a job for her child.

But where can I find this job?

For some reason, Qin Huairu suddenly recalled He Yuzhu's face. She had kept that face hidden in her heart for seven or eight years. Since He Yuzhu got married, Qin Huairu had truly given up on that idea.

These days are different from later generations. In later generations, some women even felt honored to be mistresses, but in this era, if you are a mistress, your reputation is completely ruined.

So when He Yuzhu got married, Qin Huairu knew that everything between her and him was over.

My tears have run dry, my heart is dead, let the past go with the wind!

It's impossible to say that Qin Huairu was truly that magnanimous, but what does it matter if she has regrets?

In this era, aren't countless women suppressing their emotions, compromising themselves, and putting the well-being of their families first?