Break out of the courtyard

Bang bang bang!

Before dawn on February 2, the gate of No. 4 Courtyard on the North Shore of Houhai was pounded loudly!

Zhang Heping opened the door and found his uncle Zhang Cheng outside the door, so he asked angrily: "What are you doing?"

"I'm looking for your dad!" Zhang Cheng said, trying to push Zhang Heping away and enter the hospital, but Zhang Heping pushed him out with his backhand and fell into the snow.

"My dad is in Courtyard 95, not at my house!" Zhang Heping glanced at the black fur boots on the other party's feet indifferently, and then closed the door with a bang.

Those boots were worn by Zhang Cheng yesterday when he came to the east wing of No. 7 Courtyard and were worn by Lao Zhang.

A pair of fur boots is nothing. The problem is that this guy came to the house empty-handed, and he still had the nerve to take something from the Heping family!

You say he doesn’t understand the ways of the world. The load of sweet potatoes he carried into the city yesterday was all given to his eldest son, Zhang Cuishan, to send to Section Chief Xie of the Security Section!

The key point is that this guy wore fur boots and didn’t even say thank you. He also wanted to give boots to his mother-in-law, second-in-law and others, haha...

The lights in the west wing came on, and the three sisters woke up.

Zhang Heping simply walked into the kitchen, which was hung with dried meat and fish, and started to light a fire and boil water to prepare for washing and cooking.

When the left and right gatehouses were being built, half-protruding bricks were reserved on the tops of the east and west walls, forming a row of 10 cm wide grooves with the roof.

At this time, long bamboo poles with dried meat and fish hanging on them were placed between the grooves on the east and west walls, making it look very substantial.

In the past few months, when the windows were opened to let in the air of dried meat and fish, the Zhang family had to guard against prying eyes from outsiders. However, they were not guarded against the grandmother next door who did not want to come in and always stood at the kitchen window of No. 7 to talk.

No, she is thinking about it!

The grandmother next door wanted two sticks of bacon and asked the matchmaker to marry Zhang Cuishan.

However, she was unwilling to bow to Zhang Heping, and Zhang Bing and the others refused to give it, so they finally waited to come to Zhangcheng.

As a result, Zhang Cheng entered Courtyard No. 7 yesterday. He first asked for fur boots, and then he asked for fur boots again. Then Zhang Heping kicked him out on the grounds of not paying back the food he owed.

Zhang Heping would rather spend 12 dried chickens with his classmates in exchange for tickets to the Spring Festival Gala than give two sticks of bacon to White-Eyed Wolf relatives for no reason!

After the three sisters took away Lao Zhang's breakfast, Zhang Heping went to the roof of the concierge to get bamboo and continued to weave bamboo gift boxes.

Last year, we packed meat in sacks and gave them as gifts. It was arrogant, but it was too classy.

This year, although I still need to put them in sacks for gift giving, there is an extra layer of packaging inside, which immediately raises the level of quality.

After waiting all morning, my parents, eldest sister, and second sister didn't come over. It seemed that they all knew how far away they were, and they had to go to a restaurant at noon to show encouragement.

At noon, Zhang Cheng stayed in the east wing of No. 95 with a shy face, thinking about getting a free meal and then talking about things at the dinner table.

Unexpectedly, Zhang Heping did not follow martial ethics. After calling people out, a family of six took three human-powered tricycles and left. Zhang Cheng was left in a mess in the wind, and he was reluctant to spend money to ride on the tricycle.

Zhang Cheng couldn't find free food, and even caused his mother to lose the food next door. The pressure was put on his eldest son.

There was no other way, so Zhang Cheng went back to his hometown with 5 steamed buns in the afternoon.

Because Majiatun built a new house last year, and with Zhang Heping's instigation, her mother, Ma Xiuzhen, decided to go back to Majiatun for the New Year this year, and called the Majiatun Township Commune to give her grandfather a warning in advance.

Lao Zhang didn't want to go, how could Zhang Heping let him do so.

This trip to Majiatun was originally Zhang Heping's intention. He didn't want to celebrate the New Year with the old lady next door and her eldest grandson, so he simply stayed far away to avoid being troubled.

For this reason, Zhang Heping began to force the palace, "Mom, how many years has it been since Lao Zhang went to grandpa's house?"

"Except for the wedding, I haven't been there since." Ma Xiuzhen said in a faint tone.

"My father-in-law's house has been washed away by the flood, and the son-in-law is so indifferent. What is this kind of man doing here? Let's get divorced as soon as possible, lest..." Before Zhang Heping could finish his words, he was hit by his mother Ma Xiuzhen. He paused and kicked him out.

Later, her mother, Ma Xiuzhen, asked Zhang Heping for two sticks of bacon, and her father, Zhang Bing, agreed to go to Majiatun together.

On February 2, Zhang Heping and his family completed the New Year's greetings, and his eldest cousin Ma Lili emptied the client's clothes.

In the morning of the next day, their family of six took a bus to Baoding, carrying large and small bags and enough Laifu, and then transferred to Majiatun.

……

Main house, Courtyard No. 6, North Bank of Houhai.

Xie Ermei looked at the two pieces of bacon on the square table, a few yuan in cents, and a pair of fur boots, and felt very heartbroken.

These things were sent over by Zhang Bing, the third son, this morning, saying that his family was going to celebrate the New Year in Majiatun.

The implication is, old lady, you can live with your eldest grandson by yourself!

Two sticks of bacon... As soon as the third son Zhang Bing left, the third grandson Zhang Heping sent a dried chicken and a dried rabbit to each of the east and west wing rooms and the two back rooms, but not to the main room.

This grandson deliberately made her angry, knowing that she wanted two sticks of bacon as a gift to the matchmaker!

If you send it to the matchmaker, she will be gone!

"Alas..." Xie Ermei sighed and put away the coins on the table, saving them for her eldest grandson to get a wife.

The old fur boots on my feet can still be worn. I keep these new fur boots for my granddaughter-in-law. If they don't fit, she can wear them again.

"I didn't make new clothes..."

Xie Ermei muttered to herself, wondering whether she meant that she didn't make new clothes for her, or that she didn't make them for her eldest grandson Zhang Cuishan.

……

Zhang Heping and his family arrived in the county on the morning of February 2th. Their uncle Ma Zhiyi drove a mule and horse cart to pick them up. They caught up with the lunch in the village, which was sweet potato and cabbage soup.

Zhang Heping thought that the houses built in Majiatun were red brick houses, but it turned out that they were still adobe houses, except that the previous thatched roofs were replaced with tiles, and the adobe kangs were replaced with brick kangs.

Grandpa Ma Changming said that this is already very good. He can help everyone repair their houses for the winter before it snows. This was something that he would have never dared to think about before liberation!

In addition, his cousin Ma Yongsheng, who had previously worn Zhang Heping's second-hand military uniform, as well as his third, fourth and eldest uncles, were recruited into the county's brick factory after the flood, which greatly eased the family's financial pressure.

Zhang Heping and the others brought a lot of things this time, including stick noodles, bacon, dried rabbit, tobacco, wine, candies, etc., as well as more than a dozen pairs of fur boots made by Lao Zhang, and coats made of regeneration cloth by his mother Ma Xiuzhen and three sisters. wait.

For this little thing, they were questioned a lot along the way, but there were letters of introduction issued by the street office for returning home to visit relatives, so it didn't cause any problems.

In the afternoon of that day, my grandfather showed great pride and invited the township chief, secretary, and people from the village. They all brought out cigarettes, wine, and candies to celebrate the New Year in advance.

Zhang Heping took a look at the wild products and seasonings that his uncle and his family had stored at home, and couldn't help but become a chef. The main reason was that after improving his cooking skills for so long, he had never encountered such a complete range of seasonings.

That night, Lao Zhang drank too much and complained to his father-in-law at the dinner table, saying that his son was in a cold war with his mother and neither one accepted the other.

Ma Changming felt that this young man had given him a face today, so he drunkenly said to his grandson Zhang Heping at the other table: "A man should be bold, don't be as stingy as an old woman!"

Ma Xiuzhen was worried that her father would quarrel with her son, so she hurriedly told her son to eat food and ignore drunken talk.

The next day, New Year's Eve.

While his father Zhang Bing was still fast asleep, Zhang Heping was inspecting the militia rifles in Majiatun.

This time, he brought over 31 boxes of ammunition hidden at home. Grandpa Ma Changming thought that his grandson Zhang Heping had stopped hunting. After asking, he found out that his gun had been confiscated, and the new gun and bullets were hidden in the village elder of Qianshan Village. Zhou family.

When Zhang Heping put on his tactical vest, hung a slingshot around his neck, carried a rifle, ordered a machete, and said hello to his grandfather, he jumped out with his dog Laifu.

……