Siheyuan: I just want to live

The next morning, the sun shines through the window into the room, and Chen Feng still follows the routine as he did yesterday: brushing teeth, washing face, having breakfast, and then riding his bike to work. For this working class, daily life is a repetitive cycle, with nothing new to say.

When everything was ready, Chen Feng came to the reception room, took out a book and started reading. In fact, it was not because he had a strong interest in reading, but because he had nothing to do. During working hours, he could not go out, and the scrap yard itself was just so-so, and he had already visited it thoroughly.

Finally, the long day passed and it was time to get off work. The moment he stepped out of the scrap yard, Chen Feng felt refreshed! It was as if all the energy in his body was released at this moment.

After leaving the scrap yard and locking the gate, Chen Feng rode his bicycle into an empty alley, took out the sack containing the tiger skin, and hung it on the front bar. Then he continued riding his bicycle towards Xiaojia Hutong.

Chen Feng came to the door of Old Man Zhao's house and knocked gently on the slightly quaint door. After a moment, the door opened, and the eldest daughter-in-law of the Zhao family appeared in front of him.

She looked at Chen Feng with a smile, her eyes revealing a hint of kindness. Chen Feng nodded politely, and the eldest daughter-in-law of the Zhao family invited warmly: "Mr. Chen, you are here, please come in."

Chen Feng quickly responded humbly: "Sister-in-law, you are too polite. I really don't deserve to call me Mr., just call me by my name. I was in a hurry to visit you last time, and I was offended. I don't know how to address you."

The eldest daughter-in-law of the Zhao family smiled gently and replied, "My maiden name is Xu, you can just call me Zhao Xu. Come on, don't stand outside the door and talk, come in quickly." After that, she moved aside to open the door.

Chen Feng followed Zhao Xushi as she pushed her bicycle into the yard. Along the way, he noticed that although the yard was simple, it was neat and orderly, and exuded a sense of tranquility. After entering the house, Zhao Xushi led Chen Feng to the living room, brewed a cup of hot tea and placed it on the table, then said to Chen Feng: "Mr. Chen Feng, please sit down for a while, I will go and ask my father-in-law to come out."

Chen Feng nodded his head to express his gratitude: "Okay, take care, thank you for your help." After Zhao Xu left, Chen Feng looked around and took in the living room. The room was decorated in a simple and elegant style, with a few calligraphy and paintings hanging on the wall, adding a bit of cultural atmosphere. He sat down on a chair and quietly waited for Old Man Zhao to arrive.

Chen Feng sat in the Zhao family's living room, drinking tea leisurely, thinking to himself: "I am just a young man under 20 years old, but I am actually called 'Mr.'. I am really not used to it. In this life and the last life, I have not been called Mr. many times."

Just as Chen Feng's thoughts were drifting, Zhao Xu carefully supported Old Man Zhao and walked in. Seeing this, Chen Feng hurriedly stood up and was about to go forward, but Old Man Zhao raised his hand to signal him to stop and interrupted him:

"You don't have to get up. Come on, let's sit down and talk slowly. It's a coincidence that you came at the right time. The wolfskin mattress was just completed at noon today, and look, you're here this afternoon!"

Chen Feng was overjoyed when he heard that the wolfskin mattress had been made. He then said, "It's already done! That's great! Actually, I came here this time to trouble you with one more thing! I recently got a tiger skin, and I hope you can help me with it."

Old Zhao laughed and said, "I, Old Zhao, have only known hunting and leather making all my life! As for hunting, I am too old to go into the mountains now. But you paid me for making leather for you, and you still asked if it was a big deal! You are so polite! Come on, take out the leather and let me see how it is."

Chen Feng heard this and hurriedly picked up the sack at his feet, carefully took out the tiger skin from it, and said, "It's this tiger skin. There are only three bullet holes on the head, and no other parts are injured. Do you think it's okay?"

Old man Zhao took the tiger skin, unfolded it and examined it carefully, then nodded with satisfaction and said, "Yes, yes, not bad, it's even better than the last wolf skin! Daughter-in-law, quickly take this tiger skin away and put it away! And bring the finished wolf skin mattress and bear skin over here."

After hearing what her father-in-law said, Zhao Xu carefully folded the tiger skin, held it tightly with both hands, and then slowly went out to get other items. Not long after, she returned upstairs with the wolf skin mattress and bear skin.

Old man Zhao pointed at the thing in Zhao Xu's arms and said excitedly, "Come on, how about you open it and take a look?"

Chen Feng immediately stood up after hearing this, took the things from Zhao Xushi's hand, and unfolded the mattress with her. The wolfskin mattress in front of him was very beautifully made. After Zhao Xushi's careful processing, it looked like a whole wolfskin. It was totally unimaginable that this was made of five wolfskins that were riddled with holes and looked like a hornet's nest.

Chen Feng gently stroked the leather and couldn't help but exclaimed: "Auntie, your leather craftsmanship is amazing!"

Zhao Xu smiled slightly and said nothing much, but the satisfaction and pride on her face were beyond words.

Old man Zhao beside him couldn't help but smile when he heard Chen Feng praising his daughter-in-law. He laughed and said, "My in-laws have been making leather for generations! My daughter-in-law's craftsmanship is naturally superb! In my opinion, her skills are not inferior to those of the masters in the state-owned tailor shop!"

Chen Feng also echoed what Old Man Zhao said, "Of course. After all, the tailor at the state-owned tailor shop has only learned leather-making techniques for a few years. How can he be compared with the craftsmanship passed down from our ancestors?"

However, Zhao Xushi felt a little embarrassed when she heard her father-in-law and Chen Feng's increasingly exaggerated praises. She interrupted them and said, "Stop praising me. The tailors in the state-owned tailor shops deal with all kinds of leather every day and have a lot of experience. How can I compare with them?"

After hearing Zhao Xu's humble words, Chen Feng and Old Man Zhao said nothing more. Seeing that it was getting dark outside, night was falling, and the stars were shining. Chen Feng also politely said goodbye. He slowly stood up and bowed to Old Man Zhao to say goodbye: "Mr. Zhao, time flies, the night is getting darker, I think it's time for me to leave now."

After hearing Chen Feng's farewell words, Old Man Zhao also smiled and stood up and responded: "That's fine, it's really getting late, you should go back and rest early." Then he turned to look at his daughter-in-law and whispered: "Daughter-in-law, please send Chen Feng off for me."

After hearing her father-in-law's instructions, Zhao Xu nodded obediently and said, "I understand, Dad." Then she turned to face Chen Feng and said with a smile, "Mr. Chen, please follow me."

Chen Feng nodded slightly to express his gratitude, then put the bear skin and wolf skin mattress into a sack, carried the sack on his back and followed Zhao Xu out of the room. Chen Feng pushed the bicycle and the two walked side by side through the courtyard. They were silent all the way, but the atmosphere seemed particularly peaceful and harmonious. In this way, Zhao Xu sent Chen Feng all the way out of the courtyard.

When he arrived outside the courtyard gate, he saw that Zhao Xu had closed it. Chen Feng looked around in the pitch-black night and realized that no one could see clearly here, so he put the sack into the space and rode away in a cool manner.

When Chen Feng returned to the courtyard, night had already fallen, and the courtyard was filled with a peaceful and warm atmosphere. Everyone had returned from get off work and was busy with their own things. Yan Fugui appeared in his familiar position as usual, holding a sprinkler and carefully watering the flowers.

After Chen Feng pushed his bicycle into the doorway, his eyes fell on Yan Fugui, and he asked with a hint of curiosity: "Teacher Yan, I heard that you went fishing yesterday? How was the catch? Was the fish you caught enough for the whole family to have a full meal?"

After hearing Chen Feng's question, Yan Fugui slowly put down the shower head in his hand, walked to Chen Feng with steady steps, and answered with a satisfied smile on his face: "Haha, I was lucky yesterday and caught three pounds of small fish! I asked your third aunt to cook one pound and stew a pot of delicious fish soup. We pickled the rest of the fish and tasted them slowly. How can we eat them all in one go? Let the children have a taste!"

After that, Yan Fugui seemed to remember something, patted Chen Feng on the shoulder, and then added: "By the way, do you want the remaining fish? If you like it, Uncle San will not take advantage of you. The market price of fish is 40 cents per pound, and I will sell it to you at this price."

Chen Feng was really speechless. He looked at Yan Fugui helplessly, sighed and said, "Teacher Yan! You really make me laugh and cry! You know, the fish that are sold at 40 cents per pound in the market now are all big fish that weigh more than 1 pound! For small fish like these, it's already very good to be able to sell them at 30 cents per pound. Generally speaking, they are only 25 cents per pound."

"You actually want to sell it to me at the price of 40 cents per pound, and you still say you are not taking advantage of me? You are really calculating too much, the abacus beads are about to fly into my face!" Chen Feng complained angrily.

Yan Fugui's face turned slightly red, revealing an awkward smile, but he still stubbornly retorted: "If you don't want to buy it, forget it, why are you still talking about your uncle like that? You don't know how to appreciate delicious food, and you don't even know the difference between the taste of big fish and small fish! Let me tell you, small fish soup is so delicious! You young people just lack life experience and don't know anything!"

Chen Feng saw that he was still stubborn and didn't want to argue with him, otherwise it would be endless. So he said, "Okay, okay! Teacher Yan, I won't sell your small fish! You should keep them to make delicious mixed fish soup! I'm going to go home first. It's so late and I haven't eaten yet! I won't chat with you anymore. I'm going home to cook. Goodbye! Teacher Yan!"

After saying that, Chen Feng pushed his bicycle and ran away, not giving Yan Fugui a chance to react.

Yan Fugui looked at Chen Feng running away and muttered to himself, "Hey! Another one ran away! I thought I could sell those two pounds of fish. Now it seems there's no hope! Forget it, let's go home and sleep."