Siheyuan: Survival Guide for Courtyard No. 95

In the winter of 1958, Yao Decai, deputy section chief of the purchasing section of the logistics department of the steel rolling mill, was loudly scolding a young man.

"Zhao Shanhe, do you still want to do this? You only bought 20 eggs in a whole month. If everyone else does the same as you, what will the workers eat?

Without nutrition, the workers have no strength, and without strength, they cannot work normally. At the very least, you are not serious about your work and your attitude is not positive. At the most, you have a problem with your thinking and are undermining the national construction of the new society. If it weren't for your father's face, I would ask you to clean the toilet right now. Do you believe it?"

Zhao Shanhe wiped the saliva that the other person had sprayed on his face, put on a flattering smile, and said with a nod.

"Uncle Yao, you are absolutely right, I was wrong!

This month I have been a drag on Corey again. I promise that I will try to go to the countryside more often next month to make up for this month's shortfall. But as you know, the countryside is in a difficult situation right now, and I have only been in this position for three months. I really don't have any other options. Please bear with me."

Yao Decai looked at Zhao Shanhe who was standing in a daze and sighed. He thought that if he had beaten his own boy in the morning, he really didn't know how Old Zhao had educated him to spoil him like this.

He walked to the office door, looked around, and when he saw that there was no one in the corridor, he turned around and whispered to Zhao Shanhe.

"Shanhe, don't blame Uncle Yao for what he said about you. Your father is a good man, you can't discredit him. I scolded you just now for your own good. The people in the purchasing department are watching. If I don't scold you, they will feel unbalanced.

You didn't achieve anything in your first month on the job. Other people in the purchasing department could understand because your father had just passed away and you had never done purchasing work before, so everyone turned a blind eye.

In the second month, you only collect two old hens that don't lay eggs. Everyone can understand that you have no experience. At least the old hens can still be used to make soup.

This is all you've collected this month, and I can't even open my mouth to make excuses for you.

If you don't bring in some hard goods next month, you might have to go on a long-distance field trip. After all, the purchasing department is not under my control alone, so you have to do your best."

Zhao Shanhe knew that his father's good friend was truly doing this for his own good, and that he had just scolded him for show. After all, which leader could speak so openly and honestly to a youngster?

He quickly stood at attention and bowed deeply to Yao Decai.

"Uncle Yao, I'm sorry to have troubled you. I will definitely find a way to get some good stuff back next month. I won't make it so difficult for you anymore."

It wasn't his first day at work. Three months had passed in the blink of an eye. At least he had some understanding of the situation in the Purchasing Department. The section chief, Li Lianjie, was a relative of Li Huaide, the director of the Logistics Department. His character and behavior were almost exactly the same as Li Huaide's. He was truly "honest."

There are two deputy section chiefs. One is Yao Decai in front of you, who is in charge of the purchasing tasks of steel, machinery, grain, vegetables and meat of the steel rolling mill. Most of them are public-to-public transactions, but after the public-private partnership, the canteen was expanded, so the purchasing task of the canteen's small kitchen also fell on him. And the things purchased by unplanned buyers like Zhao Shanhe in the countryside are basically handed over to the small canteen to supply leaders and visitors to the factory.

Another deputy section chief, Wang Yong, was from Lou Bancheng. Although the Lou family handed over the dominant position in the factory and did not keep many shares, they still kept some necessary spies.

The person in charge of purchasing had a more miscellaneous task, including clothing, gloves, bedding, rubber shoes, pots and pans, oil, salt, sauce and vinegar, thermos lunch boxes, towels and washbasins. Fortunately, this person had worked at Lou's Steel Plant before liberation, so he was familiar with the city. Otherwise, most people could not do this job.

Zhao Shanhe's father was a level 4 purchaser. He died heroically three months ago while trying to protect a batch of steel ingots from being robbed by bandits who blocked the road. Zhao Shanhe, a student who had not yet graduated from high school, took over his father's job. Fortunately, Yao Decai had a good relationship with his father, so he was able to work there for three months.

Where there are people, there are naturally rivers and lakes, especially in a department like the purchasing department that is linked to rewards. Zhao Shanhe has been dragging their team down for three consecutive months, so of course some people will dislike him. After all, no one's money comes from the wind. This is why Yao De told him that if he doesn't do a good job next month, he will have to go out for field work.

When I returned to the office of the purchasing team, I found that only the team leader Wang Tiecheng was in the room drinking tea and reading the newspaper. This is also the advantage of the work in the logistics department. Except for the people who sit in offices such as statisticians, cashiers, and accountants, everyone else's work is very flexible.

The offices of the purchasing department are all on the same floor, so he could hear Yao Decai's cursing just now. Seeing Zhao Shanhe coming in dejectedly, he did not criticize him anymore, but instead tried to persuade him.

"Xiao Zhao, Lao Yao is just like that. Don't take it personally. The situation outside is not good right now. It's normal that you can't get anything. Go back and have a rest and think about it carefully. If it doesn't work, go somewhere farther away. As long as you work hard, you will definitely get something. I still believe in you."

Wang Tiecheng just turned 50 this year and is the oldest person in the purchasing department. When he went to the countryside two years ago, he encountered several bandits who were robbing him. He took out his gun and killed three of them, but was also stabbed on the leg. Since then, he has been appointed as a team leader, specifically responsible for unplanned purchases, and he no longer has to go to the countryside.

He was familiar with Zhao Shanhe's father, so he took good care of him, but for a leader like him who no longer went to the countryside, he could only talk.

"Team leader, I understand. Maybe I haven't figured out the buyer's ways yet. I'll listen to you and go further away next month to Tongzhou to see if we can get anything.

The villages near Sijiu City have almost all been purchased by various factories, and there are no wild delicacies in this season, which is really difficult to get. "

He talked to Wang Tiecheng for a while about the situation in the rural areas. Seeing that the clock in the office showed it was almost 10 o'clock, he said goodbye and left, saying that nothing else would be of any use and if he couldn't procure anything else, he would have to go out on field work.

He rode the old bicycle provided by the factory to the purchasing staff for more than two hours before arriving at Wanglizhuang Village in Daxing. He heard from Yan Jiecheng in the front yard yesterday that there were many hens in the village, and where there were hens there were eggs. If he was lucky, he could even meet old hens that did not lay eggs. He only handed in 20 eggs this month, so now he could only try his luck and take what he could catch.

The militia at the entrance of the village was very polite when they saw that he was wearing work clothes and riding a bicycle. After looking at the purchaser's certificate, they pointed him to the way to the village chief's house. This was the period when the "Great Steel Leap Forward" was about to end. Looking at the earthen stoves on the roadside in the village and the black so-called steel, it seemed that the village had been in a lot of trouble after a year of chaos.

Zhao Shanhe followed the only road in the village and found the village chief's house. It was a typical rural house with a small courtyard surrounded by a fence. There were a few scattered roosters and hens in it. At that time, no one dared to raise more chickens, as the commune would confiscate them all with a simple order of equal distribution.