Siheyuan: Survival Guide for Courtyard No. 95

Qin Huairu knew the other party well. He was her father's old brother. If it were an ordinary person, he would not help her like this.

He smoothed the hair behind his ear and responded with a smile.

"Uncle Zhang, don't worry. I have already found out where my mother-in-law hid her money. I am just waiting for her to go to Qinjiatun. Then I will take out all her money. I will send your half directly to Qinjiatun. I promise not to give you a chance to turn against me."

The two chatted for a while and discussed what to do if someone came looking for Jia Zhang in the future, then they left separately.

The next day, Jia Zhang happily went to the pigeon market and bought 10 kilograms of flour and 10 kilograms of rice at a high price, and also bought two cans of pork.

After she had bought all the things, she asked Wobo to take her to the bus stop, and they got on the bus and headed straight for Qinjiatun.

This journey almost gave her diarrhea, because the bus had all kinds of smells: sweat, foot odor, body odor, and poultry feces and urine. Jia Zhang was almost suffocated to death in the bus.

After getting off the bus, we found another donkey cart and drove it as fast as we could until we arrived at Qinjiatun before dusk.

Fortunately, she saw Li Suwu waiting for her as soon as she arrived at the village entrance. The old woman used all her strength to carry 20 kilograms of food to the other party and asked.

"Brother Li, are you getting impatient?"

Li Suwu was displeased by Jia Zhang's round figure and fat face, but the goal had not been achieved yet and the mission had to continue.

"Sister Jia, I have only been waiting for a short time, I am not anxious at all."

"Brother Li, you can just call me Zhang Cuihua. Calling me Jia's sister is too polite."

When Zhang Donglei, who used the alias Li Suwu, heard that the other party was his relative, he replied happily.

"Okay, then I'll call you Zhang Cuihua. Let's go. The road is quite long."

After saying that, he stretched out his hand and carried 20 kilograms of food on his shoulder. For him, who lived halfway up the mountain all year round, half hunting and half farming, this amount of food was really not a big deal.

Seeing that the other party didn't ask how much money he had spent, let alone how much money was left, Jia Zhang thought that he was not short of money. Thinking about the life she longed for in the future, she followed him to the village.

After walking around the village and entering the mountains, Jia Zhang felt something was wrong and asked a question.

"Brother Li, don't you live in the village? We have to go up the mountain."

Li Suwu turned his head and smiled at her and replied.

“I came back at a bad time. Housing in the village is quite tight, and I didn’t feel comfortable competing with fellow villagers for a place to live.

The village chief said there is a hunter's house halfway up the mountain, and it's still empty, so I live there and can go hunting when I have nothing to do. I shot a roe deer a few days ago and asked me to pickle it. It's just right that you're here, so you can try my cooking skills."

Jia Zhang was even happier when she heard this. Hunting was good because she could eat fresh meat. She was a meat lover. If fresh meat was almost impossible to buy in the city, she would have wanted to live with braised pork every day.

After walking for another hour or so into the mountains, just when Jia Zhang was so tired that she was sweating and her legs were shaking, she finally saw a small wooden house not far away. Jia Zhang thought that she had finally arrived, but no matter how much she thought about it, she could never have imagined how depressing the days ahead would be.

Siheyuan, Jia's house.

When Qin Huairu came back in the evening, he saw that Jia Zhang was not at home, so he knew that she must have gone to Qinjiatun.

She prepared the food and had a comfortable dinner, then went out of the house to chat with the old men and women in the yard about where Jia Zhang had gone.

"Huai Ru, why didn't I see your mother-in-law come out to make her shoe soles today?"

"Second aunt, my mother-in-law has gone to live with my uncle and enjoy a good life there. They live a life like no other, eating and drinking well every day. I guess it will be hard for her to come back in the future.

After all, who would come back to eat steamed bread when there is meat to eat? "

After hearing what Qin Huairu said, the first aunt and the second aunt looked at him with envy, jealousy and hatred. The first aunt listened to Liu Haizhong at home. She was the one who made the fried eggs, but she seldom had a share when eating.

Not to mention Second Aunt, given Old Yan's personality, eating meat is like a death sentence to him, let alone eating meat every day.

Lou Xiao'e and Xu Damao looked at the fact that there was one less person in the yard, but they didn't feel that there was anything wrong. Although Jia Zhang was a little more aggressive, a little foul-mouthed, a little fatter, and a little uglier, she still had the right to pursue her own happiness.

Li Wenxi and the people from Lao Guo's family just said a few words of blessing and then said nothing more.

Only Zhao Shanhe and Chen Xueru looked at each other and felt that there was something wrong.

An engineer from Shougang, even if he is over 50 years old, would never be interested in someone like Jia Zhang, unless the other person is blind.

But for the two of them, the yard became quieter without Jia Zhang in it. At least they didn't have to listen to operas to summon ghosts, so they just kept the problem to themselves.

After nightfall, everyone returned home. Qin Huairu went back to her room, closed the door and asked Banggeng to go to sleep. She went to tear open Jia Zhang's pillow first. Fortunately, the old woman had kept her eyes on Li Suwu and did not take the money with her, so she got the money.

There was only small change in the pillow, which added up to just over 300 yuan in small change. The real wealth of the Jia family was under the bricks under the box in the inner room.

Qin Huairu picked up the brick and took out a small box wrapped in oilcloth from underneath. After opening it, what came into view was a large gold ring and a stack of Yuan Datou banknotes.

Below the hard currency were a few somewhat moldy gold yuan notes (discontinued in July 1949) and a thick stack of big black ten notes.

After the inventory was completed, a huge sum of 3000 yuan fell into Qin Huairu's hands. At this moment, she really wanted to laugh out loud, but she was afraid of waking up Bang Geng who was already asleep, so she had to cover her mouth with her hands and laugh hard a few times, as a way of venting the grievances that the old woman had given her.

She pointed out 1500 yuan, which was the money promised to Zhang Donglei. Since he had already done the job, she couldn't be vague. No matter what, she would lose her head if this matter was exposed.

She plans to save the rest tomorrow, and put the gold yuan notes, gold rings and Yuan Datou coins back to their original places. These things are either not in circulation or are not allowed to be used, so she plans to keep them in the bottom of the box.

After daybreak, Qin Huairu went to the post office and mailed another letter to Qinjiatun. This time, she asked her parents to come and help withdraw money. She had to go to work except on Sundays, so it was quite inconvenient for her to go back to Qinjiatun.

In the following days, only Banggeng would occasionally mention Jia Zhang.

"Mom, why hasn't my grandma come back yet? Is she just ignoring us because she has something delicious to eat?"

Qin Huairu would answer him every time.

"Your grandma has gone to enjoy her life. When she has had enough of it, she will come back. By then, you may have forgotten her."