Siheyuan: Survival Guide for Courtyard No. 95

Because of the three years of natural disasters starting in 59, the temple fair in 60 was simply cancelled. Ordinary people even had problems getting food, so who would have the heart to visit the temple fair?

After walking for a while with the crowd, we arrived at the Tudi Temple, which is the largest "book-hunting holy land" in the old city. The Changdian Temple Fair has always been unique in its books, antiques, calligraphy and paintings, and stationery, and has been famous as a "literary market" since ancient times.

Once you enter this area, you can see quite a few street stalls selling everything from bronze and stone ceramics, antiques and jade, the four treasures of the study, and rubbings of inscriptions and calligraphy. Some people have even given this place a name, called "Drying Treasures Association."

Zhao Shanhe knew nothing about these things, so he just took a quick glance and ran to the shop in front. Every year, the cultural shops in Liulichang would hang up some famous paintings for tourists to appreciate. People called this "curtain competition". If a shop hung more or better paintings, everyone would stand at the door of the shop to take a look. This is also called "standing tour".

Zhao Shanhe unexpectedly saw a painting by Zhang Daqian at the entrance of "Rong Bao Zhai". He thought he had made a good deal, but unexpectedly someone was quicker than him and paid for it directly. It seems that there are many people who know the value of things, and there are many talented people among the people who come to the temple fair.

Don't think that Master Zhang's paintings are worthless in this era. On the contrary, famous things in later generations are never cheap at any time, except for fake ones of course.

He bought a lot of books at the used bookstall, mainly because he had finished reading all the books he bought at the Xinhua Bookstore last time. There were so many books here, they were cheap, and he could choose them at will. It was really a treasure land for people who love reading.

He spent a lot of money and bought more than 100 comic books. In the end, he could no longer carry them all, and there were people around him, so it was inconvenient to put the things into the small world. So Zhao Shanhe left.

When he returned to the courtyard, each household had already started to celebrate the New Year. At that time, Lao Yi had not yet started his brainwashing of group greetings, so everyone was doing their own thing. Zhao Shanhe felt that this was pretty good. He said that it seemed fake for Sha Zhu and Xu Damao to celebrate the New Year together. Was it interesting?

Zhao Shanhe walked into the yard carrying more than 100 bundled comic books. This was also intentional on his part.

After the Chinese New Year, the weather will gradually get hotter in two months. It will be hard to stay indoors, and he can't stay in his little world all the time. He will definitely have to interact with everyone in the front yard. If you read a book every day, where did you get this book? It must have a source.

However, he forgot the power of comic books on children in those days. Not to mention the children, even Jie Cheng and Jiefang, who were leading the children to set off firecrackers at the door, stared at the huge pile of picture books.

"Shanhe, did you buy all these books?"

"Look at what you said, how fresh it is. Robbery is a serious crime. Besides, I don't have the courage."

After a few words of quip, Zhao Shanhe went back to the house with his book, followed by a group of little potatoes, calling him "Brother Shanhe" all the time, just so that he would let them read the comic books for a while.

Zhao Shanhe placed the picture book on the drawing table, untied the ropes and then spoke to the group of children.

"It's the first day of the Lunar New Year, what should you say? Only polite children can read here."

It is estimated that these children have been shouting all morning, and their New Year greetings are so smooth.

"Happy New Year, Brother Shanhe. I wish you good health and longevity."

"Brother Shanhe wishes you a happy new year and hope you can find a wife in the new year."

With these little kids around, Zhao Shanhe felt less lonely. He went into the inner room, took out a bag of melon seeds and candies, and ate them while reading comic books with the kids.

I didn't pay attention to it usually, but today when a group of children were reading here, I discovered that there are quite a few children in the yard. Not counting those over 10 years old, there are 10 or 3 under 4 years old. They are also an unlucky generation. When the wind blew a few years ago, they happened to be the educated youth going to the countryside. They came back to find a job, worked for more than ten years, and were laid off again. However, they should be better than those born in the 80s. After all, each of their families has several brothers and sisters, and they can take care of each other when their parents are old.

Time passed quickly and it was noon. Parents from all families came to take their children home and greeted each other. Zhao Shanhe asked each child to take two comic books home, which served as New Year's money. New ones cost 1 or 2 cents each, while old ones cost 5 cent for at the used bookstalls, which was very cheap.

Actually, he had selfish motives. If he didn't let the kids take the books back, they would definitely run to his house after dinner, and he would have nothing to do in the afternoon.

I slept for a while in the little world, ate some pea yellow when I woke up, went out of the house and greeted the neighbors whom I hadn’t seen during the day, and the first day of the new year was over.

It was the second day of the Chinese New Year, and Zhao Shanhe made a detailed schedule for the day. The steel rolling mill would start work tomorrow, so he had a lot to do today.

The first stop is the home of Director Wang from the Street Office.

The things I brought were two cans of malted milk and two bottles of canned hawthorn, plus walnuts and chestnuts. The director is a woman, so it would be inappropriate to give her cigarettes and alcohol.

Knock on the door and greet the new year first before entering the house.

"Happy New Year, Auntie Wang. Oh, Uncle is at home too. Happy New Year, Uncle. I wish you two a happy new year."

Director Wang’s man works in an office, and their relationship wasn’t that deep, so she didn’t ask about his work unit. However, Director Wang was a little unhappy when she saw what Zhao Shanhe was carrying.

"Shanhe, what did you come here to get? Take it back when you leave, and don't come here to get anything next time."

It's easy to listen to this. The relationship between people is that you give me something and I give you something. If you turn around and really take the thing back, do you think the other person will still have a good face when they see you next time?

"Auntie Wang, these are just worthless things. I am very grateful for your care and concern for me all the time. As for my house, no one else would be able to do it for me so easily. I didn't know that my uncle was at home, otherwise I would have brought some cigarettes and alcohol. Uncle, please don't make trouble."

In fact, he only sat in the room for 5 minutes and left before saying more than 20 words. He was a department-level cadre and there must be a lot of people coming to his house today. If he sat there for too long, people would probably annoy him.

The second stop is Li Huaide’s home.

This time the gifts were changed to a wild boar leg, two bottles of Fenjiu, as well as a large black fish and Jingxi rice produced in the small world. These things are already top-notch in this day and age. Even the most senior leaders would only receive these as gifts, because many things are simply not available to buy.

Knock on the door and enter the house in the same way.

"Happy New Year, Director Li! I wish you a happy new year!"

"It's Xiao Zhao. You're here now. What are you doing here? Hey, wild boar leg? This is a good thing. Where did you get it from?"