The Great Era of Siheyuan

After teasing Sha Zhu, Li Wenqiang cooked a meal in the house. As usual, it was stir-fried beans with chili peppers. He really liked cooked long beans, which were crisp and refreshing with a hint of sweetness. Just adding a little minced garlic after stir-frying would whet one's appetite.

Doushazhu was just playing because he was lonely and bored. Now his work has officially started. From now on, anyone who has time to play with idiots must be mentally ill to hang out with them.

A bunch of poor bastards! It obviously lowered his status.

"Grandma, it smells so good! I want to eat!"

At the Jia family next door, Bang Geng couldn't help drooling at the aroma of the food.

"Bang Geng, we have food at home, and we don't want the food at his house! Eat more meat and grow up quickly, because grandma and your mom will have to rely on you to support them in the future!"

When Jia Zhang looked at the stick, she thought of Jia Dongxu and couldn't help feeling sad.

"Bang Geng, be good and don't make your grandma angry! Mom, don't be sad. Dong Xu's spirit in heaven would be unhappy if he knew. Now that things have been dealt with, how do we arrange our family's work?"

Qin Huairu asked as if intentionally or unintentionally, with her ears perked up.

Jia Zhang knew exactly what she was thinking. She was trying to find out her bottom line!

"Huai Ru, there are only two adults in the family now. I am old, and the family still depends on you. I will not hide it from you. I have asked about the steel mill. In addition to the work-related death pension, the job position has also been retained. Our family can find someone to take over the job, but it will start as an apprentice. When the time comes, we can ask an old man to help take care of it.

I know you're thinking about this job. I can agree to let you go to work, but you have to promise me that you will stay in the Jia family and not remarry. Can you do it?"

Jia Zhang looked at her sharply.

Qin Huairu was delighted when she heard this. A job in the city was what many rural women dreamed of. As long as she had this job, it could be said that she had made the leap from a carp to a dragon. From then on, she would be able to escape from the poor days of being exposed to the sun and wind and move towards a happy life with no worries about food and clothing.

"Mom, what are you talking about? I am the daughter-in-law of the Jia family. Where can I go with three children?"

Qin Huairu wanted to laugh happily, but then she thought it was inappropriate, so she covered it up with an awkward smile.

"You'd better do this. I'm telling you, even if you want to remarry, I won't agree. You are a member of my Jia family in life and a ghost of my Jia family in death. In the future, I will honestly raise you and Dongxu's child to adulthood, and I won't treat you unfairly. You should know how difficult it is for you to marry into the city from the countryside. You should be grateful!"

Jia Zhang warned her.

"Mom, I'm not that kind of person!"

Qin Huairu felt very embarrassed and could only nod and say yes.

"The factory said that because you just had a baby, they'll give you a month, and you can go back to work next month!"

"Thank you, Mom. I will never forget your kindness!"

After they finished speaking, they both fell silent, silently calculating their own thoughts.

Bang Geng and Xiao Dang sat at the table and ate. On the table today was a small piece of pork and chicken left over from yesterday's sacrifice. Qin Huairu cut some and fried it, and the two children were very excited to eat it.

Li Wenqiang just ate some leftovers from the morning. After a few days, he gradually got used to this poor life.

He scattered the watermelon seeds and honeydew melon seeds on the ground and watered them. He was not worried about whether they would germinate. As long as one seed had a germ, he would be able to harvest countless fruits in the future. This was the confidence that the spiritual spring gave him.

I looked at the more than 100 eggs incubating. The fire below was only a little spark, so I quickly added some charcoal. When the fire was burning, I tested the temperature. It felt that it was just a little bit close to body temperature. If the temperature was too high, I could only eat roasted eggs.

Looking at his crude incubation device, Li Wenqiang was helpless. As the saying goes, do your best and leave the rest to fate.

It is impossible to buy food outside now. Even if he goes to the grain station with food coupons every month to buy food, he can only get some meal substitute powder and coarse grains. If he is lucky, he can occasionally get some wheat and rice. How can he get poultry?

A pound of food on the black market costs about three yuan, not to mention live chickens and ducks. The price of a piece of poultry is at least twenty yuan. Even if you have money, you can't buy it because it's gone once you get it.

"Collecting junk~! Exchange for matches~!"

After taking a rest in the space, Li Wenqiang started his junk collecting journey again. He ran from Juer Hutong to Hougulouyuan Hutong and collected a large cart of waste.

There were chicken and duck feathers, used batteries, toothpaste tubes, unknown bones, broken glass, torn cotton wool, cloth scraps, smelly rotten shoes, hair, crumpled and stained garbage paper, light bulbs, glass bottles, and some waste workpieces that were obviously stolen from the factory.

In this kind of world, the poor are more likely to commit evil, and the rich may not have a conscience. Everyone is trying hard to survive. You don't say anything, and I don't say anything. Let's all steal some scrap copper and iron and sell it to supplement our family income.

Li Wenqiang receives metal products weighing a few kilograms or even dozens of kilograms every day, all of which are old screws and parts. Few workers are foolish enough to steal new parts. After the old and obsolete parts are dismantled, few people will care about them. It is safe and stable.

We have finished collecting waste today and will start again tomorrow. The Nanluoguxiang neighborhood covers a total of 84 square meters. We will walk a section every day and finish the walk once a week. It will be enough if we can walk it three or four times a month. If we can do it less often, two or three times will also be fine. Anyway, the things of these people cannot escape.

Riding his tricycle with today's harvest, Li Wenqiang pedaled laboriously towards the scrap yard.

"Old Nine, come out to receive the guests!"

As soon as he reached the door, Li Wenqiang couldn't wait to shout.

"Can't you say something nice? What do you mean by entertaining guests? You treat me like a little girl, even though I'm a grown man."

Lao Jiu limped out of the gatehouse, hunched over, with a cigarette in his mouth, looking quite idle.

In fact, he is really free. Although he doesn't run around outside every day like them and can't make some extra money, it's relaxing!

Every day, I sit in the concierge's room, close the door, and pour a cup of tea. The concierge's room becomes a world of its own. Although I can't reach the point where I can't hear anything outside and lie down from morning till the end of the day, it's not far from it.

Including him, there are only seven or eight scrap buyers here, each in charge of an area. Except for him who has a tricycle, the others carry the waste back and forth, making one or two trips a day.

So he basically had no work to do all day long. He could just weigh things and make some invoices and then sit at the gate and act like a big shot.

Li Wenqiang casually picked up a pumpkin weighing more than ten pounds from the car and stuffed it directly into his hand.

"This is a reward from my master. How about it? Can you call it?"

Lao Jiu held the pumpkin blankly and asked excitedly in a low voice.

"You can yell, you can yell, you can yell too much! There are no pumpkins at this time. Where did you get this pumpkin from?"

"Don't ask, just give it to you!"

Li Wenqiang would not talk to him about this. As for why he gave him a pumpkin, it was mainly because of his job responsibilities.

Can an ordinary janitor weigh and issue an invoice? I can tell there is something wrong with my buttocks. This old man is probably not a simple person. If I give him some benefits today, he may be able to help me in the future. Even if he can't help, it's just a loss of some insignificant vegetables.

This time, Li Wenqiang came here to give the webmaster some gifts to improve his favorability. After all, our country is very particular about social etiquette, and the more gifts, the less blame.

Now that we are familiar with each other, there is a reason for us to look after each other if there is anything. Otherwise, why would they help you? You should not cram at the last minute.