Siheyuan: Yan Jiekuang's carefree life

After hearing what Yan Jiekuang said, Yi Zhonghai felt like vomiting blood, his face darkened instantly, and he was about to teach Yan Jiekuang a lesson when Yan Bugui came out of the house and said, "Jiekuang, your mother's meat is ready. Why don't you go call Jie Di?!"

"Hey!" Yan Jiekuang responded and ran out of the courtyard.

After Yan Jiekuang left, Yi Zhonghai said coldly: "Old Yan, you are a teacher. How can you be a cultured person in the courtyard? How do you teach children?!"

Yan Bugui smiled and said, "I think I teach pretty well. Besides, at least I have a son to teach, don't you think?!"

Yi Zhonghai's face darkened even more, thinking to himself: "What's wrong with the Yan family father and son today?! Why are they rubbing salt into my wounds?! This is too unethical!!" After calming down, Yi Zhonghai asked in a pretentious manner: "Old Yan, your Jie Cheng graduated from middle school, and it's not a good thing for him to hang around outside all the time?!"

Before Yi Zhonghai could finish his words, Yan Bugui said, "Old Yi, I won't bother you with my son Jie Cheng's work. He has already found a job."

"What?!" Yi Zhonghai was surprised and asked, "You found a job?! Arranged by the Street Office?!"

Yan Bugui replied, "My son Jie Cheng was lucky. He happened to meet someone else's factory recruiting workers, so he took the exam. I didn't expect that this kid was really hardworking and actually passed the exam." Then he changed the subject and said, "Old Yi, your disciple wants to eat meat, so don't just stand there. Go buy it for him! Don't let the child wait anxiously. And Qin Huairu, your family really has nothing to eat. Just change into some torn clothes, take a stick and kneel by the station. Who knows, you may meet a kind-hearted person who can give you something."

When Qin Huairu heard Yan Bugui asking her to beg for food, she instantly lost her guard. She ran back to the middle courtyard crying. Yi Zhonghai shouted angrily, "Old Yan! How could you do this?!" and then chased after him. When they were about to reach the gate of the middle courtyard, Yi Zhonghai grabbed Qin Huairu and said, "Huairu, I have a piece of sausage at home. You can give it to Banggeng! I'll ask your aunt to buy some meat some other day. Cook some for Banggeng."

"Hey!" Qin Huairu responded and followed Yi Zhonghai to the door of the east wing. Not long after Yi Zhonghai entered the room, he took out a piece of sausage. Qin Huairu took the sausage, thanked him, and turned back.

As soon as Qin Huairu entered her home, Jia Zhang ran to her impatiently and asked anxiously, "Where's the meat?!"

Qin Huairu replied, "It was the third uncle's family who cooked the meat. I didn't get it. The first uncle gave me a piece of sausage."

When Jia Zhang saw the sausage in Qin Huairu's hand, which was only the length of her index finger, she complained, "Yi Zhonghai is too stingy. Why did he only give her such a small amount of sausage? Who can eat this little bit of sausage?!"

Qin Huairu replied: "It's good to have these sausages."

Jia Zhang urged, "Go and make the sausages quickly."

"Hey!" Qin Huairu responded, walked to the stove and started to get busy.

Jia Zhang continued to lie back on the kang, muttering to herself, "Yan Bugui, that stingy old man, actually cooked meat at home today, and he was not filial to us?! He will have diarrhea and die sooner or later after eating it!"

At five o'clock in the evening, people who got off work came back one after another. The courtyard became lively again. Yan Jiecheng and Yan Jiefang entered the main room and saw the two bowls of braised pork on the table. They looked like wolves seeing their prey, their eyes glowing green. Seeing the reactions of his two sons, Yan Bugui smiled and said, "Today's meat was bought by Jie Kuang. As we agreed before, half belongs to Jie Kuang, and the other half is Jie Kuang's gift to me and your mother. But we can't let you watch us eat meat. So I'll take out two pieces from your mother's and my share and give them to you. Let you satisfy your cravings."

Yan Jiecheng said, "Dad, with so much meat, you only gave one piece to me and Jiefang. Isn't that too unreasonable?!"

The third aunt smiled and replied, "Isn't it easy to eat meat?! Just like Jie Kuang, can't you eat meat?! And you can eat it to your heart's content."

Yan Jiefang said: "I don't have the ability to save the poor. I am satisfied with just a piece of meat."

Seeing Yan Jiefang's defection, Yan Jiecheng could no longer hold back his anger, so he snorted and pulled out a chair to sit down. However, his eyes were fixed on the meat on the table, as if he was looking at a plum to quench his thirst.

After a while, Yan Jiekuang and Yan Jiedi came back. After the children sat down, Yan Bugui walked to the table, sat down and said, "Since everyone is back, let's eat!"

When the third aunt took out the winnowing basket of steamed bread and put it on the table, Yan Jiecheng reached out to grab the steamed bread. Yan Bugui hit Yan Jiecheng's hand with chopsticks. Yan Jiecheng dropped the steamed bread, retracted his hand, rubbed the place where Yan Bugui hit him, and asked: "Dad, why did you hit me?!"

Yan Bugui smiled and said, "The flour used for the steamed buns today is also from Jiekuang."

Yan Jiekuang took the steamed bun handed to him by the third aunt, stuffed it into Yan Jiedi's hand, then took one for himself and said, "Dad, Mom made five steamed buns today. Jiedi and I can eat three. I'll give the remaining two to you and mom."

Without waiting for Yan Bugui to speak, Yan Jiecheng said, "Jie Kuang, why are you so stingy? You made so much money yesterday, but you don't know how to be generous."

Yan Jiekuang said, "Brother, I'm still young. There are so many places to spend money! If I don't save a little now, what will I do in the future?! It's easy for you to find a job now. In a few years, it will be hard to find a job. What if I can't get into a technical secondary school or a university? If I want to work, I have to pay for it. Our whole family depends on our father's salary. It's good enough that he can support us. Do we still expect him to pay for us to buy jobs?! Isn't that just daydreaming?! I'm preparing for a rainy day! You've grown up so big, but you don't even understand this. You're really not as good as me?!" After that, Yan Jiekuang picked up a piece of braised pork and put it in the bowl in front of Yan Jiedi, and said, "Little sister, eat meat!"

"Well! Eat meat!" After saying that, Yan Jiedi smiled and used a spoon to push the meat into her mouth.

While Yan Bugui and his wife, Yan Jiekuang and Yan Jiedi were having a good meal, Yi Zhonghai was sulking at home. Liu Guixiang walked into the room with food and said, "Old Yi, don't be angry. Come and have dinner!"

Yi Zhonghai sighed heavily, stood up, walked to the table, took a look at the food on the table, sat down, and said, "This Yan Bugui has really gone backwards as he grows older. He has even forgotten the most basic respect for the elderly and love for the young."

Liu Guiying said, "Old Yi, you are no longer the boss of the courtyard. Don't worry about these things. Otherwise, you might end up doing something bad with good intentions and offend people!"

Yi Zhonghai took the steamed bun from his wife and said, "I was wondering why Yan Bugui suddenly became so powerful. Now I know that Yan Jiecheng has found a job."

Liu Guiying was stunned for a moment and asked, "Boss Yan, how come you suddenly found a job?! How come there was no news beforehand?!"

Yi Zhonghai said, "It seems that the Yan family is on guard against me! I never thought that Yan Bugui could do such a big thing without making any noise." Then Yi Zhonghai muttered in his heart, "Yan Jiecheng can find a job. As the head of the courtyard, Yan Bugui can't just ignore other people, right?! Let those who don't have a job go to Yan Bugui."