Siheyuan: Starting to work in the security department

The next day, Niu Ping'an prepared breakfast, which included cornmeal porridge and pickles.

Porridge is much easier to eat than steamed bread and doesn’t make your throat hurt as much.

Niu Baoguo's cough symptoms were alleviated a lot after taking the medicine, but Niu Ping'an noticed that he had increased the dosage of painkillers.

Niu Ping'an had no way to deal with this and could only pray that Niu Baoguo's condition would improve.

After breakfast, Niu Ping'an did not rush to wash clothes, but said hello to Niu Baoguo and told him to go to the vegetable market to buy some vegetables early.

After walking around outside, he took out two taels of braised pork, a handful of water spinach, two lotus roots, and a few oranges from the space.

He put the things in a net bag and staggered back to the yard.

At this time, the men in the family have all gone to work, the children have gone to school, and the old women in the yard are either doing housework at home or going to the vegetable market to buy things. The yard is quiet.

The weather is still hot and the vegetables cannot be kept, so I can only go to the vegetable market every day.

In fact, life in the courtyard is pretty good, and there are workers in almost every household.

The courtyard was full of birds, which seemed more like a love-hate relationship between rich people to Niu Ping'an.

"Ping An, you bought so many vegetables today?"

"Hey, uncle, I used your food coupons for five days."

In a planned economy, everything requires a ticket, even manure.

Now, urban residents in the old city are supplied with 2 taels of fresh vegetables per person per day, but there is no limit on the variety.

However, you can also buy some vegetables grown by farmers themselves without a ticket, but the price is relatively higher.

"It's good enough to be able to buy it! Oh, there's also cooked food!"

Niu Baoguo didn't care that Niu Ping'an had used up several days' worth of vegetable coupons. Vegetable coupons had a time limit, and sometimes you couldn't buy vegetables even if you had the coupons, so he just used them.

But I was a little surprised to see two taels of braised pork.

"I'm lucky. I bought it when I saw it for sale. Uncle, you're not feeling well. Eat some oily food to replenish your body."

"It's useless for me to eat it. You need to eat more to grow."

"Uncle, I'm going to do the laundry."

Niu Ping'an didn't say much. He took the basin, threw the dirty clothes in, and took the soap from the shelf.

Carrying a basin of dirty clothes, they came to the pool in the middle courtyard. After finishing their housework, the women gathered in the courtyard to do handicrafts and chat.

Qin Huairu, who was pregnant, was brushing the clothes diligently.

I don’t know where the Jia family got so many clothes to wash.

"Hello, aunties!"

Niu Ping'an gritted his teeth and greeted the group of aunts.

"It's Baoguo's nephew!"

"Hello to you too, young man."

"Baoguo's nephew is really filial!"

……

The aunties started talking at the same time, making Niu Ping'an's head buzz.

"My name is Niu Ping An, you can just call me Ping An."

Jia Zhang glanced at Niu Ping'an with her triangular eyes, rolled her eyes and snorted coldly.

Qin Huairu stopped what she was doing when she heard the noise and looked over.

Only then did Niu Ping'an take a serious look at the legendary white lotus.

She is really good-looking, especially her eyes, which seem to be able to speak. No wonder Shazhu is so obsessed with her.

His face was a little sallow, and he looked malnourished like most people.

The granary is bulging and looks quite large.

There were too many women around, so Niu Ping'an didn't want to look too closely. He just glanced once and then looked away.

Niu Ping'an ignored these aunties, found a place to get water to wet his clothes, put soap on them and started scrubbing.

The women kept working, occasionally glancing at Niu Ping'an and discussing something in a low voice.

Niu Ping'an was not very good at washing clothes, so he didn't dare to brush hard. He just brushed it a few times and started washing.

"Ping An, can you wash it clean like this?"

An old lady couldn't bear to watch it anymore and couldn't help but make a joke.

"Ha ha ha ha..."

The women had been observing Niu Ping'an for some time and knew that he really didn't know how to wash clothes.

But then again, how many grown men can do such a thing?

If the men still have to do the laundry, then what's the use of these old ladies?

Niu Pingan blushed a little, but said:

"Hey, the clothes aren't dirty, they just smell a bit, just wash them casually."

"You can't do that. If the sweat stains can't be washed out, the clothes will be ruined."

"How do I wash it?"

"The collar and cuffs need to be brushed carefully, and the armpits and back are also important areas to clean."

"okay."

Listen to what others say and you will have enough to eat.

Niu Ping'an was very sensible. He took out the clothes and applied soap again using the same method.

Seeing that Niu Ping'an listened to the advice, the aunts were very satisfied and turned to talk about other things.

"Speaking of which, among all the young wives in our courtyard, the daughter-in-law of the Jia family is the most capable."

Among the younger generation in the hospital, Jia Dongxu is the oldest and got married early.

In addition to the protagonist families, there are also several other families of passers-by A, B, and C who have people of the same age group.

"Who says it's not true? I've taken good care of the house."

"Hey, what's the point of being capable? It won't earn you a living!"

Jia Zhang was very happy to hear the praises from the aunties, but she said words of disdain.

"Isn't it because of you that Jia Zhangshi is still here? If you hadn't been greedy for that little piece of land in the countryside, you wouldn't have ended up like this!"

Speaking of this, the old lady became extremely angry.

When the country was first liberated, land was distributed in the countryside, and life in the countryside was much better than in the city.

When Qin Huairu first married into the courtyard, she was supposed to change her household registration to a town household.

But Jia Zhang was reluctant to give up that little piece of land and refused to let Qin Huairu transfer her household registration.

Before the land reform, the street office went to the Jia family to do some work, but Jia Zhangshi did not agree.

Later, when the land was lost, Jia Zhang wanted to change her household registration, but she was unable to do so.

The child’s household registration follows the mother, and the two children of the Jia family did not have a quota.

Eventually, Jia Dongxu was the only one in the Jia family who had a fixed amount.

It was okay in the past few years, you just had to spend a little more money; but in the past two years, the price of pigeon food has skyrocketed, and it is not certain that you can buy it.

Yi Zhonghai, Jia Dongxu's master, was also dragged into the water by the Jia family.

That’s not all. Even when food supplies were so tight at home, Jia Dongxu and his wife were still trying to have a baby.

He was not worried at all about not being able to support him, as if he had already taken control of Yi Zhonghai.

As Yi Zhonghai's wife, Auntie was naturally angry.

"Oh, who could have imagined that the policy would change so suddenly!"

When Jia Zhang heard the accusations from the aunt, she felt a little uneasy.

Without Yi Zhonghai's help, the Jia family would have had a hard time.

Jia Dongxu's salary is not enough to buy food, and without Yi Zhonghai's help, she will not be able to save her retirement money.

"How many times has the street office come to your house? Don't you have a count?"

"That's right. Look at your physique. You can take on two of us."

Several other aunts also followed suit and started to criticize, but they were actually a little jealous.

Jia Zhang ate well and didn't have to do any work, so she lived like a landlord.

"I have edema!"

"Come on, you are so fat and you have the nerve to say that."

"Tsk... don't believe me, my physique is just like that, I gain weight even if I drink water!"

No matter how thick-skinned Jia Zhang was, she couldn't stand being besieged by so many people and could only explain in a rogue manner.

After saying that, he hurried home with the half-finished sole.

Of course Qin Huairu also heard the accusations from everyone.

But she continued brushing the clothes, as if she didn't hear it.

Niu Ping'an pricked up his ears and listened with great interest.

There weren't many clothes, so they were washed in no time, and I didn't care whether they were clean or not.

"Aunties, you guys are busy, I'm done washing!"

Without waiting for their response, Niu Ping'an carried the basin back to the backyard and hung up the clothes.

There is nothing to do, and there is nothing fun in the city now.

Niu Ping'an looked at the little rice in the rice jar and decided to choose corn flour.

After the dough was kneaded and fermented, Niu Ping'an took out the boxing manual from the box.

"What? Are you going to start practicing?"

Niu Baoguo saw Niu Ping'an holding the boxing manual and reading it, and asked curiously.

"I'm bored, let me kill some time."

"You have to be persistent in this. If you practice for three days and rest for two days, you won't achieve anything."

"Uncle, we can't even get enough food to eat now, how many people have the energy to practice this!"

Practicing qigong consumes a lot of energy, so your appetite will naturally increase.

Niu Ping'an had enough food, but he had no confidence in his own perseverance.

"Yeah, I don't know when it will end!"

Niu Baoguo looked at the sky and sighed, his voice full of helplessness and sorrow.

"It's unlikely to work this year. The autumn harvest is almost over and the situation hasn't improved. Let's see what happens next year!"

"Well, Ping An, when you start working, go to the street office to register your household registration and collect your food allowance."

"okay!"

Niu Ping'an responded and started to do horse stance according to the instructions in the boxing manual.

If you practice martial arts without training your waist, you will never become a master.

If you practice martial arts without training your legs, you will become a reckless person when you get old.

After a while, my legs started to shake and I felt extremely sore, with beads of sweat pouring down my legs.

Niu Ping'an gritted his teeth and held on for a while, until he could no longer hold on and collapsed to the ground, gasping for breath.

Niu Baoguo watched from the side and ignored him.

After a long while, Niu Ping'an finally got up from the ground, and his legs felt a lot heavier.

He poured a bowl of cold boiled water, took a big gulp, and let out a comfortable breath.

"how do you feel?"

“I feel like my legs aren’t my own anymore!”

"Haha, you're really weak, just practice a few more times and you'll be fine!"

"Uncle, you make it sound easy, but it's really hard!"

"Nothing in this world is simple!"

"That's true..."

……

At noon, Niu Ping'an made the same steamed buns as before, fried some lotus root slices, and sliced ​​braised pork.

As a southerner in my previous life, I couldn’t get used to eating noodles every day.

But after being busy all morning and feeling very hungry, the hoarse steamed corn bread didn’t seem so hard to swallow anymore.

In the afternoon, Niu Ping'an continued to practice Xingyiquan.

Dinner is simple. There is some leftover from lunch, so we just heat it up and eat it.

After dinner, Niu Ping'an supported Niu Baoguo and prepared to go out for a walk to help digest the food.

As soon as I walked out of the house, I met a young man with a beard pushing a bicycle. His face was as long as the sole of a shoe and he looked quite handsome.

There were some dry goods hanging on the bicycle.

Niu Ping'an was stunned, and immediately recognized that the man was the First Blood Master Xu Damao.

"Da Mao, are you back?"

Niu Baoguo greeted Xu Damao.

"Uncle Baoguo, the mission is completed, and I'm back today! Who is this?"

Xu Damao replied politely, then looked at Niu Ping'an with some confusion.

“This is Niu Ping’an, my nephew.

Ping An, this is Xu Damao, the projectionist at the steel mill, who lives in this room. "

Niu Baoguo pointed to the west wing and introduced it.

"Hello, Brother Damao!"

"Hello Ping An, too! Are you guys going out?"

"Just went out for a walk after dinner."

"Okay, Uncle Baoguo, take care. I have to go home and pack up!"

After saying goodbye to Xu Damao, Niu Ping'an helped Niu Baoguo walk out of the yard.

The neighbors were all at home for dinner, so there was no need to bother greeting them.