Siheyuan: He Yuzhu since 1958

At the same time, the front yard of the courtyard.

"Old Liu, why are you hanging around at the door instead of resting at home?!" Yan Bugui was just about to move the flower pots that were left at the door to bask in the sun back home when he saw Liu Haizhong hanging around at the door and couldn't help asking.

Liu Haizhong said, "I feel unhappy, so I'll walk around the door."

Yan Bugui was stunned for a moment and asked, "Old Liu, did your second kid make you unhappy?!"

Liu Haizhong said, "My Guangtian doesn't have the guts to do that. This idiot Zhu didn't even tell us about such a big thing as getting married, and he didn't even invite us to the wedding banquet. What do you think he did?! Isn't this just a dead end?!"

Yan Bugui said, "Old Liu, tell me the truth. We are nothing now. At best, we are neighbors. Do you think our relationship with him has reached that level?!"

Liu Haizhong didn't expect Yan Bugui to say such a thing. He was stunned for a moment. He stared at Yan Bugui for a while and asked, "Old Yan, what do you mean by that?!"

Yan Bugui said: "We are just ordinary people now, not the ones in charge. Let's just live our own lives!" After saying that, Yan Bugui walked to the flowerpot, picked it up and went home.

"You!" Liu Haizhong looked at Yan Bugui's back and said angrily, "It's unreasonable!" He couldn't say anything else.

"Hey?! Uncle!" About twenty minutes later, Xu Damao appeared at the gate of the courtyard on his bicycle. Seeing Liu Haizhong, he smiled and greeted him, then asked, "What are you doing at the gate?!"

Liu Haizhong pointed at his chest and said, "I feel upset, let me take a breath here."

Xu Damao asked, "What's wrong?! Who made you angry?!" Xu Damao remembered that He Yuzhu was holding a wedding banquet today, and he reacted instantly and said, "Second uncle, listen to my advice. Don't punish yourself for other people's mistakes. Even if you make yourself angry to death, others will only say that you are stingy."

Liu Haizhong asked: "Xu Damao, why didn't you stay at home to rest? Where did you go?!"

Xu Damao replied, "He Yuzhu is already married, shouldn't I hurry up?! Your son Guangqi is not young anymore. Second uncle, you should also prepare. Let's not talk about anything else. If you want to marry a good wife, you must have a job and a house. The house you live in now is bad enough. Can Guangqi still live in it after he gets married?!"

Liu Haizhong said somewhat awkwardly: "Isn't the Jia family's house vacant?! I wanted to apply for this house. Before I submitted the report, the street office had already divided the house. Besides, houses are not allowed to be bought and sold now. Even if I have money, there is no place to buy it."

Xu Damao looked around slyly, and said cautiously, "I heard that the street office is planning to split up the back house in our yard. I think you should file a report first. When the street office clears out the back house, it should be approved soon. If it doesn't work out, you can find someone to buy a new house."

Liu Haizhong said: "Housing is so tight now, who would want to change?! I'd better go to my workplace and file an application!"

Xu Damao asked: "Second Uncle, are your conditions for a room divided up enough?!"

Liu Haizhong smiled and replied, "Xu Damao, you underestimate your uncle. A few days ago, I passed the sixth-level blacksmithing test, which just meets the standard for housing allocation."

"Oh?! Let me congratulate you!" Xu Damao then bowed to Liu Haizhong. Liu Haizhong smiled and said, "Damo, you are the only projectionist in the factory. You have to work harder!"

As the saying goes, you should never hit a smiling person. Although Xu Damao was unhappy, he still put on a smile and said, "Then I'll lend you my good words!"

Xu Damao chatted with Liu Haizhong for a while at the door, and then pushed his bicycle into the courtyard. Liu Haizhong looked at Xu Damao's back, and the smile on his face disappeared. He snorted, put his hands behind his back, and walked into the courtyard. When passing by He Yuzhu's house, Liu Haizhong stopped, stared at He Yuzhu's house, and then looked at the east wing. He felt so sad!

Liu Haizhong returned home, picked up the teacup on the table, took a sip of tea, and sat down. Second Auntie heard the noise and came out from the inner room and asked, "Lao Liu, what's wrong?! Who made you unhappy again?!"

Liu Haizhong replied, "Nothing, I just ran into Xu Damao when I was taking a walk outside the gate. I chatted with him for a while. You know what, this guy has a pretty thorough view of things. Our Guangqi will graduate from secondary school next year. After graduation and entering the workplace, it will be time for him to find a partner."

The second aunt chimed in like a supporting actor: "Yes! That's right?! What's the matter?!"

Liu Haizhong said: "Our house is already crowded. If another person comes in, how are we going to live?!"

The second aunt said, "That's easy! Our Guangqi is a cadre when he joins the company. Cadres are entitled to housing quotas. Let Guangqi apply for a house at the company. When the time comes, let Guangtian and Guangfu move in. The house that Guangtian and Guangfu live in now is vacant, so why not clean it up and give it to Guangqi?"

Liu Haizhong thought about it and felt that what his wife said made sense. However, Liu Haizhong thought carefully: "Even if Guangqi is a cadre, it is impossible to allocate a house immediately after he joined the factory. It seems that I still have to apply for it."

Ever since Yan Bugui let it slip that the subdistrict office was going to divide the houses in the front yard and the back house, many families in the courtyard who were short of housing had their eyes on the back house. Anyway, these things had nothing to do with He Yuzhu. He Yuzhu and Huang Ying went downstairs. Huang Ying went to find He Yushui, and He Yuzhu went into the kitchen. Who made He Yuzhu a cook? ! A cook should have the awareness of a cook. Besides, there were only two women in the family. How could he, a grown man, not spoil them a little? !

After working for an hour, He Yuzhu had prepared all the food. Today was his and Huang Ying's wedding day, so He Yuzhu prepared a particularly rich meal for dinner. Abalone, shark's fin, and fish maw were basically all ready. He Yuzhu brought the food to the table in the living room, walked to the door, opened it, and shouted to the east wing, "It's time to eat!"

"Here we come!" He Yushui and Huang Ying responded in unison, and walked out of the east wing one after the other.

Entering the main room, He Yushui smelled the fragrance floating in the air and asked, "Brother, what delicious food are you going to make today?!"

He Yuzhu replied: "What else can we make?! Our He family's signature dish."

Huang Ying was more knowledgeable than He Yushui after all. She took one look at the dishes on the table and said, "Why does this look like Shandong cuisine?!" After that, Huang Ying looked at He Yuzhu, asking with her eyes whether her answer was correct.

He Yuzhu replied, "My father's cooking skills came from the Tan family kitchen. He is half a descendant of Tan family cuisine. So our family's signature dishes are Tan family dishes. These are Tan family dishes." Then He Yuzhu pointed to the shark's fin and said, "I wanted to make braised shark's fin, but unfortunately there was not enough time, so I could only make shark's fin with crab meat. I cooked abalone together with braised pork. Although it is not a Tan family dish, it tastes good. This is braised black sea cucumber. For vegetarian dishes, I made white fungus vegetarian stew and monkey head with three delicacies. The last dish is steamed chicken with straw mushrooms. The staple food is rice and steamed buns."

He Yushui looked at the dishes on the table, his eyes glowing with gold, his saliva unconsciously flowing down the corners of his mouth, complaining: "Brother, you are so partial! If my sister-in-law hadn't come in today, I would probably never be able to eat these dishes!"

He Yuzhu joked, "It's good to have something to eat! Why are you talking so much nonsense?!" He Yuzhu put a chicken leg into Huang Ying's bowl, and then put the second chicken leg into He Yushui's bowl. He Yuzhu poured a glass of soda for each of them, and poured two taels of rice wine for himself, urging them, "Eat! It won't taste good if it gets cold!"