Living in a Siheyuan

In the courtyard, as people were going home after get off work, everyone basically knew that Li Ping'an went to work in the steel mill.

Uncle Yi Zhonghai was a little flustered when he returned home. He felt something was wrong these days. His hands had been shaking slightly since a few days ago, but he didn't pay attention to it. Now it's getting worse. Today, several parts that needed precision machining were broken. He was scolded by the workshop director. After get off work, he asked for leave and planned to go to the hospital for a check-up tomorrow. He was afraid that if it continued like this, his hand would get worse.

So he was in a bad mood at the moment.

Li Pingan didn't wait long at home before he heard Xu Damao calling from outside: "Pingan, I'm going back first. You come here quickly too."

After thinking about it, Li Ping'an took out a box of braised pork head and a bottle of Xifeng wine from the space and went to Xu Damao's house in the backyard.

Today, I didn't see Qin Huairu washing clothes by the pool in the middle courtyard. It's true, I guess Qin Huairu will give birth to Xiaodang next month.

They came to Xu Damao's house. Xu Damao lived alone at home, so it was messy. Most single men's rooms were probably the same. Xu Damao was still busy in the kitchen, so Li Pingan handed him a lunch box and said, "Brother Damao, here is a portion of braised meat. It can be a side dish for dinner."

Xu Damao didn't hesitate to take the lunch box and started to tinker with it.

A few dishes were quickly prepared: a roast duck, which was probably bought specially, a portion of edamame and a cucumber, plus the braised meat that Li Pingan brought. This was a very rich configuration.

Xu Damao opened the Xifeng wine that Li Ping'an brought and poured it for the two of them. He said, "This wine is good, Ping'an. Come on, let's have one first."

So the two of them started drinking. At the table, Xu Damao also boasted about how awesome he was in the village. Then he talked about some things he had seen in the village. Before they finished a bottle of wine, Xu Damao started to have the shaking. Seeing this, Li Pingan didn't dare to drink anymore.

After helping Xu Damao to bed, I came out and saw that there were still a lot of vegetables left. Thinking that the weather was hot now, they would go bad if left out tomorrow, I packed up the vegetables and put them in the lunch box.

When I arrived at Sha Zhu's house, I saw He Yushui drinking porridge and eating pickles by himself. I asked, "Yushui, why are you eating alone? Where is your brother?"

He Yushui saw that Li Pingan was also happy, so he quickly stood up and said, "My brother is probably working overtime at the factory, so I cooked some porridge for myself. Brother Pingan, have you eaten? If not, I have some porridge here."

Li Pingan touched He Yushui's head and said, "I've eaten. Here are some leftovers from my drinking. I just brought them to you." Then he opened the lunch box, which was full of braised meat and roast duck. He Yushui was still cute now, but later he became evil and pitted his brother. It was probably because Jia Dongxu died two years later and his brother licked Qin Huairu and ignored her.

He Yushui's eyes sparkled as he said, "Wow! So much meat? Brother Ping An, don't you want to eat it?"

"I've eaten, you can eat first. Just wash the lunch box for me after you finish eating."

He Yushui quickly picked up a piece of meat and put it into his mouth, nodding in agreement.

Li Ping'an saw He Yushui eating happily, then went out and went home.

After returning home, I went into the space to wash up, practiced for a while, and then left the space to sleep.

The next day, Li Pingan just got up when he heard He Yushui knocking on the door and shouting. He opened the gate and saw He Yushui holding a clean lunch box and said to him: "Brother Pingan, what time is it? Why don't you get up? I've cleaned your lunch box for you."

Li Pingan took the lunch box and said, "I'm already up. Why did you bring it here so early?"

"I was afraid that you would have to go to work soon, so I sent it to you earlier. I have to go to school too, Brother Ping'an, goodbye!" He Yushui said and ran out.

Li Ping'an also went into the house to tidy up, ate something in the space, and then pushed the cart out.

At the door, I met Xu Damao who was also pushing a cart.

Li Pingan said, "How are you, Brother Damao? Were you okay last night?"

Xu Damao shook his head and said, "It's okay, I didn't expect you to be able to drink so much, Ping An!"

"No, you drank more. You drank most of the bottle. I drank less and it's okay."

"Are we going to the countryside again today?" Xu Damao asked.

"Well, yes. Today is the first time I go to the countryside alone. What about you? Are you not going to show the movie today?" Li Pingan replied.

Xu Damao rubbed his head and said, "We won't go today. Usually we need to rest for a few days after returning. I'll call you next time and we can go together."

As they talked, they rode their bicycles to the factory.

Yi Zhonghai also went to the hospital early in the morning. After a series of examinations, the doctor basically confirmed that it was Parkinson's syndrome. There was no way to treat this disease with current medicine. Yi Zhonghai was extremely depressed after knowing this, which meant that he would never be able to make any further progress in the future, and he might even be demoted. He might even lose his job as a fitter.

Let's not talk about how depressed Yi Zhonghai was when he returned home. Let's just say that Li Ping'an came to the purchasing department in the morning and followed Ji Qingshan to the finance office to get an advance of 30 yuan. Then he said goodbye to Ji Qingshan.

He plans to visit Zhangjiazhuang today where he bought bees last time.

He rode out of the city and found a corner in the deserted suburbs to store the bike. Li Ping'an disappeared in a flash, and when he appeared again, he was already a hundred meters away in an empty place. In this way, Li Ping'an arrived at a place not far from Zhangjiazhuang in a short while.

Li Pingan took out his bicycle and rode to the village. When he arrived at the entrance of the village, he was stopped by a militiaman.

"What do you do?"

Li Pingan stopped the car and stepped forward and said, "Hello, comrade. I am a purchaser from the Red Star Steel Rolling Mill. Here are my credentials. I know Old Zhang, the beekeeper in your village. I'm here to see him."

The militiaman checked Li Ping'an's ID and let him go.

Following the route he took last time, Li Pingan found Old Zhang's home halfway up the mountain. He knocked on the door for a long time but no one was inside. He could only wait at the door.

After a while, a woman in her fifties came over, looked at Li Ping'an and asked, "Young man, who are you looking for?"

"Hello, auntie. I'm here to look for Mr. Zhang from this house." Li Ping'an replied.

The aunt looked at Li Ping'an in confusion and said, "This is my home, why don't I recognize you?"

Hearing that it was Old Zhang's family, Li Pingan hurriedly said, "Hello, Aunt Zhang, I came to our house last time and bought two boxes of bees. Now I am a buyer for the steel mill, and I came to see Uncle Zhang."

As he spoke, Li Pingan took a bunch of bananas that he had prepared long ago from the car. This thing is a rare thing now, not to mention in the countryside, even in the city. Many people have never eaten it.

When Aunt Zhang heard that it was the young man who came last time, she welcomed him into the house warmly. She poured a glass of water for Li Ping'an and said, "Young man, I heard about you from my old man. Please sit down for a while, I'll go call him. He's probably still over there taking care of his bees, and he won't come back until dinner time."

Aunt Zhang went out. Li Pingan sat under the pomegranate tree, drinking water and looking around the yard. The yard was not big, with three rooms in the front and a kitchen on the right. It was surrounded by a wooden fence that looked a bit shabby. But the yard was clean.

After waiting for a while, Old Zhang came back with a straw hat with a mesh in his hand.

When he saw Li Pingan, he asked, "Young man, do you want to buy bees or honey this time?"

Li Pingan smiled and handed Old Zhang a cigarette, saying, "Uncle Zhang, I'm now a buyer for the Red Star Steel Mill. I came to your place today to see if I can get some supplies in the village. I want anything, eggs, meat, and some wild delicacies. Also, I want to meet your village chief."

After hearing what Li Ping'an said, Old Zhang said, "Then I have to take you to the brigade headquarters. The brigade leader is my nephew, and my son is the militia leader. They are all there."

He stood up and walked downstairs with Li Pingan. Li Pingan followed behind, pushing the cart. This village looked more dilapidated than the Liangjia Village we visited yesterday, and it was not as big as Liangjia Village, with only about fifty or sixty houses.

Soon we arrived at the brigade headquarters, where two people were smoking. When he saw Old Zhang coming in, he asked, "Uncle, why are you here?"

Old Zhang ignored the two men and turned to introduce them to Li Pingan: "This is our team leader Liu Wazi, and the one behind him is Accountant Wu." He then said to the two men: "This young man is a buyer for the Red Star Steel Rolling Mill, and he has something to do with you."

Li Pingan came forward and gave them cigarettes, saying, "Hello, I am Li Pingan, a buyer at the Red Star Steel Rolling Mill. Here is my ID."

Team leader Zhang Liuwa took the ID, looked at it, and gave it to Accountant Wu. He looked at Li Pingan and said, "Hello, Purchaser Li. We haven't had a purchaser here for a while. What do you want to buy today?"

After checking the certificate, Accountant Wu returned it to Li Ping'an and poured him a glass of water.

Li Pingan said directly without hesitation: "I'm new to purchasing as well. Captain Zhang, what mountain products can you find in the village?

Captain Zhang smoked a cigarette and said, "There are not many mountain products at this time. Last winter, someone was injured by a wild boar in the mountains, and now no one dares to go into the mountains. How about I notify everyone later and see if anyone has anything at home and bring it to you?"

When Li Pingan heard that there were wild boars in the mountains, he had an idea. He had pork, beef and mutton in his space, but it was not easy to take them out. Now these things are collectively raised and must be handed over to the commune purchasing station. Individuals are not allowed to raise them, let alone buy and sell them. But wild boars are not counted here. If he raises dozens of wild boars, he can take them out openly in the future.

Thinking of this, Li Pingan asked, "Are there many wild boars here?"

The captain said: "There are many wild boars in the mountains, but they live in groups. Ordinary people dare not provoke them. In previous years, wild boars often came down the mountain to harm crops, so we organized people to go into the mountains to hunt. Last year, when we encircled a group of wild boars, two people in our militia were injured. Now no one is willing to go into the mountains to hunt wild boars."

After listening to this, Li Ping'an did not continue to discuss this, but asked the team leader to notify everyone to bring their things to the team headquarters.

By noon, Li Pingan had collected five or six kilograms of bacon, dozens of eggs, and some dried goods such as mushrooms and black fungus. Finally, Li Pingan also bought two wild rabbits.

He tied all the things on the bicycle, gave a pack of cigarettes to the team leader and accountant Wu, and asked them to keep the things for him to come back next time. Li Pingan was about to leave.

The team leader and accountant Wu also sent him to the door. Li Pingan was about to ride his bike when he saw a large stone mill on the side of the road where someone was grinding cornmeal. He immediately thought of the wheat and corn in the space that had not been processed into flour. So he asked, "Team leader, where did you get this stone mill?"

When the team leader saw that Li Ping'an was interested in the stone mill, he said, "Where else can you get it? Our back hill is full of big rocks. The nearby communes have come to our village to buy stone mills. Several stonemasons in our village specialize in making stone mills."

Li Pingan was happy to hear this and said, "Do we still have any here? A relative of mine in the suburbs wanted to buy one a while ago."

"There are a few that have been ground, but we usually exchange them for food from other villages. You can see that we have little land here and not enough food. Usually we have to exchange a stone mill this big for 300 kilograms of coarse grains."

Li Pingan also knew that he couldn't take it away today, so he said, "Okay, I'll go back and ask. If his family still wants it, I'll come back next time."

In this way, Li Ping'an rode his bike back with supplies worth more than ten yuan.

When they were in a place where no one was around, they put the things into the space as usual. Li Ping'an then headed towards the steel mill.

Soon I arrived near the steel mill, took out my bicycle and rode back to the factory. As usual, I went to the warehouse to hand in the materials, and then went to the finance department to check the accounts. When I got back to the purchasing department, there was no one there. Only Zhou Changming was reading a newspaper in the office.

Seeing Li Pingan coming back, he asked, "Pingan, how about going alone today?"

Li Pingan smiled and handed the receipt of the handed-in materials to Zhou Changming, saying, "Today was not bad. I went to my relative's village and collected more than ten yuan worth of materials. Take a look."

When Zhou Changming saw that Li Ping'an had collected bacon and rabbits, he said happily, "Not bad, Ping'an. Now it will be much easier to arrange Director Li's reception tonight. Work hard next time. If you can complete the task every week, I will ask the section chief to make you a regular employee sooner."

"Thank you, Chief Zhou. I will definitely work harder to get a permanent position soon."

The two chatted for a while, and then waited until the end of the day, but no one came back, so Li Pingan went home.