The courtyard: the atmosphere of human life

Seeing Xiaoping's expression and appearance, Darong thought something important had happened, and nervously pulled Xiaoping to sit down.

"What's wrong? Did something happen?"

"No, sister-in-law, I have something I want to discuss with you. I want to open a store in the food street to sell cosmetics, but I don't have the capital. Can you invest in it and work with me?" Xiaoping asked Darong with eager eyes.

"How much does it cost?"

In fact, Darong herself is very fond of cosmetics, so when Xiaoping suggested it, Darong was immediately interested, but the reality was that Darong herself had no money to use.

"I calculated that from renting the store to purchasing the goods, it would cost at least 3 yuan."

Xiaoping saw Darong's excitement and immediately began to excitedly introduce the situation of the cosmetics industry at that time.

But Darong just listened absent-mindedly, while she began to think in her mind where to borrow the start-up capital if she bought a stake.

Although after 99, "ten thousand yuan household" is no longer a new term, it is still not a small amount of money for an average family, let alone the current situation of Darong and Zhong Yunxing.

Even if Xiaoping and Darong shared the capital equally, the capital demand for the family would still be 1 yuan, which Darong definitely did not have.

"I can't come up with that much money right now." Darong looked at Xiaoping with some embarrassment.

"Sister-in-law, let's find a way to get it together."

Darong understood what Xiaoping meant. Darong's father had been working on projects outside in recent years, and everyone around him knew that he had saved some money. Xiaoping was hinting that she should borrow some money from her parents' home.

However, since Darong's father announced his early retirement, he has never taken on any projects again, so Darong did not dare to ask her parents for help easily.

Seeing that Darong looked very hesitant, Xiaoping did not continue to ask questions. She just asked Darong to think about it carefully and then changed the subject to talk about something else.

After the summer vacation, little Ruyi moved to her grandmother's house. Because the family had land, Ruyi preferred to play in the fields with the children in the village.

After Zhong Yunxing came back in the evening, Darong also told him about Xiaoping coming to see her.

"That's great. If you can really do it, you won't have to do such tiring work anymore."

Compared to Darong's hesitation, Zhong Yunxing was more enthusiastic.

"But we don't have that much money. If we want to do it, we have to borrow more money. We haven't paid off the money for the bulldozer yet."

Darong sighed and said, and both of them fell silent.

"Da Rong, just lend it to me. Don't quit the factory yet. When I get paid for this year's wages, the debt for the forklift will be almost paid off. You can quit after the factory is up and running."

"What if I lose money?"

"If we lose money, we will just work hard and pay it back slowly."

Zhong Yunxing's encouragement gave Darong the final motivation. She collected all the money in the family and raised 4 yuan. She planned to go back to her parents' home to borrow some money when she was off work. When she had enough money, she would give it to Xiaoping to invest together.

On the day Darong went there, Xiaoling happened to be at home with her child. Darong felt it was too embarrassing to ask for money in front of so many people, so she thought about waiting until the evening when she had nothing to do, then she would talk to Darong's mother alone about her affairs.

"Ling'er, are you coming back for dinner?" Darong saw that her mother had gone to the kitchen to cook and was about to go over to help, so she casually asked Xiao Ling.

"He won't come back. He's never home all day long." Xiao Ling rolled her eyes, looking unhappy.

Seeing Xiao Ling like this, Darong didn't bother to pay attention to her and went to the kitchen to help Darong's mother cook.

The courtyard where Darong's mother lives now is a standard large courtyard with spacious houses. The small kitchen is not connected to the main house, so it is much more convenient to talk.

"Mom, what's wrong with Xiaoling? Why is she so crazy and talking so harshly?" Darong walked into the kitchen and asked Darong's mother.

"I just said two sentences to you, and you don't want to hear them."

Darong's mother snorted and laughed. Although Xiao Ling never argued when she talked about her, her little face was so embarrassed that she couldn't pick it up again.

"Why again?" Darong asked after looking up in the direction of the big house.

"She's here to borrow money again. Ever since your father got the construction money back, her family has been struggling to make ends meet. She brings her kids here every now and then to complain about being poor. Now she's asking me to give her some extra money to buy a house."

"You still want to buy a house? Do you have money or not?" Darong smiled disdainfully after hearing this.

"You see the third sister bought her own house, she is jealous, she said Nancheng has become a place 'not suitable for human habitation', and she scolded me. Not to mention that our family has lived here for so many years, you guys are still living here now, but she said that, this family is 'not human' anymore."

"Yuxiu is a teacher and has a provident fund, so there's nothing she wouldn't be jealous of." Darong pursed her lips and eyelids in disdain towards the big house.

"Then what can we do? Your father doesn't do construction work anymore, and the hardware store he ran for four generations is not making any money. Now she's laid off, so life is getting tight." Darong's mother sighed, not realizing the partiality in her tone.

After hearing what Darong's mother said, Darong didn't say anything more. Sibeier had always been the apple of her eye, and favoritism seemed to have become a habit of Darong's mother.

While Darong was cooking with her mother, Darong's father was in the yard tidying up the old grape vines. It was not until the meal was ready and Darong called him into the house to eat that he waved his hand and called Darong to his side.

"Rong, what's the matter with you coming here today?"

As soon as Darong arrived, her father noticed that she seemed to want to say something but was hesitant to do so. He was worried that she might have something to say that she couldn't say in front of Xiaoling, so he called her to his side.

"Dad, I want to borrow some money."

Darong squatted beside Darong's father and told him about Xiaoping's request for her to do business.

After Darong's father knew that it was just a matter of borrowing money, he finally nodded in relief.

He knew that Darong had a stubborn temper. Although life had not been easy for Zhong Yunxing over the years since he was laid off, she had always gritted her teeth and endured it.

During dinner in the evening, Xiao Ling once again mentioned in front of Darong that she wanted to borrow money to buy a house. The house cost 200,000 yuan, but she asked to borrow 150,000 yuan. Darong's father laughed when he heard it.

"You might as well let us buy you a house." Darong's father still looked half-joking, but the dissatisfaction in his eyes was somewhat well hidden.

"Huazi's family didn't have enough money to buy a house, and they didn't ask me for a loan. The couple took out a loan to buy it. If you really want to buy a house, you can get a loan."

After Darong's mother picked up a chicken leg for Linlin, she clearly rejected Xiaoling's huge request.