The courtyard: the atmosphere of human life

Ruyi's academic performance has always been good, but this overall score is always not very high.

Firstly, she never gives in, and her spirit is exactly the same as Darong when she was young. Secondly, she is a little bit good at talking, which seems to be inherited from her uncle Huazi. There are not many times when she listens to the teacher obediently, so the teacher always dislikes her.

Although Ruyi is no longer asked to be a parent, he is still the kind of troublesome kid that the teachers don't want to deal with in the class.

"Jindan has been the class monitor for several years in a row, and look at you, you have never been the class monitor even once." Darong said sourly and with some envy.

"Mom, you've been in class for so many years, have you ever been a class monitor?"

Xiao Ruyi responded directly without showing any weakness, causing Zhong Yunxing to almost spit the food in his mouth onto the table with a puff.

"Hey... Zhong Ruyi!"

"Mom, even though you've never been a monitor, you can see how much dad and I love you. But we never loved those people who were monitors at all. So being a monitor is not important. What's important is that you're my mom."

Seeing that Darong's eyes were already erect, they immediately changed into a flattering smile. Darong was completely speechless when he was seriously confronted.

"Yes, yes, it's not important whether you are the monitor or not, but your mother wants you to be more obedient in the future and stop arguing with the teacher. Look at how your little mouth keeps chattering after your mother said one sentence."

Zhong Yunxing laughed and tapped Ruyi's forehead with his finger. This girl's temper was spoiled by him.

This year, Mother Zhong went to Dacheng with Father Zhong on the second day of the Chinese New Year. After Zhong Yunxing and the others got married, they would go to Dacheng together before the New Year every year to give gifts and visit relatives. After the New Year, they would not go again. Only Mother Zhong and Father Zhong would still go back on the second day of the Chinese New Year every year.

It was not until the sixth day of the New Year that Mrs. Zhong and Mr. Zhong found the door of their house was open when they returned. They thought it was Zhong Yunsheng who lived in Erdaohezi, but when they entered the house, they saw Xiaoping at home with the child.

"Xiaoping? When did you come?" Mother Zhong walked in and saw Xiaoping looking unhappy, wondering what had happened.

"Mom, Xiao Gao and I had a fight." Xiao Ping's eyes turned red before she could finish her sentence.

"Why?" asked Mrs. Zhong with a frown.

"Before the New Year, my second sister-in-law took out all the profits from the past few months to share. Xiao Gao wanted to import a batch of new models, but I had no money to give him."

In fact, Xiaoping only said half of the story. The other half was because Xiaoping did not listen to Xiaogao and continued to keep and calculate the accounts honestly. In the end, the profits shared by Darong and Wu Meifeng were equal to those of Xiaoping and her husband.

This made Xiao Gao, who had been running around the channels to purchase goods, feel dissatisfied, and he completely forgot his original agreement to use his labor to offset the share capital.

"How can there be no money? Isn't it the profit that is divided?" Although Mother Zhong did not understand the principles of doing business, she could roughly understand some of it.

"I can't explain it either. My capital is all invested in the goods, and the profits have been divided. Xiao Gao is still arguing with me. I'm almost fed up."

As Xiaoping spoke, tears began to fall from her eyes. Although Mother Zhong felt distressed seeing this, she didn't know how to help her.

After Xiaoping stayed in Erdaohezi for 2 days, she took her child to the store again when it opened on the eighth day of the Lunar New Year. No one knew how she and Xiaogao resolved their quarrel in the end. Anyway, after the opening, Xiaoping took her child and Xiaogao back home.

For Zhong's mother, it is probably just a simple truth that "husband and wife don't have overnight grudges."

However, in the following months, although the business of the shop was still booming, even Da Rong, who had never been involved in accounting, gradually noticed subtle differences. Wu Meifeng even began to doubt Xiao Ping and her husband.

"Don't you find that the current price fluctuation is quite obvious?"

When Wu Meifeng came to pick up Jixiang that day, she talked to Darong about the operation of the shop in person.

"Xiao Ping said they were all regular customers, so she gave them a little more discount."

Although Darong was somewhat confused, she did not say anything to Wu Meifeng. After all, they were family, and it would not be appropriate to say too much or too little.

"Hmph, regular customers get more discounts! And the customers we buy from are regular customers too, so why aren't the purchase prices going down?" Wu Meifeng said with a disdainful expression.

Darong didn't say anything else, but she started to have her own thoughts in her mind.

The heavy rain in early summer of 2000 caused Darong's house to be flooded again. Shoes in the house were floating everywhere, and the water outside the house was above the knees.

It was still raining outside, and Zhong Yunxing and Darong could only keep shoveling water out of the house with a dustpan.

But it seemed as if it was destined by God. When Darong was exhausted from shoveling water, the roof of a corner of the house began to leak.

This became the last straw that broke the camel's back. Darong suddenly broke down emotionally. She threw the iron dustpan in her hand to the ground, lay on the bed and burst into tears.

Zhong Yunxing felt mixed emotions when he saw Darong's appearance. He kept comforting Darong while continuing to shovel the water out to prevent the accumulated water from spreading and soaking the mattress.

"I want to buy a house, I want to live in a building, I've had enough!" After crying for a while, Darong suddenly stood up and sat on the bed.

Zhong Yunxing was stunned by Darong's words. Although the housing prices had not risen at that time, buying a house was still a considerable expense for their current conditions.

Looking at Darong's serious and determined eyes, Zhong Yunxing was silent for a while, then nodded to Darong very solemnly.

Darong withdrew half of the shares she had invested in the store under the pretext of buying a house, and no longer distributed dividends from then on. As the remaining half could not be raised in a short time, Darong also agreed to the agreement to refund it in batches.

"There isn't much money here. What should I do with the remaining money?" Zhong Yunxing counted the family savings and felt that it was still far from enough to buy a house.

"I asked Yuxiu. She applied for a loan at the Housing Provident Fund Center. Our company also has a Housing Provident Fund. I will go there tomorrow to ask and see how much I can get."

The fiber factory where Darong worked had not yet been restructured at the time and was still a state-owned enterprise. Although its efficiency had declined, employees were still able to enjoy the welfare benefits they were entitled to.

"Is that okay?" Zhong Yunxing was still a little worried. After all, the word "loan" was very rare at that time.

"Why not? If others can do it, so can we. I'll go ask."

Darong did not expect that her "stubbornness" this time would enable her and Zhong Yunxing to buy their first house in the last year before the housing prices rose.