Siheyuan, my new life

As He Daqing and his son walked into the courtyard, and after a while no one else was around, Guo Yongping glanced at his watch. It was almost six o'clock in the evening, and the sky outside was beginning to darken. He decided he didn't want to stand there waiting any longer. He decided to heat up the food he had brought back from the restaurant at noon and eat his own meal.

With a considerable amount of money and coupons on him, Guo Yongping certainly wouldn't treat himself poorly. His uncle, Dou Dagang, had left him a lot of meat and grain coupons. Although he had already sent most of the national grain coupons back to his hometown in Henan Province today, he still ordered two extra dishes at the restaurant at noon: one meat dish and one vegetable dish. He ran to the nearby supply and marketing cooperative to buy two new aluminum lunch boxes and asked the restaurant staff to help him wash them and serve the food. He also bought ten two-ounce steamed buns made from mixed flour. Although the original owner of this body often helped with farm work in his hometown in Henan Province, he really didn't know how to knead dough or cook. In his hometown in Henan Province, these household chores were the women's business. The original owner of this body was the scholar in his family, and even if he wanted to help, his mother would refuse.

After graduating from university, I rented a place to live. I could manage with some simple home-cooked meals, but I never made steamed buns. In the big cities of later generations, very few people steamed buns at home anymore. They usually bought ready-made buns from outside, and at most, they would cook a few home-cooked dishes themselves. After all, takeout was not only expensive, but the hygiene could not be guaranteed. To be honest, I didn't have much money in my pocket, so I tried to save as much as possible in my daily life.

Although his family's conditions in his later life were neither rich nor poor, Guo Yongping had never suffered hardship since childhood. Therefore, even after transmigrating to this parallel world, he didn't want to make himself miserable. Having read so many novels about courtyard houses, he had long since distanced himself from the cornbread and steamed buns depicted in those novels. In fact, the cornbread of the past was made from pure cornmeal, but due to the limitations of the machinery at the time, the cornmeal produced was relatively coarse and could not be compared with the refined cornmeal of later generations. You should know that the refined cornmeal of later generations had its hard outer seed coat removed beforehand, which is why the resulting corn flour was so fine.

However, due to the widespread drought across the country, major grain-producing areas have experienced significant yield reductions. As a result, other crops have been added when milling corn. For example, some places have added dried sweet potatoes and sweet potato vines. Nowadays, not only are corn cobs ground into cornmeal, but anything that can be eaten is being made full of use.

Guo Yongping was well aware that by next year or the year after, let alone dried sweet potatoes, sweet potato vines, and corn cobs, some severely affected areas might not even have any tree bark or leaves left.

Guo Yongping has discovered that while his "Heaven Rewards Diligence System" can provide various high-tech products, it lacks essential daily necessities like food and meat. Since he received cash for his first sign-in today, he should find an opportunity to buy as much food and meat as possible from the black market. After all, he has a huge storage space of one million cubic meters. Now, while many people in the capital are still hesitant and observing, he will strike first and suffer the consequences if he acts later.

Although the price of grain on the black market has increased several times over, it is precisely this high price that makes some residents who lack food hesitate to buy it. Even when they go to the black market to buy grain, they can only buy enough for their family's monthly needs, still hoping that the price of grain will come down. These people never dreamed that with the worsening drought across the country, the price of grain on the black market would skyrocket like a balloon over the next three years. According to some records seen in later years, by the end of 1961, the price of flour on the black market in Beijing was as high as six or seven yuan per jin, rice was more than five yuan, and pork was more than ten yuan per jin.

Guo Yongping is not short of money now. The yuan he received from his first sign-in is enough to last him a long time. You should know that the purchasing power of currency is still quite strong at this time. However, even if you have money, you can't buy many things without the corresponding receipts.

Today's big shopping spree has used up most of the various receipts left by the original owner's uncle, Dou Dagang. It seems that he will need to replenish some when he goes to the black market, especially grain coupons and oil coupons. He has already thought about it. Usually, he only cooks at home to make a show of it to appease the residents in the courtyard. He will try to buy more dishes and steamed buns from various restaurants when he has the chance, as they won't spoil if stored in his space.

Unfortunately, his planting and breeding space did not have an acceleration function. Guo Yongping had just checked and found that the fertilizers and feeds sold in the system store could also accelerate the growth of grains and livestock. Although the price was relatively low, he still had to be careful with his money and try to save as many merit points as possible before he received new merit points.

Just as Guo Yongping was heating up the food on the stove, Hao Aiguo's wife, who lived in the same front yard, was telling her husband with a resentful expression about the new tenants who had moved in.

Hao Aiguo's wife swallowed the cornbread in her mouth and took a sip of corn porridge. She said in a sharp tone, "Husband, the boy who just moved in today is a troublemaker. Doesn't he know his place? He's just a country bumpkin who got lucky. This kid, who hasn't even grown his hair yet, actually got two east wing rooms in our front yard. I've been urging you to go to the steel mill and find someone to help us change rooms. We also have two rooms now, but these two side rooms are almost half the size of those two east wing rooms. If we were moved to those two east wing rooms, we could put up two partitions and have at least four rooms."

Hao Aiguo's face was also somewhat gloomy, and he snorted heavily: "You old woman don't know anything, what nonsense are you spouting? The factory has strict regulations on housing allocation. What level gets what size of house? It's clearly written in the rules and regulations. Do you think I didn't ask someone for help? Our workshop director went to the housing management department and was turned away. If our family wants to apply for an increase in housing area, we have to wait until my technical level reaches level seven or above, otherwise there's no chance at all. So I was too lazy to come back and talk to you."

Hao Aiguo's wife asked, somewhat puzzled, "Since you say that the allocation of rooms should be based on rank, I think that boy is at most under twenty years old, and his clothes are quite worn. How can such a greenhorn be allocated two such large east wing rooms?"