Quick Wear: Men Farming and Women Weaving

The birth of the eldest son Yan Jiecheng represents the bloodline inheritance of Yan Bugui in this era, and the people he cares about. Yang Ruihua is sewing a baby quilt in bed during her confinement, and looks at the man who is changing the diaper for the child with a warm expression. He never talks much, but only does good things. Even giving birth to a child requires going to the hospital in advance and not letting him do anything. I am grateful to have met him at that time, which is the luck of several lifetimes. I only hope that he will accompany me until old age in the days to come.

"Ruihua, you are still in confinement, so be careful with your eyes." Yan Bugui saw that her hands were moving non-stop.

"It's okay. I'm bored now, and I'm not familiar with the people in the yard." Yang Ruihua kept doing it with his hands. "Especially that Granny Liu is very arrogant, Mrs. Zhang is mean, and Mrs. Wu doesn't have any children, so she's embarrassed to talk about children in person."

"Just avoid contact with the people in the yard, they are not good people" Yan Bugui "I am afraid that the kids in the yard will lead me astray"

"It's true that Damao of the Xu family is always at odds with Zhuzi. Zhuzi is also impulsive. The one from the Jia family is a little better than them. He is scheming and knows how to calculate." Yang Ruihua was also worried.

"No matter what happens to them, it's none of our business. The harvest is poor now, and it's hard to buy food at the grain station. I guess they have been preparing for the past few years. I'll go to the cellar later to see how much is left."

Yan Bugui walked out of the east wing to the cellar, unlocked it and walked downstairs. He took out a lighter and lit the oil lamp on the side. He looked at the seven rows of shelves in the basement, five layers high and two meters high. They were all filled with bags of dry goods, as well as some millet, corn, red beans, mung beans, black beans, soybeans and other grains. There were also some dried vegetables, potatoes, sweet potatoes, cucumbers, pumpkins, winter melons and some smoked fish and bacon in the baskets. The new rice bought in the past few years was replaced first. There were ten bags of rice, each weighing 100 kilograms. There were five bags of coarse grain flour, two bags of corn flour, and the others added up to about four or five hundred kilograms. If there were a few people, these would be enough for about two years, but if they continued to have children in the next few years, it would definitely not be enough. I decided to plant more pumpkins, sweet potatoes and potatoes in the future.

"Ruihua, we only have 2500 kilograms of grain and some dry goods. I plan to plant more pumpkins, potatoes, and sweet potatoes in the future," I said worriedly. "I'm afraid something will happen in the yard in the future, and the people inside will target the grain we grow. You may have to pay more attention to it in the future."

Yang Ruihua said it was no problem.

Two years later, the second child was liberated. The Jia family in the backyard wanted to marry a daughter-in-law with a rural household registration. Yang Ruiwen asked how much he should give, "Just give one yuan."

Yang Ruihua was so angry when he came back that day, and Jia Zhang said some unpleasant things again.

"The child is too old to sleep in a small bed, so I plan to clean up the back room next door and let him live in it. It will be enough for him to get married and have children in the future," Yan Bugui said.

"That's fine. We'll clean it up in a few days, but we have to sell the furniture, and there's nothing else in it," said Yang Ruihua.

"I've considered what you said. I'm going to go to the recycling station on my day off next week to look at the furniture." Yan Bugui nodded. "There's a lot of good wood in there. It can be passed down from generation to generation."

I walked for half an hour to the recycling station that morning, greeted Mr. Zhang at the door and went in.

"Uncle Wu, I want to find some furniture wood to make a room for my eldest son to sleep alone."

When Old Man Wu saw it was him, he said, "Your eldest child is only a few years old and he already sleeps in a separate bed. What will you do if he wets the bed?"

"I also have a second child to take care of. He is already 3 years old and can be trained to sleep and dress independently," said the interface.

"Okay, I'll tell you that." He turned around and lay on the recliner to sleep.

I walked to the left and opened the door. A gust of dust hit me in the face. I coughed several times. I saw a room full of messy furniture and wood. In recent years, I have developed a keen eye. I pick and choose the relatively intact ones and put them aside. I also look for some valuable wood fragments and broken ends. When they appreciate in value, they will be valuable for making beads. Sometimes I can also find some gold bracelets, jade pendants, or calligraphy and paintings in the interlayer, but not many.

Ask someone to take the things to the carpentry department to help repair or redo them. The rest has already been put into the space.

In the back room, some furniture is neatly arranged and there is a solid wooden bed. The space inside is not big, about 30 square meters and there is also a small bathroom. It will be convenient for the couple to live in it in the future. Some things in the back will be added slowly and they will be done with it when the children grow up.

"Jiecheng, you will sleep here from now on. You have your own space." The child was not happy and wanted to sleep alone, with his parents. But after his father said that, the second brother also wanted a separate room in the future.

A few years later, Jie Kuang was born, and the whole country began to control materials with coupons. Some things also came from the backyard. He Daqing ran away with a widow and left behind a pair of children. No one knew what happened to them later. He Yuzhu was arranged to be an apprentice in the kitchen of the Red Star Steel Plant. I heard that it was arranged by Yi Zhonghai. I guess he chose a spare tire for retirement. His apprentice Jia Dongxu is now a first-class worker. He married a wife, had a son, and is pregnant with another one. I don’t know where the news came from that the old woman living in the backyard is a five-guarantee household, and has made shoes for the Red Army. She is a martyr’s relative. She has lived here from the beginning. This is a concubine, and she is very close to Yi Zhonghai. What is she planning? In the quadrangle, they all came to live later, and I don’t know the situation. The Xu family and the Jia family knew the situation, but they didn’t intervene. I guess they gave some benefits.

In 1960, the three-year famine began to show signs. Fortunately, we collected some supplies from the beginning. We planted a lot of pumpkins and some potatoes and sweet potatoes in the field in the yard. The cellar was gradually filled. It is estimated that the whole country will start to be in trouble from the second year. The poor people in the backyard are estimated to have had a hard time in the past three years. Even if you have money but no tickets, you can't buy anything. Now you need tickets and food coupons for everything. The factories are estimated to be half-stopped. The schools are also half-stopped. Basically, there are not many students. In the courtyard, most people only eat one meal and it is all soup. Most people are trying to find ways to buy things from the countryside outside the city. They went to the black market many times, and the price of food increased many times. Basically, they couldn't afford it. Generally, they went there empty-handed. The Jia family targeted the food planted in front and sneaked to the front yard. Sometimes they stole one or two sweet potatoes, and sometimes they blatantly stole a pumpkin and ran away. Some people were so hungry that they went to steal in the middle of the night. Some of them were of better quality and had more positive values. They discussed with the Yan family whether they could buy it. Yan Bugui agreed knowing that these could not be kept. He also told the people in the courtyard that it was a difficult period and they could only find a way to grow some drought-resistant corn and sweet potatoes in the courtyard. When everyone heard this, they immediately went back to pry open the floor tiles in the courtyard, and brought back a lot of soil from outside the city, and started to plant a lot of sweet potatoes. The Yi and Jia families were no exception.

After the disaster in those three years, the situation became more stable. Some supplies were less available at first. Later, Director Wang from the street came to the courtyard and said that the election of management uncles should be started. He said that each courtyard could elect an administrator. To help the street, Yi Zhonghai and Liu Haizhong were elected from the front and back courtyards. Originally, Yan Bugui from the front courtyard was not going to participate, but because of his help, many residents in the front courtyard elected him.

The two houses in the back house of the Yan family gave birth to two sons, and now the third son lives with the second son. At first, the youngest daughter Jie Di was born, and they discussed with Yang Duanhua not to have more children in the future. There are a lot of trivial matters in the courtyard, and there are big and small meetings every few days. It’s all caused by He Yuzhu, the Jia family. The people in the yard shouted "idiot". They really called people idiots. They stared at Qin Huairu of the Jia family all day long, willing to be sucked blood by them. Jia Zhang raised her grandson to steal chickens and dogs, and stared at the people in the courtyard every day.

In the next few years, thinking that my children were all growing up, I would definitely need to prepare some property for dowry, so I tried to get a few houses in Beijing, away from here where they were being watched all day long. I was afraid that Jia Geng would lead them astray, so I tried to ask Director Wang from the street if there were any houses available nearby.

"Teacher Yan, don't you have three houses at home? Isn't that enough? Why do you want to buy another house?" Director Wang asked.

After hearing what I said, because the three boys in the family were about to grow up, and the family would be divided in the future, the house would definitely not be enough for marriage and childbirth, so they decided to leave the three rooms to the youngest daughter and divide the three sons outside.

Later, it was mentioned that there was a small courtyard in another street ahead. It was not big, but it had four houses and a kitchen. It was a dilapidated courtyard left behind when the landlords were beaten. Basically, everything inside needed to be renovated, and the price was relatively cheap, only 400 yuan.

"Director Wang, please leave this house to me. I can go and handle the formalities now. Please keep an eye on it for me later to see if there are two other houses left?" Yan Bugui said.

When he returned home and was asked by the woman, he said that the house had already been bought and would be renovated in a few years when his eldest son got married and had children.

Time passed quickly. By the time the youngest daughter went to school, the eldest daughter had graduated from a technical secondary school and went to work in another factory. The second daughter was about to graduate, and the school would make arrangements for her to go to the countryside soon!

By the time the news reached the courtyard, those of the next generation who were of the right age had basically received the information, and everyone was crying out to not let him go. The street office also notified people to come and appease them. The Jia family also didn't want Jia Geng to go, so they wanted their second daughter to go, but she couldn't because she was not old enough. Later, they tried to find a way to get him supplies.

The next generation began to get married slowly. Most of the families in the courtyard who had good financial conditions basically had no next generation. The Jia family had children, but the Xu, Yi and He families all had no children. He Yuzhu was dragged down by the widow and refused to get married.

When the youngest daughter grew up, the times gradually became more relaxed, allowing ordinary people to set up stalls to do business. The third child was lively and smart, so he rented a shop and started an electronics business. After making money, he bought the shop directly.

I bought 5 courtyard houses and 10 shops within the third ring road of Beijing. I divided the property among my children. I kept my youngest daughter with me and found a man nearby whose family conditions were also good. I can go home often and take care of my daughter nearby.