Courtyard House: He Yuzhu started in 1948

When He Yuzhu returned home, Liu Haizhong had already finished disciplining his son.

He Daqing looked at He Yuzhu with an amused expression: "The cafeteria is open now?"

"right."

"You've become an official?"

"yes!"

"Oh my, you're an official at thirteen? What will you be like when you're fifty or sixty?"

He Yuzhu felt increasingly uneasy as he listened.

What are you doing?

Mocking me?

"What happened?"

"As soon as Jia Zhangshi entered the courtyard, she started bragging, saying that Steward He was quite arrogant."

He Daqing explained the cause and effect, but still spoke in a sarcastic tone: "Be careful of being a manager at such a young age. Liu Guangqi and Liu Guangtian in the backyard were just beaten, and it was Jia Zhangshi who stirred things up."

"What does that have to do with me?"

He Yuzhu didn't take it to heart. The Liu Guangqi and Liu Guangtian brothers were no match for him, and Liu Haizhong had He Daqing to deal with.

Victory!

He Yuzhu didn't continue talking about what happened in the courtyard. Instead, he took out fifty silver dollars from his pocket and said, "Fifty silver dollars. We men need to think about how to use this money."

He Yuzhu then explained the source of the fifty yuan.

Upon hearing this, He Daqing's eyes widened: "This is school money, how dare you touch it?"

It's definitely not going to happen in the future, but it's possible now... at least for this year.

"The money in the account is all there, and it's all been used for school purposes. I don't use a single penny of it. What's wrong with using it temporarily?"

It's already the end of March, and there are still nine months before Beiping is besieged. Now is the time to make a fortune, otherwise where will we make a fortune later?

He Yuzhu didn't want to get rich. He didn't have a personal space, so he had nowhere to hide the money he made.

He could still make a little money secretly. Once the air-raid shelters in Beiping were no longer being dug, he would try to get some good stuff.

He Daqing nodded in agreement when he heard He Yuzhu's words, finding them to be true.

Now, Tianzao is selling food and gradually opening up the market. The hotter the weather, the better their business is. They can't earn much money a month now, and they spend it all on clothes and other things for Tianzao's younger brother. There's no hope for Tianzao's business for the time being.

He Daqing was unwilling to live off his savings and had been keeping them hidden. Now that he had fifty silver dollars as working capital, his mind started to wander.

"The only thing we can do is focus on procurement."

He Daqing considered the market prices and said, "It's the lean season now, and vegetables are too expensive. It would be better to buy more tofu and vermicelli. Also, we should go to Tianjin to buy some seafood..."

I've talked a lot about ingredients that are readily available and cost-effective.

Of course, there are also affordable alternatives.

For example, He Daqing told Zhang Tianyong back then that the flour he was going to buy was from Fuxing Flour Factory, but now there's a perfectly good alternative: "You know Fuxing Flour Factory, right? It's the most popular flour in every household in Beiping now. It's bigger and has more advanced equipment, but we don't eat wheat flour often. Flour from Changshun Flour Factory in Nancheng is also good... If you want to make even more money, go to Tianjin and buy Shouxing brand flour. It's cheap and of good quality, and you can also buy some seafood while you're at it."

He Yuzhu's eyes lit up: "You can get a car?"

"Just borrow Lou Bancheng's truck. After cooking so many meals, he can't just refuse to give us any face, can he?"

After He Daqing finished speaking, he realized another problem: "Where should we put them?"

"I don't know either."

He Yuzhu shrugged. "Do you have a solution?"

"Yes, I have."

He Daqing pointed outside, "Buy a courtyard."

"Are you kidding me?"

"You were the one who joked first. What can I do about something like this? Can I just make it disappear out of thin air?"

He lives in the middle courtyard, while people live in both the front and back courtyards. Although many rooms are empty, there's no guarantee that someone won't suddenly move in.

"Find Lou Bancheng? Ask him for help?"

He Daqing felt it wasn't appropriate. Whether going to Tianjin or buying other things, he would have to borrow a truck from Lou Bancheng Steel Plant, and it wouldn't be right to lend them a house as well: "How about I buy a brokerage firm that's about to go bankrupt and just sell things there?"

"Absolutely not! You can't do business if you're not going to make money."

He Yuzhu was still thinking about his three generations of farmers. Now that He Daqing was going to do business, how was that any different from him being castrated and sent to the palace as a eunuch in 1911?

"Let me ask Zao."

He Yuzhu still thought of Tian Zao, "She has many younger brothers, so she might be able to find out some information."

"Find Lou Bancheng for transportation. Flour and seafood are taken care of. What about vegetables? And meat... preferably soybeans too."

He Yuzhu had a lot to prepare, and He Daqing didn't hide anything, revealing several sources he knew.

The vegetables supplied to Beiping City mainly came from Caihuying and Guancaiyuan in the FT District, Taiyanggong and Xiajiayuan in Chaoyang District, while chickens, ducks and geese were supplied from Daxing, and pigs, cattle and sheep from Shunyi...

He Daqing knew exactly where to buy cheap vegetables and where to find the best produce... Then, He Daqing said mysteriously, "However, there's another place to buy cheap vegetables these days."

"where?"

"The vegetable farmer's cellar."

He Daqing then explained to He Yuzhu that vegetable farmers are divided into large and small. Large vegetable farmers have more capital, more vegetable cellars, and more experience. They have set up both closed and open cellars, opening them according to the schedule to ensure that the vegetables sold are fresh.

Small vegetable farmers have no capital and can only do small-scale business. Now that it's almost April, large vegetable farmers have to clear their stock before vegetables from the south arrive in the city, and small vegetable farmers have to clear their stock before large vegetable farmers release their goods.

Dead cellars generally have no windows or ventilation holes; live cellars are cellars that have ventilation and air circulation.

He Daqing's idea was simple: buy fresh, cellar-stored vegetables so that they could be eaten until May when the vegetables were harvested.

Of course, there are also greenhouse vegetables these days, called "cave vegetables," which are cucumbers, bean sprouts, small red radishes, and cherry radishes grown in greenhouses. They are priced ten or twenty times higher than cellar-grown vegetables.

A cucumber costs one or two taels of silver; this is no joke.

He Yuzhu thought this was a good idea, so he bought it as He Daqing suggested.

As for the meat, that's even easier. Just go to Shunyi, buy two pigs, slaughter them, and bring them back. He Daqing is quite familiar with the butcher. As long as he pays the money in Shunyi first, he can have the butcher bring the pigs back.

He Yuzhu gave a thumbs up: "I am who I am, clear-headed, impressive! Impressive!"

"That's right!"

He Daqing was very proud of his son's praise: "I can even get the cheapest eggs from Daxing!"

At this point, He Daqing suddenly came to his senses and looked at He Yuzhu, saying, "However, these fifty silver dollars are not enough to buy the food you mentioned."

"I know, but you're still here, aren't you?"

He Yuzhu looked at He Daqing and laid his cards on the table: "Dad, those things you mentioned are yours. Can I buy them from you at 90% of the market price?"

"No way!"

He Daqing was furious. "After all that talk, you're after my life savings, aren't you? You little brat... you never had good intentions when you mentioned making money!"

I've already been cheated several times, so why do I still fall for it?

He Daqing was furious and was about to put on a show of filial piety when He Yushui, who was lying in bed, woke up, looked at the two of them, and burst into laughter!