Siheyuan: Starting from a Truck Driver

The three old men took the lead, and even though the residents were reluctant, they had no choice but to take out their money and put it in the box.

Jia Zhang's face was already full of smiles, because Li Weidong also donated five yuan. What made her even more excited was that Sha Zhu actually donated ten yuan. In fact, Sha Zhu had no choice but to do so. He hoped that Qin Huairu could help him introduce Qin Jingru. If he didn't show some appreciation, Qin Huairu might regret it.

Soon it was Xu Damao's turn, and he only wanted to donate one dollar. However, because of her family background, Lou Xiao'e was most afraid of being accused of not being active, so she took out ten dollars from her pocket and generously threw it into the box.

After seeing Jia Zhang leave, Lou Xiao'e turned around and whispered to Li Weidong, "Weidong, you just started working and your income is not much. You just got married and even the wedding was organized by everyone. You don't need to donate too much. Just a token of your appreciation will be enough."

Li Weidong was still thinking about what happened just now, and asked casually: "What do you think those people who went to the Jia family to donate money were thinking? Donating ten yuan is so glorious, why don't they want others to know?"

Lou Xiao'e was stunned for a moment, feeling that her brain was not enough, and said hesitantly: "Maybe, people do good things without leaving their names!"

However, Xu Damao was a shrewd man and understood immediately: "Damn it, Jia Zhang dared to lie!"

Last time, the two hens were stolen by the Jia family. Although Xu Damao received compensation, he was still angry.

This time, Jia Zhang cheated him out of ten dollars again, and he could no longer hold back.

He strode forward and stopped Jia Zhang: "Check the accounts!"

"What accounts are you checking?" Jia Zhang instinctively protected the box.

Xu Damao sneered, "I donated ten yuan, my second uncle donated ten yuan, and Sha Zhu donated ten yuan. Add the ten yuan you mentioned, and there must be more than four large-denomination bills in the box. I need to check the account!"

Jia Zhang's face turned pale instantly, and she angrily cursed, "What does other people's donations have to do with you? If you have the guts, ask your wife to lay an egg!"

"Damn it!" Xu Damao was furious and reached out to grab the box.

Jia Zhang naturally couldn't let Xu Damao succeed, and the two of them started fighting in front of everyone.

The box made of newspapers suddenly broke with a loud crash, and the banknotes inside fell out, mixed with a few rolls of old newspapers.

After seeing the newspaper, the residents suddenly realized what was going on.

"Oh, Jia Zhang is really good at playing tricks. She used newspapers as money to trick us."

"No, we can't let her fool us like this!"

"Hey, that's my ten dollars!"

Xu Damao was the first to take action and snatched back his ten dollars.

The residents who realized they had been cheated rushed over and picked up the money they had put into the box.

Jia Zhang was so anxious that she kept jumping up and down: "This is the money I worked so hard to earn, don't take it away!"

No one paid any attention to him. Jia Zhang became more and more anxious and rushed into the crowd.

She was quick-witted and picked out large-denomination bills, and eventually snatched back three ten-yuan bills.

Yi Zhonghai was watching on in amazement.

He was just immersed in the joy of the success of his plan, but he saw Li Weidong whispering a few words to Xu Damao, and Xu Damao exposed his plan.

Alas, it’s this guy Li Weidong again. He started making trouble as soon as he returned to the courtyard.

Ouch, ouch, my chest starts to hurt again.

Yi Zhonghai winked at the aunt, and the aunt quickly shouted, "Old man, your ** disease has come back again, go home and take medicine."

Sha Zhu was a little hesitant about whether to get his ten dollars back, but after thinking about it, he decided to give up and just treat it as a gift to Qin Huairu for matchmaking.

Yi Zhonghai and Sha Zhu could refuse to get their money back, but Liu Hai could not. Jia Zhang was making a fool of him.

He is a seventh-level blacksmith and the second master of the Siheyuan Courtyard. How can he be a monkey?

Liu Haishang winked at Liu Guangfu and Liu Guangtian and said, "Go and get our money back, so you two won't get beaten for two days."

Upon hearing this, Liu Guangfu and Liu Guangtian shouted excitedly and jumped towards Jia Zhang.

Although Jia Zhang was strong, she was old after all, while Liu Guangfu and Liu Guangtian were two young men who had no scruples. One of them hugged Jia Zhang, and the other pried her hands apart, and quickly got the money back.

After the crowd dispersed, Jia Zhang looked at the twenty yuan in her hand, feeling like crying but without tears.

As night falls, every household in the capital lights up with warm orange lights, illuminating their own lives.

Li Weidong and Yu Li lay on the bed, whispering.

After listening to Li Weidong's experience with Jichun, Yu Li also shared her recent life and work trivia.

Life is peaceful and calm, with the main worries coming from work matters.

Teaching literacy classes is subsidized, and these subsidies are included in the salary at the end of the month, and include subsidies for food coupons and meat coupons. My foundation is elementary chemistry, which is enough for literacy work.

However, those old ladies and young wives were busy chatting all day and didn’t care about literacy at all. I was explaining on the podium, but they… If this continues, I won’t be able to complete the task and I will definitely be criticized by the leaders.”

Yu Li's aggrieved expression made Li Weidong laugh: "You are too old-fashioned and don't know how to teach. You should treat those women as primary school students and stimulate their interest in learning by coaxing them like children."

"Coaxing children? They are older than me!" Yu Li was puzzled.

Li Weidong raised his eyelids and thought for a moment: "Can you sing the literacy song?"

"Yes! This is a necessary skill for us literacy workers." Yu Li immediately became excited when she heard this. She was not afraid of the cold and sat up from the bed wearing only a red sweater.

"The sun rises, the sky is full of red light, and the illiterate people who have been illiterate for decades open their eyes. The sun rises, the sky is full of red light, and the illiterate people open their eyes." After singing, she looked at Li Weidong expectantly: "How is it, did I sing well?"

"It's really good, but..."

"Just what?" Yu Li asked.

Li Weidong sat up straight, hugged Yu Li, and said slowly: "This song is too grand and not suitable for inspiring women's enthusiasm. Let me help you compose a song." Then, he opened his voice and sang loudly with the standard of KTV professionalism: "We women hold up half the sky. It's pitiful that we have no education. We can't read simple documents and can't even sign our names. In the old society, we were illiterate and were bullied."

Yu Li was stunned. It was not because Li Weidong's voice was so beautiful, but because the lyrics were so close to life. If an illiterate woman heard such a song, she would feel that it was wrong for her not to study.

Li Weidong taught Yu Li how to sing soprano, while Yu Li taught her own singing skills. This was a challenge for both of them, and also a test for Li Weidong's body. However, when the sun shone over the capital the next morning, Li Weidong had already gotten up to prepare breakfast, because Yu Li sang until late the night before.

Li Weidong looked at the clock and it was almost time to go to work, so he woke up Yu Li. He told her that if she didn't have any particularly important work today, she should go home early because they were planning to treat everyone to dinner tonight. They planned to invite Yu Li's parents and Haitang to dinner. Yu Li agreed and reminded Li Weidong that there was a lunch party at his factory at noon. What should he do? Li Weidong said he had solved it, and he asked Zhuzi to help keep the ingredients they prepared.

They chatted while eating breakfast. Afterwards, Yu Li watched Li Weidong go to work while she also prepared to start her day. She parked her bike at the community center and went to work.

Soon after Li Weidong arrived at the factory, he heard people discussing an interesting event that was about to take place. He found Niu Meng also watching the fun, so he parked his bike and joined the crowd. He asked Niu Meng what was going on, and Niu Meng told him that Zhuzi was about to start slaughtering a pig. Li Weidong was curious about the upcoming ceremony.

Although the ancient ritual of slaughtering pigs has been abolished, it is still a big event in the factory. Workers gather together to watch Sha Zhu slaughter the pigs, including old and young people. It is an exciting experience because most people, even the younger generation of workers, have never seen the slaughtering process before.

Sha Zhu had never killed a pig before, and he felt the attention he was getting, which made him nervous. He knew that people were waiting around him, and it would be very embarrassing if he made a mistake. However, he felt even more anxious when he saw Xu Damao and Liu Haizhong in the crowd, because they would surely not miss the chance to envy him. But when he noticed that Li Weidong was also there, he felt very relieved, because he knew that his friends would support him and would not let others interfere.

Sha Zhu walked towards the fat pig and asked, "Who can help me hold it down?" Ma Hua smiled and replied, "Master, we will help you." He Yuzhu stood up and walked to the fat pig with a knife. Then, he began to slaughter the fat pig, stabbing it into the fat pig's throat with a steady and ruthless knife. Although the fat pig struggled, Ma Hua and the other apprentices held the fat pig down firmly.

During the slaughtering process, the fat pig shed a lot of blood, which fell into the prepared iron basin. After a while, the fat pig calmed down. Sha Zhu breathed a sigh of relief, wiped the sweat from his forehead, and felt lucky that he did not make any mistakes.

The onlookers applauded them enthusiastically. Sha Zhu bowed to them and looked at Xu Damao provocatively. Xu Damao was very angry, but he saw Li Weidong standing among them with a sarcastic smile, which made Xu Damao look very ugly. Xu Damao had no choice but to complain in a low voice and then quietly left. The other onlookers also dispersed under the instructions of the leader.

Li Weidong watched Xu Damao leave, then walked over to Sha Zhu and praised his slaughtering skills. Sha Zhu said he had tried his best, but he didn't expect there would be so many onlookers. He thanked Li Weidong for his support.

Afterwards, Li Weidong asked Sha Zhu to keep two portions of food for him at dinner and to process the fat pig's intestines according to his instructions. He told Sha Zhu that he would join his friends at dinner. Sha Zhu was a little surprised because Li Weidong had invited his wife's family. But Li Weidong told him not to worry.

Shazhu told his friend Mahua about his plan. He hoped that Mahua could lend him a meal ticket so that he could entertain Li Weidong's family at his home. Mahua agreed, and although he also liked pork, he knew that He Yuzhu was a man of his word and would definitely compensate him.

Sha Zhu expressed his gratitude to Ma Hua for his friendliness and help, and was extremely grateful. He decided to also thank Li Weidong for helping him so much.

Li Weidong didn't know about the deal between He Yuzhu and his apprentice. He returned to the team lounge, picked up the dispatch form and set off. For him, long-distance missions like running to Jichun are rare a few times a month, and most of the time he is busy in the city. This mission is to transport steel for the factory that is being expanded. According to the standards of later generations, the location of the factory should be within the Fifth Ring Road, which is not far away.