Siheyuan: Starting from a Truck Driver

As he said this, Li Aiguo got on his bicycle, pedaled hard, and left quickly.

Wang Dagui scratched the back of his head, silently staring at his back and muttering: "Brother Aiguo, do you really want to help me find a bride by the railway?"

As the sun sets, the fiery red sunset glows against the beautiful sky.

Li Aiguo rode a two-seater bicycle and bought some ingredients at the vegetable market.

Then he drove to the state-owned supply and marketing cooperative, a small building made of bright red bricks and green tiles, which was like a star embellishing a group of ordinary bungalows.

Between these buildings, a plaque with seven-color bright red characters reading "Chaoyang Dahuangjing Supply and Marketing Cooperative" attracts attention. The characters arranged in a circle are as eye-catching as the rising sun.

The door is made of elastic wooden door leaves. After pushing the door open, the door will close again under the action of automatic spring force.

As soon as you enter the door, you can see a variety of counter areas: grocery counter, daily necessities area, tobacco and beverage area, hardware and groceries, etc., with a dazzling array of items.

Small items such as vanishing cream, soap and sugar were displayed on counters covered with clear glass.

Large items such as iron thermoses, enamel basins, cloth and ready-made clothes are placed on shelves at the back of the store.

A tin teapot at six dollars is really expensive.

Looking at the waiter who was peeling melon seeds, Li Aiguo thought the price was difficult to bargain over, so he had to take out the money and hand it to him.

"Please take it."

After taking the tin teapot, Li Aiguo spent 57 cents to buy a towel. As the train was too hot, this towel was specially prepared for wiping sweat.

He originally planned to bring bottles for soy sauce, but then he realized that he forgot to bring glass bottles. The cooperative also sold beer bottles, which cost 20 cents each, but for Li Aiguo, who had a strong sense of saving money, this was not cost-effective, so he gave up.

After returning home, I rode my bike back to the courtyard where I lived.

As soon as he approached the door, he noticed the anxious look on Third Aunt's face. Seeing Li Aiguo coming, she seemed to have something to say but restrained herself.

Although the relationship between the two was good, they were not close enough to need to actively communicate.

The Siheyuan is even more bustling because of the "Jia Family Ruins", and people from surrounding courtyards come to visit. Adults chat and children run around like they are in a vegetable market.

Walking into the central courtyard, I saw Old Mrs. Jia, who usually sat at the door and rubbed shoes, standing by the flower bed, looking at the dilapidated scene helplessly and crying.

"Li Aiguo, give me back my house and my home."

Seeing him, her eyes were full of hatred, and her teeth were grinding fiercely. If she had not been restrained by his big badge, she would have rushed over to question him.

Li Aiguo still maintained a warm smile, strode back home with his head held high, and started to make a fire and cook.

As expected, the coal stove went out. It seemed that he urgently needed to plan ahead to use the stone stove. It was not easy to carry coal every day!

Seeing that no one was at the Xu family next door, Li Aiguo lit a few coal balls to make a fire at home. He took the meat out of the sack, washed it, cut it into small pieces, and added vermicelli and chili to make minced meat vermicelli.

After making a bowl of mung bean porridge for dinner, he closed the door, the room became dark, and after turning on the lights, Li Aiguo prepared to eat.

The sound of "knock knock" interrupted his meal, and Li Aiguo put down his chopsticks and went to open the door. At the door was Xu Damao, who looked at the minced meat on the table greedily and almost couldn't help drooling.

Seeing that Li Aiguo had no intention of letting him in, Xu Damao swallowed his saliva and said, "Aiguo, the master asked me to notify everyone to have a meeting."

"About donating to the Jia family?" Li Aiguo frowned in confusion.

"Yes, that's it. Jia Zhang has been crying in the yard today." Thinking of this, Xu Damao became a little excited. After all, the destruction of the Jia family was a godsend.

“Does everyone have to go?”

"No need, each family just needs to send someone to represent them."

"It's still the same. I understand. I'll go over after dinner." Li Aiguo nodded in agreement.

Xu Damao nodded: "Okay, I have to go back and get something to eat."

Xu Damao swallowed, turned around and went back into the house.

When Li Aiguo returned to the table, the dishes on his plate had already gone cold.

However, the weather is hot after all, so cold dishes are more palatable.

After finishing dinner and washing up, Li Aiguo picked up the book and continued to brush up his skill points.

In the courtyard, some residents who had dinner early had gathered under the old locust tree.

Faced with the sudden change in the Jia family, everyone was clear about the purpose of the next meeting and secretly calculated how much money should be donated later.

Jia Dongxu and Qin Huairu seemed to be more proactive. They moved a table from the house of an old man named Zhang and dug out a few benches from the ruins and placed them in the most conspicuous position.

As soon as they had put everything in place, Yi Zhonghai and Liu Haizhong followed, and it was obvious that they had communicated before.

Liu Haizhong was holding a donation box made of old newspapers in his arms.

This box was made by Yan Bugui, and the word "donation" was clearly written on the big red cover. In the past, the residents had seen Yan Bugui collecting donations with this box.

But this time, Yan Bugui was not seen.

Seeing everyone's faces full of questions, Yi Zhonghai took the initiative to explain: "Third Grandpa is not feeling well today. Yan Jiechengdu is now taking over for the Yan family. Second Uncle Liu Haizhong will be in charge of fundraising matters."

In the crowd, Xu Damao, holding a cigarette in his mouth, with a light mist coming out of his nose, urged: "I say, everyone, if you want to donate money, please be quick. What are you hesitating about? We are all very busy!"

After saying this, Yi Zhonghai's face turned gloomy and he seemed to be hesitant to speak. Liu Haizhong stepped forward and motioned for him to continue.

"Xu Damao, fundraising is related to our common interests. If you don't want to participate, you can go back. At the end of the month, if you receive a green ticket, don't say later that I didn't remind you."

After hearing this, Xu Damao shrugged slightly and remained silent. He recalled what Lou Zhenhua taught him when he was having dinner at Donglaishun today: to unite with everyone, to pursue personal progress, and not always confront neighbors.

In order to marry the daughter of Lou family, I have to endure this temporarily.

"Dongxu, is everyone here?" he asked.

Jia Dongxu looked around: "Everyone is probably here, but Li Aiguo doesn't seem to be here yet."

Hearing this, Yi Zhonghai's expression darkened, and he was about to send Jia Dongxu to look for him, but was interrupted.

"I am coming."

Li Aiguo walked out from the crescent-shaped gate with his hands folded.

"Brother Aiguo, there are seats here." He Yushui stood up and greeted him.

"Patriotic brother, here, I have some melon seeds." Xu Damao quickly handed over a bag wrapped in newspaper.

Hey, everyone knows that Li Aiguo is not a greedy person!

He sat down next to Xu Damao with ease, grabbed a handful of melon seeds, cracked the shells, and chatted about family matters.

"Da Mao, have you met your future mother-in-law?" he asked.

"How do you know?" Xu Damao asked with a surprised look.

Of course I learned from Lou Zhenhua that the person who was talking about meeting at Donglaishun at the station was you, Xu Damao.

"How is the marriage going?" he asked again.

"It's almost done. The old man likes me very much..." Xu Damao paused and continued hesitantly.

"How much do you like it?"

"Well, nothing else," he answered vaguely.

Amidst the lively conversation, Yi Zhonghai's expression turned gloomy.

He knew that Liu Haizhong could not maintain the solemn atmosphere of the meeting, so he stood up and said: "Everyone, please note that the Jia family has suffered a misfortune. This is a human tragedy. At this moment, their family has nowhere to stay. It is very pitiful."

"As neighbors, we should lend a helping hand and provide assistance in a timely manner."

"Let's propose this. Considering that everyone's life is difficult, each person only needs to donate ten yuan."

"Ten yuan!"

"Ten yuan?"

When the residents heard this amount, their faces turned grim.

Li Aiguo had expected that the Jia family's request might be excessive, but he couldn't help but gasp. For example, the high-quality rice he bought from Tianjin last time only cost 14.6 yuan per pound, so 10 yuan was enough to buy nearly 70 pounds of rice, and there would be a few cents left to buy a red string for the child.

Were the previous donations also this much?

At those gatherings, he represented the family when his father was still alive. At this moment, he took out a handful of melon seeds from his trouser pocket, walked over to sit next to He Yushui and Aunt Liu, and said with a smile: "Auntie, Yushui, come here, let me peel some melon seeds for you to taste."

"Thank you, patriotic brother." He Yushui smiled happily with a pair of crescent eyes.

"Good boy." Aunt Liu's wrinkles relaxed and her mood improved.

Xu Damao: "..."

Looking at the remaining half of the melon seed shell, he was filled with helplessness, as if he was a child who had been wronged. The originally full melon seeds were his treasure. Patriotic comrade, if you take it, at least give me a small change.

His eyes were full of resentment, as big as his palms, and he sighed deeply, as if he could blow away a cloud of dust. His father-in-law taught him to unite with his neighbors, to have a big picture, and not to be angry. Damao, be patient.

...

Li Aiguo stared at Yi Zhonghai who was speaking righteously, and asked Aunt Liu softly: "Auntie, is the scale of donations usually this large?"

Hearing the question, Aunt Liu sighed, obviously understanding Aiguo's doubts, and slowly talked about the past events in the courtyard: "In the past, our courtyard has donated money to the Jia family twice."

"The first time was because Lao Jia, Dongxu's father, was injured by a machine. At that time, the factory was not a private enterprise, and the boss Lou Zhenhua only needed a little money to settle the matter. The residents in the courtyard spontaneously donated money, but unfortunately Lao Jia finally..."

"The second time was after old Jia passed away. Jia Zhang said she had no money, not even enough for the funeral. So we donated five dollars per household, which was actually 50,000 yuan when converted into SGD."

Li Aiguo asked in surprise: "Five yuan is already a lot. Can the residents agree to such a large amount?"

The old lady sighed deeply, "You know, at that time everyone had a tacit understanding that if others donated, we couldn't fall behind."

"Everyone donated money?" Li Aiguo was confused. Are people in this era so generous?

Aunt Liu seemed to be at a loss for words and only said, "You'll understand in a moment."