Siheyuan: Starting from a Truck Driver

Seeing his wife staring at him, Li Weidong couldn't help but push her: "Wife, wake up!" Yu Li quickly reacted, blushed, and lowered her head to continue tidying up. Li Weidong couldn't help but hugged her in his arms. Yu Li was startled, but she looked out the window and confirmed that no one was peeking, then she felt relieved and pretended to be angry and said: "Look, someone saw us!"

Although she blamed him in her heart, it was just an act. After all, Li Weidong had not gone far, and Yu Li missed him very much. The two hugged for a while until there was a gurgling sound in the kettle. Yu Li remembered that she was still boiling water. The bacon that Li Weidong brought needed to be scalded with boiling water before slicing. She immediately pushed him away and said, "I still haven't finished boiling water!"

This is a story about the daily life of neighbors in a courtyard house. The protagonist Li Weidong and his wife Yu Li prepare food together and mention the plan to invite Yu Li's parents and Haitang to have a meal together. Li Weidong also plans to buy some Moutai as an investment for the future when his children or grandchildren get married.

While preparing food, Li Weidong skillfully cut the bacon into thin slices, while Yu Li was washing rice. Suddenly, a gong sounded outside the yard, heralding an upcoming residents' meeting. Li Weidong guessed that the content of the meeting might be about some trivial matters in the yard, such as how Yu Zhu hit Xu Damao, or how Bang Geng stole chickens and dogs.

As Li Weidong and Yu Li were preparing to attend a residents' meeting, Xu Damao was attracted by the aroma of sausages from their home. He asked Li Weidong what delicious food he was making and proposed to exchange eggs for bacon. Li Weidong rejected the proposal and jokingly offered to exchange Xu Damao's hens.

Xu Damao awkwardly rejected the offer, claiming that the hens were laying eggs for his wife during her confinement. Li Weidong seemed to believe this explanation, but he doubted whether Xu Damao really understood his infertility problem.

This part of the story also mentions how Qin Jingru successfully forced Xu Damao to marry her and how Xu Damao reacted to it. In addition, Lou Xiao'e was ashamed of Xu Damao's behavior and threatened to return to her parents' home, which eventually persuaded Xu Damao to give up his plan to exchange for bacon.

Overall, the story depicts the daily life of the neighbors in the Siheyuan, as well as their interactions and emotional entanglements.

In Li Weidong's residence, Yu Li had just tidied up the inner room and walked out of the living room to ask, "Weidong, I seemed to hear Xu Damao's voice just now."

"It was him. This guy wanted to eat the bacon, but I chased him away." Li Weidong replied.

Yu Li listened, shook her head, and said with a wry smile that it was not surprising that Xu Damao did such a thing. In front of outsiders, Xu Damao might be able to put on a noble demeanor, but in front of Li Weidong, he was like a little brother. This guy often went to other places, hoping that the team could take him along the way, and he had to rely on his identity as a projectionist to collect things. Although his income was not high, he had a lot of extra benefits. However, compared with Li Weidong, these benefits were not worth mentioning. Drivers have far more opportunities to get benefits than projectionists.

Li Weidong's family has not yet bought an electric rice cooker. In order to save honeycomb coal, he now steams all the dishes in one pot. Perhaps he should consider buying an electric rice cooker for his family, then go back to ask Fatty Yu for a few industrial coupons, and then use his connections to get one back no matter what. After all, electric rice cookers are a hot commodity now, and you may not be able to buy one even if you have money and coupons.

Buying a rice cooker through normal channels is all about luck, as department stores have a very limited supply each month. There are so many people who want to buy a rice cooker that when it goes on sale, some people even queue up overnight just to get one.

Li Weidong felt that his chances of buying a rice cooker were very slim, so he decided to let Fatty think of a solution.

"Add some water, we'll be back for dinner soon." Yu Li said as she ran over to add water. After adding the water, she took off her apron and went out with Li Weidong.

When Li Weidong and his wife walked into the courtyard, the courtyard was already full of people. Everyone brought their own stools, and those who were better off also brought melon seeds, which was considered a real crowd of melon eaters. Those who were less well off brought enamel pots filled with warm water. People like Yi Zhonghai would put some tea leaves in the enamel pot and blow it before drinking, as if he wanted others to smell the fragrance of jasmine flowers, a typical pretentious act.

Before Li Weidong and his wife appeared, Yi Zhonghai and Liu Haizhong were still complaining about why they hadn't come yet. Without the protagonist, how could the play continue?

"Li Weidong, what are you two doing that made everyone in the hospital wait for you?" Yi Zhonghai asked, frowning slightly.

Did this old man take the wrong medicine? Or was this meeting directed at me?

Li Weidong ignored Yi Zhonghai and sat in the last seat with Yu Li. As soon as they sat down, Yan Bugui asked loudly: "Li Weidong, why are you sitting in the back?"

Yu Li couldn't stand such questioning and said first: "Oh, Uncle, you are meddling too much. What does where we sit have to do with you?" She retorted without any hesitation.

Yan Bugui was angry at these words. In front of everyone, his ex-wife questioned him like this. Where was his dignity? If he argued with a woman, he would appear petty. So he turned his anger to Li Weidong: "Li Weidong, take care of your wife!"

Li Weidong responded calmly: "You should take care of yourself. The neighborhood committee asked you to be the old man to maintain order and resolve neighborhood disputes, not to put on airs."

Seeing that the two sides were about to argue, Liu Haizhong secretly pulled Yan Bugui's sleeve and winked at him. If Li Weidong left, how would the meeting proceed? Before the meeting, Yi Zhonghai, Liu Haizhong and Yan Bugui had already colluded.

Liu Haizhong was particularly interested in the fact that Li Weidong was rewarded with two meal coupons and a plate of pig intestines by the factory. For him, it didn't matter if he had one less meal of pork. The key was to take this opportunity to establish his prestige in the compound. His prestige had increased a lot since the last wedding preparation. If he could work for the welfare of the compound again, his prestige would be even higher in the future.

Of course, Yi Zhonghai is always the leader of the team. He is unwilling to see Li Weidong suffer losses repeatedly, and he feels very happy as long as he can make things difficult for Li Weidong. Not to mention Yan Bugui, because even his daughter-in-law was taken away by Li Weidong, even though his aunt persuaded him many times, he still couldn't swallow this breath. Now there is a chance to cause trouble for Li Weidong, he naturally wants it, and he can also make a profit from it.

For their own purposes, the three old men unanimously decided to hold a meeting of the whole courtyard to suppress Li Weidong's momentum. There are many shrewd people among the residents in the courtyard. For example, He Yuzhu's brother and sister, Xu Damao and Qin Huairu all saw that Yi Zhonghai and Yan Bugui's target this time was Li Weidong. He Yuzhu's brother and sister were worried, and He Yuzhu was ready to stand up at the critical moment. Xu Damao's eyes were cunning, and he was thinking about how to benefit from this incident. Qin Huairu's mood was quite complicated. On the one hand, she hoped that the three uncles could suppress Li Weidong so that she could get benefits from him more easily; on the other hand, thinking back to the matter of borrowing eggs, her anger burned more and more.

Qin Huairu's home was separated from Li Weidong's by a wall. Jia Zhang and the children had fallen asleep and did not hear the noise outside, but Qin Huairu heard it clearly. At midnight, the ups and downs of the singing made her feel upset. Since Jia Dongxu had passed away many years ago, she was young and energetic, and she could still bear it, but this time the matter of borrowing money was like opening Pandora's box, making her unable to control her emotions. If Li Weidong had not been married, perhaps one night she would have gone to Li Weidong's house to borrow money.

Qin Huairu felt very conflicted in this contradictory and complex emotion. Seeing that everyone was present, Yi Zhonghai stood up and opened the prelude of the meeting: "The main reason for calling everyone here today is because of one thing. In order to thank our steel mill, Nantai Commune specially sent a big fat pig. After discussion, the leaders decided to hold a dinner party this Friday to express their gratitude. After discussing with the second and third uncles, I felt that this event should be exclusive to us. Since we live together, we should be like a family. Therefore, we hope that the employees of the steel mill in the courtyard can contribute their meal coupons and take them home during the dinner party. For residents who are not from the steel mill, we do not exclude them from participating. Even if they cannot provide meat, they can bring some vegetables, steamed buns and porridge."

As soon as Yi Zhonghai finished speaking, the whole audience was in an uproar. The non-rolling mill workers, led by Yan Bugui, were naturally very happy. They felt that this was pie in the sky. For people like them, vegetables and steamed buns were nothing. The real attraction was the meat that they could taste for a while. But for the workers in the steel mill, they were not very happy. They thought why should everyone share the benefits of the factory? Are these three people being generous to others?

Yi Zhonghai had expected some opposition, so they were prepared. He knocked on the table and shouted, "Please be quiet, be quiet!" Everyone present stopped discussing and turned their eyes to him, expecting his explanation.

"Neighbors," Yi Zhonghai opened his mouth, but Li Weidong stood up and interrupted him. He took the chair and walked to the backyard with Yu Li, who was smiling. This made Yi Zhonghai suddenly feel a sense of urgency because the object of his full attention was Li Weidong.

"Li Weidong, where are you going?" Yi Zhonghai asked. Everyone's attention was attracted by him and they all looked at Li Weidong.