Siheyuan: I Raised Ten Thousand Wild Boars

"Mom, what delicious food did you make tonight that smells so good?"

Before Li Guoliang entered the room, a voice was heard outside the door.

Li Chuwu and Li Guoliang came in one after another. There was a large dark shadow on their clothes on the backs, which was soaked with sweat.

"Mom, what day is today? You actually cooked such a big fish!" Li Guoliang asked excitedly when he saw the big bowl on the table.

He usually does physical work, and the effort he puts in is no less than that of the workers in the steel mill. He is the most vulnerable, but he has been relying on his youth to carry on.

Now that he saw the meat, he was so hungry that he could no longer resist his greed. He quickly picked up a piece of fish bone from the bowl, put it in his mouth and started sucking.

"It was my second brother who caught it!" Camellia said happily as she brought dinner to the table.

Happiness in childhood is actually very simple. That is, as long as you have a stutter, you can be happy for a long time.

"Old Second is in good health, so it's better not to go into the water casually!"

Li Chuwu sat upright at the table and put the bundle in his hand on the table. Then he took out a large bamboo tube and a few copper coins from the bundle.

"Today when I went to the countryside, I saw such a big pen holder. I remember that the pen holder on your desk was cracked, so I replaced it for you. And these copper coins, I will ask your mother to make a shuttlecock for Chahua!" Li Chuwu said with a smile

"Is the pen holder this big?" Li Guohua picked up the pen holder curiously and took a look at it.

When I got the pen holder, I found out that it was not made of bamboo as I thought, but was made of wood, and was quite heavy.

There is no carving on the surface, it is bare and feels very comfortable to touch, like touching a child's skin.

Damn, this can't be a Huanghuali pen holder, an antique? Li Guohua picked it up and looked at it from left to right, somewhat doubtful.

"I've seen bigger ones than this one. What's so strange about it? This time, in order to get this pen holder as a gift, I even gave him an extra 20 cents!" Li Chuwu said as if he was not surprised.

He opened a cupboard beside him and took out a bottle of wine. It was not a branded wine, but the loose liquor he bought from the old Wangji Laoshao shop at the entrance of the alley.

I saw him fill up the small wine glass in front of him, then take a sip, fill it up again, and then reluctantly put the bottle back to its original place.

This was the rule he set for himself, he could only drink one glass at a time, but in order to drink more, he would often take a sip before filling up his glass.

Li Guohua looked at the pen holder in his hand, and then looked at the copper coins in Chahua's hand, both of which were Shunzhi Tongbao coins.

Wow, it’s really an antique. Even if the pen holder in my hand is not made of huanghuali, it is still an old thing with some years’ history.

These things are really worthless nowadays. Most of them were distributed from landlords and rich people. The people who own them don’t even know them. They might even be melted down to make iron or copper.

It will take at least 20-30 years for these things to really start to be valuable. After the reform and opening up, when some people have money in their hands, their value will slowly begin to appreciate.

The desire to hoard things that had just arisen in my mind was put aside. It would take another 20 or 30 years, so I might as well do something else with the energy.

Wait 7-8 years, when the market will be a bit chaotic, I can collect more if I have the chance. But it’s not necessary now, as it’s still a problem for the family to have enough food.

"Brother, it's delicious. It would be great if we could eat it tomorrow!" Chahua said incoherently while spitting out the bones while holding a piece of fish in her mouth.

The eldest brother Li Guoliang directly took away the fish head, while Li's father and mother picked out the fish tail to eat, leaving only the fish belly meat with the least fish bones for Chahua to eat. The little girl narrowed her eyes while eating.

"You silly girl, whose family eats fish every day? Your second brother is just a blind cat that has caught a dead mouse today!" Mother Chen Lan scolded with a smile

She knew the river near the textile factory. It was very deep and it was impossible for ordinary people to catch fish.

"Okay, as long as you like it, I'll catch more for you tomorrow." Li Guohua looked at Camellia lovingly and said

The first relative I met when I came here was Camellia. She took on the responsibility of taking care of me with her tender shoulders. I hope she can be happy all her life.

The whole family laughed when they heard this, and they all thought that Li Guohua was just coaxing the little girl.

"Mom, do we have seed tickets?"

At this moment, Li Guohua thought of his own little world. Although there was wheat and rice, it was still very simple.

Especially at night, when I see my mother Chen Lan cooking, she is reluctant to use oil. I must grow some rapeseed, peanuts, sesame seeds, etc., and then refine the oil directly in the space without any manpower or material resources. It is simply perfect.

He knew where to buy seeds. He had seen a counter selling seeds in the supply and marketing cooperative next to the textile factory.

But now you need tickets to buy everything, which is really troublesome.

"We don't farm, so where would we get seed tickets?"

"Oh."

Li Guohua was not surprised to hear his mother say this. He asked because he was just in case.

By the way, you can ask Han Wenlong tomorrow. His father seems to be a cadre. Maybe he knows someone in the Grain Bureau and can get seed tickets. It’s much better than going to ticket scalpers yourself.

After dinner in the evening, it was too hot at home, so the family brought long benches to the yard to cool off.

Li Guohua twisted and turned on the stool, feeling a little uncomfortable.

In the hot summer, it would be so comfortable if I could take a bath after dinner.

At this time, there were actually a lot of public bathhouses in the capital, and a unique bathhouse culture had been formed in the capital.

Employees of surrounding companies and factory workers are given a few bath tickets every month and can take a bath for free, but unfortunately the Li family does not have any.

There is a well in the backyard, an old-fashioned pressurized well. But my eldest brother told me that the water presses were melted down when the street was engaged in a steel-making campaign years ago.

As for taking a shower in the pool in the central courtyard, don't even think about it, because that's tap water and it costs money.

I have seen the role of the bathhouse master played by Mr. Feng before, which talked about the difficulty of bathing for the old Beijingers.

It is said that the primary school teacher often urges the children to take a bath, otherwise the classroom will be very smelly and some teachers are unwilling to go in to teach.

Now I can truly feel it, it's so painful.

If it doesn't work, I'll go to the bathhouse tomorrow and see how expensive it is.

"Ah! Dad, it hurts, it hurts!"

"You little bastard, you're going to tear the roof off the house if I don't punish you for three days! Your father was still drinking, and you took away half of the egg with just one chopstick. This is outrageous!"

From the house opposite the Li family came Liu Guangtian's cries of pain and Liu Haizhong's angry scolding.

Judging from the sound, Liu Haizhong had not finished his wine yet, so Liu Guangtian ate his snacks.

"Humph, if you don't give me the food, who else do you want to give it to? To my big brother who has disappeared? Who will support you when you are old?" Liu Guangtian suddenly rushed out of the house and shouted at the door.

"I'll beat you to death, you loser. You've been hanging around the streets all day long, and now you dare to talk back. You're outrageous!"

The black mole on Liu Hai's chin trembled with anger, and he chased out with a stick.

When Liu Guangtian saw Liu Haizhong chasing him out, he ran away long ago, leaving Liu Haizhong empty-handed.