Siheyuan: I Raised Ten Thousand Wild Boars

"Coriander, spicy green peppers!"

"Scallions, celery, lentils, cucumbers, winter melons, and large eggplants..."

"Sweet and sour bean juice, the bean juice is boiling!"

"Beef liver... beef lungs, selling soy sauce beef!"

Nanluoguxiang is bustling in the morning. In addition to a large number of snack shops on the roadside, there are also some farmers from the countryside who come here to sell their wares before dawn in order to make more money.

Most of them have certificates from the commune or are affiliated with a collective, and their operations are legal.

Now that the family's conditions have improved, Li Guohua believes that the quality of life should be improved, so that the whole family can have a good life before 59 years.

I got up early in the morning and prepared to go out for breakfast. The street was full of breakfast vendors, with a unique market atmosphere.

The soy milk seller offered light soy milk for 3 cents, sweet soy milk for 5 cents, and plain noodles for 8 cents. And the mutton soup seller offered only a few slices of meat in a bowl, which cost 2 cents. After finishing the soup, you could keep the meat and order another bowl of soup.

The most attractive ones are the ones selling fried cakes and fried dough sticks. The aroma of oil is everywhere, and there are crowds of people surrounding them, and many people come to buy.

It's because everyone is short of oil and water, so they like to eat these fried foods.

Li Guohua wanted to try everything he saw, but he found it hard to accept those who drank soy milk and ate fried dough sticks and then called them authentic after eating.

He had drunk that soy milk in his previous life. He drank half a bowl out of politeness and almost lost his life. He didn't dare to try it again.

Finally, I came to the stall selling fried dough sticks. I looked at the black oil in the pot. I didn't know how long it had been used. I felt a little uneasy. I thought that if the oil was running low, I would just add more oil. There was no such thing as changing the oil.

Forget it. I can’t even eat enough, so why would I have the energy to care about whether it’s hygienic or not?

When I asked the price, I found out that fried dough sticks and fried cakes were the same price, 4 cents each. I ordered eleven of them, ten in a big bag, and I could keep one for myself.

I saw the boss took a piece of paper to wrap the fried dough sticks, and finally took out something like straw, flipped it back and forth, and finally tied a knot, leaving a place on it for carrying.

He himself can't eat so much, mainly because Li Chuwu and his elder brother Li Guoliang have big appetites, and they can probably eat it all by themselves.

He held the package in one hand and the big fried dough stick in the other and started eating.

Nowadays, fried dough sticks are really big and solid, and they are golden, crispy and delicious when they are fresh out of the pan.

As soon as I squeezed out of the crowd, I met an acquaintance from the courtyard.

"Big Tiger, Little Tiger?"

That’s right, it was the two Zhou brothers in the backyard. Zhou Dahu was fine, wearing a pair of cotton trousers and a gray jacket. His clothes had turned a little white from washing.

Zhou Xiaohu looked exactly like a vagrant, wearing a tattered straw hat, wide-legged trousers tied with a small rope around his waist, a large patched jacket draped over his upper body, and a wooden stick more than one meter long in his hand.

"Brother Guohua!"

Zhou Dahu is 15 years old this year, and he is quite sensible, smiling and greeting everyone he sees. Zhou Xiaohu stared at the fried dough sticks in Li Guohua's hand, sniffing his nose constantly, and almost drooling.

Seeing Zhou Xiaohu's appearance, Li Guohua couldn't help but laugh, just like himself when he was a child.

"Since you call me Brother Hua, I will treat you to fried dough sticks today!"

He didn't care that his hands were covered in oil, he opened the package and took two sticks for each of the two children. The Zhou family was probably the most difficult household in the courtyard, with only a grandmother and two half-grown boys left at home.

Grandma Zhou mainly made a living by doing manual labor on the street, such as folding leaflets, pasting paper boxes, pasting doors, embroidering basket flowers, washing sacks, unravelling cotton yarn, etc.

The most common job she did was pasting paper boxes, and her eyes were almost blind from the pasting. But she was a man of integrity, and she never complained to anyone, nor did she ask the people in the courtyard to donate money to her.

"Thank you, Brother Guohua!"

Zhou Xiaohu was honest. He took the fried dough stick and started eating it. However, Zhou Dahu held it in his hand without eating it and even thanked him.

"Come on, eat. Brother Guohua will treat you. It's free and you don't have to pay back! By the way, where are you going?" Li Guohua became curious. How could such a young boy go out and earn money? What did he do?

After hearing what Li Guohua said, Zhou Dahu couldn't help himself and started eating with big mouthfuls.

"I helped people move bricks, wash work gloves, and do whatever I wanted. If I was lucky, I could earn 30 cents a day! Xiaohu was too young, so people didn't want him. He could only pick up trash."

When Zhou Dahu talked about making money, his eyes began to light up. It is true that children from poor families have to grow up early.

"Well, be careful when you do things and don't hurt yourself. Otherwise, the money you earn may not be enough to cover the medical expenses. That's not worth it!" Li Guohua said with a smile.

"Got it, Brother Guohua!"

After eating a dough stick, the two little guys became more active. They seemed to know that Li Guohua was in a hurry to go home, so they waved goodbye to their brother.

After parting with the two brothers, Li Guohua went to purchase goods again, this time to give himself space to stock up.

It is impossible to buy too much at one time as that would attract too much attention, so I have to store them like ants moving house. Anyway, they won’t go bad if they are kept in a certain space. You never know when you may have nothing to eat during the night in the mountains, so it is better to keep them in case of emergency.

Finally, he bought four more oil cakes and then went back to the courtyard.

When I passed by the third uncle's house, the door was open, but it was blocked by a straw bead curtain, so I couldn't see clearly inside.

Alas, the third uncle suffered a loss today. No one came over to pinch him or take some advantage of him. A strange idea popped up in Li Guohua's mind.

These three uncles are the kind of people who leave traces when the wind blows, pluck the feathers of the passing geese, and leave the skins of the beasts when they walk away. Last time, he was greedy for his own fish.

There was no big boss blocking the way in the front yard, but when entering the middle yard, there was a little demon blocking the way.

Banggeng, this little brat took advantage of his young age, came up and hugged my legs, shouting for oil cakes.

If it was someone else, I would just give it to him. Although oil cakes were very precious at that time, as a person in the later generations, I could get things by myself, so I didn’t take it seriously at all.

In addition, people at that time also paid attention to their neighborhood relationships. Men in the old city had to be particular about this.

The Li family lived in the backyard and were often taken care of by several other families. If any family got some fruits and vegetables from the countryside, they would get a share. So Li Guohua distributed candy to the children, and it was a give-and-take relationship, which was very humane.

But Li Guohua just couldn't get interested in this toilet lid joke and even felt a little disgusted when he saw it.

But it seemed too much to ask me to beat him up. He was only 6 years old and couldn't cry for help.

It was summer vacation at that time, and most people were on vacation at home. There was also a large group of children gathered in the middle courtyard. Seeing this, he came up with an idea.

"Banggeng, do you want some candy? Let go and I'll give you a piece of candy!"

Candy is not cheap at this time and it is not easy to buy it. I am really bleeding.

"No, I want to eat the pancake, or I won't let go!"

Well, you made your own choice, don’t blame me for being rude.

"Jie Kuang, Tie Zhu, come over here and pull open the sticks. Each of you will get a piece of candy."

Tiezhu's surname is Hu, he is the same age as Yan Jiekuang, and he lives in the front yard. His father is a butcher, and he has been eating lard mixed with rice since he was a child, so he looks big and strong.

But the situation at home was not good. His father liked to drink heavily and would beat his wife and children when he was drunk.

Upon hearing this, the two children immediately rushed over and dragged Banggeng aside. Li Guohua took out two candies from his pocket and gave them to the two children, which made Banggeng burst into tears.

"You two little bastards, who told you to bully Banggeng? I'm going to ask Yan Laokou if he was the one who taught you that. My poor Banggeng!" Jia Zhang's big face popped out from behind the straw curtain of the Jia family and started scolding as soon as she came out.

Tiezhu's father is a bad guy, and Yan Laokou is easy to control.

"Aunt Jia, are you selling onions here?" Li Guohua said unhappily.

When Banggeng was hugging her legs just now, this old hag was definitely watching in the room, but she didn't come out to say a word. She should take most of the responsibility for Banggeng's bad behavior.

Qin Huairu, who came out later, patted Banggeng on the butt twice to teach him a lesson.

When Jia Zhang saw this, she exploded on the spot, staring at Qin Huairu and cursing. She scolded the girl from another country, who knew nothing, was disrespectful to her parents-in-law, could not manage the household, and could only beat her own children when they were bullied.

Although it is a new China, there are still many traditional concepts. The relationship between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law is one of them. It is okay for the mother-in-law to bully the daughter-in-law. There is a saying that the daughter-in-law will eventually become the mother-in-law.

If a daughter-in-law dares to bully her mother-in-law, you are wrong to tell others about it. Even if you do very well and everyone sympathizes with you, that is just saying good things about you.

This is even more true in Siheyuan. The most common saying of Uncle Yi Tianzun is that there is no fault of parents, only the inconsideration of children. Just ask Qin Huairu whether this chicken soup tastes good.

Jia Zhang kept scolding and cursing, and Qin Huairu looked so pitiful and cried so hard that the big brother next door was heartbroken.

Seeing the two people quarreling and completely ignoring himself, Li Guohua just felt unlucky. What a mess!