Siheyuan: I am different He Yuzhu

Du Haoran was startled when someone suddenly grabbed his arm. Just as he was about to get angry, he turned around and saw that it was Jia Zhang. Jia Zhang said excitedly: "I knew I would wait for you, young man, you are finally here."

Du Haoran quickly turned his head and looked around. When he found that no one noticed him, he quickly pulled Jia Zhang to the alley. As soon as they entered the alley, Jia Zhang immediately asked, "Where are the eggs, young man? Let's trade quickly!"

When Du Haoran heard what Jia Zhang said, he immediately knew that Cui Xiaowei must not have told Jia Zhang about the suspension of the egg trade. Du Haoran was just about to tell Jia Zhang the truth, but when he saw Jia Zhang's appearance and combined with his understanding of Jia Zhang from his many years of dealing with her, the smart Du Haoran immediately realized that he could not tell Jia Zhang the truth, otherwise Jia Zhang would never let him go easily. So Du Haoran's eyes turned and he immediately came up with a plan. He immediately said in a nervous voice: "Aunt Jia, what are you yelling about?" After saying that, he hurriedly looked around.

Jia Zhang immediately realized that she was only thinking about the eggs and forgot about the eggs and couldn't say anything, so she hurriedly whispered, "I'm sorry, young man, I'm too excited. I promise I won't say anything nonsense next time." After that, Jia Zhang winked at Du Haoran, signaling Du Haoran to hurry up and make the deal.

Seeing that Jia Zhang's mood had stabilized a little, Du Haoran immediately sighed, and then said with an annoyed look: "Auntie, do you know why I didn't go to the transaction that day?"

"Why?" Jia Zhang asked hurriedly.

"That's because the higher-ups found out about our village selling eggs privately, and our village chief was arrested and shot. Luckily I wasn't at home at the time, otherwise you wouldn't have seen me again. By the way, did anyone from the yamen come to your house to look for you? The young man who sold eggs with me was arrested, but I don't know if he told anyone about your yard."

After hearing what Du Haoran said, Jia Zhang's heart tightened and she asked hurriedly, "Young man, don't scare me. I'm timid and can't stand being scared. Was the young man with you really arrested?"

"Auntie, is this a joke? We have been working together for so many years. If the higher-ups hadn't known about it, would I have given up on a profitable business? From what you said, it seems that the government officials didn't come to your courtyard to investigate. It seems that my brother didn't give you up."

After hearing what Du Haoran said, Jia Zhang felt relieved. But before she could completely relax, Du Haoran said, "By the way, Auntie, I have been away from home for so many days and I have spent all my money. Can you lend me some money first so I can buy some food? I will return you after a few days when I secretly go back to my hometown to get the money."

When Jia Zhang heard that Du Haoran was going to borrow money from her, she hurriedly said with a smile: "Hey, young man, it's not that I don't want to lend you money, but I don't have any money on me. Why don't you wait for me for a while, and I'll go home and get it for you." After saying that, Jia Zhang picked up the small stool and ran home. Her speed was no slower than when she first met Du Haoran, for fear that if she ran slower, Du Haoran would pester her to borrow money.

Du Haoran looked at Jia Zhang's running back and said loudly, "Then come back soon, Auntie. I'll be waiting for you here."

Jia Zhang ran even faster after hearing what Du Haoran said, and she only regretted that she didn't have two more legs. Du Haoran looked at Jia Zhang running farther and farther away, and couldn't help but smile and shook his head. He didn't expect that he only used a little trick to scare Jia Zhang into fleeing. How could Jia Zhang, who loved money like her life, be willing to lend money to a fugitive who couldn't pay it back? Moreover, with today's excuse, even if Jia Zhang met him on the street next time, she would only pretend not to know him, for fear that he would ask her to borrow money again.

Jia Zhang hurriedly ran to the gate of No. 95 courtyard and stopped. Then Jia Zhang turned her head and looked behind her to confirm that Du Haoran was not chasing her. Then she walked back to her courtyard home with peace of mind. The neighbors of the courtyard were curious about why Jia Zhang came back so early today, but because Jia Zhang was sweating and looked embarrassed, no one dared to ask.

Qin Huairu, who was playing with Xiao Dang at home, saw Jia Zhang entered the house sweating profusely, and hurriedly asked with concern: "Mom, what's wrong with you?"

Jia Zhang, who was obviously relaxed after entering the house, was relieved when she heard Qin Huairu's question. She said with a sad face, "Huairu, there is no hope for you to sell eggs in the future!"

"What's wrong, Mom? Did you see the person selling our eggs?" Qin Huairu asked with concern.

"Yes, Mom persisted for so long that she finally met one of the two guys who sold our eggs."

"So what did he say?"

"He said that the government knew about the private sale of eggs in their village, and the village chief was arrested and eaten a peanut. Another young man was also arrested and seemed to be in prison. The young man I met was not arrested because he ran fast."

"Ah, it's so serious, then our family is okay!"

"That young man has been arrested for so long. If something happened to our family, people from the government would have come to our house to arrest him long ago. It's a pity that such a good business of selling eggs has been ruined." After saying this, Jia Zhang shook her head with a look of regret.

"It's okay, Mom. This kind of business can't last long. If it doesn't exist, then it doesn't exist. As long as our family is safe and sound and reunited, that's more important than anything else."

Unfortunately, Jia Zhang, who was immersed in the fact that she would not make money in the future, did not listen to Qin Huairu's words at all. She sat on a chair and sighed. The day after Jia Zhang met Du Haoran, the neighbors of the courtyard found that Jia Zhang did not go out early in the morning as usual. Combined with the expression of Jia Zhang when she came back yesterday, they immediately understood that Jia Zhang seemed to have encountered something, otherwise she would not come back so early, and she did not go out today. It seems that the business of selling eggs in the pigeon market is completely hopeless.

Originally, the residents in the courtyard could easily earn 15 yuan a month by trading eggs that did not require a ticket. After the egg trading business went bankrupt, the Jia family, who used to live a good life by trading eggs, saw their living standards drop significantly after losing the 15 yuan they earned from trading eggs every month. In particular, as the price of white flour in the pigeon market rose from 4 cents per catty to 5 cents per catty, the Jia family, who needed to buy 50 catties of flour in the pigeon market every month, now spent more than 30 yuan on food every month. The family could not maintain a normal life with Jia Xudong's salary as a second-level fitter.

In order to avoid the crisis of food shortage, the Jia family changed from eating white flour every day to a mixture of white flour and corn flour. But this did not last long. After just one week, white flour completely disappeared from the Jia family's table. In order to reduce the cost of buying food, the white flour in Jia Xudong's monthly ration was replaced with pure corn flour. As for pork, there was no need to consider it. Jia Xudong sold the pork coupons every month or exchanged them for food coupons as soon as they were issued.

Because of the sharp decline in living standards, the eldest son of the Jia family, Bang Geng, was dissatisfied with the decline in living standards. He threw his bowl on the table while eating and shouted: "I don't want to drink corn paste, I want to eat white flour buns, I want to eat meat..."

It’s a pity that the eldest son of the Jia family didn’t understand the situation. His family is no longer the same as before. Banggeng thought that as soon as he made a noise, Jia Zhang would come over to coax him, but what he got was a slap from Jia Xudong. “If you don’t want to eat, don’t eat.” After saying that, he was about to take away the corn porridge in front of Banggeng.

Qin Huairu saw this and quickly hugged Banggeng into her arms, "The child is so young, what does he know? Can't you educate him well?"

Jia Xudong sighed and said, "Huai Ru, you know the current situation at home. It's good enough to have cornmeal to drink and eat now. Maybe we won't even be able to eat cornmeal in a little while."

"If all else fails, use some of your family savings. You can't let your child starve."

"Well, that's all we can do. By the way, Mom, how much money do we have left?"

"Xudong, the family has saved up money with great difficulty. If you really can't make ends meet, ask your master to borrow some first. Anyway, his salary is so high and he doesn't have any children, so he can't spend it all."

"But mom, the borrowed money has to be repaid sooner or later. What can you expect to pay it back then?"

"You are so stupid. Didn't you promise to take care of your master in his old age? When he gets old, you will serve him and we will be family. Why are you still paying him back?"

"Mom, what you said makes sense. I will ask my master to borrow some money to deal with the emergency."