The courtyard: the atmosphere of human life

After riding the bike for the whole afternoon on the sixth day of the Chinese New Year, Darong was really exhausted. As expected, she got up late for work the next day.

Darong hurried to the factory and entered the workshop just as the bell rang.

Director Lu was calling the roll at each workstation one by one. When he approached Darong, she was still breathing heavily.

Darong didn't turn around to look at her, she was busy with her work. She stood at the work entrance and stared at Darong for two seconds, then didn't say anything. She just ticked the attendance mark and left.

Darong caught a glimpse of Director Lu leaving and felt relieved. Ever since Master Mao retired, Darong has always remembered his words and has been following the rules in the factory and never provoked Director Lu.

"Sister E'er, did you get up late today?" During the break, Goubangzi came to Darong again.

"Well, the alarm went off this morning and I dozed off, so I was almost late."

Darong didn't eat anything last night and was now starving. She kept drinking hot water from the cup.

"You didn't have breakfast? Here!" Goubangzi laughed when he heard Darong's stomach growling.

Darong also smiled a little awkwardly.

"Eat it. It will be noon soon. It's okay. Consider it a way to lose weight."

Darong chatted happily with Goubangzi. She had never been against Goubangzi. Goubangzi was about the same age as the third brother. Although he was a bit talkative, he helped Darong with a lot of work.

"Eat quickly, or else Brother Zhong will be upset if he finds out."

Goubangzi, with a wicked smile on his face, stuffed the steamed dumplings in his hand to Darong, then took the finished products to the back warehouse to hand in the work.

Darong held the steamed dumplings in her hand and thought about Zhong Yunxing yesterday, and shook her head with a wry smile.

Sometimes Darong didn’t know whether she liked Zhong Yunxing or not. It seemed that since the blind date, she had been pushed along by the programmed process of love and marriage.

As for shy emotions like love and liking, they would all be successfully buried by the word "suitable" in that era.

"Da Rong!"

As soon as Darong left the factory, she heard someone calling her. She quickly got out of the car and turned around to see.

"Qiaozhen? Why are you here?" Darong pushed the cart and took two quick steps with some surprise.

"I came back to see my mother. Sanniang said you would get off work at two o'clock, so I just came here for a stroll because I had nothing to do." Qiaozhen held Darong's hand and smiled brightly.

Since Qiaozhen got married, the two sisters haven't seen each other for more than half a year. Qiaozhen's husband's family is in the northern suburbs, and she rarely has time to come back during work.

"Why did you come back on this day? Isn't the company open for work?" Darong and Qiaozhen chatted as they walked.

"Hi, I quit my job. I'm pregnant." Qiaozhen patted her belly, looking sweet and happy.

"Yeah, great, how many months?"

"It's almost four months. My mom didn't let me tell you before, saying I had to be calm before I could tell you."

"That's great, congratulations!" Darong looked at Qiaozhen's happy expression and was really happy for this little sister.

"Let's get down to business first. I came to you because I want you to help my cousin with her makeup. They set a date in May. I saw that you did a great job on me before, so I chased me over to ask for your help."

"Hey, it's not a big deal, just ask Xiao Si to come over and tell me."

"Hahaha, I came here just to talk to you!" Although Qiaozhen is a big mouth, she is actually very cheerful.

"How are you?" Darong just asked a casual question of concern, but it caused Qiaozhen to sigh.

"Well, that's it. Lezi is very nice to me, but his mother... hehe... can't be mentioned."

Qiaozhen put away the smile on her face, as if life at her husband's house was some kind of taboo, the mention of which drained away all her energy.

"Just have fun, why think so much? You just said you resigned?"

When Darong saw Qiaozhen's look, she quickly changed the subject. She knew her limits and knew that no matter how close friends were, they shouldn't deliberately pry into other people's privacy.

"Well, I quit. I was mad at her mother, so I just quit. Lezi had taken over a shop in the northern suburbs before, and I plan to work with him in the future."

Lezi was originally an active-duty soldier in the Nanjiao military camp, but because he violated discipline by dating Qiaozhen, he was not only demobilized and sent home early, but also received a disciplinary punishment and was unable to find a job.

The two young people thought they had defended the nobility of love, but they did not understand that in a long marriage, the initial love merely represents an impulse.

Because of this incident, Lezi's parents were very dissatisfied with Qiaozhen and often complained that it was Qiaozhen who ruined Lezi's future.

Qiaozhen originally transferred her job and followed Lezi back to the northern suburbs. Although Lezi had no job, with Qiaozhen's income, the two of them would not starve.

However, because she doesn’t have her own house, Qiaozhen has to face her in-laws who look down on her all day long.

"His mother kept saying that I was the one who hindered his future and that he was 'speculating' by running a butcher shop. She said one day that I had a job and a pension, but his son didn't. Now that I've moved down, I wonder what else she can say."

When Qiaozhen talked about her mother-in-law, she wished she could bite her back teeth off.

Originally, Qiaozhen had a "iron rice bowl". No matter whether Lezi's butcher shop could be run well or not, the two of them would at least have a stable income. But just for the sake of a gamble, the couple became unemployed vagrants together.

Darong was so shocked by Qiaozhen's amazing way of thinking that she didn't know what to say. She didn't say anything for a long time and just blinked at Qiaozhen.

"Hahaha, do you think I'm crazy too? Actually, our butcher shop is doing pretty well. You know I chose the Sanitation Bureau job that no one else wanted to work for in order to be transferred to the northern suburbs. The pay is low, and it's dirty and tiring. I didn't want to do this job a long time ago."

At that time, the Environmental Sanitation Bureau was indeed not a popular unit. In order to be transferred there, Qiaozhen directly took a road cleaning job. She had to go to the streets in the middle of the night every day, and the work was very hard.

As Yutian is a municipality, many reform policies have been implemented as a priority. Qiaozhen and Lezi caught up with this batch of economic policies and successfully registered their own store.

"I can't understand. What does this have to do with being angry with your mother-in-law? Besides, won't you be harmed by this anger? Will you still have a pension in the future?" Darong looked at Qiaozhen and asked worriedly.

"Whether there is a pension or not, I can't think that far ahead. Anyway, now the two of us are doing this business and we earn more than working. Let's take it one step at a time. My mother-in-law cries every day now and says I'm crazy for quitting a good job. I'm happy to see her like that."

When Qiaozhen said this, she burst into laughter again.

At that time, Darong was not married yet, and she could not understand the meaning of such a dispute between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law. But looking at Qiaozhen's appearance, she felt a little worried.