The courtyard: the atmosphere of human life

When Darong heard Pei Bin's tone, she thought he disliked the quality of her fried fruits and felt unhappy, but her face showed no expression. She followed his arrangement and changed seats with Xiao Cui beside her.

Pei Bin is a master chef (master chef: the name for chefs in southern suburbs). In order to improve efficiency, Pei Bin is only responsible for kneading the dough and stretching the fruits, another person is responsible for frying the fruits, and there is also a person who is responsible for counting the fruits.

Because it is a publicly owned breakfast department, costs and profits must be accurately recorded and registered. In order to improve efficiency, more people are needed, which is why the temporary worker positions at Darong came into being.

The breakfast department starts work at 4 a.m. and gets off work at 9: a.m.

This store is actually not just a breakfast shop. It sells breakfast in the morning and is also a small restaurant at noon and in the evening.

When the people selling breakfast in the morning get off work at 9:, the people in the restaurant are just coming to work and handing over their work.

Darong got the hang of things quickly on her first day at work. It didn't require any technical skills, it was just physical work. She set up the stove and heated the oil before Pei Bin came.

After frying the fruits, clean up the area and prepare to use them the next morning.

"Mom, please stop hitting me. Look, there are people trying to stop us. Just stop hitting me."

When Darong came home from get off work, she heard Sibei'er begging for mercy before she even entered the yard.

"Sister, you're back." Seeing Darong enter the room, Sibeier hurried over and hid behind his sister.

Darong glanced at Sibei'er, then looked at her mother who was holding a stick in her hand, and rolled her eyes at the nonsensical Sibei'er.

There was no one else in the family to go to. Whenever his four generations got into trouble and Darong's mother wanted to beat him, he would grab Darong's mother's stick himself and talk to his mother on his own to persuade her not to beat the child.

Darong's mother had always favored her eldest son, and he was so submissive and docile, so from childhood to adulthood, he had never really been beaten by Darong's mother.

"What trouble have you gotten yourself into again? Aren't you supposed to be in school at this hour?"

After Darong greeted my mother, she took off her cotton coat while questioning Sibei'er.

"Hehehe." Sibei took the thick coat from his sister and just kept grinning foolishly without saying a word about what he had caused.

"You're already a grown-up boy, and you still want me to go to school to poop for you. If I don't beat you up, I'll keep you."

As Darong's mother spoke, she pretended to raise her hand and gestured towards Sibei'er. Sibei was so scared that he shrank his neck and quickly jumped into Darong's inner room.

"Ah? He...shit his pants?"

Darong opened her mouth in shock at what her mother said. Her first reaction was that Sibeier might have eaten something bad and was having diarrhea.

"Fuck his mother-in-law, this bastard was kicked out by the teacher for disrupting the class, so he went to the roof of the gatehouse to poop and was caught by the principal."

Darong's mother is uneducated and grew up in the countryside, so she can curse as fluently as if she were drinking noodle soup.

"I was working in the factory. The teacher brought him to the factory to find me. Everyone in the workshop thought it was a joke. I just came back from school with him after he sprained his poop."

Darong's mother became angrier and angrier as she spoke. She picked up a kang broom and threw it at Sibei'er.

“Hehe…hahaha…hahahahahahahaha”

Sibei'er and Darong went to the same middle school. When she thought of the gatehouse that she could see from dozens of meters away and her brother pooping on the roof with his butt sticking up, she couldn't help laughing.

Seeing Darong's smile, Darong's mother might have imagined her son taking a shit on the roof of the gatehouse in the spotlight, and she couldn't help laughing too.

The mother and her two daughters laughed heartily, and the meal that the four generations had planned was settled.

"How was your work today?" After laughing for a while, Darong's mother looked at Darong and asked.

"It's okay. It's just the job of frying and counting fruits. It's quite simple." Darong had already changed her clothes and was ready to make lunch.

Darong's mother took a half day off today because of the matter of her fourth generation. After having lunch, she had to go back to the factory to continue working in the afternoon.

"Fourth generation..."

Darong was busy in the kitchen when she heard a girl calling out from outside the yard.

"Girl, why do you come here every day and shout outside? Don't the adults at home teach you?"

Darong's mother started yelling at the window in the room.

It is true that Sibei is popular with girls. Besides Xiao Ling, there are always girls willing to come to his house to see him.

It was just because Darong’s mother didn’t like them, so when they came, they didn’t dare to enter the house. They just shouted across the yard for all four generations to go out together.

They didn't know that Darong's mother would be at home at noon today, and this put them in trouble again.

"Don't go out with those crazy girls anymore. You're already a grown-up boy, and you're a real worry to me."

After cursing at the window for a while, Darong's mother spoke unhappily to Sibei'er.

Sibei nodded repeatedly in agreement. He had just gotten into trouble, and now he was being well-behaved for fear that he would provoke his mother to hit him with a stick again.

After dinner, Darong's mother went to work, and the third and fourth children went to school. The fourth generation was reluctant to go out.

"Why haven't you gone to school yet?" Darong looked at Sibei who was dawdling at home and refused to go out, and she knew that the boy must have other things to do.

"Sister, I don't want to go on anymore." Sibei lowered his head and leaned against the kitchen door frame, kicking the pebbles under his feet.

"Tell me, what happened?" Darong stopped what she was doing and turned to look at Sibei'er.

Sibei scratched his head and laughed a smile that was uglier than crying.

"I beat up Teacher Zhang's son. She slapped me in the face in front of my classmates this morning. It was so embarrassing that I couldn't go back."

Although the four generations often fought and made trouble in school, their family education was very strict. They never dared to disobey the rules of elders and hierarchy. They were beaten by the teacher's son, but they would never dare to fight back if beaten by the teacher.

Darong's parents attach great importance to this point. If a child does not understand the difference between the old and the young, he really needs to be beaten until he is subdued.

"Why did you hit someone's son?"

Darong is not Darong's mother. She does not have the theory that one hand cannot clap alone. She has to have a reason for everything. Therefore, her younger brothers and sisters are more willing to talk to Darong when they have problems.

"He doesn't care. A kid in the first grade passed by our floor. He said he didn't like the kid and beat him to death. He was just bullying the kid because he was small. I couldn't stand it."

Although Si Ge Er likes to fight, he inherited Darong's father's kind-hearted character and is a chivalrous man who loves to fight for justice and stand up for the weak.

"Nothing else?" After listening to Sibei'er's words, Darong asked carefully about the whole story and felt that Sibei'er was not lying.

Although Teacher Zhang, who taught four generations of students, had never taught Darong, Darong had heard of her. Everyone in the teachers' building knew that she was protective of her students.

"Come on, I'll go to school with you."

Darong took off her apron, let down her combed hair, looked in the mirror, and practiced an expression that looked more mature.