Siheyuan, my new life

Yi Zhonghai hurriedly walked into the No. 95 courtyard. Yan Bugui, who was standing at the gate as a "door god", glanced at Yi Zhonghai, who was empty-handed, and said with a smile: "Uncle, why are you back so late today?"

A smile appeared on Yi Zhonghai's honest face: "Uncle, you haven't gone home for dinner yet? I had something to do at the factory today, so I was delayed for a while." After saying that, he no longer paid attention to this calculating guy and quickly walked into the central courtyard.

Aunt Xiuqin looked at her husband who hurried into the house with some surprise, and asked in confusion: "Zhonghai, what happened? Why did you come back so late today? Dongxu came over just now and said that you had left the workshop a long time ago. What happened?"

Yi Zhonghai glanced at the wall clock. It was already half past six. He would usually be home before six at the latest. It took less than twenty minutes to walk from the Red Star Steel Rolling Mill to the No. 95 Courtyard. He had planned to use the excuse he had just given to Yan Bugui to deal with his wife, but after hearing her words, he realized that Jia Dongxu, the traitor, had been home again. He smiled and said, "Someone asked me to help with something and came back after finishing the work. Originally, they insisted on keeping me for a drink, but I didn't tell you in advance because I was afraid you would worry at home, so I came back as soon as I finished the work. Is the meal ready? I'm a little hungry."

Aunt Xiuqin did not raise any suspicion after hearing this, and quickly brought out the meal that had been prepared from the small kitchen. The dinner for the two was also simple, a plate of hot and sour potato shreds, an eggplant with minced meat, and a bowl of steamed buns made of two grains of flour and cornmeal porridge as the staple food. However, this was already better than most families in the courtyard of No. 95.

After setting the table for her husband, Aunt Xiuqin brought out a tray from the small kitchen and said with a smile: "Zhonghai, you eat first. I'll take the meal to the old lady." Then she walked out with the tray.

After the old lady left, Yi Zhonghai did not start eating immediately. He first lit a cigarette and took a deep puff. Then he stood up and walked to the cupboard, took out a bottle of Sanbai, commonly known as Sanlouzi, and sat back at the eight-immortals table. He poured the remaining tea in the cup on the ground, uncorked the bottle, poured himself a full glass of white wine, picked up the glass and took a sip of the spicy wine, picked up the chopsticks, picked up a piece of minced meat and eggplant, and put it into his mouth and chewed slowly.

Yi Zhonghai is a level 6 fitter with a basic salary of 72.3 yuan per month. With some allowances, his monthly income is nearly 80 yuan. With his income level, the couple's living standard could be much better.

However, Yi Zhonghai and his wife did not have any children. Yi Zhonghai saved at least 50 yuan every month under the pretext of saving for his future retirement. Aunt Xiuqin also supported his approach.

In fact, a living expense of nearly 30 yuan per month was definitely enough for two people based on the consumption level at that time. You should know that the minimum living standard stipulated in the capital at that time was 5 yuan per person per month.

Even if Mr. and Mrs. Yi Zhonghai add the deaf old lady, 30 yuan per month is enough for their living expenses. What's more, the deaf old lady does not eat and drink for free. She gives her monthly government subsidy and food allowance to Aunt Xiuqin. So, the monthly living expenses for three people are definitely more than 40 yuan.

Ever since his trip from Shenyang to Beijing, Yi Zhonghai has been extremely eager for money. He not only tries every possible way to save money, but he is also very frugal. At home, Yi Zhonghai drinks loose tobacco that costs 20 to 30 cents a pound, and smokes economic cigarettes that cost 8 cents a pack. In fact, this kind of economic cigarette is made by mixing tobacco leaf scraps with some thin tobacco rods and rolling them together. It is not only spicy and choking, but also often goes out of fire, that is, the fire often goes out while smoking, and you need to light it again to continue smoking.

Generally, people who smoke this kind of low-grade cigarette are those who carry heavy bags and do odd jobs, as well as some cart drivers. In the Red Star Steel Rolling Mill, only those temporary workers who have just joined the factory will smoke this kind of economical cigarette.

Yi Zhonghai also had a box of Daqianmen cigarettes at 38 cents in his pocket. He would only take out Daqianmen cigarettes when smoking with colleagues and leaders in the factory. He usually smoked economy cigarettes.

Yi Zhonghai sat at the octagonal table, drinking and picking up food, but his mind never stopped thinking about how to use the incident of the White Widow to deal with He Daqing.

Normally, He Daqing rarely gets off work at a normal time. He has to get off work overtime almost every day to prepare special meals for the factory's leaders and cadres, and usually comes home after seven o'clock.

He Daqing had no complaints about this. In fact, the reason was very simple. Every time He Daqing cooked for himself, he would pack two or three lunch boxes of meat and vegetables to take home.

The leaders were all aware of He Daqing's bringing food home. Everyone in the factory ate and drank lavishly, and if the news got out, it would definitely have a bad impact. If He Daqing, as a chef, brought food home, it would shut him up, which was a kind of hush money. Anyway, the factory couldn't blatantly pay He Daqing overtime pay. He Daqing was even able to become the deputy director of the canteen, which was also a disguised way of raising his salary.

According to regulations, the highest salary for chefs at the Red Star Steel Rolling Mill cannot exceed the standard of a sixth-level technician. However, He Daqing became the deputy director of the canteen. In addition to a basic salary of 63 yuan per month, he also received position allowances and various subsidies, which together definitely exceeded 80 or 90 yuan.

Since He Daqing usually gets off work much later than the workers in the workshop in the afternoon, Yi Zhonghai did not discover until today that He Daqing actually had a mistress in his luxurious house. With Widow Bai's monthly salary of 18.5 yuan, she definitely could not afford to rent that small courtyard with its own door and window. Yi Zhonghai knew very well that the monthly rent for a courtyard like that would be at least nearly 10 yuan. Although Widow Bai ate in the cafeteria for free at noon, she definitely could not afford to spend money to live in such a nice house with her income, so the person who paid to rent the house was definitely He Daqing.

The reason why Yi Zhonghai happened to discover the clues today was that no leading cadre in the Red Star Steel Mill dared to go to the small canteen to eat and drink. After all, two deputy factory directors and dozens of cadres and employees were taken away today by people sent by the newly appointed Security Director Lin Yu. Secretary Guo Sanhu and factory director Song Jiefang were notified to go to the Ministry of Industry in the morning, but they were not seen until the end of get off work this afternoon. Some people have already suspected that something had happened to these two leaders. Otherwise, it would be absolutely abnormal that such a big thing happened in the Red Star Steel Mill but the secretary and the factory director have not shown up yet.

The current leaders of the Red Star Steel Rolling Mill probably won't be able to sleep well tonight. Those with connections will start to get busy as soon as they get off work. With so many leadership positions suddenly vacant in the factory, there must be many people who are tempted. However, everyone is very wary of one person, and that is Lin Yu, the director of the Security Department who has only been in office for two days.

Yesterday, the factory leadership team headed by Secretary Guo Sanhu and Director Song Jiefang wanted to give others a warning, but who could have thought that Lin Yu would directly insult those people on the spot, and ignored all the leading cadres above the section level present, and took people away neatly. Today, he arrested dozens of people including two deputy directors. Who would not be afraid of such a man with a strong background and a ruthless heart?