Siheyuan: Survival Guide for Courtyard No. 95

Due to the shortage of supplies and the cold weather, Daqianmen was quite deserted. After lunch, Zhao Shanhe followed Chen Xueru to visit Pian Ye's ancestral home. There were many huanghuali and red sandalwood tables and chairs, but he couldn't understand any of the other decorations. In the end, he decided to go to San Ye's place when he had time to borrow someone who knew about it to take a look. He was not cut out for it, so he decided not to get involved.

When they returned to the store, they saw that there were not many customers, so they asked Chen Xueru to close the store early. Hou Kui had been eating at home recently and asked to change the taste. So the three of them found a small restaurant to have a quick meal. After asking around, they learned that there were almost no meat dishes, but there were fish and shrimps, and a piece of pork liver. Zhao Shanhe ordered them all, braised crucian carp, stir-fried shrimps, and braised liver tips. Not to mention the boss's good cooking skills and the price was not expensive (it depends on who you compare with). Including the staple food, the total cost was less than 5 yuan.

Chen Xueru was still muttering on the way back.

"Shanhe, when we got married, a dish of canned crab and cabbage cost five dollars. This restaurant is much more affordable than the Sijiucheng Restaurant."

Zhao Shanhe held Hou Kui with one hand and put the other hand in his trouser pocket. He didn't dare to hold Chen Xueru's hand on the street because those Chaoyang old ladies with bound feet had shifty eyes.

"The main thing about Sijiucheng Restaurant is the taste and quality. Look around Sijiucheng, is there any other restaurant that can cook that dish?

But the prices at this little restaurant are really affordable, we can come here more often if we don’t want to cook anymore.”

Hou Kui originally wanted to order a braised pork dish today, as he hadn't eaten it for some time. However, after asking, he was told that the restaurant was short of meat and couldn't make it. At this time, he heard Zhao Shanhe and Chen Xueru talking about dinner and interrupted them.

"Uncle Zhao, why is there no more braised pork in the restaurant? Isn't that what restaurants sell?"

Zhao Shanhe was speechless for a moment, and after thinking for a while he replied.

"This year our country suffered from severe natural disasters, so we can no longer supply pork as we did before. Now that pork is gone, we naturally can't buy braised pork.

You wait two years for the country to recover and pork supply to return to normal, and then restaurants will sell braised pork.”

Zhao Shanhe was deceiving himself when he said this. Two years later would be the end of 61, and the situation would be more difficult than it is now. However, for him who owned a small world, it could not be considered as deceiving Hou Kui. At most, he could take out the wild boar meat and ask the chef of the restaurant to process it. Just because others did not have it did not mean that Mr. Zhao did not have it either.

When the three of them returned to the courtyard, they happened to catch a general meeting of the courtyard. However, there were more people coming today, including Director Wang and the police.

........Dividing line........

Time flies and we return to the afternoon in the courtyard.

Sha Zhu was in a good mood today. He went out to take a private job and earned 5 yuan, and also brought back two boxes of vegetables. But his good mood disappeared when he returned to the gate of the yard. Before he even entered the yard, he heard Wang Dawei's wife Xu Chunlan spreading gossip there.

"Sister Fang, have you heard? The girl who came to Old Yan's house for a blind date today is the same one that Sha Zhu saw last time. I'd say Old Yan's family is really quick. It's only been two weeks and they've already fallen in love with each other again. Is there something going on here that we don't know about?"

The person chatting with Xu Chunlan in the front yard was Li Wenxi's daughter-in-law Fang Lijie. She was a few years older than Xu Chunlan, so people called her Sister Fang.

At this time, the two old ladies put their hands in their sleeves, stood by the hanging flower door, and spoke loudly as if they were afraid that others could not hear them.

"Sister Wang, you can't say that. It is said that men should get married when they are old enough and women should get married when they are old enough. If I don't like Sha Zhu, why don't you allow me to go on a blind date?

If you ask me, there shouldn't be anything wrong here. At most, when Sha Zhu brought the girl here last time, Old Yan's family also liked the girl. When Sha Zhu's relationship fell through, Old Yan went to find a matchmaker, so it happened so quickly."

"What you said does make sense, but I always feel that the Yan family is really bad. It's as if they had prepared everything long ago. Do you think that the last blind date of Shazhu didn't work out was ruined by the third uncle?"

The two people were chatting, and when they saw Sha Zhu coming in from Guangliang Gate, they stopped talking. However, Sha Zhu had heard clearly what they had just said.

Sha Zhu saw that the two of them stopped talking. Although he was angry about what they said, he couldn't take it out on the two old women. He glanced at the two of them and walked into the middle courtyard with his lunch box. Unexpectedly, he managed to calm down. Xu Damao, who had been waiting for a long time, jumped out immediately when he saw Sha Zhu coming back.

"Shazhu, why did you come back just now? Today I saw the girl you had a blind date with last time, but unfortunately she was here to see Yan Jiecheng. I saw the two of them talking and laughing as they left the yard, so it looks like the marriage is going to be a success.

It's no wonder. You're not handsome, your father ran off with a widow, and no girl would look down on you.

It’s a good thing that I didn’t get along with you last time…”

Before he could finish his words, Sha Zhu ran towards him.

If it was someone else saying these irritating nonsense, Sha Zhu might still have some rationality, but when he met a guy like Xu Damao who slandered him, he was like a mad bull, and Xu Damao was the red cloth.

One of them ran away while the other chased. Seeing that something was not right, Xu Chunlan and Fang Lijie also secretly ran back to the house. They only received one dollar in bribes from Xu Damao, which was enough for spreading gossip, but they decided not to go up and stop the fight.

Xu Damao was running around the pond in the middle courtyard while talking all the while.

"Silly Zhu, why are you chasing me? It's not like I'm going on a blind date with that girl, so who are you going to go after to make you angry?"

"Your running speed is not good, it's too slow. You need to learn more from Zhao Shanhe. He is the fastest in Sijiu City. If you kowtow to him and become his disciple, maybe he will accept you as his disciple."

All this chattering made Sha Zhu even more furious. At this moment he had only one idea, which was to catch Xu Damao and tear him to pieces!

"Sun thief, if you have the guts, don't run away. I'll beat the yolk out of you today."

"You big fool, you still want to catch up with me? Dream on. Look...ah."

Xu Damao saw that Sha Zhu couldn't catch up with him, and many people in the yard came out to watch, so he was so excited that he didn't notice Qin Huairu's outstretched legs.

As a result, he fell to the ground with his teeth chewing shit, and was pinned down and beaten up by Sha Zhu.

"Ah, Shazhu, big brother, grandpa, stop hitting me, I was wrong, just treat me like a fart."

When an old man sees Shazhu beating Damao and getting the upper hand, he definitely won't care and just hopes that he gets beaten more miserably.

Because Xu Wude attacked Guangqi, the second uncle acted like a blind man. He took out a cigarette, lit it, and smoked it leisurely.

Only the third uncle Yan Bugui, seeing Xu Damao being pinned to the ground and beaten by Sha Zhu until the corner of his mouth was bleeding, stood up and said a few words out of fear that something might happen.

"Silly Zhu, stop hitting me. If you continue, someone will die."

Sha Zhu stood up and spoke when he saw that Xu Damao had fainted.

"Don't blame me for what happened today. It was Xu Damao who started it first. He deserves to be beaten."