Siheyuan: Survival Guide for Courtyard No. 95

These little tricks would be ridiculed in later generations, but in this era they were very effective for girls like Lou Xiao'e who had never entered society.

Seeing that her maid was enjoying the meal, Lou Tan asked Xu Damao.

"Da Mao, I heard from your mother that you are a projectionist at the steel mill? Have you been hired as a regular employee?"

"Auntie Tan, I went to work as an apprentice projectionist at a steel mill right after I graduated from high school. It will be three years in two months. My father taught me step by step, and I can become a regular employee once the number of years is up."

Of course, Lou Tan knew who Xu Damao's father was. He was Xu Wude, the Lou family's former driver. It seemed that this kid would work in the steel mill in the future. With the identity of a worker, he would hopefully be of more help to Old Lou.

Xu Damao answered the following questions one by one. After all, he had practiced these with his mother at home. The meal was a great success for both the host and the guests. In order to make Lou Xiao'e remember him, Xu Damao used all his strength.

Xu Damao was tall and had long legs (he was 1 meters tall, while He Yuzhu was only 81 meters tall). He looked very elegant in a new Zhongshan suit. His humorous conversation, acquired from long years of showing movies, made Lou Xiao'e, a young girl who was not very worldly-wise, laugh out loud.

Although Lou Tan had some complaints about Xu Damao's annoying face, she saw that her daughter did not dislike him, and the current social situation did not allow their family to continue to show off, so she simply ignored some minor issues.

After Xu Damao sent the two away and returned to the courtyard, he happened to meet Zhao Shanhe who had just returned from Xiangfang Village.

"Shanhe, you just came back too?"

Just as Zhao Shanhe was about to reply, he smelled a faint scent of perfume from Xu Damao. He thought to himself that this guy was indeed going on a blind date. Perfume was almost impossible to buy at that time and it was not something that those housewives with half-open doors and village girls could afford.

"Da Mao, didn't you go to the countryside to show a movie? Why are you back so soon? Why do you smell so good? Where did you go to deceive the girl again?"

Zhao Shanhe's question almost scared Xu Damao to death. Xu Wude had repeatedly warned him that he was not allowed to tell anyone about his blind date with the Lou family before getting the marriage certificate. There were not many good people in this courtyard, so he must not ruin this good thing.

"Don't talk nonsense. There was a problem with the equipment that plays movies, and my dad is fixing it. Why do I smell good? It should be the lubricant on the equipment, right? You must be smelling it wrongly."

After saying this, he hurried into the central courtyard without waiting for Zhao Shanhe to say anything. Even a fool could see that the other party was guilty.

"The smell of lubricant? You can only fool those people in the hospital who have never seen the world."

Zhao Shanhe did not intend to expose Xu Damao, because this was a thankless task. How could the Lou family, with such a large family business, not know who the Xu family was? How could they not know that Xu Damao was messing around in the countryside?

The reason why she chose Xu Damao was simply because he was easier to control. The marriages of capitalists' children are not free. If you want to enjoy something, you must pay. Lou Xiao'e is certainly no exception.

However, Lou Bancheng did not guess that the social atmosphere would change so quickly. By the time he reacted, it was too late. Fortunately, he had a wealthy family and was able to survive after spending a lot of money to avoid the disaster.

This just shows that he had enough wealth and a great reputation. Otherwise, you can check how many capitalists disappeared and their families were destroyed when the storm came. For the Lou family, which only lost its wealth, it was considered a good ending.

In his small world, he cut up the lamb he bought at the black market last time and made some lamb skewers and lamb chops. He planned to go see Chen Xueru tomorrow. He hadn't seen her for two days and missed her a little.

When everyone in the factory got off work and returned to the courtyard, they had dinner and gathered at the gate of the courtyard to play chess and chat. Zhao Shanhe also came out of the house. Just as he was about to ask them if there was anything new in the past two days, Yan Bugui walked towards him and asked.

"Shanhe, you said the other day that the grain production will decrease this year. Is that true? If you have any news, you must tell me. We have been neighbors for many years. We should take care of each other."

Zhao Shanhe thought to himself that even if I knew, I wouldn't dare say it out loud. But then I thought it would be okay to tell them what I saw today, and let them figure out the rest themselves.

"Uncle, I went to the countryside to buy groceries today, and I heard from the villagers that this year's summer harvest was 20% less. I don't need to tell you anything else, right? If you don't believe me, you can go to the countryside and ask around. It's not far away anyway."

After this was said, people in the courtyard started talking again. Some of them wanted to ask more questions, but Zhao Shanhe didn't dare to respond.

"Please don't ask me. If this gets out, the police will come looking for me. Spreading rumors like this will lead to big trouble. I don't want to sit in jail for nothing. I can get the answer dozens of miles outside the city. You can go and have a look on Sunday."

After saying this, people in the yard no longer dared to ask. The smart ones would naturally store food, and those who were reluctant to spend money could not blame others if they went hungry. Zhao Shanhe also began to plant high-yield crops such as potatoes and sweet potatoes in the small world. When there is a food shortage next year, the price of the crops will be several times higher than the current price of white flour.

As the old saying goes, unexpected events occur in the weather. Shortly after Zhao Shanhe finished his final exam, heavy rain suddenly hit Sijiu City. Others might not know what this rain meant, but Zhao Shanhe knew that the corn and soybeans that had just been planted in Fang Village would probably be ruined.

A few days later, the newspapers published the scope of the rainstorm, and Hebei and Heilongjiang were both within the scope. From this, it can be inferred that the disaster situation near Heilongjiang, Hebei, and Sijiucheng is a foregone conclusion and cannot be changed. This year is also the year with the most complicated natural disasters since the founding of the People's Republic of China. Drought, frost, floods, wind and hail have occurred in some areas in turn.

In addition, the Great Leap Forward, the big canteens, the false reporting of per-acre yields and other things all happened at the same time, which led to the tragedy of a 60% drop in grain production in China starting in the 15s and a spring famine for nearly million people. So many things did not happen suddenly, but progressed little by little. If there were not so many man-made disasters, if there were only natural disasters, there would be no three years of natural disasters.

At the beginning of July, Zhao Shanhe arrived at the factory with his newly received high school diploma. He had to go to the personnel department to change the academic qualifications in his file. It was a pity that it was only a high school diploma. If it was a technical secondary school diploma, he could directly enjoy the treatment of a level 7 clerk (administrative level 7) with a salary of 25 yuan, which would be on par with Sha Zhu a few years later. If he was a college student, it would be even more amazing. He would be level 37 (administrative level 5) upon graduation, and even a level 5 clerk after being converted to a regular employee, with a monthly salary of 23 yuan. Otherwise, why is it said that the salaries and social status of intellectuals were high before the storm, but after the storm, they stood higher... I dare not write about the rest.