Siheyuan: Big City, Small Love

"Xiao Laizi, how did you do that? Teach me!" After they came out of the alley, Xu Damao hurried forward and asked.

"Brother Damao, they are all lies. Don't learn them. The winners in gambling are the dealers."

He Lai explained.

"Xiao Laizi, didn't you win?" Sha Zhu said indifferently.

"I won because I just happened to be a little bit better than him." He Lai stretched out two fingers and gestured.

"But, didn't you notice that even if I won more than 500 yuan, the dealer's money didn't decrease much? This is the ability to control the situation. This gambling table has a mechanism. It can make you win when it wants you to win, and it can make you lose when it wants you to lose!"

"Is it so mysterious? Fortunately, I never gamble. I almost couldn't help but take out my private money just now."

Sha Zhu sighed.

"Don't talk about you, I want to play too. If I play with Xiao Laizi, we might win five or six hundred."

Xu Damao recalled the scene of He Lai winning money just now, and felt a little regretful.

"Don't even think about it. If we all go out with 500, maybe someone will be waiting for us in front of us now."

He Lai was very familiar with these tricks, so he showed off his skills at the end to shock the people in the casino.

"Okay, let's go back later and give each of us a watermelon. Let's go."

"Okay, okay." "This is good!"

The three disappeared down the road.

……

"Come on, do you know? The grain appeared again yesterday, and this time there was more, a full three hundred thousand kilograms, all in the grain warehouse."

Zhang Zhiwen began to report on the grain thrown by He Lai.

"Where did you find it? How do you know there are so many?" Liu Mu asked. He Lai was also a little puzzled. How come he could know the weight of the grain every time? Could it be that the farmers in the village couldn't get it?

"Well, who am I? How could I not know? After the grain was discovered, it was reported to the local commune. All the grain was handed in without any left."

Zhang Zhiwen explained the reason.

"Aren't rural people suffering so much right now? Shouldn't they be given food?"

He Lai couldn't help but ask, this was inconsistent with his own philosophy, and it seemed that his grain could not reach the hands of the rural people.

“I don’t know about that. Where will the food end up?

Come on, did you go back to the countryside yesterday and see that your grandfather and his family were not doing well?"

Zhang Zhiwen saw that He Lai's expression was not right, so he asked.

"Well, it's not just bad, it's quite difficult. I've eaten wild vegetable dumplings every day. They're too disgusting."

He Lai smiled bitterly, recalling the wild vegetable dumplings he had eaten. Well, now in the countryside, it is really enough to have something to eat. A little coarse corn flour and wild vegetables were made into wild vegetable dumplings.

He Lai really wanted to know whether this batch of grain would fall into the hands of rural people. If it did not, what should he do?

All of a sudden, everyone fell silent.

When He Lai was having lunch, he learned from Sha Zhu that the Red Star Steel Rolling Mill had been allocated 2,000 kilograms of potatoes and 2,000 kilograms of sweet potatoes.

This really pissed He Lai off! Workers are the ones who have the most food and drink, but they actually gave the food to the workers. Well, well, that's how it works, right? They really don't care about the lives of the rural people.

After all, if the Red Star Steel Rolling Mill has it, that means other factories also have it, so it is impossible for them to give it to rural areas.

He Lai also understood why sand was mixed into disaster relief porridge in ancient times, because if the disaster relief porridge was made too delicious, everyone would want to eat it.

He Lai doesn’t know whether he should be a saint next time!

……

He Lai returned to the courtyard after get off work and found that Uncle Niu was already waiting for him.

"Uncle Niu, how is it? Did your leader agree to meet me?"

He Lai handed over a big front door and asked.

"Our Director Zhang is willing to see you. When is it convenient for you? I'll make an appointment for you."

"Then tomorrow morning, I'll go to the state-owned store to find you."

He Lai saw that the appointment had already been made, so half of the matter was done.

"Okay, then come to the state-owned department store to find me tomorrow. Don't go to the wrong place. I work there. If you mention Lao Niu who is watching over the warehouse to the people outside, they will know."

Lao Niu instructed.

The state-owned stores in that era were very large. There was a grocery store, a department store, and of course there were bookstores, hardware stores, etc. There were even more state-owned convenience stores opened on various streets and near factories.

He Lai saw that it was done and thought he could just wait until tomorrow to do it himself.

……

The next day, He Lai greeted the steel rolling mill early and rode his bicycle straight to the state-owned department store.

He Lai came to the store entrance carrying a bag of fruit, took out a cigarette and handed it through the window to the old man sitting in the message room.

"Old man, let me ask you something."

The old gatekeeper took the cigarette handed to him by He Lai, took a look at it, and saw Daqianmen. He didn't expect He Lai to be so polite and give such good cigarettes to an old man like him.

"Tell me what's going on. This old man knows a little bit about the business of this store."

The old gatekeeper pinned his cigarette behind his ear. He was reluctant to smoke it now.

"Well, I'm just asking if there's an old man here who's looking after the warehouse. I want to talk to him about something."

"Yes, I'll call you. Wait here for a while, young man."

He Lai saw that the old man was good and he convinced him with just a cigarette. In this day and age, it still made sense to rely on cigarettes to get around. Wherever you handed over a cigarette, people would greet you with a smile.

As the saying goes, when you go out to ask for directions, ask for a cigarette; when in Rome, do as the Romans do.

Soon He Lai met Uncle Niu, and as usual, he was divided into two groups.

Uncle Niu took He Lai into the director's office.

He Lai was waiting at the door, and Uncle Niu went in first to talk to the director.

After a while, Uncle Niu came out and asked He Lai to go in by himself.

As soon as He Lai entered the room, he put a bag of fruit on Director Zhang's desk.

"Just a little thought."

Director Zhang glanced at the fruit on the table, then looked at He Lai, and spoke.

"Okay, you are a sensible kid. I heard from Lao Niu that you want to get someone to work as a salesperson in our store?"

"Yes, my cousin has been unemployed and came to me for help, so I came to ask?"

"So what's your cousin's education level?"

"Junior high school graduate."

"What! You're just a junior high school graduate, so I'm afraid you can't do it. Even those of us who graduated from technical secondary schools don't have to do this. You want to work in a state-owned store after graduating from junior high school?"

Director Zhang looked at He Lai speechlessly, his meaning was obvious.

Said with a smile.

"Director Zhang, don't worry. I just got two big wild boars. Each weighs more than 400 kilograms. Are you thinking about changing jobs?"

He Lai smiled and said that he knew it was useless to talk to Director Zhang about anything else, only interests were the most important.

"Oh, two big wild boars, each weighing 400 kilograms? Are you kidding me?"

Director Zhang looked at He Lai in surprise and didn't quite believe what He Lai said.

After all, wild boars basically weigh around 100 kilograms. How can there be a wild boar that weighs 400 kilograms? That would be the wild boar king.

"If Director Zhang doesn't believe me, I can bring him here for you right now, but what about this job?"

"As long as you get me 800 kilograms of wild boar meat, I will give you a letter of employment immediately!"

Director Zhang was also very straightforward. Eight hundred kilograms of wild boar meat. Now is the time when meat is in short supply! With this pork, I can stand up on my own.

"Okay, Director Zhang, do you have a small truck to transport wild boars? I'll get it for you. Don't worry, I can drive it. I'm an engineer at the Red Star Steel Rolling Mill, and this is my work permit."

Seeing that Director Zhang agreed, He Lai immediately started to borrow a car to pull the wild boar, and told Daya to prepare.

Director Zhang looked at the work ID and saw that he was indeed from the Red Star Steel Rolling Mill, so he spoke.

"The trucks have all been sent out. There's a pickup truck. You can drive it. When can we see the pigs?"

"If it's fast, maybe before lunch." He Lai calculated that it would only take him two or three hours to go to Hejia Village and back.

"Okay, let's go. I'll take you to the back door to pick up the car." Director Zhang was eager to see pork. The state-owned store had everything except meat! It was really tight.

Soon, under the leadership of Director Zhang, He Lai drove the truck out.