Siheyuan: Big City, Small Love

The next day, He Lai came to Li Huaide's office again, but there was nothing he could do because the money for the pork had not been paid yet.

"He Lai, yesterday's pork was very good. Twenty-five wild boars, a total of 9,785 catties. I'll charge you 9,800 catties. As for the price of the pork, I'll charge you 2 yuan per catty. How do you think?"

Li Huaide smiled.

"Let's do whatever Uncle Li says." He Lai said indifferently.

"Okay then, the total is 19,600 yuan. I'll ask the finance department for approval later."

"Uncle Li, you have to keep it a secret. Don't let anyone find out it's me. Otherwise, I'll be in trouble!"

He Lai was still a little worried, after all, there were too many people in the steel mill.

This time, the truck was driven out of the steel mill first before He Lai took over. It was also outside the steel mill when it came back because he was afraid of being seen and couldn't explain himself clearly.

"Okay, Uncle Li knows, don't worry."

"I'm worried! You should get me a purchase certificate and complete the formalities so that no one knows about it."

He Lai said.

"Okay, okay, wait a minute, I'll get it for you, such as the personnel supply introduction certificate and the purchasing agent qualification certificate. I'll arrange everything for you, okay?"

Li Huaide smiled and said that he was eager to get these for He Lai. When he had less meat in the future, he could come to He Lai himself.

"alright."

"I don't know how you caught so many wild boars in just a few days! Your iron fence is useless in winter. When can you make an automatic one? How can you let people stay in the tree in such a cold weather?"

Li Huaide smiled.

"I raised all these wild boars, Uncle Li, do you believe it?"

He Lai finally told the truth.

"Believe it, of course you should. Each of these wild boars weighs 300 to 400 kilograms. How can wild boars outside grow so fat? When can you take me to visit your wild boar farm?"

"Uncle Li, my wild boar farm is a bit far away. It's deep in the mountains. I guess you can't get there!"

He Lai smiled.

"Okay, okay, I won't talk to you anymore. I have to go to a meeting. I'll have Secretary Liang give you the money and the certificate when the time comes."

Li Huaide ordered them to leave.

……

In the following days, He Lai started his life of hunting with eagles again, but most of the time he was just pretending. He Lai actually went to Fengze Garden, the machine repair factory or Grandpa Zhou's house, and his life was still quite enjoyable.

As Yu Shui went to school, He Lai lived alone again.

On this day, He Lai had just returned from Fengze Garden. After putting the golden eagle away, he went to Courtyard No. 95, only to find a group of women gathered in the backyard, even Wu Juan was holding Wu'er inside.

"Hey, what gossip do you have? Tell me about it!"

He Lai immediately came over, picked up Wu'er and said.

"Happy! Happy!" Wu'er said, clapping her hands.

"What are you doing here, kid? Have you eaten yet?"

Wu Juan called He Lai and asked.

"I ate it. I ate it at my master's place." He Lai answered, and then said, "Second Aunt, tell me, what happened?"

"Well, the eldest son of the Yan family is getting married this weekend, and the third uncle said he wants to hold a banquet. We are discussing how much money to give as a gift!"

The second aunt laughed.

"Ah? What are you negotiating about? Just give me whatever you normally give me."

He Lai was speechless, "No! This is Yan Fugui's house, there won't be any trouble."

"Xiao Laizi, you don't know this, right? The Third Master is being very harsh. He said there's not enough food, so only one person from each family is allowed to go. What can we do about it? It's better not to do this!"

Aunt Xu said. It is obvious that the men in the family are invited to eat there, and the wives and children are not allowed to go. What kind of wedding banquet is this?

"Well... just give me a few cents as a token of my appreciation. The food here isn't that good anyway."

He Lai smiled.

"How can that be possible? How can we afford to spend these few cents? The third uncle said there are fish and meat! When your second uncle heard there are fish and meat, he immediately said he would give two yuan."

Second Auntie knew and said anxiously. After all, food is very expensive now, and corn flour sells for more than one yuan on the black market.

"That Second Auntie, you believe this nonsense. His Third Uncle's family doesn't even want to eat meat during the New Year! Will he give out meat for everyone to eat? You must have been daydreaming too much.

I guess it would be good to have some oil residue to eat by then, and the fish must be the small fish he caught from the river."

He Lai covered his mouth and laughed.

After all, in this day and age, there are two ways to get the host's dishes for a banquet.

One is to borrow, borrow from co-workers and colleagues. Generally, they will borrow. After all, this situation happens in every household. If you borrow this time, others will lend you money next time when you need it.

The second way is to go to the black market and buy it at a high price. As long as you have money, you can definitely buy it.

However, these two methods might be a bit difficult for Yan Fugui!

The first thing is borrowing. Yan Fugui charges high interest when he borrows things from others.

I remember that when Yan Jiecheng and his wife opened a restaurant, they borrowed money from Yan Fugui. The interest rate was 10% per month, which was definitely usury. With such high interest rate, Yan Jiecheng and his wife borrowed money from outsiders the next month to pay off Yan Fugui's money.

He didn't even let his own son borrow money, let alone expect him to lend money to outsiders. If others were willing to lend him things, there must be something fishy! Unless they were fools!

The second option is to buy it. But I guess the miser Yan Fugui won’t pay for it. After all, the prices on the black market are extremely expensive.

"Yes, oh, I forgot to ask. No, no, I have to ask clearly, how much meat, how much fish! Don't let him fool you."

When the second aunt heard this, she came to her senses instantly.

"Xiao Laizi is really smart. This old miser is probably thinking of making a fortune from us!"

Resident A said.

"That's right. I was wondering why this uncle suddenly said there was fish and meat. So this is what's going on. He's setting a trap for us to jump into!"

Resident B exclaimed.

"No, no, I have to go back and tell the head of the family, don't just give the money without thinking, it would be good to use the money to buy some candies for the kids!"

When Resident C heard this, he could no longer sit still and hurried back to tell the head of the household about it.

After He Lai's advice, the women immediately came to their senses and went home to discuss the matter with their husbands. Suddenly, only Aunt Xu and Wu Juan were left.

Wu Juan hit He Lai and scolded him, "Look at what you have done. You are so smart, right? You ruined the Yan family's wedding banquet, and you are happy, right?"

"Hey, Mom, you are being unreasonable! Aunt Xu, don't you think so?" He Lai said, hiding behind Aunt Xu.

"That's right, Xiao Laizi is right. This master is not kind and doesn't allow us to be on guard. Juanzi, you can't hit Xiao Laizi. He is the backbone of all of us."

Aunt Xu said with a smile.

"Mom, did you hear me? You need to integrate into the masses and stop being a pushover! Aunt Xu, come on, I have a pheasant that I don't know how to cook. Please help me cook it."

He said this and pulled Aunt Xu away from Yard 95, leaving Wu Juan sitting there stupidly.

Wu Juan didn't react at first to what was happening.

"When did I become a good person? I just don't want my son to get involved in this matter."

Wu Juan smiled bitterly, shook her head, and went home.