Siheyuan, Me and the Yu Sisters

As soon as Director Wang left, Yan Bugui saw Jia Zhang, who was tied to a pillar and cursing, and Liu Haizhong on the side, and then looked at Zhang Renkang outside the room, sighed and asked

"Old Liu, how do we deal with this matter? How do we deal with Jia Zhang now?"

Liu Haizhong scratched his head. He couldn't think of any suitable solution for a while. He looked at Yan Bugui and said

"If not, ask Zhang Renkang, he has many ideas."

After saying this, Yan Bugui nodded and said

"Okay, let's go ask Zhang Renkang, he's a leader in the factory and has more experience."

The two men came out and saw Zhang Renkang chatting with Yan Jiecheng. It had been snowing heavily these days and Yan Jiecheng didn't have to go to the steel mill to work. But today he had some time off. Seeing Zhang Renkang, he wanted to build a relationship with him to see if he could get Zhang Renkang to help him out of his misery. Yan Bugui and Liu Haizhong came over and asked

"Renkang, what do you think we should do with Jia Zhang?"

Zhang Renkang smiled and said

"Second uncle, you and First uncle are in charge of the affairs of this courtyard. I will just follow your arrangements."

Yan Bugui smiled bitterly

"Renkang, we have no experience in this. You are the leader of the factory and you have a lot of experience. Do you think there is a good solution?"

Zhang Renkang looked at Liu Haizhong and said

"Uncle, the problem now is that the snow hasn't stopped, and the police station doesn't have the energy to take care of Jia Zhang, so our task is to keep an eye on Jia Zhang until the snow stops, and the police station comes to pick her up, don't you think?"

Liu Haizhong nodded and said

"Yes, that's it. We are just helping the organization to take care of the criminal Jia Zhang, but Renkang, you mean we just need to prevent Jia Zhang from starving to death, right?"

Zhang Renkang laughed

"Master Liu is more suitable to be a master. This is very thoughtful."

Liu Haizhong instantly felt that he had done it, and he smiled and heard Zhang Renkang say

"In addition to not starving to death, we must also prevent Jia Zhang from escaping."

"Uncle, I see Yi Zhonghai and Qin Huairu are here, aren't they?"

"Let the two of them take care of Jia Zhang's food, drink, defecation and urination. The eldest uncle will arrange a few people to take turns to keep an eye on Jia Zhang and make sure she doesn't run away. Wait a few days for the street office and the police station to come and pick her up. That's all."

Liu Haizhong and Yan Bugui looked at each other, nodded, turned to look at Qin Huairu and Yi Zhonghai and his wife and said

"Qin Huairu, Yi Zhonghai, you two families are now in charge of Jia Zhang's eating, drinking, and defecation every day. Liu Guangtian, Yan Jiecheng, Liu Donglai, and Sun Gaofu, you take turns watching Jia Zhang and don't let her run away. You are not allowed to untie the rope for Jia Zhang. Do you understand?"

Yi Zhonghai was unwilling to come and shout at this time

"Liu Haizhong, don't you know that my family is in charge of the old lady's affairs? How can I have the time and food to take care of Jia Zhangshi?"

Yan Bugui said with a smile

"Old Yi, you were the one who explained the most to Jia Zhang just now. We didn't tell the street office just now. You don't want the street office and the police station to ask you what your intentions are, right?"

Yi Zhonghai pointed at Yan Bugui and said angrily

"Yan Bugui, you..."

Looking at Yan Bugui's smiling face, he threw his hands and said with gritted teeth:

"Okay, I'll take care of it."

Then he and the aunt went home. Seeing Yi Zhonghai was frustrated, Liu Haizhong said to Qin Huairu with a smile:

"Qin Huairu, you must deliver food to your mother-in-law on time."

Then he looked at Zhang Renkang and smiled.

"Renkang, do you think this arrangement is okay? Do you have any other opinions?"

Zhang Renkang said with a smile

"It's safe for a great man to take action. What can I say?"

Looking at Qin Huairu, he said

"Qin Huairu may have to thank the uncle in the future. Without Jia Zhangshi in the family, she will be much more relaxed."

Qin Huairu was immediately thinking about this. She had been so nervous just now that she hadn't had time to think that if Jia Zhang was sent to a drug rehabilitation center, she wouldn't be able to come back for a while. Isn't it Qin Huairu who has the final say at home? And without Jia Zhang's eight yuan a month for retirement and medicine, wouldn't her family be much better off?

Nodding and looking at Liu Haizhong, he said

"Uncle, you see, we don't have much food left. My mother-in-law has..."

Liu Haizhong had no good feelings towards the Jia family and said impatiently

"Qin Huairu, don't you know what happened to your Jia family this morning? If you don't have any food, go find Yi Zhonghai."

Then he said to Yan Bugui

"Let the Sun family watch over it for now. I think it would be more appropriate to let Yan Jiecheng and Liu Guangtian watch over it at night."

After talking for a while, they stopped paying attention to Jia Zhang who was cursing in the room and went back.

After returning to the house, Zhang Renkang explained the situation to the three girls, and then they went their separate ways. Yu Li took Zhang Renkang back to the bedroom to discuss how to meet Lou Xiaoe. Yu Haitang and He Yushui quietly carried a few cans of food to the bedroom, eating while whispering behind the curtains.

On December 12, three days had passed in a flash. When Zhang Renkang woke up in the morning, he found that the snow had stopped. In the past three days, the snow had been heavy and light, but it had almost never stopped. The day before yesterday, people from the courtyard went out to the street to help clear the snow. In the vicinity, Zhang Renkang also heard that several families had starved to death, and someone's house collapsed at night and killed several people.

In the past few days, no one starved to death in the courtyard, and no one's house collapsed. Except for Jia Zhang who was almost frozen to death by Yan Jiecheng, everything else was normal. The house where Jia Zhang was locked up was the charcoal squeezed out by Zhang Renkang and each household. There was a certain amount of charcoal burned every day. Yan Jiecheng was worthy of inheriting Yan Bugui's calculations. He thought about saving some charcoal from Jia Zhang and took it for himself. He only put half of the normal amount of charcoal in Jia Zhang's stove in the house, and the fire went out before midnight. This was in the city of Beijing with a temperature of more than 20 degrees below zero.

Jia Zhang was struggling with the cold last night. Because her mouth was too dirty, a rag was stuffed into her mouth shortly after Director Wang left. Liu Guangtian, who took over, saw that Jia Zhang's eyebrows and saliva were frozen, so he called Liu Haizhong and Yan Bugui. They were so scared that they quickly boiled ginger soup for Jia Zhang. Zhang Renkang secretly wasted a small cup of Space Spirit Spring to pull Jia Zhang back. The weak Jia Zhang could no longer use the rope.

Being tied up, she endured the physical pain and mental torture. Besides, Qin Huairu and Yi Zhonghai only had cornmeal at home. How could it be nutritious after drinking it for two days? Jia Zhang was so weak that she couldn't even make a sound if you asked her to scold her. She could only look at everyone with vicious eyes and curse in her heart.

It was just dawn when Zhang Renkang, Liu Haizhong, Yan Bugui, and the heads of the households were discussing in the courtyard wearing their cotton-padded jackets in the cold wind. Liu Haizhong said:

"Now that the snow has stopped, let's go see if the supply and marketing cooperative is open. If it is open, we can see what food we can buy."

"I'll go to the factory to check the situation and come back to let everyone know."

Zhang Renkang added:

"The uncle has made very thorough arrangements. He will go to the supply and marketing cooperative to take a look at the women in each household. Everyone can pool their money and buy the food first, and then distribute it according to each household's situation. No one will grab it when the time comes."

"Leave two young men to watch over Jia Zhang. I'll go to the factory and come back to tell everyone about the situation."

"Uncle Er will organize a group to clean up the snow in the yard and on the streets. We will discuss it when I come back in the afternoon."

"Uncle No. 1, Uncle No. 2, what do you think of this?"

Liu Haizhong nodded. Zhang Renkang went to the farthest factory to investigate the situation. This was already the biggest risk he had taken. Besides, the two of them only needed to clean up in the yard and go to the supply and marketing cooperative to buy supplies, which was the safest option.

After the discussion, Zhang Renkang returned to the house and explained the situation to Yu Li, Zhang Yushui and Yu Haitang, then hurried to the steel mill. It was not possible to ride a bicycle on the street at that time. On the main road, the troops from the military region and the households organized by the street office were already busy cleaning up.

Zhang Renkang looked at the busy people and soldiers, covered his head and hurried to the steel mill. As soon as he arrived at the steel mill, he saw Chen Gang waiting for something at the door. Zhang Renkang walked forward, and when he saw Zhang Renkang coming, Chen Gang also walked over to him. As soon as the two met, Chen Gang said

"Renkang, you're here just in time. Director Yang and Director Li will be here soon."

Zhang Renkang nodded and said

"Do you know what's going on in the factory these days?"

Chen Gang looked around, pulled Zhang Renkang aside, sighed and said

"What can we do? It's snowing so heavily that there's almost no one in the factory. We've stopped production. I heard that all the roads to the north are blocked by heavy snow. Also, the coking coal that should have been delivered to me the day before yesterday was not delivered on time. I'm afraid we won't be able to work normally these few days."

The factory has always had security personnel on duty, so nothing was lost or damaged. However, the coal supply was insufficient and the workers were stuck at home, so they couldn't organize production. I'm afraid the task target was really delayed this month.

In less than an hour, the heads of various departments gathered in the conference room of the office building under the call of Secretary Liu. Soon, Yang Weiguo with a sullen face and Li Huaide with an expressionless face came in. As soon as they sat down, Yang Weiguo shouted angrily:

"Are all the workshop directors of the production department here?"

Wang Huairen, deputy director of the production department, stood up trembling with fear and said

"Director, Liu Yuhai from Workshop 4 is not here"

Yang Weiguo looked at the people below and said

"If he didn't come, then don't come again. Let him go back to the workshop and do his forging work."

Liu Yuhai from the fourth workshop is a sixth-level forger. It is not easy for Liu Yuhai, who lives in the north of the city, to come to the factory in such a short time. After all, he can't ride a bike or take a bus now, so he can only walk. At this time, the furious Yang Weiguo didn't care about his reason and said angrily:

"Our steel mill has just been criticized by our superiors. Except for a few small factories, our Red Star Steel Mill was the only one that did not have an emergency plan during the heavy snow. It was completely paralyzed and on strike. This is the responsibility of all of us here. We have delayed production and the progress of national construction."

"It fully exposed the lack of organization and discipline in our steel mill... We had no sense of the overall situation and simply abandoned our production tasks and responsibilities without any difficulty... All of us present here should reflect on this."

Zhang Renkang felt helpless when he heard Yang Weiguo's rage. On the second day of the heavy snow, he tried to come to the factory early in the morning to check the situation. At that time, except for a few workers who lived close to the factory, most people were at home and did not go to work. But what could he do? The workers could not contact the factory. It was snowing heavily, the roads were closed, and supplies were in short supply. Who dared to run around when they had wives and children at home?

Yang Weiguo was probably being treated harshly by his superiors, so he came back to vent his anger on his superiors.

Ask (the power of love)

Why do I write about the heavy snow? The reason is that it was very vivid in my childhood. In the 90s, when I was only six or seven years old, there was a heavy snowfall in winter. I asked my father and it seemed that it snowed for two days and two nights. Our area is mainly a county coal mine in the mountains, and the road is also closed, so supplies cannot come in. Someone near us had a house collapse in the middle of the night and was crushed by a beam. A family of three froze to death. I have seen people who were dug out and their faces were frozen blue, which has always been a psychological shadow for me.

Moreover, due to food distribution and other reasons, the two families in our courtyard have not had any contact with each other for 30 years.

I didn’t dare to show the selfishness and evil of human nature at this time, so I just hinted at it.