Siheyuan: Wang Bo's Happy Life

"Are you all ready?" A teenager standing at the gate, holding a few strings of firecrackers in his hands, asked loudly.

"Ready!"

A group of children, big and small, holding brooms and dustpans in their hands, answered loudly, staring at the firecrackers in the young man's hand with shining eyes.

"Okay, remember to clean it up and put all the garbage in the garbage pit. Come to me when you're done. Twenty cannons per person."

"Oh, there's a cannon going off!"

The children rushed to the streets, found their own positions, and enthusiastically cleared the snow and firecracker debris on the road.

The adults passing by looked at the group of children who were cleaning hard, and praised them with a smile for being so sensible.

"Ah~"

Wang Bo, the boy who had just directed the children to clean up, sighed, took a small stool, sat under the gate, and squinted at the sun in the sky.

I'm so unlucky, really.

Thinking of his own time travel, Wang Bo couldn't help but feel deeply moved.

I, Wang Bo, am a promising young man of the 21st century. I had just finished the college entrance examination and was fantasizing about making great achievements in the future. But after watching a TV series called "Love in the Courtyard" a few years ago, I was so angry that my heart ached. As a result, my eyes went dark and I traveled directly to a courtyard in 1957, where I was reborn as a stranger with the same name and surname as myself.

In Wang Bo's previous life, he was always a loner. A few months ago, his grandmother, the only person who had been with him, passed away. The street cleaner, Old Li, happened to fall while sweeping snow, so he asked his previous life to clean the streets for him and gave him five yuan a month.

But this boy was too cowardly, and coupled with the cold words from the people around him, he couldn't get over it and hanged himself on New Year's Eve.

Fortunately, the rope was not strong enough, and Wang Bo, who had come through, kept struggling, and finally broke the rope, and Wang Bo fell heavily to the ground.

Wang Bo, who had traveled through time, couldn't believe it. He pushed open the door, rushed out of the courtyard, and saw a street full of bungalows. Amid the sound of fireworks and firecrackers, he saw the house number nailed on the gate through the big red lanterns hanging on the courtyard gate: No. 95 Nanluoguxiang!

In Beijing's winter, the temperature can reach minus ten degrees Celsius at night. Wang Bo, who was wearing a thin cotton coat, just stood there for a while before he was so cold that he had to accept the reality. He hurried back to the house and wrapped himself in a quilt to spend the night.

"Xiaobo, I'm done cleaning, go and have a look."

A child's voice interrupted Wang Bo's thoughts. He didn't get up, but just stretched his neck to take a look, then quickly retracted it.

Wang Bo said lazily, "It's cleaned up pretty well, take twenty for yourself."

"Thank you, Bo-ge!"

"If you want to set off fireworks, go somewhere else. Don't set off fireworks on this street. Got it?"

"understood!"

The boy didn't even raise his head, excitedly took twenty firecrackers from a string, and ran away.

The children who were listening nearby heard that they could really be given twenty and they cleaned even harder.

After a while, the street became clean. After distributing the firecrackers, the children ran away. Wang Bo picked up the bench on the ground and turned to walk into the yard.

As soon as he entered the door, he met someone. Wang Bo took a closer look and found that it was Sha Zhu!

This silly Zhu glanced at Wang Bo, said nothing, and walked out with his head down.

Hey, this silly Zhu looks really mature for his age. It is now 1957 and he is in his early twenties, but he looks like he is in his forties.

Wang Bo watched Sha Zhu walk away, thinking that Sha Zhu was just like in the TV series, stunned, looking at everyone as if they owed him money. Wang Bo also thought that it was only the third day of the Chinese New Year, and the steel mill was not open, so what was he doing outside?

There was no point in thinking too much, so Wang Bo turned around and went straight to his home.

Wang Bo lived in the back house at the front of the courtyard, the innermost room.

The doors and windows of this back house are all on the north side, and there are no windows on the south side, so it is really cold in winter and hot in summer.

As soon as he entered the room, it was dark and the biting cold made Wang Bo shiver. My goodness, it was even colder in the room than outside.

Wang Bo put the bench aside, turned on the stove, removed the ash, and added coal. After about ten minutes, the room became warm.

Wang Bo added two more scoops of water into the pot to heat up the dumplings that the street had distributed to him on New Year's Eve.

After eating and drinking, Wang Bo crawled into bed and fell into a deep sleep.

Waking up from his sleep, Wang Bo looked up and saw that it was already gray outside.

Have I slept from noon to night?

Perhaps because he had slept for too long, Wang Bo felt a little thirsty. He stood up, picked up the thermos and shook it, but all the water was gone. He had to pick up the bucket in the corner, push the door and go to the middle courtyard to fetch some water.

Wang Bo walked through the hanging flower gate and entered the front yard. From afar, he could smell the aroma of meat coming from his third uncle Yan Fugui's house.

This old man Yan was actually willing to stew the meat.

When I entered the middle courtyard, I saw an old lady washing dishes at the sink.

"Auntie, Happy New Year! Have you finished your meal so early?"

The lady looked up and saw Wang Bo carrying a bucket of water. She was startled at first, then smiled and said, "It's Xiaobo, Happy New Year. It's nothing, so eat early. Come on, get some water first."

"Thank you, Auntie."

Wang Bo walked over, put down the bucket, turned on the faucet and filled the water.

While fetching water, Wang Bo looked around the central courtyard. You have to admit, the houses in the central courtyard were great. Sha Zhu's three main rooms were really tall and majestic, and even the side rooms on the east and west sides were much better than Wang Bo's back room.

As they were looking around, a gust of wind suddenly blew, making Wang Bo and the aunt shiver.

Suddenly, the door of a room in the east wing was blown open by the wind. In the dim light, Wang Bo vaguely saw a thin figure lying on the table, motionless.

Wang Bo quickly called out, "Auntie, look who that is, why is he lying on the table without moving?"

After hearing this, the old lady also looked towards the house and asked, "Hey, what's wrong with the rain?"

The two hurried over, and after entering the house, the aunt called out twice: "Rainwater, rainwater?"

Seeing that she couldn’t wake Yu Shui up, the aunt pushed her again, but Yu Shui still lay on the table motionless.

The aunt panicked, "What's going on?"

Wang Bo didn't care about anything else. He reached out to help He Yushui up and patted her face. Seeing that she still didn't react, he hurriedly said to the aunt, "Send someone to send Yushui to the hospital first."

Hearing what Wang Bo said, an old lady quickly walked to the courtyard and shouted, "Hurry up, Yu Shui fainted, Sha Zhu, come and see your sister!"

But no matter how much I shouted, no one came.

Seeing that no one had come, Wang Bo shouted to the aunt, "Where is the uncle? Ask him to come over and take a look!"

"Your uncle is full and he's out for a walk!"

No one in this yard can be relied upon at the critical moment. Wang Bo no longer hesitated. He reached out and grabbed Yu Shui's arms, and with an effort, he carried her on his back.

"Auntie, I'll take Yu Shui to the Steel Mill Hospital first. Ask someone to find Sha Zhu and have him go directly to the hospital!"

"Okay, okay, I'll ask everyone to look for it together," the aunt agreed in a panic.

Wang Bo didn't say anything else, and quickly walked out with He Yushui on his back.

Along the way, Wang Bo carried He Yushui on his back and didn't feel like he was using much strength. The girl was too light, only twelve or thirteen years old, and as thin as a piece of firewood. Her arms and legs were not much thicker than bamboo poles.

Wang Bo jogged all the way into the emergency room of the hospital carrying Yu Shui on his back. It was New Year's Day and there were not many people in the hospital. When the doctor saw Wang Bo running in carrying someone on his back, he hurriedly helped him put Yu Shui on the bed.

The doctor quickly checked her out and said to Wang Bo, "It's nothing serious. She's just malnourished and passed out from hunger. I'll give her glucose and she'll wake up soon. Go pay the bill first, it's fifty cents in total."

Walking out of the ward, Wang Bo took out a neatly folded handful of banknotes from his arms. The large-denomination ones were one five-yuan note, two two-yuan notes, and four one-yuan notes. The others were denominations of a few cents, totaling eighteen yuan and seventy-six cents.

After paying the money and returning to the ward, the doctor had already given He Yu Shui an IV drip, and He Yu Shui's complexion had visibly improved.

Not long after, He Yushui woke up. Wang Bo told her how he carried her to the hospital, but Sha Zhu did not come until the infusion was finished.

"Yes, I have to carry you back."

It was pitch black outside. Wang Bo walked carefully on the snow, carrying He Yushui on his back, slowly heading towards the courtyard.

When he was almost at the gate of the compound, Wang Bo saw a man staggering towards him. Upon closer inspection, he found it was Sha Zhu.

"He Yuzhu, where have you been? Come and see your sister."

Sha Zhu was drunk and heard someone calling him, but he didn't make out what was said. He opened his eyes wide and looked hard, and saw Wang Bo carrying He Yushui on his back. What was Wang Bo doing outside with his sister on his back at this late hour!

"Sun thief, let go of my sister!"

Sha Zhu yelled, took two quick steps towards Wang Bo, and kicked Wang Bo in the stomach.