Siheyuan: Wang Bo's Happy Life

It was 57 and there was no honeycomb coal yet. Every household still used round coal balls, also called coal cakes. They were not big, just a size smaller than moon cakes.

At that time, every household had its own coal pile, and making fire, cooking and heating all depended on burning coal briquettes. Wang Bo was no exception, so he was very sensitive to the number of coal briquettes.

Wang Bo remembered that after he took the coal last time, a few coal balls fell beside the coal pile, but this time when he looked, the coal balls were gone.

Wang Bo was happy. There were so many talented people in this courtyard. I haven't even caused any trouble for them yet, but they are teasing me first!

Okay, since you have made the move, I am acting in self-defense!

Wang Bo did not say anything, but took a washbasin and a towel and slowly walked to the central courtyard.

The sun was shining brightly at this time, and the middle-aged women in the courtyards were all basking in the sun in the central courtyard, looking after their children, sewing shoe soles, and chatting.

As soon as Wang Bo entered the middle courtyard, countless eyes fell on him unscrupulously, mixed with whispers.

"The children in South Village bully me because I am old and weak." This has improved Wang Bo's physical fitness five times, and the same goes for his hearing. A group of aunties thought he was deaf and kept gossiping about him.

"Look at this kid. Ever since his grandmother died, no one cares about him. He's like a little gangster."

"That's right. He had a fight with Sha Zhu last night. He will become a disaster sooner or later."

"Just watch, you'll be single for the rest of your life if you're so dishonest."

Wang Bo pretended not to hear and greeted them with a smile, "Hey, you are all basking in the sun. That's good. It's good for the elderly to bask in the sun. One day of basking is one day less."

The group of aunts were immediately unhappy, but due to their face, they could only curse in a low voice. Jia Zhang from the old Jia family even glared at them.

The lady put down the sole of her shoe and said to Wang Bo, "Xiaobo, how can you say that? We are all neighbors in the same compound, and we won't take it to heart. If you say that to anyone else, they will be angry with you."

"It was a slip of the tongue, it was a slip of the tongue, Auntie. I apologize to you." Wang Bo said to the auntie with a smile. He could tell that the auntie was trying to help him out.

Seeing Wang Bo's hair, face and clothes covered with flour, the aunt asked curiously, "Where have you been, Xiaobo? Why are you covered in flour?"

"I didn't do anything. I went to the grain store to carry bags this morning."

While Wang Bo was drinking the cold water, he looked at the aunties around him.

"Xiaobo, go home and boil some hot water. It's so cold and you can easily get frozen if you wash your hair with cold water." The third aunt who was sitting nearby reminded him.

"Thank you, Auntie. I just wipe it with a basin of cold water. I won't wash my hair."

At this time, Wang Bo noticed that something was wrong with Jia Zhang. In addition to anger, her eyes also showed scrutiny and guilt. Among these aunts, only Jia Zhang was secretly looking at him.

Wang Bo thought, there is no way around it, it must be Jia Zhangshi. He didn't know whether she stole his coal briquettes, or asked the future thief saint Jia Geng to steal them. Jia Geng is already five or six years old, and maybe he has already activated the stealing skill.

Wang Bo pretended nothing had happened and continued to wipe the flour off his body with a smile while answering the questions from these nosy aunties.

"After carrying food for the whole morning, I can earn a lot of money, right?"

"Not much, just a few cents."

"Now that Xiaobo can work and earn money, he must eat well and keep his body strong."

"Of course. The meat and vegetables we had at the restaurant were really delicious."

"Xiaobo, don't spend all the money you earn. You have to save some so that you can get married in the future."

"I'm not planning on getting married. I'm alone and I can spend whatever I earn. It's a good life."

"You are still young. When you grow up, you will be anxious to get married."

"Really? I see that Shazhu, Xu Damao, and Liu Guangqi from our compound are not in a hurry at all."

Wang Bo didn't mention Yan Jiecheng because the third aunt showed concern for him, but Xu Damao's mother and the second aunt both looked dismayed when they heard it.

Wang Bo's answers not only gave the group of aunts a lot of benefits, but also provided new topics. The group of aunts no longer paid attention to Wang Bo, but shifted the topic.

"They are not anxious at all. It's useless even if they are anxious."

"Yes, yes, these young men have asked me to find a partner."

"Really? They looked for me too."

"Especially Shazhu, he looks old and is picky. I introduced him to someone, but he complained that she was not pretty."

"Da Mao's mother, and Guang Qi's mother, nowadays many people ask for a separate house when they marry a wife. It's easy for Sha Zhu, but you two have to think it over carefully. You have to leave a single room for the child."

This sentence made several middle-aged women who had older young people at home anxious.

"I heard that the sale and purchase of private houses are becoming more and more strictly regulated. Should we buy a house for our children in advance?"

"Now each room costs hundreds of dollars, and someone has to sell it."

At this time, Jia Zhang's face was full of pride. Her eldest son, Jia Dongxu, had already married and had given her a grandson, Jia Geng, who was much better than these bachelors.

Wang Bo had almost finished cleaning his body, and he took the basin and leisurely returned to his room.

At night, when it was late at night and everyone was asleep, Wang Bo tied a few coal briquettes on a long stick. After tying them tightly, he quietly went to the toilet outside the yard and soaked the coal briquettes in the pit at the innermost part of the toilet.

After soaking for half the night, when the smell had permeated the coal balls, Wang Bo took out a long stick, rinsed the feces and urine off the surface of the coal balls with water, and rubbed them on the snow.

It is winter now, and the temperature is still more than ten degrees below zero. Unless you get close to the coal balls and smell them, you can't smell that special smell at all.

Wang Bo placed these special coal balls in a handy place on his coal pile, and then went to sleep with full of anticipation.

But to his disappointment, no one came to see his masterpiece the whole day.

At night, Wang Bo had a full meal early and strolled out of the courtyard. When he left the courtyard, a small figure was hiding behind the hanging flower gate, watching him walk further and further away.

After Wang Bo left for a while, Banggeng looked around and saw that there was no one around. He bent over and ran to the coal pile of Wang Bo's house. When he lifted the bamboo curtain, he saw the special coal balls on the ground.

Banggeng hurriedly stuffed a few coal balls into his cotton-padded jacket pocket, quickly covered the bamboo curtain, and then ran home.

"Grandma, grandma, look, this is the coal briquettes I took from Wang Bo's coal pile!"

Bang Geng held up the coal ball in his hand to show Jia Zhang as if he was offering a treasure.

"Okay, okay, my Banggeng really knows how to live. You will have all the meat tonight." Jia Zhang smiled happily. She was not angry at all about Banggeng stealing Wang Bo's coal briquettes. Instead, she praised Banggeng.

"Banggeng, don't steal things from other people's homes in the future. We are not thieves." Qin Huairu was a little unhappy when she saw Jia Zhang educating Banggeng in this way.

"But last time grandma said that Wang Bo is not a good person. Taking things from his house is not called stealing, it's called robbing the rich to help the poor." Bang Geng said stupidly while looking at Qin Huairu.

"How can you teach your child like this?" Qin Huairu got angry again when she heard Banggeng say that. She was anxious about something, so she said to Banggeng, "Banggeng, return the coal briquettes. Don't steal from other people's homes in the future. This is wrong."

Jia Zhang was unhappy when she heard Qin Huairu say that. "What do you mean by stealing or not? Why do you say that so harshly? It's just a coal briquette. If you took it, you took it. It's not a valuable thing."

After saying that, she took the coal briquettes from Bang Geng's hand, threw them all into the stove, then looked at Bang Geng proudly and said:

"Look, it has entered our stove. Can you still tell whose coal it is? Since you can't tell, it's ours."

Bang Geng stood aside and nodded, not quite understanding.

Qin Huairu sighed helplessly. She was of low status in this family and had no way of reasoning with her mother-in-law. She could only hope that Banggeng would grow up and understand the principles of life on his own.

She picked up the pot and put it on the stove. Inside it were homemade steamed bread and corn grits porridge, as well as prepared dishes. Jia Dongxu accompanied Yi Zhonghai to the steel mill to inspect equipment today and has not returned yet.

Qin Huairu was worrying about how to educate Banggeng when she suddenly smelled a faint smell of feces and urine. She couldn't help but frowned, "Where does this smell come from? Why is it so bad?"