Siheyuan: Relieve stress and relieve worries

Chapter 17 Journey of Discovery
Siheyuan on June 1, 1952
Early in the morning, Grandmother Jia carried a basket of eggs and started delivering the eggs from the backyard, giving each family two red-skinned eggs.

Every household expressed congratulations, and Grandmother Jia's smile never stopped.

Everyone was really happy for Dongxu and really wanted to see this newborn baby.

Jia Dongxu is famous for his handsomeness in Nanluoguxiang, and Qin Huairu is also stunningly beautiful. The child they give birth to will definitely be very cute.

Grandmother Jia said modestly, "It's hard to tell anything just after the birth. She will be back tomorrow. I'll treat everyone to a drink on the full moon day."

After distributing the wedding eggs, Grandmother Jia went to the countryside to inform the child’s grandmother that tomorrow would be the child’s third day of birth and someone from the grandmother’s family would have to come.

The door of the east wing opened, and Yi Zhonghai and his wife recovered, but looked a little haggard.

Today, Yi Zhonghai had to ask for leave from his apprentice and explain why he didn't go to work yesterday.

Yi Zhonghai didn’t know whether Jia Dongxu was grateful to him or not, but he had to do what his master should do.

He Daqing ran into Yi Zhonghai when he went out, and hurried over to him, "What's wrong? Are you sick?"

Yi Zhonghai felt warm in his heart, "No, it's just a lot of work, I'm a little tired. Let's go to work."

He Daqing followed and said as he walked, "I saw your director yesterday. I asked for leave for you and your apprentice. Your director said that there is not much work to do."

Yi Zhonghai was filled with gratitude, "Let's drink together tomorrow weekend."

He Daqing laughed and said, "I don't think you can drink. I think you will have to accompany me tonight. There will be a third birthday party tomorrow."

When Yi Zhonghai heard this, he thought it was true, so he said that they would wait until after this period was over. He Daqing nodded in agreement.

Front yard of the Siheyuan

Those who should go to school went to school, and those who should go to work went to work, and suddenly everything became quiet.

Yan Jiekuang was in the front yard and had already changed his trousers. Yang Ruiping was very efficient and finished altering his trousers in just a few seconds.

Yan Jiefang, Zhou Nianping, and Sun Xiaolong were surrounding Widow Wang. Widow Wang had a basin full of small fish and shrimps that she had bought from somewhere.

Yan Jiekuang inspected the courtyard and compared it with the album, and unknowingly walked towards the middle courtyard. Yang Ruiping saw him, but did not call him, and he did not leave the courtyard anyway.

The clever Yan Jiekuang looked around the central courtyard in a short while. In fact, there was no change in the central courtyard, except that the Taishan stone rockery was gone and replaced by a living pool.

However, he also noticed that there was a circle mark in the northwest corner of the central courtyard of the album with the word "library" written inside.

Da Congming thought that it must be a warehouse, so he moved in that direction. The ear room in the west wing belonged to Yi Zhonghai, and the separate main room on the left side of the lotus gate leading to the backyard belonged to Old Zhang. The warehouse was right between the two houses.

Yan Jiekuang walked over with his short legs and took a look. There were two houses that were offset from each other, forming a small alley about half a meter wide and one meter long. Most people would not notice it. When turning out of the alley, there was an open space of about seven or eight square meters, which was square and very flat.

Yan Jiekuang, a very clever man, looked everywhere but found nothing.

He didn't give up, and started to find a wooden stick to knock on it, but he still couldn't make any sound.

Hearing Yang Ruiping's shout, he quickly dropped his stick and ran out, but when he passed by the main room, he seemed to hear a "beeping" sound.

He didn't care and ran to the front yard.

Seeing that he had not come back for a long time, Yang Ruiping hurriedly called his name towards the central courtyard. It turned out that Widow Wang had prepared the small fish and had left a bowl for him.

He ran to his mother and acted coquettishly, went into the house to wash his hands, and then sat quietly on the porch at the door eating fried fish.

While eating, I was wondering where the warehouse was.
Or was there originally a house there that was a warehouse, which was later demolished and became the vacant lot it is today?

Yang Ruiping looked at this little guy and wondered why he was in such a daze. "What's wrong, little Sanzi?"

"It's nothing, this mixed fish is really delicious." Yan Jiekuang quickly jumped out of his thoughts.

When Yang Ruiping saw that he was no longer in a daze, she sat down beside him and did her handicraft.

At noon, Yan Jiekuang went to take a nap. As soon as he lay down on the bed, he suddenly remembered a kind of furniture called "Mencang Cabinet" written in the book given by Carpenter Zhang. It is a kind of furniture from the Ming Dynasty. The craftsmen of the Ming Dynasty combined the safe with ordinary furniture. From the appearance, it is just ordinary furniture, but in fact it is different. The "Mencang Cabinet" is a trick. Is this warehouse a big "Mencang Cabinet"? Yan Jiekuang's eyes lit up instantly, and he flipped through the Qing Palace album and looked at the Beile Mansion pattern carefully.

As expected, the entire outer wall of the compound was painted with one stroke, but the west wall where the storeroom was located was marked with two strokes. Behind the west wall was the west courtyard, which was marked as the courtyard of Fubeile's mother, and the door was between the front courtyard and the middle courtyard.

When he compared the central courtyard today, he noticed that there was an arched moon gate on the west wall as soon as he entered the central courtyard, but it was blocked off with blue bricks.

Yan Jiekuang suddenly felt unhappy. He thought that he would not be able to go to the west wing anyway because of his appearance. His family would never let him go.

The very smart Yan Jiekuang gave up, stopped thinking about it, and took a nap.

In the evening (I want to say I am the dividing line) front yard
People in the courtyard came back from work and school one after another.

Yan Jiekuang found that the children in the yard were full of energy and started playing with sandbags as soon as they got together.

Suddenly there was a noise at the gate, and the people in the front yard all looked towards the gate.

It turned out that Grandmother Jia had returned with her relatives. Grandmother Jia and Mother Qin were in the lead, followed by Qin Huairu's father and Qin Huairu's two younger brothers.

Grandmother Jia told Old Li that it was the in-laws who came to visit their daughter and grandson. After all, Old Li had a mission, and then the family went straight to the central courtyard.

Yan Jiekuang took a look. He never cared about things that had nothing to do with him, but now he was dissatisfied with the warehouse.

Yan Jiecheng came back, "Brother, brother," Yan Jiekuang called.

Yan Jiecheng hugged his younger brother and told him not to run around. Then he went into the house to put his schoolbag away and turned around and ran to Uncle Li.

Yan Jiekuang looked at Yan Jiecheng's back, thoughtfully.

June 2, 1952, Siheyuan Middle Courtyard
Yi Zhonghai got off work at noon today and went to the vegetable market with Li Cuilan to buy vegetables. The money was paid by Jia's grandmother, who entrusted Yi Zhonghai to take care of the matter before going to the countryside.

When Lady Jia saw Li Cuilan picking vegetables, she quickly rolled up her sleeves and went downstairs. When Lady Qin saw this, she thought, "Well, don't just sit there, go kill the chicken."

A few old men sat on the corridor smoking and chatting about family matters.

"Why, don't you have enough to eat in the countryside?" Yi Zhonghai said casually.

"Well, we have to go without food. We are just waiting for the food to arrive this year." Father Qin said after taking a puff of his cigarette.

Yi Zhonghai said: "It is becoming increasingly difficult to buy things in this city."

"We can get by this year and see if the land policy is fully implemented next year," Qin's father replied.

Yi Zhonghai is a little surprised now. In fact, if Yi Zhonghai could observe his neighbors carefully, he would find that rice and flour are no longer common in the yard.

The main reason is that he is a senior engineer in the steel rolling mill, has a high salary and good benefits in the factory. As a patriotic businessman, Chairman Lou is very good to the workers.

So the only families doing well in the courtyard are those at the steel rolling mill. The Yan family is not doing well. Didn’t you see they grow their own vegetables?

The two young men from the Qin family have never taken their eyes off the chicken since they came in.

After a while, Master Yi Zhonghai sat in the main seat, which was also what Grandmother Jia asked for, and everyone took their seats one after another.

Yi Zhonghai raised his glass again to congratulate Lady Jia on the birth of her grandson, and also wished the Qin couple a happy grandson.

Then the meal started. No matter how greedy the younger brother of the Qin family was, he was very well-behaved. He would eat whenever he was offered food, without fighting or grabbing it. Yi Zhonghai nodded his head at the sight.

During the meal, matters related to the third-day bathing banquet were also discussed, and after they were settled, they dispersed.

Qin's mother accompanied Jia's mother, and Qin's father and the other two were arranged to stay in the side room of the Yi family, where they were barely able to stay.

Nothing happened during the night and the courtyard gradually returned to silence.

(End of this chapter)