Siheyuan: Relieve stress and relieve worries

Chapter 576: Food Arrives
Late at night, Wang Wenyuan was sitting in the gatehouse of the back house in his yard, lighting a charcoal stove. On the stove was a small teapot with steam coming out of the spout, and it seemed that the water inside had boiled.

Next to the stove was a small square table, on which were a wooden ashtray, a box of Camel cigarettes, a lighter and a covered teacup.

Wang Wenyuan picked up the small kettle, refilled his tea, lit a cigarette and sat quietly on the square stool. Today he deliberately gave the little girl to Hua's mother and did not let her go back to her own yard because he was waiting for Heizi.

There was no sound outside, except for the occasional sound of a passing carriage rolling over the snow. Wang Wenyuan glanced around the gatehouse. His grandmother's gatehouse was used as a storage room by Mother Feng, and things that were not used for the time being were piled up in that room. In Wang Wenyuan's yard, the four back rooms, three on the left and one on the right, were all empty. In just two years, there were already cobwebs and dust on the beams.

Just when Wang Wenyuan was thinking about how to clean up these rooms, the sound of carriages and horses was heard at the door. Wang Wenyuan stood up and walked straight to the gate.

When I opened the gate, I saw, as expected, Heizi drove two carriages into the alley.

Heizi whispered, "Brother, move in first. I'll let the carriage go first. It's too conspicuous."

Wang Wenyuan nodded and opened the door. Several people who came with Heizi skillfully moved the things in the car into the yard.

In less than half an hour, all the goods were unloaded. Heizi sent those men and the carriage away. Wang Wenyuan let him into the yard, closed the gate, and took him to the gatehouse. After the two men sat down, Wang Wenyuan first made a cup of tea for Heizi. Heizi had been busy for half the night and was a little cold and thirsty, so he didn't hesitate to refill his own cup of water. It took him half a day to recover.

Wang Wenyuan handed over a cigarette and said, "Thank you for your hard work. You are so loyal. I owe you a favor for this."

Heizi waved his hand and said, "Brother, it's my duty. You've left your family and career behind to fight on the battlefield. I'm not worth mentioning for doing this."

Wang Wenyuan smiled, and the two lit up their cigarettes. Heizi said directly, "I told Jin Ba about this. He got you 500 kilograms of rice, 500 kilograms of flour, and 1,000 kilograms of cornmeal. That's all the food we have. The rest is cured fish and meat, and there's also a pig, a wild boar, which we also collected."

"Thanks, Heizi, this is enough. How much is it in total?" Wang Wenyuan asked.

Heizi said, "Brother, it depends on what you give, money or something else?"

Wang Wenyuan was delighted and said, "You really hit the nail on the head. I don't have much money, so let's use big yellow croaker. How many?"

Heizi chuckled, held up two fingers, and said, "Jin Ba really guessed it right. He said you have the goods."

Wang Wenyuan asked Heizi to wait while he went to the main room. Actually, he just pretended to go there and took a look around. He took out two large yellow croakers from the space warehouse, returned to the gatehouse and handed them to Heizi. Heizi put the things away and then started chatting with Wang Wenyuan.

"Brother, let me tell you, Jin Ba asked me to remind you that there are restrictions on things now. There are a wide variety of goods on the market, and each of you has a limit. I heard that it will get worse in the future. You can go to the black market sometimes and stock up on some supplies." Heizi reminded Wang Wenyuan.

"Will some things be harder to buy in the future?" Wang Wenyuan asked after taking a sip of tea.

Heizi nodded and said, "Don't think that this is a city like ours. The situation in other small cities is even worse. My mother also said that the number of pigs she kills is decreasing."

Wang Wenyuan nodded and said words of thanks. The two chatted for a while, and then Heizi left. He had to give the things to Jinba before daybreak.

Wang Wenyuan looked at the things piled in the yard, but didn't care about them. He just locked the door and went back to the east room to sleep.

In the early morning of the next day, Wang Wenyuan woke up from his sleep in a daze. He seemed to hear some movement from the Moon Gate.

Wang Wenyuan got up and took a break, then got dressed and got out of bed. He walked into the yard and actually heard someone talking in the yard. It should be his sister and Hua's mother.

Wen Li only heard asking Hua Mama, "Hua Mama, does my brother not want me anymore? Why did he lock me out?"

"No, he probably forgot to open the door. Let's knock again later." Mother Hua coaxed the little girl.

Wang Wenyuan quickly trotted forward and opened the moon door. The two mothers and two maids heard the noise and turned around at the same time.

The one who reacted the fastest was the little girl. She rushed towards him with her short legs, and Wang Wenyuan picked up the little girl.

The little girl asked unhappily: "Brother, why did you lock the door? Don't you want me anymore?"

"No, I just had something to do and forgot about it this morning. Now I'm open for business." Wang Wenyuan took out some chocolate and coaxed the little girl.

Mother Feng asked, "Did anyone come last night?"

Wang Wenyuan nodded and pointed to the place where the supplies were piled in the yard. The two mothers ran over quickly and exclaimed. The two little girls also ran over to see out of curiosity, but they were frightened by the wild boar with a hideous face and stayed away from it.

When Wang Wenyuan was squatting in the southwest corner of the yard washing up, the two mothers had already started packing up. Mother Hua was still muttering that she hadn't seen rice for half a year. There was white flour, but it was limited.

Wang Wenyuan hurriedly washed up and joined the cleaning team. Mother Feng directed Wang Wenyuan to take the wild boar to the kitchen. As for the cleaning work, that was Mother Feng's forte and he didn't need to do it.

After cleaning up, Wang Wenyuan went to the west wing of his grandmother's yard to have breakfast. The two little girls pestered him and went with him. They also drank half a bowl of millet porridge. It was mainly because Wang Wenyuan added brown sugar to the millet porridge that caused the little girls to fight for it.

Just after finishing his meal, Wang Wenyuan was thinking about going to see his grandmother. Unexpectedly, there was a knock on the door. Wang Wenyuan went to open the door, and saw two people standing at the door, one was Xu Damao, and the other was a man who looked to be in his twenties.

Wang Wenyuan asked: "Da Mao, who is this big brother?"

When Damao heard this, he was stunned at first, then he was so happy that he finally squatted on the ground. The person next to him also stood there in a daze.

At this time, He Yushui's voice sounded behind Wang Wenyuan, "Brother, why are you here?"

Wang Wenyuan then realized that this was the Shazhu that He Yushui had mentioned. He Yuzhu looked at He Yushui and said with a bit of guilt: "Yushui, where have you been for so many days?" Then he ran a few steps and squatted in front of He Yushui. When Wen Li saw the stranger, she ran straight to Wang Wenyuan, looking curiously at the man holding He Yushui's hand.

Wang Wenyuan said to Xu Damao, "Come in, don't let anyone see you." Xu Damao hurried in and Wang Wenyuan closed the door.

The two mothers ran out curiously to see He Yushui's brother. Wang Wenyuan let everyone into the central hall. Mother Hua went to pour them some water. Granny Jinhua stayed in the bedroom and didn't come out. There were only the two mothers, two little girls and the three of them in the central hall.

Wang Wenyuan lit a cigarette, looked at the burly young man, and asked, "He Yuzhu, how old are you?"

He Yuzhu looked at Wang Wenyuan and said, "I'm seventeen years old. You don't have to be so polite. Just call me Shazhu."

Wang Wenyuan looked at He Yuzhu and asked angrily, "Silly Zhu, you are already seventeen, don't you know how to take care of your sister? How long have you not seen her? Do you know how she eats? Are you worthy of being a brother?"

He Yuzhu lowered his head a little ashamed and said, "I, I didn't notice it. Wasn't I busy?"

"Is that your reason for not taking care of your sister? I really want to slap you." Wang Wenyuan said.

At this time, He Yushui was lying in Hua Mama's arms, crying very sadly. He Yuzhu secretly looked at his sister, not knowing what to say.

Xu Damao helped explain: "Shazhu only listens to the uncle, and cooks for the old lady when he has nothing to do. In addition, he is an apprentice at work, so he is really driven around by their orders."

He Yuzhu looked at his sister and said, "Yushui, if you have no food to eat, why don't you go to an aunt or an old lady? They promised me that they would take care of you."

He Yushui sobbed and said, "I went there, but they didn't give me food and didn't even open the door for me. I went to a few other places, but they all avoided me and didn't like me."

"Impossible, that aunt and that old lady are not that kind of people." He Yuzhu stood up suddenly and said, which scared He Yushui.

Hua's mother immediately got angry and said, "Why are you yelling? You don't even believe what your own sister says. How can you be a brother?"

Mother Feng went up to He Yuzhu and slapped him in the face, saying, "You are not a human being. You don't give your sister food. Do you want to starve her to death? What qualifications do you have to shout? How long has it been since Yushui came back? Have you paid for her schooling? Have you bought her books and stationery? How dare you shout here?"

He Yuzhu sat down on the chair and started crying, saying, "I was wrong. I was wrong, and it's not okay. I feel sorry for my sister, but, but she didn't come to me, and they didn't remind me or tell me."

Wang Wenyuan looked at the crying He Yuzhu, sighed, and asked, "Come here, has anyone in your yard seen it?"

Xu Damao patted his chest and said, "No, absolutely not, brother, you can rest assured that I will do the job."

Wang Wenyuan looked at He Yuzhu and said, "Okay, stop crying. You'll have something to cry about this afternoon. Your father is back. He was arrested. I'll take you to see him this afternoon."

The room suddenly became quiet. Except for Wen Li who was confused, everyone else in the room had a look of surprise on their faces.

(End of this chapter)