Life in siheyuan era

Accidents always happen unexpectedly. Facing those clear, cold phoenix eyes, Zhou Zhiyuan closed his eyes slightly and said softly, "I found this book first."

His reason was sufficient, but the female lieutenant didn't argue with him, coldly replying, "Let go."

Hearing that clear, cold voice, Zhou Zhiyuan immediately let go. He turned to see a copy of 'The Lung Meridian' and reached out to take it, but the female lieutenant's hand appeared on the spine of the book again.

The female lieutenant was determined to challenge him. Zhou Zhiyuan continued to reason, "One book for you, one for me, fair and reasonable."

But the female lieutenant still wouldn't reason with him, coldly replying, "Let go."

The female lieutenant provoked him repeatedly, so Zhou Zhiyuan decided to defend himself, softly saying, "You're studying Western medicine; you wouldn't understand a book on traditional Chinese medicine."

The female lieutenant retorted, "You're a soldier; do you think you can understand a book on traditional Chinese medicine?"

The code matched. The female lieutenant was Shen Lanbo's younger sister, Shen Lanyin, a top student at Beijing Medical University.

Her voice was very distinctive, and Zhou Zhiyuan determined her identity by her voice.

Shen Lanyin had probably seen the group photo of him and Shen Lanbo. She seemed petty, and his earlier sentence, "I'm your brother," had offended her.

Zhou Zhiyuan decided to make peace. "What I said this morning was a joke."

But Shen Lanyin wouldn't reconcile with him. "I wasn't joking with you."

Having reached this point, Zhou Zhiyuan had no other choice. He let go and took a step back. Shen Lanyin took the two books and walked out, her black, shiny short braid swaying rhythmically from side to side with her steps.

Watching her walk out of the book corridor, Zhou Zhiyuan withdrew his gaze and turned to the bookshelf. Then, he suddenly thought of a question, "Shen Lanyin is holding a grudge. Will she continue to make trouble?"

As soon as this question arose, Zhou Zhiyuan decisively decided to retreat. When a woman fights a man, it's best for the man not to linger.

He never hesitated when facing a passive situation. He quickly left the library. After walking a hundred meters, he saw a wonton restaurant. He stopped and stared at the sign that read "Old Brand Wonton Restaurant," a sunny smile appearing on his face.

Then, he walked into the wonton restaurant and bought a bowl of wontons and two fried cakes. He paid the money and food stamps, plus a one yuan deposit. This bowl and the small soup spoon were temporarily his.

He put the small soup spoon into the oil paper bag, then asked for two more pieces of oil paper, one to cover the wonton bowl and one to place on his right palm. With his left hand holding the fried cakes and spoon, and his right hand steadily carrying the wonton bowl, he walked out of the wonton restaurant.

When he walked back into the library, the female administrator, Zhao Yongmei, asked in surprise, "Did you forget something?"

Zhou Zhiyuan smiled wryly and replied, "My sister hasn't eaten; as her brother, I have to take care of her."

He spoke sincerely, his image as a good brother overflowing.

Zhao Yongmei nodded lightly. Seeing him carrying the bowl upstairs, she became curious and followed him to see what was going on.

Arriving upstairs and seeing the female lieutenant, Zhao Yongmei understood. Zhou Zhiyuan's sister was actually the cold beauty Shen Lanyin.

At this moment, Zhou Zhiyuan was busily arranging things, while Shen Lanyin watched coldly.

Seeing this scene, Zhao Yongmei absolutely didn't doubt their relationship. The Zhou family and the Shen family must be relatives. Shen Lanyin's mother should be Zhou Zhiyuan's aunt.

Zhao Yongmei had determined their kinship. The older cousin was really good to his younger cousin. Seeing that his younger cousin hadn't eaten lunch, he immediately went to buy her wontons and fried cakes, and even served her while she ate.

Zhou Zhiyuan's performance fully displayed the image of a good older cousin. Standing next to Shen Lanyin, he gently placed the bag of fried cakes down, picked up the wonton bowl with his left hand, and spread the piece of oil paper from his right hand on the table.

Then, he gently placed the wonton bowl down, put the bag of fried cakes to the left of the wonton bowl, and the oil paper-wrapped spoon to the right. Finally, he softly said, "I won't disturb your studies." After speaking, he turned and left.

Throughout the entire meal-setting process, Shen Lanyin sat still and watched coldly. Zhou Zhiyuan's performance surprised her.

She was taking notes when she noticed a figure coming to her side. Turning her head and seeing it was him, she was slightly stunned, then assumed he had come to apologize.

But she was cultured. Before eating, she looked around, seeing five readers looking over at the same time, their eyes revealing ambiguous expressions.

Seeing their gazes, Shen Lanyin was at a loss. She and Zhou Zhiyuan weren't that kind of relationship, but how could she explain?

At this time, Zhao Yongmei felt the need to explain and walked over, softly saying, "Your brother is really good to you. Hurry up and eat."

She spoke softly, but it still reached the readers' ears. They immediately turned back to continue reading. There was nothing strange about a brother bringing food to his sister.

But Shen Lanyin looked at the bowl of wontons and gritted her teeth secretly.

"That bastard," Shen Lanyin cursed inwardly, suddenly realizing that a bastard and wontons were a perfect match. Eating the wontons was her revenge on the bastard.

She was really hungry. Finding an excuse, she took out the small soup spoon. She had to admit that the bastard and the wontons were very thoughtful. Covering the wonton bowl with oil paper and putting the small soup spoon in an oil paper bag, it looked very hygienic.

But she wouldn't give him a good review. She ate the fried cakes and wontons in small bites, still feeling resentful in her heart. The bastard and the wontons were taking advantage of her again. Zhao Yongmei and five readers had accepted "I'm your brother."

While Shen Lanyin was eating wontons and thinking of ways to get revenge, Zhou Zhiyuan was eating a vegetable bun and walking into the shopping mall. After some investigation, he had a slight understanding of the current economic situation.

The three years of natural disasters had passed. After the recuperation of 1962, the materials in 1963 were relatively abundant. Brand-name watches and bicycles, which were considered high-end goods, no longer required tickets.

But food was still scarce. Buying two pounds of steamed cakes and two pounds of walnut cookies cost one and two-tenths pounds of food stamps.

Walking out of the shopping mall and arriving at a non-staple food store, he saw that there were only a few pieces of pork, beef, and mutton on the cutting board, and meat tickets were still required to buy them.

Another counter had a sign that read "White Feathered Chickens and Ducks," but not even a chicken claw could be seen.

After chatting with the meat seller for a while, he learned that everything that should have been sold during the Spring Festival had been sold, and this was the off-season for meat.

The investigation was over. Zhou Zhiyuan walked out of the non-staple food store and ran all the way to his courtyard house. Arriving at the entrance of the alley, he took out his pocket watch and looked at it. The exercise of running for twenty minutes was enough.

The first goal after entering the alley was the convenience store. He went inside to chat with Zhao Ping.

This was where the pager phone he needed was located. If he maintained a good relationship with Zhao Ping, Zhao Ping would notify him as soon as Shen Lanbo called.

During this period, public telephones were set up in various alleys in Beijing, some in people's homes and some in convenience stores.

This phone couldn't make long-distance calls, but it could receive them. The caller paid five cents each time, and if someone called, the person in charge of the phone would look for the person being called to answer the phone, costing three cents each time, so it was also called a pager phone.

The pager phone in Ping'an Alley was located in the Ping'an Alley convenience store.

There were two people in this convenience store. Zhang Shan was definitely not Zhang San. His given name was Shan, the Shan of mountains, and his age was about the same as Zhao Ping, so Zhou Zhiyuan had to call him Uncle.

After chatting for a while and becoming familiar, Zhang Shan looked at the two packages of pastries in Zhou Zhiyuan's hand and asked curiously, "Who are you going to see?"

Zhou Zhiyuan smiled and said, "An elder."

Hearing that he was going to visit an elder, Zhao Ping immediately tried to sell him something: "I just got some good biscuits. Would you like some? What if there are children at the elder's house?"

He was really good at doing business, and Zhou Zhiyuan couldn't refuse. He took out five jiao and half a jin of food stamps to buy two jin of biscuits. Seeing Zhao Ping's gaze turn to the two bottles of canned fruit, Zhou Zhiyuan immediately said goodbye.

The labels on these two bottles of canned fruit were tattered, and it was unknown how long they had been there.

Seeing him leave, Zhao Ping opened his mouth but was too embarrassed to say anything. These two bottles of canned fruit had been there for more than two years and would just be the store's treasure.

At this time, people didn't have the concept of a food expiration date, but they wouldn't accept damaged labels.

Zhao Ping looked at the two bottles of canned fruit with heartache, while Zhou Zhiyuan walked into the courtyard house gate, turned a corner, and entered the front yard. He turned his head to look at the row of houses on the outside.

This row of houses was called the 'inverted houses.' The doors faced north, and the rooms had no windows. The south wall of the room was the outer courtyard wall of the courtyard house. The indoor width was only a little over two meters, and it was humid and cold, unsuitable for living. The original owner used it as a living room or storage room for receiving general guests.

In this courtyard, it was the storage room, divided into nine families with nine doors. The Zhou family owned one room, which was used to store some vegetables and meat, as well as a large sauerkraut jar. This was a natural cold storage.

After taking a look at the inverted houses, he walked inside. There were two rooms on each side of the east and west wing rooms, belonging to the Third Grandfather's family and the Wang family, respectively. Each built a lean-to as a kitchen.

Passing through the second gate was the central courtyard. The main houses belonged to the First Grandfather's family and Silly Zhu's family, respectively.

These two rooms were originally an integrated three-room structure, with the middle part of the east and west rooms being the hall, but now they were two independent rooms.

On the left was the west wing room. Like the main house, an integrated three-room structure had become two rooms. The room on the south side was the Qin Huairu family's, and the room on the north side was Silly Zhu's younger sister, He Yushui's, room.

The east wing room on the right was the Zhou family's. The two doors could be changed into one large door, but his family didn't have the right to restore the integrated three-room structure. This was public housing.

The Zhou family took advantage of the ear room of the east wing room. The ear room was located on the south side of the east wing room. The area of more than ten square meters was originally the kitchen for a family in the courtyard house. Since the Zhou family lived in the east wing room, this kitchen naturally belonged to the Zhou family.

After looking at the layout of the central courtyard, Zhou Zhiyuan entered the room, put down the two packages of pastries, put the two bags of biscuits on the bookshelf, took out a vest and a pair of underpants from his pocket and put them in a washbasin, and picked up the two packages of pastries again and walked out the door.