My Courtyard Refuge

: The Other Side of the Ocean

On February 5th, at three o’clock in the afternoon in Los Angeles.

Gao Yuemei’s family of five finally arrived at the final destination of the trip after a twelve-hour flight.

Coming out of Los Angeles International Airport, Zhang Ming, Xiao Zhang’s uncle, had been waiting at the exit for a long time.

“Brother, I’m here.”

“Zhang Ming, long time no see.” Old Zhang stepped forward and patted his younger brother on the shoulder.

“Yeah, this is little Zhang Tao, he’s grown so big.” Zhang Ming teased the little baby.

After a brief exchange of pleasantries, Zhang Ming began to drive the group back to his home in the suburbs.

The beautiful country here is different from China. The middle class generally likes to live in the suburbs. The suburbs not only have a good environment, but the public security environment in the community is much safer than the urban area.

As soon as he got out of the airport, Xiao Zhang felt that the current beautiful country had become a little different. The first impression he gave was:

Disorder!

Garbage was flying all over the street, and there were a lot more homeless people than last time. The scorching hot weather, coupled with the dust all over the sky, made people breathless.

“Uncle, no one cares why the street turned into such a ghostly look?”

Zhang Ming shook his head, smiled bitterly and said:

“I can’t control it at all. It’s very chaotic outside now. Everyone dare not go out casually at night.”

Gao Yuemei felt a little regretful, if they had known about the virtues of the beautiful country, they would never have come here.

Maybe it was because of seeing that the sister-in-law’s expression was wrong, Zhang Ming immediately comforted her:

“You don’t have to worry. The place where I live is a high-end community. There are sufficient police force and well-managed. It is a completely different world from this side. You will understand when you arrive.”

“Uncle, have you changed houses?” Xiao Zhang asked curiously.

Zhang Ming nodded: “The previous house was too close to the urban area, and the law and order deteriorated a lot. After knowing that you were coming, I simply bought the current house.”

“It cost a lot of money, right?” Lao Zhang said shyly.

“No matter how much money you spend, it’s worth it. Your safety is more important than anything else.”

“Uncle, is the drought serious in the beautiful country? The news here is rarely reported in China.” Xiao Zhang took the opportunity to ask.

Zhang Ming laughed loudly and said, “It doesn’t matter whether you report it or not. Anyway, the beautiful country is definitely better than the domestic one. Isn’t there almost no meat in the country? I guarantee that there will be enough meat here.”

“Uncle, where did you get the meat?” Xiao Zhang’s eyes lit up.

“If you have money, are you afraid that you won’t be able to buy meat? This is the beautiful country, the capital of the capital world. As long as you have money, you can buy anything.” Zhang was obviously very high-spirited.

…

Talking and laughing all the way, Linekong Community finally arrived, and Gao Yuemei finally let go of her heart. This place is indeed like what Zhang Ming said, almost two worlds from the outside world.

“Why are there so many policemen on the street?” Xiao Zhang asked in surprise.

From entering the community, along the way, I saw more than a dozen police cars alone.

“They are not the police, but private security guards hired by the community, and some are volunteers in the community. They are mainly responsible for the internal security of the community.

As for the police, there is a police headquarters nearby, but they usually operate outside the community and rarely come in. “Zhang Ming explained.

Compared with the police, the rich people in the beautiful country obviously believe in their own power.

Gao Yuemei pointed to the glass buildings outside the car window and asked, “What are the glass buildings for? It seems that every household has them.”

“That location used to be a lawn, but now it is used to grow vegetables. If the food outside is cut off, everyone can be self-sufficient.”

“Then what if the water is cut off?” Xiao Zhang’s daughter-in-law interrupted.

“Don’t worry, our community’s power and water supply are independent, 24-hour supply, even if there is a water and power outage outside, our side will not be affected.”

Gao Yuemei said enviously, “That’s great!”

Zhang Ming parked the car in front of a small three-story building: “Okay, we’re home. Are you hungry? Let’s cook quickly. Before I left, I took out the beef and thawed it.”

Zhang Ming’s wife passed away three years ago, and now he lives alone.

“No hurry, we had lunch on the plane, and we’re not hungry for now, why don’t you show us around the house first!” Gao Yuemei said expectantly.

“Is the child not hungry?”

Gao Yuemei took out a baby bottle from her bag and signaled, “We specially prepared several barrels of milk powder before we came, enough for the child to feed for several months.”

“Really? I didn’t expect to find milk powder in China. I asked someone to look for it for several months but found nothing.” Zhang Ming said unexpectedly.

“It’s also lucky that I happen to know such a person.”

“Ok!”

Zhang Ming stopped being entangled, and began to show a few people around the house.

There is nothing interesting about the buildings on the ground, at most, the area is much larger than in China, and the other decorations are basically the same.

It wasn’t until after entering the basement that Gao Yuemei and the others had their eyes widened.

Below are rows of shelves filled with all kinds of canned food, which makes people dizzy.

“Uncle, what kind of canned food are these?”

“It’s mainly canned beans, canned cereal, canned pork, canned beef, and some canned fruits, all of which I collected hard last year.” Zhang Ming said with emotion.

Because of these cans, his net worth has shrunk by almost two-thirds, but it is also because of these cans that he has the confidence to invite his brother’s family to the beautiful country.

“How long can these cans last?” Gao Yuemei exclaimed.

“If we count the six members of our family, we will definitely be able to eat for ten years.” Zhang Ming said confidently.

“Uncle, you are awesome!” Xiao Zhang gave a thumbs up excitedly.

Zhang Ming patted his nephew on the back lightly, and scolded with a smile: “You boy, you are exactly the same as when you were a child, you just like to flatter me.”

“hey-hey……”

After coming out of the basement, Zhang Ming started to prepare dinner, and Gao Yuemei helped to get acquainted with the way of cooking here.

The staple for dinner is steak.

When the fat and thick beef was taken out of the refrigerator, Xiao Zhang wanted to pounce on it and eat a couple of mouthfuls, it was really too greedy.

“Uncle, where did the beef come from?”

“A small indoor ranch has been built in the community, which supplies beef every day, but the price is too expensive, and your uncle is willing to eat it only once a week.”

In addition to steak, Zhang Ming also fried three vegetables, including scrambled eggs with tomatoes, scrambled eggs with leeks, and steamed eggplant, in order to cater for the appetite of the elder brother and his family. He also boiled a pot of rice porridge.

The rice was brought over by Gao Yuemei and the others, and it only weighed 20 catties, so it couldn’t pass the security check if it was too much.

Before eating, Gao Yuemei took a family portrait with her mobile phone, and the most important thing was to include the dinner.

Send the photo to the group of colleagues with a sentence:

First meal in Pretty Country.

===Section 90===

In less than a minute, the group was fried.

Xiang Xin: Sister Gao, poisoning early in the morning is too much!

Chen Yang: I suddenly felt that the steamed buns in my hand were no longer fragrant.

Xu Dong: To actually eat steak, outrageous!

Section Chief Li: If you have nothing to do, come to the group for a stroll, don’t post the photos, it’s annoying.

Xiao Gu: I also want to go to the beautiful country!

…