"High-end fruits and high-end candies, high-end old man's cafeteria.
There was no high-end food in the cafeteria, and the old man was so angry that he went to the hospital.
The hospital did not have high-end medicine, and the old man was so angry that he wanted to hang himself.
There was no high-grade rope for hanging, and the old man was so angry that he had a stomachache.
There was no high-grade paper in the latrine, so the old man’s hands were full of shit when he touched them.”
Zhou Wenzhong was singing nursery rhymes, and his hands were not idle. He was holding the cabbage in his left hand, and tearing open the cabbage leaves layer by layer with his right hand, and throwing the torn off cabbage leaves on the shelf nearby.
"Hurry up, sir. Didn't you see me moving your cabbage? Come over here and give me a hand."
Zhou Wenzhong handed the chopped cabbage core to the uncle, and Yi Zhonghai passed it to the aunt outside the cellar like a baton.
"I'm not picking on you. Breakfast is an indispensable part of every day. Only after breakfast can you wake up your body's functions. The deaf old lady is so old, but you still have to cut off her food. Is this good? This is not good.
!The most common thing I say in our courtyard is to respect the old and love the young, and neighbors should help each other, unite and be friendly. The old lady is already eating one meal less, but you actually...sigh..."
Zhou Wenzhong looked at the rack of cabbage leaves and nodded with satisfaction.
Walking out of the cellar, he picked up 6 cabbage cores on the newspaper and winked at Yi Zhonghai and his wife.
"Let's go. I will come to your house at the same time tomorrow."
"Lao Yi! You just don't care?"
Yi Zhonghai wound up the string of his tobacco pipe and walked silently to the backyard with his hands behind his back.
Although it was not bright yet at 6:10 in the morning, a lot of people had already gathered outside the cellar because Zhou Wenzhong made too much noise at the cellar door.
Qin Huairu, who was still watching the excitement, tugged on Jia Dongxu's sleeves twice and whispered: "There's something wrong. How come Zhou Wenzhong has such a good relationship with the first uncle?"
Jia Zhang also cast a questioning look at her son. Jia Dongxu scratched his eyebrows and said, "My master may have his own plans."
"Dongxu! You are Lao Yi's disciple, and now Lao Yi won't tell you anything no matter what happens. You have to be careful."
"Yes, Dongxu, you can't be compared with Zhou Wenzhong, a prisoner in the labor camp. The bottle of sweet potato dumplings our father gave you during the Chinese New Year is still in the cabinet. You can drink it at the uncle's house tonight, and I will give it to you again.
Cut a plate of shredded pickles and send it over."
Jia Dongxu looked at Qin Huairu, then at his mother. Without saying a word, he picked up Xiaodang and scratched the tip of his daughter's nose.
"I'll listen to your wife about this matter. I'll take the wine to Lao Yi's house to drink in the evening. Huairu, help Lao Yi's wife do some work and ask around."
"Eh."
"Stop holding her. Let her run around on the ground to make her strong."
Jia Dongxu handed the dang in his arms to Qin Huairu, lit a cigarette and walked to his home.
"Dang-dang-dang..." A rhythmic sound of chopping vegetables came from the south wall of Zhou's house.
"Okay, kid, you can cut the vegetables like that."
Silly Zhu put his hands in each other's sleeves and leaned on the south wall of Zhou's house. Under the light of the electric light in the room, he stared at Zhou Wenzhong chopping vegetables. Although he had a cigarette in his mouth, it still did not prevent him from making a few comments.
"I'm not going to choke on your market. Is it because it's too dark or are your eyes lame? Didn't you understand after looking at it for a long time? Open your eyes and take a good look!"
Silly Zhu unexpectedly did not say anything in rebuttal this time, nor did he scold Zhou Wenzhong back. Instead, he walked to Zhou Wenzhong's right and lowered his head to watch. He watched Zhou Wenzhong holding the knife with his right hand and pressing his thumb on the back of the knife.
Posture cutting vegetables.
"Oh~ I'm telling you. Just be busy."
After Si Zhu said this, he left. Zhou Wenzhong threw the shredded cabbage into the boiling water, pinched a pinch of salt and sprinkled it in. After about 2 minutes, he picked up Yuanli, took it out, drained it and put it on a plate.
Add a few drops of sesame oil and peppercorn oil and stir.
Through the crack in the door, I saw Zhou Wenzhong eating at the dining table, and Ma Guihong and others were too scared to go out in the master bedroom.
At 6:35, Zhou Wenzhong took the cake and scraped off the soup on the plate, and drank the tea in the enamel jar in one last gulp.
"belch…"
After burping, Zhou Wenzhong rubbed his stomach and walked out of the courtyard and headed to Fang's alley.
Several people in the master bedroom of the Zhou family waited for a few more minutes, until they could no longer hear Zhou Wenzhong's movements in the main room, and then they all rushed out to do their own business.
At 6:55 in the morning, Zhou Wenzhong stood at the intersection of Fangjia Hutong and had been waiting for about 8 minutes. At his feet was a bunch of dried mushrooms and the large jar of oil accumulated by Yi Zhonghai's family.
"Is your name Zhou Wenzhong?"
Zhou Wenzhong followed the voice and looked over. The little girl in front of him came closer and took a look at Zhou Wenzhong.
"It's me, who are you?"
"My name is Zhang Xiuying. My third sister Zhang Xiufang asked me to pick you up. Is this what you brought?"
"Ask me first when we meet. You must be your sister's biological sister. Where is your sister?"
"I haven't gotten up yet."
"Let's go. Is everyone else here?"
"You'll know when you get home. Come with me."
Zhou Wenzhong threw the shiitake mushroom skewers over and followed her into the alley with the jar in his arms.
"Squeak...bang!"
The door to the Zhang Family Courtyard was closed hard by Zhang Xiuying, and the door latch was quickly inserted. Seeing Zhang Xiuying holding the door latch in her hand and not letting go, Zhou Wenzhong only felt that he had arrived at a bandit's den this time.
"You can go in by yourself and don't worry about me."
Zhou Wenzhong looked at the layout of the yard and walked in according to the floor tiles. As soon as he reached the center of the yard, he was greeted by a cheerful old lady.
"You came?"
"Well, who are you, old lady?"
"well."
Seeing that the old lady answered the question incorrectly, Zhou Wenzhong put the jar on the ground and turned his wrist and asked: "I came in a hurry and didn't prepare anything good. It's just a big jar of oil, which can be regarded as a New Year gift. I wish you prosperity every year."
"well."
The old lady smiled and nodded, walked to the side of the window, raised her hand and knocked on the window glass.
"Your friend is here, Sanya, please get up quickly."
After waiting for half a minute and still not hearing Zhang Xiufang's answer, the old lady didn't feel embarrassed at all. The smile on her face remained unchanged and she walked toward the gate.
Zhou Wenzhong felt that he was neither standing nor sitting at this time, nor was he shouting at people.
Just when he was in embarrassment, the wooden door of the main room opened and Zhang Hongyi came out.
"Xiao Zhou came quite early."
"Webmaster Zhang, you got up quite early."
"Haha, have you eaten?"
"I've eaten here, but I'm afraid it will delay the business. Have the other workers not arrived yet? Do you need my help to find a few more people?"
"No need. Everyone is here."
"ah?"
"You'll know in a moment. Sit down and treat yourself as if you were at home. We'll start work at dawn."
"good."
Zhou Wenzhong seemed to be a good baby, sitting stupidly on the bench in the middle of the yard. It was not until 7:30 in the morning that Zhang Xiufang came out of the bedroom carrying an enamel basin and yawning.
"You came so early?"
"Isn't it seven o'clock in the morning you said?"
"Oh, the time was temporarily changed last night, and I forgot to inform you. But I have arranged for my messenger to wait for you at the entrance of the alley at 6 o'clock this morning. I smelled the aroma of big oil pancakes. Shall we eat first?"
"Haha. Just tell me what you are going to do. I can leave when you're done."
Zhang Xiufang pointed to the bottom of the wall and said, "You must have guessed it, right?"
Zhou Wenzhong looked at the large water tank and replied: "If I'm right, your family should be preparing to dig a pit."
"Yeah. The street office doesn't allow underground pipes to be connected, and the toilet at the alley entrance is too far. So I can only ask you for help with this matter. Can you do it?"
"I got it. It's going to be built in the northwest corner, right? You guys really know how to choose a day, choosing such a cold day to start the construction."
"There are still some things stored in the west room. If you feel uncomfortable, help carry them out."
Zhou Wenzhong stood up and walked over, first turning the large water tank out in circles, dragging the wooden boards on the ground to pull out four bags of cement, then carrying water in a bucket and pouring the bricks piled in the corners, and finally began to
Throw the things inside out...
Zhang Xiuying, who heard the commotion, ran over with a bowl in hand to watch the excitement.
"Shall I help you?"
"Thank you. I think it's quite warm in the room. You'd better go back and continue eating your meal."
Zhou Wenzhong took an iron shovel in his hand and shoveled some quicklime, dragging it on the ground and shaking it diagonally.
"Look, is it that big?"
Zhang Xiuying pointed to the square drawn white line and asked: "How big is this area?"
"6 square meters."
Zhang Xiuying took the bowl and ran back to the house to report the news. After a while, she came back and replied: "My third sister will let you figure it out. If it doesn't fit, just peel it off and cover it again."
"knew,"
After looking at the height and circle opening of the water tank, Zhou Wenzhong drew two more circles of white lines in the middle, threw away the iron pick in his hand and replaced it with a pickaxe, and started digging within the drawn white lines.
"Can you please stop supervising me here?"
"I want to help you."
"As long as you don't cause trouble for me, just leave quickly."
"oh."
After Zhang Xiuying left, Zhang Xiufang came over again holding a bowl.
"You two sisters are not done yet, are you?"
"I'm afraid you'll dig out some treasures, and you'll have to squint them for me later."
Zhou Wenzhong bent down to pick up the rhizome of an unknown plant from the soil, handed it to Zhang Xiufang and said, "Here, this is dry-year ginseng. Use it to make soup."
"Go, go, go, why are you digging so deep?"
"Buried water tank."
"Why are only 30 centimeters dug next to it?"
"Laying bricks and laying the foundation."
"Why is there another trench dug outside?"
"Build a wall."
"Can wooden doors and cement stick together?"
When Zhou Wenzhong heard such a professional question, she knew in her heart that it was her father who asked it.
"Back then, I nailed four wooden strips horizontally to both sides of the wooden door. When building the wall, I placed the bricks vertically to leave a gap for the wooden strips. I then filled in cement and hammered long nails into both sides of the wooden door.
When building a wall, bricks are also used to press long nails. This is double insurance."
"Oh, can I help you?"
"If you don't speak, you're doing me a favor."
"Hey, can we finish it in one day?"
"There are only three walls in total, and the wooden doors have already been made. If you don't ask questions in front of me, and find me some help and cement, it will take about three days to complete."
"I understand, I'll ask Xiuying to help you later."
"Haha, you really found me a strong laborer."
Zhang Xiufang handed over the pancake in her hand and asked, "Do you want to eat it?"
"If this was baked in clear oil, would you still feed it to me? They are all white-haired foxes, so don't let me play with them."
"I don't understand what you are saying at all. Are you still going to go back to work at the grain station? What kind of work do you do on the farm? Do you beat people on the farm? Is it true that people often die there? On the farm
Is it big?"
If you want to be prominent in front of others, you have to suffer behind your back. Zhou Wenzhong deeply understands the cost of showing off in the courtyard, and also understands why he comes to work. He figured everything out when he was sitting in the courtyard just now.
Zhou Wenzhong took off his cotton coat and started moving bricks. His hands and fingers were red with cold, and he had no time to pay attention to the various questions Zhang Xiufang asked.