Qin Huairu's hand slid over the fat man's fingers, as tender as white jade tofu. If she were to be stroked by such a pair of hands... Ouch!
Life is life, and a story is a story. In the story, to move into this courtyard, you have to cause some trouble first. But in real life, it's not impossible!
Sha Zhu first led Fatty to see the house in Yushui.
To be honest, this room is really nice, even more spacious than the self-built house that Fatty rented from a farmer in 2005.
In the TV series, Xiao Dang and Huaihua repainted the walls when they moved in, but the walls are still brand new, so that step was skipped. You can move in right away.
Seeing his satisfied expression, Sha Zhu was quite proud: "Little rascal, you have good taste. You can't find a better house in the whole yard."
The fat man also feigned flattery: "This is all thanks to Master. Don't worry, I will definitely take good care of you in the future."
Sha Zhu's opinion of the fat man is neither good nor bad. Just like Ma Hua, we still need to observe.
That evening, Fatty got to know the rest of the Jia family, who were known as the "household turds."
The fat, big-eared sorcerer Jia Zhangshi; the shifty-eyed thief Bang Geng; the sullen-faced Xiao Dang; and the young, curious Huaihua.
Qin Huairu combined the stir-fried dish and stew that Sha Zhu had specially brought back, added cabbage, and made a mixed stew; she also took out 3 steamed buns and a few cornbreads, and went to Sha Zhu's room to grab a handful of peanuts to go with his drinks.
The fat man watched everything she did and thought to himself, "You're the one."
There were three steamed buns, one for each of Jia Zhangshi, Banggeng, and Qin Huairu. They didn't even bother to ask the fat man if he wanted any. Xiao Dang glanced at them enviously, just once, before quickly lowering his head to nibble on his cornbread and drink the porridge in his bowl.
The fat man observed all of this and took in all the gossip and trivial matters.
Jia Zhangshi was also a master at creating a lively atmosphere. Her collaboration with her daughter-in-law, Qin Huairu, was like a professional game of strategy.
They seemed to be very kind, asking the fat man questions like, "How old are you this year?", "You're 19, you're not young anymore, have you found a partner yet?", "How many people are in your family? Are you working or studying?", but in reality, they were trying to find out the fat man's true feelings.
When he heard that the fat man's family of six lived off his older sister's and his own wages, his initial enthusiasm clearly faded.
The fat man was secretly overjoyed, hoping you'd distance yourself from him! Could a good person like leeches? Especially the most formidable tyrannical leech!
Qin Huairu, on the other hand, was very shrewd. While favoring the good food and piling it into Banggeng's bowl, she would also occasionally put a peanut in Shazhu's bowl and add some wine to his and Fatty's cups.
Occasionally, she would even give Sha Zhu a flirtatious look. Jia Zhangshi would happily munch on her white steamed bun, only adding meat to it. Unlike the characters in TV dramas who would coldly call Qin Huairu back whenever she approached Sha Zhu, she was completely different. That was all for show. As the mother-in-law, she had to maintain her daughter-in-law's image. When necessary, she would rather play the villain herself than let Qin Huairu not gain a lot of sympathy. That's a master, that's a master!
As for the fat guy, he was an apprentice. These days, an apprentice is considered one of your own; in another world, the fat guy was a child of a large factory worker. When he first started working, his parents told him, "At home, your parents are the closest to you, caring for you; at school, your teachers are the closest to you, imparting knowledge to you; in the factory, your master is the closest to you, teaching you how to make a living and your skills." These three closest relationships illustrate the master-apprentice bond in large factories during this era.
Upon returning home, he was unsurprisingly subjected to a three-way interrogation.
Eldest sister: "Where did you go off to?"
Second sister: "Don't you even know what time it is? Have you eaten yet?"
Third sister: "You think you're all grown up now, huh!"
Chen Gangqiang and Zhou Haiqin watched coldly from the sidelines. The fat man broke free from Chen Fang's hand and glanced at him sideways: "Heh, let go of my wings."
"..."
Seeing his three older sisters laughing together and Zhou Haiqin constantly patting their father, Fatty never expected that the lame joke from another world would have such a surprisingly good effect.
After laughing, the fat man explained to his family, "I went to look for a house. It's in Nanluoguxiang. It used to be my master's sister's house, but she's getting married soon, so the house is now vacant."
The room, which had been filled with laughter and chatter, fell completely silent in an instant.
With a "snap" of a match, Chen Gangqiang only smoked when he was unsure of what to do.
Chen Fang covered her mouth and ran out. Zhou Haiqin slapped the fat man on the back: "Aren't you going to check on him!"
When the fat man chased after her, Chen Fang was sitting on the stair railing.
The fat man lived in the famous "tube-shaped" building, which had three floors. It got its name because the long corridors were ventilated at both ends and resembled tubes.
The stair railings were wide, made of long strips of bluestone. The railings in the tenement building never got dusty; the children used them as slides, rubbing them against their pants several times a day. This would cause their elderly mother to chase them around with a broom.
Chen Fang had already cried; her eyes were red and swollen, like a restless rabbit.
The fat man walked over and gently pulled her arm: "Third Sister~"
Chen Fang turned her head away: "I know you hate me, and you think I'm taking up your room for too long! Then I'll leave, I'll leave tomorrow!"
That's how my third sister is; it's a pity she has a mouth...
The fat man pulled her down: "Third sister, please believe me, my desire to move out is definitely not because of you. It's closer to the factory there, and I can sleep an extra half hour in the morning instead of having to rush out before dawn every day like I do now."
Chen Fang gave herself a way out: "Really?"
The fat man nodded heavily, then pulled and coaxed her back into the house.
The next day was Saturday.
Our country did not officially implement the two-day weekend until 1995; before that, it was a single-day weekend.
The fat man was still getting used to it and almost overslept in the morning.
Upon arriving at his workplace and finishing cleaning, Fatty was called to the front by Aunt Fatty to sell steamed buns.
This job is simple. One steamed bun is worth 2 liang (100 grams), and one cornbread is worth 1 liang (50 grams). Just collect the ticket directly.
The fat man took a deep breath, reminiscing, as the faint scent of alkali filled his nostrils.
In those days, steaming buns still used the traditional method of leavening dough, which involved using a small lump of dough left over from the previous batch of steamed buns as the "seed dough," also known as sourdough.
Use it to leaven the dough the night before, and then steam the buns the next day. Buns steamed this way have a very special aroma because of the use of baking soda.
This practice continued until the 1990s, when the advent of yeast powder completely replaced this method of leavening dough, and steamed buns from then on lost this unique flavor.
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