The first day of the Lunar New Year this year was February 9th. Three days before the Spring Festival, Xu Damao and the others gradually reported back on the effects of the medicine.
1200ksw.
And their first words to Li Chu were...
"Brother Chu, do you have any of this medicine left?"
"That's all, the second batch of medicine will take a few more days."
"Ah, I should have given less to others."
“I’m in a hurry to see results, and you’re telling me this.”
"Hey, isn't this working well? I was worried I wouldn't be able to continue."
"What do you mean you can't continue? More exercise is much better than taking medicine."
"Brother Chu, please spare me! I have to ride my bike around collecting vegetables and meat every day, how can I have time to exercise?"
"Alright, I'll give you more when the next batch of medicine comes out."
"Hehe, thanks, Brother Chu. By the way, do you know how Qin Huairu's restaurant is doing?"
"I don't know. Why would I care about her when I have nothing better to do all day?"
"Let me tell you, Brother Chu, her restaurant is going to go bankrupt soon, if not soon."
"Huh? What do you mean? Wasn't He Yuzhu helping her? How did it fall through?"
"Heh, He Yuzhu can help, but the problem is, without vegetables and meat, even if he has great abilities, he can't help."
"He Yuzhu has been a chef for so many years, surely he has some connections, right?"
“Brother Chu, you don’t work in the restaurant industry, so you don’t know much about it.” Xu Damao picked up the glass on the table and took a sip of water.
"He Yuzhu does have connections; he knows many chefs in restaurants throughout Beijing. But so what? Can he get meat from other restaurants to his own?"
"Even if we have a good relationship, maybe it'll happen once or twice, but who's going to share with you every day? What if my restaurant closes down?"
"Now you can buy meat at the market without ration coupons, right?"
"It's true that you can buy it, but every year in the fourth quarter, which is the end of the year, the meat in the vegetable market must be given priority to residents, that is, those with coupons. Those without coupons have to wait in line."
"Let me be honest, Brother Chu, these days, everyone who goes to a restaurant is there for the meat. If your restaurant has no meat the first time you go, and no meat the second time, even if your chef is the best at cooking, it's all for nothing without meat. You try and see if anyone will still go."
Xu Damao was telling the truth. Nowadays, whether it's a small gathering of friends at a restaurant or a business dinner at work, if you order ten dishes, at least seven or eight of them will be meat dishes.
Everyone's stomachs are lacking in oil and fat, so no one will complain about slices of fatty meat.
He Yuzhu is now like a skilled cook without rice to cook.
How do you know all this?
“One of my kitchen helpers ran into a young man who works with He Yuzhu the other day. They chatted for a bit and the young man said that they are all a little worried about whether they will be able to get paid in January.”
Li Chu shook his head and said, "Who can you blame? Everyone has to walk their own path."
"Has He Yuzhu not contacted Cui Chunmei during this period?"
“Of course we’ve looked. But it’s not that easy to find him. Xiao’e helped her find someone to transfer her household registration here. She changed the names of her three children. Her two daughters transferred to No. 8 Elementary School, and her youngest son is attending a nursery on Qianmen Street.”
"She's made up her mind that she'll never get back together with He Yuzhu."
"Yes, Xiao'e also specifically asked her. Chunmei said that He Yuzhu is a leopard that can't change its spots. She will never get back together with him in this lifetime, nor will she find someone else. She will raise the child alone."
"Sigh~" Li Chu sighed and said, "But has Chunmei considered how she will manage to raise three children alone in the future?"
Xu Damao spread his hands helplessly: "What can anyone do? But she's with me now. I give her 120 yuan a month, and Xiao'e secretly gives her some money. That's enough for the four of them to live on."
“Living behind the hotel isn’t a long-term solution. She took all the money with her when she got divorced. You should have Xiao’e talk to her and suggest that if she has the opportunity and means, she should buy a house to live in.”
Cui Chunmei is really unlucky; she got married to a scoundrel like He Yuzhu in her second marriage.
"Don't tell anyone, Brother Chu, Chunmei herself has already thought of what you're talking about and has asked Xiao'e to keep an eye out for her. Are there any houses left at the Grain Bureau?"
"You're overthinking it. All the houses have already been allocated."
“I’ve been helping her find a place to live. Chunmei wants to buy an apartment and doesn’t want to live in the tenement anymore.”
“Your family has two houses near the steel mill, right? Xiao’e’s father lives in one, and the other one is empty.”
"They don't want it, they think it's too close to Qin Huairu."
"Then there's no other way. Why don't you ask around the wool mill and the thermal power plant? Last year, both of these companies were clamoring to build houses, or maybe a row of high-rises near the front gate."
However, if you're buying that high-rise building, it's not a property under your ownership right now. You'll have to change the occupant name, and then wait a few years until it becomes available again before paying the difference to buy it outright.
Xu Damao felt a toothache upon hearing this: "This is too much trouble."
"There's nothing we can do. It's the same no matter where you buy a house now. Take the buildings near your factory, for example. They were supposed to be property rights, but none of you have actually received the property ownership certificates."
"Yeah, Brother Chu, what exactly happened?"
"It's a policy issue; things should be settled in a few years."
What Li Chu didn't say was that it's true you can get the property certificate in a few years, but there's a prerequisite: you have to pay some extra money, otherwise you can forget about it.
Or perhaps due to the nature of the land, the property ownership certificates issued in the future won't be the same color, but will be either red or green. He doesn't understand the difference between the two; he's only heard of them but has never seen them before.
"Da Mao, you still haven't found a yard after all these months?"
"Don't even mention it," Xu Damao said, his mind immediately filled with the trouble he was dealing with. "I almost got scammed."
"What's going on? Someone as shrewd as a monkey, even when they're tangled up with hair, can actually be fooled?"
"I almost got scammed this time. Someone recommended a courtyard house near Huguo Temple in the west of the city. It's a two-courtyard house. I went to see it and it was quite nice. The price was reasonable, 15,000 yuan."
"That's alright, what's wrong?"
"Yes, I think it's a good deal too. But the seller has a condition: I have to give him the money first, and he'll leave the paperwork with me until he comes back from the south before we can transfer the property."
He said he was selling the house because he was in a hurry to pay off a loan in the south; otherwise, he wouldn't have sold it for such a low price. He even showed me the property certificate and other documents.
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