Siheyuan: Walking the Path of Qin Huairu

Qin Huairu said, "Uncle, how about this? We can hold a meeting for the whole hospital to donate money, but we can't just donate to our family. We can find two more families in need and divide the donations among the three families. In this way, He Yuzhu and his wife are both well-known people, one is the canteen director and the other is the factory director. How can they not donate at all? As long as someone takes the lead, others can only follow the crowd."

Qin Huairu was a clever person, and Yi Zhonghai thought this method was worth a try. So Yi Zhonghai said, "I'll give you five catties of corn flour for a few days. Let me discuss it with the second and third uncles."

———Dividing line

Director Li Huaide of the steel mill was extremely grateful at this time. He listened to He Yuzhu's advice and stored a lot of food in advance. This year, many regions have indeed seen a reduction in grain production, and even the capital has been affected. Director Yang praised Director Li for his foresight.

With the experience of buying food in Northeast China last time, Director Li also learned to draw inferences from one example. Last time, He Yuzhu accidentally mentioned that his brother-in-law, who was driving a car in the Commercial Bureau, once went to Inner Mongolia and brought back a lot of mutton.

In addition to the shortage of food, the capital city is even more short of meat. The steel mill is a physical job, how can it survive without some oil and water? So he found his father-in-law again, and wanted him to help contact the meat processing plant in Inner Mongolia, hoping to repeat the old trick and buy some beef and mutton from Inner Mongolia for the steel mill.

After some inquiries, I found that the price of beef and mutton in Inner Mongolia is less than half of that in Beijing, and only 32 cents per pound of mutton. If you think about it, Inner Mongolia has vast grasslands, and the herds of cattle and sheep are all born and raised naturally, so it all makes sense. The most critical issue is transportation. Trains are now the main means of transportation. But the transportation capacity is also very limited. As for trucks, only large factories have them, and their steel mills have this transportation capacity.

But the Inner Mongolia Meat Processing Plant proposed that the steel mill exchange grain for beef and mutton. The key point is that the steel mill did not have any extra grain for them. So Director Li called He Yuzhu over, and this guy had a lot of tricks.

He Yuzhu said: "Director, although we have stored some food, we can't use it to exchange for meat, because food will still be in short supply next year, and we won't have enough for ourselves. It's better to exchange it with iron products, such as iron pots and iron farm tools. They probably lack these things on the grassland."

Director Li blinked his eyes and said, "We can discuss this further."

He Yuzhu: "Another way is to drive directly to the pastoral area to buy cattle and sheep from the herders, slaughter them on the spot and bring them back. However, this is quite risky. If you enter the pastoral area, you are unfamiliar with the place. If someone dies, you will be responsible."

Director Li weighed the pros and cons and decided that this was a matter of skirting the law. Although the steel mill had the right to purchase independently, it was fine for small-scale purchases, but if they bought large quantities of beef and mutton, it would probably not be okay if they were investigated. It was better to have less trouble than more, so it was safer to go through the meat processing plant.

Finally, after negotiation, the two sides reached a consensus. The Inner Mongolia Meat Processing Plant agreed to exchange ironware for beef and mutton.

Director Li still asked He Yuzhu to lead the convoy to Inner Mongolia. He was quick-witted and was good at building a closer relationship with the other party. It would be great if this exchange could be turned into a long-term cooperation.

Director Li also promised that after returning from Inner Mongolia, he would promote He Yuzhu to be the canteen director. One promotion a year, this promotion speed is really fast enough. It must be said that Director Li is also a master at controlling his subordinates, and he has drawn a big and round pie.

When Xu Jianshe heard that his brother-in-law was going to Inner Mongolia, he reminded him, "Brother-in-law, it's very chaotic outside right now. There are refugees everywhere. Shaanxi and Henan provinces are especially badly affected. Inner Mongolia is a little better. But what if we run into them on the road? They're starving, and they rely on their numbers to rob people. What if we do that?"

He Yuzhu: "We can only bring more security personnel and weapons. Fortunately, Beijing is not far from Inner Mongolia."

Xu Huizhen was also worried about He Yuzhu's safety, so she advised him, "Zhuzi, our family doesn't need your salary, so you don't need to work so hard. Since the road is not safe, let's not go, and let someone else go."

He Yuzhu comforted his wife: "It's not that scary. How powerful can the refugees be? At most, we can give them some meat. How dare they kill people? Even if a fight breaks out, we have guns and can save our lives. Don't worry, wife."

Xu Huizhen continued to nag: "Then you must be careful on the road. Drive during the day and don't drive at night. It doesn't matter if you drive slowly. It's cold anyway and the meat won't go bad. No matter what, safety comes first. If you encounter danger, you must save your life even if you lose the goods."

He Yuzhu felt very comforted when listening to his wife's concern. It was hopeful to have someone who loved him.

Since He Yuzhu insisted, Xu Huizhen had to pack his luggage, and the whole family reluctantly saw He Yuzhu off.

After He Yuzhu left, while he was not around, Xu Huizhen released a batch of food from the space, including sweet potatoes, potatoes, sorghum, corn, etc. She put them in Cai Quanwu's old house and said to Cai Quanwu: "Quanwu, tell Qian Jin to try to replace them with antique calligraphy and paintings, gold and jewelry this time. You can ask Niu Ye to authenticate the authenticity of antique calligraphy and paintings, so as not to be cheated."

In recent years, Xu Huizhen has also continued to learn the identification of antique jades and other items, making full preparations for collecting antiques.

Back in the Red Star Courtyard, Yi Zhonghai found the third uncle in advance in order to ensure a smooth donation process. He knew that the third uncle had many children in his family, and the third aunt had no job and lived a tight life.

So he promised Yan Bugui, "There are several families in our courtyard who are really having a hard time making ends meet. As the uncles in charge, we need to take responsibility at critical moments. Uncle San, I know your family is in trouble, but as the uncle in the courtyard, it would not look good if you don't donate at all. So, the money you donated will be returned to you later, and you just need to pretend to do it."

Yan Bugui felt that he didn't need to spend any money and could still earn a good reputation, and said that this was possible.

In this way, the donation meeting of Hongxing Siheyuan was held again. He Yuzhu was on a business trip, and Yi Zhonghai notified Xu Huizhen in advance and asked her to come back tomorrow night to hold the meeting of the whole courtyard.

Then she heard the system's prompt: "Ding Dong Ding Dong, the system has started a new task. Stop donating to the villain Qin Huairu's family. The system rewards 1000 kilograms of cornmeal."

Xu Hui was really happy. This system was so thoughtful. It knew that food was in short supply and sent food specially.

Not to mention that Yi Zhonghai is truly worthy of the title of Moral God, just listen to him saying: "Our Red Star Courtyard is an advanced courtyard with a fine tradition of respecting the elderly and loving the young, and uniting and helping each other. Everyone knows the situation this year. There are three families in the courtyard who are particularly difficult. These three families are Jia Dongxu's family. His family Huairu and children are rural households and have no food rations. Then there is Li Dasao's family. She raised two grandchildren alone and had no food to eat. The third family is Lao Sun's family. Lao Sun has a bad leg and doesn't have much salary. He raises three children alone. The three of us uncles discussed it and hoped that everyone would be generous and donate some money and food coupons to these three families to get through this New Year. As the saying goes, distant relatives are not as good as close neighbors, and close neighbors are not as good as the door opposite. As an uncle in the courtyard, I solemnly promise that everyone will lend a helping hand today. No matter which family encounters difficulties in the future, no one else in the courtyard can ignore it. I will take the lead and donate 10 yuan and five kilograms of food coupons."

As he said this, he took out some money from his pocket and put it into the donation box.