Donglaishun is a famous restaurant in the capital. Even the cheapest hotpot, if it is cooked well, will cost at least ten yuan per table. However, if you prepare a vegetarian banquet by yourself, it only costs less than 1 yuan per table. Both of them There is a huge difference between them, so Yan Bugui is naturally unwilling.
Marriage itself is a major event in life. Most people, no matter how difficult the family is, will try their best to feed and drink well to the guests. Only in this way can they have face.
Liu Cheng had never seen someone as stingy as Yan Bugui. He dropped his words on the spot. If Yan Bugui didn't agree, the marriage would be considered a failure. Yan Bugui held his nose and agreed.
There is no way, he is stingy with money, but Yan Jiecheng's marriage and the inheritance of the Yan family's incense are more important.
After sending Liu Cheng and Liu Yuhua away, the third aunt pulled Yan Jiecheng into the house to persuade him.
"Jie Cheng, that girl Liu Yuhua looks pretty good."
Yan Jiecheng was hopeless: "Mom, you see she looks like Zhu Bajie's second aunt, one is stronger than the other two. Isn't that pretty good?"
"How could you be so stupid, kid? Liu Yuhua's father, Liu Cheng, is the director of your workshop. If you and Liu Yuhua became friends, wouldn't Liu Cheng take care of you more?"
These words awakened Yan Jiecheng, and he sat up from the bed: "Yes, the workshop director is the leader of the workshop. If I become Liu Cheng's son-in-law, no one in the workshop will dare to bully me in the future."
Because Yan Jiecheng is cowardly and extremely lazy by nature, he always slacks off when working. He is not treated well by his co-workers in the workshop and suffers a lot.
"Not only do they not dare to bully you, they also have to curry favor with you. Moreover, this year's promotion exam is about to begin. If you become Liu Cheng's son-in-law, can Liu Cheng not help you during the promotion? You don't want to be a lifelong He’s a first-class fitter.”
Seeing that Yan Jiecheng's attitude was a little relaxed, the third aunt quickly continued to persuade him.
These words hit Yan Jiecheng's mind. Although Yan Jie grew up to be very smart, he was actually full of muddiness. His performance in the workshop was not even as good as Qin Huairu's.
Moreover, his mind was not on work. On weekdays, he liked to hang out with his friends and fool around. He had no confidence in passing the benchwork exam.
"Aren't they just women? After turning off the lights, they all look the same!" Yan Jie became the future and gritted his teeth and agreed.
With the last obstacle to marriage removed, Yan Bugui began to prepare for the wedding banquet. Since the wedding banquet was held in Donglaishun this time, the gift money was quite high.
Yi family.
Yi Zhonghai had long heard about Yan Jiecheng's blind date from his son Shazhu, but he didn't expect that they were about to get married after they just had a blind date here.
"What, Lao Yan, do you mean that Yan Jiecheng is getting married?"
"Yes, yes, the wedding banquet with Director Liu Cheng and the daughter of Director Liu's family will be held in Donglaishun." Yan Bugui said and handed over the invitation: "Lao Yi, you are an eighth-level fitter in the workshop and an old man in our courtyard. , I watched Xie Xie grow up, so I have to support him this time."
Although Yi Zhonghai was surprised, he still accepted the invitation. He took a breath after just one glance.
Yi Zhonghai's face suddenly turned ugly: "Old Yan, you've gone a little too far this time for the five yuan contribution!"
In this era, when people are inviting guests, residents would hand over a portion of money, which is usually a few cents, and if the portion of money is more, it will not exceed one yuan. The Yan family actually indicated on the invitation that each household must hand over five yuan. It's not a wedding banquet, it's a money grab.
In later generations, it was not uncommon for people to make money by entertaining guests, but in this era of simple folk customs, such a thing had never happened near the courtyard. No wonder Yi Zhonghai had such a big reaction.
but.
Instead of feeling ashamed, Yan Bugui said sternly: "Old Yi, look at you. You start criticizing people without understanding the situation. You are making an empiricist error!"
"Oh, tell me why other people's dinner only costs a few cents, but yours costs five yuan." Yi Zhonghai looked down at Yan Bugui with his arms folded.
Yan Bugui said: "First of all, my family's treat this time is held in Donglaishun. Donglaishun is one of the largest restaurants in the capital. It costs a lot. Shouldn't the share price be more?"
"Donglaishun is indeed a bit more expensive than ordinary restaurants, but it doesn't cost 2 yuan at all." Yi Zhonghai curled his lips.
"The most important reason is the latter."
Yan Bugui said calmly: "This time the woman's parent is Liu Cheng, the workshop director of the fitter workshop."
As he spoke, he said in a more serious tone: "Lao Yi, I have heard that there is not much work in the steel rolling mill recently. Every workshop cannot operate at full capacity. Some workers have not gone to work for more than half a month, just like Qin Huairu. That kind of thing, of course, you, Master Yi, are an eighth-level fitter, so you won’t have no work to do, but if you offend Liu Cheng, do you think you, an eighth-level fitter, can get away with it?”
Yan Bugui was indeed an old fox, and he grasped Yi Zhonghai's weak spot.
When the steel rolling mill was booming in the past, Yi Zhonghai, an eighth-level fitter, was the darling of the entire factory. He could straighten his chest in front of the director and deputy director, be able to participate in the factory committee, and be able to work with the factory leaders to deal with issues within the factory. matter. The reason is simple. Factory leaders all point to Yi Zhonghai, the master, to solve the difficulties encountered in production.
But now the situation is different. The steel rolling mill has not received a decent order for a long time, and Yi Zhonghai's craftsmanship has seriously deteriorated, and he is not even as good as ordinary skilled workers. At this time, he couldn't afford to offend even a workshop director.
Yi Zhonghai knew Liu Cheng.
Liu Cheng was originally just a temporary worker in a subsidiary factory of the steel rolling mill. Later, for some reason, he got involved with Director Yang. Because he was very good at bragging and flattering, he served Director Yang comfortably, and soon became a regular worker, and After working in the workshop for just three years, he was promoted to deputy director of the workshop. Last year, he made a step forward, doing work instead of doing work, and became the director of the workshop.
You must know that the number of work-for-service jobs is very small. The full-rolling steel mill can probably allocate one or two quotas every year. Director Yang is willing to give it to Liu Cheng. This shows that Liu Cheng is under the guidance of Director Yang. He has quite a bit of status in his heart.
In the minds of the workshop workers, offending Liu Cheng is tantamount to offending Factory Director Yang.
Yi Zhonghai thought like this and sighed in his heart: It seems that this time he has to admit defeat.
He turned to the eldest lady who was busy cleaning the house and shouted: "Old lady, please take two dollars from the drawer."
Yan Bugui took the money and was about to leave, but suddenly thought of something, turned around again, looked at Yi Zhonghai and said.
"Lao Yi, did you also give Silu Zhu's share?"
Although Yan Bugui almost hated Shazhu to death because of Yan Jiecheng's blind date, he didn't hate Shazhu's money.
After finally borrowing Liu Cheng's name, he will definitely earn more.
At the same time, Yan Bugui also knew that Shazhu had not found a job since he came out of the police station. He had no money at all and could only ask Yi Zhonghai for it.
Unexpectedly, when Yi Zhonghai heard this, his expression changed drastically. He glared at Yan Bugui and said, "Old Yan, Si Zhu is my biological son now. We are a family. How can you still charge two shares?"
"Well, He Yuzhu has changed his name to Yi Yuzhu now, how could I forget this!" Yan Bugui felt disappointed. He was originally planning to make another five yuan, but now it seems impossible.
After Yan Bugui left the Yi family, he began to collect money from his family members. Of course, the residents Yan Bugui chose all worked in the steel rolling mill, or had someone in their family who worked in the steel rolling mill. Although they were not in the fitter workshop, based on the relationship between Liu Cheng and Factory Director Yang, they did not dare to offend Liu Cheng.
In just a short while, Yan Bugui earned more than a hundred yuan. Counting the money, Yan Bugui felt happy in his heart. He went to pay for the betrothal gifts and wedding banquet. He could earn at least fifty yuan this time.
As night fell, the residents of the courtyard house were having dinner at home when they heard the sound of broken gongs coming from outside.
"Attention, everyone. After dinner, everyone is invited to the middle courtyard for a meeting."
The person who heard the shouting was Xu Damao. The residents put down their bowls and chopsticks with doubts on their faces.
"What happened? When will it be Xu Damao's turn to hold a meeting?"
"Maybe it was held for Liu Hongchang."
"Impossible. I haven't seen Liu Hongchang for several days recently. I heard that he went to the south for a meeting."
"That is how the matter?"
"Don't think about it. We'll find out when we get to the venue after dinner."
The residents were just confused, but the bangs were filled with anger.
Since Wang Weidong became the first master of the courtyard, he directly appointed Xu Damao as the junior steward of the courtyard. As the second uncle of the courtyard, he is like a deaf ear, and his status in the courtyard has plummeted. The residents who used to treat him respectfully are now When I met him, I just pretended not to see him.
Now Xu Damao actually wants to hold a courtyard meeting, which is the authority only the real steward has.
"boom!"
Liu Haizhong slammed the tea cup on the table and said angrily: "Well, you Xu Damao, you were just Liu Hongchang's dog, but now you think of yourself as the real boss, today I have to let you know how powerful I am. "
The second aunt whispered from the side: "Old Liu, our family is already in a lot of troubles. Just calm down and stop causing trouble."
Speaking of the Liu family's troubles, the second aunt was so worried that she couldn't sleep at night.
Liu Guangqi, who was highly coveted by them, was going to marry into someone else's family.
Liu Guangqi is the eldest son of the Liu family. He has been favored by Liu Haizhong since he was a child. Liu Guangqi was also very successful and went to high school. Later, he went to Baoding and became a 24-level junior leader.
The junior leader is also a leader. Just when Liu Haizhong was looking forward to Liu Guangqi's return to the capital, and when he, as the leader's father, could feel proud and proud, Liu Guangqi suddenly sent a letter saying that he had met a girl there.
He has married the girl, and will stay in Baoding, living in the woman's home, and will never come back.
Isn't this just a marriage?
Liu Haizhong tore the letter into pieces at that time, and then drank a bottle of wine, using the strength of the wine to deal with Liu Guangtian and Liu Guangfu.
This kind of thing was normal in the past. After all, Liu Guangtian and Liu Guangfu were Liu Haizhong's punching bags.
But Liu Haizhong didn't expect that Liu Guangfu and Liu Guangtian had grown up. They were now both workers in the steel rolling mill, and they were both dating.
When the two brothers saw Liu Haizhong pulling out his belt, they were not afraid. Instead, they looked at each other, rolled up their sleeves, and swarmed up to fight Liu Haizhong.
Liu Haizhong was furious on the spot and claimed that he would skin these two unfilial sons alive. However, he did not expect that Liu Guangtian and Liu Guangfu had grown up. They took advantage of their youth and strength and took advantage of Liu Haizhong.
In the hatred, the two brothers beat Liu Haizhong until his nose was bruised and his face was swollen. If the third aunt hadn't stopped him, Liu Haizhong might still be lying in the hospital.
After beating Liu Haizhong, the two brothers went to stay at the partner's house that night, and soon rented a house outside and never returned to Liu's house.
The Liu family lost three sons in just half a month. How could the second aunt be in a good mood!
Hearing the second aunt mention those troublesome things, Liu Haizhong said impatiently: "Don't worry, I will deal with those little bastards sooner or later. The most important thing now is to let Xu Damao know who is the real person in the courtyard." The steward."
With that said, he ignored the second aunt's obstruction and strode towards the middle courtyard with his hands behind his back.
When Liu Haizhong walked to the middle courtyard, almost all the residents in the courtyard raised their hands. Yi Zhonghai, Shazhu, Auntie, Yan Bugui, Third Auntie, Yan Jiecheng, Qin Huairu, Banggen, etc. were all gathered around. Under the old camphor tree.
There was a table under the tree with a long bench next to it, and Xu Damao was sitting on the bench with his legs crossed and eating melon seeds. He looked as arrogant as he could.
Seeing Xu Damao's look, Liu Haizhong suddenly became furious, squeezed into the crowd, and rushed to Xu Damao.
"Xu Damao, stand up!"
Xu Damao was enjoying this wonderful moment. Although he was now a small steward, his majesty was no different from that of a real steward.
The attention of everyone made him couldn't help but narrow his eyes.
So when he heard Liu Haizhong's roar, Xu Damao was startled and almost fell off his chair. When he saw Liu Haizhong standing in front of him, Xu Damao said angrily: "Liu Haizhong, you are so old. Why are you still imitating other young people’s hoots!”
"Don't bother me with this."
Liu Haizhong pointed at Xu Damao's nose and said: "Let me ask you, you are not the boss, why should you hold a meeting? Don't tell me, Liu Hongchang entrusted you to hold the meeting. But I heard from Lao Yi that Liu Hongchang is not in the capital these days. .”
Xu Damao didn't expect Liu Haizhong to be angry because of this incident. After hearing what Liu Haizhong said, he couldn't help laughing.
"Second uncle, your brain is really hard to use. No wonder you have been pinned down by Yi Zhonghai for so many years."
"I'm the one asking you! Don't talk to me about those things in the past." Liu Haizhong's mouth trembled with anger.
Xu Damao looked at Liu Haizhong, whose face was full of anger, as if he had seen a joke: "Have you seen the third uncle? The reason why I held this courtyard meeting today is because I was entrusted by the third uncle Yan Bugui."
(End of chapter)
