Chapter 378: More than half a year
In the blink of an eye, half a year has passed.

Winter has arrived in the capital again.

"Speaking of winter, one shudders with fear." This is how many writers and poets describe the winter in the old capital. It always makes people feel that the winter here is cruel, with strong winds and dust...

But the winter in the memory of the old people in Beijing is warm.

For example, the bright morning, the bustling alleys, the continuous erhua sounds, even the faucets in the courtyards, the coal stoves, the cabbage piles under the eaves...

Speaking of the faucets in the Siheyuan, if we talk about this topic, there will be a lot to say. The faucets in the Siheyuan are like an unwritten "rule" in the Siheyuan.

In those days, there was a faucet in the courtyard to supply drinking water to everyone in the courtyard. Everyone shared a water meter, and each household took turns to pay the water fee per person every month.

When winter comes, it becomes a lot of trouble. Once the faucet freezes, you have to use hot water to melt it, and this task happens all the time.

Insulation is a must, it can be done by simply wrapping it with straw rope, or by covering it with wooden boards and filling it with sawdust. The hard work is to de-ice the entire hospital together on weekends.

These days, the weather is cold and the water splashed from washing clothes and vegetables freezes into ice, which is extremely slippery and it is easy to get injured.

So in deep winter, before dusk every night, you have to open the manhole cover and close the valve with a special hook to ensure that it will not freeze. Then open it again in the morning. The entire water pipe is wrapped in a thick, torn quilt or other insulation.

The courtyard house at No. 95 Nanluoguxiang has a unique way of managing the faucets in the yard. If anyone is careless, he will suffer the next day.

That's it, sometimes it freezes,
Neighbors living in the yard would take a kettle of boiling water to boil the faucet.

Sometimes it is so frozen that even hot water cannot melt it. There is nothing you can do but light some firewood to melt it.

Neighbors living in the courtyards also have a large water tank in every household to store all the water for the day.

The water for the house is basically fetched by the teenagers, and sometimes they help the older neighbors. The kids chat and laugh together and don’t feel tired at all.

In fact, around the pond in every slum, the families would gossip about each other while fetching water, and everyone would gather together to wash vegetables, wash clothes.

Some aunties and sisters were chatting gossip, some even throwing out some sarcastic and malicious gossip.

But you can feel at ease living in a courtyard house, because even if people in the courtyard go out without locking the door, nothing will be lost. If you walk into the courtyard with a strange face, these aunties will question you to your heart's content!
"Hey, the faucet is frozen again? Who was on duty yesterday?" The third aunt brought Yan Zhaodi and carried two buckets to the faucet in the middle courtyard early in the morning to fetch water. They found a string of icicles hanging firmly on the faucet.

The third aunt thought to herself that something was wrong: "Oh no, it's so cold, the faucet must be frozen solid!" She was immediately furious. There were many people in the family, and the one tank of water could barely last a day if they used it sparingly.

Unexpectedly, last night, my daughter-in-law Ran Qiuye emptied the water in the tub in order to take a hot bath, and this morning there was no water at home to make breakfast!

Sha Zhu lives in the spacious main house. He gets up early in the morning and is busy in the kitchen where smoke rises.

It was the twelfth lunar month, and the wind was biting cold. His wife, Wang Qiuju, was busy all day due to the heavy workload at work. Sha Zhu felt sorry for his wife, so he took the initiative to take on the task of cooking every morning.

At this moment, he noticed the shouting coming from outside the door, so he put on a thick cotton jacket and hurriedly opened the door.

As the door hinges turned, he yawned naturally, as if to dispel the early morning chill and sleepiness.

Then, he turned his gaze and met the three aunts who were carrying buckets of water. He greeted them warmly: "Hey, three aunts, you are really hardworking. You start working so early? Is the faucet frozen again?" His words were full of intimacy and care between neighbors.

"Hey! Zhuzi! Do you know whose house was on duty last night?"

"Look at the icicles on the faucet. It must be because I ran out of water yesterday and left the valve open. No one cared and it froze overnight."

"Know!"

"Who is this?"

"Who else could be so irresponsible? Xu Damao!"

"Don't worry, I'll see if I can open it..."

Sha Zhu walked forward quickly, his eyes focused on the faucet. He first cleaned off the icicles hanging on it, then repeatedly turned the faucet switch, but it only turned in vain without any water flowing. He secretly guessed that the water pipe was probably frozen solid by the severe cold.

"Oh! It's really frozen!" He went back to the house, picked up a pot of hot water from the coal stove, and poured it under the faucet.

But the kettle of water didn't help at all. After hearing the noise, other neighbors who were anxious to use water also rushed over.

Yi Zhonghai checked the pipes, frowned, and then decisively ordered everyone to return home to get hot water for emergency.

He turned to Zhuzi and said, "Zhuzi, go and call Xu Damao. Ask him how he was on duty last night? The valve was not closed properly, causing the pipes to freeze. It's really..." There was some dissatisfaction in his words.

While the Central Courtyard was busy trying to save the tap water, things were not going well at home for Old Jia in the East Wing.

"Oh! Xiaoru, how do you look at the stove like that? You must seal the stove before going to bed. I have repeatedly reminded you of this, but why don't you learn from it? Have you ignored my words?" Jia Zhang got up in the morning to cook, but found that the fire had gone out. She was stunned and then became furious, and started scolding Qin Jingru.

"I'm sorry, auntie. I was too tired last night and forgot about it again..." Qin Jingru said apologetically.

From the moment Qin Jingru stepped into the Jia family's threshold, Jia Zhang was not polite or tolerant towards her at all. It was as if overnight, all the responsibilities and burdens that originally belonged to Qin Huairu were quietly transferred to her shoulders.

This change came so suddenly and completely that Qin Jingru's days in the Jia family seemed particularly heavy and difficult from the very beginning.

However, for Qin Jingru, since she was able to move from the countryside to live in the city, these hardships were nothing. What was wrong with enduring a little hardship and fatigue? Wasn't her hometown in the countryside much more miserable than this?

Therefore, Qin Jingru cherished this opportunity even more, and even in the face of Jia Zhang's difficulties and harsh criticism, she chose to endure it.

Furthermore, Jia Zhang did not dare to act too rashly, knowing very well that Qin Jingru was not isolated and helpless in this courtyard.

Qin Jingru has won a good reputation among her neighbors because of the old Qin family's heritage. She has a close relationship with her third uncle Yan Bugui's family, and also has a good relationship with Xu Damao, Sha Zhu and others, weaving a warm and complex network of relationships in this courtyard.

Nowadays, the various disturbances in the Jia family have long been spread among the neighbors, and everyone knows about it. In particular, the sensational Li Huaide case a few months ago has finally come to an end.

This man was guilty of many crimes and ultimately could not escape the justice. He was sentenced to death and executed immediately.

During the handling of the case, all relevant persons involved received the appropriate judgments, the guilty were sentenced, and the violators were punished.

Qin Huairu, who was not a victim but actively attached herself to Li Huaide, was severely sentenced to ten years in prison by the court as a warning because of her bad behavior and moral degradation.

This judgment not only reflects the fairness of the law, but also serves as a warning to the world that no matter what situation one is in, one should stick to the bottom line and not do evil, no matter how small.

When the case was settled, Jia Zhang's obsession finally vanished. Ten years seemed like a distant future to her, but also an unknown future that was just around the corner. She couldn't help but wonder if she would still be able to live that long by then!

Therefore, Jia Zhang's attitude towards Qin Jingru improved significantly. She was not completely ignorant, and she knew clearly that the whole family, young and old, relied on Qin Jingru's hard work.

If this girl had evil thoughts and thought that she had grown wings and flew away in anger, then it would be a loss of both eggs and gains.

"Okay, okay, you should be more careful next time! Don't stand here anymore, go to Zhuzi's house next door and borrow some fire. We have to light the stove and prepare to cook!" Jia Zhang was hesitant to speak. What else could she do now? She could only sigh and tell Qin Jingru to go and borrow some fire to solve the urgent problem.

Nowadays, life in the courtyards of Beijing is very different from that in the countryside. When it comes to daily cooking, rural families usually use earthen kangs and firewood, lighting them as needed, with smoke rising from the kitchen.

In the courtyard, the situation is quite different. Coal briquettes stoves are the mainstream, relying on coal combustion. These stoves are required to keep the temperature constant, unlike the random fires in the countryside.

When it is in use, the fire should be turned up high; when not in use, it is necessary to maintain a low fire to ensure that the fire never goes out to keep the room warm and to provide hot water and hot food at any time.

The beauty of this method is that it is convenient and warm at the same time, but it also brings a trouble: the stove must not be extinguished. Once it is extinguished, it will cause trouble again and waste time, which is really inconvenient.

Nowadays, getting up early and lighting the stove in the alley courtyards is also a beautiful sight.

Early in the morning, "every household lights a fire and every house has smoke coming out." Even when the sun is high in the sky, the smoke covering the alley has not yet dissipated.

And every winter, when it comes to this time, you can definitely see men using refractory earthenware stoves in the alleys. Of course, since it is a technical job, some people have good skills and some have fashionable skills.

The process of lighting the stove is as follows: start by opening the bottom stove door, lighting waste paper with a match, using the burning paper to ignite the firewood, and then igniting the charcoal at the bottom of the furnace, and a crackling fire will begin.

At this time, smoke will come out of the chimney outside the window, and drift towards the top of the yard with the wind. It will last for about ten minutes, and then the smoke will stop. Then I will open the shovel and the fire cover to see a sea of ​​red fire! "

Don't think that everything will be fine once the stove is lit! You must not be careless about putting out the fire every night.

After the adults finish cooking dinner, the coal in the coal stove needs to be replaced. There is often a place next to the ditch to dump the dirty soil. You have to go out early to dump the soil, because you can't guarantee that some child will be naughty and make it dirty. Stepping on the dirty soil can be very troublesome.

The spent coal must be thrown away, and the new coal must be filled in at different places. The fire cover and the big circle, the two circles must be covered tightly, and the furnace door under the furnace must be closed.

These seemingly trivial tasks must be done carefully and meticulously, because gas is something that does not give you a chance to do it again.

The human touch in the courtyard is fully displayed at this time.

Neighbors who come to visit you will always help you check whether the chimney is installed properly and always share some tips on preventing gas.

"Brother Zhuzi, is there a fire in your house?

The fire was not sealed properly last night, so I'm giving you a piece of coal." Qin Jingru first glanced at the people busy in front of the faucet, and then greeted Sha Zhu who was busy in front of the stove.

"Sister Jingru is awake too? Come on, come on, you're just horny, it's just right." When Sha Zhu saw that it was Qin Jingru, he grinned.

Although Sha Zhu and Xu Damao have very different personalities and have no evil thoughts in their hearts, Qin Jingru, a young beauty who has just turned 18, has undoubtedly become the most dazzling sight in the compound.

Her beauty is unadorned and natural, attracting everyone's attention. Even the most ordinary eye contact can make people feel happy, as if a spring breeze is blowing on their faces, taking away all their fatigue and worries.

Qin Jingru's outstanding appearance naturally became the focus of everyone's attention. Liu Guangtian and Liu Guangfu, the two sons in Liu Haizhong, both admired her.

Xu Damao, the pervert, was no exception and had his eyes on Qin Jingru. However, due to Lou Xiao'e's existence, he had to restrain his blatant covetousness and take more covert means to try to get close to this beauty.

As for the Red Star Factory, there were even more. As soon as Qin Jingru entered the factory, she easily surpassed the long-renowned "factory flower" Yu Haitang with her extraordinary appearance, causing the latter to lose her former glory and status in an instant.

This unexpected change quietly planted the seeds of jealousy in Haitang's heart, and she was filled with resentment and resentment towards Qin Jingru's rise.

Qin Jingru, without realizing it, had quietly established a powerful opponent.

In the backyard, Xu Damao reluctantly finally went out. It takes courage to get out of the warm bed and push the door open.

In the capital city in winter, it is extremely cold during the coldest days of winter. The northwest wind blows in the face like a needle tip, which hurts people.

When the north wind blew, the remaining snow on the roof floated into Xu Damao's collar and neck, making him shiver with cold.

"Xu Damao, stop dawdling and come here quickly!" Yi Zhonghai looked displeased and urged the slow-moving Xu Damao with a hint of impatience in his tone.

Xu Damao's heart tightened, knowing that he was in the wrong. He was careless last night and forgot to close the faucet valve, which now became a heavy stone in his heart.

He secretly regretted that he would not have a moment of peace today.

Thinking about when the frozen tap water would thaw, he couldn't help but frown, with mixed feelings in his heart.

"Okay, okay, Master Yi, please wait for a moment. I'm going to the toilet first."

"Why are you going to the toilet? You just hide when something happens. Come here..."

"No...no, no, oh, I had diarrhea last night and I'm going to poop in my pants soon, please wait for me...wait for a while..." Xu Damao said this while trying to escape by squirting, he ran away with his buttocks clamped together.

"When an old donkey pushes a millstone, there will be a lot of shit and urine..." Yi Zhonghai shook his head and had to do it himself.

Next to him, Yi Yuanchao, the always sensible son, silently brought dry firewood for him. However, the hot water seemed powerless in the severe cold and could not completely melt the frozen pipes.

The sky was gloomy and the wind was biting cold. They anxiously poured hot water to try to thaw the ice, but they watched helplessly as the frost quickly covered it up again, as if nature was against them.

Come on, let’s just light a fire. It’s all the fault of that bastard Xu Damao!

Meanwhile, Xu Damao shrunk his neck and entered the public toilet.

This toilet is full of leaks. When you squat inside, your butt feels like it's being stabbed by a knife. If you are an elderly person, it's not convenient to squat, so you have to carry a toilet stool with you.

If, it happens that it snows and the roads are slippery, what if... you can't even cry.

It was so cold today that Xu Damao didn't want to stay in the toilet with his butt sticking out for too long.

He really had diarrhea. Luckily, the toilet was less than 100 meters away from home. He had just finished defecating, but soon after returning home, he became sick again.
Xu Damao ran out quickly.

After running like this three times, Xu Damao simply stopped running and just strolled outside the toilet after using it.

Whenever someone asked him about it, he would mumble and no one even understood what he was saying.

Fortunately, today is Sunday and everyone is resting, and it is daytime. If it was late at night, he would be in trouble!

…………

Xu Damao escaped the disaster due to illness, and the three uncles spared him for the time being.

"Zhuzi! Jiecheng, we don't need you here, there's something you two need to do." Yan Bugui was standing aside, unable to help, and could only do some auxiliary work, watching Sha Zhu and Yan Jiecheng shrink their necks and watch from the side. At this moment, something suddenly flashed through his mind.

"What's the matter, Dad?" Yan Jiecheng couldn't help but ask.

Upon hearing this, Sha Zhu also looked at Yan Bugui.

Yan Bugui waved at them gently, motioning them to move aside, and whispered, "A few days ago, your uncle Liu called and said that the greenhouse vegetables in their village had a bumper harvest.

He warmly invited us to take some time to visit Liujiazhuang and bring back some vegetables to share with our neighbors.

"Hey, that's great! I was thinking of going to Liujiazhuang for some fun!" Sha Zhu said happily.

Besides, it’s great to be able to play and take things at the same time.

In the past, greenhouses had not yet come into being, and winter tables were extremely monotonous, with only cabbage, potatoes and radishes, silently telling of the loneliness of the season.

As times change, greenhouse technology allows vegetables to remain green all year round. Even on cold winter days, we can easily taste the freshness from nature.

However, there are always two sides to everything in the world. Although greenhouse vegetables are good, their limited production has doubled their value and made them a luxury on the tables of ordinary people.

If it is not a New Year or a festival, most people still eat the same three dishes at home. Occasionally, they will buy some other fresh vegetables to change the taste.

Sha Zhu and Yan Jiecheng took the bus to Liujiazhuang. When they finally arrived at the village, it was almost time for lunch.

Wow! After more than a year, I returned to Liujiazhuang. The scene before my eyes was astonishing. The changes were beyond imagination.

There were cars coming and going on the streets, and even on Sunday, there were endless streams of pedestrians, making the street very lively.

Sha Zhu opened his eyes wide and his mouth formed an "O" shape, feeling extremely surprised at this earth-shaking change.

(End of this chapter)