Chapter 46 Consideration

"What Cai Fangchao's wife said yesterday was indeed wrong. Your aunt and I both talked to her about it last night.

Dacheng, you've already vented your anger, and you even figured out a way to make a sign like that and hang it up. You can be certain that no one will dare to set their sights on your room anymore.

I'm not going to ask you to pretend as if nothing happened, because it did happen, and—if I may put it bluntly—if anyone were to eye my house the way they did yours, I'd fight them to the death.

However, since the matter has already occurred, and the countermeasure you took is already in place, let's not dwell on it any longer.

We all live in the same courtyard, especially the two of your families in the inner courtyard, where you see each other day in and day out. If things get too ugly, it will simply become a laughingstock for outsiders.

From now on, if you can get along, continue to do so; if you can't, just treat each other as ordinary neighbors.

But stop going around grumbling and cursing all the time; it does no good for anyone. Fangchao's father holds a leadership position of sorts these days. What do you think, Dacheng?"

After listening to Old Zhao's words, Li Yancheng did not immediately reply. He lowered his head, took a few puffs of his cigarette, pondered for a moment, and then nodded. "Uncle Zhao, as long as they don't provoke me in the future, I won't go out of my way to trouble them, but—"

"No buts."

Without waiting for Li Yancheng to finish, Old Zhao interrupted directly. "If the two of them do or say anything out of line in the future, even if you pick a fight with them, I won't say a word against it, and I will definitely help you."

At this moment, Comrade Old Zhao shared the same inner confusion as Jin Zhihai just had regarding the changes in Li Yancheng.

He simply couldn't fathom why an adult's personality could undergo such a drastic shift—it was practically a complete rebirth.

In truth, he was angry himself. When he returned from work last night and heard from his third child about what had happened in the morning, he had indeed gone to talk with Cai Fangchao and Fu Xiuli.

He hadn't expected Li Yancheng to do anything; he simply felt that Fu Xiuli shouldn't have said those things.

At the time, he had hoped to smooth things over by making it a minor issue, and wanted the couple to apologize to Li Yancheng by claiming they didn't mean it and were just carried away in the heat of the conversation.

As it turned out, the two of them didn't take it to heart at all and flatly refused, believing Li Yancheng wouldn't dare to do anything.

Well, now look at them. Just a moment ago, the man had practically cursed them out by name, and the two of them had heard every single word clearly from outside. Their faces had turned as dark as coal briquettes, yet they hadn't dared to utter a single complaint.

Ah, why bring this trouble upon themselves?

"Uncle Zhao, I've caused you trouble."

Hearing this, a smile appeared on Comrade Old Zhao's face. He knew that Li Yancheng wouldn't pursue the matter any further. As for that couple, if they dared to stir up trouble again—regardless of whose father he was—he would step in and put them in their place.

"Dacheng, you probably aren't familiar with Comrade Fan Chunmei, the newly arrived neighbor, are you?"

"Indeed I'm not. I exchanged a few words with Brother Zhao at the gate just as I was coming back. I only know she's Moyalin's widow; I don't know much else."

"The Mo family... hehe..." Mentioning that family, Old Zhao gave a bitter, helpless shake of his head. The things that had happened to that family were simply too bizarre. Anyone who was an old resident of this alleyway knew about it. It felt a bit too uncanny, and no one quite knew how to talk about it.

Nowadays, people didn't dare to casually discuss such eerie matters—after all, who knew if walls had ears?

"She'll have to live in our courtyard for at least a year. Still, she's a widow with a child. Sympathy aside, it's best for you to minimize contact with her to avoid idle gossip that could make it difficult for you to find a wife in the future.

If she runs into any difficulties, tell her to come to me. You should stay out of it. Whatever I can help with, I naturally will, though she probably won't have all that many problems.

She took over Yalin's job. Out of consideration, the factory didn't make her work inside the plant, but instead assigned her to sell goods at the retail store of the Dongsi Aluminum Products General Factory.

Old Zhang from the neighborhood committee told me she is currently paid at the rate of a second-year apprentice, bringing home close to twenty yuan a month.

Twenty yuan is more than enough for the two of them to live on. Besides, she still has the bereavement and pension payout from when her mother-in-law passed away."

"Thank you for the reminder, Uncle Zhao. I'll keep it in mind."

The man was looking out for his interests, so gratitude was in order.

Fan Chunmei's mother-in-law—that was Moyalin's mother—had passed away after her son was gone.

Like Old Zhao's wife, she had worked at the neighborhood-run enterprise glove factory.

The cause of death was excessive grief. And naturally, losing both a husband and a son, how could she not be heartbroken?

As for the pension payout, it was because she had passed away suddenly while on duty at the factory, essentially falling at her post, so the neighborhood committee had to make some compensation.

The payout amounted to twenty months' salary, totaling nearly five hundred yuan.

Neighborhood enterprises operated on piece-rate wages, which averaged out to about ninety cents a day. Leave days, Sundays, and holidays were unpaid.

People who worked in such enterprises were mostly jobless residents within the neighborhood's jurisdiction. Because the work was relatively light and involved practically no heavy physical labor, the workforce consisted predominantly of women.

The glove factory produced knitted white labor protection yarn gloves. At the time, every neighborhood office had its own enterprise that operated at a loss just to ensure ordinary people could put food on the table—it was considered a form of welfare.

By the seventies, most of these enterprises went under. Since they constantly operated at a loss, the neighborhood offices simply couldn't sustain them anymore.

After all, the neighborhood offices themselves had no independent income and relied entirely on government appropriations. If they kept pouring fiscal funds into the bottomless pits, how could they handle other tasks?

Take the upcoming repair work here at Courtyard No. 31, for instance. It required a substantial sum of money, and the neighborhood leaders were currently getting headaches over it.

"Alright, Dacheng." Comrade Old Zhao stubbed out his finished cigarette in the ashtray, slapped his thigh, and stood up.

"You just got back from a night shift, so I won't keep you from resting. Just remember what I told you."

"Don't you worry, Uncle Zhao, I've etched every word into my mind."

"Hehe... You rascal. After three months out on a medical support mission, your personality has truly changed quite a bit. Anyway, whatever happens, don't be so impulsive. If anything comes up, come find me. After all, I watched you grow up.

Before Elder Li passed away, he specifically asked me to look after you. Sigh, who would have thought that not long after he left, so many things would happen? Fortunately, you're safe; otherwise, I wouldn't know how to face him in the afterlife."

Early last year, when Li Yancheng was taken away for questioning for three days, Old Zhao had pulled countless strings and exhausted himself running errands on his behalf.

"Thank you for all the trouble you went through for my sake, Uncle Zhao."

"Let's dispense with the polite talk." Old Zhao waved his hand and turned toward the door.

"Hey, Uncle Zhao."

"Hmm?"

"If the schools resume classes, Mingjun will be graduating from high school. Aren't there already voices calling for secondary schools to reopen?"

"Ah, yes, what about it?" Old Zhao looked at Li Yancheng in bewilderment, having no idea why he suddenly brought this up.

"Then you'd better hurry and secure a job assignment for him now, before it's too late to arrange anything and he ends up sent away to the countryside to join the production teams.

You know what happened to Duan Fengjuan from the Duan family next door when she was sent to Mulin Town. That was still in the near suburbs; if he gets assigned to some other province..."