Chapter 142: Shazhu Gets Married

By evening, the news of Liu Haizhong becoming a group leader had spread throughout the Siheyuan, and everyone found it unbelievable.

"Cuihua, has your Lao Liu really become a group leader?"

"Yes."

Wang Cuihua felt a secret thrill inside, feeling that her previous behavior of bragging about herself was simply weak; silent flexing was the most lethal.

The women soon began to chatter and discuss it.

"Sister-in-law Cuihua, your family will be able to afford a few more pieces of meat to eat from now on."

"That's right, your Lao Liu does big things without making a sound."

"Exactly, now our courtyard has three officials; you must have your Lao Liu look after my boy a bit more."

"Yes, yes."

"Easy to say, I'll tell Lao Liu when he gets home."

The flattery from the women gave Wang Cuihua's vanity great satisfaction; regardless of anything else, she would just deal with it for now.

On the way home from work, the topic of conversation among the main group from the Siheyuan was also Liu Haizhong.

"Uncle Liu, you are still the impressive one; you were promoted to group leader without a sound."

"That's right, Uncle Liu, teach us a thing or two."

"Lao Liu, just tell us about it."

"Ahem, it was all just a stroke of luck." Liu Haizhong was ambiguous, then repeated the same explanation he had given to Lao Wu to everyone else.

Anyone could tell this was a perfunctory answer, but no one exposed him; only Zhang Ping'an had a rough guess—it was eight or nine parts likely that Liu Guangtian had done something, and Liu Haizhong had just tagged along for the credit.

Time hurried on to the September school season, and Yi Zhonghai's pair of children also started school.

Because Yan Bugui had laid the foundation for them beforehand, they knew the basic characters and could do simple addition and subtraction; Yi Jiabao became the Squad Leader as soon as he started school.

This made the old couple Yi Zhonghai extremely happy, praising that his son had the potential for a technical secondary school; that evening, Tan Cuicui even cooked two extra dishes to celebrate.

When Liu Haizhong's wife heard about it and told Lao Liu, he immediately frowned. Thinking of his own sons' appalling grades, his temper flared up. Just as he pulled out his "Seven Wolves" belt, Liu Guangtian jumped up.

"You dare hit the hero who reported the Agent? Do you still want to be a group leader or not?"

Liu Haizhong was so angry he trembled after hearing this, and the raised "Seven Wolves" belt was forced back around his own waist. He was truly afraid that this turtle of a son would go to the Public Security to report him; after all, the Public Security had told him to pay attention to his teaching methods at the time.

"Hmph, I'll spare you this time. If your grades are like this next time, just wait and see if I hit you or not."

"Whew~" Liu Guangtian also let out a long sigh of relief. He had just shouted that with a "try it and see" attitude; he hadn't expected it to actually work.

"Ahem, Dad, calm down. Guangtian and Guangfu have already tried their best to study. I will help them with tutoring, and their grades will improve."

"Hmph, it better be so."

Returning to the room at night, the look Liu Guangfu gave Liu Guangtian was full of admiration.

"Second Brother, you were really brave just now."

"..."

"Brave? If you don't do well on the test next time, you'll see if Dad adds this time's damage to the next one."

"Big Brother."

Although the Liu family had three wing rooms, they had been partitioned into four: the main room, one for the old Liu couple, one for Liu Guangqi, and one for Liu Guangtian and Liu Guangfu.

"Guangtian, do you want to be in Public Security in the future?"

"Of course I do!" Thinking of the scene where he wore a Public Security Uniform and lectured his own old man, Liu Guangtian felt a surge of excitement.

"Then you have a great chance. Think about the merit you earned; you must be on file at the Police Station. Your future chances are very high, but..."

"But what?"

"But your grades are too rotten; you can't even graduate from elementary school. They definitely won't want you. Not saying you have to be as excellent as your brother here, but at least you have to graduate from junior high, right?"

"Right, right, right, study, I want to study, must, ahem..." Liu Guangtian almost blurted out what he was thinking.

"That's right. This is a fourth-grade test paper; you try doing it, and I'll evaluate you. And Guangfu, you too; this is second-grade."

Liu Guangqi was racking his brains for this family. With a proud, show-off father and two idiot younger brothers, what could he do? Just play the mediator.

Half an hour later, both had finished their test papers. Liu Guangqi frowned as he graded them, looking at the two as if he were looking at two mentally disabled people.

"Ahem, Big Brother?"

"Oh, right, I'll explain the problems to you."

Watching the two go back and forth, Liu Guangfu felt like a clown. *No, are you for real? Everyone was doing fine being stupid, what kind of studying are you doing? *

*If you study like this, won't the old man only hit me in the future? No way, you want to compete? Then let's go! Who's afraid of whom? *

Yi Zhonghai did not know at this moment that his own son, this little butterfly, had flapped its wings and actually caused the two Liu brothers to start competing.

Due to the scarcity of materials and tight food supplies, in order to guarantee the basic living needs of the people and allocate food resources reasonably, relevant policies were introduced at the end of August. Grain Coupons thus came into being, and by September, everyone had successively handled their grain books at the Street Office.

San Jie, Zhang Xiaohua, and Qin Huairu still moved their household registrations from their hometown; from now on, they were also city residents.

Due to unified purchasing and marketing, the number of people in various Black Markets also increased. On October 9th, Shazhu got married, and the wedding banquet was held quite low-key, though nothing that should have been there was missing.

The Head Chef this time was Shazhu's senior fellow apprentice; his authentic Sichuan Cuisine conquered everyone at the scene, having quite a bit of Chen Jianye's true teachings.

At night, when Shazhu was in the bridal chamber, there were quite a few curious young people gathered behind Shazhu's house, among them Xu Damao.

"Hehe, brothers, keep it down; the good show is about to start."

Zhang Ping'an had warned Shazhu not to eavesdrop on Jia Dongxu's wall at the time; he remembered it clearly, and there was no guarantee these grandsons wouldn't listen to his.

Thus, Shazhu forcibly suppressed the urge to pounce on the bride, prepared a basin of forty-degree water, soaked his own smelly socks in it, and then splashed it behind the house.

"Damn, so stinky!"

"Damn, Shazhu doesn't play by the rules!"

"Blech~"

A group of people were all gathered behind Shazhu's room and were hit head-on by the splash. Several people even subconsciously licked their lips, and then they retched.

A chef's sweaty feet in summer are biological weapons; they were probably on par with the sweaty feet of a certain disgraced internet celebrity from Zhang Ping'an's past life, purely a reward for the "babies."

Everyone else had run off, only Xu Damao endured the humiliation and bore the burden, stubbornly listening to the very end without a peep; since his body already stank, wouldn't it be a loss if he didn't listen?

Upon returning home, Xu Damao hurriedly took a shower, washing away not only the stench but also the fire in his belly.

However, Xu Damao became even more curious—is that thing really so enjoyable? Thinking of the "yiyi-yaya" duet between Shazhu and the bride last night, Xu Damao felt a surge of excitement, though it was soon diluted by his heavy projection duties.

His father, Xu Fugui, was now a team leader, and he himself had long since become a regular employee; now, the father and son each led an Apprentice Worker, both of whom were relatives of the Factory Office leadership.

Xu Damao didn't find it easy to put on airs as a master, but fortunately, the apprentice he led, Kou Dali, was diligent, which made things much easier for Xu Damao.

"Dali, do you have the confidence to handle the presentation today?"

"Master, can I really do it?"

"……"

"You can do it, Dali."

"Mm, okay."

In the end, with Xu Damao's encouragement, Kou Dali's first presentation was quite successful; although he stumbled a bit in the middle, it was his first time, so it was understandable.