Chapter 52: Chapter Fifty-Three: This Cup of Green Tea Isn

The Li family’s main hall.

Li Shun silently prepared the herbs without speaking.

He knew his son was preparing to move out, and inside he couldn’t tell if he was happy or sad.

Da Lao sat at the eight-immortal table, studying the sketches Li Xuewu had drawn during his afternoon shift.

Li Xuewu sat down opposite Da Lao and said, “My drawings are messy—can you actually build it like this?”

Two days ago, Li Xuewu roughly measured the dimensions of the four back rooms and examined the interior structure; now, with the screen door and the western annex included, the space available for renovation had expanded significantly.

Da Lao stared at the blueprint and murmured, “The back rooms are twenty-one meters long and five and a half meters wide. Turn the four rooms into three—the western room split into two sections: the north part as the living room, the south part as the kitchen, roughly a seven-to-three split, with a window on the west wall of the living room...”

Li Xuewu said, “It’s fine, Da Lao. We’re not starting construction right now—if it doesn’t work, we can just fix up one room first.”

Seeing Li Xuewu’s good attitude, Da Lao stopped urging him and smiled, “Starting now would take too long—I won’t wait for you. I’ll build a kang in the western courtyard first, clean it up, and we’ll move over there together.”

Li Xuewu nodded. “Alright.”

Liu Yin grumbled, “Are you two really in such a hurry to move out?”

Both Li Xuewu and Da Lao just smiled and said nothing.

Without mentioning Li Xuewu’s grand renovation plans, He Yuzhu rushed into the central courtyard pushing his bicycle.

He Yuzhu entered the courtyard and called out, “Brother! Brother!”

Hearing his sister’s voice, He Yuzhu pushed aside the curtain and stepped out.

“What’s wrong?”

He Yuzhu propped up the bike stand and said to He Yuzhu, “When I came in, I heard there was a thief in our courtyard?”

He Yuzhu looked at his sister’s gossiping expression and sighed, “Who told you? It was Banggeng...”

He Yuzhu asked suspiciously, “So the chicken really was stolen by Banggeng?”

He Yuzhu nodded and said to his sister, “Xu Damao and his wife went to Li Xuewu.”

He Yuzhu asked, “Why did they go to Li Xuewu?”

He Yuzhu, remembering his sister hadn’t been home these past few days, explained, “Li Xuewu got appointed head of the steel mill’s security division—Xu Damao wants to take this officially.”

In truth, He Yuzhu himself felt relieved—who wants to take the blame for someone else? Though Li Xuewu was a bit cold, he’d helped him out.

He Yuzhu bragged for her brother: “I even heard just now that Third Auntie said you found a powerful backer.”

He Yuzhu didn’t want his sister getting involved in courtyard affairs.

“Enough, enough, let’s drop it. How’s your situation?”

He Yuzhu replied flatly, “Settled. We’re getting married during the Spring Festival.”

In truth, He Yuzhu wasn’t particularly fond of this boyfriend; she’d grown up like an orphan and was desperate to marry a reliable man—that’s why she chose him.

He Yuzhu nodded approvingly: “Good. Do what needs to be done. Marry that cop during the Spring Festival—it’ll honor our late mother’s spirit. Don’t worry about my affairs. Go back to your room. That’s all.”

Seeing her brother’s demeanor, He Yuzhu knew he was hiding something—but since he didn’t want to talk, she didn’t care. She picked up her bag and went back to her room.

At that moment, Qin Huaiju, who had been eavesdropping by the gate, rushed out and called out to He Yuzhu.

“He Yuzhu!”

He Yuzhu turned and saw Qin Huaiju, responding with a sour expression.

“He Yuzhu, I need to borrow five yuan—still haven’t got the money to pay for the chicken tomorrow...”

Hearing she wanted to borrow money, He Yuzhu thought for a moment, then pulled out five yuan and handed it over.

“Thank you for still thinking of helping me.”

He Yuzhu said awkwardly, “I... didn’t really help. Li Xuewu was just doing his job—he couldn’t help it. Just don’t hate him.”

Qin Huaiju couldn’t speak ill of that bandit, so she subtly shifted blame: “Old Third really is something else—wishing people dead. Xu Damao must’ve given him little favors.”

He Yuzhu thought of how Old Third had set him up, nodded, and agreed wholeheartedly: “Yan Lao isn’t a good man.”

Qin Huaiju added more: “Old Second isn’t good either—he even said...”

Qin Huaiju wanted to redirect He Yuzhu’s resentment and conflict toward the two Old Men; the fact that He Yuzhu hadn’t looked at her today showed he was slipping from her control—she had to re-PUA him.

He Yuzhu felt better after hearing her thanks and shared outrage, and sneered, “There’s not a single good person in this courtyard—everyone just plots and schemes. Hey, what about that time you used my lunchbox to mention introducing your cousin? Any news?”

Qin Huaiju had planned to extricate herself with a few words and make He Yuzhu rage with her—but how did he bring this up?

He Yuzhu now saw things clearly: keep as far away from the Jia family as possible, especially after Li Xuewu’s words: “If you don’t want to be someone’s father, don’t coddle their son.” That struck him hard—he wasn’t unmarriageable; why raise someone else’s child?

A widow may be tempting, but don’t drink too deep.

Seeing He Yuzhu bring it up again, Qin Huaiju quickly brushed him off.

“I’ll do it, I’ll do it, tomorrow I’ll do it! You helped me—I won’t not help you. I just told my mother, and she agreed—I’ll introduce my cousin to you. Once our families are connected, won’t you help us even more?”

Saying this hurt Qin Huaiju a little—it was best when things were vague; she lost nothing and kept gaining. Once He Yuzhu married, everything would become unpredictable.

He Yuzhu teased happily: “That’s right! I’ve realized the smartest people in the world are widows.”

Qin Huaiju had just cried for a while and was breathless; she panted lightly: “Nonsense.”

Having gotten the information he wanted, He Yuzhu didn’t dare linger in the courtyard with the widow at this late hour—without the moral cover of Old First, he hurriedly said, “Get some rest,” and they each returned to their rooms.

In the morning, Li Xuewu was woken by his mother, ate breakfast, and walked to the steel mill.

His bicycle had been taken by Li Xuewen to visit his in-laws and hadn’t returned yet—he had to walk to work.

After reviewing the security division’s affairs, he went downstairs and led the factory guard team in morning exercises.

Previously, morning exercises were skipped whenever possible, faked whenever possible.

Today, Li Xuewu didn’t let them sweat on the small practice ground—he gathered the team for a full-factory run, using the chance to circle the entire mill himself.

“One, two, one!”

“One, two, one!”

“One, two, three, four!”

The steel mill’s compound was still large—its size came from merging several factories, which explained why it was a bureau-level unit.

The entire compound had two main gates: the southern gate for workers and small vehicles, the northern gate for trains, materials, and large vehicles.

Between the north and south gates ran a cement road, with workshops on both sides; behind the eastern workshops, right against the railway, were the warehouses and material yards.

West of the western workshops lay the ice cream factory, food factory, club, grand auditorium, dormitories, and a reservoir called Unity Lake for storing cooling water.

Alongside Unity Lake stood a guesthouse with some recreational facilities.

Further south was the office area: one main building, three annexes, and two experimental buildings—this was the very image of a factory at the time.

The factory was self-sufficient: it had its own kindergarten, elementary school, middle school, cafeteria, club, cinema, auxiliary food factory, tool factory, labor protection factory, and hospital.

It could be called a complete community.