Courtyard House: My Wife is Xu Huizhen

Page 370

He Yuzhu said, "This is my younger brother, so of course I, as his older brother, have to take care of him."

Chapter 270 Catching mice

He Yuzhu then said, "You don't need to go to work for now. Although that position is no longer available, I've reserved other jobs for you."

"What kind of job?" the older woman asked curiously.

He Yuzhu said, "A new machinery factory has been set up in the neighborhood, and now there are four or five hundred people. When the children are older and you can get away, you can go work in the canteen."

Starting this year, we will begin to control various supplies, including grains and oils. From now on, the best jobs will be those related to food.

For a factory, the most important thing is the canteen, where employees can eat more; that's what makes it a good place.

The woman smiled and nodded, "Thank you. I'll definitely work hard from now on."

The marriage is over, and Yi Zhonghai has remarried, so there is no possibility of remarriage.

Besides, the child she gave birth to was He Daqing's, so even if Yi Zhonghai and Widow Bai divorced, she would never go back to Yi Zhonghai's side.

"We'll talk about this later. Don't worry, you'll definitely have a job. Just focus on taking good care of the child first."

He Yuzhu came out of the backyard, returned to the middle courtyard, said a word to Yushui, and then went to cook. A moment later, he heard arguing coming from the east wing.

He Yuzhu came out carrying a kitchen knife, and the arguing became clearer. Yushui also came out carrying her younger sister, and He Yuzhu and his wife also came out to watch the commotion.

He Yushui said, "Why are you arguing again?"

He Yuzhu asked, "Do people often argue here?"

He Yushui nodded and said, "They argue every other day. That guy surnamed Bai is a scoundrel, always causing trouble."

He Daqing stood awkwardly to the side, after all, Widow Bai was his former wife. After the divorce, she married Yi Zhonghai and became his neighbor, which was really annoying to him every day.

He Yuzhu simply said "oh" and didn't ask any further questions. Jia Dongxu, who was in the west wing, was a few minutes late when he opened the door and was not surprised to see He Yuzhu there.

He greeted He Daqing, ignored He Yuzhu, and then walked into the east wing with a sense of helplessness.

If it were anyone else, they could just come out to watch the show, but Yi Zhonghai was their master, and they had to come over to act as peacemakers every time they argued.

He had suffered all of Bai Widow's mistreatment, but he couldn't say anything, because she was his master's wife.

He secretly complained that this teacher's wife was far inferior to the previous Aunt Jiang. The previous subsidies had been cut off, but he still had to act as Yi Zhonghai's grandson.

After Jia Dongxu went in, the arguing didn't subside; in fact, it got louder.

He Yuzhu vaguely heard the word "money" and Yi Zhonghai talking about his son.

It's obvious without even guessing; it must be that Widow Bai found out about Yi Zhonghai giving money, which led to the argument.

After listening for a while, He Yuzhu guessed the truth of the matter quite well.

After a while, the noise gradually subsided, and He Yuzhu went back to continue cooking, since Yushui liked to eat what he made.

Knowing that pest control was about to begin, He Yuzhu put the rats from Yi Zhonghai's and Jia Dongxu's homes into his spatial storage.

It's important to understand that many tasks now need to be quantified. It's not enough for superiors to just publicize them and then forget about it. Every household needs to have specific tasks to complete.

Taking rats as an example, rats must be caught every month, and rat tails must be handed over. The specific number depends on the requirements of the neighborhood and may vary.

He Yuzhu had caught all the rats from both families and put them into his space beforehand, otherwise he wouldn't have been able to complete his mission. After all, He Yuzhu had always been very careful about the cleanliness of his home and would never allow rats to breed and live in his home.

That's just what I need to accomplish my task.

When Aunt Jiang returned with her child, it caused quite a stir. Everyone took turns looking after the child, and the matter eventually passed.

Two days later, the loudspeaker started broadcasting that although the goal was to eliminate pests, flies and mosquitoes would only appear in the summer, so the immediate target was rats and sparrows.

In addition to calling for pest control, the next step was to promote how to control pests, introducing various methods.

He Yuzhu didn't seem to mind, but he and Xu Huizhen were worried: "Zhuzi, we've never seen a mouse in our house before, how are we going to complete the mission?"

As mentioned on the broadcast, each household must submit five rat tails by the end of this month. Those who fail to meet the quota will be severely criticized.

This immediately worried Xu Huizhen. She had never seen a mouse in all the years she had been married, and there was no sign of the grain being eaten.

He Yuzhu said, "These are minor matters. We don't have any at home. I'll just borrow a few tails from someone else and hand them over."

"Okay, I didn't think much of it before, but it's incredible that we haven't had any mice in the past few years."

"What are you saying? Isn't it a good thing that there are no mice? Do you want mice to come?"

Xu Huizhen laughed, but it was just a casual remark, and then she didn't bring it up again.

Upon arriving at the factory, He Yuzhu entered the workshop and saw many people fiddling with steel bars using pliers. He asked, "What are you doing?"

The worker looked up and saw that it was He Yuzhu, and said embarrassedly, "Director, we were just asked to get rid of pests, so we made a mousetrap."

He Yuzhu then recognized them; to be honest, the workers were quite skilled.

Catching mice is very difficult at this time of year. You either need to use rat poison or mousetraps, but of course there are no sticky rat traps, and there aren't even any mouse cages.

It's not that they can't make them, it's just that there's a shortage of iron. They usually make mousetraps, which is cheaper.

"Why don't we organize more people to do more? It would be a benefit for everyone."

He Yuzhu then arranged for some apprentices to make mousetraps, giving each employee two, and then making more to send to the neighborhood.

This is no longer free; everything is recorded in the ledger and accounted for through official channels.

With the extensive publicity efforts of the streets and neighborhood committees, a pest control campaign swept through all the courtyard houses, and each household was assigned a task that had to be completed.

A few days later, He Yuzhu saw several trucks suddenly arrive on the street, followed by a crowd of people, all holding up slogans to eliminate pests.

Even from a distance, He Yuzhu could smell a stench. He discovered that the car was piled high with sacks, emitting a truly foul odor, and the handlebars were covered with strings of rats.

He Yuzhu shook his head and walked away.

In fact, pest control is not a standalone matter, but rather an integral part of the Patriotic Health Campaign.

In previous years, the Patriotic Health Campaign was promoted.

Not drinking untreated water, practicing good hygiene, taking frequent baths, and trimming fingernails are all part of the Patriotic Health Campaign.

He Yuzhu carried the net bag back to the courtyard. He went to the backyard first and gave all the children's clothes he had brought to the old lady, saying that there would be more in the future and that the children would not be short of clothes.

After exchanging a few words inside the house, he came out and saw the two brothers, Liu Guangtian and Liu Guangfu, who were still children, squatting on the ground together.

The squeaking of mice came from the ground.

He Yuzhu walked up and saw that the mousetrap had caught a mouse, but it was still alive and was squeaking.

He Yuzhu asked, "What are you two doing? Why don't you hurry up and kill the rat?"

Liu Guangtian looked up and said, "Brother Zhu, it's you. This is something I learned at school."

"Your school even teaches how to play with mice?"

"This isn't playing with mice; it's a way to catch mice."

As Liu Guangtian spoke, he took a small, handcrafted knife and cut off the rat's tail, then pulled a paper packet out of his pocket.

After opening it, take out some lime and sprinkle it on the rat's tail, then take out some soybeans.

Liu Guangfu was told to hold the rat down while he stuffed soybeans into the rat's anus.

He Yuzhu asked, "What are you doing?"

Liu Guangtian said, "Stuff the soybeans in first, then sew it up."

He Yuzhu, who was usually fearless, suddenly got goosebumps; it sounded really creepy.

"Who told you to do that? Isn't it disgusting?"

Liu Guangfu, undeterred by the dirt, covered the rat with a newspaper, then pressed his hands down on it. While stuffing soybeans into the rat's anus, Liu Guangtian said:

"Stuff it with soybeans and sew it up, then the rat won't be able to poop, it will become ruthless and can kill a whole nest of rats."

He Yuzhu was surprised: "It's possible to do that?"

"Yes, that's what my classmate did, and then he killed all the rats."

He Yuzhu thought for a moment and asked, "Then how did you get the dead rat out of the rat hole?"

Liu Guangtian paused in his act of stuffing soybeans, then looked up at He Yuzhu blankly: "We didn't think of this much beforehand."

He Yuzhu said speechlessly, "Doesn't a dead rat stink after it dies in its nest?"

"This..." Liu Guangtian hesitated, unsure how to answer.

Then he looked down at the mouse, hesitated for a moment, and continued to stuff soybeans inside.

"We should at least give it a try."

Boys like to cause trouble, so He Yuzhu stopped asking questions, but he didn't leave. He just watched as Liu Guangtian stuffed a handful of soybeans into the rat's anus.

They only managed to sew up the mouse's anus when they couldn't insert any more.

Only after confirming that the stitches were secure and the soybeans wouldn't fall out did I release the mousetrap.

The rat that had been trapped felt freed from its restraints, and coupled with the pain from its previous wound, it scurried away in a flash, probably relieved to be still alive.

He Yuzhu shook his head. Who came up with this terrible idea? To catch a rat, stuff it with soybeans, and then sew it up so that the rat would hold it in and not defecate, and then it could bite his whole family to death.

"If you do it this way, you won't get your reward. If you don't complete the task, you won't get the reward."

Liu Guangtian chuckled. The reward didn't really matter; after all, a mouse tail could only be exchanged for a box of matches, which wasn't very appealing to the child. It was better to play like this.