Chapter 1341: Chapter 1342: The Little Widow of the Courtyard 69 This secret was told to him by his grandfather before he passed away. Originally, he engraved this secret deep in his heart, after all, even if he knew, there was no way to retrieve the item. Who could have thought that after all those twists and turns, the thing that his grandfather buried with his own hands could one day give him a chance to dig it up. Unfortunately, the house he was assigned is next to that room, just one room short, unfortunately, it’s one of those three-room houses that already belongs to someone else. The other party has a pure and impeccable background, which leaves him no room to maneuver. He initially thought that with Zhao Jun’s passing, the delicate Zhang Yu wouldn’t be able to support this family, and as long as he put in a little effort, he’d definitely be able to get the house. But reality gave him a hard slap, even without a man, Zhang Yu, although not very commanding, managed to get by on sheer luck. In the scramble for jobs, she managed to keep Zhao Jun’s job, and even got the factory to provide a living subsidy for the two children every month. To cut expenses, Zhang Yu took up fishing, and ended up becoming a fishing expert. Looking at others’ wives, and then at his own, Xue Fan found himself increasingly annoyed with his own wife. Especially when he heard her thunderous snoring, Xue Fan was overwhelmed; had he known before marriage that she snored so loudly, he’d definitely never have agreed to marry her. Xue Fan gently got out of bed, opened the door, and looked at the three rooms next door, filled with envy. If those three rooms next door were his, how great would that be? There’d be the house, gold, and jewels, but unfortunately, none of it belonged to his family. Someone from the backyard walked to the toilet, and as they passed through the middle courtyard, they were startled to see Xue Fan in the yard. Xue Fan chuckled bitterly and rubbed his stomach, “I’m hungry.” The other person understood immediately, “Drink less water, it won’t fill you up and you’ll keep running to the toilet.” “However, even the chefs are starving, huh.” It used to be that no matter how tough times were, they never saw Xue Fan and his family worry about food before. “How could we not starve, the canteen supply is so compressed now it can’t be compressed further.” Xue Fan drank a few gulps of water and said, “I’m going inside to rest.” The other person acknowledged with a nod, went to the toilet, and when they returned, the yard was empty. Rubbing their protesting stomach, they decided to drink some water, otherwise even back home the stomach would continue to protest. Zhang Yu actually heard Xue Fan and others talk, and felt a bit pleased regarding Xue Fan’s mention that they too were going hungry. In their past life, because they thought about the house, and waited to exchange food for a house, they never touched their grain reserves. This time, knowing Zhang Yu went out fishing, they weren’t sure how much she had, and since the house was already renovated, they didn’t count on the house anymore, so when grain prices went up, they directly traded on the black market. Don’t ask how they knew, after all, just a wall separated them, and they could hear bits of it. They originally thought, since they worked in the canteen, they surely wouldn’t go hungry. They hadn’t expected that even the mechanical plant’s grain supply would encounter problems. Not to mention leftovers, even cafeteria staff had to use food coupons and be rationed, definitely couldn’t serve too much. The couple, not getting enough to eat at work, surely needed to eat at home, and this way, their monthly planned supply was not enough. Xue Fan was the head of the household, Xue Zhan was his son, he surely had to make sure they ate, Wang Xia was working too, so he couldn’t be too stingy, the only one the family could skimp on was Xue Li’s meals. Fortunately now, with the food supply issues, some children weren’t attending school full-time, attending three or four days a week instead, and the teachers could implicitly understand this since adults needed to work and couldn’t go hungry. Zhang Yu lay in bed, tossing and turning, sighing, “Hungry.” She touched her belly, she’d once, worried about weight gain, tried every diet and exercise to successfully lose weight. Now, it’s hard even to gain weight, Zhang Yu sat up abruptly, “No, I need to drink water.” “So hungry.” Zhang Yu slowly got out of bed. The shadow that had been crouching by the window shifted away quickly, Zhang Yu pretended not to see, opened the door and went into the yard to drink water. Gong Da Niang lazily sauntered in from outside, saw Zhang Yu, “You’re hungry too.” Zhang Yu retorted crossly, “Why wouldn’t I be hungry.” She only went back leisurely after drinking water to fill her stomach, couldn’t walk fast, as speeding would consume energy. ɴᴇᴡ ɴᴏᴠᴇʟ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs ᴀʀᴇ ᴘᴜʙʟɪsʜᴇᴅ ᴏɴ novel⁂fire.net Gong Da Niang watched Zhang Yu return to the house with a somber face. Zhao Fu lying in bed saw a shadow enter afterward, “They don’t have any food at home?” “No food, don’t you know she caught so many fish in the past two years?” Zhao Fu thought it impossible for Zhang Yu to not have any reserves at home, “Didn’t she often exchange things with others, you see, back then they had fish three or four times a week.” “Also exchanged for cloth, and cotton coupons,” Gong Da Niang thought even if Zhang Yu had reserves, “you saw last year, their family looked pretty good.” “This year, the three of them have all lost weight.” Gong Da Niang thought if they had any food, Zhang Yu’s family wouldn’t have lost weight. Zhao Fu totally disagreed with this speculation of Gong Da Niang, “We’ve all lost weight, if they still had those roly-poly three at home, how would others react.” Gong Da Niang didn’t argue with Zhao Fu, “I’m tired, I’m going to rest.” Doesn’t it take energy to talk? “You always manage to fill your stomach six-tenths full every time.” “I’m the one making money, by the way, is there still food at home?” Zhao Fu remembered something. Food? Gong Da Niang instantly became nervous, “What, what are you planning?” “I’ve got my eye on a girl, she’s quite capable, hasn’t our eldest son been without a wife all this time…” Zhao Fu thought given the current situation, Zhao Qi wanting to get married would either have to be with a second marriage with a child, or marry someone from the countryside. Previously, although Zhao Fu wasn’t satisfied with having a rural daughter-in-law with no job, he didn’t entirely reject it. These past two years, he deeply felt the difference between urban and rural hukou, the most important issue was, after marrying a rural wife, any children born would have rural hukou, truly an absolute burden? But pity those city girls, all those with jobs didn’t fancy their son, so finally having a decent prospect, Zhao Fu didn’t want to miss it. What? Now thinking of marrying again? “Who have you set your sights on?” though one could now marry a wife at a low cost, generally city girls shouldn’t be expected. “It’s that Qin Pandi.” Zhao Fu mentioned a name. What? Qin Pandi? Gong Da Niang never anticipated her eldest daughter-in-law being particularly well-off, for such a woman would surely look down on this mother-in-law. But as a mother, she never thought her son would marry such a daughter-in-law. “You’re crazy, how could you choose such a daughter-in-law for your son.” If it weren’t for the fear of waking their son, Gong Da Niang would truly have wanted to give Zhao Fu a couple of good slaps.