Chapter 120 – As Long as Your Family Doesn’t Mind

Zhou Daqiu took the opportunity to tell Zhou Yimin that his master planned to help him get a temporary job at the steel factory.

“Mhm, that’s pretty good. Seems like your master really cares about you,” Zhou Yimin nodded slightly.

This could be considered fulfilling a master’s responsibility.

Nowadays, even though the master-disciple bond wasn’t as sacred as in ancient times, there was still some lingering belief in “once a master, always like a father.”

Unlike the future generations, where that title held little weight.

People thought, I paid money to learn something, what more do you want? Expect me to support you in your old age? That’s not happening.

Of course, this also had to do with how much more people learned later on. When you had dozens of teachers, which one were you supposed to honor like family? From kindergarten onward, kids were enrolled in all sorts of extracurricular classes.

So naturally, when teacher and student connections became so diluted, the emotional bonds also weakened.

Luo Dapeng took Zhou Daqiu to buy some daily necessities.

That evening, Zhou Yimin stewed a big goose and grilled lamb chops.

“Whoa! Tonight’s gonna be a feast,” Luo Dapeng said happily.

Here in this courtyard, everyone could eat freely and without restraint.

Back in the old siheyuan, could they have eaten like this? Absolutely not. While the residents there all had goodwill toward Zhou Yimin, it would’ve felt awkward for him to eat like this in front of them.

“It really is more comfortable here,” Luo Dapeng said, picking up a chilled slice of watermelon.

With stewed goose, grilled meat, and cold watermelon, life really felt like something out of a fairy tale.

Honestly, even he was tempted to move in.

“Yimin, how about I stay here for a while too?” he suggested.

Zhou Yimin replied, “Up to you. As long as your family doesn’t mind.”

One more person meant a bit more safety for Zhou Daqiu—at least there’d be someone to keep him company. So, if Luo Dapeng wanted to stay for the time being, Zhou Yimin didn’t object. The rooms were just sitting empty anyway.

“What’s my family going to say? If I don’t tell them, they won’t even know,” Luo Dapeng shrugged.

He didn’t share a room with his family. Sometimes he’d go home for meals, other times he wouldn’t. If he didn’t tell them he was staying out, they really might not notice.

As long as he swung by during the day to show his face, that was enough.

The main thing was—freedom! No one nagging him.

“Sixteenth Uncle, next time can I bring the family dog here?” Zhou Daqiu asked.

He had overheard some secrets just now—Sixteenth Uncle planned to stash some supplies here, and he was a bit worried. He wasn’t always around, and if someone broke in to steal something, that’d be bad.

But he knew his dog well. It was definitely a reliable guardian.

Besides, bringing the dog over would slightly ease the grain pressure at home. Even though dogs didn’t eat human food, you still had to feed them something.

“Your dad’s okay with it?” Zhou Yimin’s eyes lit up.

Having a dog here would make the place even safer. If a stranger broke in, at least there’d be an alarm.

Zhou Daqiu shook his head. “No problem. My dad’s been annoyed about that dog!”

Anyway, as long as he told his dad it was for Sixteenth Uncle, no matter how much he treasured that dog, he’d agree to let it go.

“Alright, next time you go back, bring it over.”

Li Youde added, “Then why not get a cat too? With all the stuff in the basement, I’m worried about mice.”

Even though two years of pest control campaigns had drastically reduced the mouse population, they hadn’t been wiped out completely. You could still see them at night.

“Up to you,” Zhou Yimin said casually.

It was just more food for a dog and a cat—no big deal.

“Sixteenth Uncle, I heard something about the noodle factory…” Zhou Dazhong asked, concerned about his sister.

He’d heard the aunties in the courtyard gossiping about the noodle factory earlier, but it was all speculation—no solid news.

Zhou Yimin told him, “Don’t worry. If there’s an opening, I’ll definitely try to get one for Xiaoxue. Once she gets a job in the city too, you might as well bring your mother and brother over.

You’ll be officially hired next month, no problem there. With Xiaoxue working too, supporting your mom and brother shouldn’t be too hard.

If there’s not enough room at your current place, you can move in here and let your sister and the others stay at No. 55 Courtyard.”

“Okay! Thanks, Sixteenth Uncle.”

He’d been thinking about bringing his mother and younger brother into the city too. Just not right now—he planned to do it after this semester ended. By then, his brother would be starting fourth grade and could just start school in the city.

Otherwise, he’d have to go to school in the Hongxing Commune, which was a hassle.

“Tomorrow, take some eggs and meat to the factory to complete a task. After that, help me haul some stuff back to Zhoujiazhuang,” Zhou Yimin instructed.

Over in the village, the septic tank and everything else was nearly done. What was left were the squat toilets and sewer pipes.

“Got it,” Zhou Dazhong agreed.

That night’s meal was satisfying—and lasted quite late.

The next day, Zhou Dazhong delivered two large crates of eggs to the factory to fulfill a task.

That surprised Team Leader Wang a little.

Nearly 2,000 eggs! For someone who had only recently joined, that was a pretty impressive achievement.

Not as amazing as Zhou Yimin, of course, but still very solid.

Team Leader Wang encouraged him, “Keep it up. Aim to go permanent next month.”

“Yes, sir.”

He signed the papers, the eggs were stored, and he collected the money before leaving.

Back at the courtyard, Zhou Yimin and Luo Dapeng were loading squat toilets and sewage pipes onto his tricycle. It didn’t take long to fill the cart. Next to them was another tricycle.

“Dapeng-ge is going too?” Zhou Dazhong asked in surprise.

As he spoke, he handed the money from the eggs to Zhou Yimin.

Zhou Yimin nodded. “Yeah, if he didn’t help with this run, you’d have to come back this afternoon for another trip.”

Besides the bathroom equipment, Zhou Yimin had also gotten some essential parts for the incubator. After this trip back to the village, he needed to set up the chick incubator and start hatching chicks.

Getting eggs was easy—just buy them.

But not all eggs could hatch into chicks. Only fertilized ones could.

It was easy to tell if an egg was fertilized—just shine a light through it.

If you saw cloudy or thread-like shapes near the yolk, that meant the egg was fertilized and could hatch.

If not, then it couldn’t.

In fact, egg candling was done three times during incubation.

The first candling happened five to six days in, mainly to check fertility and early embryo development.

The second was around day eleven, to see if the embryo was developing well.

The third was around day eighteen or nineteen.

A healthy embryo would show a larger air cell, a slanted and curved edge to the air cell, thick blood vessels, and you might even see it twitching—known as “turning” or “feather flash.”

Luo Dapeng also brought along a big bag of mahua (fried dough twists), which kids loved.

No denying it—he wasn’t exactly winning any prizes for his big-brothering skills.

(End of chapter)