Silly Zhu's Moving: The Old Neighbor's Nightmare

Chapter 184 Lack of Money

The relationship between Li Jianguo and Sha Zhu was maintained by Sha Zhu incidentally.

Li Jianguo works at the neighborhood office and often visits Sha Zhu's house. Naturally, he feels envious and jealous of Sha Zhu's life living alone.

With Sha Zhu's instigation and support, he bought an abandoned, uninhabitable courtyard house in Qian Gu Lou Yuan Hutong, opposite Ju'er Hutong, in Nanluoguxiang Subdistrict.

Moreover, Li Jianguo's main job was to be responsible for the registration, sale, and rental of properties in Nanluoguxiang.

After being persuaded by Sha Zhu, they finally started to work on the abandoned courtyard.

Having acquired the courtyard house at a price almost lower than that of Sha Zhu, Director Wang of the neighborhood office naturally welcomed the offer.

Those abandoned houses couldn't be allocated, and the houses allocated to the neighborhood committee staff were disliked by everyone.

Director Wang was overjoyed that you were willing to pay for the house yourself.

They also planned to use the name of the subdistrict office to allocate some funds to build more rooms in that courtyard and assign more staff there.

Li Jianguo refused, so he built one more room than Shazhu, intending to bring his parents and sister over.

He left his crowded hometown to his brothers, borrowed most of the money, and the bicycle he had been longing for would have to wait until later.

Anyway, if there's a real emergency, like work requiring me to go to district or city government departments,

Sha Zhu's house is very close, and every time Sha Zhu goes to work, he borrows the bicycle first.

Li Ge even had a fight with his parents over buying this abandoned courtyard, but the deal was already finalized, and his family had no other choice.

For their son's wedding, Li Jianguo's parents had no choice but to use their family's money to support him in building a house. Every day, the two parents stayed at the construction site and did not go home, becoming inspectors.

Sha Zhu didn't care that his loan was exposed; let the rumors spread.

It's just three hundred yuan. A few days ago, staff members came to ask Sha Zhu about the money.

Sha Zhu answered fluently. Even Director Wang himself knew that Sha Zhu had a sum of money saved up. Moreover, there were letters from He Daqing every month, Sha Zhu's wages, and a wealthy master, etc.

"It's alright, let them spread it. Everyone in the neighborhood knows we're good friends. Even if they find out, what can they do?"

Anyway, if they want to follow suit, I don't have the money to borrow. Even if I did have money, this would be a ready-made excuse.

Sha Zhu didn't seem to care about the matter; it happened within the neighborhood committee.

The practice of public officials reporting and exposing each other, combating corruption, waste, and bureaucracy, also occurs within government departments.

Director Wang wouldn't necessarily let this kind of thing spread everywhere. The fact that it happened several days ago means that Director Wang must have warned the internal staff.

Li Jianguo's current worry is the large amount of money he owes for his wedding.

Although spending time with Sha Zhu has changed my mindset somewhat, for example, I no longer wait for public officials to allocate housing.

It's important to know that these days, public officials are allocated housing, and they frequently face the situation of being transferred around.

Li Jianguo was transferred to another place because his family was short of housing. The house he was assigned would no longer belong to him if he was transferred. There were many people in his family, so he built his own house at Sha Zhu's urging.

According to people's current mindset, very few people would do this, especially since Li Jianguo is a public official.

In the past couple of days, some neighbors have been whispering among themselves, saying that after Sha Zhu, another idiot has emerged in Nanluoguxiang.

They were just staff members of the neighborhood committee, but because Li Jianguo was in charge of managing the rental records of houses, and it didn't bother them, they rarely spread rumors.

This made Sha Zhu think even more. Sure enough, these common people would bully a child like him who had no parents to discipline him.

Even if ordinary people knew about Li Jianguo's slight power, they dared not meddle, fearing they would get burned.

Li Jianguo, imitating the rain, refilled his empty rice bowl with rice.

He also poured a spoonful of the boiled fish broth over the rice, and feeling it wasn't enough, he added another spoonful and ate it with gusto.

While eating, he gave the rain a thumbs up, silently saying that this was how to eat with flavor.

After the three of them finished lunch, while Sha Zhu was tidying up the table, Yu Shui slipped away unnoticed by his brother.

She ran out again. Sha Zhu heard the noise, used his mental senses to investigate, and realized it was his younger sister who had run out to play. He didn't call her back.

I'll let you play for a while, then I'll catch you and bring you back. Sun Wukong can't escape the Buddha's Five Finger Mountain.

After the two sat down again in the living room, Sha Zhu made tea, and Li Jianguo hesitated before speaking.

“Zhu Zi, I’m heavily in debt now, and I don’t know when I’ll be able to pay back your money. Is there any way I can earn some money?”

Sha Zhu really wanted to say, "There are many ways to make money, but it's not suitable for you as a public servant."

There was so much grain and vegetables harvested in the space that Shazhu and his sister couldn't possibly finish it all.

Even if I ask you to help me find some antiques and paintings now, it's hard to guarantee that it won't become an excuse for others to attack you later.

You should try to do what ordinary people do: collect scraps to sell, go fishing, and earn some money. Not only do you, as a public official, not have the time to do these things, but given your personality, you're also incapable of doing them.

Assemble bicycles, radios? When those time travelers had no better options, they would start with these kinds of things.

However, since spring arrived and the weather gradually warmed up, Sha Zhu has become a hardworking little bee in the eyes of his neighbors.

Every day after get off work, I either go fishing to supplement my family's income, or I collect scrap metal to sell to the recycling station.

Occasionally, he would collect scrap metal and bring it home under the watchful eyes of his neighbors. Of course, Sha Zhu would also linger at the recycling station for a while, searching for some treasures.

But even if the scrap yard in Nanluoguxiang had some old bicycles and radios, they would be taken away in no time, and no one knew where they went.

Ask the staff, and they'll say it was taken to a large recycling center. Sha Zhu isn't stupid; if they don't want to tell you, there's nothing you can do.

They won't take anything else; they'll leave some bicycle parts and a radio until the next day.

It's obvious that someone is targeting the old bicycles and radios at the recycling station, taking them back to repair themselves.

It wasn't that he didn't want a share of the profits; there was simply no need, so Sha Zhu never took it to heart.

When I go to the scrap metal recycling station, I mainly look for books, paintings, bottles, jars, or better quality wood.

Since Brother Li has asked, there's no problem with getting involved. Although Beijing isn't a huge city now, it's not small either. There are scrap metal collection stations everywhere, so there's nowhere you can't go.

After thinking for a moment, Sha Zhu went back to his room, transferred three books from his spatial storage, and, pretending to take them from a cabinet, handed them to Li Jianguo.

The three books are "Crystal Radio", "Vacuum Tube Radio", and "Radio and Tape Recorder Repair: From Beginner to Expert".