Chapter 79 Unlucky
Even thugs can't stand people bullying women.

Yi Zhonghai was also unlucky to run into these street thugs.

Even if he didn't encounter it today, he would be beaten if he encountered it in the future.

"Ouch, stop hitting me. I know I'm wrong. Stop hitting me."

How could Yi Zhonghai be a match for a group of thugs? He didn't even dare to resist and was soon knocked down, curled up and wailing.

The people watching the excitement were cheering. It was the first time the thugs heard people cheering for them, so they beat them even harder. They didn't stop until Yi Zhonghai was beaten so hard that even his wailing became weaker.

"Shit, he's not going to be killed, guys, get out of here quickly."

The thugs ran away in a swarm, leaving Yi Zhonghai lying in the middle of the road.

People were passing by, but no one came forward to help him up.

No one knew how long it had been before Yi Zhonghai got up from the ground, spitting out a mouthful of blood, along with two yellowed teeth.

…………

Yi Zhonghai was eventually fired, as he was not allowed to enter the steel mill at all.

The guards all knew him, and would stop him if they saw him trying to come in.

Yi Zhonghai didn't even have the chance to question the steel mill leaders.

After trying several times, Yi Zhonghai gave up completely.

And on the day he gave up, He Daqing was officially appointed as the director of the third canteen of the Logistics Department, in charge of three workers' canteens.

Although the salary of a level 24 clerk is not as much as what a chef earned before the Qing Dynasty.

But at least it is the treatment of a cadre, and there is a chance for promotion in the future. Unlike when he was a chef before, his skills were basically finalized and it was difficult to improve further.

When He Daqing returned to the courtyard in the evening, he was in high spirits and told all the neighbors he met about the incident.

Among them, the first one is naturally the door god Yan Bugui.

When Yan Bugui heard that He Daqing was promoted to be the canteen director, he immediately smelled the scent of good food.

He smiled and said, "Daqing, your promotion to an official position is a great event. Why don't you cook a few dishes and invite the three of us to have a few drinks to celebrate for you?"

He Daqing said, "Of course it's fine to treat you, but who are you pretending to be? If you want to eat the food I cook as a big shot, you'd better go somewhere cooler."

Yan Bugui coughed twice and said, "I just said it casually. Besides, the uncle I mentioned is the uncle in charge, which is a position, not the elder."

"I don't care. Even Lao Li has never called me uncle. You, old stingy Yan, are not allowed to call me that in the future."

After saying this, He Daqing continued walking towards the central courtyard. What he wanted most now was to share this joy with his wife.

Xu Huizhen was naturally very happy to hear that the wealthy man was promoted to an official.

However, while she was happy, she also reminded He Daqing not to forget to thank Li Jiandong. If Li Jiandong had not given him the opportunity to arrest Yi Zhonghai and Li Huaide, would he have had the chance to be promoted?
Others may not know the interests involved, but Xu Hui is really a smart woman.

She was the only one who guessed that her man was promoted because of the hush money he received after catching Li Huaide.

Without her reminder, He Daqing knew that he should invite Li Jiandong to dinner.

In fact, when he first learned that he would become the canteen director, the first thing he did was to find Li Jiandong to share it, and he also made an appointment to cook some delicious dishes tonight and invite him to have a few drinks.

Li Jiandong has a good alcohol tolerance, and He Daqing likes to drink with him the most. They can drink to their heart's content.

Usually Li Jiandong was the one who came back the fastest from the steel rolling mill. After all, he had a chariot and could definitely walk faster than others. But today he was stopped halfway.

"Jiandong, do you have time tonight? Come to my house and have a quick meal together."

The person who stopped Li Jiandong was Li Huaide, who had just been disturbed by He Daqing a few days ago and was sent to the police station.

The reason why he wanted to invite Li Jiandong home was not only to win him over and establish a good relationship with him.

The most important thing was to get him to go home with her so that she could explain to him and his wife what happened a few days ago.

Li Huaide has achieved his current status thanks to his wife's family connections, so his status in the family is relatively low.

The last time he was beaten up by He Daqing and was detained in the police station for a night, of course his wife wanted to find out what happened when he got home.

Li Huaide lied and said he was cheated, but his wife didn't believe him.

Therefore, Li Huaide thought of asking Li Jiandong to testify for him. No matter whether it was useful or not, at least he would try his best.

"What a coincidence! I have something to do tonight. How about another day?"

Li Jiandong was not being perfunctory, he really had something to do.

He was going to He Daqing's house to celebrate He Daqing becoming the canteen director.

"Is that so? That's fine too. How about tomorrow? Tomorrow is Saturday. Even if I drink too much, I don't have to worry about being late the next day."

Li Huaide invited him so warmly that Li Jiandong felt embarrassed to refuse.

I nodded and said, "Tomorrow is fine. I have time tomorrow."

Li Huaide laughed: "Then let's make it a deal. I'll go to the restaurant tomorrow and order some good dishes. You know where my home is, so you must come when the time comes."

"Okay, I will definitely go."

Li Jiandong waved his hand and then rode his bike home.

When passing by the police station, Li Jiandong also said something to Sha Zhu.

He Daqing got promoted, so as his son, of course he had to go back to celebrate with him.

Sha Zhu was handling a fight case there, and was a little surprised to hear that his own father was promoted to an official.

He immediately handed the work over to someone else and went home with Li Jiandong.

When they returned to the courtyard, Liu Haizhong and Yan Bugui also came to He Daqing's house to celebrate.

Xu Fugui was supposed to be showing a movie tonight, so he would rather not make any money and come over to have a meal with He Daqing.

"Daqing, you are awesome now. You are the third most powerful cadre in our hospital. That's awesome."

Xu Fugui said sourly.

He and He Daqing had been fighting for so many years, although they had reconciled in the past two years thanks to Li Jiandong's matchmaking.

However, seeing that He Daqing was promoted while he was still just a projectionist, Xu Fugui was a little envious and jealous.

He Daqing was cooking and laughed when he heard this:

"Of course. Don't you see who I am? Not to mention those far away, at least in Nanluoguxiang, who doesn't know about my craftsmanship?"

"But, Lao Xu, don't be envious. Work hard. Maybe one day you will become the director of the Propaganda Department."

Xu Fugui liked to hear this and said happily,

"Okay, thanks to your good words, if I become the director of the publicity department, I will show movies in our theater five times a year for free."

Yan Bugui's eyes lit up: "No, I'm telling you, Lao Xu, even if you're not the director, you can still show movies for our theater. It's a waste to show movies on that machine anyway, don't you think?"

Liu Haizhong also said: "Old Yan is right. Old Xu, you have this skill, you should give it more to contribute to our hospital. What do you think, Old Li?"

Li Jiandong would certainly not agree with what Liu Haizhong and Yan Bugui said.

Although it sounds like showing a movie is really not a big deal, it doesn't consume any energy and it just requires some effort.

But, Xu Fugui does this and makes a living from it. He can make several dollars for showing movies to others.

Why should I let you release it for free without charging you any money?

Just because we're neighbors?

But neighbors are mutual. Since you treat them as neighbors, why don't you give them more money? Instead, you want to get it for free?
Of course, it is enough to just know this truth, there is no need to tell others, otherwise others will not agree with it, and will even think you are unkind.

Li Jiandong has a relatively high emotional intelligence, so he would definitely not say such things.

He just hesitated for a moment and said:

"I think it's a good idea to let Lao Xu show movies in our theater. But it's not right to say that he doesn't pay a penny, after all, Lao Xu makes a living by doing this.

Otherwise, Lao Xu, how about this? When you are free, you can show a few movies to our theater, but the fee should be as low as possible. Our theater has public funds, and we can pay from there.”

"What do you think?" Xu Fugui originally thought that Li Jiandong would also let him show movies for free like the other two uncles.

He has already thought of the answer. If he only releases it once or twice, he will just release it for nothing.

If it happened three or five times, he would be able to endure it for Li Jiandong's sake.

But if this happens too often, Xu Fugui will definitely not be happy.

But what no one expected was that Li Jiandong would actually propose to pay him to show movies to everyone.

Although it was cheaper for him, he didn't have to travel far to show movies in his own theater, which saved him travel time, so it wasn't a big loss.

The reason why movies cost two or three yuan in the city but five or eight yuan in the countryside is because the distance is too far and it is inconvenient to show movies.

If you do it in your own yard, even if it only costs one dollar, you can still make money just by having fun.

Moreover, this is when he has no other screenings, so it does not affect his ability to make other money.

So, no matter what, it is a good thing for Xu Fugui.

"I agree. If you give it to our hospital, I'll only charge one dollar each time."

Xu Fugui was the first to express his stance.

It only costs one dollar to show a movie, which is cheaper than anywhere else in the city.

Liu Haizhong and Yan Bugui also knew that showing movies couldn't be that cheap, because they had to rent videotapes, which cost several cents each time.

Liu Haizhong also said: "I think this is a good idea. One dollar for a movie is not expensive. Public funds are endless anyway."

Yan Bugui rolled his eyes and said, "And when we show movies in our theater, we can invite residents from other theaters to watch. It costs 5 cents per person. If 20 people come, we don't have to pay."

When everyone heard this proposal, they all burst into laughter. When it comes to calculations, Yan Bugui is the one who is good at it.

Time passes day by day.

In the blink of an eye, spring goes and summer comes.

In the past few months, two new members have been added to the courtyard, namely the daughter of He Daqing and Xu Huizhen, and the son of Li Huilan and Zhao Quezi.

It has only been two years since Liu Guangfu was born, and there are already five more children in the yard.

Normally, it is very cute to see them babbling together, but sometimes women are too busy with housework to take care of them, especially Qin Huairu and Xu Huizhen who also have to run a pub. Now they often have to take turns to look after the children while the other one looks after the pub, and sometimes when there are more guests, one person really can't handle it.

Although there were people like Sister Ma to help, they had only learned arithmetic in the study corner for a few days and they were too old to learn it. They were diligent in cleaning but it was nonsense for them to do the accounting as the shopkeeper.

So that night, Qin Huairu mentioned this to Li Jiandong before going to bed.

"Brother Jiandong, let's hire one more person in our tavern, someone who knows how to do math. Huizhen has a child now, and she and I have to have one person take care of Xunfu and Yuting every day. We are a bit overwhelmed at the counter."

Li Jiandong seldom goes to the pub recently, so he didn't notice this problem.

But once Qin Huairu mentioned it, he understood.
After pondering for a moment, Li Jiandong had an idea.

"Don't hire any more people in the pub. We already have a lot of people now. If we hire more, we won't be able to guarantee profits. It will affect the public funds of our hospital. When there is a lot of money, everyone is happy. Once there is no profit, many conflicts will arise."

Li Jiandong understands human nature too well and knows that most conflicts are caused by money.

Even in a village as strict as Tazhai, the villagers almost rebelled when Uncle Dong was unable to distribute dividends, let alone his own small courtyard.

Qin Huairu couldn't help but pout when she saw Li Jiandong refuse.

She thought Li Jiandong would agree readily. After all, Li Jiandong was very caring about her and her son.

He didn't even need her to make any requests, as he often thought of them in advance for her. This was the only time he made a request, and he never thought that he would refuse.

Li Jiandong laughed when he saw her aggrieved look.

"Silly, what I mean is that we can't add people to the tavern, but we can use other methods to take care of the children, such as setting up a kindergarten."

Qin Huairu was stunned when she heard this. Kindergarten was a new term for her.

The country only had preschool classes in 68. At that time, they were called Yuhong classes. Initially, they were only used to instill ideological education in children one year before going to school. Later, when the trend died down, they were renamed preschool classes.

As for the name of kindergarten, it was a thing that came about several decades later, probably during the period of family planning.

However, there is no doubt that there is indeed a demand for kindergartens in this era, but the issue of tuition fees for kindergartens must be considered. If a fee is charged, it is likely that no one will be willing to spend this money on their children.

But where do the free kindergarten teachers come from?
We can’t just rely on the people in the yard to volunteer. Even though the women don’t earn much money, they still have to spend time doing housework.

Moreover, they can also do some small flexible things in their daily lives. For example, Jia Zhang often makes shoe soles and sells them, and Sister Ma used to make paper shells.

No matter how much or how little you earn, at least it's better than babysitting a child in kindergarten for nothing.

"Brother Jiandong, is this kindergarten you're talking about the same as a zoo?"

Qin Huairu thought about it for a long time and suddenly said this.

Li Jiandong smiled and said: "It is different from a zoo. The role of a kindergarten is to take care of children and teach them some knowledge, such as learning pinyin and recognizing numbers, as well as other intellectual development and doing things by themselves. It is similar to a preschool class."

“There are more and more children in our courtyard now, and people like Old Liu’s wife and Li Huilan have little education themselves. Even if they want to educate their children well, they don’t have the ability to do so.

Not to mention people like Sister Ma who have to bring their children with them to work. These people need a kindergarten to help them take care of and educate their children.”

Qin Huairu nodded: "Brother Jiandong, you are right, but if you say so, the kindergarten will have to find a special teacher. Where will the money for building a house and finding a teacher come from?"

"Don't worry about this for now. I'll go to the street office tomorrow and ask around. If the street office supports us running a kindergarten, then these won't be a problem."

Li Jiandong already had some preliminary ideas in his mind, but without the support of the street, everything would be in vain.

Apart from anything else, first of all, the land approval for building a house requires the street stamp.

After get off work the next day, Li Jiandong came to the street office.

Director Zheng saw Li Jiandong and stood up to greet him with a smile: "Jiandong, you haven't come to see me for a long time. You must have come here for no reason, right?"

Li Jiandong also laughed.

"Director Zheng, you really guessed it right. I came here today for something, and I want to hear your opinion."

"Oh, then let's get down to business first."

When Director Zheng saw that Li Jiandong was indeed in trouble, his expression became serious.

Li Jiandong also put away his smile and said, "It's like this. I want to build a kindergarten in our street, a place for preschool children to play and learn. It is mainly to liberate those families who have too many children to take care of them, so that they have time and energy to do their own things."

When Director Zheng heard this proposal, he immediately began to ponder.

I have to say that this proposal makes a lot of sense.

His eyes became brighter and brighter, and he said excitedly,

"Jiandong, your suggestion is very good. Not to mention others, even around my home, there are many families who are too busy to take care of their children. All day long, I see five-year-old children walking around with their two- or three-year-old brothers. It's not only unsafe, but also idle and a waste of time."

"If the kindergarten you are talking about can really bring children together and educate them together, it will definitely be a very meaningful thing for both adults and children."

Seeing Director Zheng’s approval, Li Jiandong knew that this matter would be easy to handle.

He continued, "Director Zheng, I already have the idea of ​​opening a kindergarten. Now I need the support and cooperation of our street."

Director Zheng asked directly:
“You need the street to do something, just tell me.”

Li Jiandong didn't hesitate and directly listed one, two, three things and told them all that he needed the street to do.

First, we need land to build houses, and second, we need the streets to help with publicity.

As for the cost of hiring teachers, Li Jiandong feels that the kindergarten should be able to make a profit on its own.

Based on the calculation that there are 40 children in a class, 3 cents per child per month is 12 yuan. This money is more than enough to hire a kindergarten teacher, because this job does not require a workstation or a high level of education, and people will do it if you pay them a little.

Li Jiandong will find other ways to earn back the money for the desks, benches, and building the house.

Of course, if you really can’t make any money, then forget it.

Anyway, Li Jiandong has a lot of money in his pocket. He has saved tens of thousands of yuan and has no place to spend it.

After listening to Li Jiandong's request, Director Zheng immediately called the cadre in charge of land to resolve the issue of the kindergarten's site selection first.

(End of this chapter)