Siheyuan: Who Says Silly Zhu Doesn't Keep Accounts?

He Yuzhu, head chef at a modern private restaurant, is reborn as Silly Zhu, the easy target at the steel mill in 1957.

He Daqing runs off with the money, while his younger sister, He Yushui, still has to go to school. Qin Huairu, from the central courtyard, cries poor and borrows food; Jia Zhangshi throws tantrums and extorts him; and Yi Zhonghai, the respected elder, uses talk of unity and friendship to pressure him. The whole courtyard treats him like a free meal ticket, bleeding him dry for ten years, with the full debt impossible to calculate.

Fortunately, he awakens the Settlement System: whenever he is bullied, exploited, or wronged, it investigates the cause and makes the culprit pay. The higher his settlement score, the more the two mu of black soil and the well of living water in his mind produce.

Qin Huairu comes to scoop noodles again? First, she has to calculate the money owed for the dried sweet potatoes and corn grits from previous years and sign an IOU, with Yi Zhonghai and Yan Bugui signing as witnesses. Jia Zhangshi throws herself on the floor and makes a scene? He flips the table and calls the whole courtyard over to settle three years of old accounts. As each debt is settled, the System unlocks white flour, fertile farmland with superior seeds, and refined supplies. During the three years of hardship, while other families chew tree bark, he and his sister have all the white-flour buns they can eat.

Silly Zhu isn't silly, and he never lets an account sit overnight. In this life, he'll tear the skin off every leech in the courtyard, help his sister make something of herself, master his cooking, and live with dignity in a great era.

This novel and its characters are entirely fictional. Any resemblance to actual people or events is purely coincidental. Do not imitate.