1959: From the Start, I Sign In at a Siheyuan and Become a Procurement Officer

In August 1959, I was eighteen, had graduated from high school, and had no job lined up.

Our rice jar was almost empty, and we still owed money for my mother's medicine. Everyone in the compound looked at me and thought the same three words: good-for-nothing.

Then I got my first piece of pork through a sign-in at courtyard No. 95, Nanluoguxiang.

From that day on, my path just kept getting wider. The factory was short on bearings, so I got them two boxes in three days. The canteen was short on meat, so I brought back half a pig. The bureau chief's child came down with a fever in the middle of the night, and I pulled a box of fever medicine from my pocket.

Xu Damao said I was just lucky. Later, when he needed me to get something done, he had to take a number and wait.

Second Uncle said I wasn't doing proper work. Later, when his son got into the factory, the boy had to call me Master Chen.

Beijing, 1959. Courtyard No. 95, Nanluoguxiang.

I, Chen Weidong, an off-the-books procurement clerk, turned life in this compound into a legend in other people's eyes.

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