Siheyuan: Starting from 1958

The middle courtyard is Yi Zhonghai's home.

Yi Zhonghai was sitting in a chair in a daze, his face gloomy, his hands clenched into fists, and he hadn't said a word since he entered the room.

The daughter-in-law served tea and handed over towels, her face full of worry.

She wanted to ask Yi Zhonghai what was going on, but she swallowed the words back.

Yi Zhonghai has always been the head of the Yi family, and Yi Zhonghai is also the one who earns money, which leads to Aunt Yi's status in the family being very low.

In addition, she was unable to give birth to a child for Yi Zhonghai. In this era when the three major unfilial acts were to have no descendants, Aunt Yi's status in the family was even lower.

She has always been very careful in everything she does, for fear that Yi Zhonghai would be unhappy and divorce her.

It was unknown how long it had been before Yi Zhonghai finally made a move.

He slammed his clenched fists on the table in front of him and cursed angrily, "This Qin Huairu is becoming more and more difficult to control!"

"Today, I was humiliated in front of so many neighbors in the courtyard."

"I told her everything!"

"Let's talk about what happened between Bang Geng and me in private. I will definitely give him an explanation!"

"She is so good: not only did she not listen to me, she also refuted me in front of everyone and didn't give me any face at all. It's really too much!"

Aunt Yi finally found an opportunity to speak.

With a serious face, he continued: "Old man..."

"I didn't mean you..."

"We usually spoil the Jia family too much..."

"Especially Qin Huairu. Ever since she gave up her job at the steel mill to Bang Geng, she's become a different person. She doesn't take us seriously at all!"

"If you ask me, we shouldn't let Qin Huairu take care of us in our old age!"

"With her desperate attitude now, if we continue to let her help us with our old age, we don't know how much we will have to endure from her in the future!"

Yi Zhonghai sighed and replied: "Do you think I want Qin Huairu to take care of us in our old age?"

"Ever since Sha Zhu broke up with us, we can't find anyone else in Siheyuan to take care of us except Qin Huairu. Who else can we find if not her?"

Aunt Yi replied with a look of reluctance: "Then we will just let Qin Huairu ride on our heads and continue to suffer injustice from him?"

"We used to eat by ourselves. With 10 yuan for living expenses, we could have a meal every now and then, even if we didn't have to eat white flour every meal."

"Now when I eat with the Jia family, I can hardly have a meal of white flour in ten days or half a month, let alone meat!"

"And Jia Zhang!"

"Every time we eat together, anything delicious on the table ends up in her and Banggeng's stomachs. We're lucky to get a little soup!"

"We have to keep our opinions to ourselves, otherwise Qin Huairu will give up and threaten not to support us in our old age!"

"I don't want to live like this for even one more day!"

"Why not go to an orphanage and adopt a young man, and raise him before you retire!"

"As long as we hold on to the money, we don't have to worry about him not providing for our retirement."

"Otherwise, we would rather give the house to the street than let him inherit it!"

Yi Zhonghai did not respond, but frowned and fell into deep thought. After thinking for about a minute, he said, "It's still too risky to do this!"

"If this person hides too deeply and deceives us, the loss will be huge, and we may lose both our money and our lives." "But this matter can be used as a means to threaten Qin Huairu!"

"The day after tomorrow, when we have a day off, we will go to the welfare home with great fanfare and let everyone in the courtyard know about this, especially the Jia family!"

"Once we adopt a child, the retirement agreement between the Jia family and us will be invalidated, Banggeng will no longer be eligible to live in our house, and I will no longer teach him locksmithing skills!"

"Then the person who will be anxious will become Qin Huairu!"

"We can then regain control of the Jia family and Qin Huairu!"

Seeing that Yi Zhonghai still placed his hopes for retirement on Qin Huairu, Aunt Yi felt a little uneasy, but she did not dare to refute Yi Zhonghai's decision and could only nod reluctantly.

Then he changed the subject and continued to ask: "Old man..."

"Then how do we solve today's problem?"

"No need to solve it!" Yi Zhonghai answered with certainty.

"The Jia family will definitely not dare to fall out with us for the sake of Banggen."

"Besides, Qin Huairu just embarrassed me in front of the neighbors in the courtyard. I'll be fine if I don't cause trouble for her. She definitely won't dare to come and cause trouble for me!"

"Let's just pretend nothing happened and continue living our lives as usual tomorrow!"

…………

Two days passed in the blink of an eye.

Qin Huairu had not yet figured out how to control Yi Zhonghai, but the news that Yi Zhonghai and his wife went to the welfare home had already spread throughout the courtyard.

Various versions are available.

Some people say that Yi Zhonghai doesn't want to adopt a child from an orphanage for fear of raising an ungrateful child. It would be better for him to let Bang Geng and Qin Huairu help with his retirement.

But unable to resist Aunt Yi's repeated requests, he decided to go to the welfare home and see if he could meet a child he liked.

Some people say that the Jia family has been trying every possible way to scheme against Yi Zhonghai, making it so that the Yi family has no hope of providing for their old age. As a last resort, they can only pin their hopes on the orphans in the welfare home...

No matter how the rumors about the courtyard spread, the fact that Yi Zhonghai and his wife went to the welfare home today is a fact.

After hearing the news, the one who was most anxious was Bang Geng!

He is now living in Yi Zhonghai's house. If Yi Zhonghai and his wife really bring a child back from the welfare home, the house he is living in now will definitely be given to the child. Banggeng will then have no place to live and will have to return to the Jia family and squeeze in with a group of women.

This is a result he absolutely cannot accept.

In addition, Banggeng also plans to learn locksmith skills from Yi Zhonghai so that he can gain a foothold in the steel mill in the future and eventually be promoted to a senior locksmith in the steel mill and earn a high salary!

If Yi Zhonghai and his wife adopted a child of their own from the welfare home, he would definitely teach the locksmith skills to his adopted child instead of to a guy who had no vested interest in the matter.

Thinking of this, Bang Geng immediately found Qin Huairu and Jia Zhangshi: "Mom... Grandma..."

"No matter what you say, you can't let the godfather and godmother adopt a child from the orphanage!"

"The house I live in now cannot be given to anyone else. I can only live in it myself!"

Jia Zhang was also very angry when she heard the news. When she saw Bang Geng looking at her with an aggrieved expression, her anger grew even more intense, and she scolded him without any hesitation, "I have been unhappy with Yi Zhonghai's wife for a long time!"

"The adopted child is not as obedient as my little terrier!"

"Bang Geng has already recognized them as his godfathers and godmothers, but Yi Zhonghai's wife is still not satisfied. If I'm really mad, I'll force Yi Zhonghai to divorce his wife and kick her out of the courtyard. Let's see if she dares to continue to give Yi Zhonghai bad advice!"

(End of this chapter)