Siheyuan: The Era of Struggle

Chapter 38 The Past of the Deaf Old Lady ( words, please support)
"Everyone is here, Director Wang." Liu Haizhong stood up and looked behind him. Then, like an elementary school monitor reporting the class attendance to the head teacher, he spoke to Director Wang in a serious tone.

"Well, now that everyone is here, let's have the meeting now."

Director Wang nodded towards Liu Haizhong, making his bangs look as if he had eaten bee poop. He glanced at the first and third uncles with pride, then sat back on the small stool with proper posture.

However, the first and third uncles were all looking at Director Wang at this time, and ignored Liu Haizhong's show-off, which made Liu Haizhong roll his eyes in frustration.

"Don't be angry, don't be angry. They must be jealous of me because I got to show off in front of Director Wang."

Director Wang didn't expect that he had so many inner thoughts just because he wanted Liu Haizhong to nod.

"There are two things to do in the meeting today. Have Jia Dongxu and Qin Huairu arrived? Stand up where you are."

"Director Wang, where are we?"

When Jia Dongxu and Qin Huairu heard Director Wang calling them right away, they thought that what happened a few days ago was not over yet, and Director Wang was here to make things difficult for them today.

Jia Dongxu, in particular, looked at the three militiamen with guns behind Director Wang and thought of the scene in which his mother, Jia Zhang, was shot. He almost collapsed to the ground with his legs going weak.

Fortunately, Qin Huairu, who was standing by, was quick to reach out and support him, thus preventing him from being embarrassed in public.

Seeing Jia Dongxu's useless look, Director Wang curled his lips, knowing that Yang Ning's family and the higher-ups were overthinking it.

With his condition, let alone revenge on the Yang family, he wouldn't even know if he could hold a knife steadily.

But things still need to be done. Although it seems that Jia Dongxu's spirit has faded, what if?
Director Wang stared coldly at Qin Huairu and Jia Dongxu for a while, making them sweat profusely.

At this time, everyone in the courtyard looked at the two of them curiously, wondering what trouble the Jia family had caused again.

"Director Wang..."

At this time, Yi Zhonghai could no longer sit still. Jia Dongxu was now the perfect person for him to take care of in his old age. In the past few days, he took Banggeng to his house to sleep at night.

For this matter, he even used his connections to get a lot of milk powder, just to improve the relationship between him and Jia Dongxu.

We can’t let anything happen to Jia Dongxu!
Seeing Director Wang approaching Jia Dongxu and his wife, he finally couldn't help but stand up.

But as soon as he opened his mouth, he was stared back at by Director Wang with a cold look.

Director Wang was secretly cursing Yi Zhonghai for being nosy. This time she just wanted to scare Jia Dongxu so much that he would tremble when he thought of doing something bad.

Seeing that Director Wang was unwilling to give him face, Yi Zhonghai could only smile awkwardly.

But since he had already stood up, he couldn't sit back down, so he could only continue to stand there with his apprentice and his wife. This made Yi Zhonghai, who was always good-looking, look very embarrassed.

"Jia Dongxu, your wife still has a rural hukou, right?"

Director Wang did not talk about his relationship with the Yang family at the beginning, but instead talked about Qin Huairu's household registration problem.

You have to know that before the implementation of the ticket system and even the commune system in 58, there was not much difference between rural and urban household registration.

There have been many cases of people like Qin Huairu, who have lived in the city all year round and used their household registration to occupy rural fields and take advantage of the countryside.

But after working for a period of time, there are very few such people in the old city. After all, the gentlemen in the old city are very proud, and anyone can't stand being visited by the street police every few days and accused of taking advantage of the farmers.

But their street happened to have a shameless glutton like Jia Zhang who only took in and never gave out. Plus, Jia Dongxu was a coward who just listened to his mother. So in their street, Qin Huairu's family was the only one left in this situation.

Now that Jia Zhang is gone, Director Wang feels that it is time to resolve this historical legacy.

Under Director Wang's gaze, Jia Dongxu shrank his head and said weakly, "Yes, Huairu had always wanted to follow your arrangement and transfer her household registration to the city, but my mother always disagreed, and I had no choice."

After saying that, he looked pitifully behind Director Wang, thinking to himself: You didn't come here with guns just for this matter? If you had done this earlier, my mother and Huairu's household registration problem would have been solved long ago.

If you had brought guns with you when you were working before, do you think my mother would dare to object?

"Director Wang, you don't have to make such a big fuss about this. I'll persuade Dongxu to transfer Qin Huairu's household registration to our street later."

Yi Zhonghai then found his sense of existence and stepped forward to rescue Jia Dongxu and his wife.

"Qin Huairu, what do you think?" Director Wang didn't look at Yi Zhonghai, but turned to Qin Huairu and asked.

"Director Wang~"

Qin Huairu's shout was so sad and gentle that it almost scared away the souls of the young and old men present.

It's not Qin Huairu's fault. She was also frightened by the scene. You know, her mother-in-law was shot just a few days ago. Now she was shaking in her heart when she saw the gun.

Now she thought that Director Wang had come to her with a gun just for her household registration. At this time, she looked at Director Wang pitifully and said, "Director Wang, you know, I have always agreed to transfer my household registration to the city, but my mother-in-law has always opposed it. It is really difficult for my husband and I to go against my mother-in-law. Now that my mother-in-law is gone, I will follow the arrangements of the street."

"Okay, I won't be working in two days. You should hurry back to the village to get a certificate and solve your household registration problem as soon as possible."

Director Wang also breathed a sigh of relief at this time. The last difficult problem of the street was finally solved.

Then she looked at Jia Dongxu again, and Jia Dongxu almost collapsed to the ground again when he saw her.

Originally, he came here mainly to resolve the issue between him and the Yang family, but when Director Wang saw Jia Dongxu's miserable state, he knew that he had lost the enthusiasm from the past few days, so the main issue of the day was resolved before it even started.

Considering that Yang Ning's identity needs to be kept confidential, Director Wang thinks it would be better not to mention this matter so as not to attract the attention of certain interested parties.

But having mentioned two things before, it doesn't make sense to only deal with one thing now. Director Wang looked around and found the hunched figure in an inconspicuous corner. Her eyes lit up: Here comes the problem.

"The second thing is about the deaf old lady in the backyard of your courtyard!"

Director Wang helped the deaf old lady to the front and said to everyone, "Everyone knows that the old lady has lived in the yard for decades and has always been alone. In her case, the street will take care of her as appropriate.

But the street is not in our courtyard after all, so there are always some areas that are not well taken care of, so which family of you is willing to lend a hand and help take care of the old lady?"

Seeing that Director Wang is so affectionate to the old lady, could it be that this old lady who usually stays at home and has almost no presence has another identity?
Seeing this, everyone started to think, since the old lady is taken care of by the street office, then taking care of her on a daily basis is just a matter of adding a bowl and a pair of chopsticks. But if they can establish a relationship with Director Wang through the old lady, wouldn't it be a lot more convenient to go to the street office to do business in the future?

Although the old lady had lived in this courtyard for decades, even the Jia and He families who had lived there the longest had never seen any relatives of the old lady. In addition, the old lady was still able to move in the past few years and did not need anyone to take care of her, so no one paid special attention to this inconspicuous old lady.

It was in recent years that the old lady got old, so she would occasionally bother He Yuzhu to cook a few delicious meals for the family. Thinking of the house in the backyard of the old lady, everyone couldn't sit still.

"Director Wang, our house is in the backyard. My husband has nothing to do at home and can take care of the old lady."

Liu Haizhong has always been very positive about being able to show up in front of his superiors. Besides, there are benefits to this, right?

Yi Zhonghai originally wanted to fight for it. After all, it is impossible that Dongxu's family only has this one child, and he also needs to prepare for a rainy day!
But who could have thought that the fat guy in Liu Haizhong would react so quickly and let him get ahead.

He could only sigh and was already planning to quit.

But Director Wang did not agree immediately. Instead, he lowered his head and shouted to the deaf old lady: "Old lady, the Liu Liuhai family in the backyard is willing to take care of you. Do you think it's okay?"

The deaf old lady was actually confused at this time. She was sitting well in the corner, but who would have thought that Director Wang would help her here.

She is just an ordinary old lady, and her husband is the housekeeper of the original owner of this courtyard.

The original owner's family was a wealthy businessman in the Qing Dynasty. After she got married, she was unable to give birth, so the owner's family found a concubine for her husband.

But not long after the concubine entered the palace, the Qing Dynasty fell and the big boss took over.

The owner's business also plummeted because he lost his backing.

In order to make a living, the master took a few trusted men, including the housekeeper's family, to the south and never heard from them again. Because she was unable to give birth, she was despised by her husband's family and was left behind.

Decades passed, and she slowly made the yard her own.

In order to make a living, she first rented out some houses and then sold some houses to the later He family and the Lou family who ran an iron factory not far away.

The He family bought the main house in the middle courtyard for their own residence. The Lou family bought all the houses except the one where the old lady lived and the one she had rented out, regardless of their condition, in order to find a place for their workers to live nearby.

Gradually, the Yi family came, the Jia family came, the Yang family came, the Xu family came...

After liberation, she donated her rented house to the street, and lived her life alone in the room.

So the yard became what it is now.

The old lady was originally feeling guilty, after all, this yard was not hers, but in the chaotic situation she became the owner of the yard by accident, so she was unwilling to deal with the old residents in the yard.

Although no one knows about her past.

It was not until He Daqing passed away and she grew older that she began to tentatively get in touch with He Yuzhu.

Originally, she thought that He Yuzhu was a simple and honest man, and that he had no parents to take care of him, so she wanted to help him and let He Yuzhu take care of her in her old age.

Now that Director Wang has brought it up, Fatty Liu wants to interfere. It would be strange if the old lady agrees.

She was afraid that these people would notice something, so she stayed at home most of the time. Do you really think she wanted to be like this?

If she asked Liu Haizhong's family to take care of her, and if something was discovered, wouldn't she be squeezed dry?

"Zhu Zi is very good, let him take care of me from now on?"

The old lady raised her eyelids, looked at her bangs expectantly, and said to Director Wang.

"Okay, leave it to me! From now on, the old lady will be my dearest grandmother. As long as I am here, I will definitely not let her get cold or hungry."

When He Yuzhu heard what the old lady said, he thought he was so great that he almost wrote a letter of guarantee on the spot.

Yang Ning glanced at the old lady and Director Wang, then looked at the smug He Yuzhu and rolled his eyes.

Although he didn't understand what the old lady was planning, Yang Ning didn't want to interfere in the matter.

As long as Yi Zhonghai didn't have any intentions towards He Yuzhu, Yang Ning thought it was fine.

Because if Yi Zhonghai makes a move, it would be simply aimed at getting something for nothing and cutting off his family line.

The old lady is different. Although she has her own thoughts, she knows that if you want to get something, you have to pay for it. She really puts a lot of thought into He Yuzhu.

I don’t know if it was because of the death of Jia Zhang, but Yi Zhonghai felt that his retirement was secure. After the old lady rejected Liu Haizhong and chose He Yuzhu, Yi Zhonghai did not insist and just retreated awkwardly.

Director Wang also thinks this is a good idea. The old lady is not unable to move now, and she can still help He Yuzhu and his sister when she has nothing to do. When the old lady is unable to move, He Yuzhu should have started a family. But by then, having He Yuzhu's wife take care of the old lady can allow her to enjoy her old age.

"That's fine, Zhuzi. From now on, the old lady will be handed over to you."

Director Wang solved three problems at once. He was in a good mood and shouted to He Yuzhu.

"Leave it to me, Director Wang, don't worry!"

He Yuzhu patted his chest and assured.

Although Director Wang thought it was a good idea to leave the old lady to He Yuzhu's care, He Yuzhu was still young and there was no one to take care of the household, so he said to the other people in the courtyard: "Although the old lady is in Zhuzi's care, he is still young, so everyone can help out when they are free."

"No, no." The old lady waved her hands when she heard this: "I am an old woman, so there is no need to trouble you. My eldest grandson can take care of me. Besides, I am not unable to move."

"That's fine. If you encounter any difficulties, please go to the street office. We will find a way to solve it for you."

After Director Wang said this, others became more convinced that the old lady had another background.

So they all regretted in their hearts, why didn't they think about building a good relationship with the old lady before? Now all the benefits fell to the silly boy He Yuzhu.

Seeing that everything was resolved, Director Wang specifically talked to Yang Ning for a while before leaving.

When Jia Dongxu saw how Director Wang treated Yang Ning, he gave up all thoughts of revenge.

He has a lovely wife and son, as well as a master and his wife who are very kind to him. It would be too unfair for him to die like this.

Yang Ning watched Jia Dongxu's cowardly look from beginning to end, and curled his lips in disdain: I have worked in vain tonight, and I even lost a favor.

(End of this chapter)