Siheyuan: I am a trader in both worlds!

Chapter 441 No One is a Fool

Now that everything has been agreed upon, there's nothing more to say.

They could eat and drink whatever they wanted without any burden or psychological pressure.

After eating and drinking to their hearts' content, they couldn't help but tease Jia Zhangshi again.

"Ha, this meal is enough for me to brag about for the rest of my life!"

His affected manner and extremely frivolous demeanor immediately made Madam Jia's eyebrows furrow.

He replied with extreme displeasure at the time.

"What do you mean?"

It seems that, without realizing it, he has offended Jia Zhangshi again.

I sighed silently to myself.
"I just can't control my mouth."

I quickly and decisively tried to fix it again.

"It doesn't mean anything, it's just something I felt like saying. You can just pretend you didn't hear anything."

After saying that, she quickly spoke with He Yuzhu, who had already decided to join her team, and told him to take advantage of the next two days to prepare properly, bring everything he needed, and make all the necessary arrangements so that nothing else would go wrong.

Then, without saying another word.

Before Jia Zhangshi could completely lose her temper, he quickly dropped a sentence.

"Aunt Jia, I'm not trying to be mean, but what I said earlier was absolutely true. It's really not easy to get a meal from you. Saying I'll brag about it for a lifetime is definitely an exaggeration, but I could certainly brag about it for several years!"

Having said that, without giving Jia Zhangshi another chance to speak, Ximen Lang took Bai Ling, whose face was full of helplessness, and ran away!
In fact, to avoid being arrested by Jia Zhangshi, Ximen Lang didn't even stay in the courtyard for long, and rushed back to the steel rolling mill office, which had practically become his third home.

Then, Ximen Lang had just left, just left the courtyard he had been loyal to.

Just moments before, Madam Jia was furious with Ximen Lang, but her anger vanished instantly.

He shook his head and sighed with a double meaning.

"That Ximen Lang, he's such a grown man, but he still talks and acts like a child. He wears his heart on his sleeve, it's impossible to talk to him!"

Since it's impossible and inappropriate to say, let's just not say anything at all.

Turning her head, Jia Zhangshi started talking to Yi Zhonghai and the others about the children.

He first made a remark.

"Alright, now your wishes have finally come true. How about it, Yi Zhonghai, can we finally live a peaceful life together?"

Since Ximen Lang wasn't there, Yi Zhonghai naturally had to consider his reputation to some extent.

Especially those little schemes that she thought she had hidden well before, were completely exposed in the eyes of her older sister-in-law.

How could Yi Zhonghai possibly accept this?

While marveling at how capable this older sister-in-law was in raising and educating Jia Dongxu so well, Yi Zhonghai, with a rather unnatural expression, stubbornly insisted on his point.

"Sister-in-law, what are you saying? I don't quite understand. Guifang and I have been living a good life together. You know how prosperous our family is."

Even now, Yi Zhonghai is still stubbornly denying everything.

It wasn't that she really wanted to embarrass Yi Zhonghai, but his act of dying was just too disgusting, to the point that Jia Zhangshi, who had endured it for so long, simply couldn't stand it anymore.

Without even needing to think it through, Jia Zhangshi just blurted it out.

"Keep pretending! Fine, since you're so good at pretending, then let me ask you, how exactly did your great-uncle get lost, and why? Aren't you good at talking? Come on, tell me about this properly."

They directly seized upon Yi Zhonghai's Achilles' heel, making him dare not continue to spout nonsense in front of the discerning Jia Zhangshi.

He could only clasp his hands together and quickly beg for mercy from Jia Zhangshi, saying a few words.
"Old sister-in-law."

The stark contrast between his usual upright and dignified demeanor and his usual seriousness made Qin Huairu, who was used to seeing Yi Zhonghai's earnest appearance, burst out laughing.

He saw his wife laughing at the elders!

Although Jia Dongxu also found it very funny, he almost burst out laughing just like Qin Huairu.

But as I said before, this was a close elder who treated him like his own son, and whom he also regarded as his biological father.

Given his status, is he someone Qin Huairu can so easily ridicule?!
That's outrageous, absolutely outrageous!

Therefore, in order to prevent Qin Huairu from leaving a bad impression on her master and others as someone who disrespects elders, and also to avoid embarrassing Yi Zhonghai because of Qin Huairu's laughter, Jia Dongxu quickly used the excuse of going to check on the child to send Qin Huairu directly into the inner room.

After this little incident, Jia Zhangshi and Yi Zhonghai were too embarrassed to continue discussing this awkward topic.

Taking this opportunity, Jia Dongxu quickly tried to persuade them as well.

"You all have a combined age of over a hundred, how can you argue over such trivial matters? It's such a bad influence."

Just as he was trying his best to persuade him, Liu Haizhong, who had only just realized that Ximen Lang had returned, rushed over in a hurry despite his three sons' objections.

What are you doing here?
What else could it be for?
Of course, they rushed over to get close to the elusive Ximen Lang!

Especially after he became the leader of their study group thanks to his outstanding personal abilities and his unreserved religious beliefs.

That would be out of control!
It's no exaggeration to say that she treated Ximen Lang like her own father!
Not only are they becoming more and more dedicated to their work, but their attitude towards Ximen Lang is also becoming even more fervent!

But Ximen Lang, because he often had to travel back and forth between the two realms to transfer supplies, was nowhere to be found.

This directly resulted in the long-suppressed emotions in Liu Haizhong's heart not being able to be released for a long time, which is why it turned out like this.

Therefore, upon hearing that Ximen Lang, who hadn't returned to the courtyard house in a long time, had finally decided to come back, he began to grumble about his three eldest sons.
"Why didn't you say so sooner? Why didn't you tell me something so important?!"

On one hand, they completely disregarded the three brothers' attempts to stop them.

They came running over in a flurry of three.

Then, he was deeply struck by the cruel reality that he was one step too late.

Good heavens, this enthusiasm was even more exaggerated than Yi Zhonghai's earlier display, leaving Jia Zhangshi at a loss for words.

Even Yi Zhonghai, who had always been at odds with Liu Haizhong, felt that Liu Haizhong's behavior was somewhat excessive.

However, they are old brothers after all, and even though they have been fighting each other for so many years, they are still old brothers with an extraordinary relationship.

Coincidentally, Ximen Lang needed Liu Haizhong, the current old man, to help him with the task of distributing the sugar pills.

Well, since we're all brothers in the same trench, we share the same goal.

Let's just bring him a share too.

Thinking this, Yi Zhonghai extended an olive branch to Liu Haizhong, who was full of disappointment and still blaming his three sons for not informing him of the matter sooner.

"Alright, Lao Liu, stop taking it to heart with the kids. Lang Ge didn't stay in the central courtyard for very long, and you live in the back courtyard, so it's normal that the kids didn't know. You yourself didn't even know Lang Ge was here, so it's unreasonable for you to blame them. We elders can't act like this; it'll make us a laughingstock."

Because Yi Zhonghai's words were indeed very reasonable, Yi Zhonghai, who had completely lifted the weight from his heart and abandoned his prejudice against Liu Haizhong, spoke very kindly.

This is completely different from the previous approach of immediately using grand pronouncements to intimidate people and spouting a bunch of lofty principles that Liu Haizhong couldn't refute. This is truly full of sincerity.

Liu Haizhong, who hadn't had a chat with Yi Zhonghai like this in a long time, slowly emerged from his deep sense of frustration.

He opened his heart to Yi Zhonghai.

"Old Yi, you don't need to tell me, I know it's really inappropriate for me to keep chasing after Lang Ge'er like this, it's quite annoying. But there's nothing I can do, Lang Ge'er is never home, and I never see him at the factory either. His office..."

"Don't even mention his office; the office building he works in isn't a place just anyone can enter. This is my career path, so what can I do? How can I not be anxious?"

It really is.

In particular, Liu Haizhong's career path finally saw a glimmer of hope, and he was ranked after the group leader.

Liu Haizhong had run past Ximen Lang's office building more than once, but each time he was spotted as soon as he arrived, before he even entered the building, and he had to make up various excuses to get away with it.

It's fine if it happens once or twice, but if it happens too often, even the dumbest person in the bangs will realize that something is wrong.

In addition, the people who blocked his way each time carried an invisible aura.

After a while, the bangs gradually stopped daring to drift in that direction.
I was genuinely curious about the identities of those people who could always stop me with pinpoint accuracy, and even more curious about the invisible aura emanating from them that made me so afraid.

Liu Haizhong couldn't help but tell Yi Zhonghai and Jia Zhangshi all the doubts he had in mind.

Then, to everyone's surprise, Yi Zhonghai and Jia Zhangshi were completely stunned by Liu Haizhong's bravery!

Seeing that Liu Haizhong was really bold, he actually went to Ximen Lang's office building without hesitation and found people without hesitation!

I couldn't help but silently marvel at how outrageous Liu Haizhong was, daring to go to such lengths.

Unable to bear seeing her neighbor of so many years behaving so recklessly, Jia Zhangshi couldn't help but speak up.

"Old Liu, you need to be more careful! Lang Ge's office isn't a place just anyone can go! We're trying to avoid it like the plague, and you're going to go there and even ask what those people do! What do you think they do? What else could they do?"

Liu Haizhong was taken aback by what he said.

Yi Zhonghai followed suit, offering his advice.

"Old Liu, your wife is absolutely right about this. You really shouldn't have been running to Brother Lang's office building all the time! As for what those people are, Old Liu, you're not a child anymore. You're middle-aged now, and you've lived through such chaotic times. Don't you know who they are?"

"Think about the lighter factory that benefited the entire courtyard, the entire Nanluoguxiang, and the entire city of Beijing; think about the sudden abundance of flour on the market; think about those large trucks on the road that you've never even heard of, let alone seen; and then there's the equipment in our factory. I've explained it all to you, don't you understand?"

Yes, nobody's a fool.

Especially those shrewd people who have survived the chaos of war.

Although the specific situation was not clearly seen by Yi Zhonghai and his colleagues because they did not have an omniscient perspective.

But all of these things are inextricably linked to Ximen Lang, that's for sure!
So many treasures, which I've never even heard of before, let alone seen, are all related to Ximen Lang!
What is this concept?
Combined with the fact that Director Wang and other high-ranking officials, whom they rarely see, treat Ximen Lang with the utmost care, and the sudden appearance of so many unfamiliar faces around him, each with an extraordinary presence, this was all quite remarkable.
Even if Yi Zhonghai and his group were stupid, they would know that Ximen Lang's identity was definitely not ordinary!

Even fear!

Therefore, Jia Zhangshi's saying that she should avoid it if possible was not just empty talk!

In fact, if he hadn't truly been left to rely on Ximen Lang for this matter, and if there hadn't been any other way, he would have long since avoided Ximen Lang and never had anything to do with him again!
Of course, that's what we're saying, but that doesn't mean Ximen Lang is some kind of monster.

On the contrary, even Yi Zhonghai, who had not yet come to his senses, had to admit that Ximen Lang was a very easy person to deal with and quite nice.

But just because someone is nice doesn't mean you have to become close friends with them!
so.
“Normal communication is definitely fine. Even being a little too eager, like me, is harmless as long as it’s not too much. But if it’s like a leech that’s stuck on and can’t be removed, then there’s no need for that! Old Liu, brother, I’ve made myself clear, you should understand, right?”

While not entirely accurate, the prediction was remarkably close to the truth, causing Liu Haizhong to break out in a cold sweat.

As Liu Haizhong figured out and understood all these things one by one, he truly understood this time!
Without a moment's delay, they quickly told Guangqi, Guangtian, and Guangfu that they must not spread a single word of what they had heard today!
Otherwise, even if I quit being the group leader, I'll definitely break their legs!
The three brothers nodded quickly, saying that even if they were beaten to death, they would not utter a single word.

Along with Jia Zhangshi, who had been wanting to speak but hadn't found the opportunity, she quickly took this chance to instruct Jia Dongxu and Qin Huairu to shut their mouths, not to think wildly, and even more so, not to spread rumors.

After doing all that, we're practically best buddies!
After Yi Zhonghai proposed to finalize the sugar pill program as soon as possible, Liu Haizhong happily went with Yi Zhonghai to work on it.

Meanwhile, far away at the steel rolling mill, Ximen Lang also began a tug-of-war with Bai Ling.

　This chapter was so hard to write.
　　
　
(End of this chapter)