Courtyard Houses: From Bronze Compasses to Global Reach

At nine o'clock at night, the courtyard at No. 95 Nanluoguxiang was already asleep.

In the backyard of the Xu family home, Xu Fugui and his wife had just turned off the lights and were lying on the kang (a heated brick bed), wrapped tightly in their quilts, talking intimately. Suddenly, a very faint metallic scraping sound came from the outer room, exceptionally clear in the quiet night—it was the sound of the door lock being pried open!

Xu Fugui shuddered, swallowing back the rest of his words. He sat up abruptly, gestured for his wife to be quiet, hastily threw on his cotton-padded coat, and barefoot, crouching low and tiptoeing like a frightened old cat, silently moved towards the outer room.

He had just lifted the curtain when a tall, dark figure stood beside the octagonal table, almost blending into the darkness. Xu Fugui's heart pounded, and he opened his mouth to shout—

The shadowy figure moved with ghostly speed, closing in in a single step. A large hand, like an iron clamp, smothered his mouth, forcing back the cry of alarm that was about to escape his lips. A tremendous force pinned him against the wall, rendering him immobile.

"Mr. Xu, keep your voice down," the shadowy figure whispered in his ear, his voice low, husky, and threatening. "I'm here to deliver a message. I'll leave after I finish. If you disturb the neighbors..." The voice paused, "...your son, Xu Damao, won't have a good time!"

Upon hearing his son's name, Xu Fugui's body stiffened abruptly, and he dared not struggle any further.

The shadowy figure seemed pleased with his reaction, quickly releasing his grip and gently placing a manila envelope on the cold octagonal table. Then, just as he had entered, the person silently retreated into the darkness, leaving only the slightly swaying curtain behind.

Xu Fugui leaned against the wall, panting heavily, his heart pounding. Several seconds later, his hand trembled as he reached for the envelope on the table. His mother, in the inner room, was also terrified, asking in a trembling voice, "His father… who… who is Gang Gang?"

Xu Fugui didn't answer; he just clutched the letter tightly, as if he were holding a red-hot coal, or perhaps the distant fate of his son...

He Yushui tossed and turned on her narrow single bed in the textile factory dormitory, her pillowcase soaked with silent tears. Her brother's words echoed repeatedly in her mind, like two little figures fiercely fighting. On one side was a visible, stable future—a policeman boyfriend she was about to marry, and a stable, albeit arduous, factory life; on the other side was the alternative life her brother described, as distant as the stars in the sky—going to university, going to Hong Kong, a completely unfamiliar world.

She kept her eyes open until the sky outside the window turned from pitch black to gray.

Daylight broke. She struggled to get up, splashing cold water on her swollen eyes, but couldn't hide her haggard appearance. When she went to the workshop director's office to ask for leave, the director, seeing her frighteningly pale face and her peach-swollen eyes, assumed she was sick and granted her two days off without asking any further questions.

He Yushui pushed her bicycle out of the factory gate. A gust of cold morning wind made her shiver, but a fire seemed to burn in her heart. She got on her bike and turned towards Jiaodaokou.

The bicycle stopped in front of the police station. She took a deep breath, as if gathering her courage, and then walked to the guard's window.

"Sir," her voice was a little hoarse, "could you please help me find Li Qing?"

Li Qing had just finished his night shift and looked tired. When he saw He Yushui waiting at the entrance of the police station, he quickly walked over to her.

"Rain, why are you here so early?" Before he could finish speaking, he noticed her swollen eyes and pale face, and his tone immediately became concerned. "Why are your eyes swollen? Are you feeling unwell?"

Yu Shui looked up, her eyes slightly evasive, and said softly, "Let's go for a walk over Shichahai and talk as we go."

Li Qing's heart skipped a beat, a vague sense of foreboding washing over him, but he still nodded: "Okay."

At dawn, the surface of Shichahai Lake was covered with a thin layer of frost. Withered willows drooped along the shore, and the surroundings were vast and desolate, with only a few elderly people exercising in the distance. A cold wind swept by, swirling up a few withered leaves.

The two walked silently along the lake shore for a while. He Yushui stopped, faced the frozen lake, and took a deep breath of the cold air, as if it would give her courage.

"Li Qing," her voice was soft, yet like a pebble dropped into a still, icy lake, "let's break up."

Li Qing was stunned, thinking he had misheard. He instinctively reached for her hand and asked, "Yu Shui, what did you say? Why? Is there something I did wrong?" His face was full of confusion and anxiety.

Rain broke free from his hand, shook her head, and finally couldn't hold back her tears, but she quickly wiped them away and forced herself to calm down.

"It's not your problem, it's mine." She turned her head, looking at him with a pained yet resolute gaze. "It's my family's background...that's problematic. I didn't explain it to you clearly before, that was my fault."

She paused, as if recalling a painful past, and began with difficulty, "My father... He Daqing, in his early years, cooked for the Japanese and was even featured in the newspapers. Later, someone used this as leverage to send him to another place. Before he left, he tried every means to spend all his savings to change our family's class status to poor peasant."

Seeing the growing shock and complex on Li Qing's face, she smiled bitterly and said, "Now, this matter may no longer be able to be concealed. The truth will come out... I... I may have to leave Beijing and go to another city to stay with my father. Li Qing, you are a policeman, your future is bright, I can't drag you down with me. Let's... break up."

"Rain!" Li Qing grabbed her shoulders excitedly. "I don't want to break up! There must be a way, I'll go think of something!"

"What plan are you going to come up with?!" He Yushui suddenly raised her voice, interrupting him, her eyes filled with an almost cruel clarity. "Li Qing, wake up! You're just a lowly police officer. You have parents to support, and you have your job! Can you gamble your future, your whole family's stability, on this? Are you willing? Are your family willing?"

Her barrage of questions pierced Li Qing like icicles, leaving him speechless, and the hand that had been gripping her shoulder slipped limply from his grasp.

He Yushui saw his eyes dim instantly, and her heart ached as if it were being stabbed, but her tone was unusually resolute: "I'm leaving in a couple of days. You... focus on your work and take care of yourself. Don't worry about me."

After saying that, she gave him one last, deep look, as if trying to etch his image into her heart, then abruptly turned and strode away, never looking back. In the cold wind, her figure was slender yet resolute, leaving Li Qing standing alone on the icy shore of Shichahai, as if all his strength had been drained away.

Leaving Shichahai, He Yushui gritted her teeth and pedaled her bicycle without looking back. The biting cold wind stung her face like knives as she went straight back to No. 95 Nanluoguxiang.

Pushing open her own door, she found her brother, who would usually be sleeping in at this time, already sitting at the old eight-immortal table in the main room. The room was filled with smoke, and Sha Zhu, with a cigarette between his fingers, stared blankly at the doorway. His usually carefree eyes were now bloodshot, just like hers, clearly indicating that he hadn't slept all night either.

The brother and sister looked at each other quietly, a thousand words unspoken in their unspoken silence and their haggard faces.

"Have you thought it through?" Sha Zhu's hoarse, dry voice broke the silence.

Rain nodded gently and gave a heavy "Mmm": "I've... made it clear to him."

Sha Zhu didn't speak again, nor did he ask another question. He abruptly stubbed out his cigarette, stood up, and moved with unusual efficiency. "Done!" He said only this one word before turning around and going back into the house to quickly begin tidying up.

He made no move to linger, carefully gathering the cash and receipts he had accumulated over the years, hidden in various corners of the house. Finally, he pulled out the yellowed house deed from the deepest part of the trunk and carefully hid it close to his body. Apart from that, he left behind no other burdens in the home he had lived in for decades.

"Let's go," he said to his sister, picking up a shoulder bag.

The brother and sister took one last look at the old house where they had lived for many years, gently closed the door, locked it, and then pushed their bicycles out of the yard without looking back, walking briskly towards Dongxinglong Street.

After knocking on the gate of the grand courtyard house on Dongxinglong Street, Lin Gang led them to the second courtyard. There, Xu Fugui and his wife, along with their daughter Xu Xiaoling, were already waiting. A few simple bags were placed at their feet, and their faces showed a mixture of nervousness, apprehension, and anticipation for their new life.

Yu Shui forced himself to cheer up and greeted the Xu family.

Seeing that everyone had arrived, Lin Gang didn't delay any longer. He told Sha Zhu, Yu Shui, and the three Xu family members to take out all the RMB cash they were carrying. "The money you have now won't be of much use over there. I'll exchange it all for gold at the black market rate. It'll be easier to carry and will retain its value," he explained in a low voice. Then he took out a small cloth bag containing some cut, gleaming gold nuggets and distributed them fairly to each person according to the amount of money they had brought out.

At 9:00 AM sharp, everything was ready. Two black sedans arranged by Lin San quietly parked at the back gate of the courtyard house. Lin Gang cautiously surveyed the surroundings, then gestured to everyone, "Quickly, get in from the back."

The group held their breath and filed in, quickly climbing into the car. The doors closed gently, the engine emitted a low roar, and the car slowly drove away from Dongxinglong Street, passing through the gradually bustling streets and alleys, speeding towards Tianjin Port.