Dare to shirk responsibility? This adorable little one will tear down your military district!

Gu Changfeng carried Ya Ya into the house, and Lin Wanrou deftly bolted the door shut behind them.

The bricklayers and carpenters in the courtyard looked at each other, still holding their tools, and neither dared to breathe loudly.

Foreman Zhang was the first to react. He tucked his pipe into his coat and straightened his back towards Gu Changfeng: "Commander Gu, I never knew you were such a high-ranking official. We were worried that Dr. Lin would be taken advantage of, but now we feel relieved."

Gu Changfeng put Ya Ya down and nodded to Old Zhang: "Thank you for your trouble, Master Zhang. Just do your job as usual. In Wangfujing, no one can stop you from working."

After saying that, Gu Changfeng turned and went into the main room.

Inside the room sat a large, newly lacquered mahogany table. Gu Changfeng sat down and reached for the hand-cranked telephone. His fingers were long and thick, and he dialed quickly, the only sound in the air being the clicking of the dial.

"Connect me to the Municipal Inspection Team." Gu Changfeng's voice was flat, as if he were giving a trivial instruction. "Find Team Leader Wang. This is Gu Changfeng."

Ya Ya crouched under the table and pulled out an unopened piece of dark chocolate from the side pocket of her tactical vest.

With a sharp bite of her little teeth, she chewed off half of it and mumbled to Lin Wanrou, "Mom, Dad's going to raid our house."

Lin Wanrou was wiping the dust off the table with a rag when she heard this and tapped Ya Ya on the head in annoyance: "Eat your candy. Your dad is doing this to rid the people of a menace. That blue-skinned monkey was up to no good; keeping him around would only bring more harm to the common people."

The call connected, and Gu Changfeng spoke calmly into the receiver: "Team Leader Wang, this is Gu Changfeng. There's a guy named Zhou Quan who's a section chief at the Wangfujing Industrial and Commercial Bureau. He doesn't have a good reputation. Just now, he led a bunch of thugs into my house, trying to confiscate public timber."

Team Leader Wang on the other end of the phone was clearly sweating profusely.

"Such a thing happened? Chief of Staff Gu, this is extremely serious!"

Gu Changfeng tapped his long fingers on the table: "I just checked his collar insignia. Also, he's been getting very close to a thug named Na Baoshun. Team Leader Wang, if we don't find out about this black sheep, who will dare to settle down in Wangfujing in the future?"

"Don't worry, Chief of Staff Gu. I'll take some men to retrieve the files right away, and we'll shut down his mess tonight!"

After hanging up the phone, Gu Changfeng walked out of the house and waved to Niu Dan in the yard.

Niu Dan was leaning his two-meter-long bamboo broom against the screen wall when he heard the call and immediately ran over.

"Dad, should I go keep an eye on him?" Niu Dan's voice was muffled, his eyes revealing a fierce intent.

"Change into that old outfit with the most patches, and smear your face dirty," Gu Changfeng instructed in a low voice. "Zhou Quan was scared out of his wits just now, he'll definitely go back to his hideout to hide the stolen goods. Follow him, see where he runs, and remember the address."

"Understood." Niu Dan nodded heavily.

He turned and went into the side room, and when he came out, he looked exactly like a little beggar. He moved very lightly, like a cat, and slipped out the back door in the blink of an eye without disturbing anyone.

Ya Ya watched Niu Dan's retreating figure, then glanced at her own father, secretly thinking: This father and son, one openly accuses others, the other secretly raids their hideout, they really work together well.

The next afternoon, Wangfujing Back Street was bustling again.

This time, however, they weren't there to cause trouble for the medicinal cuisine restaurant; they were there to arrest people.

Two white-painted jeeps were parked in front of Na Baoshun's house. When the inspection team rushed in, Zhou Quan was drinking with Na Baoshun on the kang (a heated brick bed) to calm their nerves.

Zhou Quan still had a few gold bars in his pocket that he hadn't had time to deposit. Those were the assets he had accumulated over the years by reselling permits and accepting bribes.

"Zhou Quan! You're involved in embezzlement, bribery, and colluding with thugs to extort money. Come with us!"

The inspection team acted swiftly, digging out a heavy metal box from under the floor tiles of Na Baoshun's house on the spot.

Inside were not only stacks of large denomination bills, but also dozens of illegal approval slips that Bao Shun had secretly kept, all stamped with Zhou Quan's personal seal.

With the evidence irrefutable, Zhou Quan's face turned as white as a corpse, his legs cramped, and he was eventually dragged out by two staff members.

Na Baoshun was even worse off. He was a shameless scoundrel, and as soon as he saw the government officials, before they could even ask him anything, he spilled all the dirty secrets Zhou Quan had kept up all these years.

"Sir! It was Zhou Quan who forced me to do it! He was the one who came up with the idea of ​​that medicinal cuisine restaurant!" Bao Shun cried, tears streaming down his face, crawling on the ground begging for mercy.

But nobody listened to him. The two troublemakers were shoved into the car and driven away.

When Jiang Guo came home from school in the afternoon, she was carrying two bottles of Beibingyang soda and ran happily into the yard.

"Aunt Lin, big news!" Jiang Guo said, slamming a can of soda on the table and patting the abacus.

"That section chief Zhou Quan has fallen! He was taken away this afternoon. I heard they found more than 3,000 yuan in cash and two big yellow croakers under the back wall of his house! Now the whole Wangfujing is talking about it, saying that the owner of this house has powerful connections and can even send the local tyrant of the Industrial and Commercial Bureau to jail."

Lin Wanrou was directing the bricklayers to build a medicine pool in the backyard when she heard this. She just smiled and said, "Evil people will be punished by other evil people. If he has clean hands and feet, no one can touch him."

For the next week, no one dared to cause trouble again.

Construction is progressing rapidly. The front yard has been relaid with smooth blue bricks, and the carved doors and windows of the main house have all been polished to a shine with tung oil.

Taking advantage of the quiet of the night, Ya Ya began to move her "inventory".

Lin Wanrou was doing accounts by the light of a kerosene lamp in the room, while Ya Ya was going in and out of the east wing.

She closed her eyes, her consciousness sinking into the 200-square-meter personal space. On the open ground next to the medicinal herb field, top-of-the-line furniture confiscated from Qin Dachuan was neatly arranged.

"Come out, my darlings," Ya Ya murmured to herself.

With a thought, two heavy huanghuali armchairs appeared steadily in the open space of the side room.

Having stayed in this space for a long time, these pieces of wood have absorbed spiritual energy, and the luster emanating from their wood is as warm and smooth as jade.

Without pausing, Ya Ya brought out a treasure cabinet made of sandalwood, a large Ming Dynasty cloud-patterned table, and several pots of precious orchids that she had cultivated in her space using spiritual spring water.

The next morning, foreman Zhang led his men into the house to work. When they saw the room full of antique furniture, their eyes almost popped out of their sockets.

"Oh my! Dr. Lin, your furniture..." Old Zhang knew its value. His hands trembled as he wanted to touch it, but he didn't dare to. "This must be the kind of material only royalty could use, right? I've seen similar pieces in the Forbidden City."

Lin Wanrou remained calm on the surface, but was also startled inside. She still had to cover for her daughter: "This is a little treasure left by our ancestors. We've been keeping it hidden away. We only dared to bring it out to see the light of day now that the house is finished."

Jiang Guo, watching from the side, clicked her tongue repeatedly, her abacus beads clicking rapidly: "Aunt Lin, with the furnishings in this room, a meal of medicinal cuisine would be a disservice to this grand master chair if it didn't cost a thousand yuan!"

The changes in the backyard are even greater.

Ya Ya transplanted the nearly mature blood purple grass, the century-old ginseng seedlings, and several newly sprouted snow lotuses from the space into the newly built medicinal pond.

Every day, when no one was around, she would pour half a bucket of highly concentrated spiritual spring water into the medicine pool.

The medicinal herbs looked as if they had been inflated; their leaves were so green they seemed to drip with moisture, and their fragrance wafted outwards along the wall.

Even passersby who smell this bittersweet fragrance feel refreshed, and those who had a cold and runny nose find their noses clear after a few more breaths.

That morning, Gu Changfeng, dressed in his neat military uniform, waited for his car at the gate.

The basic construction of the medicinal cuisine restaurant has been completed. Above the main entrance hangs a plaque completely wrapped in red silk cloth.

"Wife, have you chosen a date?" Gu Changfeng turned around and asked Lin Wanrou.

Lin Wanrou was adjusting Ya Ya's tactical vest when she heard this. She looked up, her eyes bright: "I've chosen a date. The day after tomorrow is an auspicious day. No banquets, no firecrackers, we'll open for business quietly."