The Courtyard House: Xu Damao's Aunt is the Queen of Women

After chatting with Dong Zhengshan for a few more minutes and hearing what happened at the Intermediate People's Court after he and Ye Juan left, Liu Hao closed the door and went back to his room.

The stove he bought sat by the living room window, the coal briquettes burning brightly.

He walked to the round table, sat down, and tossed the money to Xu Damao.

"The Jia family is returning it; you get 55 yuan, and I get 5 yuan."

Xu Damao grabbed the money and counted it, saying in disbelief, "Has the sun risen in the west? That old hag Jia Zhangshi is actually willing to return the money?"

Lou Xiao'e and Ye Juan were also astonished. The greedy and shameless Jia Zhangshi was like a Pixiu, only taking in and never giving out. Asking her to return the money was worse than taking her life.

Ye Juan said, "Impossible, this money should have been returned by Yi Zhonghai."

"Haha, my wife is so smart. Jia Zhangshi ran away with the money, and Sha Zhu chased after her. The two of them haven't come back yet."

"The deaf old woman took advantage of Yi Zhonghai's teacher-student relationship to side with the Jia family and exonerate Yi Zhonghai. Yi Zhonghai put on a tearful performance and then returned the money."

Xu Damao stuffed the money into his pocket and curled his lip in disdain.

"What a load of rubbish! Yi Zhonghai is obviously helping the Jia family swindle donations. What kind of master-disciple relationship is this? Yi Zhonghai is such a dutiful master. His disciple died, and he even took care of his disciple's wife in bed."

???

Lou Xiao'e's eyes widened, and she hurriedly asked, "Really? Da Mao, you can't just say things like that!"

"Nonsense? I saw it with my own eyes."

Xu Damao picked up his glass and clinked it against Liu Hao's, slurped down half of it, smacked his lips, and said, "I've seen it twice!"

"The first time was in 1951, less than a month after Qin Huairu married into the Jia family. One afternoon, I got into a fight with Sha Zhu, and I couldn't sleep that night because I was so angry. So I thought I'd go to Sha Zhu's window, pretend to be a ghost, and scare that bastard..."

Liu Hao laughed; this was indeed something Xu Damao was capable of doing.

"Guess what?"

Xu Damao said excitedly, "Just as I was about to sneak into the courtyard, I saw the Jia family's gate open, and Qin Huairu came out furtively and quietly ran to the entrance of Sha Zhu's cellar."

"I was wondering what Qin Huairu was doing when Yi Zhonghai arrived. The two of them went into the cellar and didn't come out for a full half hour."

"When Qin Huairu came out, she was still pulling at her clothes. What do you think they were doing in the cellar in the middle of the night?"

Lou Xiao'e was stunned, but Liu Hao wasn't surprised. Before he transmigrated, he read novels about courtyard houses, and there were many plots where Qin Huairu and Yi Zhonghai had already hooked up, and the main character was even Yi Zhonghai's biological son.

Some novels about courtyard houses even claim that Yi Zhonghai and Qin Huairu had been having an affair for a long time, and that Qin Huairu was pregnant with a child, which is why Yi Zhonghai arranged for her to marry Jia Dongxu.

Moreover, it's not just made up; there's evidence. For example, Bang Geng has curly hair, and so does Yi Zhonghai!

"This...this...this is shameless! Qin Huairu just got married and she's already having an affair with Yi Zhonghai?"

Lou Xiao'e found it hard to understand and couldn't believe it was true.

Xu Damao chuckled: "I suspect that Qin Huairu had an affair with Yi Zhonghai before her marriage, because on the day Jia Dongxu and Qin Huairu went on their blind date, I saw Yi Zhonghai whispering to Chen, the matchmaker from Beiluoguxiang, who introduced Qin Huairu to Jia Dongxu, in the alley."

"The second time I saw the two of them sneaking into the cellar was in 1961, half a month before Jia Dongxu died. That time, I was drinking with my leader until midnight when I saw Qin Huairu and Yi Zhonghai sneak into the cellar. I even sneaked over to eavesdrop."

"Although I didn't hear everything they said, I heard Qin Huairu say that Jia Dongxu was starting to suspect her, and Yi Zhonghai told her not to panic and that everything would be alright."

"Then, Jia Dongxu died half a month later. Do you think Yi Zhonghai was behind Jia Dongxu's death?"

Lou Xiao'e subconsciously said, "If what you said is true, then Jia Dongxu must be related to Yi Zhonghai."

After saying that, Lou Xiao'e thought about Xu Damao's personality and believed that this was definitely something Xu Damao made up. Otherwise, Xu Damao would have exposed it long ago, ruining Yi Zhonghai and Qin Huairu's reputation.

"Da Mao, you saw Yi Zhonghai and Qin Huairu having an affair, why didn't you expose them?"

Ye Juan said calmly, "He wouldn't dare. He was afraid of retaliation. It was right after liberation. Was it that difficult to hire someone to kill someone?"

Xu Damao nodded: "Indeed, I dare not tell anyone about this. My father said that Yi Zhonghai and that old deaf woman are not as simple as they seem."

Lou Xiao'e's eyes flashed with displeasure. Xu Damao was such a narrow-minded person. The old deaf lady had only said a few words to him, hadn't she? Why was he so vengeful?

Ye Juan and Liu Hao also harbored prejudice against deaf elderly women.

An elderly woman living alone, whose sons all died on the battlefield—isn't her life miserable enough? What bad intentions could she possibly have?

Ye Juan keenly noticed the change in Lou Xiao'e's expression and immediately lost her appetite, feeling disgusted.

This kind of naive, short-sighted, and clueless stupid woman really makes my blood pressure soar.

Liu Hao saw it too, but didn't bother to comment, changing the subject: "Let's talk about something else. Da Mao, do you know how to rebuild houses damaged by the snow disaster?"

"The affected area is very large and the damage is very serious. It is said that in the capital city alone, four or five thousand houses collapsed and the number of people affected reached 200,000. Reconstruction is definitely going to happen. We will have to wait for the snow disaster to pass and then receive a notice. I estimate that the housing allocated by the work unit will be the responsibility of each work unit, and the government will provide some subsidies for private housing. For others, we will have to find our own solutions."

After Xu Damao finished speaking, he picked up his chopsticks, grabbed a piece of braised pork, and stuffed it into his mouth.

"Uncle, once your house is rebuilt, you can rent it out and collect some rent."

"We'll see when the time comes!"

After finishing their meal, it was already nine o'clock in the evening. Xu Damao and his wife said goodbye and left. Ye Juan finished clearing away and washing the dishes, and the atmosphere suddenly became strange.

Liu Hao sat by the stove, legs crossed, a cigarette dangling from his lips, and stared at Ye Juan with a smile.

Ye Juan, who is usually very outgoing, was shy and timid, and even her speech became incoherent.

"Why are you looking at me like that? Go boil some water for a bath!"

Liu Hao remained silent, threw away his cigarette butt, jumped up, rushed into the kitchen, grabbed two tin buckets, ran out the door, dug two buckets of clean snow from the yard, and replaced the small pot on the stove with a large one.

They made several trips back and forth until the pot was full before stopping to add charcoal to the stove.

Taking a bath in the north these days is not an easy thing, especially in winter.

The Third Steel Rolling Mill had a boiler, and people could take baths in the factory's bathhouse. They could do so with their work badges or free bath tickets issued by the union. Family members had to register and pay a small fee. Qin Huairu often asked Sha Zhu to take Bang Geng to the factory's bathhouse to register her family member status according to regulations.

For people without a work unit or rural residents, taking a bath was a luxury.

Boiling water requires firewood and charcoal, and ordinary families simply cannot afford to take frequent baths; at most, they can only bathe once every month or two.

Going out to gather firewood?

Forget it, the capital city has a population of several million. How much fuel would it consume every day to cook?

During the Yuan and Ming dynasties, the mountainous forests in the capital region were extensively logged, and by the early Qing dynasty, they were almost completely destroyed, leaving the area barren, with even the shrubs stripped bare.

"Liu Hao, I'm a little scared!"

Ye Juan leaned against the door, her face flushed, and said weakly.

"Don't be afraid, I... I have no experience either, but I believe that with my understanding, I should be able to help you get promoted smoothly!"

"Promotion to what?"

"You've gone from a young girl to a young woman, but I hope you don't become a bitter, resentful woman, or a shrew!"

"..."