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

The deaf old woman was so enraged that her vision went black and she almost fainted.

She did scheme against Sha Zhu, but over the years she has treated him like her own grandson.

She was thinking of helping him get married and getting rid of Qin Huairu. The reason he could be so arrogant in the steel rolling mill was because she asked Yang Xingguo to protect him!

In the end, he didn't remember a single good thing about her?

"You ungrateful wretch, Zhu! Haven't I been good enough to you? You've been reported so many times for bringing your lunchbox and stealing supplies from the steel mill's kitchen, and I've always had to swallow my pride and beg Director Yang to protect you!"

"If it weren't for me, you would have been arrested years ago. I've devoted all my conscience to you, and now you're turning around and blaming me?"

"Protecting me? You're just afraid no one will cook for you!"

Sha Zhu scoffed, his eyes full of disdain.

"I stole things because you two tricked me! You kept telling me that it was only right to be filial to you and help the Jia family, that it was okay to take a little public property. That's how I got to where I am today. Eleven years, I've been stealing for eleven years, more than thirteen thousand yuan worth of goods, all because of you two!"

Looking at Sha Zhu's stubborn and unrepentant appearance, He Daqing was filled with disappointment.

"Silly Zhu, wake up! Stealing was your own choice, it has nothing to do with anyone else!"

"After I left, I secretly sent Yushui ten yuan and a letter every month, but Yi Zhonghai intercepted all of them!"

He turned and glared at Yi Zhonghai, coldly saying, "It was you, Yi Zhonghai! You stole my money and spoke ill of me to Sha Zhu, making him hate me, letting him feed the Jia family until they were plump and healthy, while letting Yu Shui starve to the bone! You are the most vicious person!"

Yi Zhonghai remained calm and refuted the claim with conviction...

"That's because I'm afraid Shazhu will get in touch with you and be led astray. I'm doing this for Shazhu's own good!"

"For my own good?"

Sha Zhu paused for a moment, then turned to look at Yi Zhonghai, his eyes wide open.

"You call this 'for my own good'? Yi Zhonghai, you're disgusting!"

Yi Zhonghai inwardly cursed himself for being tongue-tied, wondering how he had steered the conversation toward intercepting letters and remittances, and quickly tried to change the subject.

Sha Zhu now hates me, the deaf old woman, and He Daqing. We need to quickly redirect his anger back to He Daqing, or this alliance will fall through.

He took a deep breath, his tone becoming heavy.

"Zhu Zi, even if I stole the money, it was a moment of confusion. But think about it, you're now sentenced to twenty years. Whose fault is it? It's He Daqing's! If he hadn't fabricated his family background, would Liu Hao have reported your family?"

He Daqing was speechless. What did Sha Zhu's sentencing have to do with me? What did falsifying his background have to do with Sha Zhu's theft?

"Yi Zhonghai, save your breath. I bribed Yue Zhigang to fabricate my family background and got a ten-year sentence, I accept that. You two old bastards also deserve your sentences, you idiot Zhu..."

"You deserve it? What about me?"

Before He Daqing could finish speaking, Sha Zhu roared with red eyes, "What did I do to deserve this? It's wrong of me to steal, but I've been stealing for eleven years without any problems. Why is it that only after you were arrested did that son of a bitch Yang Xingguo fall from power, and in the process, my theft was also uncovered?"

"Over 13,000 yuan! Twenty years! I was sentenced to twenty years! If you didn't ruin it, who did?"

Yi Zhonghai almost burst out laughing. That idiot Sha Zhu had finally shifted the blame back to He Daqing.

Not only did Yi Zhonghai think Sha Zhu was utterly stupid, but the other prisoners in the carriage were also completely bewildered.

What's going on? Is this guy named Shazhu mentally unstable?

Hmm, let's listen again!

All the prisoners perked up their ears, intently watching the melon, and no longer felt the cold.

Yi Zhonghai sighed and began to exaggerate the power of magic.

"Zhu Zi, you're absolutely right! This is a classic case of everyone kicking someone when they're down! If He Daqing hadn't fabricated his background and been reported by Liu Hao, and if the Social Education Corps hadn't come to investigate and dug up all the filth in the compound, and if all the neighbors hadn't been watching our compound, when Director Yang fell from power, no one would have casually mentioned your theft!"

"It's wrong of you to steal, but if no one reported you, the factory might have turned a blind eye. How could you get twenty years in prison? The root of all this is He Daqing!"

The deaf old woman rolled her eyes and quickly chimed in.

"Yes, yes, it's all He Daqing's fault! If it weren't for him, we wouldn't have been arrested, and we wouldn't have ended up in that godforsaken place in the Northwest. Zhu Zi, please don't blame us, we were implicated by He Daqing too!"

"Damaged?"

Seeing Sha Zhu's ridiculously stupid appearance, He Daqing suddenly burst into laughter, his laughter filled with sorrow and despair.

"I've dragged you down? Yi Zhonghai and Xu Damao came to see me and told me everything that's happened in the hospital over the years."

"Over the years, you've turned Shazhu into a reckless scoundrel who can't distinguish right from wrong. Anyone who doesn't listen to you, you send Shazhu to beat, scold, and bully them. The deaf old lady, you made Shazhu your grandson, and you didn't lose out. Shazhu, you took the house and job I left you, stole factory supplies, and subsidized the Jia family, and you lived comfortably! Now you're blaming me for everything that's happened?"

He turned to look at Sha Zhu as if he were looking at a pig.

"Silly Zhu, think about it yourself. Does your twenty-year sentence have anything to do with me? Stealing is a criminal offense. When Director Yang's embezzlement case broke out, the factory investigated corruption and kitchen accounts, and that's how you got caught. You deserve it!"

"My involvement in the dispute is my crime, while Yi Zhonghai and the deaf old woman's extortion is their crime. Our three cases are three separate cases, with no legal connection whatsoever!"

"What right do you have to hate me?"

"If you can't be blamed, whose fault is it?"

Sha Zhu blushed and angrily cursed, "Go to hell! If you hadn't withheld the information about falsifying my family background, I wouldn't have kept telling people that my family has been farmers for three generations and that we have a family recipe for Tan family cuisine. Liu Hao wouldn't have reported me, and he wouldn't be keeping an eye on me!"

"He's the accountant; he must have been the one to expose my theft! He's probably involved in Yang Xingguo's embezzlement too!"

"Furthermore, after you were arrested, you actually gave the house to Yushui, leaving me nothing! You don't care about me at all, not even as your son!"

"I gave the house to Yushui because she's more sensible than you!"

He Daqing's emotions also became agitated, and his voice rose a few decibels.

"After I left, you were so fooled by Yi Zhonghai and the deaf old woman that you became completely estranged from your family and ignored the rain, leaving her to starve to the point of being skin and bones."

"From childhood to adulthood, Yushui has never cost me much money or enjoyed many blessings. What's wrong with me giving her the house?"

"And you? You take everything I gave you, yet you help outsiders bully your own sister. Do you deserve to be a brother? Do you deserve to be my son?"

"I bullied my sister?"

Sha Zhu paused for a moment, then retorted, "I didn't! It was Yi Zhonghai who said that with me as her brother, Yu Shui wouldn't go hungry, and that I should help the Jia family more. I was just fooled by them!"