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

The First Labor Reform Farm, Zhou Family Courtyard.

When Liu Hao and Ye Juan returned, they left behind a 20-pound bighead carp. The canteen director took all the other fish away and stewed them for the evening, so that all the staff could take a portion home to eat.

Meow~ Meow~ Meow~

By the courtyard wall, Liu Hao was pruning poplars when he heard the bleating of sheep. He turned around and saw that the little queen had actually brought back a Bayinbuluke sheep.

The old man followed behind, carrying a red willow basket filled with some meat.

"Wife, what's wrong?"

The little queen laughed and said, "Of course, it's to prepare for the barbecue tonight!"

"Shall we eat a sheep?"

"What are you thinking? I want to give some to Uncle Qian and Teacher Guo to help them recover. We can keep at most ten catties, and we can make soup with the mutton offal tomorrow."

After Ye Juan finished speaking, she led the sheep to the open space next to the courtyard gate, tied it to a poplar tree trunk, and went back into the house to get her tools.

The old man walked up to Liu Hao and casually asked, "What kind of wine do you have at home? If not, I'll go back and get it!"

Liu Hao asked in confusion, "Where did you get this wine, sir?"

"It was a gift from my comrades! It was delivered last night from Urumqi by the Toro General Transport Team. Several large boxes of tobacco, alcohol, and tea, and several hundred kilograms of grain. I didn't want it, but they insisted on giving it to me. It's so annoying!"

"..."

I think you're the real nuisance, you've got a Versailles vibe now.

Liu Hao pursed his lips, then put on a smile and said with a grin, "If you think it's too much, share some with me!"

"I won't give them to you. I'll only give them to Juan'er, Xiaoxi, and Xiaomeng, not to you."

Ha, so you're discriminating against us?

Liu Hao was speechless. This old man's favoritism towards the little queen was completely undisguised, written all over his face.

The reason is simple: the little queen's personality is just to the old man's liking. She is bold, cheerful, and unpretentious, with a sweet tongue, meticulous and thoughtful, and she also likes to practice martial arts!

"Okay, I'll have Juan'er come and ask you for it!"

"What do you want?"

Ye Juan came out carrying an aluminum basin in her left hand and two ropes in her right. She had changed her coat into a cotton-padded jacket and was wearing an apron.

"My master has a lot of cigarettes, alcohol, and tea, which were given to him by his old comrade-in-arms. I asked him for some, but he wouldn't give them to me."

After Liu Hao finished speaking, Ye Juan exclaimed in surprise, "Really, Master? You'll share half with me, Master!"

"Okay, I'll have Ye Zhen carry it over later."

Ye Juan chuckled, "Thank you, Master. You're so kind. I'll cook you fish soup and grill lamb skewers tonight, and we'll enjoy a good drink together."

The old man's smile was gentle and kind, and his tone was full of affection.

"My Juan'er is the best, hahaha."

Liu Hao: "..."

Ye Juan carried the basin to the sheep, took out a strip of cloth from the pocket on the front of her apron, skillfully blindfolded the sheep, and quickly tied up its four legs. She then easily lifted the sheep, which weighed several dozen kilograms, and hung it on a tree.

An aluminum basin was placed under a tree. A sharp kitchen knife was picked up from the basin, the sheep's snout was pinched, the sheep's head was pried up, and a sharp cut was made.

With a whoosh, warm, bright red sheep's blood gushed out and landed precisely in the basin. The sheep trembled a few times and then went still.

Liu Hao was stunned. Was this a professional butcher?

He had seen Ye Juan kill chickens, fish, ducks, and geese, but he didn't know that Ye Juan could actually slaughter sheep.

For some reason, he felt a chill on his neck.

Walking over to Ye Juan and looking her over carefully, Liu Hao asked, "Wife, have you ever slaughtered sheep before?"

"Yes, I have. My best friend's dad was the political commissar of a livestock farm in the Shenyang Military Region. When I was little, I often went to the farm to play, and that's how I learned to slaughter pigs and sheep. I've even slaughtered cattle!"

Liu Hao exclaimed in admiration, "The little queen is truly multi-talented."

Aside from being bad at studying, I can learn other skills very quickly.

"What do you need me to do?"

"Boil the water! I'll go clean the fish."

"OK!"

……

Lake Bosten.

As dusk fell, a cold wind howled, and the temperature plummeted to minus twenty degrees Celsius. The sand and dust hitting our faces were incredibly unpleasant.

Today's harvest was completed forty minutes earlier than usual. The deputy warden of the tenth prison ward, who was leading the team, shouted and urged the prisoners to load the bundled reeds onto the truck and set off back to the farm.

When they came, the carts were empty, and the prisoners could ride on them. But on the return trip, they couldn't. The oxcarts, horse-drawn carts, donkey carts, and mule carts were loaded with reeds, and the hungry, tired, and cold prisoners could only line up and follow behind the animal carts.

The correctional officers travel by jeeps and trucks! There's no walking.

There's no need to worry about prisoners escaping!

This is Ushtala, deep in the Gobi Desert. At night, the temperature in Ushtala drops to minus twenty degrees Celsius. Ushtala is a desolate place, hundreds of miles around. For prisoners, escaping would be suicide! There is no possibility of a successful escape.

The reason for choosing Ushtala as the site of the labor reform farm was that it had convenient water resources and was suitable for cultivating farmland to grow cash crops, thus achieving self-sufficiency.

Secondly, Ushtala is too remote, it's practically a natural prison!

In the prisoner queue, the members of the inmate group in Ward 95 tucked their hands into the sleeves of their cotton-padded coats and walked forward timidly.

After cutting reeds all day, my back ached and felt numb and tingling. My hands were covered in cuts. I was cold, hungry, and exhausted.

Bang Geng cried, walking and crying, his sinister and mean eyes filled with resentment!

He hated heaven and earth, he hated Qin Huairu, he hated Jia Zhangshi... he hated everyone!

Qin Huairu ignored Banggeng. From the moment Banggeng stood up to testify and threatened to kill her, she no longer had any maternal love for Banggeng, nor did she want to.

In this godforsaken place, she can't even survive herself, so how could she care about her ungrateful son?

"Liu Haizhong, you son of a bitch!! You beast! I'll fuck your grandma!"

Sha Zhu cursed Liu Haizhong with red eyes, his fists clenched so tightly they cracked.

Just now, when Xu Damao was trying to curry favor with Ye Zhen and subtly inquired whether Liu Hao had any other identity, Ye Zhen casually said, "After the case of Liu Haizhong hiring someone to kill my sister and brother-in-law happened, plainclothes guards from the guard regiment moved into the courtyard at No. 95. What do you think?"

Xu Damao was shocked! Xu Damao was stunned! Xu Damao was dumbfounded!

Now I finally understand why this group of people received such heavy sentences, and I finally understand why the police arrive so quickly when someone in the court breaks the law, and why the district police chief even comes to handle it personally!

I finally understand why they were arrested, their crimes confirmed, and they were sentenced the very next day, even during the Lunar New Year holiday.

After being sentenced, they were sent directly to the Northwest to serve their sentences!

Damn it, it turns out the culprit was that big idiot Liu Haizhong who hired someone to kill Liu Hao and Ye Juan!

Xu Damao was furious, almost to the point of having a stroke, and immediately told Shazhu about it.

He used a borrowed knife to kill Liu Haizhong, letting that idiot Zhu kill him to vent his anger.

But Sha Zhu wasn't stupid; he forcibly restrained his raging anger and didn't act impulsively.

"You idiot Zhu, are you having a mad dog attack? Why are you cursing at me?"

Liu Haizhong, who was completely bewildered by the insults, became furious and pointed at Sha Zhu, cursing back.

Everyone else was also completely bewildered, not understanding why Sha Zhu had gone crazy!

"Liu Haizhong, we're all in jail because of you, you old beast!"