The Beginning of a Courtyard House: Sixty Years of Internal Strength

"Alright."

Yao Yao still went home with a heavy heart.

This year, I commissioned Yan Bugui to write another couplet.

Although they provided the items, Yan Bugui's service attitude was truly impeccable.

Grab a handful more melon seeds, and have the Yan brothers stick them on for you.

Li Jianguo prepared a very lavish New Year's Eve dinner. He slaughtered a deer and prepared a large table of various chickens, ducks, and fish in the space.

Because we also needed to eavesdrop on the old lady's conversation, we ate back at the courtyard house.

Barring any unforeseen circumstances, this year's Lunar New Year's Eve dinner will be the last one for all four families. Hopefully, they will cherish it.

The backyard was filled with the arrival of Qin Huairu, whom they liked.

He Yuzhu used all his skills and prepared a large table full of food.

After the food was served, Jia Dongxu and Sha Zhu helped Yi Zhonghai to the head seat.

Qin Huairu is indeed a clever woman. She immediately picked up the bowl and chopsticks and began to prepare to feed the old lady. It seems that Qin Huairu also has her own ideas about the inheritance and wants to get a share of it.

At this moment, Yi Zhonghai raised his wine glass.

"A lot of unpleasant things happened this year. As the new year begins, I hope everyone will have smooth sailing and great fortune in the future."

After exchanging a few toasts, everyone drank together.

Madam Jia couldn't wait any longer. After everyone had drunk their wine, she started to eat and drink heartily, sometimes even putting a piece of food on Xiao Banggeng next to her.

Yi Zhonghai looked at Bang Geng, whose hair was a little curly, and his eyes became kind.

He drank a glass of wine with satisfaction.

Li Jianguo listened to their conversation while eating New Year's Eve dinner with Yao Yao.

After they finished eating, they continued drinking in the backyard, chatting about all sorts of random things.

While waiting for Yi Zhonghai and the old lady to finish their conversation, the two of them drank tea again.

After waiting for half an hour, the backyard was finally tidied up.

Jia Dongxu and Sha Zhu still wanted to help Yi Zhonghai back home.

However, Yi Zhonghai refused.

"Dongxu, Zhuzi, you two go home first. I have something I want to talk to the old lady about."

Jia Dongxu nodded to Sha Zhu and went home. After cleaning up the table,

Li Cuilan helped Yi Zhonghai to the old lady's bedside.

He began to speak meaningfully to the old lady.

"Grandma, it was indeed my oversight that I didn't bring you food that night and didn't clean your house in time the next day."

But I also got into trouble; I just got beaten up by He Daqing.

You should know how many times I've been beaten up because of you, and I'm covered in bruises every few days.

"Just because of this, you're going to get revenge on me and break my legs?"

Yi Zhonghai stared intently at the old woman, trying to glean something from her expression.

"Xiao Yi! I really didn't do this. I'm an old woman, and I'm paralyzed now."

This year is probably my last Spring Festival. I've already let go of all those messy things.

I just want to make the most of this time before I leave and eat a few good meals.

You should know what I'm capable of. If I really wanted to kill you, well...

Do you think you still have the chance to sit here and talk to me? I wouldn't stoop to such a low-level tactic as drugging someone.

Zhonghai, you should think it over carefully. If you've already decided that I did it, nothing I say will make a difference.

"Alright, you can go now, I'm sleepy too."

After the old lady finished speaking, she closed her eyes and ignored Yi Zhonghai.

She knew in her heart that even if she didn't do it, it wouldn't matter what she said, since Yi Zhonghai was very suspicious and petty.

Yi Zhonghai stared at him for a while, then told you to have Li Cuilan call Dongxu. Jia Dongxu helped him limp home.

The old woman felt a surge of resentment; just because she was paralyzed, her dog had started biting its owner.

I opened my eyes, stared blankly at the ceiling, and pondered to myself.

Next time, have Yang Ruihua pass on a message to see Black Tiger again.

He was told to arrange for someone to cripple Yi Zhonghai's hands.

Black Tiger used to do some shady things for his family.

The heartless guy ran away, and now the only way to get him to cooperate is with money.

Jia Dongxu left after returning home.

"Old Yi, the old lady seemed quite sincere, so I doubt she did it. What should we do next?"

"After the New Year, investigate Wu Long first. If it wasn't him, it must have been the old lady. We'll just create a gas poisoning incident and send her away."

After Yi Zhonghai finished speaking, he closed his eyes and remained silent, not believing the old lady's words at all.

If I were an old woman, I would definitely be ruthless and take revenge on everyone. I wouldn't live long anyway, so I would drag all my enemies down to hell.

The old lady wasn't a good person either; she was definitely the one who did it.

After listening to their conversation, Li Jianguo was also filled with emotion, never expecting that he, like a butterfly, had only flapped his wings a little.

They turned the courtyard into a complete mess, showing how fragile the relationships between these beasts are; each of them harbors over 800 schemes.

The most pitiful one right now is He Daqing, who has been sitting in the police station's detention room for a full half month.

I spent New Year's Eve in the detention center, literally holding a cornbread in my hand, with not a drop of oil in the dishes.

Boiled cabbage is a must for Chinese New Year; pickled cabbage shreds are rarely seen at other times. He's lost about ten pounds from eating so much of it.

The police have been refusing to release him, and he's recently become somewhat resigned to his fate. He's saying that if he doesn't mention anything else, just the matter of changing his class background, he'll likely be sentenced to three to five years.

At this time, he didn't know that Sha Zhu hadn't received any notification. He was still blaming Sha Zhu in his heart, thinking that it had been so long and Sha Zhu hadn't come to see him. He felt like he had been raised for nothing.

And then there's Widow Bai, who was taken away from the restaurant without even a chance to visit him. It really broke Old He's heart.

The three-day annual leave passed quickly. When I had nothing to do, I would eavesdrop on the beast's family's activities. When I was bored, I would play chess and drink tea with Yao Yao.

Even though Yi Zhonghai's leg is broken, he doesn't need to continue working.

Li Jianguo dressed in distress and went to the steel rolling mill.

After receiving the assignment, I filled out an application form for going to the countryside. This is now the established workflow.

All the purchasing agents apply for a 20-day or so rural purchasing trip at the beginning of the month, then disappear for a month, and finally hand in their tasks in the last few days.

After entering 1954, more than a month of peaceful days passed. Li Jianguo basically went out during the day and came back at night, and he did not hear any noise.

He only accompanied Chen Xueru a few times during that period, for fear of missing out on the excitement.

Both of them were already impatient and were eagerly anticipating the police's intervention.

The police station has been investigating Zhao Tietou for a long time, but there has been no progress. However, they have uncovered a whole host of other miscellaneous things.

This really broadened the horizons of the police officers. They never expected that Yi Zhonghai, who appeared so righteous on the surface, was actually rotten to the core.