Courtyard House: Drunk and tipsy, the whole courtyard exposed at the start.

Yi Zhonghai suddenly stood up, trembling with anger, and pointed at Sha Zhu's nose, "What nonsense are you spouting! Apologize to Yu Hua right now!"

Liu Yuhua had never suffered such humiliation before. Although she was strong and robust, she was still a young woman. When Sha Zhu called her "Pigsy's Second Aunt" to her face, her eyes reddened, and she burst into tears. Her crying was like thunder, making dust fall from the roof.

To be honest, her shy and aggrieved appearance made Sha Zhu's heart tremble—this is really damn dangerous!

"Dad! He's bullying me!" Liu Yuhua wiped away her tears and pushed away the bowl and chopsticks in front of her.

Liu Cheng completely lost it. He was a level eight worker at the steel rolling mill, one of only two level eight workers! Wherever he went, people would respectfully call him Master Liu. He had even more influence than Yi Zhonghai! Today, he had kindly brought his daughter to a blind date, only to be humiliated to his face by some lousy cook!

"You idiot Zhu! You think I'm being too nice to you?!" Liu Cheng roared, suddenly standing up. His hands, honed from years of heavy manual labor, possessed astonishing strength. He gripped the edge of the eight-immortal table, his arm muscles bulging instantly, and shouted, "Up!"

At that moment, Liu Cheng channeled his inner "Crow Brother" and flipped the table over!

"Splash—"

A sturdy solid wood eight-immortal table, along with the plates, bowls, chopsticks, and leftover soup on it, was overturned by Liu Cheng. Soup and vegetable scraps splattered all over the wall, and the plates smashed to pieces on the ground.

Sha Zhu was startled by the sudden action and quickly dodged backward, but half a plate of chicken soup was still splashed on his crotch, scalding him and making him scream.

"Old Liu! Let's talk this out! Don't hit me!" Yi Zhonghai was terrified and rushed forward to try and grab Liu Cheng's waist.

Liu Cheng was furious and didn't care about anything else. He shoved Yi Zhonghai, sending him stumbling. Yi Zhonghai, being old, lost his footing and fell to the ground with a yelp, hurting his back and unable to straighten up.

Liu Cheng strode over the mess on the ground, grabbed Sha Zhu by the collar, and punched Sha Zhu in the face with his fist, which was as big as a sandbag.

"Ouch! Someone's hitting me! Master Liu, have some sense of reason!" Sha Zhu screamed as he tried to block the attack, but he was no match for the enraged eighth-grade worker.

Moreover, he wouldn't dare. An eighth-grade worker was a treasure in the factory. If he messed with Liu Cheng today, the factory director would fire him tomorrow, and the security department would also arrest him and put him in a dark room for a few days.

So regardless of whether he could win or not, Sha Zhu really didn't dare to make a move and could only take the beating unilaterally.

Liu Yuhua, who was also furious, joined the fray. Despite being a woman, she was even stronger and more powerful than Sha Zhu. She grabbed a long bench from the ground and swung it around, smashing it down on Sha Zhu's back.

"You dare to insult me! I'll beat you to death, you foul-mouthed bastard!" Liu Yuhua cried and cursed, showing no mercy to her opponent.

The father and daughter teamed up for a beating, and Sha Zhu was beaten so badly that he ran for his life, scrambling around the house before finally tumbling and crawling out into the yard. Liu Cheng and his daughter gave him a good beating in the yard, even kicking down and shattering two of the He family's windows.

The commotion startled all the neighbors in the courtyard, who rushed out to see what was going on. But seeing Liu Cheng's murderous gaze and the long bench waving in Liu Yuhua's hand, no one dared to step forward to break up the fight.

Standing behind her door, Qin Huairu watched Sha Zhu's miserable state, teeth knocked out on the ground, barely suppressing a laugh. Serves him right! Serves you right for always being so foul-mouthed. Now look what happened, the blind date is completely ruined, and Sha Zhu is still Qin Huairu's.

After beating him for a good ten minutes, Liu Cheng finally stopped, panting heavily. He pointed at Sha Zhu, who was lying on the ground with a bruised and swollen face, and spat fiercely, "Sha Zhu! You better watch out at the factory from now on! We'll see! Daughter, let's go home!"

Liu Yuhua threw down the stool and followed Liu Cheng out of the courtyard in a huff.

The farce ended, leaving the Intermediate People's Court in a mess.

After watching the play, Zhang Dabiao, Liu Guangqi, Yan Jiecheng, Xu Damao, and the others laughed heartily for a while before going about their business. It was almost the end of the year, everyone was busy, who had time to help Sha Zhu fight?

Besides, Liu Cheng was an even more famous figure in the steel rolling mill than Yi Zhonghai; everyone knew him—not only would Sha Zhu not dare to touch him, but they wouldn't dare either.

Therefore, we can only watch as Sha Zhu takes the beating, which is quite a good show at the end of the year.

------------

After watching the play, Zhang Dabiao came to Hong Kong through his "little nest" to do his year-end summary.

Everything was normal in Hong Kong. Managers had been assigned to several Mixue Ice Cream stores. Ah Xiang from Yan Village, who had followed him the longest, Qin Mancang, who had been brought over after killing someone for Da Biao, and Jin Youlai and Jin Youwu, the eldest and second sons of Lao Jin, who helped collect antiques, were each in charge. This was Zhang Da Biao's cash flow. By early January 1962, it had earned Zhang Da Biao (Zhang Yaoyang) nearly HK$800,000. However, Zhang Da Biao did not expand blindly—because in 1962, Hong Kong was already facing a severe water shortage.

If a store can maintain its current monthly income of around 1, it's already considered quite good. Blindly expanding will lead to problems.

The two magazines, "Asia" and "Martial Arts World," could only generate about 1 yuan in profit for Zhang Yaoyang each month. After all, with such a large operation and so many workers and writers to support, magazine publishing was not a very profitable business these days.

With Harry Potter, A Deadly Secret, and Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils, they could sustain themselves for several years (Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils was originally supposed to be serialized from 63 to 66). Zhang Dabiao only needed to send over manuscripts from time to time; they had professional editors, so he didn't need to worry too much. Zhang Dabiao could stay behind the scenes as the mysterious writer "J.K. Zhang" and "Seven Rising Rivers Flying Tomato," maintaining an air of mystery would make the magazines sell even better.

So far, the two magazines have earned Zhang Dabiao 30 yuan, which is not bad.

Another company is "Mixue Ice Cream Catering Supplies Co., Ltd.", which has a net profit of about 1.5 RMB per month. This is considered a shell company. It uses the name of "Mixue Ice Cream" to produce and ship products from Lou Yufan's side, making pure profit. So far, it has earned Zhang Dabiao nearly 20 HKD, which is quite good.

In the manufacturing sector, because he had invested in Lou's "Yu Fan Plastics Factory," he needed to calculate the year-end dividends for the entire year of 61. Lou Yu Fan dared not act recklessly in front of Zhang Da Biao (Zhang Yaoyang). Thanks to Zhang Yaoyang's suggestion, Yu Fan Plastics Factory was gradually revitalized, and Zhang Yaoyang received a dividend of 25.

Another major source of income was the licensing fee for the omnidirectional wheels, which brought in $61 USD for the entire year of 12! Lou Yufan watched with envy and jealousy!

If it weren't for his antics, he would still be the agent for these patents, and the Lou family could have made a fortune. But now, although the Lou family's main core factories and businesses have been preserved, Zhang Yaoyang has shares, which means the Lou family now has to work for Zhang Yaoyang (Zhang Dabiao) – how frustrating!

Furthermore, at the end of the year, Lou Yufan had to convert the factory's annual profits into US dollars and transfer the money to Zhang Dabiao's domestic account (Ministry of Foreign Trade)—to repay the debt! $100,000 USD annually for seven years! (He owed Zhang Dabiao $720,000 USD).

Lou Bancheng still has to pay interest! 10 RMB a year!

In short, the Lou family is experiencing both pain and joy. The good news is that their business has been preserved and is even thriving, with the product line expanding to include plastic cups, swivel wheels, flatbed carts, strollers, suitcases, and so on… The bad news is—

The cash flow went all to pay off Zhang Dabiao's debts. Nominally, it was a debt owed to Zhang Dabiao, but in reality, it was a foreign exchange debt owed to the country. Lou Bancheng was still in the mainland, so the Lou family dared not not repay the money.