Siheyuan (courtyard house): My father, Li Yunlong!

She knew the old man was telling the truth, but the truth was too cruel and too despairing.

Just as the room was enveloped in an almost deathly silence of despair, the door was suddenly pushed open a crack, very slightly.

There was no knocking, nor any footsteps to signal the approach.

It was as if a gust of cold wind blew the door open.

Yi Zhonghai and the older woman were both startled and looked up sharply.

At the doorway, a thin, hunched figure, almost curled up in a ball, silently slipped in.

It was the "ancestor" in the backyard who lived a secluded life and was almost forgotten by everyone—the deaf old lady!

She leaned on a smooth jujube wood cane, her steps as light as a cat's. Under the dim light, her wrinkled face was expressionless, her cloudy eyes occasionally flashing with a sharp light. She first glanced at the untouched food on the table, then slowly moved to Yi Zhonghai's dejected face.

Yi Zhonghai and the older woman were both stunned and didn't react for a moment.

The deaf old lady rarely leaves her backyard and seldom visits others at night, especially not at times like this.

"Grandma? You...you've come all this way? It's so late, please have a seat."

The older woman quickly wiped away her tears, hurriedly got up, and tried to help him up.

The deaf old lady waved her hand, indicating that she didn't need it.

She walked to the table, pulled over a small stool, and slowly sat down, resting her cane against her legs.

The entire process was conducted without making a single unnecessary sound.

She looked at Yi Zhonghai, her lips seemingly twitching slightly upwards, revealing an indescribable, ambiguous smile. Her voice was dry and slow, yet possessed a strange penetrating power, exceptionally clear in the quiet night.

"Zhonghai, he's not even eating, just sitting here smoking in silence... The sky isn't going to fall down."

Looking into the old woman's unfathomable eyes, Yi Zhonghai felt a sudden tightness in his heart.

He forced out a smile that looked worse than a grimace.

"Grandma, I'm so sorry you had to see this... You... heard about what happened in the yard today?"

The deaf old woman's cloudy eyes rolled, like two pebbles that had been soaking in a deep pool for many years.

"I'm hard of hearing, so I can't hear clearly. But with such a commotion, it's hard not to notice."

She paused, then gently tapped the ground with her cane.

"That kid Li Zhenhua...did he take care of you?"

The question was blunt and harsh, and Yi Zhonghai's face burned with shame, anger, and helplessness. He lowered his head and sighed heavily.

"Grandma... I... I've really messed up, messed up terribly... I'm afraid I'll never be able to show my face in this courtyard again..."

The woman couldn't help but sob again.

The deaf old woman let out an extremely faint "ho ho" sound, as if squeezed from deep in her throat, which sounded like a sneer or a sigh.

"Face? What's it worth?"

She spoke slowly, her withered fingers stroking the smooth head of her cane.

"Having lived this long, haven't you figured it out yet? In this world, only what you hold in your hand is real. Everything else is just an illusion."

Yi Zhonghai looked up at the old lady with some confusion.

The deaf old woman met his gaze, and her old eyes seemed eerily bright in the dim light.

"Li Zhenhua... is a man of character. He's cunning, resourceful, and has powerful backers. If you go head-to-head with him, you're no match for him."

Yi Zhonghai's face turned even more ashen.

"but……"

The deaf old woman changed the subject, lowering her voice even further, with a sinister, seductive quality.

"Even the most powerful Monkey King can't escape the Buddha's palm. No matter how capable Li Zhenhua is, he's just a young upstart, one of the people in this courtyard."

She leaned forward slightly, and a faint scent, like a mixture of old wood and herbs, wafted over.

"You forgot? What's the surname of this courtyard house? It's not surnamed Li!"

Yi Zhonghai shuddered, as if he had caught something.

The deaf old woman continued in her distinctive, slow, and clear tone:

"There are rules in this courtyard. These rules aren't something Li Zhenhua can decide alone. He's young and hot-blooded, and he's bound to offend a lot of people. That good-for-nothing Liu Haizhong, that shrewd Yan Bugui, do you think they don't have their own agendas? That hothead Shazhu, do you really respect him? That Jia family's daughter-in-law, she seems obedient to him, but don't you think she has her own ulterior motives?"

"You may have lost your position now, but you've been in this compound for decades; your roots are still there! Every household has a few soots at the bottom. Is Li Zhenhua truly flawless? Doesn't he have any weaknesses that others can exploit?"

Yi Zhonghai's eyes gradually brightened, as if he had seen a glimmer of light in the darkness.

The deaf old woman's eerie smile deepened.

"China Overseas, sometimes, taking a step back isn't admitting defeat. It's freeing up your hands to see things more clearly. At our age, let the younger generation handle the fighting and killing. We need to learn... to leverage resources."

"Leveraging resources?"

Yi Zhonghai repeated it subconsciously.

"Yes, leverage resources."

A glint of light flashed in the deaf old woman's cloudy eyes.

"Borrowing Liu Haizhong's ambition for officialdom, borrowing Yan Bugui's greed for petty gains, borrowing Sha Zhu's foolishness towards Qin Huairu, and even... borrowing the restless heart of the Jia family's daughter-in-law. Gather all these forces little by little, and twist them into a single rope..."

She stretched out her withered, bony fingers and made a loose clenching motion in the air.

"When the time comes, you won't even need to lift a finger. Someone else will take care of things for Li Zhenhua. We'll just stand behind, watching and waiting... until he's in a terrible predicament, until he's angered by the masses, until he... reveals his weakness!"

Yi Zhonghai was deeply moved and his breathing became rapid.

The old lady's words were like a red-hot iron thrown into the cold lake of his heart, instantly stirring up boiling steam!

Yes! If open methods don't work, we can try covert ones!

If you can't win a fight head-on, you can resort to underhanded tactics!

No matter how capable Li Zhenhua is, he can't possibly win over everyone in the hospital!

As long as you are good at using contradictions and stirring up disputes, there may still be opportunities!

The deaf old woman saw the rekindled flame in his eyes and knew that her words had worked.

She slowly stood up, leaning on her cane.

"You have to eat. You have to sleep. Only when you're well-rested can you watch plays, and... wait for your chance."

After she finished speaking, she didn't look at Yi Zhonghai again. Just like when she came, she quietly moved to the door, opened it, and her small figure disappeared into the darkness outside.

Only a faint, stale scent remained in the air.

The door closed gently.

The room returned to silence, but the atmosphere was completely different.

Yi Zhonghai suddenly picked up the bowl of porridge on the table, which had long since gone cold, and gulped it down in a few mouthfuls. Then he grabbed a cold cornbread, took a big bite, and chewed it hard. His eyes no longer held despair, but a kind of eerie light mixed with ruthlessness and expectation.

The older woman looked at him like this and was a little scared. She asked in a low voice.

"Old Yi, what...what does the old lady mean?"

Yi Zhonghai swallowed the food in his mouth, wiped his mouth, and revealed a long-lost, yet somewhat ferocious, cold smile.

"What do you mean? The old lady has shown us the right path!"

He lowered his voice and said, enunciating each word clearly:

"Li Zhenhua...we'll see! This courtyard house isn't yours to rule by force!"

After the three old men were punished, the courtyard returned to its usual tranquility on the surface, but the undercurrents in the steel mill's logistics department became increasingly turbulent.

At the safety production rectification meeting, Li Huaide was outmaneuvered by Li Zhenhua. Instead of damaging Li's prestige, Li Huaide won the appreciation of Director Yang and other factory leaders with a high-quality safety rectification plan. How could he swallow this insult?

He realized that targeting Li Zhenhua directly would be too difficult; the young man had a strong background, was highly capable, and acted cautiously, making him almost impeccable.

Therefore, Li Huaide turned his attention to Qin Huairu, whom Li Zhenhua had just placed in the warehouse—this widow was Li Zhenhua's "own person" and a newcomer, undoubtedly the weakest link in the chain.

If we can find a loophole here and create an incident that appears to be Qin Huairu's dereliction of duty, but actually points to Li Zhenhua's misjudgment and mismanagement, then we can not only strike at Li Zhenhua, but also clean up the logistics department's warehouse and install our own people, killing two birds with one stone.

The plan was quietly launched under Li Huaide's instructions.

His chosen confidant was a squad leader in the logistics department's transportation section named Cui Dake.

This person was transferred from a branch factory by Li Huaide. He was good at currying favor and was extremely loyal to Li Huaide. He was always looking for an opportunity to show his abilities in order to get promoted.

Li Huaide didn't say it explicitly, but he hinted to Cui Dake that the new female warehouse keeper, Qin Huairu, was one of Deputy Director Li's people, but she was not familiar with the business and needed "more care," especially to ensure that the process of receiving important materials into the warehouse was "clear and transparent," so as not to make things difficult for everyone if something went wrong in the future.

Cui Dake immediately understood his leader's intention—he was to tamper with the warehousing process and shift the blame onto the woman surnamed Qin.

The opportunity came quickly.

A batch of important special lubricating oil is about to arrive at the factory. This is a key material used in precision machine tools. It is allocated by the superior unit and there are strict regulations on the quantity and quality.

Li Huaide instructed Cui Dake to "pay special attention" to the acceptance and warehousing of this batch of oil.

That afternoon, the sky was overcast, with leaden-gray clouds hanging low, foreshadowing an upcoming spring rain.

Two Jiefang trucks bearing the signs of the Municipal Transportation Company slowly drove into the steel rolling mill warehouse area.

The truck was carrying a batch of special lubricating oil, each barrel with a standard capacity and serial number.

Cui Dake was already waiting in the unloading area with several trusted workers. He had a smile on his face, but his eyes revealed a hint of sinister intent that was hard to detect.

Qin Huairu, dressed in a slightly oversized dark blue overall, waited early at the warehouse entrance.

Holding the receiving slip and ledger in her hand, she felt a little nervous. This was the first batch of important materials she was independently responsible for receiving.

Director Wang Shoucheng was called to an emergency meeting and was specifically instructed to carefully check the details and strictly follow the procedures.

"Master Qin, the goods have arrived. Get ready to inspect them."

Cui Dake stepped forward, his tone seemingly polite, but carrying a hint of condescension.

He waved to the driver to open the partition in the carriage.

The workers began unloading, rolling barrels of dark green oil off the trucks and stacking them neatly in the open space in front of the warehouse.

Qin Huairu took a deep breath, stepped forward, and began to count the quantity according to the method taught by Director Wang, and checked the appearance of the oil drums for any signs of damage or leakage.

"One, two, three... fifty."

After counting the quantities, Qin Huairu checked them against the inventory receipt in her hand.

"Captain Cui, the order form says fifty barrels, that's the correct quantity."

"Yes, as long as the quantity is correct."

Cui Dake nodded and casually kicked an oil drum at his feet.

"This oil is precious, hurry up and move it inside before it gets rained on."

According to the procedure, in addition to counting the quantity of such important supplies, it is also necessary to conduct random checks to confirm their weight and quality.

But Cui Dake clearly wanted to simplify the process.

Qin Huairu hesitated for a moment, remembering Li Zhenhua's previous warning.

"The key is to be careful, keep your hands and feet clean, and keep your mouth shut. There are quite a few people watching this position."

Director Wang has repeatedly emphasized that the inspection process must be thorough.

A strange intuition told her that she couldn't just let things slide like this.

"Captain Cui, Director Wang instructed that the weight of this special oil should be checked."

Qin Huairu mustered her courage and said.

Cui Dake frowned slightly, then relaxed and smiled.

"Master Qin is really conscientious and responsible. But look, it looks like it's about to rain. If the oil gets wet, the responsibility will be even greater. Besides, this was allocated by the higher-ups, how could there be any mistakes? We should trust our brother unit. Let's quickly put it into storage and register it, then everyone can relax."

His words sounded reasonable and carried an undeniable pressure.

Several workers nearby also began to chime in.

"Yeah, Master Qin, hurry up and finish it, what are you dawdling about?"

Qin Huairu looked at the increasingly gloomy sky, then at the oil drums, and struggled with her inner turmoil.

If we insist on random checks, and it happens to be delayed and it rains, we will indeed be responsible if the oil drums get wet.

But if we just put them into storage like this, what if… She bit her lip, her gaze sweeping over the oil drums, and suddenly, she noticed something subtle and unusual.

Several oil drums had small amounts of dried oil stains on the edges of their lids, and the placement and cleanliness of the labels on the drums also differed slightly from the other drums.

The difference is so subtle that it is almost imperceptible without careful observation.

Just then, a bolt of lightning ripped across the sky, followed by a rumble of thunder.

Large raindrops began to pelt down.

"Oh dear! It's raining! Quick! Move it inside!"

Cui Dake hurriedly directed the workers.

"Master Qin, don't just stand there, hurry up and help! We'll put the bill on later!"

The workers hurriedly began moving oil drums into the warehouse.

In the chaos, Qin Huairu's heart pounded. Those subtle abnormalities felt like a thorn pricking her heart.

She forced herself to calm down, knowing that she couldn't fight back at this moment.

As she pretended to help guide the workers to stack the oil drums in place, her mind raced.

Taking advantage of the moment when no one was looking, she quickly walked over to the suspicious oil drums, pretended to bend down to tie her shoelaces, and swiftly ran her finger along the seam of one drum's lid. Her fingertip touched a bit of residual oil, and she quietly sniffed it. She felt that the smell seemed slightly different from the sample that Director Wang had shown her before, but she couldn't say for sure if it was just her imagination.