Courtyard House: Home Alone

The figures receded like a tide, instantly disappearing into the night outside the east courtyard. Lin Yifan stood before the steps, listening to the footsteps fading into the distance outside the wall, and suddenly said to Xia Yan, "Go and put out the lanterns."

"Young Master?"

"Destroyed."

Xia Yan tiptoed and blew out the lantern under the eaves, plunging the east courtyard into darkness. Only the faint light from the window paper of the main house in the distance, where Xin Yi was tidying up the dishes, shone through, like a dying ember in the night.

"Young master, it's pitch black..."

"It has to be dark." Lin Yifan's voice came from the darkness, carrying a hint of coldness. "Dai Yunong's people are experts in night vision; we need to practice too."

He stood motionless at the foot of the steps, and Xia Yan stood there with him. The chill of the winter night seeped up from the cracks in the blue bricks, and Xia Yan pulled the collar of his short jacket tighter. He heard his young master suddenly chuckle.

"In Xu Zheng's confession, he said that Liu Quande had a habit—he would drink a cup of strong tea before going to bed, so strong that chopsticks could stand upright in it."

"What I want to do is..."

"I don't want to." Lin Yifan turned and walked into the house, the hem of his fox fur coat lightly tapping on the threshold.

Xia Yan followed him inside and lit an oil lamp in the dark. In the flickering light, she saw Lin Yifan already sitting on the daybed, playing with a walnut in his hand—a lion's head walnut that Tang Baolin had kept for twenty years, its texture patina smooth and rich.

"Young master, old man, these walnuts..."

"I forgot to bring it." Lin Yifan placed the walnuts beside his pillow. "I'll return it to him tomorrow."

Then, as if talking to himself, he said, "It's so inconvenient not having electricity. The pharmaceutical factory still uses generators. This time, when we're doing business with the foreigners, we need to get a power plant system first."

Xia Yan listened from the side, not daring to respond. He had been following the young master for quite some time and knew that these words were not a complaint, but rather a scheme.

The power plant equipment from those foreign devils isn't an ordinary transaction; it requires hard currency to exchange, and you also have to guard against their trickery. But since I've brought it up, I probably already have a plan in mind.

"Young master,"

Xia Yan carefully considered his words before speaking, "The pharmaceutical factory's generators are German, but I heard the trading company just received a new batch of American-made ones. They're powerful and fuel-efficient. Many restaurants are using them."

"American products are good. But what we have is even better."

Lin Yifan twirled the walnut between his fingers. "Something that can save 60% of their lives, what do you think they'd trade for it?"

Xia Yan's eyes brightened slightly in the dim light of the oil lamp: "Young master, you mean... the discs our pharmaceutical factory produces... discs what?"

"penicillin."

Lin Yifan gently placed the walnuts beside his pillow, his fingertips pausing on the textured surface of the walnuts. "Right now, we're the only ones in the world capable of mass-producing them."

"But our pharmaceutical factory..."

"Monthly production is three tons, with a purity of 95%."

Lin Yifan interrupted him, his voice devoid of smugness, as if stating a routine transaction, "Dr. Chen tested it last month; the intravenously injected crystal powder, after dissolving, had 20% fewer impurities than the sample from the American lab."

Xia Yan gasped. She only knew that foreign products were the best, but now the products from her young master's pharmaceutical factory were even better than those from foreigners, which she found hard to accept.

"Young Master," Xia Yan's voice was somewhat hoarse, "If... if people outside find out..."

"They'll find out sooner or later. So what if they do? If they want the medicine, they'll buy it with gold or exchange it for the equipment we need." Lin Yifan's gaze fell on the flickering flame of the oil lamp.

"What if they team up to rob us? Then... wouldn't I be in danger?" Xia Yan grabbed his arm nervously.

"Rob? Anyone who dares to lay a finger on you, young master, is not far from death."

"Young master,"

Xia Yan's hand was still gripping his arm, her knuckles white from the force. "I mean, what if... what if they use their army? I've heard that those foreign devils once invaded Beiping, and they burned, killed, and looted there..."

Lin Yifan turned his head, and the light from the oil lamp cast his silhouette on the wall, like an ink painting on rice paper.

"Xia Yan," his voice softened, causing Xia Yan to involuntarily loosen his grip, "do you know what foreign devils are most afraid of?"

"guns?"

"no."

Lin Yifan pulled the walnut from under his pillow and slowly turned it between his knuckles. "They're afraid of death. Afraid of their soldiers dying in foreign lands, afraid of the hysterical cries of those blonde, blue-eyed mothers when they receive the telegrams."

He held the walnut up to the lamp, its patina glowing a warm amber color in the firelight: "Penicillin can prevent wounds from festering and bring people back to life with persistent high fevers."

Before, seven out of ten wounded soldiers died; now, nine out of ten survive. Tell me, would those generals and politicians dare to send their troops to their deaths thousands of miles away just to seize a pharmaceutical factory?

Xia Yan stared blankly at the walnut, suddenly realizing that what the young master was talking about wasn't medicine, but life itself—the lives of thousands hanging on the edge of a knife.

"But..." She wanted to say something more, but Lin Yifan interrupted her: "Alright, stop worrying about nothing and go back to sleep."

Xia Yan opened her mouth, but ultimately said nothing. She added some firewood to the fireplace, dimmed the wick of the oil lamp, and tiptoed out. As she closed the door, she glanced back—the young master was already lying down, his fox fur coat covering him, only half of his face showing.

Lin Yifan only opened his eyes again after the footsteps faded into the distance. He spread his mental energy outwards, and Rongxian Hutong, which was two miles away, and most of the other contact points were also within his range.

With Stone's agility, he could climb over the back wall, feed the dog, disarm the gun, and tie up people in just five minutes.

Seeing that they were almost at the door, Lin Yifan put the walnuts back under his pillow, got up, put on his fox fur coat, and quickly went to the door and opened it.

Two dark figures carried a person, dragging him into the courtyard like a sack of flour. The person being carried was limp, his head drooping on his chest, and his coarse cotton-padded coat was covered with snowflakes.

"Young Master, it's Liu Quande." Shi Tou emerged from the shadows, his missing front tooth grinning. "The dog fed him meat buns and is sleeping even soundly than him. This kid's got some nerve; when we climbed into the backyard, he was holding a teacup, and before his hand even trembled, he was pinned down."

Lin Yifan took two steps closer, bent down, and lifted Liu Quande's face by pinching his chin. In his early thirties, he still retained the sharpness he had gained from training in the Linli Class, but his lips were now purple, indicating that his jaw had been dislocated and his mouth had been gagged.

"Wake him up."

A basin of snow water was poured over him, and Liu Quande suddenly opened his eyes, making a hoarse sound in his throat. He struggled for a moment before realizing that his arms were tied behind his back and his legs were also tied in slipknots.

"Deputy Station Chief Liu,"

Lin Yifan squatted down to look him in the eye. "You've been in Beiping for so long, don't you know what 'Ghost' is capable of? Even Dai Yunong himself is powerless, yet he sends you to touch the tiger's butt. What do you think he's trying to do?"

Don't worry, considering you once killed Japanese soldiers, "Ghost" won't take your lives. However, I don't know if your boss, Boss Dai, will.

Furthermore, I want to tell you that we won't force you to say anything; here, everything is voluntary.