Courtyard House: Home Alone

He heard voices coming from inside the courtyard. He pushed open the door and went in. He saw Chen Gongshu standing under the pomegranate tree smoking. There were four members of the pharmaceutical factory's security team next to him. The four men were stacking the medicines that had just been moved into the courtyard.

Wenxiu stood under the eaves with a tea tray in her hand. When she saw him return, a look of relief flashed in her eyes.

"Young master, you're back! You've brought everything back, including what was produced during the day." Chen Gongshu threw his cigarette butt on the ground and stubbed it out with his leather shoe.

"Thank you for your hard work, Uncle Chen. Have Xu Zheng and the others left yet?"

"They're gone. They left early this morning. I guess they're already checking into a hotel in the Tianjin Concession."

Chen Gongshu said respectfully.

Lin Yifan nodded, then tossed a silver dollar to each of the four guards who had already arranged the medicine. "You've worked hard. This silver dollar is for you to buy cigarettes and alcohol. Now you can go straight back to the pharmaceutical factory."

The four team members caught the silver dollars, their faces beaming with joy. They replied in unison, "Thank you for the reward, young master!" Then they turned and left the courtyard, started the truck, and drove away.

Chen Gongshu watched the truck disappear into the alley before lowering his voice and saying, "Young master, Xu Zheng asked me to pass on a message to you before he left. He said he has an old connection in Tianjin, the manager of 'Hongjitang,' surnamed Zhou, who is one of his henchmen."

If we need it, we can go directly to him.

"Hongjitang?" Lin Yifan raised an eyebrow. "Okay, I got it. Go back next door to wash up, and while you're at it, call Long Xiaoni over for dinner. We'll take the train first thing tomorrow morning."

"Young master, we're taking the train, so what should we do with all this medicine?" Chen Gongshu asked, pointing to the pile of medicine.

"Someone will deliver the medicine; we can just go our own way. You should hurry up and go, or they'll have finished eating soon," Lin Yifan said, pointing to the backyard next door.

Chen Gongshu responded and turned to leave the courtyard. Lin Yifan squatted down and casually opened a wooden box, inside which were neatly stacked penicillin bottles, gleaming with an amber luster in the setting sun.

He counted them, and including the ones produced during the day, there were a total of fifty-two boxes, enough to meet the demands from Tianjin and even have some left over.

"Young master, dinner is ready," Wenxiu called out from the kitchen doorway.

Lin Yifan closed the box, dusted off his hands, and said, "I'll wash up. You take Xia Yan and the others to the main room with the food and drinks. We'll start eating when Grandpa Chen and the others arrive."

Wenxiu responded and turned to go into the kitchen. Lin Yifan walked to the well, drew a bucket of cold water, and immersed his face in it for a moment. The autumn well water, with its icy chill, completely sobered him up.

The meal was already laid out in the main room. In addition to the braised beef and roast chicken that Xia Yan had bought that morning, Wenxiu had also stewed a pot of braised pork, stir-fried some cabbage with vinegar, and made a cucumber salad. The Erguotou liquor was placed in the center of the table, still sealed with its clay seal.

When Chen Gongshu brought Long Xiaoni in, Lin Yifan was sitting in the main seat wiping his hands. Long Xiaoni had changed into an indigo short jacket, and her hair was neatly tied in a bun. She bowed to Lin Yifan as soon as she entered, saying, "Young Master."

"Have a seat." Lin Yifan gestured to the chair beside him. "I'm going to Tianjin with Uncle Chen tomorrow. Did Uncle Chen tell you?"

"No." Long Xiaoni sat down next to Chen Gongshu, placing her hands respectfully on her knees. "Young Master, I understand your rules. I won't ask what I shouldn't know. I just hope you can return safely..."

Lin Yifan nodded and said, "He doesn't even have a single photo of himself yet, which means he's very careful. You must be one of the few women that Grandpa Chen has ever had. Since he took a liking to you, it means you're not bad either."

We'll be away for a few days, so please take good care of these girls at home. If any of them are too reckless, don't hold back. I know you have weapons, so come over and teach these three girls a lesson sometime; they all have weapons I left for them too.

Long Xiaoni pursed her lips, her gaze sweeping over Wenxiu and the other two before finally settling on Lin Yifan's face: "Don't worry, young master. The station chief saved my life back then. I'll naturally protect those he respects with my life."

"It's not that serious. In Beiping, with Old Master Tang protecting us, ordinary thugs wouldn't dare to mess with us. Having you look after us is just in case."

He picked up a piece of braised pork first; the marbled fat and lean meat glistened under the light. Chen Gongshu then picked up his chopsticks, but Long Xiaoni remained seated upright until Lin Yifan glanced at her, at which point she cautiously picked up a slice of cucumber.

"Eat yours," Chen Gongshu said in a low voice, placing a piece of beef in her bowl. "I'm not fussy about these things."

More than an hour later, after dinner, Wenxiu and the others started to clean up. When they left and only the two of them were left in the house, Lin Yifan took out two masks as thin as cicada wings from his pocket (space).

This is what he just redeemed from the system shop. According to the system, unless the person takes it off, no one can tell the mask even if they look at it up close.

"Uncle Chen, please take this. Try it on when you get home, and wear the mask first thing tomorrow morning. Do the same when you go out in the future, and try not to show your true face. This mask is quite good; you won't feel uncomfortable wearing it."

Chen Gongshu took the mask, his fingertips touching the almost transparent material, which had a slightly warm feel, unlike leather or silk.

He examined the mask for a moment by candlelight. The mask shimmered with a faint iridescence in the light, and its edges were as fine as hair, yet there were subtle flowing lines.

"Young master, this..." his voice tightened, "is it some new Western gadget?"

"More precious than that."

Lin Yifan tucked the other mask into his pocket. "Try it on your face when you get back. Remember to press it firmly against your sideburns and neck. When you take it off, lift it from behind your ears; you can't pull it off from anywhere else."

Chen Gongshu carefully folded the mask and stuffed it into his inner pocket. As he stood up, the chair legs made short, sharp sounds on the blue brick floor. He walked to the door and then stopped, glancing back at Lin Yifan. His Adam's apple bobbed, but he ultimately said nothing, simply closing the door gently behind him.

Long Xiaoni's low voice drifted from the courtyard, as if she were instructing Wenxiu on something. Lin Yifan sat alone for a moment, then took out the miniature communicator he had redeemed from the system from his spatial storage, his thumb rubbing the cool metal casing.

This thing can receive signals within fifty miles. When we get to Tianjin, we need to equip Chen Gongshu and Xu Zheng with it. He put the communicator back in his spatial storage and got up to blow out the oil lamp.

Moonlight filtered through the window paper, casting blurry patches of light on the ground. Lin Yifan lay on the kang (a heated brick bed) fully clothed, but did not fall asleep immediately.

The spiritual energy spread outwards like a tide, sweeping past the three maids in the kitchen, past Chen Gongshu's suppressed breathing next door, and all the way to the old locust tree at the alley entrance—in the shadow of the tree, an old night watchman was squatting, dozing off while holding his clapper.

Business as usual.

He withdrew his mental energy, his eyes open in the darkness. Tianjin, Hongjitang, Manager Zhou, Xu Zheng's henchmen. These fragments pieced together a blurry web in his mind, and slowly, he drifted off to sleep.

Suddenly, Lin Yifan was awakened by a slight sound of a door opening. Now that he possessed master-level martial arts skills and was within his own domain, no movement could escape his perception.