Courtyard House: Home Alone

Seeing that someone dared to step forward, the steward surnamed Kong glanced sideways at Lin Yifan, put his hands on his hips, and cursed, "Where did this snot-nosed brat come from, daring to interfere in my business? If you know what's good for you, get out of here, or we'll arrest you and send you to the authorities!"

Lin Yifan ignored him, helping Tang Guoan to his feet. He then turned to the butler, his tone icy: "Who do we have here? Just the Kong family's dog. What, the Kong family is so powerful, they want to forcibly seize these few dilapidated courtyards?"

Butler Kong was furious that this kid dared to insult him in public. He turned pale with rage, pointed at Lin Yifan, and couldn't utter a word for a long time. Finally, he jumped up and down, yelling, "You've gone too far! Get him! Beat this brat to death! I'll take responsibility if anything happens!"

The thugs who were following him had been itching for a fight. As soon as they heard this, they roared and pounced on him. These people were thugs trained by Yangzi Company. They never held back when they hit someone. They immediately aimed for Lin Yifan's head and chest, trying to knock him down and vent their anger.

Lin Yifan stood still, waiting for the first thug to rush in before dodging the punch. He then grabbed the thug's wrist and twisted it gently. With a sharp crack, the thug screamed as his wrist snapped, and he writhed on the ground in agony.

The people behind were stunned for a moment, not expecting this seemingly refined young man to be so swift in his attack. After realizing what had happened, they charged forward again, howling. In less than half a minute, all four thugs were lying on the ground, crying for their parents, and none of them could stand up.

Seeing this, Butler Kong took two steps back in fright, pointing at Lin Yifan with a trembling voice: "You...you dare to touch someone from Yangzi Company? Do you know who I am? I'm from the Kong family!"

Lin Yifan clapped his hands and took two steps forward. The steward Kong was so frightened that he sat down on the ground. Lin Yifan looked at him and sneered: "What's wrong with the Kong family? Does the Kong family think they can just seize people's courtyards, beat people, and bully people?"

"Let me tell you, I'm going to take charge of this today. You get back here and tell your boss that this yard belongs to my friend. If he wants this land, he'll have to come and talk to me himself. You dog aren't even worthy to talk to me."

As he spoke, Lin Yifan pulled a Browning pistol from his pocket, pointing the cold muzzle at the middle-aged man surnamed Kong. "Either get out of here now, or I'll send you to meet the King of Hell right now. You choose."

The steward, who was already terrified, was scared out of his wits when he saw the gun. He scrambled to his feet, ignoring the thugs on the ground, and ran away in a panic after saying, "You just wait."

Lin Yifan put away his gun, turned around and cupped his hands in greeting to Tang Guoan. He then greeted the old lady and Tang family members in the courtyard before speaking, "Uncle, my name is Lin Yifan. I am a friend that Ju Ye met in the north. He asked me to bring some money and a letter home this time. I didn't expect to encounter this so soon after arriving. I'm sorry to have startled you."

Tang Guoan finally came to his senses and hurriedly led his family to thank Lin Yifan. The old lady held Lin Yifan's hand tremblingly, saying thank you repeatedly. If it weren't for him coming today, their family would really have been desperate.

Lin Yifan quickly helped the old lady up and followed the Tang family into the courtyard to sit down. Tang Guoan poured tea for Lin Yifan before sighing and explaining the origin of the matter.

It turns out that Yangzi Company recently planned to expand its warehouse next to the dock, and this area happened to be included in the expansion scope. The company sent people over to discuss the demolition. The entire yard is more than 300 square meters, and they were only willing to offer 100 silver dollars for the house and land.

With this little money, let alone buying a new house, even renting a small courtyard outside the city wouldn't last more than two years. Of course, Tang Guoan's family refused to move, which is why they've been making a fuss for so many days.

Today, the other party finally couldn't hold back and brought people to their door to force them to move out.

Lin Yifan frowned after hearing this. This Yangzi Company had been running rampant in the Kuomintang-controlled areas because of its power and influence. They even tried to take away the last place where ordinary people could settle down. It was really too much of a bully.

He looked at Tang Guoan and asked, "Did you seek redress from the authorities before? Did you just stand by and watch them seize the land?"

Tang Guoan shook his head with a wry smile: "How could we not have tried? But the Yangzi Company is backed by the Kong family. How could those officials dare to offend them? They would just give us a few perfunctory words and send us back. It was completely useless."

Lin Yifan nodded, already having made up his mind. He took out the family letter and legal tender that Tang Juye had asked him to bring from his pocket and placed them on the table: "Uncle, Juye asked me to bring this back. He is doing well in the north and told the family not to worry. Here is a thousand legal tender that he saved up. Give it to the family to use first."

Also, please take a look at the letter. Juye wants you all to go to the north. I have also received several other families who wanted to go to the north and brought them to Chongqing.

As for the house, it's going to be lost sooner or later. Now that Juye is sending you to the north, you can take this opportunity to give up the house and avoid being bullied by them here.

"But this price is just outrageous. One hundred silver dollars is definitely not enough. They have to come up with at least two thousand silver dollars in compensation. Not a single penny less, and this matter won't be over."

Tang Guoan was stunned for a moment upon hearing this, and hesitated before speaking: "But... they only managed to force us to give them 100 silver dollars, how could they possibly give us so much more? Brother Lin, we really can't compete with them, otherwise... otherwise we should just take the 100 silver dollars and move away quickly, there's no need to fight them head-on anymore."

Lin Yifan smiled and shook his head, saying, "Uncle, don't be afraid. Since we've run into this, I'll handle it properly for you. Since they dared to come and rob us, they'll have to pay a good price. After Steward Kong leaves today, someone else will come soon. Just wait and see."

Before Tang Guoan could say anything more, the sound of a car braking came from outside the courtyard gate, followed by a series of hurried footsteps. Sure enough, it was Butler Kong, who had run away earlier, bringing his men over.

Lin Yifan looked at the Tang family members who were preparing to leave and said with a smile, "You can all stay at home and don't need to go out. I want to see just how arrogant the Kong family really is."

After saying that, he stepped out of the courtyard gate. Looking up, he saw a black sedan and a truck parked at the gate. A young man wearing a white suit, a top hat, and a cigar got out of the car.

From the truck behind, a group of bodyguards with guns tucked into their belts jumped out.

Lin Yifan was secretly pleased, thinking to himself, "This little thing has actually attracted Miss Kong and Kong Lingwei. Looks like I'm going to make a fortune today."

He knew that the woman in front of him, dressed in men's clothing and smoking a cigar, was actually a woman. Her name was Kong Lingwei, the second daughter of the current Minister of Finance, and the First Lady was her aunt. That's why the Yangzi Company could act so arrogantly in the Kuomintang-controlled areas; ordinary people really couldn't afford to mess with her.

But now that it's in Lin Yifan's hands, even if the King of Heaven himself came today, he'd have to follow the rules.