Courtyard House: The Long-Lost Eldest Son Returns with Military Merit

After Li Aijun left, Jia Dongming took a teacup from the coffee table, put in a few tea leaves, and brewed a cup of tea for Guo Jianguo. He pushed the cup in front of him and said with a smile, "Comrade Jianguo, didn't you realize that Comrade Aijun was just teasing you? Here, have a cup of tea and calm down."

Still angry, Guo Jianguo realized after hearing Jia Dongming's words that he had been tricked by Li Aijun.

At this moment, Guo Jianguo had no time to ponder whether Li Aijun was playing a trick on him. He immediately and eagerly inquired of Jia Dongming, "Director! What mission do you plan to assign our First Brigade?"

When Jia Dongming saw Guo Jianguo asking questions, he recalled the suspicious person in the backyard of Xue Ru Silk Shop and calmly explained to Guo Jianguo: "Comrade Jianguo! A few days ago, I was drinking in a small tavern on Qianmen Street when I overheard a rumor."

"It is said that a middle-aged man lives in the backyard of Xue Ru Silk Shop on Qianmen Street. He behaves mysteriously and rarely interacts with his neighbors. I suspect that this man is very likely an enemy agent lurking on the other side of the strait."

Your team's duty is to closely monitor this person and thoroughly investigate all information related to him.

After receiving the assignment, Guo Jianguo immediately told Jia Dongming, "Director! Please rest assured, our First Brigade will definitely complete the mission."

After hearing Guo Jianguo's assurance, Jia Dongming specifically instructed him: "Enemy agents often possess professional skills. When you carry out surveillance, you must not send only one person to keep watch. You should arrange for a rotation of people to follow up."

At the same time, change clothes frequently during the surveillance to avoid arousing the other party's suspicion and exposing the operation.

Guo Jianguo kept Jia Dongming's instructions firmly in mind and solemnly promised again: "Director! I have kept your instructions in mind. We will strictly follow your orders to carry out our work and ensure the successful achievement of our mission objectives."

Jia Dongming was satisfied with Guo Jianguo's response and nodded, saying, "Okay! Go and make the arrangements! If you discover anything, you must report to me immediately."

Because she needed to go home to prepare lunch for the repairman, around 11 a.m., Qin Huairu got her food at the cafeteria and then rode her newly purchased bicycle toward Tongluoguxiang.

"Huai Ru! Did you just buy this bicycle?"

Qin Huairu quickly rode her bicycle back to the courtyard. Yan Bugui, who was guarding the gate, was surprised to see her pushing a brand-new bicycle into the courtyard and hurriedly went up to ask her.

When Qin Huairu saw Yan Bugui blocking her way, and seeing his surprised and envious expression, she couldn't help but feel a little smug. She smiled and explained, "Third Uncle! Yi Zhonghai mentioned this morning that my uncle rides his bike to take me to work every day, which inevitably attracts gossip."

"Although most of my coworkers in the factory knew about our relationship, my uncle gave me a bicycle ticket and two hundred yuan to buy a bicycle so that it would be more convenient to pick up and drop off Banggeng in the future, out of consideration for the impact."

Not long after Jia Dongming returned, he bought a bicycle. Only a week later, he bought another one for Qin Huairu. This made the shrewd Yan Bugui extremely envious, and he quickly suggested, "Huairu! Your family has bought a bicycle, repaired the house, and now you've added another one this week. Shouldn't you treat everyone in the courtyard to a meal to celebrate?"

Upon hearing this, Qin Huairu knew that Yan Bugui's old habits had resurfaced, and he was still trying to take advantage of others. She immediately replied, "Third Uncle! The higher-ups are now calling for thrift and frugality. How can my uncle, as a leader of the steel rolling mill, lead the way in violating discipline?"

Upon hearing Qin Huairu's words, Yan Bugui immediately realized his mistake and said with an embarrassed expression, "Huairu! You're right. We're advocating thrift and frugality now, so we really shouldn't be too ostentatious."

"Mom! Whose bicycle is this?"

As Qin Huairu pushed the bicycle into the inner courtyard, Banggeng, who was playing with Xiaodang in the yard, saw his mother pushing a brand-new bicycle back and immediately ran up to her, asking questions out of curiosity.

When her son asked, Qin Huairu smiled and said to the two siblings, "Great job! Xiaodang! This is a bicycle your uncle bought for Mom. Now Mom can ride it to take you to school too."

"Great! We have a new bicycle again!"

When Banggeng found out, he was so happy that he danced with joy.

"Huai Ru! What's going on with this bicycle?"

Hearing Bang Geng's joyful shouts from inside the house, Jia Zhangshi came out and saw the bicycle parked by the wall. She immediately asked Qin Huairu about it.

Qin Huairu explained to Jia Zhangshi, "Mom! This morning on my way to work, Yi Zhonghai mentioned that Brother Dongming drives me around every day, and the coworkers at the factory are bound to gossip about it behind my back."

To avoid suspicion, Dongming asked me to buy a bicycle.

Upon hearing this, Madam Jia's face immediately darkened, and she cursed, "Yi Zhonghai clearly has ill intentions!"

Hearing Jia Zhangshi's angry outburst, Qin Huairu thought of Yi Zhonghai's character and reminded her, "Mom! Regardless of whether Yi Zhonghai has ulterior motives, what he said is not entirely unreasonable."

After all, Dongming is now a leader, and even though I'm his sister-in-law, I still need to avoid any appearance of impropriety.

After Qin Huairu spoke, Jia Zhangshi thought about Jia Dongming's identity and felt that her concerns were not unfounded. She immediately echoed, "Our Dongming is the highest-ranking official in the Jia family in recent generations. We must not let some rumors ruin his future."

Qin Huairu nodded in agreement, then carried the food she had brought back from the factory and walked towards the main room, saying, "Mom! I'm going to cook for Master Lei and the others. If you're hungry, eat the food I brought back from the canteen first."

After having lunch at the security department's canteen, Jia Dongming, seeing that he had nothing to do in the afternoon, told his office and rode his bicycle away from the steel rolling mill.

The day before, Jia Dongming had gone to the blacksmith shop to investigate. With his eagle eye, he discovered that there was a high-powered radio hidden in the dark room below the shop. This alone was enough to determine that the blacksmith shop was suspicious.

During his conversation with Zhang Huanchun yesterday, Jia Dongming learned that the branch office had been investigating the shop for over a month without success. This prompted Jia Dongming to come back again in an attempt to uncover any possible clues.

After cycling for about twenty minutes, Jia Dongming arrived near the blacksmith's shop and immediately noticed several security personnel scattered not far from the shop, closely monitoring the situation.

Upon seeing his subordinates, Jia Dongming pretended not to recognize them and continued pedaling his bicycle, circling around the blacksmith shop before finally stopping in front of a teahouse diagonally opposite the shop.

"Hello, sir/madam. Our shop offers high-quality Biluochun, West Lake Longjing, Pu'er, green tea, flower tea, and broken tea. Which one would you like?"

As soon as Jia Dongming parked his car and entered the teahouse, a waiter came up to him and introduced the different types of tea.

Upon hearing this, Jia Dongming first chose a seat by the window, then smiled and said to the waiter, "Please bring me a pot of green tea and a plate of melon seeds."

The waiter replied, "Comrade, the green tea is 85 cents, the melon seeds are 5 cents, that's 90 cents in total."

Jia Dongming took out a yuan and handed it to the waiter, then sat down and looked out the window at the traffic and crowds on the street.

Soon, the waiter brought tea and melon seeds, placed them in front of Jia Dongming, and said with a smile, "Comrade, your tea is ready. Here is your change, please keep it."

Jia Dongming casually put the money into his pocket, poured himself a cup of tea, and began to eat melon seeds and drink tea while glancing at the blacksmith shop diagonally opposite him from time to time.

Just as Jia Dongming was drinking tea and observing in the teahouse, a security guard who was squatting by the roadside saw his leisurely appearance and couldn't help but admire him: "The director is indeed the director. Even when he's keeping watch, he can find such a comfortable place. This is the right way to keep watch. I really need to learn from the director in the future."

As Jia Dongming was leisurely enjoying his tea, a middle-aged man dressed as a farmer walked into the blacksmith's shop carrying a cloth bag and called out to the blacksmith inside, "Master Ye, my machete chipped a rock a couple of days ago while I was cutting down trees. How much would it cost to repair it?"

Master Ye took the machete and examined it closely for a moment before replying with a smile, "Comrade, this machete needs to be reforged; the repair fee will be one yuan."

The middle-aged man looked troubled, patted his pocket, took out a few cents, and hesitated before saying, "Master Ye, one yuan is really too expensive. Could you make it cheaper? It's not easy for us country folk to earn money."

Seeing the change he pulled out and the troubled look on his face, Master Ye also looked helpless and replied, "Comrade, it's not that I'm unwilling to lower the price, but this shop belongs to the government, and the prices are all fixed. I can't give you a discount."

The middle-aged man hesitated for a moment, then counted out fifty cents and handed it over, saying, "Master Ye, I'll pay fifty cents first, and I'll make up the rest when I pick up the knife tomorrow. Is that alright?"

Master Ye sighed softly, "Alas, life is tough for everyone these days."

"Then I'll take 50 cents first, and you must pay the balance when you pick up the knife tomorrow."

The middle-aged man immediately smiled and thanked him repeatedly, "Master Ye, thank you so much! I'll come to pick up the knife tomorrow and make sure to pay the difference."

Sitting in the teahouse, Jia Dongming used his eagle eyes and keen ears to monitor the situation inside the shop from the moment the middle-aged man entered.

After listening to their conversation, he didn't notice anything unusual, so he turned his attention away from the blacksmith shop and back to the teahouse.

At the intersection next to the blacksmith's shop, a security guard saw the middle-aged man walk out of the shop, exchange a glance with his colleague not far away, then picked up his empty carrying pole and followed him from a distance.

Jia Dongming sat in the teahouse for about half an hour. Seeing that no more customers came to the blacksmith shop, he decided to return to the steel rolling mill.

"Comrade, you haven't finished your tea yet, are you leaving already?"

When the teahouse waiter saw Jia Dongming get up, he hurriedly stepped forward and asked him in a warm manner.

Jia Dongming laughed and replied, "My wife took the kitchen knife to chop bones and broke it."

I saw a blacksmith shop across the street and thought I'd go check if they had any sturdy kitchen knives to buy for her.

Jia Dongming suggested going to the blacksmith shop to buy a knife. The shop assistant hesitated for a moment, but eventually advised, "Comrade, if you want to buy a kitchen knife, why don't you go to the supply and marketing cooperative?"

The blacksmith's shop was ridiculously expensive.

Upon hearing this, Jia Dongming vaguely felt he had grasped some clue and quickly asked, "Comrade, is there anything special about the kitchen knives in that shop? Why are they so expensive?"

The shop assistant thought for a moment, then shook his head and said, "Actually, I can't really explain the difference between their kitchen knives and those from the supply and marketing cooperative."

When Old Feng was in charge, business was booming.

Three months ago, he got old and went back to his hometown in Shanxi to retire.

"The new Master Ye took over and within a few days, he doubled the price of all the ironware in the shop."

From then on, business got worse day by day.

"If it weren't for the current public-private partnership, this shop probably wouldn't have survived long ago."

Hearing this, Jia Dongming roughly understood the situation and replied with a smile, "Comrade, in the end, it's still our policies that are good."

In the old society, a shop like this would have closed down long ago.

The shop assistant smiled upon hearing this and nodded repeatedly: "You're right."

When we used to run a teahouse, those thugs would come every few days demanding money, and if we didn't pay, they would make things so bad that we couldn't do business.

Although the teahouse is now a joint public-private enterprise, it has support and no longer needs to live in fear.

I may earn less money, but I'll have a stable and secure life.

After saying goodbye to the shop assistant, Jia Dongming habitually looked towards the blacksmith shop with his eagle eyes.

There, in the underground chamber, Master Ye was holding a slip of paper and carefully comparing it to a thick book.

On the table next to it, there was a wood-chopping knife with its wooden handle removed.

The scene in the underground chamber made Jia Dongming's eyes narrow, and it also made him understand why the branch office had been monitoring for so long but had found nothing.

This discovery greatly encouraged Jia Dongming.

He walked to his bicycle, rode to a secluded spot where he wouldn't be easily noticed, and continued to secretly observe Master Ye's actions.

Using his eagle-eye vision, Jia Dongming watched as Master Ye finished translating the contents of the note, then picked up another piece of paper and wrote down a string of numbers according to the instructions on it.

The written note was rolled up and stuffed into a wooden handle.

Master Ye took a kitchen knife, steadied the wooden handle, and carefully inspected it after attaching the blade.