Siheyuan: A master brewer starts with a jar of bone-strengthening wine!

The man looked completely bewildered and moved out of the infirmary like a wooden statue.

Ding Qiunan was still laughing so hard she was cramping up, clutching her stomach and yelling, "I'm getting a stitch!"

"Have you laughed enough?" Liu Dong knocked on the door frame. "Same old rule: you take care of minor ailments, and kick them out for major ones and let them go to a big hospital—if they really get a terminal illness, call me and we'll get treatment together."

"If you teach this kind of bullying a couple of times, he'll avoid any doctor in a white coat from now on."

Ding Qiunan wiped away tears of laughter as she stood up: "Understood, Director Liu!"

"Okay." Liu Dong picked up his canvas bag. "I'm rushing off, gotta go. You stay at the infirmary!"

"Oh, Director Liu, take care—"

Just as he saw him out the door, Ding Qiunan suddenly remembered something and grabbed his sleeve: "Wait! Director Liu, I have something I've been holding back for days..."

"explain."

She took a breath: "Back in the workshop, Master Yi, Master Liu, and Jia Dongxu always talk behind your back—you always exaggerate when you treat patients, always saying it's late-stage cancer... Is it... that you do it on purpose?"

When she first arrived, she actually believed it and secretly wondered about it for a long time.

But after what happened today, it suddenly clicked in her mind, as if everything became clear.

Liu Dong smirked and casually said, "More or less." As soon as he finished speaking, he turned and left.

Ding Qiunan's face burned red: So all that nonsense I spouted at the miracle doctor has made me lose face completely!

No sooner had Liu Dong been seen out the door than someone knocked and came in.

With a broad smile, Jia Dongxu swaggered into Ding Qiunan's office.

"Jia Dongxu? What are you doing here?" Ding Qiunan's face instantly turned colder than ice in the twelfth lunar month when she saw him.

Cool and aloof mode, always online!

"Ah... Qiu Nan..."

"Get out!" Ding Qiunan frowned, her tone like throwing shards of ice. "You think you can just call me 'Qiunan' like that? If you want to call me that, call me 'Dr. Ding,' or—call me by my full name!"

Her gaze swept over him, and the undisguised disdain was as clear as if a bucket of cold water had been poured over him.

But Jia Dongxu seemed blind; instead of backing down, he took half a step forward: "Qiu Nan... Hey, Ding Qiu Nan, I snagged some movie tickets for the weekend yesterday. I wanted to ask you to go with me, is that okay?"

Ding Qiunan didn't even lift her eyelids: "No way. I don't like watching movies. You go see one yourself."

"But I bought two!"

"That's your problem, it has nothing to do with me."

After she finished speaking, she simply turned her head away, ignoring him completely.

Jia Dongxu's lips twitched, and his voice deepened: "Ding Qiunan, don't worry, if we're really together, I won't interfere at all. Who you want to eat with, chat with, or talk to—I'll turn a blind eye and let you do whatever you want."

"Get out of here!!!"

Ding Qiunan jumped to her feet, her anger flaring: "If you don't leave now, I'm going to find Director Yang right now and see how he deals with someone like you!"

Jia Dongxu froze, his face turning pale and then flushed, before finally gritting his teeth and squeezing out, "Fine... Ding Qiunan, you wait. Let's see how long you can keep up this act—don't come begging for mercy one day, or it'll be too late for regrets!"

As night fell, the lights at the entrance of the courtyard house shone dimly.

Yi Zhonghai, Liu Haizhong, and Jia Dongxu walked for an hour on the frozen dirt road before finally staggering back to the courtyard.

Despite the freezing weather, the courtyard was bustling with activity, filled with the sounds of people.

"Really? He's not even twenty yet, is he?"

"Not at all! At most nineteen, maybe even eighteen!"

"Good heavens... so young, and already a director?"

"Is Liu Dongcheng now the head of the foreign exchange earnings office at the steel rolling mill?"

"Let's go, let's go take a look at his house!"

As Yi Zhonghai walked further in, all he could hear were the words "Director Liu," making his head buzz.

"Actually, Director Liu is a very honest person; he's never ambiguous with the elderly people in our facility!"

"Absolutely! In terms of awareness, he's number one!"

"I remember last time Uncle Yi's house caught fire, Director Liu was the first to come and offer his condolences, carrying coal briquettes!"

Yi Zhonghai almost fainted—

A gesture of condolence?

That's called "setting off a firecracker in public"!

He glanced sideways at the other person's bangs; the other person also had a furrowed brow and looked preoccupied.

The deaf old lady sat on a small stool by the door. As soon as she saw him, she asked, "Zhonghai's back? I heard that Liu Dong became the director of the Foreign Exchange Earnings Office, is that true?"

An older woman immediately crowded around, her eyes wide with disbelief: "Really? He's not even thirty yet and he's already a department head?"

Yi Zhonghai took a deep breath and steadied his voice: "It's true. Liu Dong helped the factory bring back a sum of foreign exchange, and the organization promoted him to director of the foreign exchange earnings office, where he will be in charge of foreign exchange earnings from now on."

"Impressive!" The deaf old lady looked up at Liu Dong's window, clicked her tongue, and said, "I knew this child would amount to something—he's sensible, polite, and kind-hearted!"

An older woman, fearing the woman would go further afield, quickly tugged at her arm: "Old man, wash your hands and eat!"

Yi Zhonghai waved his hand: "You guys eat first, I'm going to the front yard to talk to Uncle San about something serious."

He hastily splashed some water on his hands, then turned into the front yard and headed straight for Yan Bugui's house.

"Uncle Yi, have you eaten?"

Yan Bugui was shoveling rice into his bowl when he looked up and smiled, "If you haven't eaten, want to have a bite or two?"

—That's just a polite remark; anyone who takes it seriously is a fool.

Two bites?

You didn't even hand me chopsticks, are you expecting me to starve?

Yi Zhonghai knew perfectly well that he wasn't there to freeload. "Old Yan, I've come to discuss something with you today."

"Oh?" Yan Bugui put down his bowl, stood up quickly, and said, "Let's go outside to talk."

The two moved to the base of the courtyard wall.

"What's up?"

Yi Zhonghai took out a cigarette case, shook out one, and handed it over.

He lit a cigarette, took a deep drag, and floated around in the smoke for three moments before speaking: "You've heard about Liu Dong becoming the director, haven't you?"

Yan Bugui sighed deeply: "How could I not have heard? The whole yard is gossiping! This isn't a good sign for the three of us 'old men'!"

"That's right!" Yi Zhonghai nodded. "At this crucial juncture, we need to quickly establish our authority—let him know that while he's the director at the factory, he still has to listen to the three of us here!"

"We must establish this!" Yan Bugui slapped his thigh. "Young people getting cocky after achieving a little success won't do!"

"But...Old Yan, do you have an idea?"

"I have a rough idea here, can you give me your opinion?" Yi Zhonghai chuckled. "You're educated, you're quick-witted, give me some advice."

Yan Bugui grinned: "You tell me!"

"Here's my plan—tonight we'll hold a surprise 'voting meeting.' Using this as an excuse, we can let everyone see who really makes the decisions in the department; and incidentally, we can also wake some people up, so they don't think they can disregard the old rules just because they're wearing a new guise!"

He lowered his voice and explained the plan in detail.

Yan Bugui's eyes lit up more and more as he listened: "Brilliant! Perfect!"

"That's how you teach him a lesson!"