Courtyard House: Rebirth of a Shopkeeper in 1937

In chaotic times, brute force ultimately cannot prevail against official decrees. Uncle Bu understood this perfectly, which is why he dared to act so brazenly and provoke them. He held the power of a village head, controlling conscription, grain requisition, official duties allocation, and village performance evaluation. If he completely offended them, he wouldn't need to confront them directly; he could simply use official business as a pretext to secretly manipulate and obstruct them at every level, deliberately making things difficult and targeting them within the bounds of policy and regulations. He prioritized allocating quotas to the Song family during conscription, deliberately inflated the grain requisition ratio, and subjected them to harsh treatment and pressure during daily official duties and corvée labor. Such overtly compliant yet covertly malicious methods were the most difficult to guard against and impossible to refute. Father endured and deliberately backed down, not out of fear, but to avoid disaster. What he feared was never the Bu brothers' brute force, but the sharp blade of power in their hands that could be used to manipulate his family at will.

Despite Uncle Bu's verbal jabs and relentless pressure, Father remained calm and unyielding, refusing to budge an inch, completely impervious to reason. Uncle Bu, after much maneuvering, failed to subdue the Song family or elicit a single word of concession. He was both angry and frustrated, yet dared not openly sever ties. Meanwhile, passing merchants gradually took their seats in the shop, and the crowd grew, with everyone's gaze subtly falling on him. Having just assumed the position of head of the household, he was at the height of his pride and desire for prestige, unwilling to lose face in front of these out-of-town guests and become a laughingstock for abusing his power. Utterly frustrated, he lost his earlier arrogance, glaring at Father with a resentful and bored expression. With a sullen face, he gestured to his two brothers guarding the door, reluctantly turning and leaving. Thus, this farcical confrontation came to an abrupt end.

Uncle Bu left dejectedly, but the real chaos in the village was just beginning. His absurd rule of paying money to avoid corvée labor and having the poor take the place of soldiers spread, instantly shattering the long-standing neighborly bonds of kinship. Any family in the village without able-bodied men of conscription age, who also had some savings, became the target of everyone's harassment and pestering. People came to their doors every day, crying and begging for money; their doorsteps were practically worn down.

The Song family appeared to be of ordinary means, never flaunting their wealth, but they were known for their kindness and generosity, always ready to lend a helping hand to neighbors in need. This generosity made the Song family stand out in the village, naturally making them the top choice for help from everyone. Within just a few days, neighbors flocked to their door seeking loans, each with their own selfish motives and using every means at their disposal. They used a variety of tactics: persistent pleading, appealing to past relationships, verbal pressure, and even covert coercion. All their goals were extremely simple—to borrow money to buy their children a chance at exemption from corvée labor.

Some people, with red eyes, cried out that their young children were too young to bear going to the battlefield to die, their words filled with sorrow, deliberately trying to gain sympathy; others brought up old neighborly relations, using past small favors to bind their sense of morality, forcing the Song family to be generous; still others, with narrow minds, after their soft pleas failed, secretly made harsh threats, saying that if the Song family did not help, they would definitely make things difficult for them in future village affairs, official duties, and daily neighborly interactions.

Within days, the entire village's social order collapsed, and neighborly relations plummeted to rock bottom. The warmth of mutual help and support vanished, leaving only selfish calculations and deep-seated suspicions driven by the struggle for survival in this chaotic world. Those who managed to borrow money felt secretly fortunate, while those who failed harbored resentment and held grudges. The entire village was fragmented, the atmosphere cold and oppressive, devoid of any semblance of its former peace.

Xingbao observed this farce with a cold eye, his mind perfectly clear: this money absolutely could not be lent. Right now, everyone was driven by the selfish desire to save their own lives. They appeared to be humbly pleading for help, but in reality, they were extremely self-serving, devoid of any genuine compassion. If he were to soften his heart and make an exception for even one family, he would offend all the others who hadn't received their help, earning him a reputation for favoritism and hypocrisy. If he helped every family, it would only feed everyone's greed, creating an endless cycle of demands that would never be satisfied—a bottomless pit.

Even more fatally, Uncle Bu, wielding real power in the village, had been plotting against the Song family, determined to exact personal revenge. If the Song family were to lend money to help someone avoid corvée labor, they would immediately be accused of colluding with neighbors, interfering with village affairs, and defying conscription orders, falling right into Uncle Bu's trap and handing them ammunition for open suppression and arbitrary manipulation. It was a trap of personal favors on one hand, and a knife of power on the other; lending or not lending, and lending to whom, were both wrong—a quagmire with no solution from beginning to end.

The conscription turmoil, neighborhood disputes, and calculations of human relationships—a tangled mess that the village elders and adults were already struggling to deal with—was something Xingbao had no desire to get bogged down in. Compared to the vague notions of neighborly relations and internal strife, the looming threat of war was the most pressing and real life-or-death crisis. While the entire village was caught in the internal struggle of conscription exemptions, Xingbao remained clear-headed, quickly extricating himself from these trivial matters and focusing all his attention on preparing for war and ensuring his own survival.

He had instructed his father early on to take advantage of the current stable situation and the absence of air raids to quickly expand the cellar in their backyard. The large amount of timber that the family had stockpiled over the years came in handy; it was all cut and shaped to reinforce the cellar walls and support the roof beams, completely eliminating the risk of collapse. Song's shop received merchants every day, with a chaotic and unpredictable flow of people. In the event of a sudden enemy bombing, the expanded and reinforced cellar would not only protect his family but also accommodate passing travelers who stopped at the shop, giving them more confidence to survive in the chaos.

Not only was he concerned for his own family, but Xingbao also thought about his close relatives and neighbors. He made a special trip to his maternal grandfather's house and repeatedly urged his grandfather's family to contact relatives and neighbors with whom they had genuine and solid relationships to start digging an emergency cellar as soon as possible. He solemnly warned everyone not to use their old vegetable cellars for shelter, as most of the cellars were located in remote, secluded, and shady places inside the houses. If they were bombed, caught fire, or if the houses collapsed, it would be a dead end, with no way to search for survivors and no chance of survival.

Therefore, he specifically decided on the optimal location, having everyone dig the cellar in an open area near the gate. Even if the house was unfortunately damaged or collapsed during wartime, it would facilitate search and rescue by outsiders and escape for the family, maximizing the chances of survival and reducing the risk of casualties.

At the same time, the eldest brother publicly explained the crucial matters of air raid shelters and digging cellars for self-protection to all the students in the school. He carefully explained the dangers of enemy bombing, the disadvantages of old and dilapidated hiding places, and the advantages of cellars near the street for safety. He instructed each student to truthfully inform their elders after returning home, so that they could start preparations and take precautions as soon as possible. In chaotic times, there is no room for luck; only by planning ahead and making arrangements in advance can one protect a safe haven for their family amidst the chaos of war.