Siheyuan: I will never tolerate gambling and drugs!

The master bedroom in the attic

"Kobayashi, take a rest for a while..."

Lying on the bed, Madam Tan wrapped her arms around Xu Lin's neck, and with her last bit of strength, lifted her head to whisper in Xu Lin's ear.

So Xu Lin, unusually considerate of Tan Shi, slept beside her. After lighting a cigarette, he pulled Tan Shi into his arms again, exhaled a puff of smoke, and asked gently.

"You didn't suffer any injustice while I was away, did you?"

Tan nestled nestled sweetly in Xu Lin's arms, looking at him with eyes overflowing with tenderness, a feeling of happiness surrounding her: "Aside from the sadness of you not being here, there's nothing or no one else that makes me feel wronged..."

Hearing Tan's words, Xu Lin smiled. He pinched Tan's hand and said shamelessly, "Well, there's nothing I can do. You didn't want it yourself, so there's nothing I can do..."

Hearing Xu Lin tease her like that, Tan angrily bit the arm of Xu Lin's mischievous hand. After biting, fearing she had hurt him, she quickly rubbed the spot with her small hand, then casually asked...

"Is everything taken care of? I don't need to travel anymore, right?"

After taking a couple of puffs of his cigarette, Xu Lin, worried that Lou Xiao'e and the others might smell it, put it out after satisfying his craving. He then turned around, embraced Tan Shi's delicate body, and whispered...

"Yes, it's all over for now. I shouldn't need to travel for work anymore, and I can stay home with you from now on."

Hearing Xu Lin's loving words, Madam Tan kissed him on the lips again. Xu Lin mumbled something indistinctly.

"It smells of smoke, don't you mind?"

After hearing this, Ms. Tan raised her head, glared at Xu Lin, and then kissed him again deeply, replying with equally indistinct words.

"I used to dislike the smell of cigarettes, but I just love the faint smell of smoke in your breath... It's intoxicating... but not unpleasant, not pungent..."

A moment later, their lips parted. Xu Lin asked again.

"Is the house in the backyard finished?"

While fiddling with Xu Lin's large hand, Madam Tan replied, "Yes, it's been repaired for several days now. I was thinking that after you came back, I would take Xiao'e and move back."

However, even if I move back, you can't take time off work at night, or else I'll...

Xu Lin was amused by the little girl Tan's behavior and asked with a mischievous grin, "Or what will you do? You dare to bite me again...?"

"Hmph! I'll bite you to death!" With that, Madam Tan hid under the covers. Xu Lin, feeling the touch, subconsciously lit another cigarette.

After taking a drag, I spread my arms on the headboard, tilted my head back, and felt the dizziness from the nicotine and the faint smell of tobacco in the air.

Only when the cigarette in his hand had burned out, leaving only lingering ash, did Xu Lin belatedly throw away the cigarette butt and pull Tan Shi out of bed.

"You've rested well now, haven't you...?"

……

early morning

Xu Lin was woken up by Madam Tan to do morning exercises as usual, and then he sneaked downstairs to wash up. After a while, he heard two little girls chattering as they came downstairs.

"Brother Xu, you're back?" Lou Xiao'e rushed to Xu Lin first, followed by He Yushui, who looked at Xu Lin with a beaming smile.

"Yeah, I got back last night. I didn't wake you guys because it was so late. How was it? Were you good while I was gone? Did you study hard?" Xu Lin asked, feigning seriousness.

"Yes!" He Yushui replied to Xu Lin immediately and decisively, "Xiao'e and I cook for Aunt Tan every day, and we even wash her clothes together!"

Lou Xiao'e chimed in, "After washing the clothes, we started copying books in your study this afternoon. Even though we didn't recognize many of the characters, my mom praised our handwriting, saying it looked very neat!"

Xu Lin patted the two little heads with satisfaction.

"Go ahead, the gifts I brought for you are in the back room where I sleep, go and take a look."

Upon hearing about the gifts, the two little girls scrambled to run towards Xu Lin's bedroom. When they returned, they were carrying chocolates, a pen, and a pink bow hair clip that Xu Lin had bought for them.

"Brother Xu, is all this for the two of us?!" The two little girls danced excitedly, and after seeing Xu Lin nod in affirmation, they ran together to the kitchen to show off to Madam Tan.

Xu Lin smiled but didn't say much. They were considered lucky; when he was a child, the gifts he received were far more extravagant than theirs... almost like a fisherman who had caught a big fish...

After finishing breakfast, Xu Lin and the other two pushed their bicycles to work. Just as they reached the gate, they ran into Xu Damao and Sha Zhu.

"Xu Lin, when did you get back? Where have you been these past few days? I haven't seen you at the steel mill or the yard." Xu Damao greeted Xu Lin as soon as he saw him, while Sha Zhu, standing nearby, also cast a curious glance at him.

"Oh, I just got back last night. I didn't do anything special, just went to see a friend's elderly relative for a medical checkup. Because of their age, they can't go out, so I had to go by myself. That's why I took leave from the steel mill to go there."

Xu Lin made up a quick excuse and then changed the subject, "Why are you guys only going to work now? You used to leave much earlier, didn't you?"

"Don't even mention it, today was truly a nightmare," Xu Damao continued, looking utterly dejected.

"My parents transferred the house to me a couple of days ago and then went back to their hometown. Since no one wakes me up anymore, I've been using the sound of Liu Haizhong scolding his son as my alarm clock every morning."

As a result, it was quiet all day, without any movement, so it went too far...

Shazhu also stepped forward to add at this time.

"The old man is the same; he's been so quiet all day. He usually tells me to fetch water for the old lady in the backyard before going to work in the morning, but today there hasn't been a sound..."

As Xu Lin listened to what the two were saying, and then thought about the three of them talking about "whether to talk or not" yesterday, he couldn't help but burst out laughing.

Sha Zhu and Xu Damao thought Xu Lin was laughing at them for waking up late, so they laughed along.

"Alright, let's go. If we run fast, we can still catch up. My car can't carry two grown men, so I'll head out first."

After saying that, Xu Lin got on his bicycle and rode away. Sha Zhu and Xu Damao watched his departing figure with envy.

"Hey, stop looking. With your salary, you'd need to save for at least three years to buy a bicycle..." Xu Damao said slyly.

"You can afford it? Your salary is even less than mine, and it will take me three years. How much better off can you be..." Sha Zhu retorted defiantly.

"Hehe, buddy, you're different! My bike'll be here soon. Our director's already talked to me, so you'll be walking to work every day with those three old men in charge of the compound."

But if you give your sister to Xu Lin to be his wife, maybe Xu Lin will be so happy that he'll reward you with his secondhand bicycle! Hahaha!

Xu Damao, as always, was sharp-tongued. After saying what really hit Sha Zhu in the heart, he dashed off.

"Xu Damao! You son of a bitch!" Sha Zhu, realizing what was happening, chased after him, cursing furiously...

Meanwhile, after arriving at the steel rolling mill, Xu Lin first went to see Director Yang, said a few words to him, and then returned to the infirmary.

Because Xu Lin had been away for a week, some of the workers had been enduring their discomfort, so Xu Lin had been busy all morning to finish the job.

Xu Lin checked the time and realized he had missed lunch. He wasn't particularly hungry, so he decided not to eat. He figured he had plenty of prepared food in his system space when he got hungry, so he took out a piece of chocolate he'd brought back from the Soviet Union and ate it while reading.

After a while, Xu Lin was engrossed in reading when he suddenly heard the door to his infirmary close. Looking up, he saw Liu Lan walking over happily.

"Dr. Xu, why didn't you tell me you were coming back! When did you get back?"

Xu Lin moved his chair back and pulled Liu Lan to sit on his lap. "I just got back last night. There were a lot of coworkers coming over this morning, so I didn't have time to say hello."

"So you haven't had lunch yet...?" Liu Lan asked shyly, her head lowered.

Upon hearing this, Xu Lin instantly understood...

"Then I won't stand on ceremony," Xu Lin said, and enthusiastically helped Liu Lan...

"Wait... the hospital bed is inside..."

"No need, this is fine... Be good..."

"This...how can this be...this is a table...or...or...let's go inside...you..."

After a while, Xu Lin looked at Liu Lan's jet-black hair and couldn't help but vigorously rub it...

"While I was away this week, did anyone bully you...?" Xu Lin asked Liu Lan afterward, holding her in his arms.

"Sigh...besides that gambling addict in my family, there's no one else..." Liu Lan said with some worry.

"That's easy to handle, it just depends on whether you and your mother-in-law can bear to part with it..." Xu Lin said casually with a smile.

"You have a way?" Liu Lan asked in surprise.

Xu Lin continued, "Since you can't control him, find a place that can... After all, gambling is illegal..."

"What do you mean?" Liu Lan asked thoughtfully, but after thinking for a while, she still couldn't make up her mind.

"I'll ask my mother-in-law when I get home from get off work and see what she thinks..."

Xu Lin didn't say much more. In the original story, Liu Lan was a widow whose husband apparently died from drinking. But considering the current situation, he figured she'd be beaten to death one day for gambling debts...

"Do you want more...?" Liu Lan wrapped her arms around Xu Lin's neck.

"Are you done?" Xu Lin asked with a mischievous grin.

Seeing Xu Lin's mischievous grin, Liu Lan playfully slapped him: "You haven't been resting well, do you think I'd refuse you...?"

"Hehe, time is tight and the task is heavy, hurry up..."

"You rascal, this is when you're at your most charming..."

"Haha, come on, flip it over this time..."

"you!"

……

in the afternoon

Xu Lin wanted to go to Peking Union Medical College Hospital to check on the clinical data of the polio vaccine, so after waiting for a while and finding that no one was available for consultation, he rode his bicycle to the hospital.

Xu Lin was leisurely pedaling his bicycle when, as he passed the bus station, someone suddenly darted out from the front of the vehicle without him noticing.

By the time Xu Lin yelled "Hey hey hey," it was too late. The person who had rushed out heard the noise, saw the approaching bicycle, and hesitated, turning left and right, unsure of what to do.

Driven by an instinctive descent to avoid pedestrians, Xu Lin abruptly swerved, and with a loud crash, his bicycle slammed into the passenger bus.

The passenger bus was fine, but Xu Lin noticed that the wheels were starting to resemble those of a few people from Chengdu...

Xu Lin was both amused and exasperated. It was clearly a car accident, and he should have been angry, but seeing the state of the tires, this analogy suddenly came to mind, and he found himself laughing.

"Comrade, are you alright?" A soft, gentle female voice reached my ears.

Xu Lin looked up and was stunned by what he saw...

Huh? Isn't that Huai Ru? Could it be that Huai Ru is trying to scam someone?

"Comrade?" Qin Huairu called out again.

Xu Lin only came to his senses when Qin Huairu called him for the second time. "I'm fine, comrade, are you alright?"

Qin Huairu breathed a sigh of relief when she heard that no one was hurt, but her face tensed up again when she saw the bent bicycle wheel. After all, bicycles were a luxury item these days, and even the village chief in their village didn't have one.

Xu Lin noticed the tension on Qin Huairu's face, and breathed a sigh of relief, remembering that Qin Huairu hadn't yet been forced to become a "pure and innocent" person.

So he comforted her, saying, "It's okay, don't worry. It's just that the wheel is a little bent. I can take it to get it fixed myself. But look at the way it looks, it's kind of funny..."

Hearing Xu Lin's words, Qin Huairu's tension eased considerably, but when Xu Lin said the look was quite funny, she couldn't help but chuckle.

"Comrade, let me help you up," Qin Huairu extended her hand to Xu Lin. Xu Lin waved his hand, then stood up on his own and patted his backside.

"You need to be careful when you walk in the future. When a car suddenly lurches out from the front, it's in a blind spot for the driver and it's dangerous. Luckily, I wasn't riding my bicycle very fast; if it were a car, it would have been a real problem."

Qin Huairu felt a little embarrassed. It was her first time in the city to find a matchmaker and she encountered this situation. She stood there dumbfounded, head down, unable to say a word.

Xu Lin knew what Qin Huairu was worried about, and comforted her, "Alright, don't worry. This is my own responsibility, it's not your fault, don't worry. If you have something to do, you can go now."

After Xu Lin finished speaking, Qin Huairu felt relieved, but still felt embarrassed. "How about we lift the bike over together to get it fixed? It's definitely unrideable after being damaged like this."

Xu Lin looked at the shape of the wheels and couldn't help but smile. "Okay, there should be one up ahead. Can you give me a hand?"

"Okay, sure!" Qin Huairu readily agreed.

So the two of them, one on each side, lifted the bicycle handlebars and searched for a repair shop. They ran for over an hour, expending a great deal of effort, before finally finding one.

Xu Lin initially thought he could easily fix the bend, but the shopkeeper said the only solution was to replace the tire; the bend was irreversible...

Xu Lin thought about it and realized that it made sense, so he agreed to change the tire.

"Replacing a tire with an original one costs 5 yuan, plus 5 mao for labor. Come back in three days to pick it up; the main issue is that it takes time to source the parts," the mechanic quoted the price and time. Xu Lin didn't think much of it and simply paid the mechanic to get a receipt.

However, Qin Huairu was terrified. She earned work points in the countryside, and a month's salary was barely five yuan. Even now, when she came to the city, she was hoping for a mere five yuan as a dowry.

Well, he ended up getting a wife while fixing his car. Thinking about this, Qin Huairu didn't dare say anything, her mind preoccupied with what to do if this person made her pay for everything…

Xu Lin breathed a sigh of relief, but after all that commotion, his stomach started growling. Just as he was feeling a little embarrassed, Qin Huairu's stomach also started growling next to him.

Xu Lin chuckled and then extended an invitation: "Come on, comrade. You've done me such a big favor, let me treat you to a meal to thank you."

Upon hearing this, Qin Huairu immediately wanted to refuse. She had just caused the other person to spend so much money, how could she possibly accept being treated to a meal? But she didn't have any money on her to treat them to a meal...

Xu Lin also noticed Qin Huairu's embarrassment.

"Come on, you helped me carry the car this far. I'd be exhausted if I did it all by myself. Consider it making a friend. You don't look down on me, do you...?"

Upon hearing this, Qin Huairu immediately waved her hand in protest. However, she ultimately agreed to have dinner with Xu Lin.

"By the way, my name is Xu Lin, and I'm the factory doctor at Hongxing Steel Rolling Mill. What's your name?"

"My name is Qin Huairu, and this is my first time in Beijing..."