Sha Zhu's Rebirth in the Courtyard: Starting with Hitting Someone in the Head

Chapter 29 Complaint Letter

Yan Bugui pondered this at home for several days.

He'd mentally calculated the profits countless times. Seven cents per box, four hundred boxes a day, twenty-eight yuan a day. Eight hundred and forty yuan a month. His monthly salary was only a little over thirty. Why should Old Li, a lowly day laborer, get a share of the profits? Wasn't his wife, Yang Ruihua, more efficient at the work? He could even get cheaper meat. Zhu Zi might lack connections, but he did.

That evening, after finishing his meal, Yan Bugui pushed his bowl away and went out the door.

The moon gate across the courtyard was closed. He knocked. He Yuzhu opened it.

"Hey, Teacher Yan." He Yuzhu leaned against the door frame, preventing him from coming in.

Yan Bugui rubbed his hands together: "Zhuzi, I want to discuss something with you."

"explain."

"I can help you with your lunchbox business," Yan Bugui said in a low voice. "I have a colleague whose brother-in-law works at a meat processing plant. He can get cheap meat, a fraction of the market price." He held up two fingers.

He Yuzhu didn't say anything.

Yan Bugui continued, "My wife is also very efficient at work. She's more meticulous than Lao Li when it comes to washing and chopping vegetables. Your lunchbox stall, with one old man and one young girl, doesn't look very presentable. If you had a different woman to help, she could better manage the business."

He Yuzhu took out a cigarette and lit it: "Teacher Yan, how do you want to divide it?"

Yan Bugui's eyes lit up: "Yang Ruihua will take over Lao Li's job. I'll use my connections at the meat processing plant. How about we split it 40/60? You get 60%, I'll get 40%."

"Where's the capital?"

Yan Bugui was taken aback for a moment: "You'll have to pay the initial investment. My connections are the initial investment."

He Yuzhu exhaled a puff of smoke: "Yan Bugui, you're trying to get something for nothing. Let me put it this way. Selling four hundred boxed meals a day is because I don't want to work too hard. Otherwise, if I sold two meals a day, I could sell at least a thousand. Doesn't that make you feel even worse? Uncle Li is doing a good job, I'm not replacing him. Get out."

Yan Bugui's mouth trembled, and his face turned pale. "He Yuzhu...you...you've gone too far..."

"You motherfucker!" He Yuzhu threw his cigarette butt on the ground and stomped it out. "You old bastard, I heard your scheme from the other side of the courtyard. You want 40% without investing any capital? Do you think I'm stupid? All you do is scheme all day long. Be careful your whole family dies."

The door slammed shut.

Yan Bugui stood outside the moon gate, his face alternating between red and white. He leaned against the wall, panting for a while before he could catch his breath. When he got home, Yang Ruihua asked him how he was.

His face turned an unusual red, and he spat out blood, which frightened Yang Ruihua into screaming loudly.

Yan Bugui didn't even wipe the blood from the corner of her mouth before quickly covering it. "I was just angry, it's okay now that I've vomited. Don't shout anymore." After wiping the blood from her mouth, he went to the door and explained to the neighbor who came over that a snake had fallen from the beam and landed on Yang Ruihua.

"Hey Lao Yan, your family's fortunes are about to boom!" The neighbor across the hall went home.

Yan Bugui's face twitched as he listened.

Two days later.

Yan Bugui came home from get off work and watered the plants. Yi Zhonghai came through the passageway and squatted down next to him.

"Old Yan, I heard that Zhu Zi's business is quite profitable."

Yan Bugui didn't stop: "The money they make is theirs, it has nothing to do with me."

Yi Zhonghai sighed: "I'm just afraid he'll break the law. That courtyard will cost at least four thousand, and he only makes a few cents a boxed lunch. He's also partnered with Old Li, taking a cut of the profits. How can that money be enough to buy land and build a courtyard? If he goes astray, it will implicate our courtyard."

Yan Bugui's hand, holding the water ladle, froze in mid-air.

Yi Zhonghai stood up and dusted off his pants. "I was just saying it offhand." He took a couple of steps, then turned back. "Old Yan, you agree, right?"

Yan Bugui squatted there, but the water ladle didn't pour anything down for a long time.

At night, he tossed and turned on the kang (a heated brick bed).

Yang Ruihua was woken up by his noise: "Are you making pancakes?"

Yan Bugui remained silent. He stared at the roof beam, Yi Zhonghai's words replaying in his mind. What if he went astray?

Yan Bugui got up, pulled out a piece of paper and a pencil stub from under the mattress, and lit the oil lamp. He held the pencil stub in his left hand, wrote crookedly, folded it, and put it in his pocket.

Just as dawn was breaking, Yi Zhonghai came out of the toilet.

A person came out of the courtyard gate.

Yan Bugui. He walked very quickly, head down.

He turned left after leaving the courtyard, his footsteps light and hesitant. Yi Zhonghai retreated to the wall of the public toilet and waited for Yan Bugui to pass before following him.

Yan Bugui didn't look back and walked all the way to the Military Control Commission.

The military control commission hadn't opened its doors yet; there was no one at the entrance, and a green metal complaint box hung on the wall.

Yan Bugui stopped, looked around, took an envelope from his pocket, and stuffed it into the complaint box. He immediately turned and ran, much faster than when he came.

Yi Zhonghai hid in the corner, waiting for Yan Bugui to walk away. He took out the letter of denunciation from his pocket, smiled, and stuffed it inside.

Three days later, at dusk. There was a knock on the main gate of the courtyard.

He Yuzhu opened the door. Chen Xiangqian stood in the doorway, dressed in casual clothes.

"Uncle Chen?"

"Let's go inside and talk."

The two sat down in the main room. Chen Xiangqian placed the envelope on the table. "Someone reported you."

He Yuzhu picked up the envelopes and opened them. The first letter accused him of being an unlicensed street vendor, bullying neighbors, beating the elderly, and having dubious sources of income. The second letter suspected him of colluding with enemy agents, selling intelligence for huge sums of money, and building a side courtyard.

He burst out laughing after reading it.

"Uncle Chen, is it against the rules for you to show me the complaint letter like this?"

Chen Xiangqian leaned back in his armchair: "I can show it to you, of course, after I've investigated and confirmed it's a false accusation. You've got a clean social background, kid. I'm here to verify who wrote these two letters."

He pointed to the letter, "Although it was written with your left hand, the writing habits are still there. It must be someone from your department; others wouldn't know so much about you."

He Yuzhu read it again, pointing to the first letter: "This one is from Yan Bugui in the front yard. He's used to making the last stroke of the character 'box' with a hook. A few nights ago, he came knocking on the door, wanting to join my boxed lunch stall and squeeze Old Li out. He didn't put in any capital, wanting to take 40%. I didn't agree."

He then pointed to the second letter: "This one, accusing me of colluding with enemy agents, is from Yi Zhonghai of the Central Court. The character for 'colluded' has a horizontal stroke at the bottom of the vertical hook. I beat him up twice."

Chen Xiangqian frowned.

He Yuzhu handed Chen Xiangqian a cigarette, lit it for him, and lit one for himself as well. "The first time, he hid the two hundred yuan my father left me and the job I was doing as a substitute worker. I went to you to get a letter of introduction because of this. I questioned him in front of the whole hospital, and he said he hadn't left anything. In the end, it turned out he had sold the job. He compensated me eight hundred yuan, and with the two hundred from my father, we had a total of one thousand."

Chen Xiangqian took a drag of his cigarette.

"The second time, someone in the compound got married, and Yi Zhonghai asked me to host the banquet for free. I refused. He came out to persuade me, spouting a bunch of fallacies, every word of which seemed to be for my own good. I knocked out all his teeth, labeled him a reactionary, and made him thank me. If he didn't thank me, I'd send him to jail."

Chen Xiangqian nearly choked on his cigarette: "He thanked me?"

"Of course I thank you. I'm doing this for his own good."

Chen Xiangqian shook his head with a smile, "You kid, stop throwing around such big accusations. Alright, I'll bring some people to the compound for a meeting tomorrow."

The next evening, three people from the military control committee arrived, led by Chen Xiangqian. Everyone in the compound was summoned to the front yard.

Yan Bugui stood in the crowd, smiling. Yi Zhonghai stood next to Tan Xiulan, his face tilted to the side.

Chen Xiangqian announced that someone had written a letter of accusation against He Yuzhu, which had been verified. He took out two pieces of paper: "Yan Bugui, Yi Zhonghai. Step forward."

The two men froze. Yan Bugui's legs trembled as he stepped forward. Yi Zhonghai followed behind.

Chen Xiangqian placed paper and pens in front of them: "Use your left hand to write a paragraph each. Copy it from here."

There was a sentence written on the paper, containing the characters for "box" and "hook". Yan Bugui picked up the pen, his hand trembling violently, sweat dripping onto the paper. Yi Zhonghai also wrote, holding the pen with his left hand, his writing crooked and uneven.

Chen Xiangqian picked it up and compared it with the whistleblower letter, then pointed out the evidence.

He looked up at the two men: "Yan Bugui, you falsely accused someone. According to the Regulations on Punishment for False Accusations, you will be fined fifty yuan, detained for fifteen days, and the incident will be recorded in your file."

Yan Bugui swayed. It's over, he's going to lose his job too.

Chen Xiangqian looked at Yi Zhonghai: "Yi Zhonghai, you falsely accused others and were additionally charged with 'colluding with enemy agents,' which is a serious offense. According to the 'Regulations for Punishing Counter-Revolutionaries,' you will be sentenced to one year of labor reform. This will be recorded in your file and reported to your work unit."

The courtyard fell silent.

Yi Zhonghai's face twisted even more. He was going to jail, and he'd lost his job. Tan Xiulan collapsed to the ground, covering her mouth with her hand, tears streaming down her face.

He Yuzhu stood at the back of the crowd, watching this scene. Yi Zhonghai was being carried away by two soldiers, barely able to walk.

Yan Bugui followed behind, looking utterly dejected, while Yang Ruihua cried out his name loudly.

He Yuzhu smiled and called Xu Damao over, took out five yuan and gave it to him, telling him to buy some candy for his classmates tomorrow and spread the word about what happened tonight. He especially instructed him to go to Hongxing Elementary School.

When the people in the courtyard saw He Yuzhu's blatant revenge, they all ran far away.

The courtyard fell silent.

Only Tan Xiulan went to the backyard to find the deaf old lady.

He Yuzhu sat in his armchair at home, still feeling unhappy.

How about killing someone to liven things up?