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

Chapter 60 The Arrogant He Yuzhu

Late at night, He Yuzhu climbed over the outer wall of the courtyard, went around to the backyard, and retrieved the photo.

In the photo, the elderly deaf woman and her son stand side by side. Her son is wearing a Kuomintang secret service uniform, but without a cap badge or chest insignia.

He Yuzhu walked towards Jiaodaokou under the cover of night. Wang Xia's house was a detached courtyard. When he scanned the space with his spatial perception, he found that Wang Xia and her husband were already asleep, lying on a straw mat on the kang (a heated brick bed).

He Yuzhu stood outside the courtyard wall, and with a thought, the threatening letter appeared out of thin air next to Wang Xia's pillow.

He thought for a moment, then selected two embroidery needles from his spatial storage. They were as fine as cow hair. With a thought, one needle appeared in Wang Xia's right knee joint, and the other appeared in her husband's left knee joint.

The needle tip is against the synovial membrane of the joint. The two people are lying still and haven't felt anything yet. But when they get up and walk in the morning, the needle will pierce the soft tissue along the joint's movement, causing excruciating pain.

He withdrew his senses and turned to run out of the alley. He had only run a little over a hundred meters when a man's scream echoed behind him, breaking the silence of the alley in the dead of night, followed by a woman's terrified cry.

He Yuzhu chuckled and ran off.

Wang Xia was awakened by her husband's screams. She reached for the light cord, and the bulb flickered twice before turning on.

The husband was writhing on the bed, clutching his left leg, his face contorted in pain, sweat beading on his forehead. "My leg! I can't move my leg!"

As Wang Xia stood up, something pierced her knee, causing her to fall backward and hit the wall with the back of her head, her vision going black for a moment. She pressed her right leg, panting heavily.

"What happened to your leg?" the husband asked through gritted teeth.

"I don't know... It hurts as soon as I move it, inside my knee." Wang Xia tried to move her right leg, and another sharp pain shot through her joint. She gritted her teeth and gasped for breath.

Her husband rolled over to help her up, but as soon as he moved his left leg, he screamed in pain, and beads of sweat streamed down his face.

After struggling for a while, the two leaned against the wall on the kang (a heated brick bed) and panted.

Only then did Wang Xia notice a piece of paper beside her pillow. She reached for it, opened it, and read the crooked handwriting: "You've done too many bad things; the organization wants to talk to you. First, we'll talk about your son, then about you." A skull was drawn in the corner of the letter, with two empty eye sockets.

Wang Xia's hand trembled, and the letter fell to the ground. Her face turned deathly pale. Her husband was in so much pain that he didn't even notice her expression.

Enduring the pain until dawn, their legs aching and terrified, the two scrambled to the alley entrance and hailed a tricycle to rush to the hospital. On the way, Wang Xia's husband didn't say a word, his forehead covered in cold sweat, wondering who his wife had offended. In the middle of the night, a threatening letter would appear beside his pillow.

He Yuzhu woke up naturally the next day.

The sun had already climbed over the courtyard wall, and light streamed in through the windowpanes. He stretched, put on his clothes, and went out the door. In the kitchen, the coal stove was burning, and large meat buns were steaming in a bamboo steamer.

Yu Shui is now in sixth grade. He eats a simple breakfast on his own before going to school. He puts the next day's breakfast in the kitchen every night, and keeps the coal stove burning low.

He Yuzhu ate a bowl of wontons, put the meat buns on a plate, sat down to finish his breakfast, wiped his mouth, changed his clothes, and strolled off to his supply and marketing cooperative for his social duties.

Revenge on Wang Xia's son isn't urgent; let this family live in fear first. That threatening letter and the needle in her knee are enough to give her a headache for a while.

In the evening, He Yuzhu appeared near the steel rolling mill on his three-wheeled motorcycle. He parked the motorcycle by the roadside, lit a cigarette, and looked at the factory gate from afar.

The workday bell rang, and workers poured out of the main gate, some on bicycles, some on foot, and some walking and chatting in groups.

Yang Honglin pushed his bicycle out of the factory gate, pedaled a couple of times, and got on the road.

He Yuzhu started his motorcycle and followed, keeping a distance of thirty meters. Once they were far enough away from the steel mill, he twisted the throttle, and the motorcycle sped in front of Yang Honglin, blocking his way with the handlebars.

Yang Honglin gripped the brakes, braced himself on one foot, and looked to see who it was.

He Yuzhu jumped out of the car, took two steps to stand in front of him, raised his right hand, and swung it down with a whoosh.

Yang Honglin fell off his bicycle and was still dazed.

He Yuzhu stepped forward and stomped on his right calf with a crack.

Yang Honglin opened his mouth to scream in pain, but He Yuzhu squatted down and slapped him across the face several times, each slap causing Yang Honglin's head to tilt to one side.

"I am He Yuzhu. I'll introduce myself to you today. Learn from me, and next time you want trouble, come at me in person."

Blood trickled from the corner of Yang Honglin's mouth, and his voice was slapped back into his throat.

At this moment, many steel mill workers gathered around, and a dozen or so workers gathered by the roadside. Some of them recognized that the person lying on the ground was Deputy Factory Director Yang, and they whispered among themselves.

Among the crowd were two faces that He Yuzhu recognized. Liu Haizhong stood on the outer edge, and Jia Dongxu stood next to Liu Haizhong with his right hand in his pocket. Neither of them stepped forward.

A young worker stepped forward, and He Yuzhu stood up and pointed in his direction: "Stand there, don't move. This is a private matter between me and Yang Honglin. He abuses his power to oppress us working class; he's not much better than the reactionaries. Think carefully about the consequences of getting involved."

The young worker stopped, and someone next to him pulled him back.

He Yuzhu squatted back down next to Yang Honglin, took the photo out of his pocket, and held it up in front of him. "Open your dog eyes and look carefully. This is the person you treat like your own mother and are supposed to take care of in her old age. The one next to her is her son."

Despite the excruciating pain in his legs, Yang Honglin looked at the photo. In it, an old woman stood on the left, and on the right was a young man wearing a Kuomintang military uniform with brass buttons, but without a cap badge or chest insignia.

Yang Honglin's pupils suddenly contracted, and he stopped breathing. Back then, he had been doing underground work in Beiping, dealing with Kuomintang agents for several years.

In 1947, he was shot and collapsed in that dead-end alley. When he woke up, the old woman was tearing strips of cloth. She said she was bandaging him and that she was going to buy medicine, and insisted that he wait for her to come back.

Yang Honglin had always thought the old lady was his savior, but now he understood.

Sweat streamed down his face, half from pain and half from fear.

Yang Honglin reached out to snatch the photos, but He Yuzhu slapped him repeatedly across the face, each slap harder than the last, making him see stars. "Yang Honglin, you dare to steal my things? You've got some nerve!"

He Yuzhu waved the photo in front of him twice and put it in his pocket. "I broke your leg today as a warning. I, your master, am repaying evil with kindness and saving your life. Take care of yourself. You're such a grown man, don't you understand anything?"

He patted the photo in his pocket; it was evidence against Yang Honglin. He looked at Yang Honglin mockingly. "Come on, thank Master Zhu. Say thank you."

Yang Honglin's right calf was broken, his face was swollen from being hit, blood was flowing from the corner of his mouth, and he trembled for a long time before squeezing out two words.

He Yuzhu frowned and said he couldn't hear her clearly, so he should speak louder.

Yang Honglin closed his eyes, raised his voice in humiliation, and said thank you again.

In the crowd, Liu Haizhong subconsciously touched his chin. Jia Dongxu recalled Yi Zhonghai lying on the ground with his mouth full of blood, being forced to say thank you by Sha Zhu by the collar.

Same thanks to He Yuzhu.

He Yuzhu stood up, brushed the dirt off his trousers, turned around, and got on his motorcycle. The engine sputtered, and a puff of blue smoke billowed from the exhaust.

He didn't rush to leave. He sat in the car, glanced around at the onlookers, twisted the accelerator, and sang Peking Opera.

"I was originally a carefree man from Wolonggang, who could stabilize the world with the power of Yin and Yang. The late emperor personally visited me three times in Nanyang, and thus the Han dynasty was established with a tripartite division..."

The motorcycle drove away, and the opera singing gradually faded into the distance, mixed with the roar of the engine.

The crowd gradually dispersed, and Liu Haizhong and Jia Dongxu stood there motionless for a long time.