I feel right at home in the world of the courtyard house.

Xie Hui slowly pushed his cart into the courtyard. He immediately saw a large crowd gathered at the entrance and thought something had happened. He subconsciously stopped and curiously looked into the crowd a few more times.

That one glance was caught by Sha Zhu, who was making a huge fuss.

Sha Zhu immediately abandoned Xu Damao, stopped arguing, glared at him, and charged towards Xie Hui in three quick steps...

Xie Hui heard someone call his name and turned around to look at Sha Zhu.

As soon as he turned around, Sha Zhu suddenly delivered a groin kick, slamming it into his crotch.

"ah--!"

Xie Hui cried out in pain, curled up on the ground, and convulsed all over.

The bicycle also crashed to the side with a loud bang.

Sha Zhu continued cursing, "I'll teach you to bully orphans and widows!"

Xu Damao, who was watching the commotion from the side, subconsciously squeezed his legs together and involuntarily uttered an "Oh."

Seeing everyone staring at him, he quickly covered up his anger and shouted at Xie Hui on the ground, "Serves you right! You're a scoundrel, even bullying a widow!"

Xu Damao knew very well that Qin Huairu's punishment had been reported to the publicity department and would be publicized in the factory area tomorrow.

He could also see that Qin Huairu and Li Jing'an had a special relationship, and now was the time to curry favor with Li Jing'an, so naturally he had to speak up for him.

Those who knew the situation were already quietly explaining the whole story to others.

Just then, a girl wearing a Lenin-style cotton coat ran in from outside the courtyard.

Seeing Xie Hui lying on the ground, her expression changed drastically. She rushed over, knelt down to help him up, and turned to glare angrily at Sha Zhu: "Why did you hit him? What right do you have to hit someone?"

Sha Zhu said nonchalantly, "I'll hit him. I can hit Xie Hui however I want, he's a scoundrel."

The girl wanted to say more, but Xie Hui, who had just recovered, slowly stood up and stopped her.

He looked at Sha Zhu, his voice still a little weak, but very calm: "Master He, I know why you're doing this. You think I'm making a mountain out of a molehill, disregarding neighborly relations and Master Qin's family's difficulties, and insisting on making things difficult for them. But one is one, and two is two. I sympathize with her family's situation, but that's not a reason for her to break the rules."

Sha Zhu scoffed, "Don't try to sound tough! You're just a new broom sweeping clean; you'll burn down whoever's easy to bully!"

The girl standing to the side was furious: "They break the rules and they think they're right? They hit someone and they think they're right?"

She turned to Xie Hui and said, "Call the police. Don't bother explaining to this kind of person."

Xie Hui shook his head at her, then looked at Sha Zhu and the onlookers: "I have a clear conscience about this matter. Everyone will know who I am in the future."

After saying that, he picked up his bicycle and said to the girl, "Lingzi, never mind, let's go."

The girl was filled with resentment, but she could only follow him back to the east wing in a huff.

After they left, Sha Zhu shouted a few more words behind them.

-

When Li Jing'an returned home, he learned about this from Qin Huairu.

He thought for a moment, then got up and walked towards the front yard.

Meanwhile, in the east wing, Wei Jialing was nagging Xie Hui: "You shouldn't have let him go! You did nothing wrong, why did you get beaten up for nothing!"

Xie Hui gently comforted her, "We'll be living in the same courtyard from now on, so we'll see each other all the time. Besides, I'm not doing this for myself, it's for work. That family is really having a hard time."

Lingzi sighed, "You're just too soft-hearted. I really don't understand why you insisted on moving into this tenement when you could have gotten a better apartment."

Xie Hui shook his head: "I can't be treated specially. Our elders fought and bled, not to give us, their descendants, special privileges."

Lingzi sighed helplessly, "Okay, okay, I know you're principled. By the way, come to my house this week, my dad wants you to come over for dinner."

No sooner had he finished speaking than there was a knock on the door.

Lingzi went to open the door and saw that it was Li Jing'an.

Li Jing'an asked with a smile, "Is Inspector Xie home?"

Xie Hui walked over, somewhat surprised: "Isn't this Director Li? What brings you here?"

Li Jing'an walked into the house with a smile: "I'm also a neighbor in our courtyard, I live in the small courtyard on the west side of the central courtyard. I heard there was some unpleasantness in the courtyard today, so I came to see you."

Xie Hui ushered him inside. Lingzi poured Li Jing'an a glass of water, and Li Jing'an smiled and thanked her, then looked at Xie Hui: "And this is?"

"My fiancée, Wei Jialing, came to see me today."

Li Jing'an nodded to Wei Jialing, who politely responded before going into the inner room to help Xie Hui pack his things.

Li Jing'an then spoke to Xie Hui: "The people living in this courtyard are all petty citizens, narrow-minded and lacking any sense of right and wrong. Take Sha Zhu, who hit you earlier, for example. He's a scoundrel who fights all the time and even brings his own lunchbox home from the canteen. To put it bluntly, that's stealing. I've tried to persuade him several times, but he just won't listen."

After saying that, he subtly glanced at Xie Hui's reaction.

Xie Hui frowned and asked, "Did he bring something he bought himself, leftovers from the cafeteria, or something else?"

Li Jing'an replied, "I don't know about that. I only heard him say that it's a rule in the kitchen."

Xie Hui then asked, "Doesn't the cafeteria manager know?"

Li Jing'an said, "I don't know about that. I'm in charge of the guesthouse and I'm not familiar with the person in charge of the canteen."

He paused, then continued, "And Xu Damao from the propaganda department, using his power to show movies in the countryside, extorted money and favors from the commune."

They then talked about some things at the factory.

Seeing that Xie Hui was listening the whole time without saying much, just echoing what was said.

A short while later, Li Jing'an got up to take his leave.

As he walked out of the east wing, he glanced back, a chill running through him.

If I, Li Jing'an, am unhappy, no one in the factory will have an easy time.

This time, they even brought in the factory manager.

-

After Xie Hui saw Li Jing'an off, Wei Jialing came out from the inner room and said, "Look at the kind of people in this courtyard. Only Director Li is reasonable. You should move out as soon as possible."

Xie Hui said to her, "Isn't this normal? It shows that our country still has a long way to go. We can't run away from it; we have to change things little by little."

He suddenly narrowed his eyes and said to Wei Jialing, "However, you can't judge a book by its cover. This Director Li is Master Qin's superior who was disciplined, and he himself was also criticized. He came all the way here to tell me this today, so his purpose is not simple."

Wei Jialing didn't take it to heart: "I just want to get closer to you."

Xie Hui disagreed: "Not necessarily. The factory only criticized him, which means it's nothing to him. He has a powerful background, so there's no need for him to fawn over someone who just reported him."

Wei Jialing said nonchalantly, "Stop being so suspicious. Even if he has other motives, what are you afraid of? You have elders to back you up. If things get really bad, I'll have my dad talk to the higher-ups and have Li Jing'an transferred to the countryside to help farmers."

Xie Hui was startled and quickly grabbed her, stopping her with a wry smile: "Don't talk nonsense."

If Li Jing'an, who was walking back, had known these words, he would definitely have felt wronged:

This girl is so uncivilized and unreasonable!

Do you think you can do whatever you want just because you have a little power? Is there no law? Is there no justice left?