Courtyard Houses: Starting with Li Yunlong's Comrades-in-Arms

Jia Dongxu's voice lowered, carrying a calmness that only comes after making a decision: "Besides, with Mother's outburst, everyone in the courtyard knows what Yi Zhonghai has been up to behind the scenes. From now on, if he wants to secretly cause trouble again, he'll have to think twice before others start watching him. Some things, if they're not brought to the forefront, will never be known."

Qin Huairu remained silent for a moment, her gaze falling on the plate of slightly cold pickled vegetable shreds on the table. Her fingers traced lines lightly along the edge of the table, as if processing Jia Dongxu's words. After a while, she spoke, her voice low: "So... will you still acknowledge him as your master in the future?"

Jia Dongxu didn't answer immediately. He picked up the slightly cold cornbread, broke off a small piece, and put it in his mouth, chewing slowly, as if using the chewing motion to organize his thoughts. Only after swallowing the small piece did he speak: "I still have to acknowledge it. He taught me the trade, that's a fact. Besides, in the steel mill, he's a level seven worker, a master craftsman. I work under him, and if things fall apart, it won't benefit anyone. I still have to call him 'Master,' and I still have to work. It's just that I won't believe everything he says anymore. I'll keep my judgment in mind."

On the other side, when Jia Zhangshi rushed out of the Jia family's house, her cloth shoes made a thumping sound on the blue brick floor.

She stopped at the door of Yi Zhonghai's house. Jia Zhangshi, hands on her hips, took a deep breath, as if gathering all the strength in her lungs into her throat, and then opened her mouth, her voice high-pitched and bright, with a penetrating power that could echo several times throughout the entire courtyard:

"Yi Zhonghai! You son of a bitch! Get your ass out here!"

The shout had an immediate effect. A figure moved behind the paper window of the east wing, and the light coming through the crack in the door of the west wing brightened. Someone peeked out from inside, while someone else, wearing a cotton-padded coat and slippers, came out of the room.

Standing at Yi Zhonghai's door, hands on her hips, Jia Zhangshi rattled off a string of words: "Yi Zhonghai, you heartless old bastard! You're supposed to be Dongxu's mentor! Do you even have a conscience?! Dongxu treats you like a father, and what do you do? You secretly sabotage us, preventing them from selling us a workstation!"

"You just can't stand to see our Jia family doing well! You want our family to be poor forever, clinging to you, relying on you! You wretched childless man! You can't have your own children, so you want to tie other people's children to your belt to take care of you in your old age and see you off when you die! Bah!"

As she spoke, she looked up again and shouted into the dark night sky, her voice trembling with a mixture of crying and cursing: "Old Jia! Old Jia, can you see this from heaven! Can you see how Yi Zhonghai is bullying your wife and children! Open your eyes and look! If you still have a spirit, take Yi Zhonghai away! Don't let him stay in this world and harm people!"

The cry of calling for her deceased husband was particularly jarring in the quiet winter night, carrying a kind of fierce and indignant tone unique to rural women, as if they were calling upon ghosts and gods to support them.

Several neighbors who had already walked to the central courtyard to watch the commotion paused upon hearing this. Some pursed their lips, some exchanged glances, and some muttered something under their breath before quickly falling silent.

The door to the room on the west side of the courtyard creaked open. Yi Zhonghai's wife poked half her body out first, her face showing unease and panic after being startled. She visibly shrank back when her gaze fell on Jia Zhangshi. Immediately afterward, Yi Zhonghai also appeared from inside the room. He was wearing a worn gray cotton-padded jacket, the collar of which was not buttoned up properly, revealing the collar of a dark blue cotton shirt underneath. His hair was somewhat disheveled, clearly indicating that he too had been startled by the sudden shouting and cursing from inside the room.

His face was as gloomy as a river that had been frozen for three days and three nights in the twelfth lunar month, bluish-gray, without a trace of warmth. His lips were pressed into a thin line, and when his gaze fell on Jia Zhangshi, it carried an extremely suppressed coldness.

He stepped down the stairs and stopped two steps away from Jia Zhangshi, his voice low and strained with suppressed anger: "Jia Zhangshi, what are you yelling about at my doorstep? It's so late at night, can't you let people have some peace and quiet? Why can't you just talk things out instead of throwing a tantrum here?"

Just then, more and more people gathered in the middle courtyard. The Yan family from the front courtyard were the first to arrive. Yan Bugui walked in front, wearing an old cotton-padded coat, the buttons of which were not yet fastened, and he came out in cotton-padded shoes. His wife followed behind him, and his two half-grown sons, Yan Jiecheng and Yan Jiefang, followed behind their parents, squeezing into the crowd and looking around.

Liu Shuanzhu and Liu Erhe also came out of the east wing one after the other. He Yuzhu and He Yushui, the brother and sister from the middle courtyard, also opened their door. He Yuzhu stood at his own doorway, wearing a faded old cotton-padded work jacket, a handful of melon seeds in his hand, leaning against the doorframe, cracking them open while watching the commotion. He Yushui, wrapped in a floral cotton-padded jacket, stood behind him, half her face hidden behind the door panel, only her curious eyes peeking out.

Liu Haizhong's family from the backyard also arrived one after another. Xu Damao mingled in the crowd, wearing a half-new cotton-padded jacket with the cuffs rolled up to reveal a section of his wrist. His face had the excited look of a young person who loves to watch a good show, and a smile on his lips as he waited to see a good show.

In the blink of an eye, more than a dozen people gathered in the open space under the old locust tree in the courtyard. Some stood at their own doorways, some leaned against the pillars of the corridor, and some simply moved a small stool to sit on the side of the passageway.

The night breeze swept through the courtyard, causing the hems of the cotton-padded coats of the group to flutter slightly, but no one showed any intention of leaving. All eyes were fixed on the standoff at Yi Zhonghai's doorstep.

When Jia Zhangshi saw Yi Zhonghai come out, she not only didn't restrain herself, but instead, as if she had found a target, she intensified her attack: "Talk nicely? What's the point of talking to someone as heartless as you! Don't you know what you've done? I'm asking you, when my Dongxu hired those people to sell workstations, didn't you secretly sabotage them? Did you tell them not to sell to our family? Do you dare to say in front of the whole hospital that you didn't do it?"

She glanced around at the neighbors standing nearby, spread her arms as if summoning something, and said in a high-pitched, loud voice, "Everyone, please be the judge! My Dongxu went to great lengths to beg Minister Liu Yuheng, and he promised that as long as my Huairu finds a job, he'll help transfer her household registration! What an incredible favor! My Dongxu has been busy for days about this, asking around and asking people everywhere, before finally finding a few people willing to sell their workstations!"

As she spoke, she suddenly turned around, pointed a finger at Yi Zhonghai's nose, and raised her voice even higher: "But what about Yi Zhonghai? He's the one who interfered! He used some underhanded methods to make all those people who originally agreed to sell us workstations back out! One or two is one thing, but three or four are all in the same situation! Tell me, isn't this Yi Zhonghai pulling the strings behind the scenes?"

"Yi Zhonghai is a heartless maggot! He's childless! He can't have children of his own, so he can't stand seeing other families living well!"