Courtyard House: Starting with a 28-inch motorcycle

Given Yi Zhonghai's temper, he'll definitely be driven to despair. When the child stops obeying him, he won't even bother to acknowledge it, becoming nothing more than a figurehead.

Finding a suitable child to adopt is not difficult for an older woman at all.

How many famine refugees have flooded into Beijing over the years? Families were everywhere. But even those who made it to the city weren't guaranteed survival. The local street offices did their best to resettle them, persuading those with household registration to return home and taking in those without, but tragedies of adults starving to death and children being left behind still occurred frequently. Orphanages were overcrowded, with new faces arriving every day.

Currently, most people still cling to their biological blood relatives, and adoption is extremely rare, much to the dismay of the neighborhood committee. If an older woman were to take the lead and bring a poor child home, she would undoubtedly be seen as a model citizen and her story would be widely publicized as an exemplary act.

Once the matter was settled, He Yuzhu let the old woman go home.

As soon as the middle-aged woman returned to the backyard, her expression changed completely. The previous gloomy look was gone, her eyebrows and eyes relaxed, and her steps became lighter.

Having broken free from her mental block, all those chaotic thoughts vanished from her mind. Her heart and soul were consumed by only one thing: the thought of her child sweetly calling her "Mom," leading him to school, and picking him up from school…

Seeing her return looking radiant, the deaf old woman immediately felt there was hope and quickly asked, "Shufen, how did it go? Is Xiaoyi coming back?"

"Old Yi... I'm afraid he won't be coming back. Even if he does, he won't step through this door. Madam, there are too many twists and turns in this matter to explain in a short time." The old woman shook her head. She wanted to bring up the matter of the child, but suddenly remembered He Yuzhu's reminder and immediately swallowed her words.

Let's talk about it after it's done; the old lady will definitely understand.

Upon hearing this, the deaf old woman was even more puzzled: "Then why are you so happy?"

"I've figured it out." The middle-aged woman smiled. "Whether Lao Yi comes back or not is no longer important. If I keep holding onto resentment and anger, my health will collapse first. What's the point? I might as well let go and move on."

The reasoning sounded plausible, and the deaf old woman didn't suspect anything. She sighed, "Alas, that's all we can do. Xiao Yi... if you hadn't had such a falling out with Zhu Zi back then, things wouldn't have come to this. If you had listened to me earlier, things wouldn't have turned out this way..."

The older woman listened without saying a word, outwardly silent, but her mind was already elsewhere—she was already planning to go to the adoption center with He Yuzhu someday and personally pick out a pleasing and sensible child.

Xu's mother also took some time to go back to the courtyard house.

The neighbors weren't surprised by her appearance. Xu Damao worked as a projectionist and would be away in the countryside for several days at a time, so it was normal for her to occasionally come back to tidy up the house and take care of things.

But this time it's different.

She came back specifically to help her son prepare for his wedding.

When a son has the rare idea of ​​getting married, how can a mother not be concerned?

As soon as she entered, she quickly cleaned the house, and after finishing, she carried a basin of Xu Damao's dirty clothes towards the water pipe. There, a group of women were washing clothes.

"Oh dear, sisters-in-law, my son Damao has caused you so much trouble, I'm so sorry..." Mrs. Xu said sweetly.

Although she hadn't heard anything about the current situation of the courtyard house from her son, she knew what kind of person he was—if he were doing well, he would have been bragging about it long ago; now that he was keeping quiet, he had probably been rebuffed again.

So she took the initiative to make amends and soften her stance first.

"I'm going to give that brat a piece of my mind another day! He's been a projectionist for so many years, and he's never even treated any of us to a movie. Is that fair? I'll make him show one for everyone, free of charge, just to make it more lively!"

The women by the pool's eyes lit up at the mention of this.

Free movies? Who wouldn't be happy?

However, no one was sure whether Xu Damao, the projectionist, had the authority to show films privately. But since Xu's mother had said so, everyone naturally followed suit and praised Xu Damao.

Seeing this, Xu's mother took the opportunity to chat about things happening in the yard. She first asked a few casual questions about trivial matters, then changed the subject, pretending to mention casually, "By the way, I heard that a particularly striking and elegant girl recently came to see Shazhu. Do you think he might be getting married?"

"Oh, you know what, I saw it too! Just the day before yesterday!"

"The two of them even went out for a bike ride together. I happened to be coming back from buying soy sauce that day, and that girl was really beautiful; she looked like she came from a wealthy family..."

After making some inquiries, Xu's mother had a clear idea of ​​what was going on—only the Jia, Yan, and Sun families had spoken to the girl in the past two days. In her eyes, Sun Lanfang was the easiest to manipulate and the most likely to elicit information from her.

So after tidying up Xu Damao's house, he took a handful of peanuts and melon seeds, along with a few pieces of clothing that needed mending, and leisurely strolled over to the Sun family's house. He sat down and started chatting.

Having worked for wealthy families for many years, Xu's mother was most skilled at subtly extracting information through words and without making a sound. In just a few words, Sun Lanfang had revealed everything she knew.

The owner of Xue Ru Silk Shop!

Even if this status is not as high as that of the eldest daughter of the Lou family, it is still several levels higher than that of an ordinary worker.

If their son Da Mao could really get married into this family, then the Xu family would rise to prominence.

But we can't be reckless; we need to figure things out more.

After pondering for a while, Xu's mother decided to go back and discuss it with Xu Fugui. She had no problem letting him run errands and deliver messages, but she felt uneasy about making the decisions herself—Xu Fugui had always been the one to make the decisions in the family, big or small.

Time flies, and two days have passed.

He Yuzhu was quite enjoying this period of leisure. After the New Year, he became the canteen manager, and at most he would only be busy with two banquets a day. The key was that he could also sneak in some good stuff, either to take home for He Yushui or to have Bai Danyu pick it up after get off work, to add a nice dish for Xiaobaiying.

Bai Danyu knew perfectly well that He Yuzhu had secretly taken these items from the unplanned supplies. Li Huaide nodded, the purchasing department handled it, and there was no record of it on the books. In addition, she really wanted to nourish her daughter's body, and she herself was also craving something sweet, so after hesitating a few times, she simply accepted them.

At first, she was a little embarrassed, but after it happened a few times, she became more at ease. Now, as long as He Yuzhu calls, Bai Danyu will head straight to his office after get off work.

That evening, He Yuzhu rode his bicycle back to the courtyard house and caught a glimpse of a familiar figure—one of Li Wangcai's men, whose name he couldn't remember.

"Brother He, the boss wants you to come over. The matter you asked me to handle has been taken care of."

Upon hearing this, He Yuzhu didn't even enter the courtyard; he immediately replied, "Okay, let's go."

When they arrived, it wasn't completely dark yet. A group of people had already gathered around Li Wangcai. Upon seeing him, Li Wangcai was much more enthusiastic than last time, personally getting up to greet him with a broad smile.

"That guy didn't dare run away after all. He did exactly as you said, secretly sending money to his ex-wife's son, and we caught him red-handed. Junior Brother He, don't you think that kind of person is ridiculously stupid?"

"People who are greedy for small gains are like this; they have a narrow mind and will never amount to anything."

He Yuzhu smiled faintly, his words carrying a hidden meaning, and then asked, "Senior Brother Li, did you get what Liao Yucheng had back?"

"It wasn't easy to get it back here; the brothers really put in their best effort."

As Li Wangcai spoke, he pulled out a bankbook and handed it over, sighing as he said, "This silk shop owner really isn't short of money, but what good is money if he's not doing anything legitimate? It's a pity..."

He Yuzhu understood immediately—Li Wangcai had already extracted a lot of inside information from Liao Yucheng. His words, ostensibly a sigh of relief, were actually a warning: Don't forget the rules, what about the benefits?

But He Yuzhu wasn't intimidated at all. He sought out Li Wangcai to save trouble, not to submit or admit defeat.

Since we're talking about rules, let's follow them.

The amount in the bankbook is correct. Without Chen Xueru's seal, Liao Yucheng couldn't touch the money at all. He kept the bankbook simply to use it to blackmail her later, either to extort money or to split the spoils in half—after all, he had leverage over her.

But now, Chen Xueru has already cleared away all the evidence. Even if Liao Yucheng personally reports it, he won't find a single trace.

He Yuzhu stuffed the bankbook into his pocket, then suddenly looked up and asked, "Where's the other two thousand in cash?"

The room fell silent instantly after he said that. Li Wangcai's brow twitched, almost thinking he had misheard—I've already made myself clear, and this Junior Brother He is still pretending to be stupid?

He forced a dry laugh, raised his hand and patted He Yuzhu's shoulder, his tone warm but tentative: "Junior Brother He, it's not easy for us in this line of work. We still need to eat, right? We've recovered the money, but so many brothers have worked so hard for days, we need to give them some compensation for their hard work, don't you think?"

"no."

He Yuzhu's face was ashen, and his voice was as cold as iron: "Two hundred yuan was a fixed amount agreed upon beforehand. If you thought it was too little, then don't have accepted it in the first place. Once the rules are set, they must be followed. Senior Brother Li, didn't you know back when the new society was first established—those who didn't follow the rules have long since disappeared?"

Li Wangcai was furious.

He started out practicing martial arts and spent many years fighting his way up in the underworld, relying on his ruthlessness to carve out this territory. Now, however, he was directly contradicted by a junior disciple who joined the sect later and even tried to intimidate him with words. It was a blatant slap in the face!

"Junior Brother He..."

He gritted his teeth, about to lash out, when suddenly his pupils contracted—

He Yuzhu lightly lifted his leg and stomped down with his foot!

boom!

The floor tiles shattered! Spiderweb-like cracks spread rapidly, extending over a meter in length, and the spot where one's foot landed was slightly sunken, as if struck by a thousand-pound hammer. Amidst the flying dust, the entire room seemed to tremble three times.

Li Wangcai and his gang were all stunned.

This is their old lair, and they know the ground's hardness better than anyone—they tried to dig a cellar back then, but two of their steel spikes broke, and they couldn't break through. Now, however, one step and the bricks shatter and the ground caves in, as if divine power has descended upon the world!

Is this even human?

Before they could react, He Yuzhu lifted the corner of his shirt, revealing a gleaming black Type 45 pistol at his waist. His gaze was indifferent as he stared at Li Wangcai, his voice low but undeniably authoritative:

"Senior Brother Li, I didn't want to break the rules. But if you break them first, don't blame me for following suit. At that point... I can't control myself anymore when things get out of control."