Siheyuan: At the beginning, I can integrate everything!

The rich aroma of braised pork, like a small brush, tantalizes everyone's senses in the courtyard.

Qin Huairu slumped to the cold ground, smelling the fragrance, her stomach convulsing as if on fire.

"Zhang Huaimin..."

She gritted her teeth and squeezed out those three words, her eyes filled with venom as sharp as a poisoned knife.

"One day, I'll make you pay me back, with interest!"

She wiped away her tears, picked up the empty net bag, and drifted back to the Jia family like a wandering ghost.

Inside the house, Jia Zhangshi was so hungry that she rolled her eyes on the kang (a heated brick bed), her stomach rumbling loudly.

Seeing Qin Huairu return empty-handed, Jia Zhangshi's fat face immediately fell.

"Useless trash! If you don't bring me food, do you want me to starve to death?!"

Qin Huairu lowered her head, walked silently to a corner, picked up half a bowl of cold water and drank it down, trying to suppress the burning sensation in her stomach.

That night, the Jia family endured endless hunger and curses.

The next morning, just as dawn was breaking.

A military green jeep stopped at the entrance of the courtyard alley.

This was a special vehicle specially approved by the Ministry of Industry to transport Zhang Huaimin to the "Confidential Laboratory" of Hongxing Steel Rolling Mill for guidance work.

Chen Bing pushed open the door to the east wing and walked out, holding Zhang Huaimin's little hand.

"Huaimin, it's windy outside, put on your scarf."

Chen Bing carefully wrapped a red wool scarf around Zhang Huaimin's neck; it was specially sent by the wife of the high-ranking leader.

Zhang Huaimin nodded obediently, but his clear eyes glanced almost imperceptibly at the back window of his house the moment he stepped out the door.

He deliberately left a two-finger-width gap in that window this morning.

On the table directly below the window, there was a half-sack of pure white high-gluten flour.

"The bait is laid out; now it's just a matter of whether the rats will take the bait."

Zhang Huaimin chuckled inwardly and followed Chen Bing into the jeep.

The jeep roared away from Nanluoguxiang.

The dust kicked up by the wheels had not yet dissipated.

The gate of the Jia family's house in the Intermediate People's Court was cracked open, as if someone had been thiefed.

Jia Zhangshi's fleshy, swollen face, covered in fat and looking somewhat puffy from hunger, peeked out from the crack in the door.

Her triangular eyes darted around furtively.

Once it was confirmed that Zhang Huaimin and the guards had gone far away, and the adults in the compound had all gone to work.

Jia Zhangshi swallowed hard, a greedy glint in her eyes.

"You little brat, you eat meat and flour every day, you'll choke to death, you bastard!"

She pulled out a long iron wire with the end bent into a hook shape from the head of the kang (a heated brick bed). This was the "tool for committing the crime" that she had found by rummaging through drawers and cabinets the night before.

Although Banggeng broke his hand while trying to pry open a door and was arrested and sent to a detention center.

But this did not stop Jia Zhangshi's desire to take advantage of the situation.

She firmly believed that the main door was strange because it had a mechanism installed, but surely the windows couldn't have mechanisms installed too, right?

What's more, that half-bag of high-gluten flour has been tempting her every day under the window these past few days, and she's been craving it terribly.

Like a fat rat, Jia Zhangshi crept along the wall and tiptoed to the front yard.

Feeling guilty, she looked around to make sure no one was there.

They couldn't wait to get to the back window of Zhang Huaimin's house.

Through that two-finger-width gap.

That half-bag of dazzlingly white high-gluten flour, like a small snow mountain, lay quietly on the table, emitting an enticing aroma.

"My goodness, there must be almost half a bag of this! Enough for our family to eat noodles for several days!"

Jia Zhangshi was so hungry she kept swallowing her saliva, her eyes practically green with envy.

She carefully inserted the wire through the window crack, aiming it at the half-bag of flour.

However, she encountered a problem when the wire was only halfway extended.

The wire has a hook at the end, making it extremely difficult to scoop out flour, and it's easy to spill flour on the windowsill, leaving marks.

"This damn wire is really in the way!"

Jia Zhangshi was sweating profusely with anxiety, and her stomach started growling again.

"I'm starving, I don't care anymore!"

She gritted her teeth and decided to take the plunge.

Since no one was around, the gap, though small, was just big enough to fit half of her chubby hand.

You can simply reach in, grab two handfuls of flour, and stuff them into your pocket.

"You little brat, your good stuff should be given to this old woman!"

Madam Jia cursed inwardly with smug satisfaction as she forcefully squeezed her rough, fat right hand through the window crack.

My fingers were about to touch the soft, snow-white flour.

Her face crinkled with laughter.

but.

Jia Zhangshi was unaware of this.

Just before I left home this morning.

Standing in front of the bag of flour, Zhang Huaimin had already opened the system panel in his mind.

"System, extract the 'high-strength mousetrap wire rebound property'!"

[Ding! The spring-loaded steel wire of the powerful mousetrap has been successfully extracted!]

"Fusing target: edges and interior of flour bags."

[Command confirmed! Fusion complete.]

This is no ordinary mousetrap.

Once triggered, the force of its instantaneous rebound is enough to bite through a wooden stick as thick as an arm!

Moreover, this quality is invisible and colorless, completely hidden within the flour.

At this moment.

Jia Zhangshi's fat fingers were already deeply embedded in the flour.

"It's so soft, this flour is so fine..."

Jia Zhangshi sighed with delight, her fingers clenching together, ready to grab a handful.

Just as her fingers exerted a slight force, triggering the energy structure inside the flour!

A sudden change has occurred!

There was no fire, no sign.

A loud "crack!" was heard, an extremely crisp and deafening metallic explosion!

The sound was like a thunderclap exploding out of nowhere.

Immediately afterwards!

An incredibly powerful rebound force suddenly erupted from the edge of the flour bag.

"Snap! Snap!"

A chilling sound of bones cracking rang out instantly!

That invisible rebound force was like a giant steel vise.

With lightning speed, it clamped down on the five fingers that Jia Zhangshi had put into the bag!

"ah--!!!"

A scream ten times more agonizing than a pig being slaughtered shattered the tranquility of the morning at the Red Star Courtyard.

Jia Zhangshi felt a piercing pain shoot up from her fingertips to the top of her head.

The feeling was like having all ten fingers simultaneously put into a meat grinder and being crushed!

"It's broken! My hand is broken!"

Jia Zhangshi's face contorted in pain, her eyes rolled back, and tears and snot gushed out instantly.

She instinctively wanted to pull her hand back.

However, that invisible force clamped down extremely tightly.

The more she struggled, the tighter the force contracted.

Not only that.

As she struggled violently, the flour bag on the table was knocked over.

"Whoosh!"

The pure white gluten powder, flowing through the window cracks, splattered all over Jia Zhangshi's head and face like an avalanche.

It blurred her vision and got into her nostrils and mouth.

"Cough cough... Help... Help me!"

Jia Zhangshi coughed violently from choking on the flour, her snot and tears mixing with the flour.

It mixed into a thick layer of paste on my face.

Her obese body was trapped in the window crack because her hands were stuck tightly.

It had to hang halfway out of the window in an extremely strange and contorted posture.

He kicked wildly with both feet off the ground, looking just like a hanged ghost that had just been pulled out of a flour jar!

"Oh my God, my hand is going to break! It hurts so much!"

The screams rose higher and higher, echoing through the sky.

Yan Bugui, who was sweeping the front yard, was so startled by the noise that he dropped his broom and ran over.

The older women in the backyard, as well as several neighbors who were off work today, all rushed over upon hearing the commotion.

When they saw Jia Zhangshi hanging from the back window of Zhang Huaimin's house, her face covered in white powder, howling in pain like a pig being slaughtered.

Everyone was stunned.

After a brief silence.

"Pfft—"

I don't know who couldn't help but laugh out loud first.

Followed by.

A burst of laughter erupted from the crowd.

"Oh my! Isn't this Aunt Jia? What's she doing practicing hanging herself so early in the morning?"

"Hahaha! Look at her face covered in dough! Did she try to steal flour and end up baking herself into a pancake?"

"Serves her right! She never learns her lesson! Her grandson just went to jail for stealing, and now she's causing trouble again!"

The neighbors pointed at Jia Zhangshi and laughed so hard they almost fell over, but not a single person stepped forward to help.

Everyone knew perfectly well that the old woman had come to steal.

Moreover, everyone kept their distance from the window in Zhang Huaimin's house that was said to be "possessed by evil spirits," fearing that they might also be afflicted with bad luck.

Hearing the mocking laughter around her, Jia Zhangshi was so angry she felt like her lungs were about to explode.

But the excruciating pain in her fingers left her with no strength to retaliate; all she could do was scream and beg for mercy.

"Help! Old Yan, please help me! My hand is going to be ruined..."

Yan Bugui adjusted his glasses and took two steps back, afraid of getting flour on his face.

"Sister-in-law Jia, I dare not help with this. What if that brat Zhang Huaimin comes back and accuses me of conspiring to steal? Would I still be able to live as the third uncle?"

"That's right, you got what you deserved for your dishonest actions!"

Just as laughter filled the courtyard and Jia Zhangshi wailed in pain.

The entrance to the alleyway of Nanluoguxiang.

The familiar military green jeep was slowly driving in.