The Life of a Son-in-Law in a Courtyard House

Seeing that everyone had arrived, Yang Dalin continued, "Alright, now that everyone is here, I'll continue."

"Ma San is a hardworking and reliable kid."

I get up before dawn every morning and work until dark.

You can ask around; he works near our train station, and many people have probably seen him.

A fourteen-year-old boy worked hard for several months and saved up a few dozen yuan with my aunt.

The results of it?

His good second brother and sister-in-law found out.

He went to Ma San's house just before the Lunar New Year.

Make Ma San give them money and tickets.

They make it sound nice, saying it's for their nephews and nieces' New Year's money.

If they refuse to give it to him, they should say that when their parents passed away, they provided food and drink for Ma San for a period of time.

As everyone knows, respecting the elderly and caring for the young is a traditional virtue of our nation.

With their parents gone, are the older brother and sister-in-law obligated to take care of their underage younger brother?

Besides, it was money left by his parents before they died, so surely Ma San's share must have been included in it, right?

As a result, his two older brothers soon took over their parents' jobs and moved to a different house. His eldest brother moved to this courtyard.

The west wing is two large rooms, and his second brother also has two rooms. Only Ma San lives alone in a small side room. When I first went to his house, there was no stove, no firewood to heat the kang (a heated brick bed), and they only had less than two pounds of black scum to eat.

It's easy to imagine that if San'er had continued like this with her stomach cut open, would she still be alive today?

But we've digressed. Let's get back to the story of how his second brother and sister-in-law went to Ma San's house before the Lunar New Year.

In order to have a good New Year and to stop his second brother and sister-in-law from arguing, and also because he felt sorry for his nephew and niece, Ma San gave all the money he had and the food his family had for the New Year to his second brother and sister-in-law.

As a result, on the morning of the second day of the Lunar New Year, his good older brother Ma Bao and his family came to visit again.

We can't just let the second son benefit; the eldest son also needs to get some benefits.

Then on the second day of the Lunar New Year, he caused trouble again. This time, Ma San was broke, so he made a scene in our yard.

My aunt is kind-hearted. Although she treats San'er like her own son, he is still her older brother.

The disturbance in our yard is a family matter, and our neighbors can't really interfere.

Then my aunt had no choice but to take out twenty yuan of the money that Ma San had entrusted to her and give it to his sister-in-law.

As it turned out, his sister-in-law was insatiable and saw the New Year's gifts that my aunt's family had received from others.

She insisted that the items inside were bought with San'er's money, and she wanted both the money and the items.

The three brothers couldn't stand it anymore. They felt that it was okay for him to suffer, but they couldn't let their aunt suffer, so they slapped their sister-in-law.

As a result, his good older brother got angry and, ignoring his unreasonable wife who was trying to extort money, beat his younger brother Ma San so badly that he couldn't get out of bed for several days.

Look, everyone, Ma San still has injuries on his face!

Come to Ma San and let everyone see your face, then lift up your cotton-padded coat and let everyone see the wound on your stomach.

Ma San, already teary-eyed from Yang Dalin's earlier words, stood on the steps, lifted his cotton-padded coat, revealing a long scar on his belly, like a centipede.

Nowadays, suturing techniques are not yet advanced, so it's normal to have large suture marks.

Those who stood close enough to see for themselves knew that what Yang Dalin said was true, and they all discussed it, saying, "Wow, such a long cut."

How much suffering did this child endure?

Many of the teenagers perched on the wall shouted, "Ma San is a real man, well done!"

Someone else shouted, "Beat these two older brothers to death! What kind of trash are they? They're a disgrace to us men of Beijing!"

Some people shouted, "Those two sisters-in-law are even worse! Tear their mouths apart!"

Ma San's two older brothers and sister-in-law tried to interrupt Yang Dalin several times, but they were scared off by the coercion of the police officers and street office staff that Yang Dalin brought with him.

Seeing that they were about to speak, Yang Dalin preemptively said, "Alright, everyone be quiet and let me finish."

I wasn't home when Ma San was beaten. I just got back today and saw that my aunt was kind but still got upset. My brother Ma San was beaten and hasn't been able to earn money for several days, so he's lying in bed.

I just wanted to come over and beat those two bastards to death.

Then I thought about it and realized that killing them would cost me my own life, so it wasn't worth it.

I thought that if we had any trouble, we should go to the neighborhood committee or the police. So I went to our neighborhood committee first. When our neighborhood director heard that someone dared to beat someone, even his own brother, he called the police. After all, Ma Bao beat people so badly.

My brother Ma San was so badly beaten that he couldn't get out of bed for several days.

If it weren't for our family delivering food to them every day, the three Ma brothers might have starved to death in their beds, wouldn't you all agree?

We came to this street and notified the people at the street office. The people at the street office didn't know this guy was so bad.

He took the initiative to come with us and even helped us invite his second brother over.

The police officer told me that the two families were suspected of intentional assault, extortion, and robbery.

Then you'll have to go to jail.

Okay, I've finished explaining. Now, please welcome the police officer to the stage.

Captain Yang of the security team and Comrade Xiao Lu had already discussed it with Yang Dalin on the way.

Things aren't that serious; Ma San's injuries aren't that severe.

Ma San was embarrassed and didn't want to go out, since he hadn't broken any arms or legs.

It's that kind of family matter between brothers again.

At this point, most fights will be resolved through mediation.

They won't be easily arrested.

Yang Dalin had already discussed it with Captain Yang and the two people from the street office; they were going to come and scare them.

Try to sign a separation agreement and never have any contact with each other again.

If Ma San's eldest brother and sister-in-law, and second brother and sister-in-law are really arrested, who will take care of their children? Will Ma San take care of them?

That's definitely impossible.

Upon hearing this, Ma San's eldest brother and sister-in-law, second brother and sister-in-law, and seeing Captain Yang and Comrade Xiao Lu, two policemen, taking out handcuffs and about to approach, all spoke up.

The four of them were terrified.

He immediately knelt down with a thud. Yang Dalin, seeing this, wondered why he was kneeling before him and dodged away.

They knelt down again, shifted their position, and cried out to Ma San, "Brother, San'er, your brother and sister-in-law were wrong, please plead for them!"

"Don't arrest us! If you arrest us, we'll lose our jobs, and if we lose our jobs, we'll all starve to death!"

Ma San glared fiercely at his two older brothers and sister-in-law as they performed; he knew all too well what his two older brothers and sister-in-law were like.

Ma San remained unmoved.

His sister-in-law was the smartest; she heard the children's voices inside.

His sister-in-law grabbed Ma San's pants, crying, and said, "San'er, it's all my fault. We've been arrested. What will happen to your niece and nephew?"

In these famine-stricken years, if no one takes care of them, they'll starve to death.

Ma San tried to break free but couldn't. When he heard his sister-in-law talking about his nephew and niece, he looked troubled.

Ma San cast a pitiful look at Yang Dalin.

Yang Dalin gave Captain Yang and the others a wink.

Captain Yang raised his handcuffs to handcuff them.

During the struggle, Ma San's sister-in-law ran over and knelt down in front of Aunt Qi.

Crying and wailing.

Aunt Qi is a soft-hearted person.

Seeing this, I didn't know what to do.

He also looked at Yang Dalin.

Yang Dalin saw that he had scared him enough.

He gave Old Huang from the neighborhood office a wink.

Old Huang and the person from the neighborhood committee were acquaintances of his; the two of them worked together to play the good guys.

They stopped Captain Yang and his group first.