Courtyard House: In times of famine, my hamster became a spirit.

suburbs.

He Yuzhu hunched his neck, the wild energy he used to have when he was shaking the wok and flipping the spatula in the steel mill canteen had long been frozen away by this awful weather.

He buried his face in the collar of his tattered, drafty cotton-padded jacket, revealing only his bloodshot eyes.

The jade pendant hidden close to his skin in his bosom was a keepsake left behind by Old He when he left.

"Sister Qin, for the sake of your family's mouths, I'm going to risk everything today."

He Yuzhu sniffled, feeling incredibly self-satisfied.

In the dark wasteland ahead, a few ghostly figures flickered.

There were no lights, no shouts, and it was eerily quiet.

This is Pigeon City.

He Yuzhu trudged through the frozen clods of earth, his eyes scanning the ground like radar.

He needed to find meat, the kind that sizzles with oil and is so greasy it makes people drool; he also needed to find noodles, the kind that could shut up that ingrate Bang Geng and make Sister Qin's eyes water.

After walking about a hundred steps, he stopped in a secluded corner.

A gaunt old man squatted under the withered tree, wrapped in a sheepskin coat, with a tattered cloth that gleamed with oil spread out in front of him.

"Brother, can you take a look?" He Yuzhu squatted down, lowered his voice, and adopted an extremely humble posture.

The old man didn't even lift his eyelids, his voice hoarse: "Same as always, inspect the goods first, then talk about money."

He Yuzhu reached into his innermost pocket, rummaged around for a while, and finally reluctantly handed over the thumb-sized jade pendant.

"It's an old item, passed down in the family. It's only because we encountered some difficulties..." He Yuzhu's tone was humble, even a little obsequious.

The old man took the jade pendant, and a small flashlight covered with cloth slid out from his sleeve, flashing with a "snap".

Extremely fast.

"Tsk."

The old man glanced at him sideways, his fingernails, which resembled withered tree branches, tapped twice on the jade surface, producing a crisp sound.

"Dude, are you kidding me?" The old man casually tossed the jade pendant onto the rag, the sound making He Yuzhu's heart skip a beat. "This thing is a new one that's been artificially aged, with hidden cracks on the edges. Thirty years ago, it might have made a sound, but now? It's not as good as two pounds of sweet potatoes."

He Yuzhu's head buzzed.

"Impossible! My dad said this is..."

"Your dad says it's a gold brick, but the supply and marketing cooperative has to acknowledge it first," the old man sneered, a condescending remark typical of a seasoned black market trader. "These days, a full stomach is what really matters. Can this broken stone of yours stave off hunger? Can it save a life? If it weren't for the fact that you're a stranger, I'd think even two yuan was too much."

Two yuan?!

He Yuzhu's eyes were bloodshot, and the veins on his neck were bulging.

He wanted to curse, and he wanted to use his fists—the kind that had been undefeated in the entire courtyard—to teach these old fogies a lesson.

But just as she clenched her fist, a memory suddenly popped into her mind: Zhou Jianguo riding his brand-new bicycle after get off work, with that dazzlingly white bag of special-supply flour hanging on the back seat, and the light in Sister Qin's eyes when she looked at that flour...

Heartbroken.

"Brother, please...please add some more." He Yuzhu's fist loosened, his spine bent, and his voice trembled with tears. "I need to get some meat replaced; my kids at home are crying for food."

The old man gave him a deep look. "Ten yuan, and I'll give you five jin of grain coupons. Take it or leave it, don't block the God of Wealth."

He Yuzhu's heart was bleeding.

That's a legacy passed down through generations of the He family!

Are you just going to replace these few flimsy sheets of paper?

But when his fingers touched those crumpled grain coupons, the guilt he felt was suppressed by a morbid excitement.

That's money! That's meat! That's Sister Qin's smiling face!

He can surpass Zhou Jianguo!

"make a deal!"

He Yuzhu grabbed the money and rushed towards the meat stall deep in the black market.

"Cut me two pounds of pork fat! The fattest kind! The kind that doesn't spring back when you press it down!" He Yuzhu slammed a ten-yuan bill down, he had never been so extravagant in his life.

Two pounds of fat and five pounds of wheat flour.

When this heavy pile of things was stuffed into the blue cloth bundle, He Yuzhu felt as if he was holding not pork, but his future wife, even closer than his wife!

"Zhou Jianguo, so what if you have special supplies? My meat is better than your noodles! This is a favor I earned with real money!"

Just as He Yuzhu was carrying his bundle, so happy he was practically snotting from his nose—

"Beep—!!"

A sharp whistle blew.

"Lei Zi's coming! Run!"

The once quiet black market instantly erupted into chaos.

Countless dark figures recklessly darted into the forest.

He Yuzhu froze on the spot, almost dropping the bundle in his hand in fright.

"Hold!"

Several beams of powerful flashlights swept wildly in the distance, and the red armbands stood out starkly and frighteningly in the night.

"Hey you over there! Don't move! Stop!"

A staff member's loud voice boomed in my ear.

He Yuzhu shuddered. At this moment, he didn't care about being a war god or anything like that. Escaping was the most important thing!

He hugged the meat and noodles in his arms!

This was the last bit of face he would ever have in front of Sister Qin!

I'll fight anyone who tries to take it!

He turned and ran.

"We can't get caught! If we get caught, we'll lose everything! Sister Qin is still waiting!"

In his panic, He Yuzhu plunged headlong into a dead end.

I ran fifty meters and then despaired.

There was a dead wall in front of us, with coal ash and household garbage piled up at its base.

Behind me, hurried footsteps and flashlight beams grew closer.

"Here they are! I just saw them crawling inside!"

Finished?

Is my illustrious reputation going to be ruined here?

Just then, he caught a glimpse of a dark gap behind the pile of foul-smelling garbage at the base of the wall.

That was an old sewage outlet, commonly known as a dog hole.

Yellow ice crystals formed at the cave entrance, and a stench of urine mixed with a sour, rotten smell assaulted the skull.

He Yuzhu glanced at the hole and then patted the two pounds of fat in his arms.

"Damn it, I'll risk it!"

dignity?

In front of Sister Qin's lard noodles, dignity is nothing!

Ignoring his tattered cotton-padded coat, he lay down on the ground, protecting his bundle with both hands, and squeezed himself into the filthy hole.

Cold, a bone-chilling cold.

The cave was filled with dirty water that had accumulated for who knows how many years, as well as that slimy, sticky excrement that I couldn't even imagine what it was.

The sensation seeped through his clothes, making He Yuzhu's stomach churn, but he could only grit his teeth and swallow it down.

Grind it little by little, rub it little by little.

"Thump!"

He landed face down.

His entire face slammed into a puddle of black mud that reeked of fermentation and foul odor.

The icy, filthy water poured down his collar, making the hairs on his body stand on end.

"Where is he? I just saw him!" came the officer's panting from the other side of the wall.

"Did they escape by climbing over the wall? Chase them!"

The sound faded into the distance.

He Yuzhu huddled in the stinking ditch, not daring to even breathe loudly.

His forehead had swelled up from hitting the sharp rock, and blood mixed with sewage flowed into his eyes, stinging so badly he wanted to cry.

After an unknown amount of time, He Yuzhu finally crawled out from the other end of the ditch, trembling.

At this moment, where was the slightest bit of the domineering presence he once had as the tyrant of the courtyard house?

His hair was covered with rotten vegetable leaves and unidentified fluffy substances, half of his face was covered in black mud, and his cotton-padded jacket was torn to shreds, revealing the yellowed and blackened old cotton inside.

The smell emanating from him was that of someone freshly pulled from a century-old cesspool, a fermented odor strong enough to kill any creature within a hundred paces.

But he was smiling.

He grinned, showing off his big white teeth, and chuckled foolishly.

His hands, trembling and covered in mud, touched the bundle in his arms.

The inner layer wasn't wet; the two pounds of pork fat were still there, firmly pressed against his chest.

"Heh...heh heh..." He Yuzhu's teeth chattered as he laughed, a mixture of malice and smugness in his voice. "Zhou Jianguo, you want to see me make a fool of myself? No way! I've brought the meat back!"

He limped back to the courtyard house.

Using the moonlight, I slipped into the central courtyard.