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

Security Department, Interrogation Room, Hongxing Steel Rolling Mill.

This is a small, dark room converted from an abandoned warehouse. It is drafty on all sides, with a dim light bulb hanging in mid-air, creaking and swaying in the cold wind.

Xu Damao slumped on the wooden chair with one leg broken, his hands cuffed behind his back.

There was a dark footprint on his cotton pants, and his ankle was swollen like a steamed bun. Every jump made him gasp in pain.

Sitting opposite him was Zhao Gang, the head of the security department. He was a former reconnaissance soldier with an old scar running across his brow bone. When he was silent, he exuded a murderous aura, and when he smiled, he was even more unsettling.

"Xu Damao, it's been all night, I've refilled your tea three times already, and you still haven't given me a straight answer?" Zhao Gang toyed with his pen, the "tap-tap" sound of the pen cap hitting the table so frequently that it made Xu Damao want to vomit.

"Section Chief Zhao, I'm truly innocent!" Xu Damao stretched his neck, raising his voice, trying to cover up his guilt with a roar: "That's slander! Absolutely slander! I'm a key member of the propaganda department, the factory's mouthpiece! I want to see Director Li! This is definitely that little beast Zhou Jianguo, or that dog Sha Zhu trying to kill me!"

"Bang!"

Zhao Gang slammed his hand on the table, causing the lid of the teacup to fall to the ground with a loud bang.

He leaned forward, and the murderous aura sealed Xu Damao's throat.

"Stop giving me that nonsense. The report clearly states the year, month, and commune, how many chickens and mushrooms you received, and even which time you secretly took two pieces of cured meat. The dates and locations are so precise they could be used as a calendar!"

Zhao Gang pointed to the thick stack of incriminating evidence: "Xu Damao, the evidence is irrefutable! Do you think this is some kind of joke in the compound? This is bribery, this is a crime committed in office, understand?"

Xu Damao's heart sank, cold sweat streaming down his long, narrow face, but he still tried to hold on one last time: "That's just the villagers being kind... saying it's a local specialty for us working class! Section Chief Zhao, I also have to consider the relationship between workers and peasants, don't I? You can't just give me a few pieces of paper..."

Zhao Gang was so angry he laughed. He leaned back, lit a cigarette, and his eyes became extremely amused.

"Alright, projectionist Xu's got some backbone. Let's put the bribery thing aside for now and talk about something else." Zhao Gang exhaled a smoke ring, his tone nonchalant: "I heard you got a prescription at the hospital this afternoon?"

Xu Damao froze, his last bit of defensiveness crumbling, his eyes darting around: "This...this has nothing to do with the case, right?"

"It's alright, I was just asking." Zhao Gang smiled, a smile tinged with pity. "But I heard there's a little rhyme going around outside these days. What's it called again..."

Zhao Gang pretended not to remember and turned to look at the junior officer taking notes next to him.

The young clerk, a man in his early twenties, had been holding back for a long time. Now, with his head down and a wide grin stretching to his ears, he muttered softly:

"Eunuch Xu... a eunuch... nothing but emptiness..."

The sound wasn't loud, but it could still be heard clearly in the quiet interrogation room.

Xu Damao's pupils shrank to slits.

His face twitched uncontrollably, his complexion first turning as red as a pig's liver, then suddenly turning deathly pale.

"You...you all..." Xu Damao stammered, his teeth chattering.

He thought that only people in the compound knew about this, and that as long as he denied it, it would fade away after a few days when no one mentioned it.

But he never expected that only a few hours had passed.

This lousy song has even reached the security department!

"Hey, Little Liu has a good voice." Zhao Gang chuckled and exhaled a puff of smoke. "This tune is quite catchy."

Xiao Liu pushed up his glasses and delivered the fatal blow: "Section Chief, now all the night shift workers in the factory have learned this song. Liu Lan from the canteen was singing it as she delivered the late-night snacks. By the way, Xu Damao, I heard you had a congenital condition? Was the diagnosis issued by a specialist at Red Star Hospital?"

Xiao Liu looked up, his eyes filled with undisguised mockery: "To be honest, I do sympathize with you. But, I have something to remind you."

Xiao Liu leaned forward and lowered his voice, saying, "Someone like you... with missing parts, if you really went in, the prisoners there would hate two kinds of people the most. One is rapists, and the other is... men without penises. Just imagine, a bunch of grown men locked up together, not seeing a woman for years. Suddenly a soft-spoken, weak-willed old man comes in... tsk tsk, that kind of life would probably be more exciting than hell. I heard that some people who went in before couldn't even put their pants on properly."

Boom—!

Xu Damao's last psychological defense collapsed.

prison?

Bullying?

Surrounded by a group of burly men?

Those terrifying images flashed through his mind.

The physical disability, the destruction of his reputation, and the inhuman torture he might face in his later years drove him completely insane.

"Wow--!"

Xu Damao suddenly tilted his head back and burst into tears, his face covered in snot and tears.

"I'll confess! I'll confess everything! Please, please stop!" He banged his head against the table desperately, utterly despairing. "I took those chickens! I wanted the mushrooms! And the two cartons of cigarettes Secretary Li gave me... I'll tell you everything! Just don't let me be locked up with those guys! Waaah, I want to go home..."

Zhao Gang snorted coldly and stubbed out his cigarette in the ashtray: "Wouldn't it have been settled earlier? Xiao Liu, don't miss a single word, remember it!"

……

At the same time, in the backyard of Nanluoguxiang.

Zhou Jianguo stood at the door of Xu Damao's house, listening to the desperate sounds of people rummaging through drawers and cabinets inside, and then he pushed the door open.

"Squeak—"

Lou Xiao'e, who was inside the house, turned her head and was tightly clutching a leather suitcase in her hand.

Her once gentle eyes were now swollen like walnuts. The room was a mess, with clothes scattered all over the floor and a piece of expensive porcelain broken in one corner, clearly indicating that she had just vented her anger.

Upon seeing Zhou Jianguo, Lou Xiao'e's tense back relaxed slightly, but her wariness remained: "What are you doing here? To see how I got out of this compound?"

Zhou Jianguo didn't reply, but instead closed the door tightly, blocking out the cold air from outside.

He walked to the table, pulled up a chair that had fallen over, and sat down steadily. He looked calmly at Lou Xiao'e and said, "Sister Xiao'e, getting angry is bad for your liver. You don't look well right now."

Zhou Jianguo paused for a moment: "These past few years, trying to have a child, you've probably drunk a lot of those incredibly bitter Chinese medicines, haven't you? The medicinal properties have all accumulated in your stomach. Plus, this sudden surge of anger today..."

He raised his hand and lightly touched Lou Xiao'e's left rib: "Here, three inches below your left rib, does it feel like being pricked with needles? Does it taste like blood in your throat when you take a deep breath?"

Lou Xiao'e was completely stunned.

She instinctively pressed her left rib; that tightness and stabbing pain had indeed tormented her all night, and she had thought it was just a simple stitch.

But how could Zhou Jianguo be so accurate?

"You...you know medicine?"

Without saying a word, Zhou Jianguo got up and walked over to her.