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

Yi Zhonghai stood in the snow, staring at the tightly closed wooden door, his back teeth grinding together, his cheeks trembling.

He glanced sideways and saw the deaf old woman slumped in the armchair, and felt an indescribable sadness in his heart.

There's no way to fight back now, and this kid has already torn my reputation to shreds. Zhou Jianguo is simply an unyielding madman!

Thinking of this, a ruthless glint appeared in Yi Zhonghai's eyes. He turned around and knelt down on the cold snow with a "thud," gripping the armrests of the armchair with both hands, and let out a piercing wail:

"Grandma! Grandma, wake up! Someone come quick! Zhou Jianguo has killed someone! He suffocated our ancestor!"

That shout carried for hundreds of meters in the quiet, cold night.

The neighbors, who were originally planning to go back inside and get into bed, were so startled by the pig-like screams that they abruptly pulled their legs back.

The instinct to watch the spectacle overcame their fear of Zhou Jianguo, and in a flash, the crowd swarmed around him again.

"Oh dear, why has the old lady's face turned pale?"

"Zhou Jianguo's methods are too ruthless; he just got angry and nothing happened?"

The crowd gathered around and saw that the once imposing deaf old lady was now slumped in a crooked armchair.

The old face twitched unnaturally, a string of unidentified sticky liquid hung from the corner of his mouth, and his eyes rolled upwards desperately, revealing a large expanse of pale white space under his eyes, which looked rather frightening.

The most amazing thing was that her hand was trembling incessantly in the air, and she was making a gurgling sound from her throat.

"This is... a stroke!"

Uncle Yan Bugui adjusted his glasses and exclaimed, "I'm afraid I'm going to die here! Quick, call a doctor!"

Seeing this, Second Uncle Liu Haizhong's previously tucked-in belly bulged out again, and his ambition for officialdom began to grow wildly once more.

He realized that this was the best opportunity to completely destroy Zhou Jianguo!

"Jianguo! Come out here!"

Liu Haizhong pointed to the backyard: "Look what you've done! If anything happens to the old lady, you'll be paying for her life! Everyone saw it, right? You started the fight and then started yelling; you're definitely a criminal caught red-handed!"

Qin Huairu also came to her senses. Her swollen eyes darted around, and she collapsed to the ground, grabbing the old lady's trouser leg as she began her performance: "Grandmother, you can't leave! If you leave, who in this courtyard can subdue this murderer? We, a widow and her children, will have no way to survive..."

The entire courtyard was filled with cries, shouts, and curses.

"Squeak—"

The door opened again.

Zhou Jianguo remained calm and composed, with his thick coat draped over his shoulders and his hands in his pockets.

He ignored the glares around him that seemed to want to devour him whole, and trudged through the snow toward the deaf old woman.

When Yi Zhonghai saw him approaching, he felt a pang of fear, but thinking of the old woman in his arms, his courage returned: "You beast, how dare you show your face? You've ruined the old woman like this; if we don't send you to the police station today, there will be no justice in this courtyard!"

Zhou Jianguo stood in front of the chair and glanced at the deaf old woman.

Based on the diagnostic method of observation in traditional Chinese medicine, I already had the answer in my mind.

To outsiders, the old lady was on the verge of death; but to Zhou Jianguo, the performance was full of flaws.

The white foam at the corner of his mouth, and its stickiness, was clearly toothpaste foam that he had slipped into his mouth in the chaos!

More importantly, through the gap in his upturned eyelids, his pupils were subtly shifting as he moved.

They're spying on us.

"Stroke?"

He bent down, seemingly to check the situation.

Yi Zhonghai instinctively reached out to push her away, saying, "Stay away from the old lady!"

Zhou Jianguo turned his head, his eyes revealing a murderous intent. With just one look, Yi Zhonghai felt a chill run down his spine, his legs inexplicably went weak, and the words caught in his throat.

Zhou Jianguo reached out a hand and touched the old woman's twitching wrist, speaking in a low, somber tone:

"It is indeed an acute illness, with blocked heart fire and disordered meridians. If this cannot be cured, he may be bedridden for the rest of his life, needing someone to help him with his excrement and urination."

He turned to Yi Zhonghai: "Uncle Yi, you are the old lady's closest nephew. The Jia family is in dire straits right now. If the old lady really becomes paralyzed, are you planning to do the work of turning her over and changing her diapers yourself, or will you leave it all to Auntie?"

Yi Zhonghai's expression became incredibly interesting.

He did want to extort money from Zhou Jianguo and make him lose everything, but he never thought he would actually take care of a paralyzed man who was incontinent.

In his calculations, the old lady only needed to suffer a minor injury.

If he really becomes paralyzed, can Yi Zhonghai take on the responsibility of caring for his parents?

"Well... of course, it depends on what the doctor says." Yi Zhonghai's eyes started to wander.

"By the time the doctor arrives, the person will be fully recovered."

Zhou Jianguo's eyes suddenly turned cold, and his right hand twitched violently from his sleeve!

It was a thick steel needle, about the length of a little finger.

"Jianguo, what... what are you going to do?" Liu Haizhong was so frightened that he took three steps back.

"I have an ancestral 'resurrection needle' here, which is specially used to cure this kind of apparent death." Zhou Jianguo twirled the needle with his fingertips. "This needle goes through the philtrum and reaches the heart. The person is guaranteed to wake up, but it will be extremely painful. If there is still no response after this needle, then we can directly notify the neighborhood committee to hold a feast."

The old lady, who had been making strange "clucking" noises in the chair, visibly froze for a moment when she heard the words "penetrates the philtrum".

"Straighten! Straighten it now!"

To maintain his public image, Yi Zhonghai gritted his teeth and shouted, "As long as it saves lives, we'll try anything!"

The old lady's heart skipped a beat, and she cursed inwardly: Yi Zhonghai, you heartless bastard, do you want to kill your old lady with love?!

She's faking it!

Who knew that Zhou Jianguo would be carrying such a weapon!

"Since Uncle Yi has spoken, everyone should bear witness."

Zhou Jianguo took half a step forward, his figure positioned above the old lady.

He gripped the old woman's chin with his left hand like an iron clamp, forcing her to face him directly.

"Grandma, don't be afraid. This injection will make sure you're alright."

Zhou Jianguo lowered his voice and said quickly in a volume only the two of them could hear, "You're putting on quite a show. Let's see how much of a fight your old skin can hold!"

Before he could finish speaking, Zhou Jianguo's eyes sharpened!

Under the watchful eyes of everyone, the steel needle, gleaming with a cold light, was plunged deep into the most sensitive acupoint on the old woman's philtrum!

"Pfft!"

Zhou Jianguo controlled the force exquisitely, neither piercing through nor completely igniting the pain receptors.

"Awooo—!!!"

A bloodcurdling scream rang out in the courtyard!

The deaf old lady, who was just moments before "half-dead," suddenly displayed an explosive power that defied common sense.

She sprang from the armchair like a wildcat whose tail had been stepped on.

That was a real catapult launch; he pushed off the ground with all his might, and his whole body shot backward more than three meters, crashing headfirst into the arms of a bewildered Yi Zhonghai.

"It hurts like hell! You little bastard Zhou Jianguo, you stabbed me with a nail!"

The old lady showed no signs of having suffered a stroke.

He clutched his philtrum, tears and snot streaming down his face from the pain, and his loud, clear curses made the neighbors' eardrums ache.

Qin Huairu's hand, which was rubbing her eyes, froze in mid-air.

Her protruding belly had unknowingly deflated, and her mouth was wide open enough to fit a goose egg.

Just moments ago, Yi Zhonghai was wailing in despair, but now, feeling the lively old lady in his arms, he felt a burning pain on his face.

"Oh, you're awake?"

Zhou Jianguo took out a handkerchief and wiped the red stain off the steel needle.

With a casual flick of his wrist, the steel needle traced an arc in the air before disappearing cleanly into the red-lacquered pillar beside him with a "thud."

He coldly swept his gaze across the crowd, his eyes finally settling on Yi Zhonghai's face:

"Uncle Yi, it seems my family's traditional medical skills are really quite good. The old lady is more agile than the stray cats in our yard; she doesn't look sick at all!"

"This...this..." Yi Zhonghai choked on his words and couldn't utter a single one.

The way the neighbors looked at the old lady changed.

To extort money from a young person, this old man in his seventies or eighties actually put on such a lame act in public.

"Grandma, is this needle strong enough?"

Zhou Jianguo took a step closer, which frightened the old lady so much that she shrank back behind Yi Zhonghai.

"From now on, act out this kind of drama less often, or you'll shorten your lifespan." Zhou Jianguo lowered his voice: "If you really miss Lao Jia, next time I'll use a thicker needle to send you down to reunite with him, so you won't have to be a clown jumping around in the mortal world."

After saying that, he turned and walked into the house under the complicated and unreadable gazes of the crowd.

He stopped just before stepping across the threshold, without turning his head.

"Yi Zhonghai, this kind of underhanded trick is enough once. If there's a next time, it won't be the philtrum that gets stabbed, it'll be the throat."

boom!

The door slammed shut, causing the snow on the eaves to fall in a rustling sound.

The cold wind howled, and in the courtyard there was only an old woman covering her mouth and jumping up and down, a hypocrite with a deathly pale face, and a group of neighbors whose values ​​had collapsed.

No one noticed that the steel needle embedded in the wooden pillar was still trembling slightly.

Zhou Jianguo returned to his room and sat down. The pleasant system notification sound in his mind arrived as expected.

[Ding! Host's brute-force cracking of the "extermination plot" has been detected, causing a dramatic shift in the beliefs of all the neighbors in the compound. The satisfaction level has exploded!]

[Critical Hit Reward: Unlocked!]