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

That one sentence ignited a powder keg.

Liu Haizhong's fat shuddered, and his eyes became fanatical and sharp.

Yes!

This isn't faith at all!

This is evidence of Yi Zhonghai's treason!

This is the fast track to power for me!

"Comrade Zhou Jianguo is right! Absolutely right!" Liu Haizhong shouted, taking a step back with righteous indignation, tightly protecting the letter in his arms. "Yi Zhonghai! I knew you were acting strangely! This letter must be made public today! For the safety of over a hundred people in the entire hospital, I'm opening this letter!"

"How dare you! Liu Haizhong, you're breaking the law!" Yi Zhonghai's eyes were bloodshot as he tried to pounce, but Yan Bugui, who had already seen the situation clearly, tripped him.

Several strong young men quietly squeezed in front of Yi Zhonghai, forming a human wall.

"For everyone's safety, sir, you should probably avoid suspicion!" Yan Bugui adjusted his glasses and added shrewdly, "If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear."

Right under everyone's noses, Liu Haizhong roughly tore open the envelope.

"Sizzle—"

The sound of tearing silk, to Yi Zhonghai's ears, was like an execution.

It's over, it's over.

The envelope was thick; Liu Haizhong turned it upside down and poured it into his palm.

Splash!

What fell out was not just a thin sheet of paper, but also a thick stack of yellowed paper strips with stamps on them.

Liu Haizhong was stunned.

He casually picked up a slip of paper, squinted, and read aloud: "Remittance slip... Copy of stub... Recipient: He Yuzhu... Remitter: He Daqing... Amount: Ten Yuan... Date: March 1955..."

The entire venue fell into a deathly silence.

The only sounds were the whistling of the wind through the treetops and the heavy breathing of the crowd.

Liu Haizhong's hand trembled, and he picked up another bill: "July 1956... ten yuan..."

"1957..."

"1958..."

Each receipt struck a heavy blow to everyone's heart, shattering Yi Zhonghai's hypocritical mask.

As Liu Haizhong read, his voice trembled more and more, eventually breaking into a crack, his face shaking with excitement.

He suddenly looked up and stared at Yi Zhonghai with an incredulous look.

"Old Yi... He Daqing wrote this on it..." Liu Haizhong swallowed, his throat dry. "He said he sends ten yuan back every month without fail to cover child support, and he asked Shazhu and Yushui why they've never replied to his letters? He also asked... asked why Shazhu wrote a letter scolding him for neglecting his children after the money he wired last month was signed for?"

"Buzz—"

Qin Huairu felt her mind go blank.

She swayed, almost losing her balance, and the locust flowers in her arms nearly slipped out.

Ten yuan a month?

Sha Zhu always told her he had no money, that he only had a meager salary and had to save it... It turns out Sha Zhu really did have no money!

Because all the money is in Yi Zhonghai's hands!

And what about her?

In order to get two pounds of cornmeal from Sha Zhu, she had to endure her mother-in-law's scolding, the neighbors' criticism, and pretend to be pitiful in front of Sha Zhu.

The results of it?

The real big shots were right there, watching the orphans and widows suffer in poverty, while pocketing the money that should have belonged to Sha Zhu!

How can this be considered a moral exemplar?

This is a vicious demon that eats people without spitting out the bones!

"My God..." Yan Bugui's mind raced, his scream echoing through the front yard. "Ten yuan a month, one hundred and twenty a year! He Daqing's been gone for almost six years, hasn't he? This is... this is over seven hundred yuan!"

More than seven hundred yuan!

In an era when everyone was tightening their belts, this was a fortune that could drive anyone crazy!

You could even buy a small courtyard house in the city!

"Yi Zhonghai!"

Someone in the crowd shouted first.

Immediately afterwards, anger erupted like a volcano.

"I knew it! Sha Zhu was living such a miserable life. Yu Shui was so thin she was practically skin and bones. Turns out you old bastard sucked her dry!"

"You always spout nonsense about benevolence and morality, telling us to help the Jia family, but it turns out you're the richest one! You've embezzled the orphans' living expenses!"

"Is this something a human being would do? This is blatant exploitation of someone who has no descendants! It's utterly despicable!"

Angri curses and accusations rained down on Yi Zhonghai.

The old man who was once respected in the compound is now exposed to the sun without any dignity.

Yi Zhonghai's face was ashen, his lips trembling as he tried to explain, "No...no...I was saving it for him...I was afraid he'd squander it...I was doing it for his own good..."

"Keep it?"

Zhou Jianguo walked up to Liu Haizhong at some point, gently picked up the latest remittance slip with two fingers, and spoke in a cold, icy tone.

"An old man, saving money for someone so much that even the person in question doesn't know? Saving money until Sha Zhu has to sell his blood to get cornmeal to help the Jia family? Saving money until He Yushui can't even afford a new pair of shoes?"

Zhou Jianguo leaned down and whispered, "If it weren't for this letter, this money would probably have ended up in your coffin savings, contributing to your retirement savings, right?"

"You...you..." Yi Zhonghai pointed at Zhou Jianguo, unable to catch his breath, and made a "gurgling" sound in his throat.

"puff--"

Overwhelmed by anger, Yi Zhonghai's mind went blank. His eyes rolled back, and he fell straight backward, crashing heavily onto the cold ground.

"Old Yi! Old Yi, don't scare me!" An old woman cried and rushed over.

The yard was in complete chaos, but no one stepped forward to lend a hand; some people were even secretly spitting on the ground.

Liu Haizhong clutched the stack of remittance slips tightly, his face filled with undisguised elation. With Yi Zhonghai down, the world in this compound was finally about to change!

This isn't a letter; it's his letter of appointment!

Zhou Jianguo stood on the periphery of the crowd, watching this farce with an indifferent expression.

Once that layer of hypocrisy is torn away, the inside is rotten more thoroughly than anyone else, and stinks to high heaven.

"Ding! Congratulations, host! You have successfully used someone else to do your dirty work, causing the power structure of the courtyard to collapse. You have received a critical hit reward: 10 Black Tens, 50 catties of refined flour..."

Zhou Jianguo ignored the system notification and turned to go back into the house.

In this incident, Yi Zhonghai not only suffered a complete loss of reputation, but he will also have to face questioning from the neighborhood committee and the police station.

Not only will they have to return that huge sum of over seven hundred yuan, but they'll also have to suffer a great loss.

However, this is not enough.

Zhou Jianguo glanced through the window at Qin Huairu, who was completely disoriented.

Yi Zhonghai's powerful backer has fallen, but the vampires in this courtyard are not all dead yet.

"How can this stage, which was just set up, be dismantled like this?"

"Who's next?"