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

"Over seven hundred yuan, Sister Qin. I'm not sure if that's enough to get you shot, but it's definitely enough for your whole family to spend the rest of their lives in jail."

Zhou Jianguo's smile remained unchanged, but his words were piercing: "Once it's classified as a gang crime, do you think Bang Geng will have a good future? With a convict as his mother, forget about getting married; he'll be investigated for three generations even if he has to sweep the streets. Which factory would dare hire someone like that?"

"ah--!"

Qin Huairu let out a short scream.

The enamel mug in her hand became a hot potato, and she instinctively threw it away.

With a loud crash, the jar smashed to the ground, spilling scalding hot water all over the floor, sending up ironic white steam.

The jar rolled to Yi Zhonghai's feet with a gurgling sound, proclaiming the shattering of their fragile alliance.

"I'm not delivering anymore! I didn't know! This has nothing to do with me!"

Qin Huairu's face turned deathly pale. At that moment, she displayed astonishing explosive power, leaping back two meters.

She didn't dare look at Yi Zhonghai again, waved her hands erratically, turned around and plunged into the deepest part of the crowd, disappearing in an instant.

This isn't Sister Qin at all; she's practically possessed by a sprint champion, betraying her teammates faster than anyone else.

"Qin Huairu! You..."

Yi Zhonghai's outstretched hand froze in mid-air, the half-sleeve still trembling awkwardly in the cold wind.

He watched helplessly as his last "backup plan" in this compound flew away faster than a jet plane when disaster struck.

This is the tragedy of having no descendants.

Without their own offspring, the so-called kinship bound by interests and calculations is as fragile as a piece of toilet paper.

"Wow, that's brilliant."

Zhou Jianguo, as if watching a grand performance, couldn't help but applaud and cheer: "Uncle, it seems your goddaughter's filial piety isn't very high quality; it's easily broken."

The neighbors looked at him even more scathingly, as if he were a rat in the street.

Isolated and helpless, Yi Zhonghai's mind raced. With his path blocked and his teammates betraying him, he now only had one last card left.

The anchor of this courtyard house, the only true god, is the deaf old lady in the backyard!

As long as our ancestors are willing to come out and lie down here, there's no solution!

At that point, not only Liu Haizhong, but even the neighborhood committee would have to think twice before coming!

"Tap...tap...tap..."

Said that Cao Cao Cao Cao arrived.

Suddenly, a dull, rhythmic sound of a cane came from the direction of the moon gate in the backyard.

Each muffled thud seemed to strike a chord in Yi Zhonghai's heart, injecting him with a powerful stimulant.

It's our ancestor! Our ancestor has come down from the mountain!

Yi Zhonghai's dead fish eyes burst with wild joy, and his buttocks seemed to be springy, about to launch him off the bench.

As long as the old lady stands there, there's still hope for this situation!

However, before that dragon-headed cane could even extend out of the central courtyard—

"Oh, judging from the noise, the old lady is quite nimble. It seems the needle didn't penetrate properly last time."

Zhou Jianguo's lips curled into a playful smile as he pulled out the five-inch-long steel needle from his sleeve once more.

Under the warm winter sun, the tip of a needle gleamed with a chilling, eerie light.

This time, he didn't look at Yi Zhonghai, but instead made a feint towards the moon gate that was faintly visible in the backyard.

"Second Uncle!" Zhou Jianguo suddenly raised his voice.

Liu Haizhong, who was immersed in the experience of being at the pinnacle of power, was taken aback: "What's wrong, Jian Guo?"

Zhou Jianguo's long, slender fingers deftly twirled the steel needle, his tone languid, yet his words sent chills down the spines of everyone present:

"I heard that the old lady's blood pressure has been unstable lately. If she gets excited, she's prone to a cerebral hemorrhage. My life-saving needle technique, besides saving lives, is best at... calming the mind."

He deliberately emphasized the pronunciation of the two words "calm down".

"The roads are slippery in this snowy weather. What if the old lady slips and falls, or gets accidentally stabbed in a vital spot by some UFO... Tsk tsk tsk, old people's bones are brittle. If she collapses on the ground and can't get up, who do you think can bear the stigma of murdering a martyr's family member, Second Uncle?"

Before he finished speaking, Zhou Jianguo made an extremely ruthless needle-throwing motion into the air.

Threat.

A blatant threat!

The meaning couldn't be clearer: Old man, if you dare to take sides, my needle won't be so discreet. Last time I pricked your leg as a warning; this time, if my hand slips and I prick your skull, that would be pure medical malpractice.

The air froze for two seconds.

The sound of the cane, which had been so forceful, abruptly stopped in the direction of the backyard.

Followed by.

"Click."

It was a clear, decisive, and unwavering sound of the lock clicking shut.

The sound wasn't loud, but to Yi Zhonghai it was like a thunderclap, shattering his last shred of illusion.

The deaf old lady...shrank back!

The old patriarch, who was the undisputed ruler in the courtyard, was scared back into his shell by Zhou Jianguo's single needle and two sarcastic remarks!

That sound of the lock falling shut completely sealed off all of Yi Zhonghai's chances of survival.

Yi Zhonghai seemed to have his soul suddenly ripped out, and he slid down the bench like a lump of mud.

Qin Huairu ran away, and the deaf old lady locked the door.

His "retirement fortress," which he had painstakingly built over decades, was uprooted and razed to the ground by Zhou Jianguo at this moment.

"Old Yi, look at your popularity now." Liu Haizhong, having grasped the situation, walked up to Yi Zhonghai with his hands behind his back, his fat face beaming like a blooming chrysanthemum. "What do you call this? This is what you call being betrayed by everyone! This is what you call losing your support and becoming isolated!"

With the last line of defense collapsing, the onlookers had no more scruples, and all those old grievances came out like a flood bursting its banks.

"I knew it! Old Yi always looks so respectable, but his heart is blacker than a lump of coal!"

"Last time my family applied for hardship assistance, he transferred the quota to the Jia family. So he's using public funds to support his old flame!"

"Seven hundred dollars... My goodness, I've never seen so much money in my life! How could he bring himself to steal such ill-gotten gains! Doesn't he worry about his intestines rotting!"

Yi Zhonghai sat at the center of the storm of insults, his eyes vacant, his mind blank, as if his soul had been ripped away.

Outside the crowd, Zhou Jianguo calmly put away the steel needles.

He looked up at the gray sky outside the courtyard and calculated the time. If the two Liu brothers had been pedaling their bikes with all their might, they should have already delivered the rainwater by now.

"Grandpa, don't be so quick to faint. It's too early to despair."

Zhou Jianguo patted the dust off his hands and muttered to himself, his voice only audible to himself.

"The appetizers have just been served, but the main course hasn't arrived yet. When Yu Shui comes back, that will be the real... final judgment."