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

Outside the security office gate, the wind and snow were falling harder and harder.

He Yushui, however, seemed oblivious to the cold, holding the oily brown paper package in both hands.

For the past ten years, Yi Zhonghai has instilled in her nothing but the ideas that "suffering a loss is a blessing" and "living frugally."

She swallowed coarse, spicy cornbread every day, and suffered from acid reflux year-round.

And now, the pork crackling pancake in my hand exudes a rich aroma of animal fat.

The smell directly broke through her last line of rational defense.

She didn't thank him, and didn't even bother to chew. She opened her dry, chapped lips and took a big bite.

The crispy crust crumbled in my mouth.

The rich, savory lard slid down the back of my tongue and into my esophagus, and the long-awaited high-calorie food crashed into my stomach, triggering a slight spasm.

What followed was an intense warmth that quickly spread to every part of the body.

The aroma of wheat mixed with the scallions and crispy fried pork cracklings completely shattered the last shackles in her mind.

Three people.

There are only three people.

She forced herself to swallow a small piece of pork crackling cake, about the size of half a palm.

She ate too quickly and started coughing violently, tears and snot streaming down her face.

But her eyes became clearer than ever before.

She raised her arm and hastily wiped her face with her oil-stained sleeve.

Then, in the snowdrift covered with ice shards, He Yushui suddenly bent her knees without any warning.

With a "thump," he knelt straight down in front of Zhou Jianguo.

She bent down and slammed her forehead heavily onto the hard bluestone slab, making a dull thud.

"Brother Jianguo." He Yushui straightened up, a red mark with blood streaks on her forehead.

Her voice was hoarse, and she enunciated each word with great emphasis: "This pancake is warm, and so is my heart. From now on, Yushui's life in this courtyard belongs to you."

There was no sobbing, and no complaining.

Zhou Jianguo lowered his eyelids and quietly looked at He Yushui on the ground.

He didn't pull her away, nor did he exchange any polite words.

He simply pulled out half a box of matches from his pocket, flicked his finger, and pulled out a match.

"Get up. Come back to the hospital with me."

Zhou Jianguo left those words behind and turned to walk into the wind and snow.

He Yushui pushed herself up with her hands, brushed the snow off her knees haphazardly, and followed behind that tall, upright figure.

At this moment, in the front courtyard of Hongxing Courtyard, behind the screen wall.

The crowd had just retreated from the security office, and the atmosphere in the queue was eerily quiet.

The image of Yi Zhonghai being handcuffed and dragged into the detention cell is still replaying in everyone's mind.

With her round belly sticking out, Liu Haizhong's eyes started darting around as soon as she stepped through the door.

Yi Zhonghai is in jail!

A confirmed embezzler!

What does this mean?

In a compound with over a hundred people, the position of the top leader has become vacant!

If not now, when?

After Liu Haizhong finished his calculations, his ecstasy overwhelmed him and made him lose all sense of the bitter cold.

He immediately stopped and turned around to block the middle of the passageway leading to the hallway.

He put his hands behind his back and adopted the standard official posture of a workshop director inspecting work.

"Ahem!"

Two deliberately drawn-out, loud coughs rang out in the snowy front yard.

The neighbors following behind, who were shivering and stamping their feet in the cold, all stopped when he blocked their way, and a dozen pairs of eyes turned to him at once.

"Stop right there, don't rush back inside!" Liu Haizhong's face darkened, his expression extremely serious.

"What happened tonight was extremely serious in nature! Its impact was incredibly negative! Since everyone's here, let's hold a meeting right here!"

A gust of wind blew, and Yan Bugui sneezed loudly from the cold. He quickly pushed up his broken glasses and complained, "Old Liu, it's below zero! Why can't this meeting be held tomorrow?"

"State property has been lost, there's a traitor within the ranks, and you, Yan Bugui, are still thinking of sleeping?!" Liu Haizhong slammed down a huge accusation, spitting as he spoke.

"Yi Zhonghai has been lurking among us for ten years! Comrades, this is a lesson learned in blood! The rules of the courtyard house must be re-established! From now on, I will take the lead and set the tone!"

These words sound grand and righteous, but their central message can be summed up in just four words: I want to rise to power.

However, the reaction at the scene made him quite embarrassed.

No one agreed with him, and no one even followed up on what he said.

The scene of Zhou Jianguo single-handedly nailing Yi Zhonghai to the pillar of shame with just a few words was extremely impactful.

Compared to his decisive and ruthless nature, Liu Haizhong's current demeanor exudes a sour and pedantic air.

Just as Liu Haizhong sensed something was wrong and was about to raise his voice to continue lecturing, the sound of footsteps crunching in the snow came from outside the gate.

With his hands in his coat pockets, Zhou Jianguo led He Yushui across the threshold through knee-deep snow.

The main character has arrived.

The crowd immediately parted to the sides, clearing a wide avenue.

Liu Haizhong's eyes twitched when he saw Zhou Jianguo.

His mind raced: as long as he could get Zhou Jianguo on his side and praise him as a deputy, he would be firmly in control!

"Jianguo!" Liu Haizhong immediately put on a smiling face, stretched out a hand, and struck a pose like an elder, "You've done a great job today! Come on, stand next to me, and give everyone a few words of summary!"

However, Zhou Jianguo's leather shoes trod on the blue bricks without pausing for even half a second.

He didn't even take his hands out of his pockets when he passed by Liu Haizhong.

He merely tilted his head slightly and gave a completely indifferent sidelong glance.

There was neither provocation nor anger in his eyes.

They looked at it like it was just roadside trash; there was no need to give it even half a second of attention.

"Whoosh."

Liu Haizhong felt a chill on the back of his neck, and the long speech he had prepared was abruptly stuck in his throat.

His body was much more honest than his brain; his two thick legs instinctively took a half step back, clearing the way in the middle.

Without saying a word, Zhou Jianguo led He Yushui across the front yard without even glancing at her.

Even after the sound of the courthouse doors closing came from inside, the scene remained deathly silent.

"Well... Old Liu, Jian Guo's already taken a break, it's freezing cold..." Yan Bugui, always quick to capitalize on the situation, immediately made his escape, "Let's all go, let's all go!"

"Yeah, yeah, it's freezing!"

The crowd disembarked from the slope and scattered like birds and beasts.

The young men ran very fast. The two brothers, Liu Guangtian and Liu Guangfu, exchanged a glance and then shrank back and slipped away along the wall.

In just ten seconds.

In front of the screen wall that was originally intended to establish authority, only Liu Haizhong was left standing alone in the snow.

He clenched his fists, and the fat on his face twitched wildly with extreme anger.

"Zhou Jianguo..." Liu Haizhong gritted his teeth, but didn't even have the courage to shout it out loud.

At this time, Zhou Jianguo had already returned to the bungalow in the backyard.

He turned around, locked the door, and bolted the iron gate shut.

Zhou Jianguo took off his snow-covered coat and casually hung it on the back of his chair.

At that very second, the system's mechanical notification tone completed the final calculation deep within my mind.

Zhou Jianguo closed his eyes and braced his hands on the octagonal table in front of him.

He could clearly hear a soft "crackling" sound coming from the bones of his ten fingers.

Countless top-level memories of culinary skills—the angle of knife work, the ability to judge heat, and the complex proportions of spices—are forcibly imprinted into muscle memory like a flood bursting its banks.

This is not a simple matter of rote memorization, but a complete transformation of the body.

Two minutes later, the heat dissipated.

Zhou Jianguo opened his eyes.

He casually picked up a blunt kitchen knife used for cutting pickled vegetables from the table.

The moment your fingers touch the handle, you know exactly what the knife's center of gravity and notch are like.

With a gentle flick of the wrist, the heavy cleaver gracefully twirled at the fingertips in an exceptionally beautiful arc before coming to a steady stop in mid-air.

Master-level culinary skills, perfectly blended.

His control over his hands has now reached a terrifying level.

After putting down the kitchen knife, Zhou Jianguo focused his attention on the depths of his mind.

With a slight thought, the system's built-in personal space slowly opened.

Next to a pile of messy supplies, a thick stack of papers lay quietly.

Zhou Jianguo reached out, his fingertips probing out of thin air, and directly took out the stack of things.

He held the twenty "Great Unity" bills, each printed with images of workers, peasants, and soldiers, firmly in his palm.

In the 1960s, when the average monthly salary was around twenty yuan and a pound of pork cost seven mao, two hundred yuan in cash was a real hard currency!

A fortune enough to make any beast in the courtyard green with envy and fight to the death.

Zhou Jianguo casually slapped the money on the table.

Outside, amidst the howling wind and snow, the faint sound of someone kicking over an empty flowerpot in the middle courtyard could be heard, mixed with the suppressed impotent rage in Liu Hai's hair.

Zhou Jianguo pulled out a bench and sat down, his fingers rhythmically tapping on the table.