All the heavens begin with the love in the courtyard.

As I always say, let time prove everything.

After working until the afternoon, Han Chunming closed the shop and prepared to go home. Just as he reached the gate of the compound, the owner of the grocery store stopped him, saying that someone had called him; it was a foreigner.

Han Chunming knew who it was as soon as he heard it; it must be Simon. It had been almost two months since he had been contacted, and Han Chunming had almost forgotten about him.

Although Han Chunming doesn't need much money now, he figured he might as well take advantage of the 10,000% profit in US dollars. So he went to the grocery store and called the other party back.

As expected, it was Simon who contacted him. Simon was quite polite on the phone and asked to meet with Han Chunming.

Furthermore, the other party stated that he had purchased a batch of rare medicinal herbs, with a complete range of types and a large quantity, and hoped to conduct a transaction with Han Chunming. For the safety of the transaction, the other party provided a relatively secluded place, a foreign-related hotel outside a certain embassy.

Han Chunming readily agreed to the other party's request.

After hanging up the phone, a cold smile appeared on Han Chunming's lips. This foreigner had obviously found out all about him and was preparing to make a move against him.

Well, I've been a small business owner for too long, always cultivating my character and temperament. I feel like my bones are getting moldy. I almost forgot that my true strength is in my fists!

Chapter 48: Three Minutes of Silence

It was evening again, and a family was having dinner in a house in a courtyard in a hutong.

The male homeowner looked visibly unwell; his face was deathly pale in the dim light, and his lips were even turning purple. He looked at the yellowish soup in his bowl and felt a wave of nausea wash over him.

He had just stopped drinking his soup when the woman opposite him glared at him like lightning. His hand trembled, and he forcefully suppressed the nausea, then shakily picked up the spoon again to drink the soup.

The loud-voiced middle-aged woman watched with satisfaction as the old man continued to drink his soup, completely ignoring his already somewhat unsettling complexion.

The son and daughter-in-law looked up and glanced at their father with some concern. They wanted to persuade their mother to stop tormenting their father like this, but when the words came out, neither of them spoke.

Ever since the warning she received from Han Chunming's shop, the older woman hasn't stopped urging the older man to take tonics. To her, Han Chunming's warning was more of an insult.

Just a few days ago, at a nourishing soup shop, an older woman was persuaded by the owner to spend several tens of yuan to buy a month's worth of kidney-strengthening soup. Every morning, she would go there on time with her soup pot to get unlimited soup.

Believe it or not, this kidney-strengthening soup actually had some effect. On the very night he drank the soup, the old man seemed to have a sudden burst of energy before death and struggled in bed for half an hour.

The next day, the old lady took the thermos from home, filled it to the brim, and drank the kidney-strengthening soup with rice and steamed buns for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. She drank it for a week, and the old man's health deteriorated day by day.

But the older woman felt the effect was quite good; last night, the older man's thing was like a light bulb, shining for two hours straight.

For the older woman, it doesn't matter whether the older man can move or not, as long as that thing can still be used. Who says women can't ride horses and test swords?

The old man finally finished the last spoonful of soup in his bowl. At that moment, he felt as if his chest was on fire and he had difficulty breathing.

He looked up and gave the old woman a resentful look, but a rare hint of shyness appeared in her eyes.

Embarrassed by what he saw, the old man felt dizzy. He forced himself to stand up, supporting his aching back, and struggled to walk back into the room.

When the old woman saw the old man enter the room, she immediately turned around and yelled at her son and daughter-in-law.

"What are you dawdling for? Eat faster!"

The two quickly sped up their work. As the woman cleaned up the soup bowl the man had left behind, a blush inexplicably appeared on her face. Under the light, it was a bright red, a stark contrast to the paleness on the man's face just moments before.

At this moment, the lights were on in Han Chunming's house. The Han family had just finished dinner. Han Chunming took the tea poured by his mother, took a small sip, and sat down to watch the commotion.

The eldest brother held an account book in his hand, his expression solemn. As he looked at the numbers on it, the wrinkles between his brows furrowed slightly.

The eldest brother flipped through the ledger page by page, while his older siblings sat alone at the table, their faces grim.

Seeing that his eldest brother had been looking at the account book for a long time without saying a word, the second brother couldn't help but speak first.

"Brother, I told you there was something wrong with the accounts. Look, the first day we sold 715, the second day we sold 530, and now it's only the fifth day, and today's turnover is only 80? Isn't that outrageous?"

As the second brother spoke, his eyes kept darting towards his sister-in-law.

The eldest sister-in-law's eyes were clearly evasive. She glanced around and saw that everyone was looking at her and obviously suspected her. She became angry and stood up abruptly, yelling at her second brother.

"Fourth brother, are you implying that I embezzled money by naming names? Let me tell you, I, Song Qiu'e, am upright and honest. I haven't taken a single penny from you. Every penny I've earned is recorded in the accounts, and you can all check it!"

After saying that, the sister-in-law sat down angrily. The eldest brother frowned as he looked at the account book. He had already noticed some clues, such as the discrepancy between the purchased goods and the sold goods. However, he was too embarrassed to admit it. He sighed and said to everyone.

“There’s definitely nothing wrong with the ledger. I’ve been looking at it these past few days, and business at the shop has indeed been a bit slow. How about this: starting tomorrow, your sister-in-law won’t be in charge of the accounts anymore. You two can discuss it and find someone else to manage them!”

After speaking, the eldest brother fell silent, clearly not wanting to offer any further opinion on the matter.

Han Chunming took another sip of tea, shook his head helplessly, and realized that his siblings' business was deteriorating faster than he had imagined.

He's been keeping an eye on his older siblings' business these past few days, and it's definitely getting worse every day.

Besides the poor service, mediocre taste, and smaller buns and steamed bread, the most crucial point is that the older sister-in-law's hands and feet started to become somewhat dishonest.

This is normal. The eldest sister-in-law manages the money and accounts. Everything from purchasing goods to receiving money goes through her. The eldest sister-in-law, who has never seen so much money before, naturally has some ulterior motives.

In less than a week, the sister-in-law felt that she was being taken advantage of. She got up early and came home late every day, but she had the same number of shares as them, and she didn't get a salary. Was that fair?

The sister-in-law naturally felt it was unfair, so it's understandable that she resorted to dishonest means. Business had already been declining day by day, and with her sister-in-law's tampering, trouble had already broken out in just five days.

It's true that business is bad, and it's also true that my sister-in-law is dishonest, but she certainly won't admit it, so my brother can only try to smooth things over.

After finishing his tea, Han Chunming no longer wanted to listen to his older siblings' discussion.

He could guess the outcome of the discussion: it would simply be a change of person in charge of the accounts, or a change of a few people to supervise the accounts, and the final result would definitely be a mess.

Han Chunming didn't want to get involved in this matter. It's not that a partnership can't be done, but there must be a strong leader.

Originally, the Han siblings ran a business together, and the eldest brother had enough prestige. However, he turned a blind eye to his sister-in-law's affair. After this incident, what prestige does he have left?

Han Chunming went back to his room to rest, leaving his older brothers and sisters to continue their discussion. The atmosphere remained tense until late at night!

Late at night, in a house at the entrance of an alley, an old woman sat up, covered in sweat. The redness between her brows had not completely faded. She turned and glanced at the old man lying straight on the bed.

The old man's mouth was slightly open, his eye sockets were sunken, and his eyeballs were beginning to turn white. His body was as thin as a dried salted fish, standing straight on the bed, with a certain part of his body erect. However, the old man's body seemed to be tense, and he did not react at all.

The woman clearly didn't notice the man's unusual behavior. She got up, put on a coat, opened the door, went to the kitchen, found a water ladle, and gulped down a mouthful of water. Thinking about the man's still erect penis, she felt thirsty and drank the water in the ladle clean.

The woman put down the water ladle, looked at the sky outside. The moon was exceptionally round tonight, and a wicked smile appeared on her lips.

The woman returned to her room, took off her coat, revealing a muscular physique. She touched her slightly overweight belly, feeling a little regretful, but her attention quickly shifted.

The old man on the bed remained upright with his mouth slightly open, showing no change whatsoever. The old woman snorted and mounted her horse.

Rock-a-bye, rock-a-bye, all the way to Grandma's bridge. Hey, old man, can't you move even a little bit?

The old man remained the same, with half-closed eyes, sunken eye sockets, slightly open mouth, no change in expression on his face, and a straight posture like a salted fish.

Seeing that the old man didn't respond, the old woman stopped paying attention. After an unknown amount of time, she finally got tired, turned over, and fell into a deep sleep.

The day after Han Chunming opened his shop, he saw a group of people dressed in mourning clothes. Two young men carried a bed board covered with a white cloth, through which the outline of a human figure could be faintly seen. The group, dressed in mourning clothes, wailed and chanted slogans as they passed by the shop entrance.

Many people around were watching the commotion. When Han Chunming heard the news, he also stood at the shop entrance and looked outside. At the very front of the crowd, Han Chunming immediately spotted the loud-voiced aunt. Even when she was wailing, her unique loud voice made her the brightest star in the crowd.

Seeing this, Han Chunming subconsciously thought of the old man with white hair who was on his deathbed. Clearly, this was the truth!

The elderly woman led a group of people dressed in mourning clothes, walking along one street to another, and finally stopped in front of a shop that was a nourishing soup shop.

Behind the woman followed a large crowd of onlookers, all discussing what had happened.

This nourishing soup shop had only recently opened, and when the staff saw the woman's actions, they were so startled that they immediately called the owner out.

The boss, a middle-aged man, turned pale with fright at the sight. Seeing the woman's loud wailing, he immediately sensed something was wrong.

Before the boss could react, the middle-aged woman and her relatives lunged at him with bared teeth and claws!

The commotion caused by this incident was even greater than Han Chunming had imagined. The police station and the public security bureau had all gone there, and the whole street was talking about it all day long.

The rumors that people had died from drinking nourishing soups made these elderly men and women completely avoid those cheap nourishing soup shops.

The boss was taken away, and the shop was sealed off. As a result, the business of those counterfeit tonic soup shops plummeted from that day on, with almost no recovery. This included the shop run by his older brother and sister.

On the contrary, Han Chunming's nourishing soup shop saw its business return to full capacity in just two or three days.

Han Chunming didn't know how to comment on the matter, so he could only offer three minutes of silent condolences to the old man.

The only thing he was certain of was that the boss was definitely innocent.

However, this was an unexpected joy for him. Business returned to its former booming state, and Han Chunming was so busy that he had no time to think about anything else.

Late that night, Han Chunming quietly got up and slipped out the door.

After leaving the compound, Han Chunming glanced at the second-floor window of the house opposite and could vaguely see a figure lying by the window. The person was obviously asleep and disappeared silently without making a sound.

Half an hour later, he appeared at a hotel catering to foreign guests, opposite an embassy.

Don't underestimate this era. Although cameras are still a rarity for Chinese people, surveillance devices are definitely not uncommon in places like this.

However, these were far inferior to those of later generations, and could not stop Han Chunming from infiltrating.

Han Chunming chose to sneak in at midnight because he had arranged to meet Simon at 7:30 the next morning in room 504 on the fifth floor of the hotel.

With four hours to go before 7:30, Han Chunming had no intention of meeting the other party openly.

Just yesterday, he had already followed Simon and even found a safe in his hotel suite where Han Chunming had reviewed all the documents inside.

Clearly, the other party had no intention of trading with him. During this time, the other party not only arranged sentries across from his courtyard, but also sentries at the entrance of his shop. Even Xiao Qiao had someone secretly following her.

His activities over the past few days have been monitored 24/7. The people they sent to follow him were not foreigners, but native Beijingers. This shows that patriotic education is really important!

Simon's behavior clearly crossed Han Chunming's bottom line. He originally wanted to trade with Simon slowly and earn tens of thousands of dollars a month, which would be good. But obviously, Simon had no intention of doing a long-term business with him.

Han Chunming saw a document in Simon's safe. It was a contract signed by the president of a pharmaceutical group. The contract required Simon to obtain the secret formula for the Black Pill. If he succeeded, the other party was willing to pay Simon three million US dollars.

Han Chunming smiled without saying a word when he saw the contract, and gently put it back in its original place.

Simon lived on the fifth floor, room 503, while next door, in room 504, lived four burly men who appeared to be special personnel. Although they weren't armed, they were carrying daggers and other unusual weapons. Clearly, these men were Simon's personal accomplices.

Han Chunming even saw a large leather suitcase, big enough to fit a person. Han Chunming looked at the large leather suitcase with a strange expression.

Han Chunming put on gloves, took a backpack off his back, took out gun parts from it, and began to assemble them.

In addition to the gun, the backpack also contained two one-kilogram explosive packs with trigger devices.

The gun was found by Han Chunming in Simon's room, and the explosives were prepared by himself.

This gun is a collector's item, the kind with a scope, and it even has inscriptions on it. It looks like a real treasure.

Han Chunming originally intended to quietly deal with Simon, but the moment he saw the gun, he immediately changed his mind.

Han Chunming looked out the window at the opposite side of the street. Although he didn't know whether the foreign embassy across the street was involved, Han Chunming was determined to settle this matter completely today.

He planned to make a big fuss about this, at least to prevent Simon from bothering him again.

A dozen minutes later, Han Chunming looked at his masterpiece and nodded in satisfaction.

At 5:15, a violent flame shot into the sky from the embassy across from the hotel, and alarms immediately went off.

Just as the embassy staff began to evacuate, a gunshot rang out from window 503 of the hotel across the street. Upon hearing the gunshot, numerous guards began to return fire at the opposite window. Soon, a figure was seen lying motionless by the window.