All the heavens begin with the love in the courtyard.

Then, having no other choice, I forced myself to go to his room. But an earthquake happened that day, and something went wrong, so it didn't happen. When I went out, I ran into an old man and his wife.

As Qin Huairu finished speaking, she glanced at the elderly couple, who immediately nodded in agreement.

Hearing this, everyone was filled with rage. Xu Damao was no human being. His own wife's sister was using his child's job to force someone to submit to him. This beast deserved to die.

Qin Huairu then continued her story, saying that after the earthquake, Xu Damao came to her several times, demanding that she continue to have sex with him. She had already realized her mistake and was unwilling to comply.

At this point, tears welled up in Qin Huairu's eyes again, and the grievance in her voice was almost like that of a modern-day White-Haired Girl.

"As a result... as a result, Xu Damao first had Banggeng fired from the movie theater, then had someone beat him up. Then he came to me and said that if I didn't go, he would... he would kill Banggeng and ruin my family. I... I... sob sob sob, I had no choice but to come today. As a result, without saying a word, he slapped me several times and wanted to... wanted to... sob sob sob, I really can't take it anymore, please help me! I really can't live like this!"

Qin Huairu's words were like a thunderclap, igniting the crowd in the courtyard. After hearing his mother's words, Bang Geng's eyes were bloodshot. He struggled to break free from the crowd's restraints, rushed up to Xu Damao, and began to beat him to death!

The people around pretended not to see anything. Xu Damao's head exploded after hearing Qin Huairu's words. This woman in front of him was simply a devil!

Any explanation he gave at this moment was meaningless. He was utterly despondent, convinced that he was doomed and about to be tormented by the woman in front of him. Had he known she was so ruthless, he would have cut off his manhood rather than even think about having sex with her!

Seeing the baton rushing over, what could he do but cover his head and try to avoid being beaten to death? When the pain reached his brain, Xu Damao could only let out a series of groans!

Many young people in the crowd cheered when they saw Bang Geng's actions. They said that Xu Damao's behavior was like that of a modern-day Huang Shiren, or even more vicious than Huang Shiren. He would beat people up and then call the police to arrest them. This kind of scourge must be eliminated.

Although many people wanted to beat Xu Damao to death immediately, the crowd remained clear-headed. An old man quickly had someone pull the baton away again. He glanced at the barely alive Xu Damao on the ground, but then stopped looking. He thought that it was enough to keep this kind of menace alive; the rest was up to the police.

Qin Huairu's plight evoked sympathy from everyone present. Even He Yuzhu was shocked by the story. After feeling sympathy, he looked at Xu Damao on the ground and felt that there must be more to the story.

If any other woman had cried like this, He Yuzhu might have actually believed her, but he was already familiar with Qin Huairu's tricks, so he felt that this scene seemed a bit familiar. Was it similar to what happened that night?

This was an enhanced version, and a mutated, upgraded version. Under this tactic, Xu Damao was completely defeated, with almost no power to resist.

Seeing Xu Damao lying on the ground, barely alive, He Yuzhu actually felt a little sympathy. Being targeted by Qin Huairu was truly the worst luck he could have ever had.

It's unclear whether Xu Damao will be used as an example to be executed this time. In any case, even if he isn't executed, Xu Damao will at least spend several years in prison in the future. This guy was completely defeated by Qin Huairu in one move.

Wait, what will happen to Qin Jing and Xu Xiaonuan if Xu Damao goes in?

He Yuzhu's thoughts suddenly became a bit chaotic. If Xu Damao went to jail because of this, then Xu Xiaonuan and Qin Jingru's lives would be difficult from now on. It was a real headache!

He Yuzhu looked at Qin Huairu, who was being comforted by several old women, with a mixture of helplessness and lingering fear.

"The most poisonous heart is that of a woman." He had never understood this saying before, but now he understood it completely.

Perhaps Xu Damao knew more than him. The old schemer who had spent his whole life plotting and scheming was ultimately defeated by a scheming woman whose cunning had evolved to its ultimate form.

The old man realized that things were more complicated than he had imagined. No one could save Xu Damao from this mess. This matter had to be dealt with severely. So he raised his arms and shouted.

"Let's all take Xu Damao to the police station together. The police will give Qin Huairu justice. This kind of person doesn't deserve to stay in our compound. Let's all go together!"

"Alright! Everyone, let's listen to this old man and take this scoundrel Xu Damao to the police station so the police can shoot him!"

The crowd rushed forward, practically lifting Xu Damao up, and carried him out of the courtyard.

Xu Damao was lifted up, his vision blurred by blood, but the faces of the group of people in front of him were etched in his heart like photographs, especially the faces of Qin Huairu and her son Banggeng, which made him grit his teeth and secretly swear.

"As long as I live, one day I will repay you all, I will! I will!"

Chapter 92: Is it worth it?

Chapter 92 of "Love in the Courtyard": Is it worth it? As the vast crowd escorted Xu Damao away, He Yuzhu was somewhat anxious. He didn't go forward to join the fun; it was best to stay out of this matter.

As He Yuzhu had predicted, the situation developed in a way that was extremely negative. That afternoon, investigators came to the compound to investigate the matter.

Xu Damao's reputation speaks for itself. The only person in the entire compound who is still saddened by Xu Damao is Qin Jingru, who has been crying for a whole day.

She went to great lengths, even using all the money Xu Damao had saved up over the years to bribe officials, but it was all to no avail.

He even knelt at Qin Huairu's door, begging her to spare her husband, but all he got in return was a beating.

Finally, He Yuzhu couldn't stand it anymore and pulled Qin Jingru away, which temporarily stabilized the situation.

He Yuzhu told Qin Jingru to send the child to her grandparents' house in the afternoon to avoid the limelight and prevent it from affecting the child. It was impossible to completely eliminate the impact, but at least the impact on the child should be minimized.

As for Xu Damao's situation, we can only leave it to fate. That old schemer Xu Damao was tricked by Qin Huairu this time, and it's his own fault. He brought it upon himself.

For Qin Jingru, although Xu Damao had a thousand faults and a thousand bad points, at least he had been good to her and her son in the past few years.

Qin Jingru refused to believe a single word Qin Huairu said. Qin Huairu had left a deep psychological scar on her; in her mind, this woman was a demon wearing a human mask.

Unfortunately, Qin Huairu did intend to kill Xu Damao this time, but things did not go as smoothly as she had imagined.

Xu Damao vehemently denied his crimes, claiming that he was a eunuch and incapable of having sex with Qin Huairu. However, Xu Damao did not escape the fate of being impregnated as he had imagined, and was ultimately sentenced to eight years in prison.

The reason is simple: he was indeed behind the "bang gen" incident, and his reputation was ruined. Although he was indeed impotent, he still had to serve eight years in prison. That's just how it is in this era.

After that summer of 76, Xu Damao was no longer a member of the compound, and soon no one was discussing his issues anymore.

Only Qin Jingru would visit him in a certain place every few months, and she was even unwilling to bring Xu Xiaonuan with her.

Xu Damao's arrest was a huge blow to Qin Jingru, but life had to go on. The neighborhood committee arranged a temporary job for her, which at least allowed her to support herself and her daughter.

He Yuzhu could only offer some support from behind the scenes. Ever since her father's accident, Xu Xiaonuan had lost her former spoiled princess temperament and quickly became taciturn. She was not even ten years old yet, but she acted like a little adult, always with a sullen face and not playing with the other children in the yard. This worried He Yuzhu to death.

Neither He Zhen nor He Hua liked to play with Xu Xiaonuan, and the two families hardly interacted.

He Yuzhu could only secretly "bump into" Qin Jingru on the road every month or two, and give her some money. It wasn't much, but it was enough for her and her daughter to survive.

The relationship between He Yuzhu and Qin Jingru was not as complicated as one might imagine. Qin Jingru did accept his help, but she avoided He Yuzhu. She always believed that her daughter was hers and Xu Damao's, and she only accepted He Yuzhu's help for survival.

He Yuzhu never considered acknowledging Xu Xiaonuan's daughter. Although he was the only one in the world who was 100% certain that the girl was his own flesh and blood, the accident and impulsiveness of that time meant that even if he didn't acknowledge her now, he couldn't just watch his daughter suffer.

With He Yuzhu's help, Qin Jingru's family was able to at least make ends meet. Without Xu Damao, Qin Jingru and her child quickly became low-key in the compound.

Meanwhile, the life of the other protagonist, Qin Huairu, continued to be full of ups and downs. After working for half a year, Xiao Dang moved out of the house completely. Perhaps influenced by her family, Xiao Kuihua also went to work after graduating from high school.

Just as Qin Huairu had hoped, both daughters left one after another, leaving only Banggeng and her cross-eyed mother-in-law in the family.

Since that incident, Qin Huairu's reputation has indeed plummeted. Although people sympathize with her, they still try to stay away from her, especially the male workers at the steel plant who used to flirt with her. They all ran away in fear.

She continued to hide herself completely, like a hibernating insect, avoiding trouble and losing the warmth she once had with her neighbors.

Perhaps this is a kind of sorrow of being a woman and a mother!

Everything she did for Banggeng didn't earn her any respect from him; instead, he distanced himself from her and the family.

Bang Geng stopped mentioning asking Qin Huairu to find her a job, which also affected this impulsive young man.

Perhaps to prove himself, Bang Geng actually found a job outside, working as a repair apprentice at a bicycle repair stall.

After working there for three months, he set up a stall on the side of Dongmen Hutong. He went out early and returned late every day, always covered in dirt and unkempt hair.

The old woman with the squinty eyes was once again traumatized by this incident, and now her energy and spirit are declining rapidly. Her hair is all white and she needs a cane to walk, but she still lives on strongly. Perhaps she only hopes that her grandson Banggeng can get married and have children, so that she, as his grandmother, can have peace of mind!

Perhaps this is what life is like for ordinary people! From different perspectives and with different eyes, Qin Huairu is definitely a competent mother and a competent daughter-in-law. For the sake of the Jia family, she gave up her own happiness and her future.

She was willing to pay any price for her son, including her reputation and honor as a woman, but was it all worth it?

Time flies like an arrow; spring comes and autumn goes, flowers bloom and wither. The trivial matters in this compound never seem to stop; joys and sorrows, happiness and sadness, all play out every year.

As the tide of 76 came to an end, it was as if many people and things in this country suddenly began to awaken. The changing times made many people stop talking about the things of the past.

The older generation noticed that, without realizing it, everyone seemed to be able to eat their fill, the variety of food in the market gradually increased, and they no longer had to quarrel over a couple of ounces of peanuts during the New Year.

The black market remained thriving, but gradually the items traded shifted from food to flowers, birds, insects, and fish. Once people had filled their stomachs, they began to seek spiritual fulfillment.

Young people are gradually stopping talking about revolutionaries and quotations, and prefer to pursue new things, such as novelties on television and music from Hong Kong and Taiwan that seems to come from nowhere.

Some blond-haired, blue-eyed foreigners began to appear on the streets of Yanjing in small numbers. People watched with amusement and laughter. As the spring breeze brought by the outside world made the young people of Yanjing realize that there was another way to live life, many young people began to feel restless.

When the New Year's bell rang in 79, people's inner restlessness seemed to be encouraged, and they began to release emotions that had been suppressed for a long time.

That year, the south also experienced a protracted battle, but for He Yuzhu, who was far away in Yanjing, those battles could only be seen on the radio and in newspapers every day, and seemed very far away from him. That year, his heart began to stir, and he began to plan his path to making money.

Chapter 93: Disciple

As early as 76, He Yuzhu intended to open his own restaurant a few years later. So in the past few years, he not only studied a series of recipes, but also began to deliberately train apprentices.

Becoming He Yuzhu's apprentice is not so simple. He Yuzhu only looks at character when accepting apprentices, not talent. Honest and loyal people are the best.

As the saying goes, time reveals true character. To become He Yuzhu's apprentice, one must stay by his side inside and out for at least five years to learn any real skills.

For the first three years, everyone did odd jobs and prepared dishes. In the next three years, they started learning popular recipes. After five or six years with He Yuzhu, they would become top-notch chefs. Of course, each apprentice was only truly proficient in one cuisine, and He Yuzhu only taught each apprentice one cuisine.

If they can thoroughly study and master a cuisine, that's enough to make them outstanding culinary masters.

Ma Hua, as his eldest disciple and He Yuzhu's future successor, has been by his side for 16 years, from 63 to 79. His character has been tested, so in the past two years, He Yuzhu has been passing on his skills to him one after another.

Including vegetarian recipes that were almost lost, last year when He Yuzhu was teaching vegetarian cuisine to MCA, he formally handed over the book "No Cooking in Leisure" to him. MCA was deeply moved and began to take on the responsibility of educating his juniors as He Yuzhu's successor.

He had been in this world for thirteen years, from the end of 65 to 79. He didn't know when he would wake up, or how his body would exist after he woke up. Everything was filled with too many questions. So, just in case, it was only right to take on a disciple as a last resort.

He only hoped that this body could live a peaceful and uneventful life until old age. Sometimes, the things that people are most afraid of losing are often the things that are suddenly lost, so He Yuzhu could only plan ahead.

The idea of ​​opening a restaurant was conceived several years ago, but China's real reform and opening up didn't begin until after the 80s, so He Yuzhu could only suppress his burning desire.

In real history, the first restaurant in Yanjing, Yuebin Restaurant, did not officially open until October 1980. He Yuzhu did not want to be the first to act, so he decided to work diligently as the canteen manager first.

However, with the arrival of 79, many people and things in the market did indeed begin to have new vitality. There were more and more individual vendors walking around the streets and alleys, and the black market, which used to be strictly controlled, was now openly operating.

The compound remained the same as always, with nothing new except for a lot of trivial matters. Many illegal bungalows had been built in the front and back yards, which was naturally started by those two old men, Second Uncle and Third Uncle.

However, this kind of illegal construction is not uncommon. In the hutongs and courtyards of Yanjing, all kinds of illegal structures are built haphazardly. This courtyard is already considered relatively good.

Even the higher authorities turn a blind eye to these illegal constructions. What can they do? In recent years, the number of educated youth returning to the city has been overwhelming.

Every family has more than ten members, no jobs, no place to live, and the whole family is crammed into one or two dilapidated single rooms. In this situation, illegal construction and haphazard additions naturally become indispensable.

Nowadays in Yanjing, when a girl is getting married, the first thing people look at is whether the groom's family has a house and whether he lives with his brothers and sisters-in-law. If the whole family is crammed into a small single room, the marriage is most likely to fall through, unless you are willing to marry a girl from the countryside.

In later generations, people can still rent houses. In this era, there is no place to rent private houses; it is all allocated according to need.

He Yuzhu had no such worries at all. He had plenty of houses. He had two rooms in his own house, one for the deaf old lady, and that made three rooms in total. There were also two rooms for the elderly couple, which would be reserved for him in the future. His family would occupy five rooms.

Now He Zhen and He Hua are getting older. He Zhen will be going to junior high school next year. She lives alone in He Yushui's room. He Hua sleeps with an older woman, and an older man sleeps in the room of a deaf old lady. The whole family has never had to worry about housing.

The eldest uncle has been retired for several years now. He spends his free time taking care of his grandchildren and playing chess with the second and third uncles in the courtyard. He lives a very comfortable life. His retirement pension is equivalent to that of two young people who have just started working.

Two years ago, the old man entrusted all his savings to Ran Qiuye, fearing that something might happen to him and his wife, since they were both over seventy years old.

Speaking of this, He Yuzhu also recalled that in the original novel, an old lady died of a sudden heart attack, around 1983. Although it's still a few years now, he still took the two elderly people to the hospital for a check-up.

The old man was in good health, but the old woman was found to have a whole host of problems. In fact, the old woman had a lot of health issues when she was younger, otherwise she wouldn't have been unable to have children.

The doctor could only advise against strenuous physical labor; there weren't many other options.

Since that's the case, we can only let nature take its course. Fortunately, the whole family eats together now, and He Yuzhu usually prepares some nutritional supplements when he's home.