The entire courtyard is full of villains

"What's wrong?" Yan Bugui asked absentmindedly, still staring at his bucket.

“I…I told the people in the yard what you told me…”

"What's wrong?" Yan Bugui still didn't seem to care much.

"It's about...it's about Zhang Erhe beating up his father-in-law..."

"Oh, about that..." Yan Bugui replied casually, then suddenly realized what he had done, his whole body jolting as if he'd been electrocuted, his voice changing drastically, "Yang Ruihua! You...you...you told us in the yard about Zhang Erhe beating his father-in-law?!"

"Ah... I, I just blurted it out without thinking..."

"Oh dear!" Yan Bugui jumped up and down in a panic. "You've really got me into trouble! Who is Zhang Erhe? He used to be a local tyrant! Now he's not on the streets anymore, but he's still the workshop foreman at the factory! I... I was even planning to try and find someone to give him some things next year, to see if I could get Jie Cheng into the factory as an apprentice! You... you've really gotten me into trouble! You stupid woman, can't you keep your mouth shut? I told you not to tell anyone, not to tell anyone! How could you..."

"I didn't mean to!" Yang Ruihua panicked. "It's all that Jia Zhangshi's fault! She provoked me, and I blurted it out without thinking!"

"Sigh! What's the point of saying all this now?" Yan Bugui slumped down on the stool in a huff. "Zhang Erhe doesn't care if you've been provoked or not. He'll only know that these words came from your mouth! You...you really are...Yang Ruihua, you're almost fifty years old, what are you thinking about all day long!"

Yang Ruihua was terrified and at a loss after being bombarded with a barrage of criticism from Yan Bugui: "Then... Old Yan, what should we do now?"

"What can we do? Just let it be!" Yan Bugui said irritably. "Right now, we can only hope that everyone in the courtyard is afraid of Zhang Erhe and won't dare to spread this matter outside. As long as the news doesn't leave this courtyard, it might fade away after a while. When that happens, I'll buy two bottles of good wine, swallow my pride, and apologize to Zhang Erhe. I reckon... maybe then everything will be fine."

However, things took a far greater turn than they expected. Before noon, the news spread like wildfire throughout the entire alley. Tan Saihua played a significant role in this.

After returning home, Tan Saihua immediately embellished the story of Zhang Erhe beating his father-in-law and told it to Yi Zhonghai. Yi Zhonghai keenly sensed that there was something to exploit in this, and his eyes lit up. He quickly put on his clothes and rushed to the old lady's room in the backyard.

The deaf old woman was dozing off in bed. Yi Zhonghai called her name twice at first, but she didn't respond. It wasn't until he raised his voice and called her several times that the old woman was finally awakened. She sat up, a hint of displeasure at being disturbed flashing in her eyes, but she didn't show it.

"Come in."

"Hey!" Yi Zhonghai responded as he entered from outside, his face beaming with barely suppressed joy. "Grandma, good news!"

"What good news is it?" The deaf old woman looked at Yi Zhonghai, who had a happy face, with some doubt.

"Grandma, Zhang Erhe from the front yard has run into trouble!"

What's wrong with him?

"He beat his father-in-law! I heard he was hung up and whipped with a horsewhip, the beating was really severe, and now the man can't even get out of bed!"

Sure enough, the deaf old woman was overjoyed after hearing this.

"That bastard Zhang Erhe, I've finally caught him red-handed! He caused me to lose my status as a recipient of the five guarantees and completely ruined my relationship with Director Wang. I've been looking for a chance to teach him a lesson! I thought he'd finally seen the light, but he's still the same old blockhead. Hitting his father-in-law? The steel mill workshop director hitting his father-in-law? This is going to be a big deal if word gets out!"

A glint of shrewdness flashed in her cloudy eyes as she lowered her voice and instructed, "Zhonghai, go tell Saihua right now to wear a headscarf and go out to spread the word about this to Zhang Erhe! On the second day of the Lunar New Year, carry me to see Director Yang. A workshop director at the steel rolling mill beat his father-in-law, leaving him bedridden. If this gets out, it'll be a stain on the steel rolling mill's reputation. I think Director Yang, to protect the factory's reputation, might just fire Zhang Erhe as workshop director!"

"Grandma, brilliant, absolutely brilliant! That's exactly what I was thinking too!" Yi Zhonghai understood immediately and hurriedly returned to the Central Court to make the arrangements.

A short while later, Tan Saihua appeared at the market, her head wrapped tightly in a headscarf, "unintentionally" spreading the news. Coincidentally, she saw Liu Haizhong's wife not far away, also wearing a headscarf, surrounded by a group of people, talking animatedly.

It seems "great minds think alike." With Zhang Erhe becoming the workshop director, the biggest loser in the yard, besides Yi Zhonghai, was Liu Haizhong. He'd spent half his life without even becoming a group leader, and seeing Zhang Erhe rise to the top had long been a source of resentment. Upon hearing this, he immediately had his wife "speak out," wanting nothing more than to make the situation as big as possible.

In the front yard, at the entrance of the east wing, Yang Ruihua looked at Guan Xue, whose face was cold, with a guilty conscience.

"Guan Xue, this... I really didn't mean to..."

"Yang Ruihua! Whether you did it on purpose or not, it's already spread! You've ruined the reputation of our Erhe! If you can't give me a clear answer today, I'm not afraid to make a scene during the New Year. I'm going to the neighborhood committee right now! You don't want to be arrested and educated by the neighborhood committee during the New Year, do you?"

"boom!"

The door to the east wing was suddenly pushed open, and Yan Jiecheng broke free from Yan Bugui's grasp and rushed out.

“Guan Xue, go ahead and report it! Go report it to the neighborhood committee! Anyway, my mom didn’t say anything wrong! Your Zhang Erhe did beat up his father-in-law, so what? Is this a lie? If it is, my mom is willing to accept punishment! But this is clearly true! Your family is trying to turn the tables on us, isn’t this just blatant bullying of honest people?”

Chapter 89 Lunar New Year's Eve

"You...!" Guan Xue trembled with rage. The shamelessness of Yang Ruihua and her son had shattered her expectations. She wanted to curse, but her quiet nature since childhood prevented her from uttering those harsh words. A surge of grievances welled up in her chest, making her eyes red-rimmed.

"Alright, Guan Xue, you can go back now."

A calm voice sounded from behind. Guan Xue turned around and saw Zhang Erhe standing at the door.

"Erhe..." Upon seeing her husband, Guan Xue couldn't hold back her tears, which rolled down her cheeks.

“Don’t cry,” Zhang Erhe said gently. “If you cry, those bastards will think they’re so great. Go back.”

His calmness only made Yan Bugui on the other side even more frightened. He quickly ran out, forcing a smile, "Erhe, today's matter... it's just a misunderstanding..."

"Fine, Yan the Stingy." Zhang Erhe didn't get angry at all. Instead, he grinned, but there was a chilling glint in his eyes. "Whether it's a misunderstanding or not, the deed is done. Besides," he changed the subject, his gaze falling on Yan Jiecheng, and he even patted his shoulder, "Your Jiecheng is so tough, he's a real man."

Yan Jiecheng was full of confidence when facing Guan Xue, but after Zhang Erhe's words and pats, his heart started pounding and a chill ran down his spine.

"Erhe, no...please don't..." Yan Bugui was so anxious that he could barely speak.

“The green hills remain unchanged, and the clear waters flow on.” Zhang Erhe interrupted him, his tone still completely flat. “We’ll see how it goes.”

After saying that, he ignored the Yan family father and son, put his arm around Guan Xue's shoulder, and went back into the house, slamming the door shut.

The Yan family of three also slunk back home. As soon as they entered the door, Yan Jiecheng seemed to have regained his courage.

"Dad, why are you afraid of him? You're a teacher at Hongxing Elementary School, not a worker at his steel mill. Do you think he'd give you a hard time?"

"Sigh!" Yan Bugui sighed wearily, looking at his good-for-nothing son, and explained with suppressed anger, "Jiecheng, you're twenty this year! You can't keep doing odd jobs, can you? Of all the companies around here, the steel rolling mill has the best pay and benefits. If you really offend Zhang Erhe, do you still want to work at the steel rolling mill?"

Yan Jiecheng felt a sudden panic, but he still stubbornly insisted, "If we can't go to the steel rolling mill, there's the machine repair shop and the electric meter factory! There are several factories; why do we have to hang ourselves on the steel rolling mill?"

"Hey! You guys...you're really going to drive me crazy!" Yan Bugui slammed his fist on the table and stormed out.

Seeing his father leave, Yan Jiecheng pretended to be calm, took out his cigarette case, and lit one. "Mom, don't worry. I've inquired, and Zhang Erhe and his gang haven't been doing those shady things for a long time. He still thinks he's the 'Second Master' he used to be. It's alright!"

After being comforted by his son, and recalling that Zhang Erhe hadn't done anything to them, Yang Ruihua breathed a sigh of relief: "Jiecheng, that's good... It's good that everything is alright, it's good that everything is alright."

Meanwhile, Guan Xue returned home, tears still streaming down her face.

"Erhe, I..."

"Don't be sad. If you're sad now, you and the baby in your belly will suffer," Zhang Erhe hugged her. "Today is New Year's Eve. Let's have a good New Year. After the New Year... I have plenty of ways to make them wish they were dead!"

"Erhe," Guan Xue could no longer hold back and threw herself into Zhang Erhe's arms!

"Mommy, you're so shameful, still crying at your age. I won't cry anymore," Zhang Jiao secretly peeked out from the inner room!

As evening approached, Zhang Erhe went out again after putting up the couplets. When he returned, he was carrying a heavy food box.

Yan Bugui, who had been keeping an eye on the outside, saw him from afar and was about to bite the bullet and say something to ease the tension when he was swept by Zhang Erhe's cold gaze. He was so frightened that he shrank back and quickly hid back inside, not daring to come out of the door.

"You cheapskate!" Zhang Erhe carried the food box into the house, closed the door, and called out, "Jiaojiao, come out quickly!"

The food box contained several main dishes: one of which was a Yellow River carp. He was from the Northwest in his previous life, where there is an old saying that "no feast is complete without fish." On the New Year's Eve dinner table, there must be a fish to bring good luck for "abundance year after year."

Another dish was roast duck, a genuine specialty of Beijing; and another was Four Happiness Meatballs, symbolizing reunion. These dishes were naturally pre-made from his spatial storage, and after heating them up, they tasted just like they had been bought from a store!

Zhang Jiao ran out from the inner room and watched as her father magically produced plate after plate of delicious food she had never seen before from the food box. Her eyes widened, her mouth slightly open, and she could hardly contain her drool.

"Dad, this...this is all for us to eat?" she asked in a low voice, unable to believe it.

“Yes,” Zhang Erhe was amused by his daughter’s appearance, “If I don’t feed my daughter and wife, who will I feed?”

"Dad! I'm so happy!" Zhang Jiao cheered, then asked with a whimsical thought, "From now on... from now on, can we celebrate the New Year every day?"

"Silly child, you can't celebrate the New Year every day!"

"But I... but I want to be able to eat all this delicious food every day!"

"Yes, yes." Zhang Erhe patted her little head, his gaze seemingly traveling through time. "In a few decades... fifty years, everyone will be able to live a good life where they can eat whatever they want."

Guan Xue was setting the table when she heard this. She gave him a reproachful look and said, "You just know how to coax a child. You want him to eat whatever he wants? I heard that many places suffered from drought and failed to harvest winter wheat this year. We might not even have enough cornbread next year."

Zhang Erhe chuckled and didn't argue. After all, in this era, who could imagine that just a few decades later, this land would usher in a prosperous and abundant era?

"Alright, don't think that far ahead. Look what this is?" He magically pulled a small paper packet out of his pocket.

Zhang Jiao's attention was immediately drawn to it: "Oh! A little whip!" She took it and looked at it, but then she was puzzled, "Daddy, this little whip... why doesn't it have a place to light it?"

"This is called a snap pop." Zhang Erhe picked one up and demonstrated by throwing it on the ground at his feet—"Bang!" A crisp explosion.

Zhang Jiao jumped back in fright, then clapped her hands excitedly: "Daddy, this firecracker can go off without being lit! It's so much fun!"

"Here, take it. We'll go out to play after we finish eating. Let's eat now."

"Thank you, Daddy! Daddy is such a good daddy!" Zhang Jiao happily hugged Zhang Erhe's leg. Zhang Erhe bent down and picked her up, and the little girl gave him a kiss on the cheek.

Seeing the father and daughter joking and laughing intimately, Guan Xue smiled and said softly, "Erhe, come and eat, don't let the food get cold."

Chapter 90 Unruly Things

The scene at Yi Zhonghai's home in the Intermediate People's Court is quite different.

Sha Zhu finally succumbed to the pressure and, carrying a pound of flour and half a pound of meat provided by the factory, reluctantly came. Unlike Zhang Erhe, he wasn't as unrestrained. This job at the steel rolling mill was something Yi Zhonghai had helped him get, and this "favor" felt like a shackle, preventing him from bearing the stigma of "ingratitude" even though he was unwilling.

Sometimes, he really envied Zhang Erhe, who got married and separated from his family early, unlike him, who was constantly controlled by the word "reputation".

When Yi Zhonghai saw that Sha Zhu had arrived as promised, a satisfied look appeared on his face: "Zhu Zi, you're here. Take the dough to the kitchen and let your auntie knead it, and you can help prepare the filling. The old lady said that among the young people in our courtyard, you are the most promising, and your cooking skills are top-notch. Today, I'll also take advantage of the old lady's reputation and have a good taste of your cooking."

"Hey, old man, just you wait and see!" Sha Zhu suppressed his frustration and forced a smile as he agreed, "I'll show you my skills today, I guarantee you'll eat your fill!" With that, he lifted the curtain and went into the kitchen.

At this moment, Qin Huairu also came in carrying things. She wasn't carrying flour, but only two cabbages, with tear stains at the corners of her eyes and her face still slightly red and swollen.

"Huai Ru is here." Yi Zhonghai greeted her first, his gaze sweeping over the cabbage in her hand, his brows furrowing almost imperceptibly. "Huai Ru, where's the flour? Your mother-in-law... will bring it over later?"

“Master…” Qin Huairu’s tears immediately fell like beads from a broken string. “My mother-in-law… my mother-in-law refused to take out the flour, so… she only gave me these two cabbages. I said a few more words, and she… she even hit me…” She choked up, subconsciously touching her swollen cheeks.

A flash of anger crossed Yi Zhonghai's face, which quickly turned into a helpless sigh: "Sigh... never mind if we don't have any. Saihua!" He turned and called to the kitchen, "Take some more flour from our flour bag, we'll have white flour dumplings for today!"

From the kitchen came Tan Saihua's clearly displeased reply: "I know!"

Qin Huairu quickly wiped away her tears, grabbed the cabbage, and rushed into the kitchen: "Master's wife, let me help you."

Only Yi Zhonghai remained in the outer room. He sat in a chair, his fingers tapping unconsciously on the table, his eyes dark and unfathomable, as if he were plotting something.

After the dumplings were wrapped, Yi Zhonghai had Sha Zhu stir-fry some shredded meat with the last bit of meat, adding a hearty dish, before personally going to the backyard to carefully help Old Lady Long over.

Just as he reached his front door, he heard Jia Zhangshi's loud voice from inside: "Shazhu! Hurry up and bring out those white flour and meat dumplings! Can't you see that Banggeng and I are here? What are you dawdling for!"

Upon hearing this, Old Lady Long outside the door gave Yi Zhonghai a meaningful glance. Yi Zhonghai immediately felt embarrassed and quickly took two steps forward, pushed open the door, and shouted with a stern face, "Jia Zhangshi! What are you yelling about? The old lady hasn't arrived yet. Who told you to order dumplings? Have you no manners?!"

"Old Yi, I...I didn't mean to..." Jia Zhangshi panicked and quickly tried to cover it up, "I was just thinking of bringing out the dumplings first, so they'd be piping hot and ready for the old lady to take the first bite! Don't worry, I know the rules, I know!"

"Hmph!" Old Mrs. Long then slowly walked in, leaning on her cane, without even raising her eyelids. "Zhang Cuihua, ever since you two moved into this courtyard, I knew you weren't going to be a peaceful person. Let me tell you, as long as I'm still alive, it's not your place to cause trouble here!"

As soon as she finished speaking, she saw Sha Zhu carrying two plates of steaming dumplings out of the kitchen. His wrinkled face instantly transformed into a kind smile, as if by magic.

"Oh, my grandson!" Grandma Long's voice was sickeningly sweet. "Did you make these dumpling filling? I could smell the aroma from the doorway!"

"Hey, grandma, please try it, please try it first!" Sha Zhu replied cheerfully.