The entire courtyard is full of villains

"What happened? What happened?"

"I think I just heard someone scream?"

"Yeah, the screams were so eerie, could something have happened?"

A moment later, men wearing clothes came out of their houses one after another. Sha Zhu rubbed his eyes and looked around: "That wasn't the noise from our courtyard, was it?"

Liu Haizhong, heavily pregnant, came out from the backyard: "Shazhu, is it your Zhongyuan calling?"

"No, Uncle Liu, it sounds like noises coming from the front yard."

"Let's go, let's hurry and check the front yard!"

When the people from the middle and back courtyards arrived at the front courtyard, they found that the neighbors had already gathered at Yan Bugui's door. Just as they approached, they heard Yang Ruihua's tearful voice calling from inside: "Old Yan! Old Yan, wake up! Don't scare me!"

"Yan Jiecheng, what's going on at your house tonight?" Liu Haizhong, with his pregnant belly, pushed through the crowd to get inside.

Yan Jiecheng was also pale as a ghost, and said in a tearful voice, "Second...Second Uncle...our house, our house was robbed! It was all stolen!"

It turned out that Yan Bugui had rushed in to check where he had hidden his money and grain, only to find it completely empty. This caused him to suffer a stroke, scream, and faint. Yan Jiecheng immediately understood that his house had been ransacked that night.

Chapter 100 The Foolish Thief

"What? A thief broke into the yard?"

The crowd erupted in uproar upon hearing the news. In those days of scarcity, every household lacked food and clothing, and people especially hated thieves.

Upon hearing this, Liu Haizhong, the former second-in-command of the courtyard, immediately took charge. Without a word, he directly ordered Sha Zhu and Xu Damao to lead several young men in the courtyard to search every nook and cranny. Since this matter concerned the entire courtyard, Sha Zhu and Xu Damao, unusually, did not quarrel and led Liu Guangtian, Liu Gen, and a group of young men to search separately.

About an hour later, the group gathered in the front yard again.

"Shazhu, Xu Damao, have you found the person?" Liu Haizhong asked.

“No,” Xu Damao shook his head. “I even had someone go up to check the roof in the backyard, and there was no one there.”

“The Intermediate Court didn’t have it either,” Sha Zhu chimed in. “I even went down into the cellar, but there was no one there.”

“We’ve made a discovery in the front yard…” A young man named Liu Gen opened his mouth, but before he could finish speaking, Yan Bugui, after being tossed around by Yang Ruihua, finally woke up.

"Old Yang...am I dreaming?"

"No, Lao Yan, you're not dreaming!"

"Pfft—" Yan Bugui was so anxious that he spat out a mouthful of blood. "Jie Cheng... hurry... go to the police station to report the case! We must catch that damned thief!" After saying that, his head lolled to the side and he fainted again.

"Old Yan! Old Yan!" Yang Ruihua shook him frantically.

"Stop shaking him, you motherfucker!" Liu Haizhong squeezed through the crowd. "Get him to the hospital right away! Guangtian, go to the police station and report this to your third uncle's family!"

"Hey!" Liu Guangtian responded, grabbed his flashlight, and ran off.

Yan Jiecheng and Yan Jiefang, forgetting their tears, quickly removed a door panel, placed Yan Bugui on it, and carried him outside. Yang Ruihua was about to follow when she suddenly remembered something and turned to Liu Haizhong pleadingly, "Second Uncle, all our money has been stolen... Could you lend us some? We'll definitely pay you back when Old Yan gets his salary next month!"

With so many people watching, Liu Haizhong felt like he was on pins and needles. He couldn't refuse, so he had no choice but to bite the bullet and ask, "How much do you want?"

"Lend... lend me twenty."

"Alright, alright," Liu Haizhong said helplessly, and asked his second aunt to fetch twenty yuan from the backyard. Yang Ruihua took the money and bowed, "Thank you, Uncle! I'll pay you back when Old Yan is better!"

"It's nothing, it's nothing," Liu Haixin said, his heart clenching with pain, but he could only wave his hand dismissively. "You should go to the hospital right away!"

Yang Ruihua had barely left the alley when Liu Guangtian arrived with police officers from the local police station. Zhang Guowei was on duty that night, and upon hearing that something had happened again at the No. 95 courtyard house, he was at his wit's end—why was this courtyard always getting into trouble? But since someone had come to report it, he had no choice but to take his men and go there.

As soon as he entered the courtyard, he saw a group of people still gathered in front of the Yan family's house. Zhang Guowei walked up to them and looked at the messy footprints in front of the door, and he was furious—what was the point of looking at them now! The footprints had long been trampled away!

He glanced at the onlookers with annoyance: "What are you all looking at? Move along! Go home, we'll go door-to-door asking around later!"

Seeing that there was no more excitement to see, the crowd gradually dispersed. Only Liu Haizhong stayed close by.

"Director Zhang..."

"Old Liu, why aren't you home?"

"Director Zhang, Yan Bugui's family has all gone to the hospital. I was thinking of staying here to see if I could be of any help."

"Alright then." Zhang Guowei nodded. "Old Liu, when did you discover the thief had broken in?"

"No... I'm not quite sure. I glanced at my watch when I left, and it looked like it was almost 1 a.m.," Liu Haizhong said, sounding somewhat uncertain.

How did you know it was a thief?

“I heard someone screaming and ran to the Intermediate Court to ask. The Intermediate Court said it was a noise from the front yard. When a group of us gathered around, we heard that Yan Bugui’s house had been burgled.”

"Was it only the Yan family that was robbed?"

"Yes! Chief Zhang, I even had Sha Zhu and Xu Damao lead men to search the entire yard, but we couldn't find any trace of the thief!"

Upon hearing this, Zhang Guowei frowned even more deeply: "You knew you had people searching the courtyard, so why didn't you report it to the police immediately?"

"I...I didn't mean to..." Liu Haizhong was dumbfounded.

Zhang Guowei knew Liu Haizhong was a good-for-nothing, so he didn't bother arguing with him. He patted Liu Haizhong on the shoulder and said, "Alright, Lao Liu, now that you've finished talking, go back."

"Oh..." Liu Haizhong had no choice but to walk dejectedly to the backyard. He had originally planned to make a good impression on Director Zhang today and then talk to Director Wang to see if he could get his position as the big boss back.

At this moment, the police officer who came with Zhang Guowei came over to report: "Chief Zhang, all the footprints in the yard have been destroyed, and the footprints in Yan Bugui's house are also very messy. We really can't find any key evidence. I also questioned the two children of the Yan family. They said they saw their father rush in, move the table, lift up the floor, and then scream and faint. They don't know anything else."

"Understood." Zhang Guowei nodded. "Go ask the other houses in the front yard and see if they've heard anything unusual."

"Hey."

After assigning the tasks, Zhang Guowei strolled out, his gaze sweeping over the east wing across the street—it was pitch black, without a single ray of light. He approached and noticed that Zhang Erhe's front door was tightly locked.

Huh?

Seeing that Zhang Erhe's door was locked, Zhang Guowei was about to leave when his flashlight accidentally swept across the lock and saw several unusual scratches.

He immediately turned back and shone his flashlight closer to examine the door. Sure enough, not only around the keyhole but also the entire chain was covered in fresh scratches, clearly just made. His heart tightened, and he hurriedly checked several other locked doors—and found that almost every one of them had similar brand-new scratches near the keyhole.

The only lock on Yan Bugui's door was completely intact, without a single scratch.

He was deep in thought, staring at the keyhole, when the young policeman who had come with him approached.

"Chief Zhang, I've asked around, and they didn't hear anything unusual last night. Chief Zhang?"

Seeing that Zhang Guowei did not react, the young policeman raised his voice: "Chief Zhang!"

"Hey!" Zhang Guowei finally snapped out of his daze. "What did you say?"

"I said, none of the neighbors heard anything unusual. What...did you discover?"

"Didn't you hear me? Look at this." Zhang Guowei pulled him close and shone a flashlight beam into the keyhole. "What do you see?"

"It's nothing, just a regular keyhole."

"Then come with me."

Zhang Guowei then led him to Zhang Erhe's door and shone a flashlight on the lock.

"Look again more carefully."

"This lock... has scratches on it!"

“Yes. It’s not just his family,” Zhang Guowei said in a deep voice, “the other neighbors all have them too. But only—Yan Bugui’s family doesn’t.”

"Huh?" The young policeman's eyes widened, looking completely bewildered.

“This is a clumsy thief,” Zhang Guowei concluded. “I don’t know how he opened Yan Bugui’s door, and after succeeding, he wanted to target other people in the yard. Unfortunately, he wasn’t skilled enough to pick the locks, so he just kept poking around in the keyhole with a knife.”

As he spoke, he led the young policeman to inspect the locks of several other houses: "Look, these keyholes are covered with knife marks."

"Then...how exactly did he steal from Yan Bugui's house?" The young policeman still couldn't figure it out.

“So,” Zhang Guowei straightened up, his eyes sharp, “we need to go to the hospital and have a good talk with that Comrade Yan Bugui.”

Chapter 101 Heaven is Unfair

"Doctor!" Yan Jiecheng, covered in sweat, and Yan Jiefang rushed into the hospital carrying a door panel, their voices trembling with tears, "Doctor! Please save my dad! He's dying!"

In the duty room, it was the same doctor who had been on duty on New Year's Eve. He was really unlucky this year, drawing the lot that required him to be on duty for New Year's Eve, New Year's Day, and the second day of the New Year in a row. He was disgusted all night on New Year's Eve by that incident with the stick, and he finally calmed down on New Year's Day. He thought he could finally get some sleep on the second night, but then another person rushed in just as he was about to fall asleep.

"What's wrong? What's wrong?" He hurriedly put on his white coat as he walked out.

"Doctor, my dad vomited blood and then lost consciousness!"

"What?" The doctor rushed forward, took out his stethoscope to examine him, and after a moment his expression eased slightly, but he couldn't help but scold him: "You're such a filial son! Are you afraid your dad won't walk slowly? People who faint from anger need to rest the most, but you two carried him all the way here! Quickly, carry him inside and put him on the bed, I'll start an IV drip first. This is a case of sudden anger affecting the heart, in the future, try not to upset your dad too much!"

"Doctor, it really wasn't me who made me angry..."

"Alright, alright, I got it. Go pay the bill now."

The doctor instructed the nurse to hang up the IV drip, but Yan Jiecheng stood there dumbfounded—pay the bill? Where would he get the money? The little money he earned from odd jobs had long been swindled away by the thrifty Yan Bugui. He had finally managed to save two yuan over the New Year, hoping to buy some things at the black market, but that night the thief stole it all.

Just as I was worrying, Yang Ruihua rushed over: "Jiecheng! Where's your dad? How is he?"

"Mom, the doctor said Dad is fine, he's already on an IV drip."

"Oh..." Yang Ruihua finally breathed a sigh of relief, then saw her son's worried face, "Jiecheng, what's wrong with you?"

"Mom, the doctor wants us to pay."

"Oh, I see. Luckily, I borrowed some money from Lao Liu when I went out. Give me the form, I'll go hand it in."

"Mom, should I go?"

“No, thank you,” Yang Ruihua knew her son too well. “We have to be very careful with every penny we have now. I’ll go instead.” She was afraid that Yan Jiecheng would skimp on the money.

When Yang Ruihua returned after paying the bill, Yan Jiecheng and Yan Jiefang were by his bedside. The doctor instructed, "Once this IV drip is started, everything will be fine. Once he wakes up, make sure he doesn't get agitated again, understand?"

"understood."

Yang Ruihua stepped forward and asked, "Doctor, is my man really alright?"

"It's alright. Just try to smooth things over at home and don't make him angry all the time." The doctor shook his head and left, muttering to himself, "This world, people's hearts have changed..."

After most of the IV fluid had dripped out, Yan Bugui finally woke up slowly.

"Old Yang...where is this?"

Yang Ruihua rushed to the bedside: "Old Yan! This is the hospital."

"Oh... why are you at the hospital? Hurry back, hurry back, this will cost a lot of money!"

"At a time like this, you're still thinking about saving money!" Yang Ruihua said irritably. "Are you going to take your money to your grave? You're always trying to save, and now look what's happened—a thief has taken everything from you!"