Siheyuan: Relieve stress and relieve worries

Chapter 1011 The Blow Strikes Return
After the third day of the Lunar New Year, it's time to start work again. Factories and mines are busy with tasks, and many people with special assignments get off work very late.

Although Yi Zhonghai is a level 7 fitter, he has a heavy workload. He worked an extra shift on the evening of the fourth day of the Lunar New Year. There was no other way; the factory had planned tasks.

As usual, Yi Zhonghai took a shower and changed his clothes at the factory before walking home. There were patrol personnel on the road who greeted Yi Zhonghai from time to time, showing that Yi Zhonghai still had some prestige in the factory.

When he was almost at Mao'er Hutong, he thought he would go to the toilet first and then go home to sleep. Just as he entered the toilet, a burlap sack fell from the sky, followed by four or five iron bars. If they were wooden bars, it would be better, but they were all iron pipe bars.

Yi Zhonghai was knocked unconscious before he could even scream. After that, he knew nothing more, except for the sound of iron bars breaking bones.

A few minutes later, there was no more noise from the toilet. It was almost midnight, and no one was wandering around. The winter night was very cold. It was fortunate that it didn't snow today, otherwise Yi Zhonghai would have been in even worse shape.

It was past midnight. Yan Bugui had taken advantage of the situation and ate a bellyful of soybean paste, which he had gotten from Widow Li. Widow Li had no choice but to give him a third of it, since Yan Bugui was blocking her way at the gate.

That evening, Yan Bugui felt unwell in his stomach. He had eaten alone; the stir-fried cabbage was made with Li Widow's sauce, and only Yang Ruihua ate a couple of bites. The rest went into his stomach. Unfortunately, Li Widow's sauce hadn't been ready yet, and this caused the problem.

In the dead of winter, going out to the toilet in the middle of the night is a very unpleasant thing, but Yan Bugui had no choice. He took a newspaper he brought back from school and an old flashlight, took the key to the gate from the windowsill, walked out of the courtyard, turned left, and headed for the public toilet.

The alley was completely silent at this moment, without a sound. Yan Bugui was a little scared and walked cautiously. Just as he reached the entrance of the men's public toilet, he saw something lying on the ground.

Yan Bugui cautiously walked over, shone his flashlight, and saw a person lying there motionless with a burlap sack covering their upper body. Yan Bugui jumped up in fright, "Oh my god, someone's dead!"

The peaceful night was broken by this shout. Yan Bugui was quite clever; instead of running into the alley, he ran straight into the lane and shouted.

The residents of several nearby alleys were alarmed. Upon hearing that someone had died, they realized it was a serious matter. Kind-hearted people came out with flashlights to investigate. Within minutes, two members of the joint defense team and the police officers from the local police station ran over and headed towards Yan Bugui, who was shouting.

Yan Bugui led them to the public restroom. The officer in charge said, "First, take off the sack, check on the person, and then ask the onlookers if they recognize him."

Several members of the joint defense team stepped forward, carefully removed the sack, and squatted down to check on the injured man. After only a dozen seconds, one of the team members said, "Officer Wu, this man is just unconscious, but he has bruises all over his body. Let's get him to the hospital quickly."

Officer Wu quickly said, "Then what are we waiting for? Find a stretcher and take him to the hospital. Wait a minute, let the people around see if anyone recognizes him, and let them send word home."

The crowd gathered around to examine him closely. Yan Bugui, who was standing in front, took a look and thought he was seeing things. He took off his glasses, wiped them, and put them back on. This time, he called out with certainty, "Officer Wu, this is an old man in our compound, Master Yi Zhonghai. He lives in the middle courtyard of our compound."

Officer Wu frowned and said, "It's already past midnight, and the family doesn't even know someone's missing. That's very unusual." Yan Bugui helped explain, "You might not know, but Yi Zhonghai is a senior technician at the factory, oh, the Hongxing Steel Rolling Mill. He often has assignments. This family doesn't have any children; it's just the two of them living together. I guess the older woman, that's right, Yi Zhonghai's wife, probably thinks he has assignments today."

Officer Wu suddenly realized that this was a much bigger matter. An attack on a senior technician was no small thing. On the one hand, he quickly arranged for people to take Yi Zhonghai to the hospital, and on the other hand, he sent two team members back with Yan Bugui to notify his family.

Li Cuilan was awakened by several people knocking on the door. Her heart started pounding, sensing that something had happened. She quickly got dressed and went to open the door. She saw Yan Bugui and two members of the joint defense team. Yan Bugui didn't waste any words and said, "Auntie, I'll get straight to the point. Your husband, Lao Yi, had an accident tonight and was taken to the hospital. Oh, I haven't finished yet."

Upon hearing the first half of Yan Bugui's sentence, Li Cuilan fainted. The auxiliary police officer next to her complained, "Couldn't you have spoken slowly? If you couldn't speak properly, you could have said that Yi Zhonghai was alright first, and then mentioned what happened before. Look at the mess you've made."

Yan Bugui was also extremely embarrassed. How could he have known that such a frail woman had such poor mental resilience?

Another member of the joint defense team said, "Alright, stop watching and let's get to the hospital together. We're not doctors, what are we going to do but wait here?"

The three of them borrowed a cart from a nearby courtyard and went directly to the hospital. However, this time there was an extra person pulling the cart, namely Sha Zhu. As soon as Sha Zhu heard the commotion, he came out and, after hearing what Yan Bugui said, volunteered to pull the cart to the hospital.

Meanwhile, in an alley in Dongjiaomin Lane, another person was found to have been attacked. The method was the same, the same sack was used. The only difference was that the injured person was a woman. After being identified by nearby neighbors, it was discovered that the person was the director of the Nanluoguxiang Subdistrict Office.

When the officers from the two police stations met, they realized the matter was a bit tricky and quickly reported it to the district.

The Dongcheng District sent a deputy director down with a criminal investigation team. They investigated the two cases for three days but found nothing. There were no witnesses, no one with any information. Their only hope was the injured party.

Two days later, Yi Zhonghai woke up first. When he woke up, Li Cuilan had been by his bedside the whole time. The first thing Li Cuilan asked was, "Old Yi? What happened?"

Yi Zhonghai had just woken up, his mind blank, and blurted out, "I don't know either, I still don't understand what happened."

Li Cuilan sighed and said, "I'll go inform the police at the gate and buy you a bowl of porridge while I'm at it. Right now, you can only eat liquid food and recover slowly."

Yi Zhonghai nodded mechanically, watching Li Cuilan leave, and then tried hard to recall what had happened to him.

The officers from the police station didn't come to see him right away. They were relieved to know he had woken up. They wanted Yi Zhonghai to recover on his own for a couple of days. They also needed to wait for Director Wang to wake up so they could question him together and make a proper assessment.

(End of this chapter)