Siheyuan: Relieve stress and relieve worries

Chapter 1101 King's War Strategy
Wang Zhan and Yan Jiekuang staged a charade together, which had been planned beforehand. The whole thing started because of that kid Yan Jiekuang.

Except for Yan Jiedi and Yang Ruihua, everyone in the Yan family became suspicious of Yan Jiekuang, including his second brother Yan Jiefang, who had accepted a pack of cigarettes from him. As the saying goes, "a snake tries to swallow an elephant," and Yan Jiefang asked for money again less than a day later.

Yan Jiekuang stared wide-eyed at Yan Jiefang and asked, "Second brother, who in this family do you think should be the one without a single penny?"

Yan Jiefang was taken aback at first, then felt a little embarrassed. He knew that the only ones in the family who didn't have a penny in their pockets were the third and fourth brothers. Although Yan Jiecheng had been tricked by his father, he still had some money. His mother was a given, and Yan Bugui was the family's treasure trove. He also sometimes did odd jobs to earn a little money. The two youngest brothers were the poorest.

Yan Jiefang was still a little unwilling, but Yan Jiekuang waved his hand and said, "Alright, second brother, I misjudged you. From now on, you can follow me however you want and see what kind of reward my dad can give you. In the end, you will only end up with nothing to show for your efforts."

Yan Jiekuang left angrily, leaving Yan Jiefang standing there in a daze in the cold wind.

Yan Jiekuang dismissed his second brother, but he was still very angry. How could a family fight to the point of needing to extort a first-grader? After thinking it over, he felt that the root of the problem was still with Yan Bugui. If he hadn't been suspicious and trying to get something out of him, his family wouldn't have treated him like this. The two brothers would have thought that they had hooked up with some rich and powerful person.

Yan Jiekuang grew angrier the more he thought about it, so he went directly to Yu'er Hutong to find Wang Zhan. Wang Zhan was at home tidying up the greenhouse. Winter was approaching, and whether they could eat vegetables in the winter depended entirely on it. Wang Zhan had transformed the entire west wall of the small garden, extending three meters inward, into a greenhouse. This was all for his younger sister, who had worked hard all summer to create a small garden right in the middle of the west side.

When Yan Jiekuang arrived, Wang Zhan was cleaning the chimney of the greenhouse. His hands were covered in soot, and his body and face were also smeared with it. When Yan Jiekuang saw Wang Zhan's appearance, he laughed so hard that he forgot the purpose of his visit.

Wang Zhan ignored him and continued with his work. Yan Jiekuang, who had been laughing for a while, then remembered why he had come here. He squatted down next to Wang Zhan, who was working, and said, "Brother Zhan, I'm not making fun of you, it's just that you look funny."

"Is there a difference? You're a top student in your first year, shouldn't you be running around with your friends? What are you doing here? Let me tell you, my family is just having cornbread and pickled vegetables today, nothing else." Wang Zhan said while working, without even turning his head.

“I’ve come to you for help. You don’t know, ever since my scheming dad started targeting me, I’ve been in all sorts of trouble. First, I was being followed, then my dad tried to trick me into revealing information. Now, after finally having a few days of peace, my second brother has come to extort money from me. He’s asking me for money. He has no shame, asking a first-grader for money. Can you believe it?” Yan Jiekuang seemed to want to tell Wang Zhan all his grievances.

Wang Zhan remained silent and continued with his work. Yan Jiekuang, like a little adult, followed behind Wang Zhan with his hands behind his back. Regardless of Wang Zhan's reaction, he began to recount his bloody and tearful history in the Yan family, mainly about the unfair treatment he received from his stingy and calculating father, Yan Bugui. He kept talking non-stop, following Wang Zhan wherever he went.

It wasn't until Wang Zhan finished packing up his tools, went to the well, drew a bucket of water, and started washing himself that Yan Jiekuang looked up and asked with a hint of reproach, "Brother, were you even listening to me?"

Wang Zhan wiped his face with a towel and then said, "You heard that? So you're a little unhappy about the family members scheming against each other and your dad scheming against you guys? What's wrong with that? It's because of your dad's personality. What can I do? I can't persuade your dad. Even if I wanted to, he would have to listen to me. Besides, strictly speaking, your dad and I are enemies."

Yan Jiekuang was immediately deflated. Wang Zhan led him back to the grapevines in the backyard. Wang Zhan plopped down on a recliner and brewed tea at the low table beside him. Seeing that Wang Zhan had no intention of offering him tea, Yan Jiekuang ran to the kitchen in the east wing. He soon emerged from the kitchen carrying a bottle of soda. Just then, Wang Li and Zhang Erya came out of the main house. Wang Li shouted, "You little rascal, you stole my soda again! There are only three bottles left!"

Yan Jiekuang didn't care. He pointed at Zhang Erya and said, "That's perfect. There are three of us. Your brother doesn't drink this."

"You're getting a good deal and still acting innocent, aren't you? Er Ya, help me teach her a lesson." Wang Li ran towards Yan Jiekuang, with Zhang Er Ya following closely behind. Yan Jiekuang saw that the two older sisters were serious, so he turned around and ran towards Wang Zhan.

Wang Zhan had already brewed the tea, lit a cigarette, and was lying on the recliner, smoking with his eyes closed, not intending to pay any attention to anything else.

Yan Jiekuang's short legs darted forward, and he ran straight to the front yard, still clutching the bottle of soda tightly in his hand.

There was a commotion in the front yard, though no chickens flew away, but the dogs definitely jumped around. Jinbao ran from under the osmanthus tree at the front gate to Wang Zhan's side as fast as he could, and then lay down. Jinbao is now in his prime and has long passed the age of running around wildly. Now, if he can stay still, Jinbao doesn't like to move at all.

However, in the past few days, Wang Zhan discovered that Jinbao sometimes goes out at night and digs open the dog hole that was previously blocked by the small bamboo grove next to the main house. Jinbao is also clever; he always manages to block the hole with a large rock.

At noon, Yan Jiekuang left, taking Wang Zhan's advice with him. Wang Zhan didn't have any good advice; he gave Yan Jiekuang a bad suggestion: if you want your father to change, you have to get rid of his scheming habit.

Wang Zhan told Yan Jiekuang that they should find an opportunity to make Yan Bugui the most unpopular person in the compound, ideally isolating him from the entire compound so that he can't scheme against or take advantage of others. After a while, Yan Bugui would probably change on his own.

Yan Jiekuang hesitated about Wang Zhan's suggestion. It was a solution, but the Yan family had more than just Yan Bugui; there were so many other people in the family, all neighbors. How could they be isolated? It would greatly affect the Yan family's reputation. Yan Jiekuang said he would think about it. With a worried look on his face, Yan Jiekuang wrapped a large chicken leg in oil paper and left.

But unexpectedly, the opportunity came so quickly. In less than three days, the incident of two widows stealing cabbages occurred. At the time, Yan Jiekuang was standing where the incident happened, but with the appearance of Yan Bugui, he was relegated to the last position.

Wang Zhan stood on his rooftop watching the commotion at No. 95 Courtyard. Nothing seemed amiss until he saw Yan Jiekuang being pushed through the crowd and struggling to get inside. Wang Zhan's eyes lit up, and taking advantage of a moment when no one was around, he jumped directly into Mao'er Hutong, grabbed Yan Jiekuang, and then the two of them found a secluded spot and whispered a few words. That's how Yan Jiekuang secretly called the police.

(End of this chapter)