Siheyuan: A Very Happy Era

Chapter 637 Old Tree Blossoms

"Hey! Qiangzi, you're back!" Xu Damao stood at the gate of the courtyard and saw Li Guoqiang. His face immediately lit up with a look of great surprise.

"Hmm, what happened?" Li Guoqiang nodded slightly in agreement, then pointed to the ambulance driving away with its siren wailing, and asked with some confusion.

Upon hearing this, Xu Damao immediately spoke with some annoyance:

"Sigh, don't even mention it. I don't know how Li Huaide and You Fengxia got in touch with Second Uncle, and then Second Uncle pulled Third Uncle's family into the business of color TVs. Then all the money was embezzled."

When the second uncle and aunt heard the news, they couldn't accept it and fainted on the spot.

"This has nothing to do with you, right?" Li Guoqiang raised an eyebrow and then asked in a deep voice.

"No, I had no idea about this at all!" Xu Damao's heart tightened upon hearing this, and he quickly shook his head in reply.

In fact, he really didn't know.

Ever since he learned the real reason why Li Guoqiang asked him to do the project, he has been busy with the construction team.

To put it bluntly, he barely has time to go to the toilet these days, so he has no time to care about the neighbors in the courtyard.

If he hadn't suddenly come back to stay last night and been woken up by the noise in the yard, he probably wouldn't have known about this even if Liu Haizhong had died!

"Okay, then arrange for some people to see if you can find Li Huaide and You Fengxia and get them to return the money." Li Guoqiang's expression softened, and he gave the order in a low voice.

"Okay, don't worry. No matter what, Second Uncle and Third Uncle are our neighbors. I will definitely help if I can." Xu Damao nodded and agreed without hesitation.

After all, he's now working for Li Guoqiang, and he's destined to become a millionaire or even a multi-millionaire. So he naturally needs to be more open-minded.

Moreover, his grudges with Li Huaide and You Fengxia had long been settled, so how could he possibly sit idly by?

"Alright, then you go ahead and get busy!" Li Guoqiang smiled slightly when he saw Xu Damao's attitude, then waved his hand and walked into the courtyard.

"Alright! I'll invite you out for dinner when you have time!" Xu Damao chuckled and agreed. Then, after Li Guoqiang entered the courtyard, he quickly walked out of the alley.

Soon after, Yan Bugui's family learned of Li Guoqiang's return.

"Dad, Qiangzi is back. Let's hurry up and ask him to lend us some money to save our restaurant." Yan Jiecheng grabbed Yan Bugui's arm and said anxiously.

"What time is it? You're still thinking about restaurants? The most important thing right now is to find a way to raise money for your mother's medical treatment!" Yan Bugui glared at him and then scolded him angrily.

"Yes, yes, you're right. The most important thing now is to raise money for my mother's medical treatment, but we also have to keep the restaurant going! Otherwise, we won't be able to pay back the money, let alone make a living!" Yan Jiecheng nodded, then changed the subject and brought up the restaurant again.

After all, this mother doesn't just belong to him; she belongs to all four of his siblings.

But this restaurant belongs to him.

Comparatively speaking, restaurants are definitely more important.

"Get lost!" Yan Bugui was furious when he saw that Yan Jiecheng was still scheming at this point.

However, he brought all this upon himself, so he can't blame anyone else.

If he hadn't been a master of scheming his whole life, he wouldn't have raised such a bunch of children who are always thinking about scheming.

In addition, it's also his own fault for being too greedy. He actually dared to take out his life savings and misappropriated the restaurant's working capital. Now his savings are gone, and the restaurant has no money to pay the workers' wages.

If they can't raise the money, their family will face ruin and death.

Thinking of this, Yan Bugui's heart tightened, and he quickly stood up and walked outside.

Seeing this, Yan Jiecheng not only didn't leave, but followed closely behind.

Soon, the father and son entered Li Guoqiang's house.

At that moment, Li Guoqiang had just finished cleaning his house using his personal miniature space. He was about to sit down and make a pot of tea when he saw Yan Bugui and Yan Jiecheng push open the door and walk in.

"Qiangzi, you're back!" Yan Bugui forced a smile and greeted him somewhat awkwardly.

"Uncle, you're quite well-informed! I've only been back a short while, and you've already come knocking on my door." Li Guoqiang chuckled to himself, then teased.

Upon hearing this, Yan Bugui felt even more embarrassed.

Fortunately, the next moment, Li Guoqiang pointed to the sofa next to him and said with a soft smile, "Please don't stand, sit down first and we can talk about it."

"Hey!" Yan Bugui felt relieved, then quickly nodded in agreement and stepped forward to sit down.

Seeing this, Yan Jiecheng naturally followed suit and sat down next to Li Guoqiang, looking at him with anticipation.

"Qiangzi, to tell you the truth, our family is really in trouble this time. You have to help us!" Yan Bugui pleaded eagerly as soon as he sat down.

"What's going on?" Li Guoqiang raised an eyebrow, then asked calmly.

"Here's what happened." Upon hearing this, Yan Bugui immediately recounted the entire incident in detail.

Finally, with a hint of anxiety on his face, he pleaded, "Qiangzi, your aunt is still lying in the hospital, waiting for money for surgery. Please, could you lend us some money first?"

"How much will it cost?" Li Guoqiang was surprised to hear that the third aunt had also been sent to the hospital, and then asked directly.

"The doctor said it will cost at least 3 yuan." Yan Bugui swallowed hard, then answered somewhat nervously.

You should know that the average worker's monthly salary is at most one or two hundred yuan.

3 yuan is equivalent to more than ten years' wages for an ordinary worker.

Even if their restaurant is booming every day, it would still take them more than a year to earn that much money.

Therefore, he was unsure whether Li Guoqiang could lend his family that much money.
Or, what kind of price would they have to pay?
Upon hearing Yan Bugui's words, Li Guoqiang didn't say anything. Instead, he turned around, took out three stacks of banknotes from the bag next to the sofa, and placed them in front of Yan Bugui.

"Hey, I'll write you an IOU!" Yan Bugui's eyes widened, then he said with a hint of surprise. "No need, saving lives is the priority now. You guys take the money and go to the hospital first!" Li Guoqiang waved his hand and said softly.

As the saying goes, you can help someone in an emergency, but you can't help someone who is poor.

After all, the aunties were his old neighbors, and now that they were in trouble, he had already helped them out of both goodwill and reason.

Moreover, for him, it doesn't matter whether there's an IOU or not, as long as he wants to get the money back.

"Alright, then I won't stand on ceremony with you. I'll give you the IOU after your aunt's surgery is over." Yan Bugui didn't hesitate for long and nodded in agreement.

After all, his wife is still in the hospital, waiting for money to save her life, and every minute of delay could bring greater risks.

After saying that, he reached out, picked up the money, put it in his pocket, stood up, and hurriedly left.

Yan Jiecheng watched Yan Bugui's departing figure, his bottom barely leaving the sofa before he immediately sat back down. Then, he forced a fawning smile at Li Guoqiang.

"Qiangzi, could you lend me some more money?"

"What do you need the money for?" Li Guoqiang raised an eyebrow and asked with some doubt.

"I was ripped off in a business deal, wasn't I? My restaurant still owes suppliers for materials and workers' wages. If we can't pay them, our restaurant will go out of business!" Yan Jiecheng hurriedly explained upon hearing this.

"This has nothing to do with me. You are responsible for your own actions." Li Guoqiang shook his head and refused directly.

"No, I don't need much. You just need to lend me 10,000 yuan. I promise I can pay you back by the end of this year at the latest!" Yan Jiecheng's heart tightened, and then he pleaded anxiously.

"Get out!" Li Guoqiang's face darkened, and he shouted coldly.

In fact, if Yan Jiecheng had asked him for money at a different time and shown more sincerity, he might have actually lent him the money.

However, Yan Jiecheng's biological mother is still lying in the hospital waiting for her life, and instead of going to the hospital to help, Yan Jiecheng is still thinking about the restaurant business. This is simply heartless.

Li Guoqiang had utter contempt for such selfish people.

If it weren't for the fact that they were all neighbors, he would have kicked Yan Jiecheng out.

Seeing that Li Guoqiang was angry, Yan Jiecheng opened his mouth, wanting to plead for him again.

However, before he could finish speaking, Li Guoqiang's piercing gaze silenced him, and he stood up and slipped away somewhat sullenly.

Seeing this, Li Guoqiang shook his head slightly, then quickly put these things out of his mind, picked up the satellite phone, and made a call to the aerospace base.

After confirming that the aerospace base was ready to launch the project, he hung up the phone and called the leader in charge of liaising with the base to discuss the next steps.

After all, there are still many spies who haven't been completely eliminated these days, and the space base is involved in the military industry, so we have to be careful.

If it weren't for the unsuitable conditions in the Arctic, he might have wanted to locate the space base there.

Soon, a week had passed in the blink of an eye.

After handling some domestic group affairs and making some strategic adjustments and plans for future development, Li Guoqiang quietly left Beijing in a bulletproof car sent by his superiors.

Meanwhile, the three women's surgery went very smoothly, and they only need to stay in the hospital for a while longer before they can be discharged.

After failing to borrow money from Sha Zhu, Yan Jiecheng had no choice but to transfer the restaurant, using the transfer fee to pay the workers' wages. Then, using the excuse of each person being responsible for half, he pushed all the suppliers' payments onto Yan Bugui, which angered Yan Bugui so much that he kicked him out.

As for Liu Haizhong and his wife, they were discharged from the hospital on the third day and returned home without any major problems.

The only thing that makes people feel sorry for them is that their three sons all ran away when they saw that they were in trouble, leaving only the old couple to guard those few old houses.

Li Guoqiang didn't pay much attention to these matters.

On the contrary, Sha Zhu, who is now running a thriving Sichuan restaurant with Lou Xiao'e's support, took this opportunity to give Liu Haizhong a good dressing down, almost making Liu Haizhong angry to death.

Because of He Daqing, Yi Zhonghai had always felt like he was living under someone else's roof, and he had no interest in getting involved in the affairs of Liu Haizhong and Yan Bugui's families.

If things go as expected, it might not be long before Liu Haizhong, his second aunt, Yan Bugui, and his third aunt become empty-nest elderly people with no one to care for them.

In addition, for some unknown reason, He Daqing and Jia Zhangshi secretly started having an affair, and would occasionally take advantage of Bang Geng's absence to have sex with each other.

If it weren't for Li Guoqiang's ability to see into his personal world and accidentally discover this matter, he probably wouldn't have believed that He Daqing and Jia Zhangshi would suddenly rekindle their romance.

However, since this matter had nothing to do with him, he couldn't be bothered to care.

The only thing I'm a little curious about is how Shazhu and Banggeng will react when they find out about this.
Back then, Shazhu almost became Banggeng's stepfather.

Now He Daqing has secretly become Banggeng's stepfather, they really are a match made in heaven!

Meanwhile, Qin Huairu, Xiao Dang, and Huaihua, who were far away in Hong Kong, were still immersed in all sorts of novel experiences and had no idea that Jia Zhangshi, who remained in Beijing, had been abducted by He Daqing.

And just like that, half a year passed in the blink of an eye.

As 83 approached, under the leadership of Li Guoqiang, a super scientific genius, the first rocket launcher capable of landing on the moon was successfully developed.

Sitting in the launch site control center, Li Guoqiang watched the rocket and unmanned landing capsule about to be launched on the screen, and an excited expression appeared on his face.

God knows how much sweat and brain cells he poured into this moment.

Although he can acquire various research skills, improving those skills requires a lot of effort and time.

Not to mention, turning scientific research theories into tangible products requires constant verification.

Therefore, even with the advantage of having a cheat code and the full support of a major power, he still worked day and night for almost half a year before successfully producing the first-generation prototype.

As time ticked by, he suddenly heard the voice of the on-site launch commander in his headset.

(End of this chapter)