Courtyard House: Starting as an engineer, crushing a yard full of poultry

"You're just an ordinary worker, do you really think this coordinator has some kind of immense power?"

When Li Xiangdong slammed the label on Liu Haizhong, he shrank back and dared not utter a sound. Even with his tiny brain, he knew that if the label was fastened tightly, it could be half his life.

Only then did Madam Jia realize what had happened: "My God, this little beast..."

“If you keep spewing nonsense, I’ll slap you!” Li Xiangdong said coldly.

That one sentence immediately shut Jia Zhangshi up. She knew this boy really was going to slap her. And it hurt terribly.

Most of the people present were secretly pleased. This old hag was always throwing tantrums, and they had no idea how much she had extorted from them.

"Call the police! Dongxu, go call the police!"

Yi Zhonghai gritted his teeth and said, "Li Xiangdong just entered the compound, calling the police won't affect us!"

Jia Zhangshi's eyes darted around as she yelled, "You little brat, have you thought this through? If you don't want to be stuck in jail, you'd better pay me a hundred yuan and we'll exchange houses!"

"Call the police! Fine then." Li Xiangdong said coldly, "Go now!"

"Just for the filth you spewed, I'd be doing you a favor by slapping you. Besides, you insulted a martyr!"

Jia Dongxu and Qin Huairu were initially quite smug. They were confident they could extort some money, even if they couldn't get the house. They never expected to end up insulting a martyr.

This could really cost you your head!

"You're talking nonsense. My mother didn't insult the martyrs," Jia Dongxu said nervously.

“My parents were both martyrs; they fell on the icy battlefield of the peninsula. I was raised by the country,” Li Xiangdong said quietly. “I still have two plaques for the families of martyrs that I haven’t hung up yet!”

"Go call the police now. It might not get her shot, but she could easily go to jail for a few years. Besides, she's extorting me!"

Yi Zhonghai was completely bewildered; he hadn't expected things to turn out this way. It was all his fault; he hadn't thoroughly investigated Li Xingdong's background before making his move.

"Is that so? Jia Zhangshi didn't know your parents were martyrs. And you even slapped her. Jia Zhangshi, why don't you apologize right now? Are you really going to wait for the police to arrive?" Yi Zhonghai shouted.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have talked nonsense!" Madam Jia lowered her head, her eyes filled with venom.

"Slap yourself twice, or pay me a hundred yuan!" Li Xiangdong said calmly. "The slaps have to be loud, or we'll start over. Of course, you can pay me if you want."

"I...I'll slap myself!" Jia Zhangshi said dejectedly.

Jia Zhangshi never imagined that her slaps would be worth so much. Fifty yuan for a single slap!

Jia Zhangshi raised her right hand and slapped herself twice across the right side of her face. Blood dripped from the corner of her mouth.

"I'll let you off this time, but if there's a next time... the Bureau won't let you off so easily!" Li Xiangdong sneered, "What a piece of trash."

Li Xiangdong turned his gaze and happened to see Sha Zhu staring intently at the large and small bears on Qin Huairu's chest.

Although Qin Huairu was wrapped in a thick cotton-padded coat, it couldn't hide her figure.

Sha Zhu secretly cheered when Jia Zhangshi was slapped. After all, Jia Zhangshi always bullied his Sister Qin.

Yi Zhonghai took a deep breath; tonight's meeting had been a complete mess. He could only pick up his teacup and shout, "Meeting adjourned!"

Li Xiangdong snorted coldly, knowing that this was his first and most decisive victory against such a beast. From now on, these beasts would have to think twice before trying to take advantage of him.

Li Xiangdong took the brush, ink, paper, and inkstone from Xu Damao and said thank you.

"No need to thank me, no need to thank me, you're a very good young man! I'll treat you to drinks sometime, and I'll ask you to write some couplets for the New Year." Xu Damao said with a smile.

"Okay, we'll talk about it when we have time," Li Xiangdong said, raising an eyebrow.

"Da Mao went home, he's frozen to death."

"It was a woman in her mid-twenties," said a woman. She had a very good complexion and was slightly plump, a rare sight in this day and age.

"This is my wife, Lou Xiao'e!" Xu Damao said proudly.

Li Xiangdong nodded, then turned and walked away, seemingly unconcerned.

Lou Xiao'e has short, ear-length hair and a round face with good skin. However, her looks are considerably less attractive than Qin Huairu's.

Li Xiangdong had no intention of causing trouble, but he had made up his mind. He couldn't let Sha Zhu get away with this. Judging by that bastard's appearance, he was destined to have no heir!

Chapter Six: Yi Zhonghai Prepares to Target Li Xiangdong

Li Xiangdong returned home, poured hot water to wash his face and feet, and prepared to go to bed.

The room was warm now because of the stove. It wasn't like the ice cave it had been in just moments before.

"Sigh, this body has given me a pretty good identity," Li Xiangdong thought to himself as he washed his face.

The parents of this body were martyrs, just as Li Xiangdong said.

This body was a diligent student and graduated from university at the age of nineteen. It worked in the south, but has now been transferred to the Hongxing Steel Rolling Mill in Beijing for a research project.

He is an eighth-level engineer, and his monthly salary is over 130 yuan! As for the head of the technical department, he receives an additional ten-odd yuan in position-based salary.

"My predecessor didn't save any money," Li Xiangyang thought to himself. "I heard there's a black market in this era, I need to go sell the watch."

"See if there are any antiques or anything like that, collect some and put them in the mysterious space. Later, I'll exchange them for money and make a fortune. I need to find out where the black market is."

Just then, they heard a noise outside; it was Yan Bugui's voice. Although the voice was very low, Li Xiangdong's body combined the mental and physical strength of two people, so his senses were exceptionally sharp.

"Jie Cheng, take this white flour to the black market and exchange it for cornmeal."

Yan Bugui's voice.

"Fine, I always have to go," Yan Jiecheng said with dissatisfaction. "It's almost going to snow!"

"Hurry up and go, you're the boss. If you don't go, who will?" Yan Bugui said fiercely.

Li Xiangdong hurriedly wrapped his coat tighter and locked the door. He took off the ear flaps of his locomotive hat, quietly went out the door, and waited to the side.

Li Xiangyang quickly realized he had miscalculated. Yan Jiecheng had come out on a slightly worn bicycle, but luckily Li Xiangyang was physically strong and Yan Jiecheng was riding slowly, allowing Li Xiangdong to keep up at a distance.

As soon as Yi Zhonghai got home, he slammed the teacup on the table. He sat down and banged the table twice more.

"That little bastard! I'll go to the factory tomorrow and teach him a lesson."

"I said angrily. In my mind, Li Xiangdong must be an apprentice, or a first or second-level fitter. It wouldn't be difficult for me, an eighth-level worker, to deal with him."

“He has no parents and is the family of a martyr! If we can win him over and have him take care of us in our old age, he would be much more reliable than Jia Dongxu,” said Jin Yuxing, an older woman.

“Him? No way. He’s covered in thorns, I can’t control him,” Yi Zhonghai said, shaking his head.

Jin Yuxing sighed, wanting to say something but swallowing it back.

Liu Haizhong was wailing and howling, and Liu Guangtian and Liu Guangfu became his punching bags.

Inside the Jia family home in the Intermediate People's Court, Jia Zhangshi was incessantly cursing. Her mouth reeked of excrement. She was, of course, cursing Li Xiangdong.

"Mom, watch your mouth," Jia Dongxu cautioned. "We almost caused a huge disaster just now. If that little brat hears you cursing, then..."

"I'm not an idiot, how could I curse him to his face?" Jia Zhangshi said angrily, "And that old bastard Yi Zhonghai, he can't even handle the house exchange properly. He deserves to die!"

"You still expect him to take care of him in his old age? Grandma!"

Qin Huairu, heavily pregnant, was with Xiao Dangbang and the other two.

Li Xiangdong followed the bicycle for twenty minutes and arrived at an open space. The nearest house was about a hundred meters away.

The open space, spanning several acres, was dotted with lights, but few people were talking.

Li Xiangdong covered his face with a towel, leaving two holes for his eyes. Most people here dressed like this.

Li Xiangdong walked around, and found that the place sold all sorts of things. However, he didn't see the antiques he was looking for. Most of the shops mainly sold food. There were also some daily necessities, and Li Xiangdong even saw stalls selling radios and flashlights.

"What are you trying to sell, buddy?" a voice rang out beside Li Xiangdong.

When Li Xiangdong saw this guy, he saw that he wasn't wearing a mask and had a very casual demeanor. He looked to be around twenty-five or twenty-six years old, with a cunning expression on his face.

"Say it while you're talking!" Li Xiangdong could tell at a glance that this was a middleman in the black market.

After walking to the side, Li Xiangdong took out a palm-sized wooden box from his yellow canvas backpack. The box was beautifully painted; in this day and age, it could be considered a work of art.

The box had a strange logo and some foreign letters that I couldn't pronounce.

"What is this?" the middleman asked warily.

“A fully automatic watch!” Li Xiangdong said. “Brought from the Kingdom of Sabers.”

As Li Xiangdong spoke, he opened the box, and the middleman carefully turned on the flashlight. The modernly produced handicraft gleamed under the flashlight beam. The glow in the night was even more captivating.

"How much?" The middleman couldn't take his eyes off the seller.

"A fully automatic watch means that it winds itself automatically when you wear it and move around! If you wear it for eight hours, it will last a whole day." Li Xiangdong didn't mention the price: "I have three I'd like to sell!"

"Very good, quite substantial. Is the strap also made of steel?" The middleman held the watch in his hand, weighing it in his hand.

"Stainless steel! It won't rust. One watch, one small yellow croaker."

Li Xiangdong whispered, "Don't haggle. If you find the right person for something like this, you'll make a fortune the moment they sell it!"

A single small yellow croaker is worth 31.25 grams of gold. At ten yuan per gram, that's over three hundred yuan.

That's over three hundred yuan, that's a lot of money.

Pork is only six or seven mao a pound now! An apprentice's monthly salary is eighteen yuan and fifty cents.

Five yuan a month is enough to keep a person from starving!

"I'll take all three," the middleman said. "I happen to have some small yellow croakers here!"