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

If you're trying to extort money, at least check who the other party is. Besides, everyone saw it; Li Xiangdong just entered the hanging flower gate. How could it be him who did it?

Li Xiangdong sneered and walked closer: "Jia Zhangshi, are you saying I did it? Fine, I'll go call the police right now, how about that?"

"Section Chief Li, our mother-in-law is delirious from pain, I'm so sorry!" Qin Huairu hurriedly apologized. Actually, she really hoped that Li Xiangdong would send Jia Zhangshi in.

Li Xiangdong was secretly puzzled; Jia Zhangshi was clearly slandering him. He hadn't expected her to reveal the truth so suddenly.

Li Xiangdong also stored the inconspicuous peanuts on the ground into his mysterious space. Otherwise, if someone saw them, they might make connections.

Chapter Sixty-Five: Madam Jia Wants to Eat Well (Seeking flowers, votes, and full subscription.)

"I'll let it go this time, but if there's a next time, you'd better think it over."

Li Xiangdong said calmly, "If it weren't for the fact that this long dog's face is covered in blood, I would have already given him two big shovels of whipping."

After Li Xiangdong finished speaking, he left with Yu Li.

Yan Jiecheng was also there watching the commotion, his gaze fixed on Yu Li's retreating figure. Yan Bugui sighed deeply, wishing he could find Yan Jiecheng a wife soon.

Li Xiangdong and Yu Li arrived at the Yu family's back house, where dishes were already laid out on the octagonal table.

"I was just about to call you, Xiaoshan," Yu Dajiang said with a satisfied smile. "Here you are. By the way, what's with the Central Court acting like it's slaughtering pigs?"

After sitting down, Yu Li recounted what had happened in a sweet voice. Finally, she said with a disdainful look, "This guy caused all this trouble; everything is Dong Ge's fault."

"Let's stop talking and eat," Huang Guihua said.

The table was laden with food, including a plate of braised carp and a clay pot of canned beef hot pot. Li Xiangdong had asked me to bring it over earlier.

There was an old hen making soup in an enamel pot, and a large bowl of braised pork belly with potatoes.

Li Xiangdong and Yu Dajiang even had a few drinks. When the banquet ended, Yu Li's three younger brothers, each patting their bulging bellies, had happy expressions on their faces.

"Sigh, at least this time they finally got to eat their fill of meat," Yu Dajiang said with emotion. "We have to thank our son-in-law for this..."

Li Xiangdong quickly exchanged a few polite words. After saying goodbye, he and Yu Li leisurely returned to the front room.

Yu Li came to help Li Xiangdong with the housework. She had to go home soon, so staying overnight was out of the question.

As soon as Yu Li arrived, she carried a hot water bottle to the kitchen and wiped the place down inside and out. Li Xiangdong had cleaned it himself before; a grown man like him, of course, couldn't compare to a woman when it came to cleaning.

Li Xiangdong tidied up the wardrobe in the main room. He found two thick cotton quilts, the covers and linings of which were made of thick coarse cloth. He had obtained these from the labor protection warehouse in the mysterious space.

Yu Li brought in a kettle of water and placed it on the coal stove, then left the food from the kitchen on the octagonal table.

"Dong-ge, you still have a blanket?" Yu Li asked in surprise.

These days, cotton and cloth require ration coupons. These coupons are very scarce.

“I came from Guangzhou,” Li Xiangdong said naturally. “Some of my parents’ comrades-in-arms knew it was very cold here, so they prepared a lot of clothes and blankets for me.”

"I see your blankets are very thin. Take these two back with you. Use one as a mattress and the other as a cover-up."

Li Xiangdong's statement was untrue. His parents' former comrades-in-arms had prepared a lot of clothes for him, but he didn't take any of them and simply slipped away.

Isn't this just another excuse to take out supplies?

"You're taking me back now, it's getting late." Yu Li said with a blushing face, "I'll carry the cup back myself, Dong-ge, you can take it with you."

"How are you going to carry such a big quilt back by yourself? Come on, lock the door!" Li Xiangdong said, carrying a quilt under one arm. The quilt weighed ten pounds, which was warm enough.

Madam Jia was very upset; the bleeding from her mouth had stopped, but her cheeks and tongue were incredibly painful, making her restless.

At dinner, Jia Zhangshi, as usual, picked up her chopsticks and began to devour the braised cabbage and tofu. Although she complained that there was no meat in the dish, it was still more oily than what she made at home.

But as soon as the food entered her mouth, it felt like a hot iron had been shoved inside. The pain made Jia Zhangshi spit the food out.

"Ouch...it hurts..."

Jia Zhangshi covered her cheek, but she could speak clearly now.

"Your mouth wound hasn't healed, and this food is very salty with chili peppers. How could it not hurt?" Qin Huairu said calmly, "Mother-in-law, you'll just have to eat porridge for a few days. I doubt you can even afford cornbread."

"Even if you eat porridge, you have to drink it cold, otherwise it will still hurt."

"Damn you, idiot Zhu! How could you make the food so salty and spicy?" Jia Zhangshi cursed idiot Zhu furiously.

The food in the cafeteria is a bit oily, but since it's mostly for heavy laborers, the food is naturally a bit saltier. In this cold weather, they need to add more chili peppers.

Jia Zhangshi stared with her triangular eyes, watching others eat with such relish. She could only sip a little corn porridge with a crooked mouth.

Even after finishing a bowl of corn porridge, my stomach was still rumbling. I need to eat something substantial.

Jia Zhangshi tried to eat a little cornbread, but it hurt so much that it felt like her tongue had been cut off.

"Qin Huairu, get me some wheat flour. I can manage on wheat flour. Make me a bowl of wheat flour noodles," Jia Zhangshi said to Qin Huairu, who was clearing the dishes.

"It's not that I don't want to make it for you," Qin Huairu shook her head and said, "We don't have any flour at home, you know that best."

"Go get some flour from that stupid Zhu who's got his parents dead," Jia Zhangshi grumbled.

“They have nothing left. I went to look for food this afternoon, but there wasn’t a single thing,” Banggeng said, putting down his chopsticks.

"Then go ask the old, childless family for some. They must have some," Jia Zhangshi said viciously.

"Do you think you can get it?" Qin Huairu said indifferently, "You'd be lucky to get a little cornmeal."

Madam Jia was trembling with anger; it seemed her retirement savings would have to be touched. Otherwise, she would starve to death on a mere bowl of porridge.

After dinner, Qin Huairu took the child and prepared to go to bed. Jia Zhangshi, her eyes gleaming with greed, paced back and forth in the room.

Qin Huairu didn't care about her, knowing that Jia Zhangshi was tired from all the commotion and should just go to sleep.

"You old hag! You deserve it!" Qin Huairu thought to herself.

After wandering around for a while, Jia Zhangshi's stomach was still growling loudly. She gritted her teeth and went out for another walk, hoping to see if there was anything she could bring back.

With the New Year approaching, wealthier families were already preparing preserved meats for the celebration. For Jia Zhangshi, casually stealing a few was simply taking, not stealing.

To my surprise, after wandering around, I didn't see a single shop with cured meats hanging in the corridor. Needless to say, they were all taken down at night.

Madam Jia muttered a curse under her breath. As she was about to go inside, she saw Li Xiangdong carrying two large quilts. Yu Li, walking beside him, was carrying a small basin filled with snow-white rice.

This small basin of rice weighs about five pounds. It was the rice Li Xiangdong cooked for Yu Li's family this morning to make porridge. Li Xiangdong originally wanted to give her more, but Yu Li refused, saying she was already very grateful to have received five pounds of rice.

When Jia Zhangshi saw the rice, she became even hungrier. If it were someone else's rice, Jia Zhangshi would have tried to get some to cook herself a bowl of thick rice porridge.

But she really didn't dare to face Li Xiangdong.

Seeing Li Xiangdong and the others heading to the back, Jia Zhangshi had a sudden inspiration.

"Oh right, they went to the backyard. The front door might not be locked. I need to go check it out quickly. Grab a few handfuls of rice; he definitely won't notice."

Like an old sow, Jia Zhangshi charged wildly into the front yard. It was around eight o'clock in the evening. The weather was very cold, and everyone was asleep.

Just as she was about to reach the screen door, she heard someone knocking on the main gate, which startled Jia Zhangshi so much that she hurriedly slipped back to the hanging flower gate.

Yan Bugui was still grading homework, leaning against the bed, of course. This was exactly the moment he was waiting for—someone had gone out to the black market and would come back with some kind of gift for him.

The gate, which was normally closed at nine o'clock, was closed much earlier by Yan Bugui due to the cold weather.

"Going to the black market so early, they can't come back."

Yan Bugui was somewhat suspicious, but he still came out and opened the door. As he opened it, he shouted, "Who is it? What are you knocking for! I didn't know anything... Ah!"

As Yan Bugui spoke, he opened the gate, only to find a number of soldiers standing there. They were all armed, and Yan Bugui recognized one of them, dressed in civilian clothes—it was Li Huaide, the deputy director of the steel rolling mill.

At this moment, the moonlight illuminated everything clearly.

"Director Li, what's going on?" Yan Bugui asked, somewhat frightened.

"Get out of the way! Why are you closing the gate at this hour?" Li Huaide frowned.

"Uh, this..." Yan Bugui looked embarrassed.

Fortunately, Li Huaide was just saying it casually, and before Yan Bugui could even reply, he and an officer led two guards into the courtyard.

There were also two jeeps and two soldiers at the gate.

Yan Bugui followed closely behind from the side, exiting the gatehouse, and asked nervously, "Director Li, is there something you need...?"

"Don't ask questions about things you shouldn't know!" Li Huaide said coldly.

Just then, Li Xiangdong came out of the hanging flower gate and saw Li Huaide coming in.

"Director Li, is there something you need at this time?" Li Xiangdong asked with a smile.

"Of course there's something I need to discuss. Let's go to your place right away. By the way, this is Director Zhao. He needs to talk to you about something," Li Huaide said with a smile.

"Alright, come to my place for a cup of tea," Li Xiangdong said, raising an eyebrow. He knew this must be about the grenade-sniping incident.

Yan Bugui watched as Li Xiangdong led his men through the screen door. After a moment of stunned silence, Yan Bugui hurriedly ran towards the central courtyard.

Yan Bugui ran to the door of Yi Zhonghai's house in the Intermediate People's Court and saw that there were still lights on inside, so he hurriedly knocked on the door.

"Who is it?" Yi Zhonghai's voice rang out, followed by the door opening, where the deaf old woman walked out and headed straight for the backyard. She ignored Yan Bugui!

"Old Yan, what else is on your mind at this hour? Come in and talk."

Yi Zhonghai gave a greeting.

Yan Bugui recounted what he had just witnessed, and then frowned, saying, "I wonder what Director Li wanted to see Li Xiangdong about, and what about those soldiers?"

"Looks like it won't be easy to deal with him."

"Old Yan, you're wrong. How could we possibly go after the leaders?" Yi Zhonghai said with a confident expression. "We should think about the leaders. That's why I took the old lady to see Director Yang this morning..."

"Is it that Director Yang is going to punish him?" Yan Bugui asked excitedly.