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

"Then there's nothing we can do." Li Xiangdong said, pulling Yu Li away.

"Wait, there's still the matter of the main gate!" Yan Bugui stood up and said, "The main gate is to be closed at night and opened at six o'clock in the morning, with the consent of all the residents. Of course, if there's something going on in the morning, it can be opened at five o'clock."

"But it has to be closed at nine o'clock at night, and the residents still give me a dime a month..."

"Heh heh, just because everyone agrees, does that mean I can be deprived of the right to come and go as I please?" Li Xiangdong sneered. "What if everyone agrees to take your family's money and divide it up?"

"You...you're just being unreasonable!" Yan Bugui said, trembling.

"I don't care what others do, if closing the gate is blocking my way in and out, then I won't be polite," Li Xiangdong said coldly.

"Yeah, I don't agree to close the gate anymore. What a load of rubbish! I still have to pay you. I go out to the pigeon market, and when I come back, you still rip me off," Xu Damao said angrily.

“Yes, we disagree too.” Yu Dajiang also stood up.

"Yes, yes. We didn't agree at the time either. We were forced into it!"

"Hmm, they only give you a dime a month, what kind of nonsense is this?"

"The more I think about it, the angrier I get. Why didn't I fight back then?"

"The Caotama family, the Shazhu family, the Jia family, and the families of these three old men, as well as the deaf old lady's family, don't need to pay. We're the ones who are being sucked up!"

……

The crowd began to discuss the matter.

Xu Damao knew that opportunity 330 had come again: "Alright, everyone disagrees. They were all coerced by these three. Now we have to return the money from the past two years!"

"Otherwise, we'll report it to the local authorities!"

Upon hearing that there was such a good deal, the residents immediately demanded a refund.

"No way, I'm not giving you a refund!" Yan Bugui said angrily. "I've been keeping your business open and closed for over two years, how can you expect me to give you a refund? All my labor has been for nothing!"

"If you don't refund, we'll go to your school to complain tomorrow."

"Yes, we still need to go to the neighborhood committee. We need to explain everything you've done."

"Refund the money immediately! After two and a half years, only three yuan will be refunded to each household!"

"Give me my money back! Give me my money back!"

The twenty or so households all started shouting. Seeing this, Li Xiangdong grinned and laughed from the bottom of his heart. Watching the beast suffer made Li Xiangdong feel very happy.

Yan Bugui's face turned pale. He knew this would get back to the school. Leaving aside the question of whether he could still face anyone, he'd be expelled!

This must not be allowed to happen.

"I'll refund the money, I'll refund the money, that's not enough. I'll refund half..." Yan Bugui wanted to refund less.

"You'd better behave yourself. If you don't hurry up, we might have to take back all the benefits you've taken advantage of," Xu Damao said smugly.

Li Xiangdong and Yu Li stopped watching and walked away hand in hand.

Back home, Li Xiangdong started cutting beef and mutton in the yard. His knife skills were superb! In no time, he had cut out five pounds of beef and five pounds of mutton.

At this moment, snowflakes fell like goose feathers. Yu Li held up an oilcloth umbrella to shield Li Xiangdong from the snow.

"Beef and mutton! Tsk tsk, Chief Engineer Li, your knife skills are far superior to that of that bastard Sha Zhu." Xu Damao walked in through the screen door, looking at the beef and mutton with surprise.

"Silly Zhu? He's probably enjoying his newfound wealth now," Li Xiangdong sneered.

Yu Li moved all the things to the main room, where a coal stove was placed under the table.

"Xiao Li, take this meat and this earthenware pot back with you. Put it on the coal stove and boil it. You can have hot pot with your aunt and your three younger brothers," Li Xiangdong said to Xiao Li.

"Go back and ask Uncle Yu to come over and have a couple of drinks with Director Li."

A clay pot contained concentrated broth and seafood hot pot base. It wasn't spicy. Yu Li also took some slices of beef and lamb, along with other vegetables and condiments.

Yu Li brought her three younger brothers over to move everything before they could get everything together.

"Lidong, where did you get all this good stuff? Tsk tsk, just pour all this stuff in for a meeting and it turns into broth. It's really amazing!" Yu Dajiang said in surprise.

"There's nothing magical about it, you just need to simmer the broth like crazy. Of course, there's a bit of skill involved." Li Xiangdong couldn't say it was a combination of technology and grueling work.

Xu Damao diligently helped out. Just then, Li Huaide walked in with his driver.

After exchanging pleasantries, we sat down and began to eat.

"Tsk tsk, Chief Engineer Li, your idea is really novel. You can have hot pot using a coal stove. Not bad, not bad." Li Huaide said with a look of surprise.

"Hehe, without professional equipment, we can only make do," Li Xiangdong said politely.

Xu Damao had already opened the bottle and poured drinks for everyone.

"Want some meat?" Li Xiangdong asked with a smile. "If you like spicy food, put it in the spicy broth; if you don't, put it in the clear broth."

Everyone was probably hungry, and the aroma of the hot pot was enticing. At first, everyone ate heartily, but once they had some food in their stomachs, they slowly picked up their glasses and began to sip their drinks.

"Tsk tsk, looking at the heavy snow outside, we're eating hot pot and drinking wine. This is what happiness feels like." Li Huaide downed a glass of wine in one go.

"Hehe, we're drinking here. That idiot Sha Zhu is exercising in solitary confinement now," Xu Damao said, mentioning Sha Zhu.

Knowing that Sha Zhu was suffering, Xu Damao felt inexplicably happy.

“That guy deserves to be taught a lesson,” Li Huaide said viciously. “He never takes me seriously. This time, we must teach him a good lesson.”

Li Xiangdong and Yu Dajiang exchanged a glance, wisely choosing not to participate in the conversation. They simply continued eating.

The drinking session lasted for two hours, and by the time they got the heavily intoxicated Li Huaide to the gate, it was already around nine o'clock. Fortunately, the driver hadn't been drinking and drove Li Huaide away.

Li Xiangdong turned back and helped Xu Damao back inside. The guy was already fast asleep, like a log.

Then I went back and took Yu Dajiang to the back room. In Yu Li's bedroom, I spent some time with her. Seeing it was 9:30, I reluctantly left to go home.

At this moment, heavy snow began to fall, falling very rapidly. The tracks left twenty minutes earlier were already covered by the snow.

Just as Li Xiangdong was about to turn out from the corner into the backyard, he saw Yi Zhonghai moving from the middle yard into the backyard. And he seemed quite cautious.

"Hmm, Yi Zhonghai is looking for the deaf old lady at this time, he must be plotting something."

Li Xiangdong watched as Yi Zhonghai entered the deaf old woman's two rooms. He stood outside the wall, listening intently to what was happening inside.

Yi Zhonghai and the deaf old woman felt their voices were quiet enough. Besides, it was snowing heavily; everyone should be in bed by now.

Li Xiangdong heard the voice inside: "The old lady hasn't gone to sleep yet."

The deaf old woman sighed, "Oh dear, what are we going to do about Zhuzi? This snow is so heavy."

"There's no other way. You know what happened just now. That little bastard is incredibly slippery." Yi Zhonghai said helplessly, "Zhuzi will just have to suffer for the rest of the night."

"Don't worry, ma'am, the security department won't cause any deaths."

"Hmm, have you explained things to that young widow yet?" the deaf old woman's voice asked.

"It's settled then, she took out a bra." Yi Zhonghai said hesitantly, "But how do I fit it in?"

"That little bastard locks the door all the time. He gets alert as soon as the lock is opened."

The deaf old woman said quietly, "His lock isn't very good; Jia Zhangshi could have opened it with a wire. Let Jia Zhangshi handle this matter."

"What? Jia Zhangshi has this ability?" Yi Zhonghai asked in surprise.

“I’ve seen it; she’s still hiding and keeping you. Don’t worry, I’ve been keeping an eye on her. I’ll make sure she doesn’t have a chance to steal from your house,” the deaf old woman said. “She hasn’t dared to be too arrogant either.”

"Alright (cgcb), go find Jia Zhangshi. You can give her some money if necessary."

"Once things blow up tomorrow night, the three of you must work together to get that little beast under control," the deaf old woman said viciously. "You must skin him alive!"

"He has no choice but to hand over the house, the money, and everything! Unless he wants to be ruined and go to jail. This little bastard actually dares to challenge my ancestors! Heh heh!"

“Fine, I’ll have Jia Zhangshi put Qin Huairu’s underwear on his bed tomorrow when no one’s looking. He won’t be able to explain himself no matter what.” Yi Zhonghai said maliciously.

“Let him marry Qin Huairu. He has enough money to support the Jia family. It will prevent him from sucking my precious grandson’s blood.” The deaf old woman said.

“Okay, all of this is easy to handle.” Yi Zhonghai said, “Grandma, you can go to sleep now. I’m going back too. Hehe, he’ll be in for a surprise tomorrow night.”

"That's how it happened. Jia Zhangshi discovered that Qin Huairu was missing a pair of underwear," the deaf old woman said. "As a result, Qin Huairu confessed that she had left them on the little beast's bed."

"He earns so much money, Qin Huairu will definitely be willing to live with him. As long as the money is right, Jia Zhangshi can talk about anything."

Li Xiangdong felt a chill run down his spine. If he was about to be ambushed, he would have no choice but to flee to Hong Kong with Yu Li.

But Yu Li's family is about to be scammed.

"Damn it, I'm going to get you this time, Yi Zhonghai. As for the deaf old lady, we'll take it slow," Li Xiangdong thought to himself.

"Xiao Yi, I've been on tenterhooks these past two days. In a couple of days, take me out. We need to find someone to kill that damned woman. Otherwise, my identity will be exposed." The deaf old woman's slow, deliberate voice was filled with murderous intent.

"No, old lady, what kind of person are you? How could you possibly kill someone to cover it up? I can't do that, and I've never heard of it before!" Yi Zhonghai said, somewhat frightened.

“You don’t need to kill anyone, I do everything.” The deaf old woman said slowly, “I used to live in the Eight Great Hutongs and ran a large courtyard.”

"You...you are a madam!" Yi Zhonghai said in a panic.

“Yes, you don’t recognize me. But you used to go to Chunhua Courtyard often, and you would always look for Xiao Cui. Hehe… Xiao Yi, I didn’t expect I would still remember you,” the deaf old woman said.

Yi Zhonghai was completely numb.

"The person I want to kill is the maid who served me back then. A couple of days ago, she actually recognized me on the street," the deaf old woman said viciously. "She even told me that I live in the room east of the gatehouse in Weihong Courtyard."

"She's trying to get money from me. Heh heh, if you want my money, then I'll just have to send her to the deepest hell."

After returning to his bedroom, Li Xiangdong pondered what he should do.

"I'll have to go to the head office to file a complaint tomorrow." They've ruined the deaf old woman!