Courtyard House: Purchasing Agents' Comeback from the Great Famine

Six o'clock in the afternoon.

The front yard, the Yan family's house.

Yan Jiecheng took a bite of his cornbread and said to Yan Fugui with a smile, "Dad, Mom, I have good news for you. Yu Li has agreed to marry me."

"Really? That's great!"

The three women grinned and said, "I knew that Yu Li was a good match for our Jie Cheng. She's just a little thin and her hips aren't big enough, but that's okay. She'll take good care of herself after she marries into the family."

After finishing a cornbread, Yan Fugui looked at Yan Jiecheng and said, "Jiecheng, how much dowry are they asking for? Are there any other requirements? You know our family's situation; too much dowry won't do."

"Dad, the bride price is ten yuan. There are no other requirements. Yu Li's father said that as long as I treat Yu Li well in the future, that's enough," Yan Jiecheng said with a smile.

Upon hearing that the bride price was ten yuan, Yan Fugui nodded: "Ten yuan isn't much. Okay, then you and Yu Li can discuss it and find a time to get your marriage certificate."

"Okay, thank you, Dad. By the way, Dad, do you think we should set up a few tables in the yard?"

"Of course I want it, why wouldn't I?"

Yan Fugui did the math and said, "Let's set up three tables. I'll buy lots of cabbage, radishes, potatoes and stuff. I have to make back the money I spent on wedding gifts."

Yan Jiecheng said cautiously, "Dad, aren't you going to make some meat dishes?"

"Sure, we have lots of dried fish at home, just a few on each table will do."

Upon hearing this, Yan Jiecheng's expression turned somewhat unpleasant. If all they were to do was prepare a few dried fish, it would be better not to hold a banquet at all.

He planned to spend ten yuan of his own money to buy some meat from the pigeon market on the day of her wedding banquet, so as not to embarrass Yu Li.

The thought of having to spend another ten yuan made Yan Jiecheng's heart ache. He had worked odd jobs at the train station for two months to save up ten yuan, and now it was all gone in an instant.

The thought of Wang Feng making him pay an extra hundred yuan for a workstation made him grit his teeth even more.

......

late at night.

Yan Jiecheng put on his cotton-padded coat, pushed open the door, and carefully entered the central courtyard.

Upon seeing the two old hens in the coop in front of Wang Feng's house, Yan Jiecheng glanced around. Seeing that no one was around, he opened the coop, grabbed one of the hens by the neck, and twisted it hard, killing the hen instantly.

After twisting the chicken to death, Yan Jiecheng threw it back into the coop, grabbed another chicken, and twisted it hard again, killing the other hen in his hands.

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After closing the chicken coop, Yan Jiecheng didn't dare take the chickens and went back to his house in the front yard to continue sleeping.

"Hmph, Wang Feng, I can't beat you, so I'll resort to underhanded tactics. Let's see what you can do to me then!"

Not long after Yan Jiecheng left, a short and fat figure emerged from the darkness, clearly having witnessed Yan Jiecheng strangling the chicken.

......

The next morning, Wang Feng was still half asleep when he heard Qin Jingru screaming.

"Brother Wang Feng, our two old hens are dead! Come and see!"

Qin Jingru was heartbroken when two old hens died. These two hens were brought from her parents' home, and she used to receive two eggs from them every day.

Wang Feng put on his clothes, walked out of the room, and said, "Jingru, move aside, let me see what's going on."

Wang Feng was also puzzled. The chicken was perfectly fine yesterday, so how could it suddenly die?

Upon opening the chicken coop, Wang Feng noticed that both chickens had lost some feathers from their necks.

After catching a chicken, Wang Feng examined it and realized that it hadn't died of disease, but rather that someone had broken its neck.

He picked up the other chicken and examined it; it too had its neck broken and died. Wang Feng was now certain that someone was trying to take revenge on him.

"Damn it, you don't dare to lay a hand on me, so you sneak around killing my chickens, huh?" Wang Feng cursed inwardly.

"Jingru, these two chickens had their necks broken, they didn't die of disease. Go and kill the chickens for Aunt Wu, and give the smaller ones to her."

"what?"

"Brother Wang Feng, you said someone killed our chickens? Who is so despicable?" Qin Jingru said angrily.

Wang Feng shook his head: "This person killed the chicken but didn't even take it. It must have been someone from the yard who did it, just to prevent us from finding out about him."

"Ugh, I'm so angry! If I find out who killed our chickens, I'll make them pay!" Qin Jingru said angrily.

As she spoke, Qin Jingru carried two chickens and went to Aunt Wu's house in the front yard.

After Qin Jingru left, Wang Feng wondered who this person was and who he had offended recently.

Yi Zhonghai, Liu Haizhong, Jia Jia?

He beat up Sha Zhu and then beat up Yi Zhonghai. Sha Zhu must also hold a grudge against him. He rejected Yan Fugui yesterday. He shouldn't be so heartless as to retaliate against him for such a trivial matter, right?

Yan Fugui had never gotten the better of him, so he must have been unhappy with him, but there wasn't really any major conflict between them.

If we include Lou Xiao'e's matter, Xu Damao has also been offended by him, only Xu Damao is unaware of it.

By that calculation, he has offended almost all the beasts in the entire No. 95 compound.

In courtyard number 95, only Aunt Wu's family had a relatively good relationship with his family. The other residents were neither offended nor on good terms with him.

After thinking it over and over, Wang Feng still couldn't guess who this person was. Mainly because he had offended too many people in courtyard number 95. However, he was certain that the person who killed the chicken was definitely someone from the courtyard, otherwise, he wouldn't have killed the chicken and left it there.

When Qin Jingru arrived at Aunt Wu's house and told her what had happened, Aunt Wu was immediately shocked.

Aunt Wu took two chickens to the pond in the middle courtyard to pluck their feathers. Everyone in the courtyard thought Aunt Wu had gone mad. How could someone who was usually so frugal kill two chickens today, and two old hens at that?

When Aunt Wu told everyone about the chickens that had been killed at Wang Feng's house, everyone was astonished.

"Who is this guy? He's so ruthless! If Wang Feng offended him, he could have just gone to Wang Feng directly. Sneaking around and strangling Wang Feng's chickens in the middle of the night? That's terrifying!"

"Yes, I'll bring my chickens inside tonight. If this heartless bastard strangles my chickens too, I'll have nowhere to cry."

"I think this person must be from the yard, otherwise why would he kill the chicken and not take it away? Isn't that obviously to prevent Wang Feng from finding out about him?"

"Of course, I already suspected it was someone from our compound. I never imagined that a chicken-killing maniac would appear in our compound. This is terrifying."

"Do you think this person could be Jia Zhangshi? In our courtyard, only she would do something like this," Old Hu guessed.

"Old Hu, you're the chicken-killing maniac! Your whole family are chicken-killing maniacs! How dare you frame me? I'm not finished with you!"

Standing behind the crowd, Jia Zhangshi heard Lao Hu's words clearly.

Jia Zhangshi knew who the chicken killer was, but since Wang Feng and the Yan family were both against her, she deliberately kept quiet and let them fight like dogs.

When Lao Hu saw Jia Zhangshi standing right behind him, he immediately gave an awkward smile.

"Jia Zhangshi, I'm just guessing, you understand? I didn't say it was definitely you. Who told you to steal things from Wang Feng's house not long ago?"

Madam Jia Zhang cursed loudly, "Old devil Hu, do you want to start a fight? Who's afraid of who? Come on! I'm coming to your house and I'm not leaving. If you don't pay me back today, I'll sit in your house, eat and drink your food, and let's see what you can do about it!"

After a heated argument, the two finally settled with Lao Hu paying Jia Zhangshi two cents in compensation, because Lao Hu hadn't been paying attention to what was behind him when he spoke.

Soon, the story of the chicken-killing maniac caused a huge uproar in the yard.