Courtyard House: Starting as a mediocre engineer

"Get out of the way!"

The burly man was already desperate. With a "whoosh," he swung his fist forcefully at Zhuang Zhongchen.

Zhuang Zhongchen reacted extremely quickly, raising his arm to block. Several sharp blows rang out as they exchanged several exchanges, both of them staggering back several steps.

What the hell!

Zhuang Zhongchen was secretly astonished. This burly man was incredibly strong! He was in no way inferior to himself. He must never underestimate others; he would still encounter people with amazing physical talents, almost on par with a transmigrated cheat like himself.

However, the current situation is somewhat awkward. Without a doubt, the burly man is a desperate criminal, here to fight to the death. Although Zhuang Zhongchen possesses fighting skills, he needs to capture him alive, preferably without sustaining any injuries. Only a madman would trade blows with him. This back-and-forth has made Zhuang Zhongchen somewhat hesitant, as if he can't defeat this burly man anytime soon… No!

Zhuang Zhongchen suddenly had a flash of inspiration: didn't he have a dream lover?

He quickly opened his briefcase and pulled out the stun baton. Facing the burly man who lunged at him again, Zhuang Zhongchen turned on the power. "Buzz buzz buzz..."

"Holy crap! What the hell?! Ah—!"

Amid the burly man's screams, Zhuang Zhongchen showed no mercy, repeatedly slapping the man's body until he immediately lost all resistance and collapsed to the ground, convulsing.

"Damn it! Go ahead and resist!"

"Sizzle sizzle..."

"Ah! Ahhh—!"

Hearing that pig-like scream, everyone around was stunned. What on earth was that thing? The more they looked at it, the more horrifying it became. A stick that could generate electricity—was this even something a human could conceive of?

Fortunately, the police didn't forget their duty. After a moment of hesitation, they immediately swarmed forward and quickly handcuffed the burly man...

Old Qi, still shaken, went to Zhuang Zhongchen's side. Pointing at the stun gun, he asked, "What on earth is this thing?"

"I invented it. Old Qi, what do you think, is it any good?"

"Holy crap! Why did you invent this thing?"

"For self-defense! People like us who are in charge of safety are the most hated. We're either issuing fines or on our way to issuing them. Didn't they beat up a factory safety officer the other day, leaving him with a swollen, bruised face?"

"Alright, alright! Let's not talk about that now. This thing of yours...?"

"Stun gun!"

"An electric baton? Is this something our police use? Are the equipment department blind? How come I've never seen one before?"

"Didn't I tell you? I just invented this. Think about it, it's actually most suitable for you police officers. You can use it for self-defense in peacetime, and when arresting criminals, it's a non-lethal police weapon. It's accurate every time, which can reduce casualties for you and criminals."

"I understand, of course I understand. Can I borrow it to play with?"

To be honest, the moment police see an electric baton, they can see many advantages. Especially in this day and age, besides the Type 54 pistol and the Big Black Star pistol, the only other police equipment they have are handcuffs.

Just like now, Lao Qi and his team were making the arrests unarmed. If the burly man had a knife, it would be playing with his life. Therefore, non-lethal police equipment is precisely a gap in the market.

Old Qi was overjoyed with the stun gun; he was beaming with delight as he played with it. At that moment, the old baton had become his dream baton.

"Old Qi, by the way, it can also be used when interrogating prisoners. But a word of caution: it cannot be used on the elderly, the infirm, the disabled, or pregnant women!"

"I know, I know. How powerful is it?" Old Qi grinned foolishly, stroking the stick of his dreams.

"It's quite powerful. You could try it on a small animal."

Just then, two cats passed by, one a tabby and the other a large orange tabby.

Suddenly, their sixth sense kicked in with an extreme danger alert. The two cats immediately bristled, huddled together, and trembled: "Meow! You two-legged creatures! Just be human, meow!"

Old Qi withdrew his gaze: "Forget it, there's no shortage of die-hards in the detention center anyway, let them do the experiments!"

"Okay. Don't forget to return it to me, okay? Mine's long one isn't very convenient to put in my bag."

"Huh? You still have one left? Damn!"

After putting away the stun gun, the two finally got down to business.

"Xiao Zhuang, how did you spot the suspect?"

"A few days ago, we conducted a thorough inspection of the rooftops to check for snow accumulation, focusing on safety measures. This plumbing factory happened to be one of the sites I was responsible for inspecting, and at the time, the railings were definitely fine. So when this fall from a height happened today, I became suspicious. I then carefully examined the gap and discovered..."

"Do you still have your report? It would be best if you could provide us with a copy. We need to solidify our evidence."

"It's right here in our workplace. You..."

"..."

Because the suspect was apprehended on the spot, the murder case was quickly closed.

A few days later, Zhuang Zhongchen learned the basic details of the case.

The deceased was an elderly man in his fifties, living alone. He was a long-time employee of the water pipe factory. He had later adopted a distant nephew, the strong man in question, hoping to provide for him in his old age and see him to his death. He even used his connections to get a menial job at the water pipe factory.

In reality, this was a temporary worker. But as mentioned before, there was no temporary worker policy at that time, so there was no national or collective employment system. It was similar to Wen Yumei's previous job, selling popsicles at the swimming pool.

According to the deceased's wishes, when he retired, he would definitely want to leave his job to his stepson, that strong man.

However, ordinary employees generally do not have this kind of energy.

Just like in the courtyard house, in the original story, Liu Guangtian and Liu Guangfu didn't get jobs at the steel rolling mill, right? The second uncle, Liu Haizhong, also had no way of arranging them. The third uncle's children, too, didn't go to primary school or the education system, right? Even the ultimate sycophant, He Yuzhu, couldn't get a job at the steel rolling mill for Bang Geng's sake; in the end, he had to pull strings and ask a friend to arrange a driver's position at another company.

Therefore, it's very difficult for ordinary people to do this. It depends on whether the factory leaders are willing to help. Everyone should understand this, so there are many variables.

Furthermore, with 10 years until retirement, there was even less guarantee. So the burly man hatched a wicked plan—if the deceased died unexpectedly, he could not only receive a large sum of workers' compensation, but also directly take over the job?

The burly man then tampered with the railing, secretly sawing it off. While he was working, he took advantage of the deceased's momentary lapse in attention and pushed him off the railing.

The other two workers had no suspicions whatsoever; who would have thought such a thing would happen? The deceased and the burly man were relatives! So they also testified that it was an "accident"...

But to everyone's surprise, Zhuang Zhongchen saw through the flaw in the plan!