The Courtyard House: He Yuzhu Returns with Boundless Hatred for Revenge

Soon, the security team acted swiftly, taking the list and heading straight to each workshop.

In the workshop, Yi Zhonghai stood anxiously at his workstation. Just now, Zhang Guifen had come and told him about the old lady's arrest and the ransacking of her home! Yi Zhonghai had a bad feeling. This matter was most likely caused by the director of the street office or He Yuzhu, because he had a vague feeling that something was wrong when He Yuzhu was still in the canteen earlier.

He sent Zhang Guifen home in a huff. At that moment, his heart was pounding with anxiety. Would the deaf old woman's accident implicate him? Just as he was thinking this, a cold shout interrupted his thoughts.

"Yi Zhonghai!"

Yi Zhonghai looked up and saw several security officers standing in front of his workstation. He panicked for a moment, but tried to remain calm. "Comrades, what's the matter?"

"What's wrong? Don't you know what you've done? Come with us to the security office!"

Then, the leader took the list and called out names one by one!

"Wang Dachui, Li Fugui, Zhang Jianjun... you guys come along too!"

"Master! What, what's going on?" Wang Dachui was terrified and looked at Yi Zhonghai in horror.

Seeing his apprentice and several lackeys who usually fawned over him being named, he immediately understood that the matter had been exposed! It was a fabrication! His heart sank to the bottom.

"Old Yi? Comrade from the security department, is there some misunderstanding?" The workshop director rushed over upon hearing the news, but his face showed little concern; instead, it was somewhat gloating. He had long disliked this Yi Zhonghai. He always put on a sanctimonious act in the workshop, pretending to be a champion of the people, winning over apprentices, establishing his authority, and constantly forming cliques. He didn't even respect him, the workshop director. He was hypocritical and disgusting.

"Take this to the security office to say what you have to say!" The security personnel didn't bother with any more words and simply took Yi Zhonghai and the others away.

The entire workshop erupted in chaos! The workers whispered amongst themselves, discussing the matter animatedly.

"Master Yi has been arrested?"

"And then there's Wang Dachui and the others; they're all Master Yi's apprentices and close associates!"

"What major incident has occurred? Why is the security department making such a large-scale operation?"

"Master Yi usually seems quite upright, how could he..."

"You can know a person's face but not their heart! It seems I've committed a serious crime!"

The upright image that Yi Zhonghai had painstakingly cultivated over the years was shattered at this moment. He was escorted out of the workshop by the security officers, feeling the various gazes behind him, and his heart was filled with extreme humiliation.

Subsequently, the security department invited Liu Haizhong and others into the department, and even went to the trouble of going to Hongxing Elementary School to arrest Yan Bugui and bring him to the steel rolling mill. For a time, the security department was a hive of birds, quite a lively scene.

Only Jia Dongxu was absent from the list. Upon investigation, it turned out he had been beaten and both legs broken outside. There was also the police report about Jia Dongxu from that morning, and the matter was reported to Tan Jin. Tan Jin was speechless; what kind of people lived in this courtyard house? One problem after another. Gambling in groups is no small matter, but this was serious injury. These days, firing a worker isn't so easy. In the end, after careful consideration, his work position was retained, but the replacement would have to start as an apprentice.

At the hospital, people from the steel mill's union and personnel department found the ward.

"Comrade Jia Dongxu, the factory has received a report from the police station regarding your gambling activities. Given your current serious injuries and special circumstances, the factory office has decided to retain your position and not dismiss you."

Just as Jia Dongxu and Qin Huairu breathed a sigh of relief, the other party's next words plunged them back into despair.

"However, since you were injured while gambling, a serious offense, the person who takes your place will not be able to directly inherit your permanent employee status. The person who takes your place will have to start as an apprentice, and their salary will also be calculated as an apprentice. This is the maximum consideration the factory can provide; we hope you will take care of yourself."

"Apprentice? Eighteen dollars and fifty cents a month?" Jia Dongxu muttered, then let out a desperate wail, "No! How am I supposed to live on this!" He waved his hands, looking like a madman.

Qin Huairu was utterly desperate, her eyes lifeless. Her regular salary of over thirty yuan had plummeted to eighteen and a half yuan as an apprentice, and she still had to support a large family, including a disabled husband and a mother-in-law with a big appetite... This life was truly unbearable!

In the interrogation room of the steel rolling mill's security department, the beasts were interrogated separately. Faced with the immense pressure from the security department, these men quickly broke down and, in order to protect themselves, began desperately shifting blame.

"Comrade, I was deceived! It was all Yi Zhonghai's doing! He told us to do it this way! He said He Yuzhu had disrupted the unity of the hospital and needed to be taught a lesson. We were all following his orders! He said it was for the good of the whole hospital. He's an old man, and he has the old lady backing him up, so we didn't dare disobey." This is what Liu Haizhong said.

Yan Bugui further distanced himself from the situation: "I'm just a teacher, with little influence in the courtyard. Yi Zhonghai is an elder statesman; how could I dare object to their decisions? The deaf old lady is the matriarch of the courtyard; they've both spoken, and I could only agree with a few words under pressure. The rumors were mainly spread by Yi Zhonghai, Liu Haizhong, and their gang, along with those women; I really didn't participate much!"

When interrogated, Yi Zhonghai insisted that he was trying to maintain unity within the compound and to guide He Yuzhu onto the right path, portraying all his actions as well-intentioned but misguided.

At this moment, he looked heartbroken and indignant, saying, "Comrade! I'm a victim too! It's all that deaf old lady's fault! She forced us to do this!"

"She takes advantage of her age and her connections with Director Wang and Factory Director Yang at the neighborhood office to act like a tyrant in the compound! We dare not disobey her! She dislikes He Yuzhu and insists that we teach him a lesson, forcing him to hand over his house and lunchbox. She was the one who came up with those rumors! She said that's the only way to ruin He Yuzhu's reputation and make him submit."

"I, as the eldest son of a resident of this courtyard, sometimes have to go along with her wishes to maintain the facade of harmony in the courtyard. I don't actually agree with it, but I have no choice! She has powerful connections, and we can't afford to offend her! Everything I do is forced upon me, directed by her! Please, the organization, investigate this matter thoroughly!"

Yi Zhonghai wept bitterly, portraying himself as a pitiful wretch forced to act under the oppression of the old tyrant, and poured all the filth onto the person he once revered as his ancestor.

The interrogator had truly had his eyes opened today. In his years of security work, he'd seen all sorts of people, but never anyone like the group in compound number 95, whose shamelessness had reached such an extreme. After interrogating so many people, he felt his own values ​​were starting to crumble.

Listening to Yi Zhonghai's sophistry, there were even moments when he felt a slight sense of agreement. But he quickly snapped out of it, shaking his head and dismissing those fallacies.