Courtyard House: Inheriting the Restaurant, the Jia Family Wants to Get It for Free

This is the only promise he can make right now.

Tan Zhaodi listened to his words without feeling the slightest ripple in her heart.

She said calmly, "Okay, I understand. Let's adopt a child after you're discharged from the hospital."

"Okay, okay! We'll do whatever you say! We'll go adopt one, we'll adopt a son!"

Yi Zhonghai nodded repeatedly.

He would be willing to adopt ten children, let alone one, as long as he could keep Tan Zhaodi.

As the two were talking, Tan Zhaodi suddenly remembered that the lunchbox was missing a spoon.

"Wait a minute, I'll go to the nurses' station to borrow a spoon."

As she spoke, she got up and left the ward.

As soon as I stepped out the door, I bumped into someone.

"Ouch!"

The other person exclaimed in surprise, almost dropping the lunchbox in their hand.

Tan Zhaodi looked up and froze.

"Qin Huairu?"

Qin Huairu recognized her and immediately put on a warm smile: "Aunt Tan? What are you doing here? Are you feeling unwell?"

As she spoke, she looked Tan Zhaodi up and down with concern.

Tan Zhaodi now feels uncomfortable around anyone in the courtyard.

She always felt that other people looked at her with pity and ridicule.

She didn't want to say much to Qin Huairu, so she just nodded coldly as a greeting, and then tried to walk around him.

Qin Huairu felt a little strange seeing her cold attitude.

Although she had only been married to Jia Dongxu for a few days, Tan Zhaodi had been quite kind to her before.

What's wrong with me today?

She wanted to ask a couple more questions, but Tan Zhaodi had already walked past her expressionlessly.

Qin Huai stood there, staring at Tan Zhaodi's retreating figure, completely bewildered.

Just then, a head popped out from a nearby ward; it was a woman in her forties.

The older woman had been eavesdropping in the corridor and overheard Qin Huairu and Tan Zhaodi's conversation.

She grabbed Qin Huairu and asked in a gossipy whisper, "Hey, lady, do you know that woman from earlier?"

Although Qin Huairu felt puzzled, she still nodded: "I know her, she's a neighbor in our courtyard."

"Oh dear, do you know what happened to her man?"

The woman's eyes sparkled with excitement.

Qin Huairu was even more bewildered.

"Her man? Master Yi? What happened to him?"

When the older woman saw that she seemed to know nothing, she immediately perked up, feeling that she had obtained firsthand information.

She pulled Qin Huairu aside, lowered her voice, and said mysteriously, "You don't know yet, do you? Let me tell you, I just overheard the nurses talking. They said that woman's man, what's his name... yeah, Yi Zhonghai! He got beaten up and is in the hospital!"

"What?!" Qin Huairu exclaimed in shock. "Master Yi was beaten up? Who beat him up?"

"I don't know about that." The middle-aged woman shook her head, then leaned closer, lowering her voice even more, as if afraid of being overheard. "That's not the most shocking part! I heard them say that Yi Zhonghai got kicked and injured! Right there..."

As the woman spoke, she pointed in a veiled manner.

"The doctor examined him and said he has a congenital condition, and this injury will... prevent him from having children ever again!"

"Now the whole hospital is buzzing with the news that a 'eunuch' came out of courtyard number 95!"

boom!

Qin Huairu felt as if a bomb had exploded in her head.

Her mouth was agape, her eyes were wide open, and she froze on the spot.

Her man's mentor... that highly respected and revered Master Yi in the courtyard...

Was he a eunuch?

Or...or is it innate?

How...how is this possible?!

This news is so revolutionary and shocking!

Qin Huairu's head was buzzing, and she couldn't react for a long time.

The gossipy old woman looked at her stunned expression, smiled with satisfaction, feeling that she had successfully shared a shocking piece of gossip, and then retreated back to the ward.

Qin Huai was left alone, standing blankly in the corridor, the lunchbox in his hand feeling like it weighed a ton.

Qin Huai stood in the corridor for a full five minutes before she could recover slightly from the shock.

Her mind was still a jumbled mess.

Yi Zhonghai... is he a eunuch?

Then... then he and his wife Tan Zhaodi have never had children, doesn't that mean...

Qin Huairu dared not think any further.

She suddenly understood why Tan Zhaodi had looked so cold when she saw her earlier.

After such a huge scandal, anyone would be too ashamed to show their face in public!

Carrying the lunchbox, she walked unsteadily back to Jia Zhangshi's ward.

On the hospital bed, Jia Zhangshi was waiting impatiently.

She suffered a stroke, leaving half of her body paralyzed and her speech slurred, but her mind remained clear.

Seeing Qin Huairu walk in looking lost and dejected, she immediately became nervous.

"Huai...Huai...what...what happened?"

Jia Zhangshi asked vaguely, her eyes filled with terror.

What she feared most was that her son, Jia Dongxu, who was undergoing reform through labor on a farm, would cause some more trouble.

Qin Huairu looked at her, opened her mouth, but didn't know what to say.

This is truly unbelievable.

"N-nothing...it's nothing..."

She forced a smile and placed the lunchbox on the bedside table.

"You...you're lying to me!" Although Jia Zhangshi's words were slurred, her eyes were sharp. "Your...your face...it's all pale! Quick...tell me! Is it...is it Dongxu...?"

"No, no!" Qin Huairu quickly waved her hands. "Mom, don't think nonsense, Dongxu is fine! It's...it's just that something happened in the hospital."

"In the courtyard?" Madam Jia was taken aback. "What is it?"

Qin Huai hesitated for a moment, but since she knew she would find out sooner or later, she simply told him.

She leaned close to Jia Zhangshi's ear, lowered her voice, and told Jia Zhangshi everything she had heard from that gossipy old woman.

"...That's how it is. Now it's all over the hospital. People are saying that Master Yi...he's dying, he's become a eunuch."

After hearing this, Jia Zhangshi was completely stunned.

Her one movable eye was wide open like a copper bell, her mouth was half open, and saliva was dripping down the corner of her mouth, but she didn't even notice.

Yi Zhonghai…the man she always saw as a hypocrite, the mentor of her son Jia Dongxu…

Infertility?

Is it a childless family?

This news was just as impactful to Jia Zhangshi as it was when she learned that her house was gone.