The Courtyard House: The story begins with He Yuzhu beating up the White Widow.

He Yuzhu stopped and called out, "Auntie!"

Ye Guoliang's wife, Kang Minyan, asked, "You've come to take Yushui to school?!"

"Yes!" He Yuzhu replied, then suddenly remembered that Kang Minyan seemed to be the dean of students at Hongxing Elementary School, and his expression changed slightly. However, He Yuzhu quickly covered it up and said, "Auntie, I have to go to work, so I'll go first!" After saying that, He Yuzhu pushed his bicycle and ran off, not giving Kang Minyan a chance to react at all.

Watching He Yuzhu's retreating figure, Kang Minyan muttered, "That kid runs faster than a rabbit. Is there something fishy going on here?!" After thinking about it for a while, Kang Minyan couldn't figure it out, so she stopped thinking about it and went straight into the school gate.

He Yuzhu arrived at the police station and had barely sat down in his office, not even having a chance to catch his breath, when Ma Huaimin walked in and said, "Yuzhu, the station chief wants to see you!"

"Looking for me?!" He Yuzhu was taken aback and asked, "What's wrong?!"

Ma Huaimin said, "I reckon it's a good thing! You'll know when you get there!"

"Okay! I'll go take a look!" With that, He Yuzhu stood up and slowly walked out of the office.

"Knock! Knock! Knock!" He Yuzhu walked to the door of the director's office and knocked on it.

Hearing the knock, Ye Guoliang called out, "Come in!"

He Yuzhu pushed open the door and went in. Seeing that there was a stranger there, he swallowed back the words "Uncle Ye" that were about to come out and instead called out, "Chief, you wanted to see me?!"

Ye Guoliang said, "Zhu Zi, this is Du Wei, the head of the logistics section of the Xicheng branch."

"Hello, Section Chief Du!" He Yuzhu greeted him and looked at Ye Guoliang.

Ye Guoliang continued, "Section Chief Du contacted you about purchasing some items."

Du Wei said, "Comrade He Yuzhu, I heard from the people at the East City Branch that you purchased quite a lot of wild game this time. What I mean is, next time you go shopping, could you also bring some back for our West City Branch?"

He Yuzhu said, "Section Chief Du, it's not that I'm disrespecting you. I can't make that decision. Besides, it's not proper for you to come directly to me!"

Du Wei hurriedly said, "Comrade He Yuzhu, please don't take it to heart. I was just passing by on my way. Since you're in a difficult position, I won't force you. I'll contact the Dongcheng Branch directly later." Then Du Wei stood up and said, "Comrade Ye Guoliang, I have other matters to attend to, so I'll be leaving now! Please wait!"

After Dewey left, He Yuzhu asked, "Uncle Ye, what's the deal with this guy?!"

Ye Guoliang replied, "What else could it be? We're desperately short of supplies!"

He Yuzhu said, "Since we're short of supplies, why don't we organize a hunting trip?"

Ye Guoliang said, "He wants to too! Unfortunately, all the entrances and exits to the mountains are now guarded by militia from nearby villages, and outsiders are not allowed to enter the mountains at all."

He Yuzhu said, "There's nothing we can do near Beijing, but we can try to find a solution in the Northeast."

"Don't give them any bad advice!" Ye Guoliang retorted, then reminded him, "When you go out to buy things alone, be sure to pay attention to your safety. Don't get into any conflicts with the villagers."

He Yuzhu said, "Uncle Ye, don't worry! I know what I'm doing. At worst, I'll just run further away."

"You know what you're doing! I won't say anything more!" With that, Ye Guoliang dismissed He Yuzhu.

He Yuzhu returned to his office, rested for a while, and then rode his tricycle out.

Noon arrived quickly. Song Ran went to the cafeteria to heat up the lunchbox He Yuzhu had given her. Just as she brought it into her office, Wu Lina, her math teacher and a good friend, came in with the lunchbox. Wu Lina asked, "Song Ran, why didn't I see you get your lunch?!"

Before Song Ran could speak, Gao Guimei, the homeroom teacher of Class 3, Grade 1, who was on duty at the gate that morning, jokingly said with a smile, "Her boyfriend was worried she wouldn't eat well at school, so he brought her lunch early this morning." She then asked, "Song Ran, what delicious food did your boyfriend bring you?! Let us see!"

Song Ran smiled and opened the two lunchboxes. One contained fried rice with eggs, topped with two pieces of braised pork and some stir-fried vegetables. The other lunchbox contained meatball soup. Looking at the food in the lunchboxes, Wu Lina said, "Song Ran, your boyfriend really treats you well!"

Song Ran said shyly, "I didn't expect him to bring me food."

Gao Guimei continued, "Song Ran, I saw your boyfriend was wearing a police uniform. How did you two meet?!"

Song Ran replied, "He's He Yushui's older brother from our class. Remember when I was kidnapped by human traffickers?! He's the one who saved me."

Wu Lina chimed in, "Oh my?! It's a classic case of a hero saving a damsel in distress?!"

Gao Guimei said, "Song Ran, your boyfriend is a policeman. Police work is very dangerous. You should think this through carefully!"

"He works as a purchasing agent at the police station, so the danger is relatively small." After saying that, Song Ran picked up a spoon and scooped a spoonful of rice into her mouth. After chewing a couple of times, Song Ran's eyes lit up, and she suddenly looked forward to dinner that night.

Meanwhile, after finishing a meeting in the district and having lunch at the district canteen, Wang Xia was about to return to the subdistrict office when she was stopped by the newly arrived District Head, Weng Tonghe. Wang Xia followed Weng Tonghe into his office. Weng Tonghe gestured for Wang Xia to sit down, personally poured her a glass of water, and said, "Comrade Wang Xia, your subdistrict office's production team is doing quite well!"

Wang Xia said, "This is all thanks to everyone."

Weng Tonghe continued, "I've only been in the district for a little over two months. During this time, I've visited many sub-district offices and learned about their situations. Many of these sub-district offices' production teams rely on nearby large factories. To put it bluntly, they depend on these factories for their livelihood. But your sub-district office has taken a different approach. Can you tell me why?"

Wang Xia said, "It's actually very simple! The old folks have always said that you are your own best support. Relying on others will eventually lead to unreliability. Those production groups that depended on the surrounding factories were like the relationship between landlords and farmhands in the past. Since we wanted to break free from this relationship, we had to innovate. I believe the purpose of the production groups was to increase the income of housewives and families in difficulty. Housewives and families in difficulty generally have one thing in common: they can't leave their homes. Since they can't leave their homes, they can't participate in production labor in factories. They can only do simple handicrafts that they can do by bringing materials home. So we first set up a headdress production group. Later, we saw that there were too many unemployed young people on the streets. These people were unemployed and wandered around all day, becoming a source of instability. To eliminate these factors, we had to find ways to increase employment opportunities. That's how the pencil production group came about. The same was true for the later home appliance production group."