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

After breakfast, He Yuzhu took He Yushui to school, delivered some things to Song Ran, then checked in at the police station before leaving on his hunting tricycle. He sped along, and around noon, he arrived at a small fishing village not far from Tianjin.

"Comrade, who are you looking for?!" He Yuzhu was stopped by the militiamen on duty as soon as he arrived at the village entrance.

He Yuzhu pulled out his identification and said, "Comrade, I'm He Yuzhu, a purchasing agent from the Luoguxiang Police Station in southern Beijing. I've come to your village to buy some seafood. I wonder if you have any?"

The militia leader's eyes lit up when he heard that He Yuzhu had come to buy things. After checking He Yuzhu's identification, the leader ordered the identification to be returned to He Yuzhu and said to the two men beside him, "Hu Zi, you two stay here and keep watch. I'm taking him to the village committee!"

"Yes!" the two replied in unison.

He Yuzhu called out, "Comrade, get in the car! You can give directions from behind!"

"Hey!" The militia leader immediately sat down behind He Yuzhu.

This fishing village wasn't large, probably only about a hundred households. The village committee office was in the middle of the village. Next to the village committee office was the village school. He Yuzhu, riding his motorcycle with the lead militiaman, had just arrived at the village committee office. The lead militiaman saw two people coming out of the village committee office and shouted, "Village Chief! Party Secretary!"

The old man smoking his pipe asked, "Dazhuang, why aren't you guarding the village entrance? What are you doing here?! And who is this comrade?!"

The militia leader said, "Uncle Village Chief, this comrade's surname is He. He's a purchasing agent from Beijing!"

He Yuzhu immediately got off his motorcycle, deftly pulled out a cigarette pack from his pocket, waved it around, and said, "Village Chief! Party Secretary! Hello! My surname is He, and my name is He Yuzhu. You can just call me Zhuzi. I've come to your village office today to purchase some seafood. Don't worry! The prices I offer will definitely be fair to everyone. To show my sincerity, I've brought grain and cloth; you can exchange them with me if you need anything." After saying this, He Yuzhu took out a purchase price list from his pocket and handed it to the village chief and party secretary.

The village chief took the price list and looked it over carefully. Then he handed it to the Party Secretary next to him and said, "Zhuzi, this is Tianjia Village, and everyone in the village has the surname Tian. I am the village chief, Tian Jiawang, and the person next to me is Party Secretary Tian Shuilai."

After reviewing the price list, Party Secretary Tian Shui looked at He Yuzhu and asked, "Are we really going to go with the prices listed here?!"

He Yuzhu said, "Of course! If it weren't for the prices listed above, why would I show them to you?!"

Village chief Tian Jiawang said, "Second Uncle, since the purchasing agent is so sincere, we can't let him down. Yongjun and his fishing boat will be back soon anyway. Since he's offering a high price, let's give him the goods!"

Tian Shuilai thought for a moment, then looked at He Yuzhu and said, "Comrade, we'd like to trade you fish for grain. The grain you have in your cart probably isn't enough!"

He Yuzhu said, "Village chief, Party secretary, I'll unload the things from the truck and leave them at your village committee. I have connections at a nearby factory. I'll go ask them to borrow some grain. But I'm making it clear, I can't borrow too much. How about this: 500 jin of refined grain and 1,000 jin of coarse grain. I'll pay the rest with money and coupons. What do you think?"

After discussing it, Tian Jiawang and Tian Shuilai agreed to He Yuzhu's suggestion. Tian Jiawang hired people to help He Yuzhu unload the truck, and then He Yuzhu rode his tricycle away from the village. After driving around for about half an hour, He Yuzhu returned to Tianjia Village on his tricycle.

When He Yuzhu slowly rode his tricycle to the entrance of the village committee, a queue had already formed.

"The purchasing agent is here!" someone shouted, and the villagers in line all looked at He Yuzhu.

He Yuzhu greeted everyone with a smile, then walked up to Tian Jiawang and said, "Village Chief, please have someone unload the truck and weigh it!"

"Okay!" Tian Jiawang replied with a smile, then called out, "Gangzi, you take the men to unload the truck! Yonglin, you're in charge of weighing! Lao Wu, you bring out two tables to help the purchasing staff with the bookkeeping!"

"Hey!" A rather refined-looking young man responded, leading two others to bring out two square tables and two long benches from the village committee office. He Yuzhu walked behind the square tables and sat down, then took out his satchel, pulled out money and coupons, and said, "Everyone probably already knows the purchase prices, so I won't go into detail. Today I brought some grain, cloth, and white and brown sugar. In addition to these items, I also have money and some coupons. Please exchange them according to your needs."

An older woman was the first to approach He Yuzhu and said, "Comrade, these are some dried fish I made myself. Would you like to take them?"

He Yuzhu replied with a smile, "I'll take them! As long as they're good quality, I'll buy them! Auntie, your dried fish are a bit small, but they look good and are clean. I'll charge you 15 cents a pound, is that alright?"

Upon hearing that He Yuzhu was buying her dried fish at a high price of 15 cents per pound, the old woman excitedly exclaimed, "Great! Great!"

In front of everyone, He Yuzhu took the village scale and weighed the old woman's dried fish, saying, "Auntie, each one weighs fourteen and seven ounces. I'll round it up to fifteen pounds for you, that's two yuan and twenty-five cents. Auntie, do you want the money or the fish?!"

The old woman thought for a moment and said, "Comrade, could I take one yuan and exchange the rest for brown sugar?"

"Sure!" He Yuzhu readily pulled out a yuan and handed it to the old woman, then took out two large bags of sugar from the things unloaded at the village committee. From one of the bags, he took out three small packets of brown sugar and handed them to the old woman, saying, "Auntie, here you go! I'll give you the rest of the money for one and a half jin of brown sugar; this packet is half a jin. If you're not sure, you can go over there and have someone weigh it."

"Don't worry! Don't worry! What's there to worry about?!" With that, the old lady happily took her things and left.

Seeing how readily He Yuzhu agreed, the people behind him finally relaxed. After a full hour and a half of work, He Yuzhu finally managed to exchange all the things the villagers had brought.

After the last villager left, Tian Jiawang walked over to He Yuzhu and said, "Yuzhu, the fishing boat won't be back for a while. Why don't you wait at the village committee office for a bit?"

He Yuzhu pulled out a pack of Daqianmen cigarettes and stuffed it into Tian Jiawang's hand, saying, "Uncle Village Chief, I'll take these to the factory that just borrowed the grain. I reckon your fishing boat should be back by the time I get back. Then we can exchange the rest of the goods. That way, it won't waste any time!"