Courtyard House: A Major Power's Heavy Industry, Hand-Crafted Nuclear Fusion

Around noon.

Although the winter sun is bright, it doesn't bring much warmth.

The courtyard was quiet; the adults had all gone to work, and the children had all gone to school or gone out to play.

Only a few elderly women who didn't have to work were sunbathing by the wall, chatting about this and that.

The Jia family.

The atmosphere, however, was somewhat tense and oppressive.

Banggeng had been lying on the windowsill, staring at Su Zheng's house across the street for a full hour.

"Grandma, nobody's home! Nobody's home!" Banggeng turned around, his face flushed with excitement. "Second Auntie went to knock on the door to borrow soy sauce, but she knocked for ages and there was no answer! Su Zheng definitely isn't home!"

Jia Zhangshi sat on the kang (a heated brick bed), holding a piece of cornbread that had long since hardened like a rock in her hand; it was their lunch for the day.

"Nobody's doing well... nobody's doing well..." Madam Jia muttered, her eyes gleaming with greed and madness. "My dear grandson, our Jia family's good days depend on your one move. If we get that bicycle ticket back and exchange it for money, we can eat meat every day! Big pieces of fatty meat!"

Qin Huairu stood to the side, twisting the hem of her clothes with both hands, her face pale.

She always felt uneasy.

Su Zheng's cold gaze yesterday, and the meaningful look he gave her when he left this morning, made her feel like this was a trap.

"Mom...maybe...let's just forget about it?" Qin Huairu said, her voice trembling. "Su Zheng is an eighth-grade worker now, and he has connections in the security department. If something really happens..."

"What happened! You jinx!" Madam Jia slammed the cornbread at Qin Huairu. "All you know is fear! Do you want my precious grandson to starve? Look how skinny he's become! It's all your fault! You can't even hold onto a man's heart! The opportunity is right in front of you, and you're going to stop it?"

"But……"

"But what?! Su Zheng is our neighbor! What's wrong with taking a little something from our neighbor's house? That's what he owes the Jia family!" Madam Jia Zhang's unreasonable logic was a complete fabrication. "Besides, Bang Geng is still a child! Even if we get caught, who can hold a grudge against a child? I'll just throw a tantrum! Let's see who dares to do anything to us, a widow and her orphan!"

Jia Zhangshi's words completely dispelled Bang Geng's last remaining concerns.

In his distorted value system, influenced by Jia Zhangshi, taking Su Zheng's things was perfectly justified, even considered "robbing the rich to help the poor."

"Mom, leave it alone!" Banggeng impatiently pushed Qin Huairu away. "I've already checked it out. That window gap is big enough; I can open it with just my hand! I've practiced it several times!"

After saying that, Banggeng jumped off the kang (a heated brick bed), grabbed a cloth bag, and charged out the door like a soldier on the front lines.

"Bang Geng!" Qin Huairu shouted, trying to pull him, but she pulled her hand back halfway.

She was truly terrified of being hungry.

They were truly terrified of being poor.

In that instant, greed overwhelmed reason.

"Maybe... it really can be done without anyone noticing?" Qin Huairu comforted herself in her heart.

Banggeng slipped out of the house, hugged the wall, and darted quickly to the middle courtyard like a mouse.

He looked around to make sure the old ladies sunbathing weren't looking this way, then rushed to Su Zheng's window.

Nearly.

The enticing aroma of buttery bread became even more intense.

Banggeng swallowed hard, feeling the cravings in his stomach growling.

He stood on tiptoe and peered through the glass.

There was no one inside.

There was a big loaf of bread on the table, and next to it there seemed to be a red booklet—that must be the bicycle ticket!

"We've struck it rich!"

Banggeng was overjoyed.

He skillfully extended two fingers and peered through the deliberately left crack in the window.

The latch was touched.

As he observed, the latch was loose.

"It's open!"

With a gentle nudge of the stick, the pin slid open.

He gently pushed open the window, and a blast of warm air rushed in.

There were no alarms, no roars from Su Zheng.

Everything went incredibly smoothly.

Banggeng gripped the windowsill with both hands and stepped onto it with one leg.

His eyes were fixed on the bread and the ticket, completely unaware that inside the window frame where his palm was pressing, several thin metal wires were trembling slightly.

That was a pressure-sensitive switch designed by Su Zheng.

The circuit will shut down instantly if the pressure exceeds 5 kilograms.

Qin Huairu stood at her own door, watching this scene through the crack in the door, her heart pounding in her chest.

"Hurry...hurry..." she prayed silently.

However, just as Bang Geng had half his body leaning into the window, preparing to jump inside...

He pressed his palm hard on the disguised metal frame.

"Clatter".

A very faint sound of a relay clicking was heard.

Followed by.

Suddenly, a blinding blue light burst forth from the previously quiet window!

"Zzzzzzz—!!!"

The electric current instantly coursed through the entire shaft of the rod!

At that moment, time seemed to stand still.

The greed and excitement on Banggeng's face froze instantly, replaced by extreme terror and contortion.

His hair stood on end, and his body convulsed violently as if he were breakdancing.

That wasn't a normal electric shock.

That was a pulsed current carefully tuned by Su Zheng. Although it was not fatal, the excruciating pain, which felt like countless steel needles were being stirred in the blood vessels, was beyond the limits of human nerve endurance!

"ah----!!!"

A piercing scream, like a pig being slaughtered, instantly shattered the afternoon tranquility of the courtyard.

The sound was so loud it almost blew the roof off!

Several elderly women who were sunbathing were so frightened that they fell off their stools.

Inside the Jia family's house, the shoe sole that Jia Zhangshi was holding fell to the ground.

Qin Huairu's vision went black, and she almost fainted.

"Great joke!!!"

Qin Huairu rushed out like a madwoman.

But it was all too late.

The stick was thrown away by the electric current and crashed heavily to the ground, foaming at the mouth and convulsing. His crotch was instantly soaked and emitted a foul odor of urine.

Meanwhile, on Su Zheng's seemingly ordinary window, eerie blue sparks were flashing, like a gaping maw silently mocking the foolish moth drawn to the flame.

At this moment, the Jia family has placed themselves on the judgment seat.