Courtyard House: I fish in the heavens, a professional bird abuser.

The heavy slamming of He Yuanchao's door was like a silent slap across the face of everyone still awake in the courtyard.

Outside the door, there was a deathly silence.

Inside the door lies another world.

The old deaf woman's wrinkled face, under the cold moonlight, turned pale and then bluish, finally turning ashen.

Her hand, which was holding the cane, trembled violently, and her cloudy old eyes were filled with disbelief and horror, as well as a great sense of shame and indignation at being completely seen through and having her dignity stripped away.

She had schemed her whole life, and had been the "patriarch" of this courtyard for decades. She was highly respected and her word was law. How could she have ever suffered such a humiliation?

In front of the entire hospital, a junior, a "traitor" in her eyes, had her darkest and most sordid schemes brutally exposed and torn to shreds!

Every word she uttered was like a poisoned knife, precisely stabbing into her most cherished and proudest "virtue."

"puff--"

A metallic sweetness surged into her throat, and the deaf old woman felt her vision go black. It was as if a heavy hammer had struck her chest, and she couldn't catch her breath. Her body went limp, and she fell straight backward!

"old lady!"

"mom!"

This sudden collapse was like a bomb dropped into the frozen air, instantly detonating the entire courtyard.

The first to react were her elderly female friends standing beside her. They let out piercing screams and frantically tried to support her, but they were no match for the weight of an adult.

Immediately afterward, Yi Zhonghai, the elderly man who had been silent all along with an equally grim expression, also snapped back to reality. His mind went blank, filled only with fear. The old woman was his support, his pillar of strength!

He let out a hoarse shout and staggered forward, trying to hug the old lady. But he had just been traumatized during the day and was feeling weak. Instead of being able to hug her, he stumbled and almost fell to the ground.

The courtyard instantly descended into chaos once again.

"Quick! Quickly pinch his philtrum!"

"Feed him/her! Does anyone have hot water? Not boiling water, just lukewarm!"

"Uncle, you're so knowledgeable, please think of a solution!" a neighbor cried out in desperation.

"Don't move! Don't move! What if you break a bone?"

Uncle Liu Haizhong was currently enjoying the feeling of being treated as someone's pillar of support. With his protruding belly, he put his hands behind his back, cleared his throat, and began to give orders in a pretentious manner:

"Don't panic! Listen to my instructions! Sha Zhu, what are you standing there for? You're strong, quickly lay the old lady flat on the ground, turn her head to the side, so she doesn't get phlegm stuck in her throat!"

"Uncle, you're fast! Go to the neighborhood committee and tell them it's a matter of life and death, and they should call an ambulance immediately!"

When Uncle Yan Bugui heard that it would cost money, he instinctively shrank back, his mind racing with calculations. Call an ambulance? How much would that cost? Who would pay? He wasn't about to be taken advantage of.

He muttered to himself, "Why call an ambulance? Just take them to the hospital on a handcart, that's free... Besides, it's dark and the roads are slippery..."

Before he could finish speaking, Liu Haizhong glared at him fiercely. The second uncle was just looking for a place to assert his authority, and this glare, with its official tone, was quite intimidating. Yan Bugui reluctantly shuffled out.

Qin Huairu stood on the periphery of the crowd, the moonlight shining on her face, making her look as pale as paper.

Looking at the unconscious deaf old woman lying on the ground, she felt as if the sky had fallen. This was her last resort, her only hope to control He Yuanchao and improve her family's life.

But now, that hope has been shattered along with the old woman's fall.

She felt cold all over, her hands and feet were icy, and she looked around blankly.

What she saw was Liu Haizhong's clumsy performance, Yan Bugui's selfishness ingrained in his bones, the neighbors' schadenfreude and the undisguised gloating of Xu Damao.

No one sympathized with her, and no one cared whether she lived or died.

She was like someone abandoned on a deserted island, surrounded by endless, cold seawater that could swallow a person whole.

Sha Zhu stood there, stunned, like a statue whose soul had been taken away.

His mind was buzzing, one moment echoing He Yuanchao's cold and resolute words—"You're just a simp whose spirit has been castrated"—and the next, the despair in the old woman's eyes as she collapsed.

He wanted to rush up and do something, but his legs felt as heavy as lead.

How could his revered ancestor be so easily angered by He Yuanchao's few words?

Could it be that everything He Yuanchao said was true?

The thought, like a venomous snake, burrowed into his mind for the first time, sending chills down his spine.

He Yuanchao, the instigator of all this, listened coldly to the commotion outside through a thin door, his face showing no emotion whatsoever.

He walked slowly to the table and poured himself a glass of cold water.

The cup was enamel, with the words "Serve the People" printed on it in red. The water had been cooled beforehand and was icy cold when you drank it.

He drank the water in the glass in one gulp.

The cool water slid down his throat, suppressing the anger that had risen within him from the rebuke, and also making him more clear-headed.

The deaf old woman is essentially the same kind of person as Jia Zhangshi. Jia Zhangshi's evil is obvious and she is shrewish; while the deaf old woman's evil is more deceptive. She is better at disguising herself and knows how to use "seniority" and "tradition" to disguise her selfishness and scheming.

In his previous life, when he watched TV dramas, he thought this old lady was a positive character, the pillar of the courtyard.

But after traveling through time and experiencing it all firsthand, he realized that none of the beasts in the courtyard were innocent. Their so-called "kindness" and "rules" were merely tools used to control others and make things convenient for themselves.

Does he want to use Qin Huairu as a chain to restrain himself? Does he want to become the second Sha Zhu?

dream!

He Yuanchao is not a fool like Sha Zhu, the "God of War" who was sold out and still helped count the money, who was exploited by Qin Huairu's family for his whole life and still enjoyed it.

He is not a fool of this era who would be held hostage by a few words about "filial piety" and "tradition".

He has a systematic approach, knowledge and insights that are more than half a century ahead of this era, and the confidence and determination to overturn the table and redefine the rules!

As for those beasts outside...

He Yuanchao walked to the window and, through the gaps covered with old newspapers, coldly observed the chaos.

Yi Zhonghai, spouting platitudes about benevolence and morality, is nothing more than a selfish man trying to satisfy his vanity of being "superior" and solve his own retirement problems. Now that his pillar of support has collapsed, he's practically a cripple and no longer a threat.

Liu Haizhong is a good-for-nothing who has nothing but ambition for officialdom. He always thinks about bullying others in the courtyard, but he doesn't have the brains or the means. He can only ever be a clown.

Yan Bugui, the third uncle, was a shrewd calculator, spending his entire life calculating the measly amounts of coal and vegetables. His vision was pitifully narrow; he was a typical sophisticated egoist who would never amount to anything.

Xu Damao, a troublemaker who jumps around causing trouble, is purely evil, but also pitifully stupid. If you beat him hard enough, he'll be more obedient than anyone else.

And then there's Sha Zhu… A complex look flashed in He Yuanchao's eyes. To call him a bad person wouldn't warrant such a crime, but to call him a good person, his stupidity and emasculated spirit have harmed both himself and others, making him the most useful knife in someone else's hand.

In his eyes, this bunch of chickens and dogs were nothing to fear.

You can reason with a gentleman. But the only way to deal with these utterly shameless beasts is to use the only language they understand—force.

It is an absolute, unquestionable force that can crush all their fantasies!

What he needs to do is use absolute strength to break every claw that dares to reach out, one by one, without any mercy!

Make them fear, make them respect, make them tremble from the bottom of their bones and their legs go weak when they hear the name "He Yuanchao"!

This is the only language these beasts can understand.

That night, the courtyard house was destined to be sleepless.

Yan Bugui ultimately couldn't bear to spend money on a phone call, so he and a few neighbors found an old, dilapidated cart.

The cart's wheels were old and worn out, making a creaking, teeth-grinding sound in the quiet night.

The deaf elderly woman was placed on this flatbed cart and was pulled along the bumpy road to the hospital.

Yi Zhonghai followed beside him, looking utterly dejected, as if he had aged ten years overnight, his gray hair standing out starkly in the moonlight.

Liu Haizhong, hands on his hips, paced back and forth in the courtyard, muttering repeatedly, "A time of great turmoil, a time of great turmoil," displaying the demeanor of a leader who had been appointed to a critical mission and was filled with worry.

In his room, Xu Damao was cracking sunflower seeds while gleefully describing the scene to his wife, Lou Xiao'e. When he got to the exciting parts, he laughed so hard he almost fell over, saying that He Yuanchao was really something, a real man, who had done what he had always wanted to do but hadn't dared to.

As night deepened, the noise gradually subsided, but the oppressive atmosphere grew heavier, like thick, indissoluble ink, enveloping everyone.

The next morning, the atmosphere in the courtyard was so oppressive it was almost palpable.

Yi Zhonghai, who used to get up early and sweep the yard and stroll around to show off his "old man" status, was quiet today.

Jia Zhangshi, who always started yelling and cursing in the early morning, was unusually silent, and the room was deathly still.

The deaf elderly woman was taken to the hospital overnight. People who visited her reported that her condition was not good. The doctor diagnosed her with "emotional agitation and a relapse of her old illness" and said she needed to "rest" in the hospital for a period of time.

No one knows how long this "rest" will take. But everyone understands that the era when the old lady had the final say in the courtyard is over.

An elderly man named Yi Zhonghai also returned from the hospital, but he seemed to have lost all his energy. He was hunched over, walked unsteadily, and would lower his head and walk around people when he saw them, no longer pacing around the courtyard. The prestige and dignity he had painstakingly cultivated for decades vanished overnight.

Qin Huairu has become a plague in the hospital.

No one dared to speak to her. Even the most opportunistic old lady would avoid her as if she were a ghost, afraid of getting any bad luck from her.

Every day, she went to and from get off work with swollen, red eyes and a haggard face, numbly facing her husband's complaints and three crying children when she got home. Her days were like chewing wax, with not a glimmer of light in her eyes.

Sha Zhu locked himself in his room, drinking alone all day. From time to time, the sounds of smashing bottles and suppressed, beast-like growls could be heard from inside. He couldn't understand or accept this reality.

The entire courtyard seemed shrouded in an invisible, heavy cloud, and everyone's face was filled with unease and confusion. The old order had collapsed, and a new order had yet to be established; everyone felt an unprecedented sense of fear.

However, the dark clouds had no effect on the backyard whatsoever.

While the entire courtyard was deathly still, the aroma of meat porridge remained unfailingly fresh in He Yuanchao's small house.

He slowly simmered the white rice porridge in a clay pot until the grains of rice had bloomed and the porridge was thick and sticky. He added finely chopped cured pork and a few bright green vegetable hearts. The salty aroma of the cured pork and the fragrance of the rice porridge blended perfectly, creating a rich and mouthwatering aroma.

This was a reward he received for checking in through the system, a luxury that ordinary people wouldn't even dare to dream of in this era.

He ate his breakfast slowly and deliberately, washed the enamel bowls and earthenware pots until they were spotless, and tidied the house until it was immaculate. Only then did he push his brand-new Forever 28 bicycle, which gleamed in the sunlight, and prepare to go out.

As he pushed his cart through the courtyard, everyone's eyes were involuntarily drawn to him.

His gaze held a mixture of emotions: fear, resentment, jealousy, and a barely perceptible hint of... awe.

No one dared to point fingers at him anymore, and no one even dared to look him in the eye.

Wherever he went, people would instinctively step back and make way for him.

He Yuanchao ignored this and leisurely walked out of the courtyard gate amidst the awe-inspiring or evasive gazes of the crowd.

As soon as he arrived at the alley entrance, he saw He Yushui standing under the old locust tree by the roadside with a canvas backpack on her back, seemingly waiting for him.

The little girl wore a clean blue cotton jacket today, her two braids were jet black and shiny, and her face looked very fair in the morning light, but her eyes were still a little red, obviously she hadn't slept well last night.

She kept her head down, unconsciously kicking at the pebbles on the ground with her toes, looking preoccupied.

She heard the earth-shattering noise in the yard last night, and her brother's roars and thrashing after he came home terrified her all night.

She was in turmoil. On one hand, she felt that He Yuanchao had gone too far, embarrassing both the old lady and the old man. On the other hand, she vaguely felt that what he said might have a point. She had witnessed her brother's sacrifices for Qin Huairu's family since she was a child, and indeed... he had been too foolish.

She admired He Yuanchao's strength and clarity of mind, a reassuring strength she had never seen in her brother. So, almost as if possessed, she left early today and stood here, not even knowing what she was expecting.

Seeing He Yuanchao come out, she nervously twisted the hem of her clothes, her body instinctively straightening up, but she didn't dare to look up at him, and whispered:

"Good morning, Brother Yuanchao."

"Okay, good morning." He Yuanchao nodded, stopped the car, and asked, "Waiting for me?"

"Hmm..." He Yushui nodded, then quickly shook her head, her voice barely audible, "No...no, I'm just...going that way...I'm going to school too."

She herself felt that the excuse was weak and feeble, and her cheeks felt slightly hot.

He Yuanchao saw her embarrassed yet expectant expression and knew exactly what was going on.

This little girl is one of the few people in this courtyard who still retains a trace of innocence.

He patted the back seat of the bicycle; it was sturdy and clean.

"Come on up, I'll give you a ride."

"Huh?" He Yushui looked up abruptly, her eyes instantly gleaming with unbelievable surprise. "Is...is it okay? Won't it be...too much trouble for you?"

"Enough with the nonsense. If you're not getting on, I'm leaving." He Yuanchao deliberately put on a stern face and pretended to pedal.

"Go! I'll go!"

Afraid that he would change his mind, He Yushui quickly ran over and awkwardly sat on the sturdy back seat. She gripped the spring under the seat tightly with both hands, her heart pounding as if it would jump out of her throat.

He Yuanchao pushed off with his feet, and the bicycle moved forward smoothly.

The morning breeze brushed against her cheeks, carrying a hint of coolness, dispelling some of the gloom in He Yushui's heart.

She sat in the back of the car, smelling the faint, clean scent of soap emanating from He Yuanchao. It was clean and pleasant, completely different from the sweat and cigarette smells on the other men in the courtyard.

She looked at his broad and upright back, like a mountain that could shelter her from the wind and rain, giving her an unprecedented sense of security.

Experiencing the wonderful feeling of the bicycle moving smoothly forward, my heart felt like it was soaking in warm water, soothing and at peace.

She secretly looked up and watched as the morning sunlight filtered through the branches of the old locust tree in the alley, dappling his short, black hair and outlining a golden contour around him. Her cheeks flushed even more.

This...this feeling is so good.