Courtyard House: Starting by inheriting the tradition and suppressing the barbarians.

Winter, 1973.

The north wind whistled, making the alleyways of Beijing howl.

The Jia family of the Intermediate People's Court.

The room was as cold as an icebox, and the paper windows had several holes that rattled loudly in the wind.

The stove had been out for a long time because we didn't have money to buy coal briquettes, so the stove and pot had been cold for the past few days.

Qin Huairu sat on the edge of the kang (a heated brick bed), wrapped in a tattered cotton-padded jacket whose original color was no longer discernible.

He was holding a chipped, rough porcelain bowl in his hands.

The bowl contained half a bowl of sweet potato porridge, so thick you could see your reflection in it, and it had long since gone cold.

A layer of grayish-brown hard skin had formed on top.

"Mom, I'm so hungry..."

Xiao Dang huddled under the covers, only her big eyes peeking out, staring longingly at the bowl in Qin Huairu's hand.

"Drink it."

Qin Huairu mechanically handed over the bowl.

Her hands, which used to be so delicate and fair, were so tender that you could squeeze water out of them.

But now?

It was covered in frostbite and calluses, and as rough as old tree bark.

Even the crevices under my fingernails were full of black grime!

Those are traces left by street sweepers.

Ever since that "easy target" Sha Zhu froze to death in that heavy snow, the Jia family's world has completely collapsed.

No one is bringing them lunchboxes anymore.

No one is buying coal for them anymore.

No one is there to take responsibility for them anymore.

Qin Huairu not only had to support Jia Zhangshi, who was paralyzed in bed and whose bed was always soiled with feces, but also had to raise two children.

With her meager street sweeping wages, she had to carefully budget even for cornmeal.

It's so difficult... so difficult.

In recent years, she has aged rapidly.

She was in her forties but looked like a sixty-year-old woman; her back was hunched and her hair was gray.

Those once captivating peach blossom eyes are now only cloudy and numb.

If it weren't for taking care of his two children, he really wanted... he really wanted to die...

"Damn idiot Zhu!"

"That damn idiot Zhu... how could he be dead?!"

From the inner room came Jia Zhangshi's indistinct curses, "She wouldn't even leave us a penny..."

"It's making my old woman starve... she's eating nothing but air every day..."

Qin Huairu didn't even lift her eyelids as she listened to the curses.

She had long since become numb to it.

She felt strangely unaccustomed to not hearing Jia Zhangshi's curses on any given day.

Just then.

"The Jia family has sent word!"

The postman shouted at the gate and slipped a letter under the door.

Then he rode away quickly, as if there were some kind of plague in the yard.

Qin Huairu shuddered, as if she had been electrocuted.

letter?

Who would write a letter to the Jia family at this time?

It can only be a Korean joke from Northwest China!

Qin Huairu stumbled over and picked up the letter from the ground.

The envelope was thin, stamped with the official seal of "a certain division of the Northwest Construction Corps," exuding a chilling aura.

Her hands trembled as she tore open the envelope.

Inside was only a thin notice, the handwriting was messy, but every word was piercing.

Qin Huairu froze after reading only a few lines.

That weathered face turned deathly pale instantly, even its lips lost all color.

[Notification Regarding the Handling of Comrade Jia Geng's Serious Violations of Discipline and Law]

An investigation revealed that Jia Geng (Bang Geng), a former educated youth, not only failed to repent during his labor reform period, but instead became even more unruly.

Last month, he stole a breeding sheep from the commune, slaughtered it for food, and was caught on the spot by the herdsmen.

During his escape, the perpetrator also attempted to harass a female educated youth, which is extremely egregious!

During the arrest, Jia Geng's left leg was broken after resisting arrest, and he was left with a permanent disability after treatment.

[Given that he was convicted of both hooliganism and theft, the organization has decided, after deliberation, to add ten years to his sentence!]

They were transferred to even more remote Gobi desert farms for forced labor reform!

"boom!"

Qin Huairu felt as if she had been struck by lightning; her vision went black, and she collapsed onto the cold ground.

A broken leg?

Disability?

Ten years in prison?

That's ten years!

This means that the hamster will have to stay in that godforsaken place until it's at least forty years old!

Moreover, he was a cripple!

"My son..."

Qin Huairu opened her mouth wide, wanting to burst into tears.

But my throat felt like it was stuffed with cotton, dry and painful.

She couldn't even squeeze out a single tear.

She is so tired.

I'm so hungry.

I feel so hopeless.

I didn't even have the strength to cry.

"Huai Ru! Did your dear grandson write?"

"What did he say? Is he coming back?"

"Did you make money? Are you going to send some back?"

Jia Zhangshi, who was in the inner room, heard the noise.

Although paralyzed in bed, its greedy ears were very sharp, and it frantically pounded on the bed and shouted.

Qin Huairu, holding the letter, walked into the inner room like a lost soul.

Looking at her mother-in-law lying in a pile of excrement, her face full of fat but still only filled with greed, she suddenly felt it was utterly absurd.

"mom."

Qin Huairu's voice was hoarse, like a broken gong, "Bang Geng is not coming back."

"What do you mean you can't come back?" Jia Zhangshi glared with her triangular eyes.

"He stole someone's sheep and ate them, and he also acted like a hooligan."

"Then someone broke his leg, and he became a cripple."

Qin Huairu read it out expressionlessly, as if she were talking about someone else, "Add ten years to the sentence."

"We need to go to even harder places."

"What?"

Madam Jia let out a loud cry, nearly rolling off the bed, "My dear grandson!"

"Those damned Production and Construction Corps! How dare they break my precious grandson's leg!"

"That's the only son of the Jia family! I'm going to sue them! I'm going to make a scene!"

"Making a scene?"

Qin Huairu gave a cold laugh.

The laughter echoed eerily in the dark room.

"Where are you going to cause trouble? Are you going to cause trouble in the far northwest?"

"Do you have the money for the journey? You can barely even get out of bed!"

"Mom, just accept your fate."

Qin Huairu casually tossed the letter onto the stained table, staring blankly at the blackened ceiling.

"This is retribution, the retribution for our Jia family."

"How did we scheme against Stupid Pillar in the first place? How did we leech off him?"

"Now, even God has taken it all back."

"Silly Zhu is dead, no one cares about us anymore."

"Bang Geng is useless, we can't count on him anymore. You're paralyzed, and I'm almost exhausted too."

As Qin Huairu spoke, tears finally streamed down her face.

It wasn't because I was sad, it was because I was hungry.

The burning hunger in her stomach was more real and more unbearable than the news of her son's broken leg.

"Mom, stop crying."

Qin Huairu wiped her face, her tone icy, "Save your energy."

"There's not even a cornbread left at home tonight."

"If you keep crying about being hungry, I won't have anything to feed you."

Jia Zhangshi's howling stopped abruptly.

She looked at Qin Huairu in horror.

The coldness in the eyes of the daughter-in-law, who used to be so submissive, now frightened her.

That means they truly don't care about anything anymore.

They didn't care whether they lived or died.

Outside the window, the wind picked up.

The courtyard was quiet.

No one knew what had happened to the Jia family, and no one cared.

The Jia family, who once thrived in the courtyard by playing the victim and exploiting others.

Now it's like a rotten rag, thrown in a corner, gradually stinking and rotting.

And all of this is far from over!

......