Courtyard House: Starting with handing over the keys, the state helps me abuse birds.

The courtyard was shrouded in a deathly silence and darkness.

A faint, dim light shone through the window of the east wing of the front yard, illuminating Yan Bugui's restless figure. He had been sitting on the edge of the kang (a heated brick bed) for two whole hours, his mind revolving around the same thought: run, he had to run.

How can I run away?

Running away empty-handed? What's the difference between that and suicide? Yan Bugui has been scheming for most of his life, and the wealth he's accumulated is his lifeblood.

Without that money, even if you escape, you'll be penniless. In this day and age, you can't get anywhere without money.

Withdraw the money and run? That's too risky. Even though those hiding places are well-hidden, what if they've already been spotted?

He now seriously suspects that Xie Weihong and Duan Chengyi and their ilk are playing a cat-and-mouse game, just waiting for him to slip up.

"No... I can't panic... The more panicked I am, the more mistakes I'll make..."

Yan Bugui pinched his thigh hard, forcing himself to calm down. He got up, walked to the window, lifted a corner of the curtain, and cautiously peeked outside.

The courtyard was deserted.

The moonlight was obscured by clouds, with only the faint glow of distant streetlights filtering through the courtyard wall. The front yard, the middle yard, and the back yard were all quiet, as if everyone were fast asleep.

It's too quiet.

It was unusually quiet.

Yan Bugui's nerves tightened even more. He recalled the anti-espionage movies he had watched before; the calmer the surface, the more turbulent the undercurrents. Perhaps right now, in some dark corner, countless eyes were watching him.

But waiting will only lead to certain death.

Yan Bugui gritted his teeth and finally made up his mind. He tiptoed to the wardrobe, opened the bottom drawer, and rummaged through a pile of old clothes to find a small dark blue cloth bag that he had prepared beforehand.

Yan Bugui slung the cloth bag over his shoulder and carefully checked the furnishings in the house again, confirming that there were no obvious signs of escape. He even deliberately left half a glass of water on the table to create the illusion that "the owner has only gone out temporarily and will be back soon."

After doing all this, he took a deep breath and gently pushed open the door.

"Squeak"

The old wooden door made a faint creaking sound, which was particularly jarring in the quiet night.

Yan Bugui's heart skipped a beat, and he froze at the doorway. He waited for a full half minute to make sure no one was disturbed before stepping aside and slipping out the door, closing it slightly behind him.

Like a frightened mouse, he shuffled along the wall, tiptoeing, inching his way toward the front gate. Every step was cautious, his ears perked up, alert to the slightest movement around him.

His eyes widened, scanning every corner of the courtyard warily—the shadow behind the moon gate, the gap beside the woodpile, the blind spot behind the water vat…

There was no movement.

There was no sound at all.

Even the stray cats, which usually meow a few times at night, were unusually quiet tonight.

Yan Bugui gritted his teeth, stepped through the moon gate, and entered the central courtyard.

The middle courtyard was more spacious and more dangerous than the front courtyard. It faced Xie Weihong's main house in the back courtyard, with Yi Zhonghai's and Liu Haizhong's houses on the left and right sides, respectively. At this moment, the windows of all three houses were dark, and there was no light or sound inside.

Yan Bugui held his breath and walked almost on tiptoe, afraid of making the slightest sound.

His eyes were fixed on the tightly closed door in the backyard, his heart pounding in his chest, as if the door would suddenly open at any moment and Xie Weihong would walk out and look at him with the eyes of someone looking at a dead man.

Ten meters, five meters, three meters...

He moved step by step to the center of the courtyard, less than ten steps from the door of the backyard. This was the most dangerous spot; if Xie Weihong wanted to come out, she could see him immediately.

Yan Bugui felt his legs weakening, and the wound in his ribs throbbed faintly. He forced himself to keep walking, silently repeating to himself, "They can't see me... they can't see me... they're all asleep..."

Finally, he passed through the middle courtyard and arrived at another moon gate leading to the front courtyard.

Just go through this gate, and walk another ten or so steps to reach the main gate of the courtyard.

Not daring to linger any longer, Yan Bugui turned and quickly passed through the moon gate, almost running to the courtyard gate. His hands trembled as he touched the latch, gently pulled it open, and found the door unlocked.

This is another unusual sign. Courtyard houses are usually locked at night, but tonight they weren't?

Yan Bugui had no time to think about it. He opened the door a crack, squeezed out to the side, and gently closed the door behind him.

The moment the courtyard gate closed behind him, he leaned against the cold door and let out a long, deep breath, feeling almost completely exhausted.

Out.

He finally emerged from that hellish courtyard.

The streets were deserted. The dim streetlights swayed in the night wind, casting menacing shadows of the trees on either side. A few distant barks added to the desolate atmosphere.

Yan Bugui dared not delay. He identified the direction, carried his small cloth bag, and plunged into the night.

He didn't take the main roads, but instead deliberately chose those narrow, winding alleys. He knew these alleys too well; having lived in this area for decades, he knew exactly where each alley led, where people could hide, and where there were dead ends.

The night breeze felt cool on his face. Yan Bugui walked along, glancing back warily to make sure no one was following him before relaxing a little.

But he remained uneasy. The smooth journey only made him more anxious. It was too easy, as if someone had deliberately given him the green light.

"Never mind... let's get the money first..."

Yan Bugui shook his head, banishing these distracting thoughts. He now had only one goal: the old wall deep within Sesame Alley in the east of the city.

That was one of his most important hiding places for money.

After walking for about half an hour, Yan Bugui turned into a nearly forgotten dead end.

The alley was narrow, with towering blue brick walls on both sides, covered with withered yellow vines. The ground was an uneven dirt road, and piles of broken and rubbish were scattered in the corners, giving off a musty smell.

This is truly the edge of the city; few people come here during the day, and at night you won't see a soul.

Yan Bugui walked to the deepest part of the alley and stopped in front of an ordinary-looking blue brick wall. He looked around to make sure it was safe, then squatted down and began to carefully feel the bricks on the wall.

This brick looked no different from the surrounding bricks; they were all old blue bricks that had weathered decades of wind and rain, their surfaces covered with moss and stains. But Yan Bugui knew that this brick was loose.

His fingers dug between the bricks, his movements practiced and precise. Soon, the bricks were pried out little by little, revealing a hole the size of a palm behind them.

The cave was pitch black.

Yan Bugui's hands trembled as he reached inside, feeling around until his fingertips touched an oil paper package. He trembled with excitement. He carefully took the package out and, using the faint light from the distant streetlamp, peeled back the layers of oil paper one by one.

Inside were stacks of neatly bundled banknotes.

There were ten-yuan notes, five-yuan notes, one-yuan notes... and even a few large-denomination old banknotes that are now rarely seen. A rough estimate puts the total at least two thousand yuan.

In the 1960s, this was an enormous sum of money. An ordinary worker's monthly salary was only thirty or forty yuan, so two thousand yuan was enough for a family to live comfortably for several years.

Yan Bugui's eyes reddened as he looked at the money. He had painstakingly saved it bit by bit, through frugality and painstaking effort. Some of it was obtained by taking advantage of public funds, some by scheming against his neighbors, and some was "hush money" he received after that incident years ago…

Every single bill bears the stain of his scheming and sins.

"With these...with these, we can live..."

Yan Bugui muttered to himself, wrapped the money back in oiled paper, stuffed it into his pocket, and hid it close to his body. He then reached into the hole in the wall and felt around to make sure nothing was missing before putting the brick back in its place and carefully smoothing out the marks.

After doing all this, he stood up, dusted himself off, and let out a long sigh of relief.

With this money, he felt more confident about his escape plan. He could take a car out of the capital, go south, to places where no one knew him, change his name, and start anew.

As for those people in the courtyard... let them do whatever they want. Yi Zhonghai, Liu Haizhong, Jia Zhangshi... what does it matter to Yan Bugui whether those idiots live or die?

Thinking of this, Yan Bugui even felt a little smug. He thought he was incredibly clever, having already prepared a backup plan. No matter how capable Xie Weihong was, or how shrewd Duan Chengyi was, could they have imagined that he would hide the money in such a godforsaken place?

He slung his small cloth bag over his shoulder, clutched the large sum of money, and turned to walk out of the alley.

On the way back, Yan Bugui felt much more relaxed. He even began to wonder if he was being too sensitive.

Perhaps no one ever discovered his secret, perhaps Xie Weihong's supernatural abilities were just coincidences, perhaps Duan Chengyi really was just there to supervise the ideological reform...

"Yes... I must be overthinking it..."

Yan Bugui comforted himself, and his steps became lighter. He even started planning to go to the train station first thing tomorrow morning and buy a ticket for the earliest train leaving Beijing. First to Tianjin, then transfer to Shanghai, and then…

Lost in thought, he had already reached the entrance of the alley where the courtyard house was located.

The gate to the courtyard was still ajar, just as it had been when he left. The courtyard remained quiet, with only a few lights on.

Yan Bugui hesitated for a few seconds at the door. Logically, he should have taken the money and run, not returned to this godforsaken place. But he still had some things left inside: several valuable old items, a pair of silver bracelets left by his mother…

These things together can fetch a considerable amount of money.

"Just going back for a quick trip... grab it and go... ten minutes... no, five minutes will be enough..."

Greed ultimately triumphed over fear. Yan Bugui gritted his teeth and gently pushed open the courtyard gate.

Just like when he came in, he hugged the wall, tiptoed, and quickly made his way to his room in the east wing. The whole process went incredibly smoothly; he had even started planning which route would be the safest to take after he got what he wanted.

But just as he reached the middle courtyard and was about to pass through the moon gate back to the front courtyard, a dark figure appeared silently in front of the moon gate.

Yan Bugui was terrified, frozen in place, his heart pounding in his chest. He stared wide-eyed at the dark figure, his mind a complete blank.

Just then, moonlight peeked through the clouds, illuminating the face of the dark figure.

It's Xie Weihong.