Courtyard House: A Start with Black Gold Swallowing 100,000 Silver Dollars

"Sir, I really can't... If I get pregnant again, my body will break down! You should go find Wen Keren."

She pleaded softly, her fingertips unconsciously twisting the hem of her clothes.

"Alright, I'll let you off this time. Once I take a new concubine, I'll make you happy again."

After saying that, he turned and left.

He Shuting stood there, stunned, her chest heaving.

What? You're still thinking about taking a concubine at this critical juncture?

You want me to have your baby? Hmph, I curse you to search the entire capital and not find a single one you like!

Just as he stepped out of the room, his sleeve twitched slightly—a note had quietly appeared in the room. It was from Niu Dali; two lines of writing were etched into the paper:

"Firstly: The day after tomorrow, the Japanese pirates will send three infantry companies (each with 180 men) to raid three villages in the eastern, western and southern suburbs of Beijing, carrying out a sweeping operation."

"Secondly: Within five days, the Japanese army will escort a batch of military supplies from Tianjing to the capital."

Niu Dali understood Japanese. On the day the city fell, he shaved his head, changed his clothes, and knelt to welcome the Japanese invaders into the city. That very night, he was appointed as the police chief and military police liaison officer. The Japanese saw that he was "pragmatic" and naturally gave him an important position. Meanwhile, the local party and secret agents had long put him on the top of their blacklist and tried to assassinate him no less than five times. He was injured twice and almost died once.

After glancing over, Li Wenguo smirked: "Three squadrons? Xiao Qi and A Gui should stretch their muscles."

Two years ago, he took command of the entire brigade, and Ding Xiaoqi and Agui were ordered to expand the army. At first, they were in a flurry of activity, but now they have already assembled two fully equipped regiments—each with 1,500 elite troops—hidden in the mountains and forests on the outskirts of Beijing, waiting for the order to be given.

He single-handedly provided for the needs of three thousand mouths and three thousand spears.

What did he rely on? The treasures buried by the Boxers in the underground palace in western Beijing—he had already unearthed them all. Gold ingots, silver bars, jade, and coral piled up like small mountains; he got the lion's share, leaving only a few national treasures and a few miscellaneous valuables for the Kuomintang.

It takes tens of millions of dollars in hard currency to support this iron-blooded team operating in the dark of night.

Inside Wen Keren's room.

The air was so thick it seemed to drip honey.

The intermittent, soft murmurs, like weeping and lamenting, lingered on the walls for a long time.

The silence was broken only by a high-pitched, clear final note, and the lingering resonance slowly faded away.

"Sir... I have something I'd like to ask of you."

She leaned against his chest, her eyelashes fluttering, her expression hesitant.

This time, Li Wenguo finally sensed something was amiss—the Ninth Concubine was acting strangely today.

"Speak. What are you hesitating for? You're my man, no matter how big the problem is, I'll take care of it for you."

(Of course, things that can't be lifted from the sky or pluck the moon are another matter.)

"I... have a younger sister named Wen Keyi, a lecturer at Peking University. The Japanese invaders have occupied the capital, and she's trapped in a colleague's house. I'd like to beg you... to bring my sister into the manor."

She lowered her eyes and whispered, her fingers secretly tightening around his collar.

Under Li Wenguo's repeated descriptions, Beiping outside the embassy district had long become a living hell that everyone avoided and dared not walk through at night.

Civilians were used as targets and were indiscriminately shot. Women were captured and taken to comfort camps, where they were raped every day. Nine out of ten of them did not survive more than ten days. Their corpses were chopped up and boiled into soup. Wen Keren stayed awake for two nights in a row until dawn. Now that her delicate younger sister was trapped in the capital, her heart felt like it was being pressed with a red-hot iron, making her restless and unable to sit still.

"Okay, tell me where your sister lives, and I'll send someone to check on her—if she's still there, I'll bring her over."

Li Wenguo nodded in agreement.

For him, this was nothing more than lifting a finger.

Upon hearing this, Wen Keren's eyes lit up instantly. She quickly got up, gathered her clothes, and walked briskly to the dressing table. She bent down, opened the drawer, and took out a small blue cloth box.

The address was tucked away on a yellowed piece of paper at the bottom of the box.

From the moment she got out of bed, Li Wenguo's gaze never left her.

As he had guessed, Wen Keren's body was plump after giving birth, and her waist and hips became more rounded and full. Those round breasts were no longer tender new fruits, but ripe peaches hanging from the branches, heavy and trembling, definitely meeting the hard criteria of the "forward team" in his mind.

He stared at the curve of her bent back, his heart pounded, and he stood up abruptly.

"Wait, Keren, don't move!"

Seeing that she had just finished taking the note and was about to close the drawer and get up, he blurted out to stop her, his voice tense.

"Huh? Grandpa... what are you doing?"

She turned half her face around, her brows furrowed slightly, full of confusion.

"Dry--!!!"

She caught a glimpse of her husband striding closer, and instantly snapped out of her daze. Her ears burned, and she lowered her head, her fingertips clenching her sleeves tightly.

The next morning.

Li Wenguo first had He Shuting pass on the initial message to Ding Xiaoqi and Agui, and then sent the second batch of supplies to Chen Jiang at Wang'er Mountain—they were short of food and medicine and were waiting for rice to cook.

The task of finding the missing person was assigned to Niu Dali.

Before leaving, Li Wenguo added a special instruction: "After finding the person, first find out her background—how does the younger sister look? The older sister is so beautiful, the younger sister can't be bad either; if she's really outstanding, be extra careful when taking her out, don't let the spies spot her, otherwise you won't be able to save your life."

After saying that, he straightened his collar and went to work.

In a small courtyard deep in the alley.

"Bah! Traitors deserve to be torn to pieces!"

"That bastard Lao Laizi, relying on his connections, robbed Old Tie Tou's family of all their savings and even abused their daughter—he deserved to die a violent death!"

"Traitorous lackeys, utterly hopeless!"

"It was done by spies! Look at that note on the table!"

The neighbor pointed to a piece of rough paper on the table, with ink stains profusely writing: "Traitorous dogs deserve to die, spies must be executed!"

Before the words were finished, a patrolman rushed into the courtyard, went straight to Niu Dali in the corner, and whispered, "Chief Niu, the Japanese officers have arrived!"

Niu Dali immediately straightened his face, strode forward, and shouted sternly at the onlookers, "Disperse! The Japanese officer is coming in soon. Anyone who dares to stand here will be mistaken for an anti-Japanese element and have their head blown off on the spot!"

Previously, the purpose of letting onlookers go was to show everyone that there are no good consequences for being a traitor; but now that the military police have stepped in, the area must be cleared immediately—who would dare to provoke these wolves? They'd be asking for trouble.

slam-la-

The crowd scattered like birds in the blink of an eye, even their coughs were swallowed back down.

In the blink of an eye, Captain Komatsu, along with seven or eight Japanese soldiers carrying rifles, kicked open the courtyard gate.

"Mr. Komatsu, the person is right here. Please take a look!"

Niu Dali put on a fawning smile, bowed deeply, and nodded and scraped to Xiao Song, whose face was ashen.

"Baka yarou!"

Xiaosong kicked over a bench, spitting as he shouted, "These anti-Japanese thugs are incredibly audacious! They even dare to kill puppet troops! Catch one, hang him on the city wall as a public spectacle, or strangle him to death!"

These traitors were the Japanese army's most convenient whips—they were used to exploit and plunder, bullying men and women, drawing all the hatred of the people to themselves so that the Japanese could hide behind the scenes and pretend to be "civilized." After all, when the Japanese acted, the hatred would end with death; but the traitors' evil deeds gnawed at them every day, causing pain to the bone, and the hatred would grow even deeper.

But now, the traitor who just surrendered has been killed in the street. How dare those who are still hesitating and wavering come to him? They might surrender and have their tongues cut out the next day!

This time, the Japanese army didn't want to loot and run; they wanted to hold onto the capital city tightly, using it as their own granary. But their forces were stretched thin, and without these "lackeys," how could they control the mouths of hundreds of thousands?

"Mr. Komatsu, please calm down! These anti-Japanese traitors are utterly depraved! However, with the wise and mighty commander of the Great Japanese Empire and with the swift and decisive methods of you gentlemen, these scoundrels will be brought to justice sooner or later, restoring peace and order to the capital!"

Niu Dali gritted his teeth and forced the words out of his throat.

At this moment, he is that traitorous dog who licks boots.

Moreover, it was necessary to thoroughly investigate the background of each officer in the notebook so that it would be convenient to replace them at any time in the future.

"Oh my, Director Niu is truly loyal to the Great Japanese Empire! Don't worry, our military police can easily pull out those few stinking rats hiding in the sewers."

Before he finished speaking, Xiaosong patted Niu Dali's shoulder forcefully, his palm slapping hard.

Niu Dali was a traitor personally designated by Akagi Toshio, the commander of the military police, to set an example for other wavering elements. Therefore, when Komatsu spoke to him, there was a hint of a smile on his lips.

"Hail! Long live the Empire!"

……

As night deepened, Niu Dali changed into a gray cloth robe and, following the address provided by his original body, found Wen Keren's sister's residence.

It was a square and neat courtyard house with blue brick walls and black lacquered doors, exuding the dignified air of a middle-class family.

He knocked three times on the door knocker, and a young man opened the door. Seeing a stranger, the man frowned, his eyes wary: "Who is it? Who are you looking for?"

"I've been asked to come and find a girl named Wen Keyi."

Niu Dali's voice was calm and unhurried.

The man was visibly startled, then shook his head: "There is no such person here." He then turned to close the door.

"Wait a moment!" Niu Dali gestured to stop him. "Please inform her that her sister, Wen Keren, asked me to send this as a token."

He handed over a ginkgo leaf-shaped brass button, an old item that Wen Keren often wore on her lapel. The man hesitated for a moment, then took it, turned around, and closed the door.

A short while later, the door opened again.

Besides the man from before, there was a woman in plain clothes standing behind him. She had bright eyes and a slender figure with a slim waist, but her breasts were so full that they seemed to bend the moonlight.

It was Teacher C, the one Li Wenguo had been longing for for the past six years—the student who had been paraded through the streets in the past.

You search high and low without finding it, only to have it come to you effortlessly!

It turns out she's Wen Keren's younger sister!

Niu Dali, the clone, was startled, and a bright glint flashed in his eyes, as fast as lightning and left no trace.

"Yes, your sister asked me to pick you up."

"Come with me, she's waiting for you."

He nodded, his tone resolute.

"Okay... I'll go with you to see my sister." Wen Keyi hesitated for a moment, then finally nodded.

"Keyi! Are you really leaving?" The man was anxious and stepped out of the door.

It turns out this guy had his eye on her all along!

No wonder they were so resistant to me coming here!

Hmph, a toad dares to covet a swan?

Niu Dali glanced at him and sneered inwardly.

"Jinghong, I haven't seen my sister for six years. I don't even know if she's sick or injured... I absolutely have to go."

"Thank you so much for taking care of me these past few days, I am truly grateful."

She bowed slightly to him, her tone gentle yet distant.

"Keyi... will you ever come back after you leave?"

Jinghong gripped his sleeve tightly, his voice strained.

She paused, not answering the truth—it wasn't that she didn't want to reply, but that she didn't know if she could; it wasn't that she didn't understand his feelings, but that her heart already belonged to someone else, and she just didn't want to hurt him directly.

"Of course they'll come back!" Niu Dali stepped forward, smiling as he replied, "This time it's just to take her to visit her sister. Things are quite chaotic over there right now, but it's peaceful here. Maybe in a couple of days, the two sisters will need to borrow your courtyard for a while."

"Oh...I see." Jing Hong breathed a sigh of relief and nodded quickly. "Sure! You're welcome anytime! Stay as long as you like!"

"Then I'll take my leave."

Niu Dali clasped his hands in a fist salute, turned around, and led Wen Keyi out of the alley.

Two rickshaws were waiting quietly in the shadows, and Haozi and Dashan were already sitting on the handlebars.