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

Having spent these days together, she had long since figured out this girl's temperament: she was neither competitive nor quarrelsome, and would never try to steal her master's heart.

"Yes, sister, now that you're a member of the Li family, your heart must be completely devoted to Grandpa. When you have children, you must be even more disciplined and not act as impulsively as before, understand?"

The older sister, Wen Keren, spoke sweet words, but the sharp edge was hidden beneath the sugar coating.

She knew her sister still had feelings for someone else. But what's done is done; she had married Li Wenguo, so she had to eradicate those feelings completely, leaving not a trace.

"Okay, Sister Shuting, and my sister too."

Wen Keyi lowered her eyes and agreed, feeling a dull, astringent feeling in her throat, as if a wad of cotton was stuck there. But since things had come to this, she could only cut the thread that held her to the past herself.

"Sister Shuting, I don't want to be stuck at home every day. I want to go out and do something."

After living in the embassy area for some time, she became familiar with the whole area. She stumbled upon a Western-style school run by foreigners, and on a whim, she decided to go there and teach.

"What?"

"Are you out of your mind?! The streets of Beijing are teeming with military police carrying notebooks. You still dare to run away? Don't you want to live?"

Before He Shuting could speak, Wen Keren's face darkened, and she sternly stopped her.

"Sister, don't worry—the place I'm going to is within the embassy grounds. It's a school run by foreigners, and I want to be a teacher there."

She quickly tried to smooth things over, her tone earnest.

Of course she knew how dangerous it was outside the city. When she fled into the embassy grounds, she was almost dragged away and abused by the Japanese military police—how could she dare to step out of this iron gate?

"Oh...so it was inside."

"But that won't do, Keyi. You're a proper young mistress now; what kind of image would you project in public?"

Wen Keren frowned, speaking with a self-righteous air.

Those are rules etched into our bones.

"Sis, I really don't want to stare at four walls all day."

Wen Keyi moved closer, tilted her head back, her eyes slightly shimmering, revealing a hint of long-lost coquettishness.

"this……"

"That might not be a bad idea. My husband isn't an old-fashioned person. I used to go out on errands all the time too," He Shuting interjected with a smile, gently cutting off her sister's words.

He then turned to his younger sister and said, "Keyi, why don't you mention it to Grandpa yourself? He'll most likely agree. But..."

That evening, after Li Wenguo finished his work, Wen Keyi blushed and told him her thoughts.

In the end, the old man only left one sentence—

You're only allowed to teach if you get pregnant?

She was stunned on the spot and didn't come to her senses for a long time.

The sky was just beginning to turn bluish-white.

In a desolate forest more than 20 miles from the capital, a thick clump of wild grass suddenly pushed open from the ground, rustling off bits of mud.

A burly figure rolled out.

Below was the exit of a hidden tunnel.

The man who climbed up was none other than Niu Dali.

"hey-hey!"

"This tunnel is simply amazing!"

Niu Dali, the clone, grinned, casually climbed up an old locust tree, and scanned the surroundings with binoculars—it was empty, with no one in sight.

He then jumped down from the tree trunk and poured out a bunch of things from his personal storage space.

It was piled up all over the floor.

First came canned rice and noodles, dried cured meat and other perishable foods; then came military supplies: shells, bullets, rifles, machine guns, and several large barrels of gasoline, shiny and pungent.

He climbed back to the treetop and waited quietly. Around five o'clock, dust rose in the distance, and several trucks rumbled closer. Only then did he slide down the tree, open the hidden compartment, and slip back into the tunnel.

The tunnel is two meters wide and two meters high, with a thick wooden support beam every ten steps, making it as stable as a rock and unafraid of collapsing.

After Niu Dali went down, he covered the area below the exit completely with his backhand—even if someone accidentally lifted the cover, the bottom was all compacted loess, and no flaws could be seen.

"Hurry! Hurry! We're too close to the capital. Load the carts quickly and get back!"

Battalion Commander Dou Ding lowered his voice and urged them on.

He originally came from the guard unit, and his seniority was less than that of Ding Xiaoqi and Agui, which is why he became the battalion commander. But he was content and worked hard.

With five hundred people working together, in less than half an hour, five trucks were packed full, their wheels making the ground tremble, before they roared away.

Li Wenguo used this secret passage to secretly deliver batches of supplies to Ding Xiaoqi and his group.

It's pretty much the same over at Wang'er Mountain, except there's a different, darker path.

……

The morning light is growing stronger.

A red sun leaps over the mountain ridge, its golden rays spilling across the earth and gradually melting away the lingering chill of the night.

But the capital city seemed shrouded in an iron-gray curtain, lifeless and gloomy. Squads of military police, carrying pistols and notebooks, hurried through the streets and alleys, arresting people indiscriminately. Only five days had passed since General Nobuda issued the arrest warrant.

But they didn't catch a single spy.

They did arrest a few members of the local party, but Niu Dali sneaked into the prison at night and quietly released five of them. Now only two remain locked up in the basement of the puppet regime.

Of course, no one can say for sure how many hidden threads are still lurking in the shadows.

Before they knew it, it was time for Sha Qiang and Lao Pan to meet.

"Boss Qiang, any progress on what you were asking about last night?"

"Is he still in the capital?"

Old Pan still had a smile plastered on his face, his expression full of ingratiation.

But he was certain in his heart that Li Wenguo was probably in the capital—otherwise, how could Niu Dali, Ding Xiaoqi, and this silly Qiang in front of him still be sitting comfortably? They should have broken up and gone their separate ways long ago.

"We couldn't get any information out of them. But the higher-ups came up with another plan."

Sha Qiang's tone was flat, but it was like throwing a stone into water.

"What trick?"

Old Pan immediately pressed for answers without the slightest hesitation.

In fact, he didn't expect the other party to actually confess—who was Li Wenguo? A powerful figure with connections everywhere; how could his whereabouts be revealed so easily?

"If it were a prison break, how many people could you muster?"

"Less than ten."

Old Pan gritted his teeth before answering, but as soon as he spoke, a thought flashed through his mind: Could this be a trap?

These days, doing underground work means your head is constantly on the line; one wrong step and your whole family will be wiped out.

But when he thought of Li Wenguo, he steeled himself—trusting him was more reassuring than trusting himself.

"Ten people?"

Sha Qiang shook his head, a slight smirk playing on his lips. "There are at least dozens of people guarding the cell. Your manpower isn't even enough to fill a gap between our teeth."

In his eyes, this was like throwing an egg at an anvil—reckless to the point of absurdity.

"ah?!"

Old Pan's throat tightened, and his heart sank.

He never expected the guards to be so tight. With just a few of them, they probably wouldn't have even gotten close to the wall before being pinned down and killed.

"Then...what should we do?"

There was no other way but to bite the bullet and ask.

Anyway, he's long since developed a thicker skin than a city wall; and his ability to pester people is a family heirloom.

"The higher-ups have decided on a drastic measure—blow up the puppet regime."

Sha Qiang's voice wasn't loud, but it sounded like he'd thrown a grenade.

That's right, just like the time a few days ago when the notebook was taken from the military warehouse, it was swift and decisive, leaving no room for compromise.

"Bomb...bomb the maintenance committee?!"

Old Pan's tongue was tied, and his voice trembled. Zhou Zheng also froze on the spot.

Ordinary people wouldn't even dare to dream of such a thing.

Only Master Li dared to make the decision and take action.

A sudden thought flashed through his mind—a few years ago, Li Wenguo, along with him, Zhou Zheng, and Chen Jiang, had secretly slaughtered an entire squad of spies; back then, he thought Li Wenguo was incredibly audacious. He never expected him to go even further, resorting to explosives!

The thought had barely formed when another jolt of realization struck:

and many more……

Could the fire at the military warehouse a few days ago have been caused by Li Ye and his gang?

pretty close!

This is insane, absolutely insane!

Compared to others, my little commotion is like a child setting off a firecracker—it makes a noise, but it's completely useless.

Old Pan's mind was in turmoil, but then he thought: If Master Li can succeed, why can't we?

Besides, since the other party knows they don't have enough manpower, they certainly won't just throw a blueprint at them and then abandon them!

He quickly grinned and said, "Hehe, Boss Qiang, as you said, we're really short-handed. Could the higher-ups... perhaps send a few more brothers to lend a hand? Otherwise, we really can't handle this!"

"Besides, what if a few of us get killed? Wouldn't that be losing both our wife and our troops?"

"Heh, knowing you'll suffer a loss, you still rush to save people?" Sha Qiang raised the corner of his mouth, forming a half-smile, his eyes revealing a hint of disdain.

"Boss, you don't understand." Old Pan's joking expression vanished, replaced by a serious look. His gaze was fixed on the ground like a nail. "Li Ye, Zhou Zheng, Chen Jiang, and I are all in the same boat, bound together like bones. If one is missing, the whole structure will fall apart. We can't afford to lose a single one."

His voice wasn't loud, but every word pierced the air. The fierceness and stubbornness in his eyes made it clear at a glance that this man meant what he said.

This was the first time in his life that Sha Qiang had seen Lao Pan with such an expression; he had never seen such a look on anyone's face before.

My heart skipped a beat, and I was momentarily stunned.

What's even stranger is that, in his eyes, Old Pan seemed to be surrounded by a radiant halo, not a dazzling light, but one that weighed heavily on one's heart, exuding an undeniable solemnity.

In that instant, a thought suddenly popped into Sha Qiang's mind: he had to help him out.

This is the silent yet intensely penetrating power of conviction when it strikes the heart.

"Director Niu, there are fewer than ten of them in total. Even if they manage to blow up the detention center, they probably won't be able to escape."

"What do you think... should we give them another push?"

Sha Qiang turned to his clone Niu Dali and whispered something.

He was gently touched by Lao Pan's words and his stubborn insistence on sticking to his comradeship, and the words just slipped out of his mouth.

Of course, for Sha Qiang to actually save people, Lao Pan still needs one more thing – Li Wenguo has to give his personal approval.

Niu Dali listened without saying a word, and tapped his fingertips lightly twice on the edge of the table.

Ten men? That's really too few. Last time we took down that arms depot, it took more than twenty men risking their lives to take down more than forty Japanese soldiers.

Now that martial law has been tightened in the city, the number of guards in the detention centers has doubled, and the military police patrol the streets. Even a stray cat would have a hard time getting through. For these people to break in would be like jumping into a fire pit.

But if he allowed these traitors to continue swaggering around in jail, Niu Dali felt uneasy.

After a moment's thought, he made a decision: recall the spies who were hiding outside to avoid trouble and work together on this job.

Bombing the detention center was worth it!