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

"Huang Xirou, what right do you have to harm me?"

He lowered his voice, his jaw clenched tightly.

He was falsely accused, his livelihood was probably gone, and he almost faced imprisonment—how could he not hate it?

"Li Guoxuan, I harmed you? It was you who was incredibly audacious, pouncing on me and trying to grope me! If I hadn't run away quickly, you would have already violated me!"

Huang Xirou raised the corners of her mouth, refusing to admit anything.

She still needs this excuse to get the compensation.

"you--!!!"

Li Guoxuan clenched his fists so tightly that his knuckles turned white.

"Alright, let's find a place to sit down and talk slowly."

"It's already noon, let's eat and chat at the same time, so we don't have to talk about business on an empty stomach."

Her tone was relaxed, as if she had already firmly grasped the initiative.

Li Guoxuan knew in his heart that this was about money.

Duan Youming's words just now revealed his true intentions to him.

The two entered the state-run restaurant one after the other.

In the factory director's office.

"The man has just been released, and now we're talking about compensation. If we can reach an agreement, we'll move on; if not—" Cao Baoguo paused, his gaze falling on his youngest daughter's face, "then we'll continue the lawsuit."

"Dad, do you know how much Huang Xirou is planning to ask for?"

She pressed for more information.

Li Guoxuan lived in one of those old Beijing courtyard houses crammed with seven or eight families. His family consisted of his retired father and his mother, a section chief at the local street office. On the surface, they seemed well-off, but they had five younger siblings to support—if Huang Xirou were to ask for this or that, how would they possibly fill that hole?

"Xiaoying, you've been mentioning Li Guoxuan a lot lately. Tell the truth, are you two dating?"

Cao Baoguo asked with a stern face.

In Cao Baoguo's eyes, Li Guoxuan's reputation was already ruined by his hooliganism; he had also been expelled from the Party and dismissed from his post. Cao was determined not to let him become his son-in-law.

"Dad, what are you guessing? We're just classmates, there's nothing between us."

Cao Ying quickly waved her hand, but her ears secretly turned red.

There was absolutely no truth to it—that whole thing at the factory was purely an act.

"It's good that you're not here. Your current classmate lost his job, took the blame, and might even end up in jail... He's not good enough for you."

"ah?!"

"You'll have to go to jail?!"

Cao Ying suddenly looked up, her eyes wide open.

She never expected things to escalate to this point.

He hurriedly said, "Dad, please help him! Let him work in our factory, any job will do!"

"You're in such a hurry to help him, and you still say he's just a regular classmate?"

Cao Baoguo stared at her, his tone turning serious.

"No, Dad, please listen to me..."

She bit her lip and recounted how Li Guoxuan had stopped Lin Guosheng for her twice.

The first time, he even got beaten up.

"Nonsense!"

Cao Baoguo frowned, his voice growing harsher, "If you don't want to deal with that Lin family brat, just ask your uncle to step in and say something, wouldn't that solve everything? What's the point of setting up a fake relationship? Isn't this just setting people up?"

He already knew what was going on—Li Guoxuan's downfall this time was quite strange.

From the moment Huang Xirou expressed her feelings to Li Guoxuan and insisted on being with him, she was trying to break up the tacit understanding between his daughter and Li Guoxuan.

But the two of them were just acting anyway, how could they be separated by such a little breeze?

Then there's only one way left: trample them to death.

"Here's what we'll do: go to the factory and report for duty first. Then we'll find out what Huang Xirou really wants and help her as much as we can."

After all, this was partly due to her own daughter's matchmaking.

But he didn't say it outright, fearing that if his daughter heard it, she would feel guilty and become even more deeply involved, eventually ending up with Li Guoxuan.

"Wait, let's eat before we go."

Seeing Cao Ying grab her bag and rush out, he reached out to stop her.

It's almost time to eat.

Cao Ying ate a couple of mouthfuls of rice, barely setting the bowl down, and then turned and headed to Li Guoxuan's house.

State-run restaurant.

"A house? Add another five hundred?"

Upon hearing this, Li Guoxuan nearly dropped his chopsticks on the table.

If it were any other guy in the alley, he might think it was nothing, just a piece of cake.

But he grew up in a courtyard house, and his mother, Qin Huairu, was very frugal, always making the most of every penny. She had the concept of "worth it" ingrained in her very being—this was no small amount.

"What's wrong?"

"Your family can't afford it?"

"The police station chief just said that your family has connections. It's just a house and five hundred yuan. You don't even need to ask. Just go home and look through your drawers and you'll have it all."

Huang Xirou is not a local; her hometown is in a neighboring county. Her uncle settled down in the capital, and her mother passed away two years ago. Her father remarried, and that's when she came to live with him.

Later, she got involved with Lin Guosheng, who helped her get a job at the factory, and she started dating him.

So she didn't even have a place to stay in the capital.

This time, she used the excuse to make a big deal out of the fact that the house is her lifeline.

Only when you have a house can you truly say you've settled down here.

Five hundred yuan? That's just leaving room for negotiation.

"Eat first, then go back and ask."

She had already gained the upper hand in this battle and was not flustered at all.

Li Guoxuan frowned as he ate his rice, unable to taste it, as if he were swallowing a pile of dry grass.

He didn't even look up when a group of people came in through the door.

"Guoxuan?"

Someone recognized him and called out.

He was lost in thought and didn't hear it at all.

Huang Xirou heard it and turned her head to see several young people in cadre uniforms and wearing glasses walking in this direction. Her heart skipped a beat.

Huh?

Do they really know Li Guoxuan?

Could you have called the wrong person?

"Guoxuan!"

The leader shouted again, and Li Guoxuan suddenly came to his senses.

He looked up, immediately stood up, and respectfully greeted, "Brother Guobiao."

The visitor was Li Guobiao, the director of the steel rolling mill office.

He and Qin Huairu worked at the same factory, and their aunt-aunt relationship made them acquainted early on.

"You're eating here too?"

He turned to the man next to him and gestured with his chin, "Come on, let me introduce you—this is your other brother, Li Guofang, the director of the machinery factory's office, he was just promoted last month."

"Oh, hello, Brother Guofang. We met at the last gathering."

Li Guoxuan nodded, his tone calm.

"Yes, I ran into them yesterday."

Li Guofang smiled and responded.

"Who is this?"

Li Guobiao turned his gaze to Huang Xirou.

She immediately stood up straight, a flustered yet forced smile appearing on her face, like a sparrow suddenly illuminated by a spotlight.

"My colleague."

Li Guoxuan's answer was somewhat dry, and his Adam's apple bobbed slightly.

Once inside the private room, Huang Xirou lowered her voice and asked, "They...are they all your brothers?"

"Um."

The steel rolling mill and the machinery factory often had business dealings, which is why they came together.

"One of them is a director at the steel rolling mill, and what about the other one?"

"The machine factory, and also the director."

hiss--

Two brothers who are section-level cadres? That's quite a background!

The house issue is settled!

Huang Xirou felt a surge of warmth in her heart, but her joy lasted only two seconds before a "ding" sounded in her mind:

and many more! !

Why beat around the bush? Just marry him directly, isn't that enough?

Li Guoxuan was tall, with sharp features, broad shoulders, and long legs. At only eighteen, she had just started working at the factory and was as clean as a blank sheet of paper. If things really worked out, would she still need to put up with Lin Guosheng's attitude? Would she still need to smile obsequiously, offer cigarettes, and act all cute and charming as some kind of "confidante"?

She stared at Li Guoxuan's profile, her gaze gradually darkening, a faint green light emanating from her pupils, like a mother wolf stalking her prey in the night.

Of course, she knew very well that he looked down on her and was currently dating Cao Ying.

But she was holding something in her hand.

You can't force someone with real weapons, but you can use leverage to pry open a crack in the door.

We need to act quickly: while his family is still completely in the dark, we need to get the marriage certificate first, then hold the wedding banquet. Once the deed is done, no one can change it.

She smiled gently, her lips curving into a smile: "Guoxuan, if that compensation is causing you trouble, we can find another way."

"Change? Change what?" He frowned slightly.

"Guess why I had to find you at this time today?" she asked softly.

Li Guoxuan shook his head.

In fact, he already knew what was going on—it was simply that Huang Xirou liked him, and when she couldn't win him over, she got angry and turned against him.

It wasn't that he was narcissistic; it was just that he was too conspicuous during his student days: the girls in his class passed notes until his desk drawer was overflowing, and around graduation, several girls wrote in their letters, clearly stating, "Waiting for you to marry me." So, he wasn't surprised that she fell for him.

As for Lin Guosheng's affair, it was kept too tightly under wraps—only Lin Guosheng, Huang Xirou, and Li Jingye, that half-baked guesser, knew about it; there was no fourth person.

"You really didn't know I liked you? That I pursued you?"

"I know," he said, his voice lower.

"But I have a boyfriend now."

When faced with a woman several years older than him opening her heart to him, his ears secretly burned.

"It was because you had someone else that I couldn't hold back... that's why I did that to you."

The word "framed" almost slipped out, but she bit her tongue and swallowed it back—she could never admit to something like that, no matter what.

"Then tell me, what should we change it to?" His tone tightened.

"I like you. Marry me, and we'll call it a day." She blinked, as if to say, "Let's have dumplings today."

"Marry...you?"

His eyes widened, as if he had misheard the sound.

"That's right, I'm only six years older than you. There's an old saying, 'A woman three years older than you is like holding a gold brick,' and I'm six years older than you—that means I'll hold two!"

"No. I don't like you. I like Cao Ying. I won't marry you."

He answered decisively, without the slightest hesitation.

He is not the type to be swayed by lust, and he is even less willing to use marriage as a ransom.

"Then let's stick to what we agreed on: one apartment, five hundred yuan."

Huang Xirou shook her head, tapping her fingertips lightly on the edge of the table: "No. I've changed my mind now—if you don't marry me, I'll report you for indecent assault. Once I'm in jail, I'll be nailed to the pillar of shame for the rest of my life."

"If you really go in..." She paused, watching his face gradually turn pale, "then everything will be ruined."

Li Guoxuan's forehead was beaded with sweat.

Seeing this, she immediately softened her tone: "Guoxuan, I may be older than you, but I'm caring, considerate, and attentive to your needs, whether it's hot or cold, hungry or full..."

Before he could finish speaking, that hand had already quietly covered the back of his hand; it was white, slender, and cool, like a snake that had silently slithered in.

"I'll sleep with you, I'll have your baby."

The moment her hand touched his arm, Li Guoxuan recoiled as if he had been burned.

"No, I can't marry you."

Once the words were spoken, they were firm and resolute.

"Think carefully—if you don't register our marriage, I'll sue you for indecent assault. With this charge, you won't be able to leave prison for at least ten years."

Huang Xirou's eyes flickered, her lips pressed together, and her expression instantly changed, becoming as cold and hard as iron.

"By the time you get out, Cao Ying will already be holding her baby; I'll be married and have children too. Who would want someone like you who's been in jail?"

"The only ones left who'll pay you any attention are either widows, or crippled, blind, or ugly ducklings. What would they want from you? Your face? Your criminal record? From now on, you'll have to live with your head down, and your children won't even be able to look you in the eye and call you 'Dad'—and you'll still accept that?"

She took half a step forward, her voice low but each word penetrating to the bone.

This trick always works on an eighteen-year-old kid.