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

Li Wenguo squinted at it, his heart sinking.

He knew that someone from the Xu family worked in the new government, but he didn't expect that the military also held power—they could even mobilize troops to patrol the streets at any time; their influence was terrifying.

This batch of goods must not be touched right now.

We have to wait until the storm has passed and the dust has settled before we can proceed.

"stop!!!"

A sudden shout exploded from behind!

Li Wenguo's back stiffened, and he froze in place.

"Ta-da!"

The sound of leather shoes pounding the ground grew louder as they approached.

"Name? Address? Tell me quickly!"

The patrolman grabbed a tall, thin man in a long coat with shifty eyes and questioned him sternly.

Li Wenguo breathed a sigh of relief, and the weight on his heart finally lifted with a thud.

Damn! I was scared out of my wits!

Then he regretted that he was too impatient—he was a manager of a foreign firm, his shirt was impeccably pressed and his tie was impeccable. In those days, this kind of attire made him a favorite of foreign dignitaries, someone the police would avoid.

The more panicked you are, the more likely you are to give yourself away; the more composed you are, the safer you are.

He kept repeating himself until he stepped into the foreign firm, at which point his breathing finally calmed down.

"Hey, have you guys heard?"

The lunch break bell had just rung when Zhang Dadan, well-informed, came over and whispered, "The Dejian Trading Company has lost a huge amount of cloth, even the raw silk has been emptied out! The whole city is under martial law, and the streets are swarming with thugs!"

Li Wenguo's ears immediately perked up.

"Really?"

"No wonder the streets were full of police officers this morning, their faces were as tense as iron plates!"

My colleague suddenly realized and slapped his thigh.

"Hey, how do you know so much?"

The other person pressed for an answer.

"hey-hey!"

Zhang Dadan raised his chin, "My cousin works at the patrol station!"

"whispering sound!"

Xu Meijing scoffed coldly, "Just a lackey!"

"Besides biting people for their master, what else can they do?"

Zhang Dadan didn't get angry, but only sighed, his voice muffled: "These days, who isn't caught in a bind?"

It sounded somewhat helpless and desolate.

Xu Meijing didn't even lift her eyelids, just pursed her lips, and didn't say anything more.

Li Wenguo, however, glanced at her more than once—

The Xu family had just lost their goods, and the smile on her lips was impossible to hide, like a cat that had stolen honey.

Finally, the bell rang to signal the end of the workday.

Li Wenguo picked up his briefcase and pushed open the door to go out.

After all, things aren't peaceful in the city right now, so it's safer to go home and lay low. If you happen to run into a few audacious police officers or soldiers, you might not even have a chance to explain yourself.

But Xu Meijing suddenly called out to him and invited him to go out for dinner.

Li Wenguo was taken aback.

Although the social atmosphere is more relaxed these days than before,

However, men and women still maintain a sense of propriety and are very reserved.

Her initiative today is quite puzzling.

Could it be... that he's really taken a liking to me?

He glanced at Xu Meijing's chest subconsciously, then gently shook his head.

He was an exceptionally outstanding person—with clear eyes, a slender figure, and a scholarly air about him.

Unfortunately, her chest was flat, like a lotus leaf that had not yet unfurled in spring, so thin that it made one's heart itch with longing and helplessness.

Although this appearance fits the current aesthetic, Li Wenguo, having been influenced by Teacher C, has a deep-seated preference for the plump, full-figured, and flavorful type, and he has no interest in the word "flat".

He finally asked, "Why did you suddenly want to treat me to dinner?"

Mavis Hee just smiled and said, "I'm in a good mood today."

Oh? So I misunderstood?

Li Wenguo's face flushed slightly, and he quickly dismissed the thought.

I later learned that she was a girl from a side branch of the Xu family's third branch.

Since this is the first time I've invited someone, I have to give them face.

The two then went to the Western restaurant next to the embassy.

Li Wenguo remained calm and composed, bringing out all the etiquette he had learned from television in his previous life—pulling out chairs, handing out napkins, serving food, speaking softly…

Xu Meijing's eyes lit up, and her smile became noticeably warmer.

Such a man is calm, dignified, and not reckless; who wouldn't be fond of him?

Two middle-aged men, one tall and one short, entered from the next table. Both were wrapped in thick coats and wore matching dark gray felt hats.

"Oh, Uncle Gao!"

"What a coincidence, you're eating here too?"

Xu Meijing recognized the tall man at a glance and greeted him with a smile.

"Oh? My niece, Meijing!"

The tall man paused for a moment, then responded loudly, his gaze falling on Li Wenguo, and he nodded gently.

Li Wenguo nodded in agreement.

"Oh, are you having dinner with your boyfriend?"

"Uncle Gao, don't talk nonsense, he's my colleague."

Xu Meijing quickly corrected him.

"Haha! I understand, I understand!"

The man blinked, as if he understood perfectly. Seeing that she was about to speak, he quickly waved his hand, "You guys eat, I won't interfere."

After saying that, he pulled the shorter man to sit down, and the two of them casually placed their hats side by side on the edge of the table. The color, style, and size were exactly the same.

Seeing that they had no intention of disturbing him, Li Wenguo withdrew his gaze and began to eat slowly while talking to Xu Meijing.

At the next table, Uncle Gao and the short man were talking about business—things like shipping routes, licenses, quotas… It sounded like they were talking about serious matters.

Half an hour later, the two got up to pay the bill.

"Meijing—"

"Uncle Gao is leaving now!"

Uncle Gao called out his farewell, then grabbed a hat from the edge of the table with his left hand and put it on his head.

The shorter man also reached out and picked up the other one.

Li Wenguo's eyelids twitched.

He had clearly seen it: when the two men took off their hats, they both used their right hands to remove them and placed them on their right side.

But at this moment, they were both using their left hands to take things—and they were clearly taking each other's hats!

But the two of them remained completely oblivious, their expressions unchanged.

Heh... interesting.

This scene was exactly like the scene in the spy movies he used to watch, where intelligence agents exchange secret documents.

"Take care, Uncle Gao!"

"I'll definitely pay you a visit another day!"

Mavis Hee's smile was appropriate, and her tone was friendly.

"Hahaha! Come on over, Uncle has prepared some fine wine and is waiting!"

Uncle Gao laughed heartily and turned to leave.

Once the figure disappeared through the doorway, Li Wenguo asked in a low voice, "What does your Uncle Gao do for a living?"

His heart pounded – he never expected that such a powerful undercurrent would actually be flowing right under his nose.

"Oh, him? He's the deputy in the Municipal Commerce Bureau."

That is, the deputy director.

"Oh... he's an official."

Li Wenguo immediately understood about 70-80% of it.

Upon further reflection, I realized that the short man was probably a businessman in disguise.

Currently, the spies are intensifying their infiltration efforts, casting a wide net and targeting officials with real power to gather intelligence and pave the way for future actions.

He made that conclusion almost immediately.

But right now he has no identity, no backing, and no guns.

Exposing it? That's unrealistic.

If things go wrong, you might not only fail to bring down the other person, but also get yourself into trouble.

Moreover, these kinds of woodworms are not limited to just one place—there are even larger tree roots embedded above.

Li Wenguo has always kept his distance from danger.

Afraid of death? Absolutely.

But living with clarity is the real skill.

However, he still lowered his voice and reminded Xu Meijing, "Meijing, your Uncle Gao, I can tell from his eyes and brows that he has a sinister aura. It's best to stay away from him."

"Oh--!"

"Do I need you to remind me? These days, nine out of ten officials are wolves in sheep's clothing. Do you think I'm some naive little girl who just arrived in the city?"

Before Xu Meijing could finish speaking, she had already glanced at Li Wenguo sideways.

He's definitely someone who knows what's going on.

But with that raised eyebrow and the upturn of his lips, he possessed a captivating charm.

Li Wenguo subconsciously stared at it for two more seconds.

But then he thought to himself:

Unfortunately, her chest was as flat as an old newspaper spread out!

After dinner, Xu Meijing dragged him to see a movie.

He walked along, muttering to himself:

Ugh!

These days, movies are really uninspiring—the screen is gray and the film reels creak; the plots are even more dry and boring, relying entirely on exaggerated facial expressions and hesitant dialogue to whet the appetite. How can they compare to the exhilarating feeling of later generations, where real emotions are revealed only through fierce fighting and sweating? Li Wenguo sat for half his time, his eyelids drooping.

He finally managed to get through the night until the lights came on and the party ended. After seeing Xu Meijing into the courtyard, he felt as if his bones had been removed and put back in, and he came back to life.

On my way home, only one thought filled my mind: hurry back to the house and put that burning desire into practice.

Sometimes he wondered why he had been intimate with Xianglan hundreds of times, and he should have gotten tired of her by now, but every time he met her, his heart still pounded like a fluttering sparrow.

In the end, I can only attribute it to my own body being too resilient.

It's not that he's a womanizer.

However, unexpected complications arose on the way home.

The snow was falling heavily and getting thicker and thicker. On the stretch of road near home, the snow piled up to knee-high, and the rickshaw wheels got stuck and refused to move.

Li Wenguo had no choice but to jump off the car and wade back through the snow.

Fortunately, it's not far from home, ten minutes, at most ten minutes.

"This awful weather!"

"The snow is falling like a bucket of flour being poured out!"

"Ouch—my shoe's buried again!"

After finally managing to pull out my leather shoes, I put them on, but before I could take three steps, the toes of my shoes plunged into a snowdrift again.

"I absolutely have to get a new pair of big leather boots tomorrow."

He muttered to himself, glancing around the corner of his eye, and suddenly noticed that the snow on the side alley was smooth and only a thin layer, and that going around it would allow him to turn right behind his own courtyard wall.

Li Wenguo, wanting to save trouble, immediately turned inside.

Although the alley is not as bright as the main street, it was the dead of night, with the wind and snow raging, and even dogs wouldn't come out of their kennels, let alone thieves—even habitual thieves were probably wrapped in quilts and snoring away.

Furthermore, he's not one to be trifled with.

With that kind of strength and physique, taking down three ordinary men with his bare hands is a piece of cake; that's a hard-hitting, brute-force style of fighting.

Dealing with four requires grit and determination; five? You'd probably be on your knees the moment you raised your hand.

If you run into a real martial arts expert—that's no joke, every move is deadly, every punch draws blood.

But Li Wenguo wasn't afraid. He had a gun in his pocket. No matter how skilled he was, he couldn't stop a bullet from piercing his chest.

As soon as they turned into the second narrow alley, they ran into two dark-skinned policemen with their belts hanging loosely. A woman lay sprawled on the ground, her clothes torn, motionless.

Li Wenguo's mind went blank for a moment, and he immediately realized that these were two beasts who had taken advantage of the snowy night to commit a heinous act against a respectable woman.

In the freezing cold, how could they do such despicable things!

Does he deserve the police uniform he's wearing?

What a messed up world!

If he hadn't seen it with his own eyes, he would have almost suspected that the two were imposters.

"stop!!!"

"Raise your hands!"

One of them pulled out a gun, the dark muzzle pointing directly at Li Wenguo's face.

Police officers are not supposed to carry guns, but these two have long since learned to disregard the rules.

"Don't shoot! Don't shoot! I'm coming right now!"

Li Wenguo's face showed panic and his voice trembled, but his heart remained as steady as a rock.

If a bullet were to actually hit, it would be swallowed up by space and disappear without a trace as soon as it grazed the skin.

Of course, if someone were to shoot him in the back, he might not be able to dodge it if caught off guard.

"Tsk tsk, look at your delicate skin, I never imagined you had such a black heart! Doing such a heinous and despicable thing in broad daylight... no, in the snowy night, it's truly chilling!"

The dark-skinned policeman with the gun grinned maliciously, his eyes full of calculation.

I bother!

What does it mean to distort the truth and spread rumors?

It's right in front of you!

Despicable! Vicious!