Courtyard House: Ten-year-old Master Zhu reorganizes the entire courtyard

In winter in Beiping, the cold wind bites like a knife against people's faces.

He Yuzhu's elimination plan wasn't executed immediately. Killing a mad dog outright would be too lenient and risk getting himself splattered with blood. The best approach was to let someone else do the work, letting him walk right into the trap. He needed a knife and the perfect bait.

Meanwhile, the sharpest knife is anxiously searching for an opportunity to strike in the courtyard.

That day, He Yuzhu found Xu Fugui.

"Uncle Xu, want to make a small fortune?" He Yuzhu stopped Xu Fugui, who had just returned from outside, at the entrance of a quiet alley.

"Zhu Zi, what are you saying?" Xu Fugui rubbed his hands together, his face full of smiles. "Following you, how could I not make a fortune? Just tell me what you need."

"Has Jia Dongxu been acting strangely lately?" He Yuzhu asked instead of answering.

Mentioning Jia Dongxu, Xu Fugui's face showed a hint of disdain: "That kid is a complete ingrate. Ever since the old lady transferred the house, he looks at everyone as if they owe him eight hundred strings of cash. I heard my wife say the other day that he got drunk and was cursing in the yard, saying that he wanted to make certain people suffer a terrible death."

"Very good." He Yuzhu nodded. "Uncle Xu, I need you to do something for me. Find an opportunity to 'casually' tell Jia Dongxu something."

"What is it?"

"Tell me that you heard from a friend who works at the police station that the group of Japanese who killed his mother, Jia Zhangshi, didn't all die. One of them, a translator named Tanaka, survived by chance and is now hiding in a large courtyard in the south of the city under the alias 'Mr. Qian.' Moreover, this Tanaka is still holding a sum of gold bars that he 'confiscated' from Jia Zhangshi."

Xu Fugui was stunned. Although he didn't know if it was true or not, he understood that He Yuzhu was setting a trap.

"Will this... will this work? Will Jia Dongxu believe it?"

"He will," He Yuzhu said confidently. "A person blinded by hatred and greed, as long as given a target, no matter how outrageous, will pounce on it like a shark smelling blood. You just need to throw the bait into the water."

He Yuzhu took out five silver dollars from his pocket and stuffed them into Xu Fugui's hand: "This is for your trouble. Remember, make it look like you accidentally let it slip. After you're done, act like nothing ever happened."

"Understood, understood!" Xu Fugui weighed the money in his hand, his eyes crinkling into slits with laughter. Selling out Jia Dongxu for five silver dollars—this deal was too good to pass up.

Xu Fugui was indeed efficient in his work.

Two days later, he pretended to be drunk and boasted to someone by the well in the courtyard, his voice neither too loud nor too soft, just loud enough for Jia Dongxu, who came out of the east wing, to hear. He embellished the story He Yuzhu had taught him, making it sound very convincing: "Japanese translator," "Mr. Qian under the pseudonym," "the tenement in the south of the city," and "a gold bar."

Jia Dongxu took the bait. He hid in the corner, hearing every word clearly. In an instant, two flames ignited in his eyes: one the fire of revenge, the other the fire of greed.

The hatred for his mother's murder! Gold!

These two words swirled wildly in his mind. He didn't even consider whether the news was true or false, or whether it was a trap. All he knew was that this was God's opportunity for him to get revenge and make a fortune.

That afternoon, Jia Dongxu secretly slipped out of the courtyard house and headed straight for the south of the city.

He Yuzhu, through Xu Fugui, kept track of Jia Dongxu's every move. He knew the fish had taken the bait. Now, it was time to bring out the "knife."

He went to a public phone booth and dialed a number known only to a select few within the organization.

The call was connected.

"I'm looking for Mr. Qin."

"Mr. Qin is not here." A cold voice came from the other end of the phone.

"Tell him there's a 'venomous snake' eyeing the 'medicines' in Tianjin. He might be interested in a 'mad dog' in the south of the city." After saying this, He Yuzhu hung up the phone without waiting for a response.

This was his emergency code for communicating with his team. "Viper" represented a Kuomintang agent. "Medicine" was the target of this mission. "Mad Dog" was the code name he gave Jia Dongxu. He believed that the organization's intelligence analysis capabilities would soon make him understand the meaning of his words.

The Kuomintang secret agent known as "Viper" is cunning and adept at using local thugs and hooligans as cannon fodder for probing and initiating attacks. Jia Dongxu, driven by hatred and greed, is the perfect cannon fodder delivered to his doorstep.

What He Yuzhu needed to do was to hand over Jia Dongxu, this "mad dog," to the "venomous snake." He wanted the Kuomintang's knife to kill the dog in the yard. In this way, he could both use a borrowed knife to kill someone and simultaneously confuse the Kuomintang's plans, providing cover for the organization's drug operation in Tianjin.

This is yet another plan that kills two birds with one stone.

As He Yuzhu had predicted, things went exactly as he had expected.

The next day, Jia Dongxu did not return to the courtyard house.

Two days later, Xu Fugui brought news. A major incident had occurred in the south of the city. A group of people had engaged in a firefight, reportedly over a looting of treasure left behind by the Japanese. Several people were killed on the spot, and blood was everywhere. The police went, but only hastily closed the case, not daring to investigate further.

"I heard that the hothead who charged ahead got his head smashed open on the spot and died a more gruesome death than anyone else," Xu Fugui whispered to He Yuzhu.

He Yuzhu nodded expressionlessly, but he knew very well that the "hothead" was Jia Dongxu. He had become cannon fodder for the Military Intelligence Bureau to test the authenticity of that batch of "treasure," using his own life to pave the first minefield for the "Viper."

As for the so-called Japanese translator and gold bars, they were lies fabricated by He Yuzhu from the very beginning. He simply drew a circle, and Jia Dongxu and the Military Intelligence Bureau both fell right into it.

A few days later, Jia Laonian received a call from the police station to claim Jia Dongxu's body at the mass grave in the south of the city. The boy who swore to destroy the He family had ultimately become a forgotten skeleton.

The Jia family line has completely died out.

The people in the courtyard sighed, saying that Jia Dongxu was greedy and had offended the wrong person, thus suffering retribution. No one connected this incident with He Yuzhu. In their eyes, he was still just that quiet, somewhat precocious ten-year-old boy.

Only the deaf old lady, after hearing the news, gave He Yuzhu a deep look. In her eyes, there was amazement, relief, and a trace of barely perceptible...fear.

[Ding! Option B task completed.]

[Reward: The trait "Eliminate Evil Completely" (Basic) has been issued. Effect: Slightly improves intuition for identifying potential threats; enhances logical reasoning ability by 10% when executing elimination plans.]

He Yuzhu stood in the backyard, sensing the changes brought about by the system. He looked at the fallen leaves in the yard, his eyes calm as still water.

He knew that the threat within the compound had been temporarily eliminated. But the undercurrents in the world outside were only just beginning to surge.

The medicine from Tianjin, and that "poisonous snake," are waiting for him.