Courtyard House: A Carefree Life Begins with a Lottery of Wish Power

Do you know who changed my door lock?

Yan Bugui was slightly taken aback, and said:

"Is that so? Did your family change the locks without you knowing?"

Lin Zhuo said:

"Since the time we finished arranging my father's funeral, no one in our family has stepped into this courtyard. Among our neighbors, including you who lives across the street, has anyone seen anyone from our family come here these past few days?"

Everyone shook their heads, and Yan Bugui murmured:

"I haven't seen any of your family members visit these days."

Seeing that Lin Zhuo had taken control of the conversation, Jia Dongxu couldn't help but interrupt:

"Lin Zhuo, stop making trouble."

"I'm here telling you about how you destroyed my furniture, why are you pulling on the door lock?"

Lin Zhuo sneered.

"I didn't want to break the lock, but some bastard messed around and pried it off, then replaced it with a new one."

Upon hearing this, Jia Dongxu's blood boiled, and he roared angrily:

"Who are you calling a bastard?!"

Lin Zhuo chuckled inwardly; this was an admission of guilt.

Although he had some doubts before, seeing Jia Dongxu's reaction now, Lin Zhuo was certain.

It belongs to Jia Jiaqian.

A system notification suddenly sounded in Lin Zhuo's mind: "Wish Power +1".

Lin Zhuoxin thought to himself, "Oh? Why is this system suddenly responding?"

But there was no time to study it at that moment.

Lin Zhuo said nonchalantly:

"Whoever picks my lock, whoever puts this pile of junk in my house, is a bastard."

"Jia Dongxu, could it be that you broke into my house? And that you let all this junk in?"

"You..." Jia Dongxu's face turned red. He couldn't admit it or not, and he didn't know what to say for a moment.

"Wish Power +2." The notification sound continued to ring.

Seeing Jia Dongxu's discomfiture and realizing he had even gained some wish power, Lin Zhuo felt a surge of satisfaction. He smiled slightly and said:

"It seems that the bastard who did this despicable thing has nothing to do with your family."

"Alright, everyone, you can all go now. I still have to keep chopping wood."

"You brat, try hitting me again!"

Lin Zhuo looked up and saw that it was none other than Jia Zhangshi, who had come over after hearing the commotion at home.

Jia Zhangshi argued vehemently:

"These things all belong to the Jia family. We have so many people in our family, we can't fit them all in. Your house is just sitting idle anyway, what's wrong with leaving them here for a few days?"

"You burned all our belongings without our permission."

"Let me tell you, these things are made of the best materials, and they're prepared for our Banggeng to use when he gets married in the future."

"You either buy me a new set, or you pay me back! Either way, you have to pay me!"

Lin Zhuo was furious when he heard Jia Zhangshi being unreasonable.

"You broke into my house, dumped a pile of garbage in my house, and now you're blaming me for it."

"Once it's in my house, it's mine. I can throw it away or burn it if I want. It's none of your business."

Seeing that Lin Zhuo didn't listen to her at all, Jia Zhangshi was so angry that the fat on her face trembled.

"Wish Power +1".

"Yan Bugui, you be the judge! I only temporarily left my things at his house, and he burned them. Do you think he should compensate me?"

Yan Bugui was one of the three leaders managing this large courtyard, and he was considered a big shot in the courtyard. Everyone had to respectfully call him Third Uncle.

Now, being addressed by Jia Zhangshi by her full name in front of such a person, Yan Bugui also felt a bit angry.

Besides, this matter is really hard to explain.

It was certainly wrong for the Jia family to pick the lock, but Lin Zhuo burning their belongings also seemed inappropriate.

The key point is that I also changed a few items and took them back to my own home.

Before Yan Bugui could speak, an old man named Yi Zhonghai arrived at the front yard and said in a deep voice:

"What's going on? Why are they making a fuss so early in the morning?"

Upon seeing his master, Yi Zhonghai, arrive, Jia Dongxu immediately straightened his back and hurriedly stepped forward, pointing to a pile of miscellaneous items in Lin Zhuo's room:

"Master, that brat Lin Zhuo burned all our things in the stove. He even chopped up all our perfectly good furniture into firewood." Yi Zhonghai glanced at the clutter piled up in the room, then at the leisurely Lin Zhuo, knowing that things were definitely not as simple as Jia Dongxu had described. He turned to Yan Bugui and said:

"Old Yan, tell me, what exactly happened?"

Yan Bugui pushed up his glasses, leaned closer to Yi Zhonghai, and whispered:

"I just arrived a little while ago. From what I overheard their conversation, it seems the Jia family pried open the Lin family's lock, dumped some things at the Lin family's house, and then changed the lock."

"When Lin Zhuo came back, he found the lock had been changed. He broke the lock, went inside, and immediately lit the stove with all those things."

"The Jia family found out, and that's how the argument started."

Upon hearing the whole story, Yi Zhonghai frowned.

Jia Dongxu's apprentice is such a worry.

Old Lin's son has really surprised me. Although Old Lin is a soldier, he is usually very honest and law-abiding, but his son is not a good person.

When Jia Zhangshi saw that her son's teacher had arrived, she felt even more confident.

"Old Yi, you have to get justice for our family."

Ignoring Jia Zhangshi, Yi Zhonghai pondered for a moment, then walked up to Jia Dongxu with his hands behind his back and said:

"Dongxu, did you break the lock on the Lin family's house?"

The master-disciple relationship in this era was different from that of decades later; it was truly a case of "a teacher for a day is a father for life."

Jia Dongxu still held Yi Zhonghai in high esteem, and stammered:

"Master, I..."

Yi Zhonghai said sternly:

"I'm just asking if you pried it open?"

Jia Dongxu lowered his head and whispered:

"I pried it open."

Yi Zhonghai pointed at Jia Dongxu and angrily cursed:

"I think you've lost your mind, kid. You'd actually do something like picking a lock."

Then, Yi Zhonghai turned to Lin Zhuo and asked:

"Lin Zhuo, did you put the Jia family's things into the stove and burn them?"

Lin Zhuo met Yi Zhonghai's gaze, nodded, and said:

"Yes, I burned it."

Lin Zhuo was curious to see how this self-proclaimed fair and just old man would handle the matter.

Yi Zhonghai turned to Yan Bugui and said:

"Old Yan, what do you think we should do about this?"

Yan Bugui cursed "old fox" in his heart, but his face was full of smiles:

"You're the elder statesman, everyone respects you, so you can make the decision."

Now that the old man had come, he was unwilling to be the bad guy.

If he helped Lin Zhuo, he would offend the Jia family. He really didn't want to mess with that shrew Jia Zhangshi and that treacherous Jia Dongxu.

Moreover, Jia Dongxu was Yi Zhonghai's apprentice, which also offended Uncle Lian.

But we can't help the Jia family either, because the Jia family is in the wrong no matter how you look at it.

Even if the neighbors didn't say anything, they must have felt that they had acted unfairly by helping the Jia family.

Moreover, the Jia family also took a few pieces of furniture themselves. Although it was a replacement, it's a dilemma now—it's like mud falling into their pants.

He simply passed the buck to an old man and happily watched the show from the sidelines.

On one side were his apprentices, and on the other were the family members of a worker who had just died from a work injury.

If not handled properly, it will definitely affect the old man's prestige in the courtyard.

When Yi Zhonghai saw that Yan Bugui, who used to love showing off, was now backing down, he cursed him inwardly as "cunning old fox".

There's no other way; it seems I'll have to do it myself.