Courtyard house: Just the right amount of pressure, leaving you bewildered but not brain-damaged.

"call……"

"Rainwater, are you full?"

Gao Xiaosheng leaned back loosely in his chair, gently stroking his belly, which resembled that of a woman in her third month of pregnancy, with his right hand.

"Hiccup, hiccup"

He Yushui was about to speak when she let out two burps, blushing deeply. She quickly covered her mouth and nodded vigorously.

Hmm, it's time to eat.

The restaurant was chosen by He Yushui; it was a small, ordinary shop with a small storefront.

Gao Xiaosheng ordered two bowls of noodles with soybean paste, but it was too hot for him to eat soup noodles.

Following the waiter's recommendation, I ordered a plate of stir-fried eggs with chives and a plate of minced meat and tofu.

Gao Xiaosheng originally planned to have a good meal in a hurry, not to eat all the braised pork, but at least to eat a braised pork knuckle to his heart's content.

Unfortunately, apart from a few high-end restaurants, most small restaurants don't offer large meat dishes.

In addition to staple foods such as rice, steamed buns, noodles, and dumplings, the dishes mainly consist of seasonal vegetables and tofu.

Adding some minced meat to tofu is already quite good.

Gao Xiaosheng strongly suspected that the minced meat was a dual-purpose ingredient, serving both as a main dish and a side dish. Even if it wasn't cooked with tofu, it could be wrapped with chives to make dumplings.

What? Pork and cabbage filling is the only way to go?

Sorry, the winter-stored cabbages are all used up. Fresh cabbages are still growing in the field and will be available for sale in the fall.

Logically speaking, this amount of food should be enough for two people.

Gao Xiaosheng even made a plan that if He Yushui couldn't finish the whole bowl of noodles, he could give him some.

As it turned out, he underestimated people.

Ten-year-old He Yushui finished a bowl of noodles but was still not satisfied, so Gao Xiaosheng asked the waiter to add another bowl, and the two of them shared it.

Both dishes were eaten, and even the broth was used to mix with noodles. The "CD operation" was carried out quite thoroughly.

During the meal and conversation, Gao Xiaosheng learned a lot of information.

He Yushui started primary school in 51. In the same year, her father, He Daqing, left without saying goodbye and went to Baoding to help the widow Bai with her business, leaving the two siblings to depend on each other.

As a close friend of He Daqing, Yi Zhonghai stepped in to help, decisively advising He Yuzhu to end his apprenticeship and helping him find a job as the head chef of the third canteen at Hongxing Steel Rolling Mill.

You should know that three years of apprenticeship and two years of service mean that there is no fixed income for the other five years. You can only get a little reward by pleasing your master.

Going to work in the factory, although it ended He Yuzhu's path to becoming a chef, at least meant that his salary was paid on time, and the brother and sister wouldn't starve.

From this perspective, He Yushui should be extremely grateful to Yi Zhonghai and his wife.

But the little girl didn't think so.

For the past three years, He Yushui's school has been implementing a "two-part" teaching method due to a shortage of classrooms and teachers.

Simply put, students are divided into two groups, one in the morning and one in the afternoon, taking turns attending classes at school and studying at home the rest of the time.

This made lunch a problem.

It's impossible for He Yuzhu to run home every day to bring her food.

It was Yi Zhonghai again who proposed a solution that He Yuzhu found hard to refuse.

He paid 30,000 yuan a month for his sister He Yushui's meals so she could have lunch at the Yi family's house.

Yi Zhonghai patted his chest and assured that his wife, Wu Guizhen, would definitely take good care of the rain.

For the first six months, He Yushui ate quite well, but as her foolish older brother trusted Yi Zhonghai more and more, and Qin Huairu married into the Jia family, everything changed.

Wu Guizhen stopped eating lunch with Yu Shui, explaining that she would only eat two meals a day to save money.

From then on, He Yushui never saw white steamed buns again. Every day at noon, she only had a mini cornbread and a small dish of pickled vegetables.

She mentioned to her brother several times that she was not getting enough to eat or drink at the Yi family's house, but her simple-minded brother was always easily fooled by Yi Zhonghai's words.

Instead, they accused her of being wasteful, thinking about eating meat all the time, and said a lot of things she couldn't understand, like prices are rising every day and it's already good enough that there are plenty of noodles.

When did she start eating noodles at the Yi family's house? It's always cornbread, pickled vegetables, and plain water.

If it's just that she's not full at lunchtime, He Yushui can barely accept it; she can just eat more for breakfast and dinner.

But even this small wish could not be fulfilled.

Qin Huairu would often intercept one of the two lunchboxes that He Yuzhu brought back from the factory, leaving only enough for the two siblings to eat half full.

Even when cooking at home, Qin Huairu would arrive right at mealtimes, carrying a rice bowl bigger than her face. She would give her silly brother a smile and a few words of concern, and half of the food would disappear.

"Rain, do you hate your brother?"

After overcoming his "carb sickness" phase, Gao Xiaosheng pulled out a pack of Daqianmen cigarettes from his pocket, struck a match with a "hiss," and took a satisfying puff.

A cigarette after a meal is better than being a god.

He Yushui nodded halfway, then stopped, hesitated for a few seconds, and gently shook her head. "I don't hate him."

"He's just not very bright; he got fooled by that old man and Sister Qin."

"But my brother is a good person. He took care of me for the three years that my father was gone."

"The Yi family and the Jia family are the bad guys, as are the Yan family in the front yard and the deaf old lady in the back yard."

He Yushui looked at Gao Xiaosheng with a serious expression, clearly reminding him to be careful of these families from causing trouble in the future.

"Oh?" Gao Xiaosheng chuckled. The little girl was quite grateful; he had only treated her to a meal, yet she had pointed out so many bad elements hidden among the crowd.

"The Yi family lied to your brother and didn't feed you properly, the Jia family stole your lunchbox, and how exactly were the Yan family and the deaf old lady wicked?"

He Yushui lowered her head and thought for a moment, "The third uncle of the Yan family often blocks the gate. When Sun Youtian, the brother from the east wing of the front yard, comes back from buying groceries, he always manages to snatch some of his things away. Sun has argued with him many times, but it's no use. Every time there's a meeting of the whole family, the third uncle tells Sun to be more magnanimous."

"My brother has also been cornered by him a few times."

"Our teacher taught us that robbery is illegal, and it's wrong to take other people's things without permission, so Uncle San is a bad person."

"The deaf old lady... never bullied anyone, but she used to tell my brother that girls don't need to be raised too meticulously. Just give them enough to eat to keep them alive. Going to school is even more useless, since they'll get married eventually anyway."

"Later, the word spread throughout the courtyard, and Aunt Zhang, Sister Qin, and another aunt from the Jia family often mentioned it."

He Yushui pouted, "Brother Sheng, do you think the deaf old lady is right?"

"Of course not!" Gao Xiaosheng said without hesitation. "It's only natural for an older brother to take care of his younger sister. He should give her the best things first. Boys don't need to be so particular."

Swearing to God, this was Gao Xiaosheng's true thought from the bottom of his heart.

"Hehe, it's not that serious. As long as the standards are the same, it's good for men and women to be equal." He Yushui smiled, her eyes narrowing into slits.

The more I looked at Gao Xiaosheng, the more familiar he seemed. There was no trace of evil about him anymore; he was clearly a righteous soldier.

"That's right, Brother Sheng, it's not just those four companies."

"The Xu family in the backyard is also bad. My father used to beat up Uncle Xu, and my brother often chased after Xu Damao to beat him up."

"Second Uncle, oh, that's the Liu family in the backyard. They're a bit better than them, but they often beat the kids. Guangtian and Xiaoguangfu are always covered in bruises."

The little girl was in a great mood and betrayed the other two families as well.

Gao Xiaosheng did a quick calculation and realized that there were only nine households in No. 95 Courtyard, including himself, with three households in the front, middle and back courtyards. He Yushui directly pointed out six bad households.

If we remove that idiot He Yuzhu, then only Sun Youtian is left—an honest man.

The proportion of bad elements is comparable to that of a bandit's den.