Courtyard House: From Deputy Division Commander to Civilian, Progressing All the Way

Intermediate People's Court.

The door to Yi Zhonghai's house was tightly closed.

There was no stove in the house, and it was as cold as an icebox.

Yi Zhonghai, wrapped in a tattered cotton-padded coat, sat cross-legged on the heated kang like a withered tree. In his hand, he held an empty tobacco pipe, which he mechanically tapped against the edge of the kang, making a monotonous "clattering" sound.

An elderly woman walked over carrying a bowl of hot water. Looking at her husband's ashen face, she sighed deeply.

"Old Yi, stop banging your head, it's making my heart race." An older woman placed a thermos of hot water on the table. "Lin Fan's back to being the factory manager. Now, we're completely powerless to even lift our heads in this courtyard."

Yi Zhonghai's hand suddenly stopped.

He raised his cloudy old eyes and looked at the faint light shining through the window paper. His eyes twitched involuntarily a few times.

"Can't lift your head? When have we ever lifted our heads?"

Yi Zhonghai's voice was terribly hoarse, as if it were being forced out from the depths of his throat.

"Three years ago, when Lin Fan was dismissed from his post, I still held onto a sliver of hope, thinking that the Lin brothers were finally going to fall from grace. I even thought that once Lin Fan was down on his luck, I would do him some favors and settle the old score about the house we fought over back then."

Yi Zhonghai clutched his gray hair in anguish, filled with deep regret.

"Who knew that was a strategic retreat! Backed by Lin Yang! A high-ranking official who can attend meetings at headquarters!"

"Now look what's happened! Lin Fan has been reinstated and is in charge of everything. How did we treat him before? If he had just found some excuse at the factory to take away my level eight worker benefits, my wife and I would have been begging on the streets!"

Yi Zhonghai suddenly jumped up from the kang (a heated brick bed) and paced nervously back and forth in the room.

"No! I can't just sit here and wait to die! I have to go see Lin Fan when he gets off work! I have to swallow my pride and apologize to him! Even if I have to kneel down and kowtow, I have to smooth things over!"

backyard.

Liu Haizhong's family situation was even worse.

In recent years, Liu Haizhong had offended people during the Great Leap Forward and had been ostracized in the workshop. He had become so thin that he was unrecognizable and no longer had the burly bureaucratic air he once had.

He was sitting on a chair with a broken leg, holding a dirty rag in his hand, frantically wiping a pair of old leather shoes.

The two brothers, Liu Guangtian and Liu Guangfu, hid in a corner, watching their father's mad appearance, not daring to breathe.

"Brighten it! It must be polished to a gleaming shine!"

While wiping his bangs, he muttered nervously.

"Lin Fan is the factory manager again! Lin Yang is back too! This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity!"

Liu Haizhong stopped what he was doing, turned his head, and stared at his two sons with bloodshot eyes.

"Listen up, you two! When the Lin family members return to the courtyard later, you'd better greet them like they're your own father! If anyone dares to utter a single word of dissent, I'll break your legs!"

"My lifelong dream of becoming a cadre is all on today! As long as I'm humble enough and flatter him well enough, Director Lin will be happy and might just assign me a workshop director position. Then my family will be living the high life!"

Liu Haizhong's soul has been completely warped by his obsession with officialdom. For that faint glimmer of hope, he is willing to abandon all his personal dignity.

The front yard, the Yan family's house.

Yan Bugui was holding an abacus and frantically fiddling with it on the table.

"The Lin brothers' power is currently at its zenith."

Yan Bugui pushed up his glasses, which were wrapped with tape around his legs, and his shrewd little eyes gleamed with calculation.

"Lin Yang is a high-ranking official at the vice-ministerial level, and Lin Fan is the director of a factory with tens of thousands of employees. For our family to go head-to-head with them would be suicidal, but if we can climb the ranks..."

Yan Bugui turned to look at his eldest son, Yan Jiecheng.

"Jiecheng, haven't you been looking for a permanent job? If you see the Lin family later, you better be quick! Go up and help them carry their things, say some nice things. As long as you can get Director Lin to remember you and give you a permanent position at the steel rolling mill, our family won't have to worry about food anymore!"

The Intermediate People's Court, the Jia family.

The room was filled with a strong smell of urine and mold.

Due to years of malnutrition and inactivity, Jia Zhangshi was so swollen that she looked like a steamed bun. She lay paralyzed on the kang (a heated brick bed), listening to the faint whispers outside, so frightened that she even held her breath.

"Dongxu... Dongxu..."

Jia Zhangshi called out to Jia Dongxu, who was squatting by the stove, her voice trembling.

"You absolutely mustn't go out and cause trouble. Lin Fan is the factory manager again, and his brother is back too. Our family took their house back then; if they retaliate, our whole family will be killed..."

Jia Dongxu lowered his head timidly, clutching his hair tightly, without saying a word.

He's now just a marginal laborer at the factory, so exhausted he can barely stand up straight every day. He's filled with resentment, resentment at his own lack of ambition, and even more resentment at his own blindness in following Yi Zhonghai to offend the Lin family.

Qin Huairu sat to the side, feeding water to Huaihua, who was crying from hunger.

She looked up and, through the blurry window paper, gazed at the tightly closed door of the Lin family's house.

Although no one had lived in that house for three years, it remained the most magnificent and sturdy fortress in the entire courtyard.

A deep sense of loneliness and regret flashed in Qin Huairu's eyes.

She recalled the days when she had just married into the courtyard house; Lin Fan was still an insignificant apprentice. If only she hadn't chosen Jia Dongxu, who seemed to have better prospects, but had treated Lin Fan even slightly better…

Could it be that the woman sitting in the factory director's wife's seat, enjoying the awe-inspiring gazes of everyone in the institute, is Qin Huairu?

Unfortunately, life doesn't offer "what ifs." She could only continue struggling in this stench and despair.

Just as the beasts in the courtyard were each harboring their own ulterior motives and trembling with fear.

An untimely commotion erupted from the backyard.

Today is Xu Damao's wedding day.

However, the bride is not Lou Xiao'e, the capitalist's daughter from the original drama.

Since being rescued by Lin Yang, Lou Xiao'e has become his most loyal fan. Later, under Lin Yang's arrangement, she went to study at a prestigious university and never even gave Xu Damao, a hooligan from the alley, a second-rate guy.

To show off his identity as a projectionist, Xu Damao went to the countryside and, with a few feet of floral cloth and a few pounds of cornmeal, tricked and coaxed a rural girl named Wang Cuihua into marrying him.

Wang Cuihua was tall and burly with a very loud voice, but she was good at farm work and had many children.

The Xu family set up two tables for a banquet in the backyard.

Although it was called a banquet, in 1961, the table only had a few large bowls of cabbage stalks mixed with cornmeal, plus a small dish of pitifully little pig's head meat.

Xu Damao, wearing an ill-fitting old suit, was holding a wine glass, his face flushed from drinking, and he was spouting nonsense.

"Let me tell you! My father-in-law is the brigade leader of our commune!"

Xu Damao, reeking of alcohol, boasted smugly to his cronies at the table.

"In this city of Beijing, besides the officials, who's as capable as me, Xu Damao? When I go to the countryside to show movies, even the village party secretary has to serve me tea and water! Cuihua, don't you think so!"