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

Lin Yang looked at the three words "Pei Yihong" on the file, a strange light flashing in his eyes.

In that absurd era, to dare to slam the table against the factory director who held the power of life and death over a few sets of cold technical data—that backbone, that adherence to the bottom line of industry, is exactly like Lin Yang back then.

"I'd rather eat coal dust than sign a falsified report." Lin Yang tapped his fingers lightly on the file photo twice. "Technical skills, integrity, and resilience honed by three years of being looked down upon at the bottom. This is exactly the kind of talent I need."

Lin Yang slammed the file shut, his gaze shooting at Chen Feng like a sharp sword.

"Send men to the coal yard in the southern suburbs immediately. Do not alert any local officials. Bring Pei Yihong to me. I want to see him in person tonight."

"Yes!" Chen Feng stood at attention, saluted, turned around, and strode out of the office.

Four o'clock in the afternoon, at the coal yard in the southern suburbs of Fengtian.

A fierce wind whipped up black coal dust, raging through the air. The entire coal yard resembled a giant black hell, even the sky was stained grayish-brown.

Pei Yihong was wearing a tattered cotton-padded jacket whose original color was no longer recognizable, and his face was covered with a towel stained with black ash. He stood in the cold wind, holding a worn-out register in his hand, staring intently at a coal truck that had just passed the weighbridge.

"Stop!" Pei Yihong suddenly stepped forward and blocked the front of the truck, his voice hoarse but unusually resolute.

The truck driver, a burly man with a fierce face, impatiently slammed on the brakes, leaned out, and yelled, "What are you doing? Can't you see I'm in a hurry?!"

Pei Yihong ignored the driver's cursing. He strode to the back of the carriage, grabbed a handful of coal, weighed it in his hand, and then pinched it with his fingernail.

"This truckload of coal has over 30% gangue, and it's mixed with a lot of water!" Pei Yihong walked to the driver's side and slammed the load of substandard coal against the truck door. "Sending this kind of coal into the blast furnace will not only fail to reach the required calorific value, but it will also severely damage the furnace! I will not register this truckload of coal; take it back immediately!"

Upon hearing this, the truck driver's face immediately darkened. He pushed open the truck door, jumped out, walked up to Pei Yihong, and shoved him viciously.

"Hey Pei, are you out of your mind? Don't you even know whose coal this is?! This is the truckload belonging to the brother-in-law of Deputy Director Li from the factory office! You, a stinking laborer counting coal ash, actually think you're Bao Zheng (a famous judge in Chinese history)? Hurry up and stamp this!"

As the driver spoke, he pulled a pack of Daqianmen cigarettes from his pocket, took out a cigarette, and tried to shove it into Pei Yihong's hand, while threatening in a low voice, "Be smart, we'll all benefit. If you dare to stop me again, believe me, I'll have someone break your legs tonight!"

Pei Yihong slapped the driver's hand away. In his bloodshot eyes, there was no fear, only extreme disgust for this parasite.

"I don't care whose team it is. In my place, where Pei Yihong weighs goods, adulteration is unacceptable! As long as I'm alive, I won't stamp this document! Go ahead and kill me right now, or just run me over!"

Pei Yihong not only did not back down, but instead sat down directly in front of the truck's front tire, adopting a stance of fighting to the death.

"You son of a bitch..." The driver was furious. He glanced around and saw that the loaders were all keeping their distance, no one daring to interfere. A fierce glint flashed in his eyes, and he grabbed a shovel from beside the truck bed, ready to smash it down on Pei Yihong.

At this critical moment.

Stab it--!

A screeching sound of tires rubbing against each other rang out at the entrance of the coal yard.

Two black military jeeps, without any license plates, roared into the coal yard like two fierce black panthers, smashing through the rusty wire mesh gate and kicking up clouds of dust!

The jeep braked sharply less than two meters from the truck and came to a steady stop.

The car door was kicked open instantly.

He Yuzhu was dressed in a crisp civilian suit, but the military aura emanating from his very bones was even more intense than the coal dust filling the sky.

The long, narrow scar on his left eye looked particularly menacing in the cold wind as he strode up to the truck driver holding a shovel.

"Try touching him?" He Yuzhu's voice wasn't loud, but it seemed to carry shards of ice.

The driver was startled by the sudden turn of events. Looking at He Yuzhu's murderous gaze and then at the several capable plainclothes officers who jumped out of the jeep, he felt a chill run down his spine.

"Who...who are you? This kid is deliberately making things difficult for me, refusing to stamp my passport..." the driver stammered, trying to explain.

boom!

Without uttering a single word, He Yuzhu raised his leg and kicked the driver squarely in the stomach.

The kick was incredibly powerful. The burly man, weighing 170 or 180 pounds, was sent flying like a shrimp, crashing heavily onto the coal pile with a piercing scream. He even vomited up his dinner from the night before.

"Are you blind? How dare you adulterate a national heavy industry enterprise and even hit someone!" He Yuzhu coldly glanced at the driver rolling on the ground, then turned to look at Pei Yihong sitting in front of the tire.

He Yuzhu stretched out his large, kind hands and pulled Pei Yihong up from the ground.

"You're Pei Yihong?" He Yuzhu looked the young man up and down, his face obscured by coal dust.

Pei Yihong dusted himself off and looked at He Yuzhu warily: "I am. Are you from the factory's security department? Or were you sent by Deputy Director Li to arrest me?"

Pei Yihong felt a pang of sorrow. He thought that his actions had finally angered the factory's powerful leaders, and that they had sent people to use force against him.

He Yuzhu suddenly smiled, a smile tinged with respect.

"The factory security department? They dare to order me around?" He Yuzhu pulled out an ID badge with an insignia from his pocket and waved it in front of Pei Yihong. "Special Security Division of the Central Security Bureau. Comrade Pei Yihong, come with us."

"The Central Security Bureau?!" Pei Yihong was stunned. How could someone like him, a low-level worker counting coal slag in a coal yard, have alarmed the central authorities?

"What do you want with me? What law have I broken?" Although Pei Yihong was shocked, he still maintained his unyielding spirit.

"You didn't break the law; you did a good deed. Someone wants to see you."

He Yuzhu said no more, opened the car door, and gestured for him to enter.

Pei Yihong got into the jeep with a heart full of doubts. The convoy quickly turned around, left the filthy coal yard, and sped towards the military district guesthouse in the city.

On the bus, Pei Yihong looked at the scenery rushing past the window, his mind in turmoil.

In this era of heightened tension, the local bureaucrats in Northeast China had long since formed an impenetrable network of relationships. Who would dare to bypass these layers of connections and directly approach him, this troublemaker who had been demoted to the lowest levels?

More than half an hour later, the jeep drove into the heavily guarded military guesthouse.

Pei Yihong was led upstairs to the second floor and arrived at the door of a room that smelled of meat.

He Yuzhu pushed open the door, turned to Pei Yihong and said, "Go in, the commander is waiting for you inside."