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

This was undoubtedly the most unique college entrance examination in the history of the People's Republic of China. Among the crowd were demobilized soldiers in old military uniforms, educated youth sent to the countryside in patched cotton-padded coats, immature teenagers of sixteen or seventeen, and even an older father in his thirties holding his child to take the exam.

Their weathered faces were etched with an intense longing to change their fate.

As the examination hall doors slowly opened, the crowd surged in like a tide.

Lin Weidong entered the examination room and found his seat.

The classroom was unheated and freezing cold. Many students were shivering and constantly breathing on their hands to keep warm.

The proctor opened the sealed kraft paper bag and handed out the test papers, which smelled strongly of ink.

Lin Weidong received the math test paper and quickly scanned all the questions.

Without the slightest panic, his mind instantly entered the state of absolute clarity he had when facing enemy tank formations on the Gobi Desert.

The pen tip landed on the rough paper, making a soft, scratching sound.

Those complex algebraic formulas and geometric figures were like wind deflection parameters and distance conversions in a tank's fire control system to him.

With the meticulousness and precision characteristic of a soldier, he dismantled each problem step by step, flawlessly.

The three-day exam was like a cruel meat grinder without gunpowder.

When the bell rang to signal the end of the last exam, a series of suppressed sobs filled the classroom. Some students broke down in tears because they hadn't finished, while others collapsed onto their desks in relief.

Lin Weidong calmly capped his pen, tidied up the exam paper, and handed it to the proctor.

He walked out of the teaching building and onto the playground where snow was falling heavily.

Lin Jianguo was already waiting there. The two brothers exchanged a glance, but instead of asking how the exam went, they simply bumped fists in tacit agreement.

They knew they had won the battle.

In the spring of 1978, everything came back to life.

The postman, riding a green, old-fashioned bicycle, stopped outside the door of Building 6, Jiazi, Yuquanshan, ringing his bell crisply.

Two heavy envelopes bearing bright red official seals were delivered to Lin Yang.

In the living room, the family held their breath; you could hear a pin drop.

Lin Yang tore open the first envelope and took out the admission notice inside.

"Comrade Lin Jianguo. After review, you have been admitted to the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Tsinghua University. Please..."

"I passed! I really passed!" Lin Fan slapped his thigh excitedly, tears streaming down his face. Ding Qiunan covered her mouth and leaned on her husband's shoulder, sobbing uncontrollably.

Lin Yang didn't pause and opened the second envelope.

"Comrade Lin Weidong. After review, you have been admitted to the Senior Command Department of the National Defense University of the Chinese People's Liberation Army."

Lin Yang raised his head and looked at his son, who was standing straight in front of him. Finally, a hearty smile bloomed on his perpetually cold face.

"Alright! Tonight, let's have a grand celebration at the Lin family home!"

After the euphoria of the college entrance examination, life returns to normal, but the machinery of the state operates at an ever-increasing pace.

One afternoon at the end of March.

The spring breeze is gentle, caressing the willows in Beijing that have just sprouted new buds.

In a secluded courtyard house, a quiet oasis amidst the bustling city, near Qianmen Street.

This is a high-class internal guesthouse directly under the Ministry of Heavy Industry, which is usually used to receive important figures with extremely special identities who are not convenient to appear in public.

Internal security soldiers set up a cordon at both ends of the alley.

A black Hongqi sedan slowly drove into the courtyard.

Chen Feng opened the car door, and Lin Yang, dressed in a well-tailored black Zhongshan suit, stepped out of the car.

At this moment, his aura was as deep as an abyss, and every move he made carried an absolute domineering air of controlling the winds and clouds.

He came here today to meet two people who had just "fought their way out" of the icy, snowy Northeast.

Push open the antique wooden door of the main room.

Inside the room, the incense sticks were releasing their fragrant smoke.

Upon hearing the door open, the two people sitting in the mahogany armchairs immediately stood up.

One was an elderly man with a full head of white hair, dressed in an elegant Tang suit. Although the years had etched deep lines on his face, his eyes still shone with shrewdness and vigor.

It was Lou Zhenhua, the once-famous "Half-City Lou" in Beijing.

Standing next to Lou Zhenhua was a young woman.

She wore a dark gray women's suit, a style rarely seen in China at that time, and had a neat, short bob. Her skin was much fairer than before, but the spoiled young lady's temperament between her brows had completely disappeared.

Instead, there is a chilling shrewdness, ruthlessness, and competence.

She was like a scalpel that had just drunk blood in the snow and ice of Northeast China.

Lou Xiao'e.

"Minister Lin!" Lou Zhenhua's hands trembled with excitement when he saw Lin Yang. He quickly stepped forward and bowed deeply.

"Godfather." Lou Xiao'e stepped forward respectfully, but her eyes, as she looked at Lin Yang, held a deep and unyielding affection, like a pool of autumn water.

Lin Yang reached out to help Lou Zhenhua up, and smiled as he looked at the father and daughter.

"Lao Lou, Xiao'e, thank you for your hard work these past six months in Northeast China."

Lin Yang walked to the head seat and sat down, gesturing for the two others to sit as well.

Chen Feng served three cups of freshly brewed premium Da Hong Pao tea, then silently withdrew and closed the door tightly.

"Godfather, here's what you wanted."

Lou Xiao'e didn't waste any words. She opened her black briefcase, took out three thick, tightly bound account books, and handed them to Lin Yang on the coffee table with both hands.

"I infiltrated the finance department of Hongxing Farm for ten months. This document records all the off-the-books material flows of the three major heavy machinery factories and two special steel factories in Northeast China over the past five years. I verified every single steel resold to the black market and every batch of imported equipment parts falsely reported as damaged."

Lou Xiao'e's voice was crisp and cold, exuding the aura of a decisive and ruthless strong woman.

"A total of 172 cadres at the provincial, municipal, and factory levels were involved. The amount of money and materials involved exceeded 20 million yuan. Among them, 15 people were secretly transferred by me, in conjunction with Director Pei Yihong, to the military law department of the military region and executed by firing squad overnight."

Lou Zhenhua sat to the side, listening to his daughter report on her achievements in murder in such a calm tone, and a storm of emotions surged in his heart.

He knew all too well that his daughter was no longer the pampered rich girl who only listened to records. Under Lin Yang's tutelage, she had transformed into a top-tier female tycoon capable of stirring up the industrial landscape of Northeast China.

Lin Yang opened the ledger and casually glanced at a few pages. The shocking figures didn't even make him frown. Because all of this was within his expectations.

"Xiao'e, you did a great job. Even better than I expected."