Rebirth in a Courtyard: I Am a Little Hunter

The next morning, the sky was overcast, with leaden clouds hanging low over the gray eaves of the houses in Nanluoguxiang. An eerie silence permeated the courtyard. The tumultuous discussions of the previous night seemed to have been dampened by the morning dew and sunk into the cracks between the bricks. However, the oppressive atmosphere and the voyeuristic desire in the air clung to everyone's faces like an invisible spider web.

As the clock struck midnight at the steel rolling mill, the neighbors, who usually walked out together in a lively and cheerful manner, were all in a hurry and silent today.

Sha Zhu, carrying his tattered bag, walked briskly through the hanging flower gate with his head down, avoiding eye contact with anyone. Xu Damao, on the other hand, was full of energy, his eyes darting around, a hint of amusement playing on his lips.

Qin Huairu's eyes were red and swollen. Holding Xiao Dang, she hurriedly followed Jia Dongxu to see him off, her head bowed. Jia Dongxu looked ashen-faced, as if he had aged ten years overnight. The Yi family's door was tightly closed. An older woman with red and swollen eyes came out, emptied a spittoon, and then quickly retreated back inside.

Liu Haizhong, with his hands behind his back and his belly protruding, walked out of the courtyard last with steady steps, his face carrying a kind of restrained yet still somewhat reserved dignity.

He cleared his throat, seemingly wanting to say something to "reassure people" or "move forward in unity," but after glancing at the closed doors of the Yi family and the dejected Yan family, and then at the various expressions on everyone's faces, he finally just coughed twice and mumbled, "Hurry up and get to work, don't be late," before walking away with his hands behind his back.

The real commotion was in the steel rolling mill.

Around 9 a.m., an older fitter from the transportation department mysteriously pulled aside his colleague and whispered, "Have you heard? Yi Zhonghai, one of our factory's level seven workers, had his family raided!"

"Caught? What do you mean?" "Stolen! More than five thousand yuan!" "What?!" This news was like a boulder thrown into a calm pond, instantly stirring up waves in the steel rolling mill's workshops, warehouses, office buildings, and even toilets.

Workshop One, Yi Zhonghai's territory. Normally, this was the place with the most skilled technicians, the strictest discipline, and also the most stifling atmosphere. Yi Zhonghai was stern-faced, but his technical authority was unquestionable. Today, however, the atmosphere was unusually strange. The roar of the machines seemed unable to drown out the whispers. Yi Zhonghai's workstation was empty; his apprentices were absentmindedly grinding parts, their eyes darting around.

"Jia Dongxu, is your master really sick? It's not from anger, is it?" The experienced foreman at the next workstation leaned over, half concerned and half inquiring. Jia Dongxu's hand trembled, nearly stabbing himself with the file. His face flushed red, and he stammered, "Yes... he's not feeling well..."

"Over five thousand! My goodness, Master Yi really knows how to save money!" another person exclaimed in amazement. "But he's also really unlucky; how could he lose something he hid so well?"

"Who says otherwise? I heard Old Yi cried all night." Someone else chimed in, "Dongxu, there was quite a commotion in your compound last night, wasn't there? I heard they searched it from top to bottom?"

Jia Dongxu felt his face burning, wishing he could bury his head in the workpiece. His master's money was gone, and the secret of his family's hidden money had been exposed. He felt like a clown stripped naked and displayed in public, every gaze sharp and menacing. He mumbled his responses, wanting only to finish his work as quickly as possible.

The propaganda department and projectionist's office had become a "press center." Xu Damao, full of energy and spittle flying, vividly described the "spectacle" of the previous night to the curious onlookers from various departments who had gathered around.

"...You guys didn't see it! The scene!" Xu Damao, legs crossed, a cigarette between his fingers, his eyebrows dancing with excitement, "Yi Zhonghai, his face was as white as a corpse, and 'poof,' he spat out a mouthful of blood! He just collapsed! And that old lady was crying like her own father had died!"

"Wow! Really?" someone asked, skeptical. "I'd be a fool to scare you!" Xu Damao slapped his thigh. "Deputy Chief Liu of the police station personally led the team! They turned the whole compound upside down! Hey, guess what? The most amazing thing wasn't Yi Zhonghai losing money, but that old man who's always complaining about being poor and calculating, that Teacher Yan from Hongxing Elementary School!"

"What's wrong with him?"

"What's going on? They dug up fourteen small yellow croakers from someone's house! They're all golden yellow! And there's over four thousand yuan in cash!" Xu Damao raised his voice, attracting even more people to listen.

"My God! Really? Teacher Yan? The one who usually spends ages calculating even a single scallion?"

"Absolutely!" Xu Damao grinned from ear to ear. "He hid it so well! Under the bricks of the kang! Behind the pickled vegetable jar! Even the brim of his tattered straw hat was stuffed with money! He usually acted like a beggar, so stingy that he would count the peanuts his son Yan Jiecheng ate! But what happened? He was the real rich man! Gold bars! Comrades!"

A commotion erupted around them, filled with gasps of surprise, curses, and laughter.

Enjoying the feeling of being the center of attention, Xu Damao continued, "There's something even more outrageous! The Jia family! Jia Dongxu's family! That Jia Zhangshi, she always complains about being poor to everyone she meets, saying that her family can't even afford to eat, and that she's starving. Guess what? They pulled out more than a thousand yuan from the stuffing of her shiny, greasy pillow! And a gold ring too!"

"What?! The Jia family is that rich too?" Everyone was even more shocked.

"More than that!" Xu Damao lowered his voice, feigning mystery, "The three of them each hid their own money! Jia Dongxu hid seventy or eighty, and Qin Huairu hid more than thirty! When Jia Zhangshi found out, they started fighting on the spot! Tsk tsk, what a scene..."

"My goodness! What kind of people live in this yard?!" someone exclaimed. "They always look so respectable..."

"So, you know," Xu Damao exhaled a smoke ring and said leisurely, "you can know a person's face but not their heart! Yi Zhonghai keeps asking us to donate money to the Jia family! It turns out that all the money we save by scrimping and saving has gone into that old hag's pillow! You tell me, isn't Yi Zhonghai..." He deliberately dragged out his words, leaving room for endless imagination.

"Could it be that he colluded with the Jia family?" someone muttered quietly.

"It's hard to say! Otherwise, why would he be so eager to help the Jia family? He's practically their disciple!" someone immediately chimed in.

Xu Damao listened to these comments, secretly delighted. "Yi Zhonghai, you've finally met your match! Serves you right for always putting on airs and looking down on me, a projectionist? Jia Dongxu, you cowardly wimp, you deserve it! And Sha Zhu, let's see how you act all cocky now!"

The cafeteria kitchen. This is also a well-informed place. Liu Lan, while picking vegetables, nudged Sha Zhu, who was silently chopping potatoes next to her: "Hey, Sha Zhu, have you heard? Something big happened in your department last night! Yi Zhonghai's family lost over five thousand yuan?"

Sha Zhu didn't even look up, chopping away on the cutting board with a loud thud, and said irritably, "Go wash your vegetables! Stop talking nonsense!"

Liu Lan curled her lip: "Hey, why are you being so tough with me? It's not like I stole it. I also heard that your third uncle's family has hidden gold bars? And the Jia family has hidden more than a thousand? Is that true?" The kitchen helpers around her also perked up their ears.

Sha Zhu was incredibly annoyed. Having his meager savings exposed was embarrassing enough, but now the whole compound was the laughingstock of the factory. He retorted, "Whether it's true or not is none of your business! Use that time to wash your vegetables properly! Don't end up eating sand!"

"What a disgrace!" Liu Lan rolled her eyes, not at all annoyed, and turned to whisper to Ma Hua beside her, "It's definitely true! Look at him, so ashamed! Tsk tsk, I never imagined that Master Yi's family was so wealthy, Teacher Yan was so good at pretending, and the Jia family was so shameless..."

The atmosphere in the security office was relatively serious. As soon as Wei Chen sat down, several colleagues he was on good terms with gathered around him.

"Wei Chen, have you heard? Yi Zhonghai from your department had his house robbed. More than five thousand yuan?" His colleague Xiao Zhang asked in a low voice.

Wei Chen nodded calmly: "Yes, the police station came and investigated all night last night."

"Goodness! More than five thousand! But it's not normal for a seventh-level worker to save up so much! It's a pity he's back to square one!" another person exclaimed.

"I heard it was money saved up all his life for retirement," Wei Chen explained simply.

"That's really a disaster!" Xiao Zhang exclaimed. "I heard they found a lot more things? Yan Bugui hid gold bars? And the Jia family also hid a lot of money?"

"Yes, we found everything." Wei Chen didn't hide anything. "Teacher Yan's family had fourteen gold bars and over four thousand yuan in cash. The Jia family had over a thousand yuan hidden in their pillow, as well as a gold ring."

"My God! It's true what they say, a barking dog doesn't bite!" Colleagues exclaimed in surprise. "They all seem poorer and more pitiful than the last, but it was all an act?"

"You can't judge a book by its cover," Wei Chen said calmly.

Jin Aiguo came out of the inner room with a teacup in his hand. Hearing the discussion, he frowned and said, "What are you all doing gathered here? Don't you have any work to do?" The crowd dispersed in a noisy commotion.

Jin Aiguo walked to Wei Chen's desk and gestured for him to come in. Closing the door, Jin Aiguo asked in a deep voice, "What exactly happened last night? I've heard it's all over the factory."

Wei Chen gave a concise but clear report of what happened last night, from Yi Zhonghai's theft report to the hospital-wide search, the exposure of the Yan and Jia families' hidden money, and the loss of Yi Zhonghai's prestige and Liu Haizhong's restless actions. He did not embellish the story, but he did not miss any key details.