Courtyard House: In times of famine, my hamster became a spirit.

Today, the fire at the Jia family's residence in the central courtyard is burning incredibly brightly.

Uncle Liu Haizhong had just stepped out with his chamber pot when he was startled by the smell.

He sniffed his bulbous nose, but his brows furrowed deeply: "Wait a minute... why is this smell so intoxicating?"

It's really addictive.

It smells really good, but there's a sour, rotten smell mixed in with the aroma.

It's like old cured meat falling into a dry latrine and fermenting for three days and three nights in the sweltering summer heat.

In the backyard, Zhou Jianguo pushed open the door and leaned against the door frame, cracking sunflower seeds.

The system's enhancement to his physical abilities made his six senses acute, and when he smelled this aroma, he almost burst out laughing.

In my mind, the virtual hamster was wearing a gas mask and rolling around frantically, while pop-up windows flashed wildly:

[Warning: High concentration of mixed excrement molecules detected. Host is advised to hold their breath.]

"High-end ingredients often only require the most basic... manure-scooping method." Zhou Jianguo spat out a sunflower seed shell, his eyes gleaming with amusement. "The show is about to begin."

……

The noise outside grew louder and louder, abruptly waking Sha Zhu from his drowsy state.

He was already delirious from the fever, and the noise only made his head throb even more.

"Who... is calling back the soul..."

Sha Zhu cursed under his breath, his throat feeling like it was burning hot coals.

He forced his heavy eyelids open, his ears filled with the sounds of his neighbors in the courtyard: the loud voice of the third aunt, Jia Zhangshi's smug laughter, and a strange smell of oil.

Not right.

Why does this smell so pungent?

The unease in his heart made him ignore the soreness in his body. He gritted his teeth, put on the tattered cotton-padded coat that was covered in oil stains, and, leaning against the wall, he staggered to the door.

"Creak—"

The broken wooden door was pushed open.

Sha Zhu squinted, looking into the blinding sunlight.

Good guy!

There was a huge crowd of people at the entrance of the Jia family's house, three or four layers deep. The old and young men of the whole courtyard seemed to be crawling under the windows of the Jia family's house.

The scene was even more lively than a college-wide meeting during the Chinese New Year.

No sooner had he finished speaking than Sha Zhu swayed over.

[At this point, I hope readers will remember our domain name 1110 ...

"Sister Qin...Auntie..."

Sha Zhu's voice was hoarse, and his face had a sickly flush. "This meat... doesn't it smell good?"

He stared hopefully at the door, waiting for Qin Huairu to come out and praise him, saying "Zhuzi is great," or even just a glance would be enough.

However, what greeted him was not Sister Qin's tenderness, but Jia Zhangshi's old face that could turn on him at any moment.

"You idiot Zhu! How dare you show your face like that!"

Jia Zhangshi slammed her chopsticks down on the stove, grabbed a basin of leftover swill from washing the pots, and splashed it at Sha Zhu!

"Splash!"

"Ouch!" Sha Zhu was stunned by the icy water, covered in rotten vegetable leaves, and cried out in protest, "Auntie, what are you doing?"

"What? I was about to ask you the same thing!"

Jia Zhangshi jumped up and down, pointing at the bowl of grayish-brown lard in the pot, which faintly gleamed with an eerie green light, and cursed, "You heartless, childless wretch! Are you trying to poison my Banggeng? Smell this for yourself! Is this fit for human consumption?"

As soon as the neighbors heard there was some juicy gossip, they all swarmed around.

Yi Zhonghai, wearing that tattered cotton-padded coat that signified his status, squeezed in with a dark face.

He leaned closer and sniffed it, his expression changing as well: "Zhu Zi, where did you get this meat? This smell... it's definitely not right, it tastes a bit rotten."

"How is it not right? Sir, I got this on the black market!" Sha Zhu's neck veins bulged with anxiety. "That's the best fat! I couldn't bear to eat a single bite myself, I gave it all to Sister Qin, how unfair is that!"

"Exchanged on the black market?" Yi Zhonghai frowned.

If this matter blows up, it will be considered speculation and profiteering, and the entire hospital will be implicated.

"Change my ass!" Jia Zhangshi pointed at Sha Zhu's nose, spitting all over his face. "I think you're just getting revenge! Yesterday Bang Geng kicked you, and today you're disgusting us with this stinking meat! It's all greasy and black, and smells like...like that cesspool behind the public toilet!"

That's such a precise description.

"Oh my, now that you mention it, it really does sound just like it!"

"Tsk tsk, Sha Zhu is so petty, trying to scam an orphan and widow with something like this?"

Last night's act of protecting the meat was a heroic epic in his mind, but how did it become a despicable act of poisoning in the mouths of these people?

"Bullshit! I, Sha Zhu, am a man of my word!" Sha Zhu spun around in a panic. "That's good meat! It really is good meat!"

"Good meat? Pay up!" Jia Zhangshi plopped down on the ground, unleashing her ultimate technique, "Summoning the Dead," "Old Jia! Dongxu! Come quick! This idiot Zhu is bullying me! He tricked my daughter-in-law with rotten meat, he owes me... twenty yuan!"

Qin Huairu hid in the room, watching this scene through the gap in the curtains, her eyes full of calculation and disdain, showing no intention of showing herself.

Just then, the sound of someone slowly cracking sunflower seeds came from the air.

"Click, click."

Zhou Jianguo strolled through the crowd as if watching a monkey show, and squatted down in front of the bowl of greenish lard.

He pretended to fan himself, then leaned closer to sniff.

"Jianguo! You be the judge!" Shazhu cried out as if grasping at a straw. "You've seen the world, tell them, isn't this meat good?"

Zhou Jianguo looked up at Sha Zhu's foolish, approval-seeking face and laughed.

"Zhu Zi, this meat... it's quite fresh."

Upon hearing this, Jia Zhangshi became agitated: "Zhou Jianguo, you're blatantly lying!"

"Don't be in such a hurry, ma'am." Zhou Jianguo waved his hand, his tone suddenly becoming meaningful. "The meat is fresh, but the seasoning is quite unique. Zhu Zi, tell me honestly, did you buy this meat, or did you catch it somewhere?"

"Salvage? Do you think I, He Yuzhu, am the kind of person who picks up trash?"

Sha Zhu instantly bristled.

His pride was everything, especially in front of his arch-rival Zhou Jianguo!

"Since none of you believe me, then I'll tell you!"

Sha Zhu stepped forward, striking a tragic pose, and roared at the entire courtyard, "Last night, Lei Zi was arresting people at the black market! Hundreds of people were running around! To prevent Lei Zi from confiscating this piece of meat, and to let Bang Geng have a bite of oil, I risked my life!"

Everyone was stunned by his imposing presence and subconsciously held their breath.

"I actually squeezed into the drainpipe at the base of the wall!"

Sha Zhu pointed to the bump on his forehead, his face full of pride: "It was so dark and smelly in there, the water was almost frozen! I lay in the mud for half an hour without daring to move! Even when dirty water was poured into my mouth, I held onto the flesh in my arms tightly! Auntie, you say the flesh smelled bad, that's because of the mud on my body, but my heart, He Yuzhu's heart, is red! It's fragrant!"

Everyone's expressions went from shock to blankness, and finally to extreme distortion.

The half-eaten piece of grease that Jia Zhangshi hadn't swallowed was stuck in her throat, and her eyes widened like copper bells.

Zhou Jianguo broke the silence at the opportune moment.

"Pillar...you mean the drainage ditch behind Pigeon City?"

"That's right! So what?" Sha Zhu proudly puffed out his chest.

Zhou Jianguo slapped his thigh, suddenly realizing, "Hey! Shazhu, you're a real man! But do you know that's the biggest sewage outlet in the entire south of the city? Last year, they just merged the septic tank connection of the public toilet into it; it's known as the mass grave."

At this point, Zhou Jianguo pointed disdainfully to a dried, yellowish, fibrous substance on Sha Zhu's collar: "No wonder this fried meat has a strong fermented smell... Zhu, you've given this meat a deep marinating in a latrine."

"..."

The wind stopped, and the snow stopped.

A few seconds later.

"vomit--!"

Someone in the crowd started it, and then a chorus of retching sounds followed.

Second Uncle Liu Haizhong's face turned ashen, he covered his mouth and turned to run away, abandoning even the chamber pot.

The most vehement reaction came from Jia Zhangshi.

She remembered the crunchy piece of pork fat she had just chewed, and the lingering, slightly fishy smell...

"You idiot Zhu...you heartless bastard...you fed me shit?!"

Jia Zhangshi's fat face turned deathly pale instantly. She let out a bloodcurdling scream, bent over, and coughed up a gushing sound like a fountain.

That was a real stench; the sour, rancid smell overpowered the aroma of lard.

"mom!"

Qin Huairu finally broke free.

But as soon as she stepped out the door, the complex smell in the air, a mixture of septic tank lard and Jia Zhangshi's vomit, hit her like a blow.

Her once delicate, white face turned green.

The look in his eyes when he looked at Sha Zhu was no longer the ambiguous one he used to have; it was now filled with a physical nausea, as if he were looking at maggots.

"Idiot Zhu...you...you're disgusting!"

Qin Huairu covered her mouth and slammed the door shut as if avoiding a plague.

Sha Zhu stood frozen in place.

Everyone in the yard was running.

"No... I washed the meat... I really washed it many times..." Sha Zhu muttered to himself, trying to explain, but the only response he received was Jia Zhangshi's heart-wrenching vomiting.

"Yi Zhonghai! Look at the good disciple you taught! He made the whole hospital smell shit! Ugh—!"

Yi Zhonghai's face turned green. He glared at Sha Zhu, flicked his sleeve, and ran away faster than anyone else.

In the blink of an eye, only two people remained in the courtyard.

Zhou Jianguo stepped forward and gently hooked his foot.

"Bang!"

The porcelain bowl that held the lard was shattered on the ground, and the golden-green grease flowed onto the snow, looking particularly glaring.

"This is what you call reaping what you sow." Zhou Jianguo leaned close to Sha Zhu's ear, killing him with his words, "You thought you were a hero saving a damsel in distress? Too bad, the way your Sister Qin looked at you just now was no different from how she looked at something in that pit."

Sha Zhu shuddered.

The goddess's disdainful look was the final straw that broke the camel's back.

"Thump."

Sha Zhu rolled his eyes and fell straight down in the snow, splashing up a puddle of dirty mud.

After an unknown amount of time, the Jia family's door opened a crack.

Qin Huairu brought out a bowl of cold boiled water and stood at a distance.

"A pillar? A pillar?"

Sha Zhu opened his eyes groggily and saw the figure he had been longing for.

He took the bowl with trembling hands, drank the water in big gulps, and felt a surge of warmth in his heart.

"Sister Qin...you still care about me...this water is so sweet."

He was so moved he wanted to cry.

But what he didn't see was that when he lowered his head to drink water, Qin Huairu disgustedly wiped her fingers, which had just handed him the bowl, hard on the corner of her clothes.

"Don't mention the meat. After you finish drinking, quickly wash the bowl and put it by the door. Don't come inside; my mom is still throwing up."

But for Sha Zhu, this was heavenly music.

[Ding! Detected that He Yuzhu has suffered both mental and physical humiliation. System satisfaction +1000!]

[Reward: Super Stain Remover Detergent (with odor tracking function) + One page of the Animal Observation Diary.]

In the backyard, Zhou Jianguo lay in his warm bed, listening to the system's notification sounds, a smile playing on his lips.

"This idiot's CPU is completely burned out."

The real show is only halfway through.