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

"Go! You old man, you're always so high and mighty!" Liu Guangtian gripped the rope tightly with both hands, shoved his shoulders forward, and adopted a pulling stance.

With a piercing scream, Yi Zhonghai lost his balance and crashed face down into the muddy ground mixed with coal ash and snow.

His usually dignified old face was now covered in bloody cuts from the ice shards.

Liu Guangfu was equally decisive, pulling hard from the other side.

The two brothers dragged Yi Zhonghai, who was bound hand and foot, out the door like a dead dog.

The thick hemp rope cut into Yi Zhonghai's cotton-padded jacket, making his sternum creak.

Yi Zhonghai struggled desperately to stand up, but each struggle only left a filthy trail of mud and blood on the snow behind him.

In the courtyard, the neighbors who usually had to bow their heads and listen to Yi Zhonghai's reprimand whenever he coughed were now all huddled under the eaves with their necks hunched over.

Not only did they have to speak up to stop them, they even had to cover their mouths to breathe.

In the main room of the courtyard, a muffled thud suddenly came from behind the curtains.

That was an older woman who was peeking from afar.

Watching the man who once commanded respect in the factory and whose word was law in the yard being dragged and rubbed in the mud like a pig by his juniors, the immense sense of loss shot straight to the top of his head.

Overcome with anger and anxiety, her eyes rolled back, and her head slammed heavily against the corner of the octagonal table, causing her to faint on the spot.

Blood dripped down the corner of the table.

But none of the beasts in the yard dared to go over and take a look when they heard the noise.

Yan Bugui pushed up his shattered glasses and slipped away behind his door; Qin Huairu bit her pale lips tightly and simply pretended to be blind.

At this critical juncture, anyone who dares to touch the Yi family is an accomplice of the corrupt officials!

Braving the wind and snow, the escort team trudged along, one step at a time, until they reached the windy corner of the alley.

The north wind cut my face like a knife.

The two Liu brothers were shivering from the cold, their ten fingers stiff and blue, and the rope they were holding loosened by half an inch.

In that brief moment, the old fox Yi Zhonghai sank his feet down, his heels precisely wedging into the seams of the bluestone slabs. Using this momentum, he managed to brake.

"Old Liu..." Yi Zhonghai suddenly turned his head, staring at Liu Haizhong who was leading the way, his voice hoarse, "Are you really going to wipe us out?"

Liu Haizhong, with his hands tucked into his sleeves, sneered, "Old Yi, stop trying to get close. You're committing a crime, I'm just upholding justice by turning down a family member. Save your words for the security department."

Yi Zhonghai's chest heaved violently, and his mud-covered lips forced out a sentence: "Last year, during the fitter evaluation in Workshop Five, why did Xiao Li get promoted? The three hundred yuan in your pocket, and two bottles of Moutai... Do you really think I'm blind?!"

Upon hearing this, the man with the thick, fleshy face in the bangs turned deathly pale.

My hair stood on end.

Three hundred yuan!

They're taking bribes to sell spots!

If Yi Zhonghai were to expose this whole thing in this hidden corner, he wouldn't be able to live like a big shot anymore. His job as a level seven worker would be smashed to pieces by the factory, and he might even have to go to jail with them!

Liu Haizhong's stout body trembled violently, his feet instinctively rooted to the ground in the snow, and his Adam's apple bobbed up and down with difficulty.

"Dad, why did you stop?" Liu Guangtian noticed that something was wrong with his father, and subconsciously loosened the rope in his hand a little more.

Amid the wind and snow, the atmosphere reached a stalemate.

Yi Zhonghai stared at Liu Haizhong's face and knew that the old man was scared.

If Liu Haizhong lets him off the hook today, he has plenty of ways to go back and destroy all the evidence.

However, just when the goal was about to be achieved,

"Sizzle—"

A sickening metallic scraping sound suddenly rang out in the darkness.

Zhou Jianguo, who was following behind, didn't even stop walking.

His wrist hung limply, and a thick steel fire hook, as thick as a thumb, was casually dragging along the blue brick wall.

Sparks flew red across the snowy night, illuminating his cold, enigmatic profile, which seemed to be both smiling and not smiling.

"Second Uncle, why did you stop? Did you get glue on the soles of your shoes?" Zhou Jianguo's tone was chilling as he slowly took half a step closer. "Or perhaps, at this crucial moment, you want to exchange criminal tips with this fraudster?"

Liu Haizhong shuddered, and a head full of white sweat suddenly appeared.

Zhou Jianguo's gaze swept over the two men, and he ruthlessly pierced the final barrier: "Liu Haizhong, you'd better think this through. Embezzling 720 is a crime punishable by death. If you're soft-hearted and act as a protector now, that's called harboring an accomplice! You can simply let him go and go to the security department's detention room to warm up with him."

The label of "accomplice" came crashing down, shattering the last shred of hope in Liu Haizhong's mind.

Zhou Jianguo had his weakness firmly in his grasp.

What does it matter if there's something on your hands?

If we just throw Yi Zhonghai in jail today as a major fraudster, who would believe the indiscriminate attacks of a mad dog?!

But if we release him now, the remittance slips in Zhou Jianguo's hands can immediately turn him into an accomplice!

The ear-piercing sound of the fire hook dragging on the ground became a death knell.

To save his life, and for the throne that was about to be his, Liu Haizhong went completely mad.

His eyes were bloodshot as he strode forward and swung his thick arm.

"Snapped!"

A powerful, heavy, and extremely large penis landed squarely on Yi Zhonghai's face.

He used all his strength in that one strike, and with a muffled "plop," Yi Zhonghai's lip was torn open, and two bloody molars flew directly into the snowdrift next to him.

The old man was so badly beaten that he saw stars and his head was violently tilted to one side.

"You old beast spewing filth!" Liu Haizhong pointed at Yi Zhonghai's nose, roaring righteously, spitting all over the man's face. "Even on your deathbed, you dare to slander the revolutionary masses! Guangtian! Guangfu! Drag him to his death! No amount of pleading will work today!"

The neighbors who were watching from a distance were completely dumbfounded.

Everyone gasped in shock, finally realizing the truth: Yi Zhonghai, this seemingly all-powerful figure, had been utterly crushed by Zhou Jianguo with just a few words, leaving not even a bone fragment.

With his last trump card extinguished by this slap, Yi Zhonghai completely resigned himself to his fate, allowing the Liu brothers to forcibly drag him into the steel rolling mill's security department.

Under the warm yellow light of an incandescent bulb, a security officer was drinking hot water from a teacup.

Looking up, I was so shocked that I spat out a mouthful of water.

Yi Zhonghai, an eighth-grade fitter who usually walks with a brisk pace in the factory, now has a face swollen like a pig's head and is being pressed firmly to the ground.

Before the clerk could speak, Zhou Jianguo walked forward expressionlessly and slammed the stack of remittance slips onto the table.

"Yi Zhonghai, an eighth-grade worker at the steel rolling mill, is suspected of maliciously embezzling support funds for the families of martyrs for ten years. He has been caught red-handed with the embezzled funds."

Zhou Jianguo stepped aside.

He Yushui, shivering from the cold, stepped forward, her hands covered in pus-filled frostbite, and spoke with heartbreaking words.

She laid bare everything about how Yi Zhonghai withheld the huge sum of 720 yuan, how he forced her to eat only coarse cornbread for ten years, and how he used her money to act like a living saint in the courtyard.

The head of security, who was on duty in the inner room, rushed out, grabbed the receipts on the table, and checked them. The veins on his forehead bulged.

"Bang!" The solid wood table was slammed down with a deafening sound.

"Utterly depraved!" The section chief pointed at Yi Zhonghai on the ground and angrily denounced him, "You used the life-saving money of workers' children to satisfy your own greed! You're ten times worse than a landlord!"

He strode forward and pulled a string of cold metal objects from his lower back.

"Snap!"

With a crisp metallic click, a pair of heavy steel handcuffs locked Yi Zhonghai's wrists.

The section chief immediately declared: "The evidence is conclusive! This is an extremely serious case of job-related crime and fraud! Men, throw him into the detention room and keep him under strict guard. Transfer him directly to the Municipal Public Security Bureau tomorrow morning!"

Transferred to the Municipal Bureau!

This is no longer a factory disciplinary action; it's a prison sentence!

Yi Zhonghai rolled his eyes, convulsed violently twice, and then completely lost consciousness. He was dragged into the dark depths of the corridor by two security guards.

The neighbors who had come to watch the play shivered, their eyes all falling on the young man whose face remained expressionless.

From intercepting letters and exposing hypocrisy to forcing Liu Haizhong to pledge his loyalty, the case was eventually brought to justice.

At that moment, no one dared to look him in the eye.

The dust has settled.

The section chief waved his hand, clearing away the irrelevant people.

Outside the security office.

"thump."

He Yushui's knees buckled, and she knelt heavily on the snow.

She clutched the thin case filing receipt, her frail shoulders trembling violently, before letting out a heart-wrenching wail.

The cries contained the pain of ten years of hunger that caused stomach cramps, the bitterness of wading barefoot in icy water in winter, and the extreme resentment of being forced to be a subservient servant to one's enemy.

All the grievances exploded.

Zhou Jianguo stood quietly in the wind and snow, his eyes still cold and stern.

He didn't bend down to help her up, nor did he bother to offer any cheap platitudes.

He simply reached into the inside pocket of his coat and pulled out an greasy brown paper package.

That was a pork crackling pancake that he had just fried thoroughly in the peanut oil provided by the system.

On a snowy night below zero, it exudes a domineering yet extremely tempting aroma of oil.

Zhou Jianguo looked at her and stuffed the scalding hot oil paper package into her frozen hands.

Crying won't solve hunger. Eat.

He Yushui was stunned.

She lifted her tear-streaked face and stared blankly at the oil paper package in her hand.

She didn't even bother wiping away her tears; she opened her chapped lips and took a big bite of the hot pancake.

The very instant He Yushui swallowed the scalding hot oil and the aroma of noodles, a crisp notification sound suddenly rang in Zhou Jianguo's mind:

[Ding! Detected that the host has successfully shattered the core persona of the hypocrite old man in the courtyard!]

[Completion of the phased crime-punishment mission has triggered a critical reward!]

[Reward: Master-level Culinary Skill Book x1!]

[Reward: 200 RMB cash (legal amount, automatically deposited into your personal storage space)!]

Hearing the pleasant notification of exploding gold coins in his mind, feeling the heavy sum of money in the space and the top-notch culinary memories suddenly flooding his limbs, Zhou Jianguo smiled.