Siheyuan, my new life

Just after daybreak, the front door of Courtyard No. 95 was banged hard by someone outside. The banging sound immediately alarmed everyone in the living room of Yan Bugui's house.

Fang Dahu personally brought five unemployed young men to guard Yan Bugui's family last night. He Daqing also asked his son He Yuzhu to bring them a pack of Daqianmen cigarettes. While the six people were smoking and chatting, they would occasionally glance at Yan Bugui, who had his hands and feet tied and thrown aside.

Hearing the banging on the door, Fang Dahu immediately stood up, reached out and picked up a wooden stick as thick as his wrist, and walked out the door while asking loudly: "Who is it? What's the matter so early?"

A deep male voice came from outside the door: "We are police officers from Jiaodaokou Police Station. Open the door quickly."

Hearing that there were public security personnel outside, Fang Dahu immediately put the wooden stick in his hand aside and walked towards the gate.

The gate of the courtyard opened, and six uniformed public security officers appeared in front of everyone.

The leading police officer, who was in his thirties, said, "Hello, comrade. May I ask which family Yan Bugui belongs to?"

Fang Dahu knew they were here to arrest Yan Bugui, and immediately said with a smile: "Comrade Public Security, this is Yan Bugui's home next door. We tied him up last night because we were worried that he would escape overnight, and the people in our courtyard spontaneously sent people to guard him all night."

The leading police officer smiled and said, "Very good, everyone's spirit is worthy of praise. In a few days, our police station and the street office will distribute rewards to everyone. Now we are about to start searching Yan Bugui's home. You can send two representatives to stand by as witnesses."

Fang Dahu and the other five young men all showed happy smiles on their faces, especially Fang Dahu, who was extremely happy. Last night, he took the initiative to propose to relieve Yi Zhonghai of his position as the steward. In fact, he also had his own little calculations. With Liu Haizhong being arrested and Yan Bugui being dismissed, Yi Zhonghai was surrounded by enemies and in a worrying situation. Tonight, Yi Zhonghai was completely torn off his hypocritical mask by He Daqing. Now his reputation in the No. 95 courtyard has been ruined. If he takes advantage of the situation and gives a push at this time, the residents of the No. 95 courtyard, who are already extremely dissatisfied with Yi Zhonghai, will definitely drive him out of office.

In this case, there would be no manager in Courtyard No. 95. He believed that the street office would continue to elect suitable people to be managers in the courtyard in the future. Fang Dahu knew himself well and knew that he would never be able to compete with He Daqing for the position of manager. However, as long as he performed outstandingly, he still had a good chance of competing for the position of manager of the backyard. So he took the initiative to stand up and proposed that the neighbors vote by raising their hands to remove Yi Zhonghai from the position of manager.

In order to get everyone's support, Fang Dahu took the initiative to ask to bring people to guard Yan Bugui's family.

Yan Bugui's family had been awakened by the noise outside. Only a few children were able to sleep last night. Yan Bugui's wife Yang Ruihua could not sleep all night. She could never have imagined that her husband, who had shared a bed with her for more than ten years, would be the son of the big reactionary capitalist Yan Wenzhai. She had never heard her husband mention that his family owned a lot of property.

You have to know that the Yan family relied on cornmeal to fill their stomachs almost every day, and even the pickled vegetable shreds were divided by the number of strands. As far as Yang Ruihua could remember, they had never had a real full meal.

Yang Ruihua was born in a peasant family in Yangjiazhuang, a suburb of the city. She was used to eating coarse food and was very satisfied to be able to marry into the city. You know, when she was in her mother's home in the countryside, there was endless farm work to do every day, and she often had cornmeal and wild vegetable soup to fill her stomach.

Later, she married Yan Bugui through a matchmaker. Although her life was still tight, Yang Ruihua felt very satisfied. She no longer had endless farm work to do. Apart from three meals a day, she had to do housework every day. However, compared with before she got married, she was already enjoying a good life.

When the class registration began in 1950, Yang Ruihua had the impression that her family had neither property nor a shop, and her husband Yan Bugui was just an ordinary primary school teacher. Even if he had worked as an accountant in a pawnshop, he was just a small clerk. But what she did not expect was that her family was actually assessed as a small business owner.

After repeated questioning, Yang Ruihua learned that her husband Yan Bugui actually had three shops in Qianmen. He said that they were ancestral property obtained when the family was divided, and they had been rented out to others. The monthly rent was nearly 80 yuan, far exceeding Yan Bugui's monthly salary of less than 40 yuan. The actual income of Yan Bugui from rent and salary was far more than that of most families in the courtyard. Yang Ruihua was not too angry about her husband's concealment of income. She had been taught from a young age that if you marry a chicken, you follow the chicken; if you marry a dog, you follow the dog. Anyway, all the big and small things in the family were decided by Yan Bugui, the head of the family.

But last night, when He Daqing publicly revealed Yan Bugui's origins, Yang Ruihua suddenly felt as if the sky was falling. As the loud speaker in the No. 95 courtyard, Yang Ruihua had of course heard about the "deeds" of the big reactionary capitalist Yan Wenzhai. She remembered that she and a group of aunts had scolded this black-hearted capitalist, cursing him to have no descendants and go to hell. Now that she knew that her husband was actually Yan Wenzhai's son, Yang Ruihua's mind was in a mess.

At this time, many residents who heard the sound of knocking on the door came to the front yard. After seeing the police officers from the police station, they stood aside from a distance and watched the excitement.

Fang Dahu and a young man followed the police into the bedroom of Yan Bugui's house. The leading police officer directed everyone to move away the wooden bed where Yan Bugui and his wife slept. After carefully checking the blue bricks on the ground, they soon discovered clues. They saw that there were obvious abnormalities on two blue bricks and found signs that someone had moved them frequently.

Under the gaze of everyone, the leading public security officer lifted the two blue bricks effortlessly, and what appeared in front of everyone was a small mahogany box about one and a half feet long and one foot wide. He lifted the small box out with a little force with both hands.

The public security personnel carefully placed the small box, which was more than half a foot high, on the ground, and then slowly opened the lid of the box after carefully checking to make sure there was no danger. Four bundles of big black coins and a thick stack of banknotes appeared in front of everyone; through the gaps in the banknotes, one could vaguely see yellow croakers of various sizes.

Fang Dahu stared at the gold and banknotes in the small box with burning eyes. He couldn't help breathing fast and his heartbeat quickened. It would be great if all these things in the box were his. Unfortunately, he could only feast his eyes on them, because there were several armed police officers beside him. He could only try to suppress his greed and secretly cursed Yan Bugui, the miser. He already had so much property, but he ate cornmeal steamed buns all day long and was reluctant to buy even some meat. Yet he tried every means to take advantage of the neighbors in the courtyard every day. It was obvious that this guy was so greedy and stingy by nature.