Siheyuan, my new life

While massaging Yi Zhonghai's back, Qu Xiuqin asked in a low voice: "Zhonghai, did you see who hit you with the club?"

Yi Zhonghai smiled bitterly. How could he not know who hit him? But how could he dare to tell the truth? So he could only make up a story: "I had a sack over my head at the time, so how could I know who it was? The people who hit him didn't make a sound, but I think there were at least two or three people."

Qu Xiuqin pretended to be puzzled and said, "Every day, you are at work or in our courtyard. I have never heard you talk about conflicts with anyone outside. Could it be that someone in our courtyard did this? No, we must go to the police station tomorrow to report it. We can't let someone beat us up for no reason, and beat us up so hard."

Yi Zhonghai pretended to sigh deeply: "It was pitch dark and I didn't see the other party. What's the point of reporting to the police? Our family needs to keep a low profile now. Maybe I offended someone somewhere in the courtyard before, and now someone is taking advantage of my loss of the position of the manager to retaliate against me. Alas, it is said that a phoenix that has fallen to the ground is worse than a chicken. Now I can truly understand the meaning of this sentence. In the past two years, I have been concentrating on studying fitter technology. When I pass the eighth-level fitter assessment, let's see who dares to offend our family. By the way, you should also pay more attention in the yard to see who is abnormal. When I make a comeback, we will definitely settle accounts with these guys."

After Qu Xiuqin finished her work, Yi Zhonghai climbed up from the bed again, got out of bed naked, took out a cigarette box and matches from his pocket, and said to his wife: "You go to sleep first. I'm feeling suffocated and angry now. I'm going to the outer room to smoke a cigarette." After that, he walked out.

After Qu Xiuqin waited for Yi Zhonghai to walk out of the bedroom, she picked up the clothes he had taken off aside and examined them carefully for a long time. Then a sarcastic smile appeared on her face, she threw the clothes aside, took the bottle of medicinal wine and put it on the cabinet, then walked out of the bedroom, and said to Yi Zhonghai who was leaning on a chair smoking: "You have been busy all day, go to bed early." After that, she went into the kitchen, washed up simply, and returned to the bedroom.

After more than half an hour, clear snoring sounds were heard from the bedroom. Yi Zhonghai carefully got up and walked to the bedroom door. He gently pushed it open a crack and looked inside in the dim light from the living room. Unfortunately, the light was too dim and he could only vaguely see a figure lying on the bed sleeping soundly.

However, Yi Zhonghai has been able to confirm that his wife Qu Xiuqin is now asleep. Except for himself, almost no one knows that since Qu Xiuqin had a miscarriage due to overwork on the way from Shencheng to Sijiucheng, she has developed a root cause of illness, that is, she will snore as long as she falls asleep, and the sound is quite loud. Yi Zhonghai has also taken his wife to the hospital. According to the doctor, this is a more serious rhinitis. If you want to cure it, you need to inject very expensive penicillin. At that time, the highest price of a penicillin injection on the black market could be sold for a small yellow croaker, and it was still out of stock. With the apparent income of Yi Zhonghai and his wife at the time, they could not afford the high cost of treatment. Moreover, it was just snoring during sleep, which would not affect life and health. How could the naive Qu Xiuqin be willing to spend a quarter of the family's wealth to treat this minor illness for herself? So under her insistence, she gave up treatment.

Yi Zhonghai slowly walked back to the eight-immortals table. Now, every time he moved his body, he felt severe pain in his back and buttocks. In his heart, he secretly cursed Liu Dali and Bai Guafu who had harmed him tonight, and he was determined that if he had the chance in the future, he would never let this couple go.

If Yi Zhonghai didn't need to take out the money to be delivered tomorrow night from the place where he hid his private money, how could he have endured the severe pain and stayed in the living room?

Yes, Yi Zhonghai hid his private money under the blue bricks under the eight-immortals table in the living room. When ordinary people want to hide something, they will first choose an extremely secret place, but Yi Zhonghai did the opposite. He hid it under the eight-immortals table in the living room.

Yi Zhonghai lay on the ground, enduring the severe pain. Ever since he was assigned to these two rooms by Lou's Steel Rolling Mill, he began to collect bricks and wood from the abandoned old houses nearby. At that time, there were many people doing the same thing as Yi Zhonghai. They all looked for items they could use from those abandoned old houses, no matter bricks, tiles, wood, doors or windows, as long as they could use them, they would find ways to get them back. Many families in the No. 95 courtyard built small kitchens outside their houses, and most of the materials used came from here.

When Yi Zhonghai first moved into these two houses, the blue bricks originally used on the floor were already in tatters, so he used his free time to get the materials himself and replaced all the floor tiles in the room. He dug a one-foot square groove under the bedroom floor for his wife to use to hide the family's belongings, and secretly dug a groove of the same size where the eight-immortals table was originally placed in the living room. However, he did not tell his wife that this was the place to hide his private money.

Yi Zhonghai reached out and took out two specially made steel bars from the back of the Eight Immortals Table, and gently inserted them into the gaps of the blue bricks on the ground. With a little force, the blue brick was lifted up silently. He carefully put the blue brick aside and moved another blue brick away. Yi Zhonghai reached out and took out four small yellow croakers from the hidden groove below, and gently placed them on the ground. Then he took out a stack of banknotes, skillfully counted out one thousand yuan, and reluctantly put it together with the small yellow croakers. Then he began to put the rest of the money back in place, carefully put the two blue bricks back in place, reinserted the steel bar on the back of the Eight Immortals Table, and carefully smeared some dust on the gaps of the blue bricks with his hands. Then he stood up with the small yellow croakers and cash.

Yi Zhonghai gently placed the things in his hand on the eight-immortals table, still leaning back in his chair, lit a cigarette and took a deep puff, staring at the pile of banknotes and four small yellow croakers on the table with complicated eyes. The money he had saved with great difficulty was taken away by that pair of dogs and bitches. Yi Zhonghai was really unwilling to accept this, but he had to bow his head under the eaves. Even if he was reluctant, he could only deal with the difficulties in front of him first. As for what would happen in the future, he would have to wait and see.

What Yi Zhonghai didn't notice was that when he was concentrating on taking something from the secret slot under the eight-immortals table, a figure was standing quietly at the bedroom door, still snoring, staring at his every move through the gap with extremely complicated eyes. When he saw Yi Zhonghai starting to clean up the scene, the figure quietly left the door and returned to bed to continue sleeping.

Yi Zhonghai thought his explanation could deceive his usually docile and obedient wife, but unfortunately Yi Zhonghai revealed too many flaws tonight. So when her husband urged her to go back to the bedroom to sleep, Qu Xiuqin pretended to be asleep. She wanted to see what Yi Zhonghai was going to do.