Siheyuan, my new life

In fact, the aunt had consulted doctors in the past few years. Several old Chinese doctors gave the same results, that is, the aunt had caught a cold in her early years and injured her body. She did not receive timely treatment and missed the best time for treatment. At present, she can only take Chinese herbal medicine to warm her body. If she can have ginseng over 100 years old, she still has hope of having her own child. However, ginseng over 100 years old is extremely rare, and the price is not affordable for an ordinary worker like Yi Zhonghai. In the end, she can only insist on taking Chinese herbal medicine, hoping for a miracle and the two of them can have their own children. Unfortunately, after several years, they still have not achieved their long-cherished wish.

After hearing what her husband said today, Auntie hesitated for a long time before speaking: "It's not bad to adopt a little boy of two or three years old. As long as we train him well from childhood, he is unlikely to be ungrateful when he grows up and not take care of us in our old age. But I'm afraid the old lady in the backyard won't agree, right?"

Yi Zhonghai tilted his head back to drink the wine in the glass, then stood up and said: "I'm going to deliver food to the old lady today, and by the way, test her opinion." After that, he walked into the kitchen, picked up the tray, opened the door and walked out.

Walking on the road to the backyard, Yi Zhonghai greeted the neighbors he met with a smile on his face, but his heart was filled with mixed feelings.

Yi Zhonghai was originally an ordinary junior technician at Zhang Dashuai's arsenal in Northeast China. His monthly income was enough to support himself, his wife and his mother. However, only three months after his marriage, the Japanese pirates invaded on a large scale. Having heard and witnessed the brutal acts of the pirates, Yi Zhonghai did not want to watch his beautiful new wife being raped by the pirates. So after discussing with his mother and wife, the family found a way to sneak out of Shencheng and planned to go to his uncle who was in the fur business in Sijiu City.

On the way to escape, his mother first caught a cold and died, and then Yi Zhonghai was not spared. Thanks to his wife who pulled her unconscious husband lying on a simple sled alone in the wind and snow for a day and a night, Yi Zhonghai was finally treated by a doctor, but his wife suffered a miscarriage due to overwork.

Due to the difficult conditions at the time, his wife was unable to receive timely treatment. The two of them relied on the little money they had left and traveled through untold hardships to finally arrive in Sijiu City.

However, when I went to the address my uncle left, I was surprised to find that the shop had changed owners. Because my uncle lost money in business, he sold all his property and left the city. No one knew where he had gone after asking around.

Yi Zhonghai and his wife were penniless and had no choice but to hide at the gate of a courtyard house at night due to hunger and cold.

The next morning, the gate of the courtyard opened and a kind old lady in her fifties or sixties walked out. She saw Yi Zhonghai and his wife wrapped in a thin quilt and shivering. After asking them about their situation, the old lady was kind enough to take them in. Not only did she provide them with food and shelter, she also recommended Yi Zhonghai to the manager of Lou's Steel Rolling Mill who came to rent housing for the factory workers.

Yi Zhonghai originally worked as a fitter in the arsenal. After a simple test, he successfully entered the Lou's Steel Rolling Mill and became a junior fitter. In order to thank the old lady for her kindness, his wife took the initiative to take care of the old lady's food, clothing and daily life.

After the peaceful liberation of the city of 1949, a large influx of people caused a severe shortage of housing. In order to ease the pressure of housing, the Military Control Commission at that time issued a notice, hoping that residents with extra housing would sell or donate their properties to the state.

The deaf old lady took the initiative to find the military control committee and donated most of the three-courtyard house under her name. For this, the military control committee not only publicly commended the old lady's dedication, but also listed her as a key care target, and issued a certain amount of subsidies every month.

In the whole courtyard, only the two side rooms in the backyard where the deaf old lady lives and the two main rooms in the middle courtyard where He Daqing, deputy director of the Red Star Steel Rolling Mill canteen, lives are private houses with property and land deeds. The other residents are public housing allocated by units or street offices. The residents have to pay rent to the street office every month, but the rent of this public housing is quite low, and people with jobs can also enjoy partial housing subsidies.

Yi Zhonghai has a certain talent in fitter. When Lou's Steel Rolling Mill was transformed into a joint venture between the public and private sectors, he was already an intermediate fitter. At the beginning of this year, when Hongxing Steel Rolling Mill conducted a work-level assessment, he successfully passed the sixth-level fitter assessment.

Yi Zhonghai and his wife have been taking care of the deaf old lady over the years. In order to thank the deaf old lady for her kindness, he took the initiative to provide her with care and support until the end of her life.

Yi Zhonghai also actively responded to the call of his superiors and vigorously promoted the spirit of respecting the elderly and loving the young in Siheyuan No. 95. The purpose of doing so was to create a good atmosphere of respecting the elderly in the Siheyuan, and it was also to prepare for his future retirement plan.

In fact, Yi Zhonghai did not even tell his wife the real purpose of proposing to take care of the deaf old lady until her death. He was eyeing the treasure hidden in the hands of the deaf old lady.

Yi Zhonghai had already concluded from the deaf old lady's speech, behavior, clothing and other aspects that she came from an extraordinary family. Moreover, she also owned such a courtyard house with three entrances, so it was obvious that the deaf old lady was either rich or noble.

After experiencing the arduous escape journey from Shencheng to Sijiucheng, Yi Zhonghai's state of mind was completely changed by the many tragic scenes he heard and saw. Although he still looked honest on the surface, he had an extreme desire for wealth and offspring in his heart.

By chance, Yi Zhonghai saw with his own eyes the gold that the deaf old lady had hidden away.

One day during dinner, Yi Zhonghai heard his wife mention that the deaf old lady was not feeling well today and had not eaten much for lunch. He wanted to find a doctor for her, but the old lady refused.

After dinner, Yi Zhonghai planned to go and see the old lady. After all, she was almost seventy years old, and if there was any problem, she would have to go to the hospital immediately.

When Yi Zhonghai walked to the door of the room where the old lady lived and was about to knock on the door, he suddenly heard a series of unclear murmurings coming from the room. Out of curiosity, Yi Zhonghai stopped what he was doing, leaned over and looked into the room through the crack in the door. It turned out that the deaf old lady was sitting alone at the eight-immortals table, muttering to herself in a low voice and wiping a large yellow croaker in her hand with a piece of white silk.

There were two piles of gold, one large and one small, on the Eight Immortals Table, and next to it was an exquisitely decorated jewelry box that was more than a foot long and half a foot high.

Yi Zhonghai, who was in his prime, was able to become a sixth-level fitter, so of course there was no problem with his eyesight. He suppressed the strong impulse in his heart, squinted his eyes and roughly counted the two piles of gold on the Eight Immortals Table. He couldn't help but exclaimed inwardly, wow, there were more than sixty large yellow croakers just in front of him.

Yi Zhonghai quickly calculated in his mind. According to the current government recycling price, each yellow croaker is worth more than 20 million dragon coins. The value of the gold alone is more than 1 billion dragon coins, not to mention the beautifully decorated jewelry box next to it. The treasures inside must be of great value.

At this time, two villains were arguing fiercely in Yi Zhonghai's mind. One said that he should go in and find an opportunity to quietly kill the deaf old lady, so that all the treasures would belong to Yi; the other shouted that he needed a letter of introduction to go anywhere now, otherwise he could not move an inch. If the truth about the death of the deaf old lady was found out, he would have nothing to eat. It is better to take a long-term view. Anyway, the deaf old lady is almost seventy years old. It is said that people rarely live to seventy. How many years can she live? As long as he is clever, he will definitely find a way to get the treasures of the deaf old lady.

Yi Zhonghai gritted his teeth, and reason overcame greed. He carefully left the deaf old lady's house and quietly slipped back to his own home.

What Yi Zhonghai didn't know was that after his figure disappeared in the middle courtyard, the deaf old lady who was wiping the gold stood up, gently put down the gold bars in her hand, reached out and took out a small Browning pistol from under the cushion of the armchair where she had just sat, walked silently to the door, and carefully observed outside through the crack of the door for a while. At this time, all the residents in the backyard were asleep, and the entire backyard was quiet.

The deaf old lady gently opened the door, then turned around and took a flashlight from the flower stand next to her, turned it on and shone it towards the door. She saw two men's large footprints clearly left on a thin layer of white powder at the door.

The deaf old lady glanced outside, put the pistol in her waist, grabbed the broom beside the door, and swept away the thin layer of white powder with a few light strokes, then closed the door.

From then on, Yi Zhonghai became more concerned about the deaf old lady. In addition to asking his wife to cook meat for her every now and then to improve her diet, he would go to the old lady almost every night to chat and ask about her well-being. The residents in the courtyard privately lamented that even biological children might not be able to be so filial.

Yi Zhonghai barely slept that night. After careful consideration, he decided to adopt the method of boiling a frog in warm water. As long as he and his wife took good care of the deaf old lady, they would have a great chance of getting the treasures. After all, the deaf old lady was childless and alone. If someone wanted to hold a memorial service for her a hundred years later, they would have to rely on him and his wife.

Yi Zhonghai was most worried that the deaf old lady would donate all her treasures, which would be a waste of his efforts. So after consulting the deaf old lady, he convened a meeting of the entire hospital and announced that in response to the call of the superiors to respect the elderly and love the young, he and his wife decided to take care of the deaf old lady's daily life, provide her with care and support until the end of her life, and asked all residents of the hospital to supervise together.

Yi Zhonghai had three real purposes for such high-profile publicity: first, to get all the residents of the courtyard to vouch for him. In the past, his and his wife's care for the deaf old lady could be regarded as mutual help between neighbors, but from now on the nature would be different. He and his wife were responsible for the birth, aging, illness and death of the deaf old lady as their caregivers, and the property left behind by the old lady after her death should naturally belong to them; he took the opportunity to create an atmosphere of respecting the elderly in the courtyard; third, he gained the recognition of the leaders of the street office and improved his own reputation.