Chapter 109: Confirming Yi Zhonghai's Hypocrite Identity (Seeking Subscriptions)

He sensed a contradictory ambiguity in the hypocrite's words.

Shazhu shuddered all over.

The hypocrite felt hatred toward him, mixed with a faint hope—perhaps hoping Shazhu would speak up for him; to Shazhu, that hope would be better left to Jia Dongxu.

He replied with a cold snort at the hypocrite.

At that moment, the Yi household was in utter disarray, a horrible sight.

Amid a stream of cursing, the other party swaggered off, leaving the Siheyuan residents staring at each other in disbelief.

This show.

So satisfying.

After those people left, Liu Haizhong sprang into action, calling everyone to clean up the Yi family's mess—some fetched water for Yi Zhonghai and his wife and the deaf old lady to wash off the filth, while he assigned others to tidy the house.

Shazhu responded to Liu Haizhong's call and entered Yi Zhonghai's home; Xu Damao, wanting to follow his lead, trailed behind Shazhu and also went inside.

"Damn, that's brutal."

Upon entering the house, Shazhu saw the mess and blurted out a curse without thinking.

It wasn't out of sympathy for Yi Zhonghai and his wife's plight.

But rather because he felt they'd left some leeway—why not smash the roof tiles of Yi Zhonghai's house too!

While cleaning up, they chattered about what had just happened.

The main topic discussed was the fact that Yi Zhonghai and his wife, along with the eldest aunt and her husband, could not have children.

The neighbors all believed what was being said was true.

Namely, the eldest aunt's infertility was caused directly by Yi Zhonghai.

Quite the fellow.

The kindly, big‑eyed man of the Siheyuan, Yi Zhonghai, turned out to be a lowlife who frequented the Eight Great Alleys, contracted a disease, passed it to the eldest aunt rendering her barren, and in doing so doomed himself to extinction.

Shazhu suddenly recalled the street office's project last year to remarry the unfortunate, and Lao Wang's idea was to use the Siheyuan as a pilot.

The strongest reaction in the Siheyuan came from Yi Zhonghai, who openly raised both hands in approval of Lao Wang's proposal, patted his chest in promise, and even convened a Dayuan meeting; secretly, however, he hinted that those who married in would be looked down on by the neighbors, and those who married them would be stabbed in the back—baseless gossip.

At first it seemed Yi Zhonghai's outdated thinking was to blame.

Now it appears.

Clearly, Yi Zhonghai feels guilty.

He feels uneasy.

Worried that unfortunate people with past ties to him would flood the Siheyuan and ruin his reputation, he staged a show of repairing the plank road while secretly moving the warehouse, using public opinion to persuade Lao Wang to abandon the idea of making the Siheyuan a test site.

Past cause.

Present effect.

If Yi Zhonghai hadn't been constantly haunting the Eight Great Alleys, the eldest aunt wouldn't have been left childless, nor would Yi Zhonghai have schemed against everyone for his old age.

It's all self‑inflicted.

A bunch of people cursed Yi Zhonghai as inhuman while they cleaned up his house.

Unexpected joys often arise just like this.

Amid the widespread mess,

Standing before Xu Damao, Shazhu made an extra discovery, feeling as if he'd found a new continent, and turned to run straight to Yi Zhonghai's door.

Shazhu bent down and picked up a few sheets of white paper from the ground.

"What is this?"

"Paper."

"I know it's paper, I'm asking what kind of paper," Xu Damao said, moving to Shazhu, snatching the paper from his hand, examining it under the light, "Isn't this the same stationery used to report the old lady last time? How did it show up at the eldest uncle's house?"

Yi Zhonghai, busy cleaning the filth off his body,

his face changed.

the eldest aunt let out a gasp.

Looking at their expressions, it was as if their most terrifying secret or most shameful deed had suddenly been snatched by Xu Damao, sending shivers of fear through them.

The letter!

The letter in Xu Damao's hands.

It drew Yi Zhonghai and his wife into simultaneous fright.

What does the letter contain?

How did it scare the Yi Zhonghai couple, who had always dominated the Siheyuan and considered themselves its pillars, into this sorry state?

Xu Damao had just muttered, saying it was the stationery used to report the deaf old lady.

How could the stationery used to report the deaf old lady appear in the Yi Zhonghai household?

The neighbors seemed to have realized something.

Could the letter that twice reported the deaf old lady actually have been written by the Yi Zhonghai couple!

On one hand, the Yi Zhonghai couple's facade collapsed, turning them into a laughingstock; previously unconsidered matters are now piled onto them, and on the other hand, the paper in Xu Damao's hand is identical to the stationery used to report the deaf old lady.

No wind, no waves.

A fly doesn't bite an uncracked egg.

If Yi Zhonghai truly walked the straight and narrow,

why would he be terrified now that his wrongdoing has been exposed!

It's not that it won't be repaid,

the time has not yet come.

One slip in a hundred careful plans.

Shazhu exposed many shady dealings between Yi Zhonghai and his wife and Long Laotaitai, such as Yi Zhonghai and his wife treating Long Laotaitai as a burden, and Long Laotaitai buying meat and asking Shazhu to help prepare non‑vegetarian dishes as evidence.

One after another.

One by one.

All of this highlighted the relationship between Long Laotaitai and Yi Zhonghai and his wife, which was not as good as it appeared on the surface, so Yi Zhonghai could have written the letter denouncing Long Laotaitai.

The truth that darkness lurks beneath the light is known to the neighbors, and Yi Zhonghai knows it too; in the matter of denouncing Long Laotaitai, the neighbors suspected everyone except Yi Zhonghai and his wife.

The truth is unbearable.

It was precisely the person the neighbors did not suspect who made the denunciation.

Otherwise, how could this letter be explained!

An uncertain matter.

Was this done by Yi Zhonghai or by the First Madam?

According to the explanation given by the Leper Mother, the First Madam is no good bird, a scoundrel even worse than Yi Zhonghai.

The eyes of everyone present fell on Yi Zhonghai and his wife, who moved their lips as if wanting to say something.

But the words never left their lips.

"Old Yi has a guilty conscience!"

Yan Fugui pushed up his glasses, his eyes shining with wisdom.

They have gotten along for these many years.

The neighbors know the situation inside out; Yi Zhonghai constantly plays the moral blackmail game—if he were truly in the right, he wouldn't look so fearful—but when the Leper Mother bluntly pointed out that he was the chief culprit behind the First Madam's inability to bear children, Yi Zhonghai chose to remain silent.

Silence amounts to admission.

Now Yi Zhonghai's terrified expression lets Yan Fugui feel certain of some of his suspicions.

Yi Zhonghai is actually a bastard who does evil to the extreme.

Liu Haizhong was also stunned; after a brief thought he understood the whole story—he had lived so many years and never seen anyone as shameless as Yi Zhonghai and his wife, a belly full of male theft and female prostitution, still treating the Siheyuan neighbors as fools to play with.

The letter in Xu Daming's hand is the evidence.

Evidence for denouncing Long Laotaitai.

Inside the Yagangchang, Yi Zhonghai presses down on Liu Haizhong; in the Siheyuan, Yi Zhonghai again steps on Liu Haizhong—if he could seize this chance to topple Yi Zhonghai and make himself Head Steward.

Liu Haizhong felt he must do something.

"Xu Daming, don't talk nonsense—what Head Steward denounced the old lady? Everyone in our Siheyuan knows the Head Steward and his wife have been taking care of the old lady."

"Second Head Steward, I'm not just talking nonsense, Xu Daming—there's still handwriting on it." Xu Daming read under the light: "Respected Jiēdào, hello, I am an ordinary resident of the Siheyuan, I denounce our Zhong Yuan's He Yuzhu!"

Xu Daming handed the letter to Liu Haizhong.

Liu Haizhong took it and glanced—indeed it said to denounce Shazhu, and the handwriting is Yi Zhonghai's.

The letter quickly passed from Liu Haizhong's hands to Yan Fugui's, then from Yan Fugui's to those curious neighbors'.

It went around among the neighbors.

Everyone witnessed it.

Everyone testified.

This letter completely blocked Yi Zhonghai's retreat from whitewashing himself.

"Old Yi, you've handled this poorly—you denounced the old lady twice, and when she was fine you denounced Shazhu; earlier we held a Dayuan meeting emphasizing the selection of this advanced‑civilization Siheyuan, and as Head Steward you led the denunciation of the neighbors."

The tone shifted.

A murderous, heart‑cutting sentence flew from Liu Haizhong's mouth.

"You had good relations with the Qing; after the Qing fell, only you and the Shazhu siblings depended on each other—tell me, how can I speak well of you, how could you do such a thing! Now that everything's been unsealed, you."

The implication.

You, Yi Zhonghai, exploit acquaintances.

One way to your face, another behind your back.

How can you still make the neighbors believe you as Head Steward?

Yi Zhonghai felt like dying; he never expected the denunciation letter to be picked up by Shazhu, let alone read aloud publicly by Xu Daming, and a sudden panic rose in his heart for no apparent reason.

He felt everything was getting tangled.

His persona shattered, he was doused with feces, the denunciation letter was discovered, and so on.

Still trying to whitewash himself!

Even jumping into the Yellow River might not wash him clean.

Heaven pities him.

Long Laotaitai truly was not denounced by him.

As for the denunciation letter accusing Shazhu that Liu Haizhong holds, Yi Zhonghai wrote it and admits it; however, Yi Zhonghai had no intention of denouncing Shazhu—he merely wanted to warn him, to make Shazhu jump a little.

Amid the recent events in the Siheyuan, Yi Zhonghai conceived turning Shazhu, this retirement backup, into a regular position equal to Jia Dongxu; worried that Shazhu would not give him face, he staged a denunciation drama to display his ability and connections while also giving Shazhu a slight squeeze.

The plan died in the womb.

Before the plan could be carried out, Shazhu had already broken with Yi Zhonghai, and the Yi family was further smashed into a mess by the Leper Mother bringing people.

The fabricated denunciation evidence not only went unused, but turned into a chamber pot for Yi Zhonghai's denunciations of Long Laotaitai and Shazhu, making all Siheyuan neighbors feel endangered and wary of him to some degree.

The hypocrite finds it hard to speak.

If it's not excrement, it's still excrement.

By rights it shouldn't have been discovered—how strange.

But the fact struck like a loud slap, hard across Yi Zhonghai's cheek—the denunciation letter was found by Shazhu and made known to the neighbors through Xu Daming's mouth.

About to do something bad.

Could it really be karmic retribution?

Yi Zhonghai raised his head and looked at the sky.

He had already sensed his own impending disgrace and ruin.

Long Laotaitai also grew anxious; she now relies on Yi Zhonghai's illusory upkeep of the so-called good-person persona to manipulate him—if Yi Zhonghai's reputation were to stink and he gave up, how could Long Laotaitai still lord it over the Dayuan?

The relationship between Yi Zhonghai and Long Laotaitai is like that of a wolf and a jackal: one uses the other's Dayuan ancestral identity to intimidate people, while the other leans on the other's Head Steward title to threaten.

They really think Long Laotaitai's identity can scare everyone!

It's that the neighbors are too lazy to bother with a nasty old woman.

Long Laotaitai's appearance is like ants on a hot pan.

Anxious.

Shazhu has distanced himself from her, but Yi Zhonghai cannot afford to have an accident.

Watching Long Laotaitai's appearance.

Shazhu secretly gloated.

The unexpected joy was truly astonishing; I had thought it was just a play about the Yi family being raided, but Heaven opened its eyes, letting Shazhu accidentally pick up the denunciation letter Yi Zhonghai had written, adding insult to injury for Yi Zhonghai, whose reputation sank into utter mire.

If it weren't for the fact that there are still so many people present.

Shazhu really wanted to cry out to the heavens.

It's not that it won't be repaid.

The time has not yet come.

Your retribution, Yi Zhonghai, has arrived.

"Yi Zhonghai, you really are a hypocrite; if there's anything, let's talk openly—this is your catchphrase, you used to demand it of the neighbors, but now it's your turn, you secretly wrote a denunciation letter to report me?"

"Shazhu, Old Yi won't say it, but I must: you should restrain yourself a bit, you're affecting the reputation of our Siheyuan."

"Second Elder, in the past, who among us would dare to eat and drink so extravagantly? Who would dare to take the family out to improve life on Sunday? This is because our lives have gotten better…"

Liu Haizhong had nothing to say.

Shazhu's reasoning.

Absolute.

Yi Zhonghai was also bitterly complaining.

Shazhu placed a heavy, weighty hat upon him.

Yi Zhonghai's face was ashen like dead ash.

This remark spread abroad.

He, Yi Zhonghai, could not have anything good.

The persona Yi Zhonghai painstakingly constructed has shattered!

It's not that Shazhu is ruthless; the main reason is that Yi Zhonghai is not human.

"Second Elder, Third Elder, I believe Yi Zhonghai's behavior has seriously threatened our neighbors' interests; he is no longer fit to remain in the Head Steward position. I propose removing Yi Zhonghai from the Head Steward title, given how heinous his conduct is…"

Yi Zhonghai's face looked especially grim.

Wanting to refuse.

However, Shazhu's words left him with no real grounds to refuse.

The Siheyuan quickly passed a resolution to remove Yi Zhonghai from the Head Steward position and to cease assisting him.

Liu Haizhong also finally realized his dream of controlling the Siheyuan.

A smug, self-satisfied expression appeared on his face.

His whole person felt a bit light-headed.

He convened the Siheyuan's first assembly without Yi Zhonghai, speaking at length in a rambling fashion, of which only a bit was useful; through the Dayuan assembly, the nickname 'hypocrite' for Yi Zhonghai was cemented.

From now on.

The Siheyuan, besides having the two fools, also has the hypocrite.

The label 'hypocrite' is what Yi Zhonghai truly cannot accept, and it is an unacceptable fact. Always caring about face, the Moral Heavenly Venerable Yi Zhonghai, who boasts of being a good person, will be given the nickname 'hypocrite' by countless people.

The 'false' in 'hypocrite'.

The issue has already been explained.

Yi Zhonghai really wished to die.

Just thinking that people call him a hypocrite makes Yi Zhonghai feel weary; he let out a anguished roar in his heart, 'This is not the outcome I, Yi Zhonghai, wanted!'

Hypocrite, your grandpa!

A mouthful of fresh blood spurted out.

The hypocrite collapsed and sat limp on the ground.