Chapter 123: with translation of chapter title

The meeting between Yagangchang Team Captain Yi Zhonghai and Qin Village young women's assault team captain Qin Huairu opened the curtain on the Beast-filled Siheyuan.

The fates of Yi Zhonghai, Qin Huairu, Jia Dongxu, and others also settled into their proper places at this moment; those destined to die young were doomed to an early death, and those destined to be widows could not escape the pain of losing a spouse.

Did he actually sleep with Qin Huairu?

The hypocrite himself actually didn't know whether he had slept with her.

Maybe he did!

Facing the questioning of an old lady, Yi Zhonghai's reason for admitting he slept with Qin Huairu was that that night he had drunk too much alcohol; when he woke up the next day, he found a few long hairs on his pillow and a red hair tie, which he had seen on Qin Huairu's hair before; he inferred that, in his drunken state, he had slept with Qin Huairu, or it could be that Qin Huairu was using the opportunity to entrap the hypocrite.

More than a month of contact.

Yi Zhonghai knew what Qin Huairu wanted.

Qin Huairu, who considered herself to have a pretty face, instinctively resisted rural life; saying that days spent facing the loess soil and back to the sky insulted her pretty face, only city life could be worthy of Qin Huairu's face.

During her interactions with Yi Zhonghai, Qin Huairu constantly revealed this thought.

After realizing he might have slept with Qin Huairu, Yi Zhonghai thought Qin Huairu would use this to pressure him into agreeing to some of her demands.

Better to turn passivity into initiative now than to be passive later.

Yi Zhonghai suddenly brought up his disciple Jia Dongxu to Qin Huairu, praising how good and sunny he was, and frankly said he could arrange a time for Qin Huairu and Jia Dongxu to meet.

This is the whole secret between Yi Zhonghai and Qin Huairu!

As for whether Bangeng's surname is Jia or Yi, Yi Zhonghai pointed at the indoor light and swore, saying Bangeng has nothing to do with him.

……

Outside.

Under the windowsill.

A sneaky figure slowly shifted its body backward.

During this process.

He was very careful, almost just shuffling, moving bit by bit backward along the original path, his movements also very light, trying to lessen the impact of his footsteps as much as possible.

It wasn't Liu Haizhong.

It was Shazhu.

After Liu Haizhong had eavesdropped on the Jia family's secret and returned to the Hou Yuan of the Liu family, the night-waking Shazhu, having finished draining his internal wastewater and walking to his own door, glanced at the lit Yi Zhonghai next door, his mind twitched, and under some compulsion he did what Liu Haizhong had just done.

Eavesdropping at the wall base.

If you don't listen, you won't know.

Hearing it, he was startled.

Before Qin Huairu married into the Siheyuan, she and Yi Zhonghai still had this unknown secret; it's no wonder Yi Zhonghai acted as matchmaker between Jia Dongxu and Qin Huairu.

Quite melodramatic.

In his previous life, Xu Daming and Shazhu boasted, claiming he had a relationship beyond friendship with Qin Huairu, and it happened many times; back then Shazhu thought Xu Daming was bragging, but now it seems Xu Daming wasn't lying at all, and it was Shazhu who treated Xu Daming's true words as false.

Ah!

Shazhu sighed inwardly, went back inside, the more he thought the angrier he got, the angrier he couldn't sleep; meanwhile, the little girl beside him slept like a dead pig.

Time gradually passed in such contemplation.

When Shazhu came to his senses, the sun had already risen, and it was already seven o'clock; he prepared breakfast, woke He Yushui, gave the little girl a few instructions, then rode his bicycle to work.

Just arrived at the scrap yard.

Hadn't even parked his bicycle yet.

The people at the scrap yard surrounded Shazhu in the middle, their anxious eyes looking rather impatient.

"What's wrong?"

"Grandpa He, what else is wrong?" Wen San's voice sounded, addressing Shazhu: "We've been waiting for you until we're about to burst; I say, Grandpa He, why did you only come now?"

"Did the work schedule change?" Shazhu said blankly: "Nobody notified me."

"Grandpa He, it's not that the work schedule changed, it's about your Siheyuan; we all know." Then Wen San chimed in: "In your courtyard, Yi Zhonghai and his disciple's wife Qin Huairu have had a child."

Good news doesn't leave the gate.

Bad news travels a thousand li.

What happened last night in the Siheyuan spread overnight to the Red Star scrap yard.

Shazhu looked at the people before him.

His head ached.

Having been reborn, he finally figured out what he had never understood in his previous life.

Reputation!

Without reputation, or if you have a notorious reputation far and wide, you are just filth that nobody cares about. Because in his previous life he listened to Yi Zhonghai's words, aided Qin Huairu, and earned an ambiguous reputation with Qin Huairu the widow, which made Shazhu's reputation stink to high heaven, and he ended up wearing Xu Daming's secondhand broken shoes.

Qin-brand Huairu and Lou-brand Xiaoe

Shazhu realized he seemed to have been set up; he was the only one working at the scrap yard, and everyone there was hotly discussing Yi Zhonghai and Qin Huairu's affair.

According to some people's logic, it was Shazhu who told those people at the scrap yard about it.

I won't take the blame for this.

Shazhu bit his lower lip, looked at the coworkers before him, and secretly wondered who had told them, or where they had learned of this.

Too fast.

Surely no one spreads rumors without sleeping?

"You guys."

"Grandpa He, just say whether it happened or not."

"Shazhu, if it's there, it's there; if it's not, it's not—hurry up and speak." Zhou Xianghong, who always clamored to go to the hardest places to support construction, also joined in, urgently urging Shazhu to quickly answer Wen San's question: "How did Qin Huairu get pregnant anyway, and why isn't Jia Dongxu happy?"

"Who did you guys hear this from?"

"Jia Gui."

In Shazhu's mind, unbidden, the image of that super handsome guy with an utterly beautiful face—who made countless girls and women afraid to sleep at night—rose up.

How did Jia Gui know about this?

"As for whether it's true or false, I'm not entirely clear either, but during Qin Huairu's childbirth, her husband Jia Dongxu remained indifferent; even if the wife had a difficult labor, and the midwife asked for a decision—whether to save the mother or the child—Jia Dongxu still refused to speak...."

Under the eager, knowledge-seeking gazes of the crowd, Shazhu's heart softened; he could not refuse their requests for instruction, so he recounted everything that had happened the previous night in full detail to everyone.

He spoke truthfully: whatever happened, he said exactly that, without adding anything extra.

Simple answers are often the most genuine.

Honest, straightforward words often move people the most.

Shazhu's truthful account led those at the scrap yard to believe that Qin Huairu was carrying Yi Zhonghai's child.

In short, it was about saving the child.

As for Jia Dongxu's wife and child, what right do you, Yi Zhonghai, an outsider, have—even if you are Jia Dongxu's master—to shout 'save the child' for them?

……

Yagangchang.

Jia Dongxu, on his way to the toilet, inadvertently overheard his coworkers heatedly discussing the matter between Yi Zhonghai and Qin Huairu inside the restroom.

Even a clay figure still has three parts of temper.

How much more so for a person.

He also encountered the situation of a man being cuckolded by a woman.

A typical two-plus-one situation.

Jia Dongxu flew into a rage, charging like a bull straight at the coworkers who were spreading the rumor about Yi Zhonghai and Qin Huairu.

He reached them.

He raised his palm.

He slammed it hard onto the other person's cheek.

The man who received Jia Dongxu's slap, unwilling to yield, they brawled in the toilet, feces and urine flying about; the other, relying on his size and strength, pinned Jia Dongxu to the floor and beat him severely. After being struck, feeling aggrieved, Jia Dongxu inexplicably adopted the attitude of treating feces as something to return to, grabbing feces and reaching toward the burly man.

One who throws caution to the wind fears no feces or urine.

One who cannot throw caution to the wind fears feces and urine like a flood and a fierce beast.

The battle situation changed in an instant.

Originally at a disadvantage, Jia Dongxu gained the upper hand, grabbing two clumps of feces and chasing the burly man with all his might.

Thus.

This let the situation escalate.

In the Yagangchang factory with over ten thousand workers, not everyone knew that Jia Dongxu suspected Bangeng was Yi Zhonghai's son; only a tiny fraction were aware, numbering no more than two hundred.

Because Jia Dongxu fought, what originally only a few hundred knew became heard by many more, even alarming several leaders of the Yagangchang factory.

With the intervention of the Yagangchang factory leaders, a doctor from the affiliated hospital came to the factory and gave a detailed explanation, after which the factory's rough workers realized that childbirth is not always exactly ten months; it can be delayed or advanced, so one cannot conclude that Bangeng is not Jia Dongxu's son merely because Qin Huairu carried him for three hundred days.

As the truth came to light, Liu Haizhong's plan to use the Dayuan meeting to gain leverage over Yi Zhonghai instantly collapsed.

The Siheyuan once again fell into an eerie calm.

On the surface it appeared harmonious and beautiful.

Behind the scenes.

Full of prostitutes and thieves.

For example, the Jia and Yi families, although doctors have proven that a woman's pregnancy is not invariably ten months—it could be nine, eight, or even seven months—Jia Dongxu still felt uneasy; seeing Bangeng, he felt a bit queasy.

Conversely, Yi Zhonghai also felt uneasy, thinking Jia Dongxu was an ungrateful wretch; despite all his hard work helping him, Jia Dongxu still suspected him of disrespecting his elders and having an affair with his wife.

Qin Huairu also felt wronged.

Each had their own thoughts.

They didn't say it out loud.

Under such contradictory circumstances,

Time passed in the blink of an eye.

In a flash, it became the year 1955.

Bangeng was three years old.

Jia Dongxu became a second-level technician.

All that is nonsense; the 1955 Shazhu is a twenty‑year‑old young man, at the age to marry.

As for this,

He can't compare to Xu Damu; that turtle‑grandson Xu Damu at least had affairs beyond friendship with ten female comrades, while the true protagonist's halo brings him nothing.

Where can he go to reason?

As someone reborn, what changes would this year bring? Shazhu vaguely knew a little: starting in 1955, the whole country formally entered the age of tickets.

Buying grain requires grain coupons.

Buying oil requires oil coupons.

Bicycles, radios, and so on also require coupons.