Chapter 238: Stop it, you're looting the house

Jia Zhangshi embraced the idea that "we suffer a loss, you also have to follow suit with misfortune."

The poor resent poverty.

After she could not profit from Huaihua off the eldest aunt, she took Huaihua as a bargaining chip and brandished a blood‑sucking knife before the Siheyuan residents.

The old ploy of feigning poverty.

She staged it before everyone.

"Our family's business, I won't speak of it, but the neighbors know—Qin Huairu was bullied by Yi Zhonghai, that old bastard."

When it had value.

In Jia Zhangshi's eyes, Yi Zhonghai was either a big shot or Master Dong Xu.

It had no value anymore.

She came to see him as a bastard, prefixing it with "old" to call him an old bastard.

"It's hateful that I, as a mother‑in‑law, still scold Qin Huairu and make her suffer; I'm not fit to be a mother‑in‑law."

Jia Zhangshi, speaking of Qin Huairu, squeezed a few tears from her eyes.

In Shazhu's eyes, these were crocodile tears.

By now.

Even a butt‑guess shows everyone knows what Jia Zhangshi is after.

He felt a stir of interest.

When Yi Zhonghai was present, he organized a few limited fundraising drives for the Jia family, but each occurred only when the Jia family faced a major disaster or major event.

First, there was no major disaster.

Second, it wasn't a major event.

Since the neighbors aren't well‑off, who would risk their own wife and children going hungry to help the Jia family?

Liu Haizhong?

The last time he organized donations for the Jia family, the entire Dayuan saw only Liu Haizhong chip in twenty dollars.

So Jia Zhangshi's poverty‑crying act amounted to nothing but empty tears.

The neighbors aren't stupid.

Liu Haizhong saw this as a good opportunity to win the neighbors' favor, since the Jia family had no justification, and he spoke up to interrupt Jia Zhangshi's poverty‑crying.

"Jia Zhangshi, stop crying—I'll say a few words."

Liu Haizhong glanced around at the crowd.

"Is the Jia family really unable to keep the pot boiling? Let's speak with facts."

"Just how poor is the Jia family?"

As the head of the household, Jia Zhangshi of course knows.

If the neighbors storm in and ransack the place, the Jia family's pretense of poverty will reverberate throughout the Siheyuan.

She wanted to stop it.

But her body inexplicably went weak.

Helplessly,

He could only watch as Liu Haizhong waved at the crowd; the neighbors, having gotten the order, rushed at the Jia family like invaders storming a village.

Qin Huairu seized the moment, bent her mouth to Jia Zhangshi's ear, and laid out the full story.

Upon learning the truth, Jia Zhangshi couldn't catch her breath and nearly fainted.

Good grief.

After all the commotion, it wasn't the neighbors in the courtyard raising funds for the Jia family; it was to drive the Jia family to reside in Long Laotaitai's house in the back courtyard.

Long Laotaitai's house.

But it's a haunted house.

Move in.

Can one still sleep at night?

Jia Zhangshi let out a fierce shout, sprang to block the Jia family gate, spread her arms, and hurled a harsh remark at the crowd.

"This is the Jia family's house; even if we haven't paid rent for half a month, it's none of your business; worst case, we'll deduct it from Qin Huairu's wages; if anyone gives the Jia family trouble, believe it or not, I'll drop dead before you."

The issue of not having a house.

Jia Zhangshi's threat still amounted to something.

It concerned whether they could have a house to marry or to provide a house for their child to marry.

Who still cares that you, Jia Zhangshi, are talking nonsense?

Do you really think the neighbors haven't seen through Jia Zhangshi's fear of death?

Nonsense.

Already dead.

No need for instructions; two sturdy fellows stepped out of the crowd, in a few quick moves bound Jia Zhangshi to a pillar, and someone, worried she might shout something unpleasant, shoved a foul‑smelling rag into her mouth.

Jia Zhangshi had no recourse.

Qin Huairu had no way either.

They could only stare as the neighbors carried out their belongings one by one.

At first it was all right.

Just some rotten mattresses and torn quilts, ordinary large tea jars and porcelain bowls.

By the end of the move.

The neighbors all caught on.

The Jia Family's finances greatly exceeded the neighbors' expectations.

Sewing machine.

This is, in fact, the first turn of the three-turns-and-one-sound.

In the spacious Siheyuan, only three families had sewing machines: Shazhu's, Xu Daming's, and the Jia Family's.

Damn it, they even have a sewing machine, yet they're crying about not being able to open the pot.

If they're really starving, why not sell the sewing machine?

"Elder Uncle, take a look at what this is?"

People's gazes.

It fell into the large vat half a person's height.

Inside, there was actually a large half-vat of white flour; someone estimated its weight at around fifty jin.

They also found half a sack of rice, amounting to about twenty jin.

While everyone else subsisted on cornmeal and sorghum rice, the supposedly impoverished Jia Family managed to produce fifty jin of white flour and twenty jin of rice.

Is this really the Jia Family that constantly whines about not being able to open the pot?

If the Jia Family is like this and still considered poor, what are the families that keep a bit of white flour for making dumplings at New Year?

In the crowd.

The sound of swallowing saliva could be heard.

Some even pursed their dry, cracked lips, their eyes showing a hint of envy and greed.

The Jia Family.

They really have something.

"Elder Uncle, Second Elder Uncle, take a look at what this is?"

An unknown extra, presenting it as a treasure, carried a half-large round jar about two chi high and one chi in diameter from the Jia Family into the courtyard.

He opened the jar lid.

Everyone turned their gaze inside.

The sound of drawing in cold breath kept issuing from people's mouths.

They had thought the flour and rice before them had already shattered their perception of the Jia Family, but when the contents of the jar came into view, they realized the Jia Family's situation was beyond anything they could estimate.

Inside the jar.

It was a jar full of rendered pork lard, with pieces of pork inside the lard.

When cooking, even just half a spoonful makes the dish fragrant and greatly boosts the appetite.

"I said once I got up in the middle of the night and smelled pork lard in the courtyard, thinking I was dreaming; it turned out the Jia Family people were secretly rendering lard late at night."

"Rendering lard in the middle of the night has nothing to do with us; what concerns us is helping the Jia Family, and compared to them, we neighbors are the ones doing the helping."

The speaker's tone carried a hint of sobbing, mixed with a strong anger.

They can't even fill themselves up with steamed buns.

When cooking, they basically stir-fry without oil, and after the rice is done, they drizzle a few drops of vegetable oil on top.

As a result, the Jia Family had a large vat of pork lard and had also cured the pork.

And yet they still cried poverty.

Is this even human?

In the Siheyuan, there were originally no secrets.

Moreover, in that era, with no recreational activities, everyone was idle and restless, and all the people in the Siheyuan poured out.

A single sentence.

It attracted countless onlookers, all watching the spectacle.

At first, everyone just thought they were helping the Jia Family move.

Now, however, they wanted to investigate the Jia Family's assets, to see just how much money and goods they had, and why they cried poverty.