Courtyard House: Railway Police at the Start

Chapter 16: Intercepting the Spoils

In the afternoon, Yan Bugui lost interest in fishing. He still couldn't stop thinking about the bicycle. He went to the backyard several times, but Xu Damao had gone out again and hadn't returned. He looked at the bicycle parked in the house through the window and liked it very much.

The deaf old lady didn't like Yan Bugui's calculating nature and was too lazy to pay attention to him, but Yan Bugui had been running to the backyard several times, so she became a little curious.

"Old Yan, you've come here so many times, what are you looking at inside? Xu Damao is off causing trouble somewhere again, he's not home, don't bother looking."

"Grandma, you rest. It's nothing. I'm just taking a stroll."

"There's something wrong with it."

Unsatisfied with her curiosity, the deaf old lady spat at Yan Bugui's retreating figure, then hobbled along with her cane to peer through Xu Damao's window.

But he couldn't see anything, so he could only mutter a few curses and suppress his curiosity.

Back home, Yan Bugui lost all interest in his usual daily abacus calculations and kept looking out the door.

The older woman immediately noticed: "What's wrong with you today? Why are you staring outside so intently?"

Yan Bugui was doing the math in his mind. Five cents might be a bit too much for Xu Damao. If all else failed, he could grit his teeth and add it to one dollar. He should be content with making one dollar just by reselling it.

Hearing the three women ask her a question, she replied absentmindedly, "Waiting for Xu Damao. I really like this bicycle. It looks brand new, and it's not expensive."

"What? You want to buy a bicycle? Why would we buy one? It's not for eating or drinking. Look at Lao Yi, he earns such a high salary but he doesn't buy one."

"Keep your voice down, don't shout and everyone in the yard will know. I've done the math, seventy yuan is a real bargain to buy a bicycle that looks brand new. I can use it for work or fishing, and it will also make it easier to find a partner in the future. It's a big deal."

As he spoke, he glanced outside the door. Even Sha Zhu had returned with his usual swagger, but Xu Damao was still nowhere to be seen. He sighed and said, "It's not certain whether we can buy it back. Xu Damao bought the bike for Tang Zhenghong. Even if we don't ride it after we buy it, I can sell it to other teachers at the school. With this condition, someone would definitely be willing to pay eighty yuan. We can make a profit of ten yuan or so in the process."

Hearing this, the three aunties were intrigued: "If what you say is true, then you shouldn't just sit there. Go and keep an eye on Xu Damao, don't let someone else snatch him away."

"Da Mao, you're finally back."

Xu Damao, annoyed by Yan Bugui's nagging, stopped pushing his bicycle used for showing movies: "What's up, Uncle San? You've been blocking me every day. You haven't forgotten what you promised me. I'll make sure to pay you back when I come back from showing movies in the countryside."

"It's not about that. It's still about the bicycle. How about this: I'll add it to the price for you, and the money will be paid on the spot. You'll earn a dollar without doing anything."

Seeing that Xu Damao was still frowning and reluctant, Yan Bugui gritted his teeth and said, "Add another dollar, and I'll give you seventy-one dollars in total. Damao, your third uncle is being very sincere, so just give it to me."

Xu Damao was truly shocked. When had Yan Bugui ever used "piece" as the unit of measurement for pricing?

Zhenghong, do you know how much your brother has lost this time?

"Uncle, this isn't about the money. I already promised Zheng Hong. If word gets out, how can I maintain a relationship with Brother Zheng Hong? Don't you think that makes sense? Like I said, if you really want it, I'll keep an eye out for it later."

Yan Bugui was truly resigned to his fate. The two extra pieces were already his limit. He sighed and looked longingly towards the backyard: "Fine, since things have come to this point, it seems I'm not destined to have this Forever truck."

Neither of them noticed that Jia Zhangshi had been eavesdropping in the hallway for a long time, and now she was running home with her big buttocks twitching.

"Dongxu, Dongxu."

"What's wrong, Mom? What happened?"

After catching her breath, Jia Zhangshi whispered, afraid that someone outside might be eavesdropping, "Guess what I just heard? Xu Damao somehow got Tang Zhenghong a bicycle, and Old Man Yan is desperately trying to intercept it, even charging him two extra yuan."

Jia Dongxu and Qin Huairu were not interested in this matter, and bicycles were not something their family could think about at the moment.

"Oh, that's none of our business."

"Are you stupid? How can it not concern us? Think about Yan Lao's stingy nature. When have he ever been generous enough to add two yuan? Normally, if his family loses even a penny, he'll tear the house apart to find it. This bicycle must be really good. Why don't you go and talk to your master to borrow some money, and we'll buy it back. When that kid Tang Zhenghong comes back, we'll add five yuan, no, ten yuan, and then sell it to him."

Jia Dongxu was both amused and exasperated; so this was what his mother had in mind.

"Mom, don't overthink this. Even if my master could lend me the money, we can't do this. Will we still be able to live in the hospital? This would just offend people for no reason. Zheng Hong is a policeman now. Like my master said, we need to build a good relationship with him. He might be able to help us in the future."

"Sigh, your master is even more optimistic than I thought. This is even more impossible. I could tell from the two days he came back to the courtyard. Just like Sha Zhu back then, he's afraid that others will take advantage of him. Now he's the only one left living in this courtyard, and he's full of troublesome thoughts."

Qin Huairu also agreed with her mother-in-law: "Mom is right. I think that person in the yard has a pretty good relationship with Xu Damao."

Jia Dongxu teased his son for a while, then put him on the ground and let him play by himself: "I know, he's always been like this since he was little. When he came home from school, he never went out to play with anyone in the neighborhood. He helped Grandpa Tang push the cart and was very well-behaved. Back then, my teacher's wife would say every day that she wished he were her son."

Even Jia Zhangshi agreed: "That's right, sigh, she's a poor soul. She was given to this old man Tang by her parents when she was young. She was originally a top student in our area, a good candidate to go to university, but her potential was wasted. But then again, if she hadn't been given to old man Tang, she might still be toiling in the fields in the countryside right now, and she wouldn't have a Beijing household registration and a house."

"Huai Ru, do you know why the people in the courtyard call Zhu Zi 'Silly Zhu'? It all started when his dad sold steamed buns..."

"When he came back, He Daqing saw that all the money was fake and called him a stupid pillar, saying that he was not as clever as Zheng Hong. That's how the nickname 'Stupid Pillar' came about."

"Hahaha..."