Just as they were getting into the conversation, two more people came running out from a distance.

Upon closer inspection, the fat man realized that it could only be Liu Guangtian and Liu Guangfu, the two brothers.

The fat man nudged Thunder Tiger: "The show is about to begin."

Benleihu glanced down and said, "That's not right, why isn't Liu Haizhong here?"

The fat man was taken aback. In the original story, Liu Haizhong didn't come because he was afraid that Xu Damao would ruin their plans, so he stayed at home to be his "accompaniment".

But now, Fatty really has no idea why his second uncle hasn't come.

If you're thinking of letting the hummingbird go back to check on it, the Thunder Tiger is right there.

The fat man pricked up his ears, trying to figure out the reason from their conversation.

As expected, Yan Bugui immediately asked, "Liu Guangtian, where is your father?"

Liu Guangtian gasped, "Don't even mention it. My dad was worried that those guys in our compound would cause trouble, so he simply stayed home to keep watch."

Sure enough, Yan Bugui's old face immediately fell: "Bullshit! Who in our courtyard would even look at 100,000 or 200,000?"

The fat man almost laughed; Yan Bugui had finally uttered something sensible.

It seems that Liu Haizhong has fallen back into his old ways; he wants both sesame paste and gold and silver jewelry. It's just a pity that he has neither a white beard nor a red hat. How dare he imitate Ao Bai?

Liu Guangtian and his brother knew exactly what kind of person their father was, and Liu Guangfu immediately changed the subject: "Hey, Yan Jiecheng, where's your truck?"

Yan Jiecheng glanced at his watch with the flashlight and said, "I'll be there soon." As soon as he finished speaking, a line of car lights shone in the distance.

Yan Jiecheng shielded the view with his hands, carefully examined it, and excitedly exclaimed, "It's here!"

The lead vehicle was a Santana, followed closely by two large trucks.

Ben Lei Hu, standing above, asked in bewilderment, "Brother-in-law, something's not right. Didn't you say there were three containers? Why are there only two trucks?"

The fat man laughed: "Neither the Liu family nor the Yan family knows this news. That bastard Li Huaide must have laid an ambush."

Benleihu immediately understood: "What a despicable guy! He's using the money from both of them to make a fortune for himself."

The fat man sighed regretfully, "No wonder he's going downhill. He was so successful when he was the director of the Red Star Factory!"

As the car came to a stop, a beautiful leg clad in stockings and short leather boots emerged from the car door first.

Liu Guangtian and Liu Guangfu were both dumbfounded; this was really exciting...

Immediately afterward, You Fengxia got out of the car. Ignoring the two brothers' ingratiating expressions, she glanced back and casually asked, "Ready?"

Liu Guangfu bowed and scraped: "Hello, Boss You..."

At this moment, Li Huaide, with a sinister expression, walked around from the side.

The fat man exclaimed "Huh?" and Thunder Tiger asked in a low voice, "What's wrong?"

The fat man leaned close to his ear: "That shouldn't be the case. Weren't they setting a trap for the Liu and Yan families? Why did Li Huaide come in person?"

This is something even Fatty doesn't know, so how could Ben Lei Hu possibly know?

Looking at the guy's simple and honest face, the fat man sighed helplessly. How could Chen Yan have fallen for him in the first place?

Just as the group excitedly ran towards the truck, dreaming of getting rich, lights suddenly came on all around them.

Police lights and sirens blared everywhere!

Li Huaide's expression changed drastically, and he shoved You Fengxia, sending her sprawling: "You filthy bitch, you tricked me!" After cursing, he turned and ran away.

You Fengxia was wearing high heels and accidentally twisted her ankle. At that moment, she couldn't even get up despite her struggles.

In her desperation, she shouted to Liu Guangtian and Liu Guangfu, "Come and help me up!"

When disaster strikes, everyone flees for their own lives. Liu Guangtian and Liu Guangfu were willing to betray even their own fathers in a critical moment, so why would they care about a woman?

Shouts erupted from all sides: "Stop! Don't move! We're from the joint inspection team!"

The Liu and Yan families were instantly surrounded, and only Li Huaide and Liu Guangfu managed to escape.

Unlike the original story, Li Huaide ran away, leaving You Fengxia behind.

After they were all taken away, Fatty and Thunder Tiger jumped down from above.

The fat man said thoughtfully, "They all underestimated the smiling tiger."

Benlei Hu and the other seven protested, "Who are you talking about? That bastard?"

The fat man retorted, "Then explain to me what happened tonight?"

"..."

In the courtyard, Liu Guangfu burst through his second uncle's door like a wild boar, collapsed to the ground as soon as he entered, and shouted, "Dad, something terrible has happened! Our TV set has been confiscated by customs!"

Upon hearing this, Liu Haizhong's right hand trembled uncontrollably. After a while, his eyes rolled back and he fell backward.

Liu Guangfu scrambled and tumbled, managing to catch his father just in time; no sooner had he caught one than his second aunt heard the commotion and came out, her eyes wide: "Guangfu, Guangfu, what happened to your father?"

Liu Guangfu was also a fool, just like that idiot who went to Benleihu's house to deliver the message.

With a mournful face, she wailed, "Mom, Dad's dying!"

The second aunt was even more decisive than the second uncle; she plopped down right there with a thud…

Liu Guangfu was so panicked that he was completely at a loss. After a while, he hurriedly ran to Chen Yan's house and shouted outside the door, "Sister Yan, Sister Yan, help me!"

"..."

At the hospital entrance, Fatty and Benleihu arrived late.

One questioned his second sister, while the other worried about his wife, both asking in unison, "Why are you here?"

Chen Yan rolled her eyes: "Can't I just stand by and watch someone die?"

The fat man slapped his thigh in frustration. Oh no! Now look what's happened, how did we end up dragging his family into this mess?

He shoved Benleihu aside and whispered in Chen Yan's ear, "Have you paid the bill yet?"

Chen Yan shook her head: "It's the middle of the night, and I don't have any money on me. I've already called your wife and asked her to bring some money over."

The fat man was speechless: "You really know how to find people, Yu Li, she..."

He stopped abruptly halfway through his sentence, looking at Chen Yan with a puzzled expression and saying, "Second Sister, you've gone astray."

Chen Yan blinked: "Isn't it all because of you?"

There are plenty of wealthy people in that courtyard, so why didn't Chen Yan call Qin Jingru, or look for Sha Zhu or Xiao Dang, but instead went to Yu Li?

Because she didn't want to help her second uncle's family! Sending them to the hospital by ambulance was already more than enough!

As a result, both the old man and Xiao Dang arrived, but Yu Li was nowhere to be found.

Liu Guangfu paced anxiously at the hospital entrance, shouting, "Oh dear, does anyone have any money? The hospital is pressing us for payment!"

At this critical juncture, Qin Jingru arrived.

When Liu Guangfu saw her, he was like a man grasping at a straw, almost kneeling down before her: "Sister Jingru, Sister Jingru, how is it? What did customs say?"

Qin Jingru sighed: "I contacted my friend in the customs inspection department, and he told me not to get involved, because this case is huge. He said that this case is no longer under their jurisdiction, and it has been reported to the General Administration of Customs. The public security department has also intervened in the investigation. There are dozens of people involved and hundreds of thousands of TV sets. Your 130 sets are nothing."

Standing beside him, Yi Zhonghai was utterly heartbroken and spoke with great earnestness: "Old Liu and Old Yan! I told them long ago that using connections to do trade wouldn't work, it's easy to run into trouble! But they wouldn't listen to me, always thinking about making quick money. Now look what's happened! They've all lost everything. If they had listened to me and invested all their money in Zhuzi, they could have steadily received their profits every month. Wouldn't that have been much better?"

Liu Guangfu was extremely anxious: "Alright, Grandpa, please stop talking." Then he hurriedly asked Qin Jingru, "Sister Jingru, what should we do?"

Qin Jingru shook her head: "What else can we do? This is smuggling, and a fine is the least of your worries. You've managed to escape, but your brother, Yan Jiecheng, and You Fengxia have all been taken away. They're trying to find Li Huaide through them."

Yi Zhonghai remained calm: "Jingru, from what you're saying, Uncle San and his wife are alright?"

Qin Jingru nodded: "Customs saw they were too old, so they released them. But you know what kind of people Uncle and Auntie are. When they heard that all the TVs were going to be confiscated, well, they couldn't catch their breath..."

Liu Guangfu was jolted awake: "He's dead!"

Just as Qin Jingru was about to scold him, she saw Yi Zhonghai clutching his heart and slowly sitting down in a chair. She, Xiao Dang, and Chen Yan screamed as they helped him into the hospital.

Seeing this scene, Liu Guangfu was once again put on the defensive, and quietly ran away along the wall...

Benleihu nudged the fat man: "Why aren't you chasing after them?"

The fat man kicked him in anger; Benleihu laughed so hard he couldn't stand up straight: "This old man is really cunning!"

The fat man laughed too. "Indeed," he said, "Yi Daode, a veteran actor. See? In that situation just now, if he hadn't fainted, wouldn't Liu Guangfu have successfully morally blackmailed him?"

Now that Liu Guangfu has run away, he's taken all the blame, and he's no longer involved.

Sure enough, Yi Zhonghai "recovered" as soon as he entered the hospital lobby.

Qin Jingru quickly explained, "Uncle Yi and Uncle San are fine. It's just that their TV was confiscated, and all the money they've saved over the decades was taken away. They couldn't catch their breath and collapsed. Customs has already taken them to the hospital."

Yi Zhonghai raised his arm and gently patted Qin Jingru: "Oh my god, you were breathing so heavily, it scared me to death."

Liu Guangfu had fled, and all the bystanders had been cleared away. Yi Zhonghai cleared his throat and said, "We need to discuss what to do about this. With Lao Liu and Lao Yan gone, it seems that all of us will have to pay some money."

Chen Yan, Xiao Dang, and Qin Jingru had no objections.

Just as the fat man was about to speak, a voice said, "Uncle, I have a different opinion."

When everyone turned around, they realized it was Yu Li.

The fat man quickly made way for his wife to sit down.

An old man asked her, "Yu Li, what do you mean?"

Yu Li tossed her hair and said, "Don't worry about the old man's money. I'll talk to them later."

Yi Zhonghai was just hoping someone would take care of everything, so what could he say when he saw Yu Li being so domineering?

"..."

The next day, the whole hospital knew that Liu Haizhong and Yan Bugui had lost money in business and had collapsed.

When Liu Guangtian returned and saw that Liu Guangfu had run away, he immediately turned tail and ran after him.

Sha Zhu, indignant, went upstairs to find Fatty: "That's outrageous! How can there be such a person in the world?"

The fat man asked, puzzled, "Who offended you?"

"Liu Guangtian! Xiao Dang just ran into him and told him that his second uncle and aunt are both in the hospital, and that he should hurry up and get the money. But what a jerk he is! While Xiao Dang was looking for me, well, he took advantage of the situation and went crazy!"

The fat man chuckled: "What's the big deal? They have an older brother in their family, don't they?"

Upon hearing this, Sha Zhu poured out his grievances: "I hung up on them, and guess what happened?"

The fat man was also quite curious. The second and third brothers didn't care, so surely the eldest brother couldn't be ignored either?

As it turned out, he was right. Sha Zhu was indignant: "His boss hung up on me as soon as he heard me asking them for money, and even called me a liar!"

The fat man laughed heartily. He had received professional training, and unless he couldn't help himself...

Alright, since Liu Haizhong's three sons don't care about him, this matter is easy to handle.

"..."

Around noon, Yu Li came to the hospital.

Liu Haizhong and his wife were sharing a hospital room. When they saw Yu Li enter with a waitress behind her, they were both a little embarrassed...

The second aunt's cerebral thrombosis had worsened, and she was almost completely immobile. Liu Haizhong stammered, "You, how did you get here?"

Yu Li pulled up a chair and sat down: "I shouldn't have come, but none of your three sons care about you. Liu Guangfu ran away, and Xiao Dang ran away when he went to Liu Guangtian for money. Sha Zhu called your eldest son, but he called him a liar and told Sha Zhu not to call him again unless necessary. Liu Haizhong, I wonder what you think about that?"

Liu Haizhong almost fainted from anger again, trembling as he said, "You, you get out of here, get out, take all this food and get out!"

Yu Li didn't take it seriously: "Do you think I came here willingly? You didn't really forget that you instructed your two sons to raid my house back then, did you? Let me tell you, I paid for all the expenses, including the ambulance, your checkups, hospitalizations, and so on!"

Well, you can't be indebted to someone who gives you a gift...

Liu Haizhong, looking embarrassed, said, "I...I will pay you back."

Yu Li mocked him, "It's over ten thousand yuan, how are you going to pay it back?"

This time, not only was Liu Hai caught in the accident, but even the second auntie shuddered. Good heavens, over ten thousand? This hospital is outrageous!

Yu Li also explained to them, "The ward you have, the medications you use, and the attending physicians are all top-notch."

Liu Haizhong sighed: "You, you, Yu Li, I admit I've wronged you. Do whatever you want with me, kill me or let me go."

Yu Li smiled and said, "Second Uncle, you're quite the bachelor. But don't worry, I'm not one of your three sons; I don't have that kind of heart. I have a contract here; would you like to hear its contents?"

"..."

Outside the hospital where Yan Bugui was hospitalized, Yan Jiecheng also gathered his younger siblings together.

"Mom has been diagnosed with a tumor. Whether it's malignant or benign will only be known after surgery. The surgery is expensive. Could you help us raise some money?"

None of his brothers said a word, but Yan Jiedi asked, "Where's Dad?"

Yan Jiecheng sighed: "Dad is fine, he's just anxious."

After saying that, he said to everyone, "What I'm bringing to everyone now is to share the treatment costs, hospitalization costs, and surgery costs."

Yan Jiefang was displeased upon hearing this: "No, boss, why did Mom and Dad get into trouble this time?"

Yan Jiekuang chimed in, "That's right! If you hadn't tricked them into smuggling televisions with you, would things have turned out this way?"

Yan Jiefang immediately chimed in, the two of them acting like comedians: "Tell me, when you were making money, you didn't think of us brothers at all, but now that you've lost money and need your money back, you suddenly remember us? There's no such logic in the world!"

Yan Jiecheng hurriedly explained, "I lost money in this business, I lost everything!"

Yan Jiefang raised an eyebrow nonchalantly: "That's not right, brother, don't you own a restaurant?"

Yan Jiecheng was instantly speechless. He did own a restaurant, but it had just been booked. Every penny he had now was for his and Yu Haitang's future.

He lost everything in the TV business this time, what else can he do?

In the end, of course, it ended on a sour note.

After everyone had left, Yan Jiedi hesitated, "Big brother, you..."

Yan Jiecheng glanced at her and waved his hand.

Yan Jiedi sighed and left.

That evening, when Fatty got home, he found Yan Jiecheng waiting for him at his door.

They quickly ushered him inside, but before they could even exchange pleasantries, he said, "Fatty, do you still stand by what you said before?"

That matter? Does it count?

Yan Jiecheng thought he was pretending to be stupid: "It's about selling your house. It's 10,000 yuan in total, including mine and my parents'. I'm waiting for this money to save my life!"

The fat man scratched his nose and said to Yu Li beside him, "Tomorrow, when the bank opens, you get Jie Cheng some money, and then you sign the contract while you're at it."

After Yan Jiecheng left, thanking him profusely, Yu Li excitedly jumped onto the fat man's lap: "Oh my god, am I dreaming?! This whole yard is really going to be ours soon!"

Indeed, this time, Fatty successfully acquired the houses from Liu Haizhong, Yan Bugui, and Yan Jiecheng.

As for the other companies, they only made minor modifications in obscure corners, so they didn't have to pay much for them.

Lily happily got off the fat man, and then he pulled out a red book from his pocket: "Look what this is?"

Yu Li excitedly grabbed it and took a look, then was immediately dumbfounded: "The Jia... Jia family?"

The fat man nodded. "This is what Smiling Tiger and Qin Huairu sold to me before."

Just as Fatty had predicted, You Fengxia had turned against him.

It's unclear whether she fell in love with the smiling tiger, or if he offered her some irresistible benefits, or if, like the smiling tiger, she was simply tired of being a tool.

In short, the two of them really took advantage of this opportunity to completely swindle Li Huaide.

When Smiling Tiger came to Fatty, he made it clear: "You Fengxia is hopeless. I'm free. From now on, I'll only live for myself."

The fat man gestured towards Qin Huairu with his chin: "Where is she?"

The smiling tiger said expressionlessly, "Don't I owe you something? I knew you liked that house, so I brought it here."

The fat man nodded: "2000 per room, Qin Huairu, is that alright?"

Qin Huairu glanced at the fat man, then at the smiling tiger, and helplessly turned around, taking out the property deed from under her clothes.

※※※※※※

In the winter of 1992, the courtyard at No. 40 Nanluoguxiang was decorated with lanterns and colorful decorations.

This day was the 70th birthday of Fatty's father.

Early in the morning, Chen Rong and Cao Zhengyang arrived by car with their son Cao Hao.

Shi Tiantian opened the courtyard gate for me; the little girl is 13 years old this year.

In the courtyard, Fatty and Shazhu set up a large iron pot, while Benleihu was chopping wood with great effort!

Chen Rong asked him with a smile, "Why such a big fuss?"

The fat man looked up and said, "Big sister, today we're having a stewed goose in an iron pot."

Just then, someone else came in from outside.

Chen Fang and Boss Li, carrying their son, swaggered in.

The fat man and she started bickering as soon as they met: "You came empty-handed?"

Chen Fang said matter-of-factly, "The gifts are all with your mistress!"

A sudden surge of murderous intent came from behind, startling Chen Fang. She turned around and saw Yu Li and Chen Mengqi standing together, looking at her with ill intent.

In the main room of the courtyard, Chen Gangqiang and Zhou Haiqin, an elderly couple, were chatting with Old Wang and several other retired comrades.

Old Wang looked at the courtyard with envy: "You guys are so lucky, such a big courtyard, and your whole family lives here."

Zhou Haiqin said modestly, "It still can't compare to the facilities in apartment buildings, but this courtyard house is really good for you!"

Yu Wanlin, who was sitting nearby, said angrily, "Look at you, acting like a Versailles."

The fat man said the word, and everyone present understood it. Upon hearing it, they couldn't help but burst into laughter.

Xu Damao arrived at an inopportune time, just in time to run into Lou Xiao'e.

When the two met, Xu Damao was quite embarrassed. Just as he was about to go over and say hello, Lou Xiao'e snorted coldly and pulled her son Chen Mengxiao and mother Tan Yali into the yard.

Xu Damao was still sighing when a pleasant voice came from behind him: "Look closely, are you reluctant to part with it?"

Xu Damao gave an awkward smile and looked at the girl behind him, saying, "How could that be, Xiyue? I've already forgotten about her."

Xu Xiyue is 16 years old this year. She has grown into a graceful and generous young woman, but she is also very sensitive.

Her true identity could not be kept secret in the end...

Xu Damao was completely at a loss with this daughter; only Qin Jingru could handle her.

He shoved her hard from behind, like pushing a prisoner: "Get inside right now, what are you doing acting out here!"

Xu Xiyue looked at Xu Damao with a pitiful expression, and the father and daughter remained silent.

As soon as Lou Xiao'e entered the house, it became quite lively.

Chen Mengqi was busy pulling Lou Xiao'e, and Chen Mengxiao was busy pulling Yu Li; they were extremely busy.

Fortunately, Yu Qian arrived with Huaihua and his son, and with their help, they were finally separated.

Once everyone had gone to the main room, the fat man lifted the pot lid and smelled the aroma of the stewed goose.

He sat down on the recliner next to him with a sigh, picked up a purple clay teapot, and took a delicious sip of tea.

My life in this new life, and this courtyard house, are finally complete.

The End.