"Hey old man, how can you be so sure that I didn't cause this widow's pregnancy? What do you all think?" Xu Damao said lewdly from the side.

"Go away, go away, go away. If you wanted to get pregnant, you would have gotten pregnant long ago. Why would you wait until now? You're just a childless child. Just accept your fate," Sha Zhu retorted bluntly upon hearing Xu Damao's words.

As soon as Sha Zhu finished speaking casually, he immediately thought of what Xu Damao had mentioned about widows. Didn't the Jia family have two widows in this courtyard? The others didn't.

Realizing what had happened, Sha Zhu immediately yelled at Xu Damao, "Xu Damao, you bastard, how dare you talk about my Sister Qin like that! You son of a bitch, I'll beat you to death!"

Actually, as we've all been talking, everyone knows Qin Huairu is beautiful and charming, but with Uncle Da and Sha Zhu protecting her, no one can get her, right? Even verbal favors are still favors.

Why not take advantage of a freebie? Who would have thought that Sha Zhu would actually punch and kick Xu Damao for this?

"Ouch, it hurts, you idiot Zhu, let me go, or I'll kill you!" Xu Damao cursed, grimacing on the ground.

Sha Zhu was having a great time, venting all the resentment he'd accumulated throughout the day on Xu Damao. Seeing this, Lou Xiao'e quickly stepped in front of Sha Zhu and reached out to scratch him. Sha Zhu, seeing Lou Xiao'e, immediately took two steps back.

Seeing this, Yi Zhonghai hurriedly scolded, "What are you doing? This is a meeting, not a place for you to fool around. There's no organization and no record-keeping. Stop it and stand there properly."

After Lou Xiao'e helped Xu Damao up, he lightly touched his face with his right hand. The moment he touched it, he reflexively hissed. Ouch! That idiot Zhu really hit hard. Xu Damao's face was now covered in bruises, looking quite terrifying.

Lou Xiao'e, like a protective mother hen, stared wide-eyed at Sha Zhu, cursing, "Sha Zhu, what right do you have to hit me?"

Sha Zhu immediately chuckled and said, "Xu Damao deserved it. Who told him to talk nonsense? Bah! Xu Damao, if you dare to spread rumors about my Sister Qin in front of me again, watch out for my fists."

Xu Damao was about to say something, but then he saw Qin Huairu put on a pitiful act and say, "Even though I am a widow and my husband is gone, you can't say such things about me. If this gets out, how will I live? Waaaaah!"

Yes, there are no men in my family, so I'm easy to bully, but you can't treat people like this! Waaaaaah!

Qin Huairu's outburst of crying and cursing immediately drew everyone's attention to Xu Damao. Feeling uncomfortable under their gaze, Xu Damao quickly retorted, "I didn't say that alone. Besides, it was Ma Hua who said it about me. Why are you hitting me?"

Ma Hua shrugged. He said nonchalantly, "That's what the old man said. Didn't he say that anything that didn't happen in the yard before yesterday was done by me?"

Yi Zhonghai was almost laughing in anger at Ma Hua: "Ma Hua, what nonsense are you talking about? When did I say that? When did I mention the hospital?"

Upon seeing Jia Zhangshi's face, Yi Zhonghai immediately swallowed the rest of his sentence. He dared not provoke Jia Zhangshi; if she were to confront him in front of so many people, wouldn't he lose face? Jia Zhangshi was a mad dog.

“However, Ma Hua, you don’t have any evidence to say that you didn’t do this, right? After all, this kind of thing only happened in our hospital after you came here. It’s normal for us to suspect you, isn’t it?” Yi Zhonghai asked tentatively.

Ma Hua shook his head: "Uncle, what you're saying isn't right. What do you mean there's no evidence? I just went home to sleep last night. So what? According to you, who in our compound has evidence? Does anyone think someone is secretly meeting someone or standing guard at night?"

Ma Hua suddenly remembered that in the original novel, Yi Zhonghai delivered cornmeal to Qin Huairu in the middle of the night. Not only were the two of them sneaking around, but Liu Haizhong also saw them. So he tentatively asked her about it.

Yi Zhonghai's face flushed red, his heart pounding wildly. He had been so discreet; how could Ma Hua have known? Ma Hua hadn't just arrived! Impossible, impossible! "Ahem, Aunt Jia..."

"I see your belongings have been found, so this was probably just a prank by one of your kids. You've already moved your things back. I think we should just leave it at that. After all, our courtyard is the most advanced siheyuan (traditional courtyard house) on the whole street; how could there possibly be a thief?"

Jia Zhangshi immediately cursed, "Bah! Stealing just like that, returning just like that? There's no such thing as a free lunch. No way! After all, he's compensating us for our losses. Who knows if he'll replace them with something else? Our cabbages and coal are the best in the whole yard."

Everyone burst out laughing at Jia Zhangshi's words. "The best? Everyone knows your Jia family buys the cheapest honeycomb briquettes, made at home? And your rotten cabbage? You have to break off a bit to feed the rabbits before you can eat it. It's so rotten, you can't eat it directly."

Jia Zhangshi seemed oblivious to the laughter of the crowd, her eyes fixed on Yi Zhonghai and Liu Haizhong, giving off an air of "If you don't give me an explanation, I'll make you regret it."

Liu Haizhong was furious. He was the second most important person in the courtyard, and this damned Jia Zhangshi dared to disrespect him!

Yi Zhonghai also sensed that things were not going well, and hurriedly said, "Old Liu, I think you should just give Aunt Jia a dollar. After all, you are the second oldest man in the courtyard. A leader should have the magnanimity of a leader."

Liu Haizhong, who was about to get angry, immediately agreed when Yi Zhonghai said he was the leader. It was just a dollar, after all; he wasn't short of money. He was the leader; there was no need to get close to a shrew.

Jia Zhangshi originally wanted to ask for an extra ten or eight yuan, but after being glared at by Yi Zhonghai, she had no choice but to reluctantly agree.

Seeing that the matter was resolved, Yi Zhonghai immediately shouted, "Meeting adjourned!"

Lou Xiao'e was furious. "They beat him up like this and didn't even give us an explanation!" she shouted. "Uncle, Sha Zhu beat Xu Damao up like this, we can't just let this go!"

Yi Zhonghai looked at Lou Xiao'e with a gloomy face: "Lou Xiao'e, Xu Damao was foul-mouthed and deserved to be beaten. What else do you want?"

Lou Xiao'e glanced at the smug Sha Zhu and said, "You can't beat him like this. Sha Zhu went too far. He needs to apologize right away, or we'll call the police."

"Zhu Zi, hurry up and apologize to Xu Damao and compensate him for his medical expenses." Yi Zhonghai snorted coldly. He was very unhappy. Ma Hua hadn't been subdued yet, and now Lou Xiao'e had stepped in again.

Upon hearing Yi Zhonghai's words, Sha Zhu reluctantly took out two cents from his pocket and tossed them to Xu Damao: "Here you go, sorry, this is a reward from Master Zhu."

Xu Damao wasn't angry at all. On the contrary, he felt that he had won. He actually made Sha Zhu apologize and pay money. Amazing, hahaha.

Lou Xiao'e, seeing Xu Damao like this, sulked to herself. He'd boasted about how capable he was before, but after all these years, it seemed he was not only a spineless coward but also a greedy and petty person.