Liu Haizhong realized he had been tricked by Yi Zhonghailong's old lady and was so angry he trembled. This made Xu Damao realize that he was isolated and helpless, so he took the opportunity to slip away.
Sha Zhu stared at him, feeling a chill run down his spine. Old Lady Long tapped her cane and said, "Zhonghai's family, take out your savings book."
"Okay, I'll go get it." At Yi Zhonghai's wink, the older woman nodded and walked into the inner room, taking out her money first to set an example.
Only by adopting the right attitude can you gain people's trust and get them to willingly pay money to resolve the issue.
This situation did not calm Liu Haizhong down; Old Lady Long saw it but did not take it seriously.
If Liu Haizhong doesn't pay, he'll only become the culprit, and the end result will be his death, which will also lead to his whole family losing their jobs and income.
This outcome made Liu Haizhong furious, breaking out in a cold sweat. He gritted his teeth at Yi Zhonghai, wishing he could pounce on him and bite the old scoundrel to death.
"Shasha," an older woman took out her savings book and placed it on the table at the gesture of Old Lady Long.
Without even glancing at the amount of money in the bankbook, Old Lady Long said to Liu Haizhong, "Haizhong, why don't you take charge of the compensation issue?"
"Hmph, I'm not the culprit. I don't care about this kind of mess. Let whoever wants to deal with it, do not come to me." Liu Haizhong retorted angrily. Do you really think I'm stupid?
At this point, the person in charge of resolving the compensation issue is the culprit.
No, outsiders wouldn't believe it either!
Grandma Long's smile became even more chilling: "Haizhong, you're the second oldest man in the courtyard."
Since you've taken charge of the transfer of Zheng Ya's house and forced him to return, you should act like a magnanimous second uncle and handle the aftermath properly.
After all, you wouldn't want your whole family to be dragged down by you, without jobs, without a home, homeless, and reduced to begging for a living, would you?
"You, you all, you are all so hateful!" Liu Haizhong roared, jumping up in anger, as if he wanted to kill someone.
They plotted to make him stand out, show off his power, and take advantage of others by seizing Zheng Ya's house. The whole neighborhood knew about it, and it was impossible to erase the truth from their minds.
Afterwards, they were destined to be scapegoats?
Yi Zhonghai slacked off, letting Old Lady Long deal with Liu Haizhong, enjoying his leisure time while secretly worrying about the money.
I've saved up less than seven thousand yuan in half my life.
They're using all the money to pay compensation now, and they're just pretending not to care; their hearts are bleeding.
Grandma Long gently comforted Liu Haizhong: "Haizhong, getting angry will damage your liver."
You need to understand that we will all help you resolve this matter, doing our best to help you settle things.
You have to take responsibility. For the sake of your family, you have no reason to shirk it, right?
"Fine, I admit defeat." Liu Haizhong was afraid of dying and didn't want to become the scapegoat they pushed out, so he sat down angrily and looked through the bankbook on the table.
It's fine if you don't look, but once you do, you'll be so angry you'll slam your fist on the table: "Bang! Bang! Bang!"
The eight-immortal table creaked and nearly shattered under his sixth-level forging power.
Xu Damao's eyelids twitched in shock. "It's over. There's not much money in my savings account. Why am I the one who's going to be unlucky? Why is that?"
Sure enough, Liu Haizhong slammed the passbook on the table and roared, "Yi Zhonghai, there's only 6,830 yuan on this!"
How am I supposed to settle this? Who's going to pay the rest of the money?
"Hurry up and get your second savings account out!"
"Liu Haizhong, are you blind? Open your bankbook and look at the deposit date before you speak. Being loud doesn't prove anything."
"Wouldn't that just make outsiders laugh at you?" Yi Zhonghai explained, enduring the bleeding pain, remaining calm and composed, afraid of provoking Liu Haizhong into a desperate act and leaving, which would be difficult to handle.
Liu Haizhong was confused. He looked through the passbook again and found that it recorded the amount of money Yi Zhonghai had saved each month and year. Every single penny was saved. He was numb with shock.
There's still a shortfall of over 13,000 yuan. Who will make up the difference?
After all, his family of five, including three sons, had high expenses and little savings.
You know, a half-grown boy can eat his father alive.
The expenses of feeding and caring for the three sons were considerable. Even though Liu Haizhong only liked the eldest son, raising the two younger sons with the attitude of not letting them starve and with the help of corporal punishment was still quite costly.
In addition, his job level was not as high as Yi Zhonghai's, and his monthly salary was less than seventy.
My salary was even lower in previous years, and I've only managed to save a little over three thousand yuan by now, which isn't a small amount!
But this amount of money is far from enough to compensate Zheng Ya for his share of 20,000 yuan!
What should I do if there's still a shortfall of 10,000 yuan?
Liu Haizhong was dumbfounded. Old Lady Long didn't want to push him too far and make things worse, so she spoke up: "Haizhong, just do your best."
If we really can't raise the money, let's all work together to find a solution.
This matter cannot be delayed; delaying it will be detrimental to us!
“I have a little over 530 yuan saved up at home, so I’ll take it out to make up the difference. Xu Damao, it’s your turn,” Sha Zhu volunteered.
In fact, he was very cunning, and he was the most ruthless among those who beat Zheng Ya.
Since the matter has already occurred and cannot be ignored, it's better to cooperate and resolve the issue peacefully.
Everything can be dealt with by retaliating afterward.
Xu Damao was so angry his liver hurt. He said irritably, "I don't have any money. I only have a little over a hundred yuan on me. You guys figure it out."
"Xu Damao, are you looking for a beating?" Sha Zhu rolled up his sleeves, rubbing his fists together, ready to fight. Xu Damao hid behind Old Lady Long and said, "Look at him, he's trying to force a good woman into prostitution!"
I don't have any money, how can I possibly make money?
If you don't believe me, you can search my house.
I'm making this clear today: no matter how much money you find in my house, I'll use it all to compensate you. Consider it my bad luck, I accept my loss.
That's how it is afterward; nobody's allowed to bring this up again.
"Fine, I'll take your words as an answer. I don't believe you're broke." Sha Zhu said seriously as he walked out.
But Grandma Long stopped him with her cane: "Silly Zhu, don't be impulsive, sit down and listen to what Grandma has to say?"
"Alright, I'll listen to the old lady." Sha Zhu returned to his original seat and sat down to listen. Old Lady Long began to dig into people's past: "Liu Haizhong, back when the liberation was in full swing, when they were fighting the landlords and distributing land, they probably detained a lot of big and small yellow croakers, right?"
Don't deny it, Zhonghai also has some; just bring them all out to make up the numbers!
"Sigh, take it out!" Yi Zhonghai sighed and waved his hand, signaling the old woman to get the gold bars. The old woman, her face dark, went back into the inner room, took out a yellow cloth bundle, and angrily threw it on the table with a "bang."
This time, Old Lady Long took matters into her own hands, lifting the yellow cloth wrapping to reveal a large and a small yellow croaker.
As the saying goes, gold is valued in times of chaos, and jade in times of prosperity.
These days, gold is a forbidden commodity and can only be traded privately; it doesn't fetch a good price.
The key issue is that nobody dares to buy gold. If they do, they'll drive the price down to rock bottom, offering it at dirt cheap, and then they'll ask you if you'll sell.
With things having escalated to this point, Liu Haizhong had no choice but to get up and head home: "I'm not going to get the money. I'll do what I can, hmph!"
The tone was low but carried a strong warning, implying a willingness to fight to the death, and the unspoken message was: it's not enough, so watch out.
Grandma Long said helplessly, "My dear grandson, help me up. Let's go home and get the money. Da Mao, you should be more considerate too!"
Xu Damao nodded in agreement and followed them back to the backyard to get the money.
Zheng Ya and the others in the courtyard watched them enter through the hanging flower gate in the backyard, and less than half a minute later they exclaimed, "Oh my god, we've been robbed..."
"Ahhh, my money, my dowry jewelry, all gone! We've been robbed..." The backyard was in complete chaos.
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