In her previous life, she also lived in the streets with her grandmother since she was a child. Her grandmother loved gossip just like the aunts and grandmothers in the neighborhood. They would quarrel and curse at each other from time to time, but no matter how complicated the relationship between neighbors was, they would never really become enemies.

First, they are all old residents, and they can't just move away. Old neighbors have been together for a lifetime and are like relatives. Second, most of the courtyards are interdependent. You are next to my wall, and I am next to your house. If there is really a fight, won't we all tear down the house and dig up the wall? The previous owner of the No. 9 courtyard, Mr. Jia, was very independent. He didn't rely on other people's houses. He built his own wall, but the neighbors came to lean against Mr. Jia's wall. Now this courtyard belongs to Meng Tao, and she is not afraid of offending people, but since they have become neighbors, it is not to the point of breaking up. She is still willing to listen to the teachings of her grandmother in the previous life: life is not easy, so don't be too extreme.

She is willing to learn to be tolerant, but reality does not allow it.

She joked that the neighbor on the right would also invite her and Shen Yu to dinner. This was just a prank on Shen Yu, knowing that he had a shadow over the Zhong family. It just so happened that the legendary wall-climbing Zhong Xiaomei showed up, and she wanted to see him go crazy, but she didn't expect her joke to come true!

Since he had agreed to go to Wang's house for dinner, Shen Yu got up, rinsed his mouth, washed his face, and dressed. Meng Tao prepared the gifts to bring to Wang's house, including a bag of peach cakes, two pounds of fruit candies, and three bags of milk powder, which she bought at the supply and marketing cooperative while shopping in the morning.

The courtyard gate was not closed, so Xiao Wangcai squatted by the door and watched the children running and playing in the alley. His little heads turned around, looking very busy.

Uncle Wang came in with his third son Wang Jiancheng. Xiao Wangcai did not stop them and did not say a word. He just followed the father and son into the yard. He saw Meng Tao coming up to them and talking, and then he went back to the door. Meng Tao had told him: If any neighbors come in, just watch and don't make any noise.

Zhong Xiaomei followed her mother into the yard, and a middle-aged man followed behind them. Wang Jiancheng looked back and politely greeted the man, "Uncle Zhong." Meng Tao then realized that this was Zhong Xiaomei's father.

The Zhong family, the neighbor on the right, has five people, according to Aunt Wang: a couple, a pair of children, and an old lady. Before, Meng Tao only knew the housewife, Aunt Zhong, who was also Zhong's mother. Today was the first time she met Zhong's father and Zhong Xiaomei.

There is no need to do an identification on this father and daughter, you can tell they are biological children just by looking at them, their behaviors are exactly the same. When they entered the house, when Zhong's mother was talking to Meng Tao, they just glanced at Meng Tao out of the corner of their eyes, and walked quickly past Meng Tao towards Shen Yu. Zhong Xiaomei looked like a little fangirl, with shining eyes and a sweet smile, and she called him "Comrade Shen" all the time, as affectionately as possible.

Father Zhong was wearing a cadre uniform and was said to work in the cultural department, but no one knew what he did specifically. Seeing that his daughter liked Shen Yu so much, and that Shen Yu was indeed handsome and his clothes and demeanor were very stylish, Father Zhong acted like a father-in-law looking at his son-in-law, with a broad smile on his face, and happily tried to get close to Shen Yu.

Shen Yu was talking to Uncle Wang and Wang Jiancheng. He just glanced at the Zhong father and daughter and ignored them.

Uncle Wang smiled and told Shen Yu: "The food is ready, you two can go over now. My old lady has cooked some home-cooked dishes, they taste pretty good."

When Zhong Xiaomei heard this, she immediately shook her father's hand and said, "Dad, didn't you say you wanted to invite Comrade Shen to our house for dinner?"

Father Zhong said hurriedly, "Yes, yes, yes! Comrade Xiao Shen, I heard that you work in the provincial capital. It's fate that we can become neighbors! As the saying goes, a close neighbor is worse than a distant relative. Neighbors should care for each other and be close and friendly. I was going to invite you to my house today, but since Lao Wang invited you first, I will invite Comrade Shen to come to our house for dinner tomorrow!"

Shen Yu looked at Meng Tao. His wife had just advised him not to be so cruel to his neighbor. But now he saw that this so-called neighbor was not only impolite but also obviously had bad intentions. How could he be treated kindly?

He curled the corners of his lips slightly and asked deliberately: "Is your family inviting only me?"

"Of course, I'd like to invite you only. You are the most distinguished guest in our family!" Zhong Xiaomei answered quickly.

Mr. Zhong laughed: "This is the sincerity of our whole family. Comrade Shen, you must come!"

Mother Zhong also walked over to Father Zhong at this time, and smiled and told Shen Yu that she could cook many kinds of specialties and guaranteed that he would be satisfied with the food! Last time, this woman wanted to invite Meng Tao to her house to play, but now she seemed to have forgotten about it and did not even mention inviting Meng Tao.

Meng Tao cursed in her heart, MMP, it's really like the worst are everywhere.

Whether she was willing to go to someone else's house for dinner was one thing, but someone came to invite her to dinner and specifically invited her fiancé instead of her. What did this mean? He fell in love with her fiancé and slapped the hostess in the face!

Meng Tao was furious. Without Shen Yu saying anything, she said to Uncle Wang in front of all these people: "Uncle Wang, our courtyard wall needs to be repaired, especially the whole wall on the right. Big rats often climb up. The flowers are about to bloom in spring. Uncle Wang, can you find some good materials and help me buy them back to reinforce and raise the wall, and tie up caltrops, so that we don't have to worry about rats ruining the flowers and plants!"

Uncle Wang and Wang Jiancheng were both stunned when they heard this. After all, they had been neighbors for many years and they already knew some things. After they realized what was going on, Wang Jiancheng, who was young and honest, smiled openly and glanced at Zhong Xiaomei while laughing, his eyes full of mockery.

Uncle Wang coughed twice and nodded in agreement: "That's no problem, just leave it to me."

Mr. Zhong was still a little confused, not quite understanding what the purpose of reinforcing and raising the wall was. Zhong Xiaomei had already jumped up: "No! You are not allowed to raise it higher!"

Then he shouted at Meng Tao: "When Grandpa Jia was alive, the wall was like this. Why do you want to change it?"

Before Meng Tao could retort, Shen Yu put his long arms around her and held her in his arms. He looked at the three members of the Zhong family and said, "When Mr. Jia was alive, did you, as neighbors, respect him? Climbing the wall every day is like picking his flowers at the mildest level, but at the worst, you are spying on him! His yard and his every move are all under your eyes. It's inconvenient to live in your own yard. What right do you have? Now we are the owners of this yard. It's our freedom to decorate it as we like. No one has the right to interfere!"

As Shen Yu spoke, his expression gradually turned colder, his face seemed to be covered with frost, his black eyes were sharp, and the air seemed to suddenly drop coldly around them. Father Zhong couldn't help but shiver, and Mother Zhong didn't dare to say anything more.

Only Zhong Xiaomei cried regardless. She was a natural drama queen. She cried like a pear blossom in the rain in front of Shen Yu, feeling wronged, weak and pitiful. When she accused Meng Tao, her tears dripped down in strings, and her face was full of hatred, as if she had suffered a lot of bullying. If Meng Tao was a man, he would probably be misunderstood as raping a woman. Zhong Xiaomei: "Why are you so mean? Are you still a woman? Comrade Shen didn't say anything when he bought this yard, but you insisted on building a wall. You are targeting me! Woo woo woo... You are too mean. You are not worthy of Comrade Shen at all!"

"It's just for you. We don't welcome wall climbers in our house."

Meng Tao retorted: "You have a good heart, but you only bother to pester other people's men."

"Who's special? I only like Comrade Shen! I don't even bother looking at other men! I wouldn't even want someone like Wang Jiancheng, even if he came to my door!"

Wang Jiancheng was watching the show with great interest, but suddenly he got caught in the crossfire and was furious: "Get lost, Zhong Xiaomei! You look like a female ghost. Seeing you at night would scare people to death. Who would like a woman like you? Just wait to be an old aunt for the rest of your life!"

Zhong Xiaomei was obviously spoiled by her family. She looked weak but had a bad temper. She couldn't stand being called an old aunt in front of the man she loved. She was immediately furious and rushed towards Wang Jiancheng with her teeth and claws. Wang Jiancheng didn't hold back. Zhong Xiaomei didn't like him, and he disliked Zhong Xiaomei even more. He acted without hesitation, grabbed her two long braids and dragged her out of the courtyard gate:

"Go back to your house and don't dirty Sister Taohua's yard!"

Zhong Xiaomei screamed, "Wang Jiancheng, you useless, dead man! Let me go! Help! Comrade Shen, help!"

Shen Yu pretended he didn't see or hear anything and focused on smoothing the cat's fur for his wife.

Mr. and Mrs. Zhong were anxious to catch up, but Shen Yu stopped them and said, "I refuse your invitation. I will not go to your house tomorrow. In the future, please do not come to my house either."

Mr. Zhong's face darkened: "You are being disrespectful to our neighbors and looking down on our family!"

Shen Yu: "Don't do to others what you don't want others to do to you. Think about it yourself. Do you respect me and my wife?"

Father Zhong glanced at Meng Tao out of the corner of his eye again, snorted coldly, and pulled Mother Zhong away.

Meng Tao: "Did I provoke them? How weird!"

Shen Yu patted her on the back: "Don't worry about irrelevant people."

Uncle Wang next to him also said, "Yes, ignore them. They are the only weird people in this alley. They always do unreasonable things."

Shen Yu and Meng Tao took the gifts and went to the Wang family next door. Wang Jiancheng dragged Zhong Xiaomei away and threw her into the Zhong family, and then came back. Aunt Wang was not surprised at all when she heard about this. She said to Meng Tao: "When you first came, I didn't want to say anything. You really don't need to pay attention to them. There are more than a dozen households in this alley. Who hasn't had a fight or quarrel with them? None of them are like normal people.

They are not old residents, they moved in seven or eight years ago. The man works in the Cultural Bureau, not in an office. I heard he just runs errands and does odd jobs. But he insists that his family is the most educated, looking down on others all day long. His wife also thinks she is so high-class, but in fact she is no different from me, just a housewife. Two children, the eldest son participated in the struggle a few years ago, you know, but he got a job through the struggle and went to work in a factory;

The youngest daughter is Zhong Xiaomei. She didn't go to class after graduating from high school. She just messed around at home every day, like a crazy woman.

In the past, old man Jia scolded her a lot. Not only did she climb the ladder to pick the flowers on the wall, but she also made a fishing net and caught the whole pot of flowers that the old man put on the ground... The old man only loved to grow flowers all his life. He worked hard to grow the flowers and they bloomed so beautifully. But before he could see them enough, they were caught away by someone. Wouldn't he be angry? He ran to the Zhong family to ask for the flowers, but Zhong Xiaomei refused to return them. Her parents also helped to scold the old man... Many times, the old man was almost angry to death.

Old man Jia fell to his death later, and they said it was a myocardial infarction. I think this disease might have been caused by Zhong Xiaomei's anger at stealing flowers!"

(End of this chapter)