◎First update◎
Not long after Master Qian returned to the compound, the tenant Wang Lao Er came to the door. Everyone saw Master Qian packing his luggage and putting several jackets and shirts into a cloth bag.
He didn't have many things. He burned all the books he had treasured in the past. After he was rehabilitated and returned to the city, he lived a life of ease and never bought anything. Therefore, this house was very poor and there was not much worth taking away.
"Master Qian!" Wang Lao Er hurried over and took a look at the situation in the house. He still didn't understand, "Are you really selling the courtyard house?"
Seeing Mr. Qian nod, Wang Laoer showed an angry look on his face. He didn't expect this old guy to act so quickly. What he didn't expect was that there would really be a sucker who wanted to buy it.
What if he bought it? At most, he could give him the west wing where Mr. Qian lived now, but he couldn't touch the other rooms.
"You are very quick. How much did you sell it for?" Wang Laoer looked into his cloth bag eagerly. The price of the courtyard house should not be cheap. It should be expensive. After all, the area is not small, with six rooms in front and back and a large courtyard.
What's the use of an old man with a weak body holding so much money!
"You'd better collect the money carefully, or you may lose it somewhere."
Mr. Qian ignored him, pretended to be deaf, waved his hands, and went about his business.
As soon as Wang Laoer left the west wing, he called a meeting with the other four households to discuss what to do next.
"That bastard really found a sucker and sold the courtyard house."
"He's quite capable! Can he sell such an expensive yard just like that?"
"Anyway, we have to unite! No one should move out, even if the devil comes. The five of us should stay together and see who can cause trouble!"
"Okay! Brother Wang, we will listen to you!"
There are five households in the courtyard, with the Wang family being the leader. The Wen family and the Liu family are also very powerful. The remaining two families mostly follow the other three and go wherever the other three tell them to go.
"I guess this yard is not cheap. I inquired about it two days ago. It's at least tens of thousands. This old man must have a lot of money."
"Well, then we have to go to his house and take a look."
Several people went to the west wing together. When the wife of Wen family and the couple of Liu family called Master Qian to the courtyard to ask about selling the courtyard house, Wang Laoer and the man of Wen family took the opportunity to sneak into Master Qian's room and look through his cloth bag. There were about 10,000 or 20,000 yuan in it. Even if he kept it in a passbook, he should have kept a few hundred yuan in reserve, right?
Oh, that's strange!
Wang Lao Er looked around but didn't see a dime. Could it be that Mr. Qian had it on him? Could he have also left the passbook on him?
Although Mr. Qian was hard of hearing and had poor eyesight, he understood what was going on. He knew someone had sneaked into his room, so he had no reason to worry and just let it go.
What could he find? Just a few rags of clothing.
Wang Laoer found nothing and came out of Master Qian's room with a frown. When the other family members saw him coming out, they lost interest in chatting with Master Qian.
They all went back to their own homes. Anyway, they have lived in this house for more than ten years. Do you want them to move out? No way!
Mr. Qian finally got out of trouble. When he returned to his room, he could tell at a glance that his cloth bag had been touched and there were signs of rummaging. He folded his clothes again and looked around. There was really nothing left to take. He opened the drawer of his chest of drawers. It was clean and tidy inside. There was only a pen and a blank notebook with a yellowed old photo inside.
Mr. Qian in the photo was still young, and next to him were his daughter-in-law and son. His daughter-in-law died first after suffering a blow when he was criticized and persecuted, and his son died when the cowshed was renovated. Now he is the only one left, all alone, while the people below him are more lively.
He put a pen, a notebook, a photo, and an enamel cup with the paint chipped off in it and tied it up. These were the things he brought with him when he was rehabilitated. Now that he was leaving, nothing had changed.
When leaving the courtyard, Mr. Qian walked around the yard and looked around. Everything had changed a lot. He pushed aside several pickle jars piled at the door of the east wing and saw a few traces of carvings on the corner of the wall.
He did that when he was a kid. His grandfather was teaching him arithmetic, so he took a stone and wrote hard on the wall. After all these years, there are still some faint marks...
The five tenants were looking outside from inside the house. They saw Mr. Qian staggering away. They only stuck their heads out after he had gone far away, talking among themselves.
——
Two days later, Xu Shengjie and Liang Baozhen took the property certificate and found the street office where Chunrili Hutong was located to register. After recognizing the people, they asked the street office staff to take them to the hutong.
Sister Xu from the Street Office is an old lady, so she naturally knows the troubles of the tenants at No. 32 Chunri Hutong.
"How did you two young people buy this courtyard house? Let me tell you, it's a real problem! All the people living there are scoundrels!
Master Qian was a good man, and I don’t know how much he had to endure. It’s a pity that there is no one left in his family. An old man can’t scold or beat him.”
Liang Baozhen had heard about this before, but she still wondered if the street office could really do anything about it. "Sister Xu, Mr. Qian has also contacted you, right? It's really useless."
"No, how could we control them? As soon as we asked them to move, they started to throw themselves into a rage. Dozens of them cried and howled, and one even tried to crash his head into the door. It was a scene! It was unbelievable!"
It was OK for them to deal with one or two rascals, but it was difficult to deal with five or more than 20 rascals! It was too difficult!
"We are not afraid of scoundrels, but we are afraid of scoundrels who unite." Liang Baozhen knew what was going on. Today, her main purpose was to meet with the comrades from the street office and get to know them. This would make it legitimate for her to ask those people to move out in the future.
The three of them walked to the gate of the courtyard. Someone from the Liu family was already standing guard outside the gate. When they saw the street office and the new buyer of the courtyard had arrived, they hurried back to the house to inform others.
"Hello everyone, this courtyard has been sold by Mr. Qian to these two comrades, and they are your new landlords." Sister Xu knew that it was useless to say it, but she still had to go through the process, "These two comrades want to take back the house, but they can give everyone a month to move out..."
"Sister Xu, this doesn't make sense!"
"Why do you want us to move? We lived well here when Mr. Qian was here! Who is this new landlord? We don't recognize him!"
"Yes! We don't recognize it!"
The commotion here soon attracted people from the large courtyards nearby, and they all trotted out to see the excitement. The tenants in this courtyard were notorious for being rogues, and everyone muttered to themselves as they watched, thinking that these two young comrades were blind to dare to buy this courtyard!
You're asking for trouble!
"Everyone calm down and listen to me." Liang Baozhen suddenly spoke. Everyone in the yard looked at her, wanting to hear what she had to say.
"We have a written agreement with Mr. Qian on the property, and the property transfer has been registered at the Housing Authority. Now this courtyard is our house, and we have the final say on how to allocate each room..."
"On what basis?"
"We have lived here for more than ten years, who do you think you are?" Two daughters-in-law were so excited that they were spitting everywhere and even tried to get close to Liang Baozhen to scare her back.
However, a tall man suddenly appeared in front of Liang Baozhen and blocked her way. The two wives took a look and were shocked. The man had a cold face and an intimidating aura, and there seemed to be ice in his eyes. It was so scary that they shrank back two steps.
There was a noise in the yard, and no one could blame more than five families. This was always a headache for the street office. These five families would not accept any soft or hard arguments. When asked, they said that it was the government that paid them the rent. Even the police were helpless.
The neighbors felt more and more sorry for the young man and woman who bought the courtyard house, and thought that their money was wasted!
Liang Baozhen and Xu Shengjie did not force their way in. They just listened to them arguing for a while and then left.
On the way back, the two of them did comment on this group of people. They were all terrible, with clear division of labor. Some were throwing tantrums, some pretended to be neutral and persuaded others to fight, some threatened with words, and some tried to commit suicide...
However, they went there again the next day, and naturally caused another stir. The street office was troubled, nearby residents felt sorry for them, and the five tenants were very proud of themselves, as if they had won a great victory.
This kind of day repeated itself for five days. Finally, everyone lost interest. Knowing that the two young buyers were coming, few people were willing to go out and watch the excitement. What was there to watch in a one-sided defeat?
However, this time, not long after Xu Shengjie and Liang Baozhen arrived, the police also showed up!
This is a big deal! Residents from several surrounding courtyards dropped their work and hurried to Courtyard No. 32.
Several families in the courtyard were also confused. What was going on? How could the police come to their homes?
They rented the house, how could they be arrested by the police?
"Comrades from the Public Security Bureau, have you heard any gossip? We haven't done anything wrong! We are just afraid of the gossips!" The daughter-in-law of the Wen family, who had been shouting the most fiercely a few days ago, seemed to have changed her attitude towards the public security bureau.
Wang Laoer, as the backbone of the five families, smiled at the two police officers and said, "Comrade police officers, we rented the house through the street office, but we didn't commit any crime. You must check it out."
He turned around and said to the others, "We all trust the public security comrades. They will definitely not just listen to the nonsense of some people!"
The implication is obvious: the new buyer is blindly looking for the police.
However, the police officer did not mention these things. "What about renting a house or not? We don't care about these things."
"That's right! Public security comrades are busy and hard-working, how can they care about these trivial matters?"
"Who is Wang Chengcai?" asked the tall policeman.
"I..." Wang Laoer was shocked. How did the police know my name and ask me this? Could it be that they were here to look for me? "What's the matter?"
"Your unit has found that the Finance Department is suspected of embezzlement and misappropriation of public funds. You handled all the money. Now your unit has reported the case. Come with us!"
Wang Laoer's eyes suddenly widened, he opened his lips, swallowed, and almost couldn't speak.
His legs went limp, and Wang Lao Er was supported by his wife before he could stand up. "Comrade Public Security, this is a misunderstanding! How could I do such a thing!"
Wang Chengcai, also known as Wang Laoer, is a clerk in the Finance Section of the Municipal Transportation Bureau. This time, someone sent a letter of complaint to the Municipal Transportation Bureau. When the Finance Section checked, it was found that someone had actually falsified the accounts. These accounts were traced back to Wang Chengcai.
"Search his house first."
The letter also mentioned where Wang Chengcai hid the public funds, which was in a brick behind the closet in his bedroom.
The police knocked on the bricks behind Wang's closet one by one and noticed something was wrong. There was the sound of bricks knocking but nothing was heard.
Looking more closely, the seams between the bricks seemed not to be tight enough and the gaps were relatively large. When the brick was taken out, there was indeed a hidden secret inside. The police found a paper bag containing half a bag of cash and account records of each embezzlement of public funds.
The onlookers sighed, this was a win-win situation!
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