Courtyard House: My Wife is Xu Huizhen

Page 392

Xu Xiaomei said angrily, "I really have to thank you. I don't know if it's unforgettable or not, I only know that I'm going to be so upset."

He Yuzhu said, "If you've had breakfast, don't go to work today. I reckon they'll come looking for you at the factory."

"Okay, just send them away. I'll go back to work in a couple of days."

He Yuzhu nodded and served her breakfast.

Who could blame her for getting carried away yesterday and causing a ruckus for most of the night? Xu Xiaomei fainted several times, but she persevered through the ordeal, determined to create a perfect wedding memory for herself.

After He Yuzhu finished tidying up, he watched his younger sister eat breakfast and fall asleep soon after, before he went to work with peace of mind.

Upon arriving outside the factory, one could see Yi Zhonghai and Yi Wending squatting not far from the gate.

He Yuzhu was too lazy to pay attention to them and just wanted to go straight into the factory, but Yi Zhonghai had already seen him beforehand.

He quickly called out, "Zhu Zi, Zhu Zi, come here for a moment, I have something to tell you."

He Yuzhu then pretended to see him, stopped his bicycle, and asked, "Hey, Lao Yi, what are you doing squatting at the gate of our factory? Be careful you don't get arrested by the security guards as an enemy agent."

Yi Wending jumped out and said, "Stop talking nonsense. I'm just asking you, did you hide your little sister away?"

Chapter 285 Fake Marriage

"Who do you think you are, coming here to ask me this?"

He Yuzhu's expression immediately changed, and she didn't give him a friendly look. After all, Yi Zhonghai was so old, and she couldn't provoke him too much, so she gave him face to avoid pushing him too far.

But Yi Wending is a scoundrel; he dares to talk nonsense in front of me. Does he even have the right to speak?

"Xu Xiaomei is your wife, and you come here asking me what I mean? Are you trying to frame me for having some kind of relationship with your wife?"

He Yuzhu's words made Yi Wending's face turn pale and then red. He hadn't meant it that way!

Although he was a eunuch and unable to have sex, he could not tolerate his wife having an affair with another man.

Especially since this man was He Yuzhu, who was a major enemy of his family.

Yi Zhonghai quickly stopped Yi Wending and said, "Zhu Zi, we don't mean anything by it, we just want to ask you if your little sister came to work today and if you saw her?"

He Yuzhu was very surprised and asked, "I'm just wondering, didn't she marry your precious son yesterday? Why did you come looking for her this morning? What happened?"

Yi Wending opened his mouth, turned around angrily, squatted down next to him, took out a cigarette, lit it, and went off to sulk.

With such a commotion in the courtyard last night, He Yuzhu will soon find out, so he doesn't care about losing face and just says:

"My little sister is still a child and is somewhat resistant to marriage. She secretly ran away last night and hasn't been found yet."

"They ran away?" He Yuzhu asked in shock.

Yi Zhonghai nodded: "Yes, she doesn't know why she suddenly ran away. Have you seen her?"

"The bride ran away on the wedding day. I asked you before, and you said it was a love marriage, and she willingly married into your family. Why did she run away?"

"This is definitely a case of free love, but I also..."

"Old Yi, are you kidding me? Do you think I don't know what kind of conflict you two families have? Why was Xu Damao taken to the police station? And why was he released yesterday?"

He Yuzhu's question left Yi Zhonghai speechless; there was simply no way to answer it.

He Yuzhu said, "As a neighbor in the courtyard, I have no right to interfere in your affairs, but as the director of the machinery factory, and since Xu Xiaomei is an employee of the machinery factory, I have the right to interfere."

"If Yi Wending married Xu Xiaomei through coercion, bribery, deception, or fraud, I will not let you off the hook. I will definitely report you to the police station. This is a new society now, and arranged marriages are no longer allowed. Once discovered, you can expect to go to jail."

Yi Zhonghai was a bit dumbfounded. He hadn't thought much of it before, since both families had agreed and it was none of anyone else's business.

Unexpectedly, He Yuzhu stepped forward at this time, inquiring about Xu Xiaomei's marriage in the name of the machinery factory's leaders.

If Xu Xiaomei tells He Yuzhu everything, he will have something on her, and he might really send her and her eldest son to the police station.

He immediately said awkwardly, "How could that be? It's impossible. There was no coercion or inducement. Otherwise, Xu Xiaomei wouldn't have willingly held a wedding with my son yesterday."

"Heh, don't let me find any evidence."

After finishing his sentence, He Yuzhu ignored them and pushed his bicycle into the factory.

Yi Wending was terrified and asked, "Dad, what do we do now? She won't really tell Shazhu everything, will she? We're not going to end up in jail, are we?"

"Probably not. Right now, we need to find your wife and make her promise not to tell anyone."

Yi Zhonghai was so angry he wanted to curse, but he didn't know where to vent his anger. What kind of mess had he made? A perfectly good wedding had turned into this mess.

The most important thing right now is to find Xu Xiaomei as soon as possible. We can't afford any more accidents, otherwise we might lose that 1500 yuan.

"Now what?"

Yi Zhonghai thought for a moment and said, "You stay here and guard the gate. I'll go find Xu Wude and I'll definitely find her."

Yi Wending had a bitter expression on his face, but he couldn't think of any other way, so he could only obediently guard the gate. Yi Zhonghai hurriedly went to find Xu Wude.

They were disappointed; they waited all day but didn't see Xu Xiaomei come to work, and there was no good news from Xu Wude's side either.

Xu Wude didn't want any more accidents to happen. After all, if it went to the authorities again, the situation of his son injuring someone might take a turn for the worse. So he promised Yi Zhonghai that he would persuade Xu Xiaomei to live a peaceful life and not do anything reckless.

When He Yuzhu got off work, he saw Yi Wending sitting on the curb guarding the gate, so he shook his head and ignored him. He rode his bicycle back to the courtyard.

Xu Xiaomei was still wearing her wedding dress, looking shy like a newlywed bride. When she saw He Yuzhu enter the courtyard, she came out to greet him and took the briefcase he handed her.

Then I fetched some warm water, wet a towel, and handed it to you.

While wiping his face, He Yuzhu recounted how Yi Wending had been guarding the gate all day, then asked, "What do you plan to do? Should we send them to the police station?"

After thinking for a moment, Xu Xiaomei said, "Let's forget about it. Since I've already agreed to get a marriage certificate with him and held a wedding ceremony, it can be considered that I've fulfilled my previous promise."

"If we send them both in, it will cause a huge uproar and all sorts of trouble. It's better to just let things continue like this, and I'll secretly be your wife and live a quiet life."

Although Xu Xiaomei had many regrets, she knew she couldn't marry He Yuzhu, so this outcome was the best she could hope for.

So I didn't want to bother them anymore. I made things clear to them that I was just a nominal daughter-in-law of the Yi family. Anyway, I had a job, and we would have nothing to do with each other in the future, and then we would each live our own lives.

He Yuzhu handed her the towel and asked, "Have you thought it through?"

Xu Xiaomei nodded and said, "I've made up my mind, let's do it this way."

"Alright, let's clarify things tomorrow."

Then he asked, "Have you recovered from today's rest?"

Xu Xiaomei nodded shyly: "I'm all better now, but please don't torture me so many times today."

The two spent another wonderful night together. The next day, He Yuzhu went to work as usual and found that Yi Wending was still guarding the gate.

She ignored him, went to work for a day, and then returned to the courtyard house at No. 95.

He Daqing thought he was just there to watch the fun, so he embellished the story.

He Yuzhu asked, "So everyone knows now?"

"Of course, not only our alley, but also the people in the surrounding alleys know about it."

He Yushui said, "It's all over our school, and people are even asking me about it."

"Is that so? Yi Zhonghai is famous now."

"Yes, it's spread throughout the factory."

After dinner, the family talked about Xu Xiaomei's elopement, and then they discussed the most pressing issue of pest control.

For a while, we mainly focused on catching mice. After this period of hard work, the results can be described as outstanding.

After catching rats, sparrows, flies, and mosquitoes, a campaign was launched to focus efforts on eliminating these three pests this summer.

He Yushui said, "Rats are disgusting, catching sparrows is better."

"Yes, but sparrows can fly, so catching them isn't easy. Also, flies and mosquitoes carry viruses, so we have to be careful."

These pests carry viruses, but through long-term publicity, this has become a widely accepted fact.

First in Fushun, and later in other regions, insects carrying viruses and bacteria were spread. This was the first time my country had experienced the effects of bacterial weapons.

Prior to this, the State of Chu had already used this weapon on the peninsula battlefield, resulting in many people being infected with various viruses.

In March, an epidemic prevention committee was established, which was later renamed the Patriotic Health Campaign Committee. The Patriotic Health Campaign was launched, with the main task being to combat bacteriological warfare.

Back then, all regions were required to carry out fly, mosquito, flea, rat, and other disease-carrying insect prevention work.

At that time, a centralized cleanup and rectification campaign had already been carried out, and all residents cleaned their houses, streets, and alleys until they were spotless.

They used quicklime to disinfect the walls, plastered the toilets, plastered the doors and beams, converted the sewage ditches into water channels, and covered the latrine openings with wooden boards to prevent the breeding of mosquitoes and flies.

Now, after several years, pest control has been launched again, and it has become an important part of the Patriotic Health Campaign.

Although the pests were not completely eradicated, the hygiene conditions for ordinary people were greatly improved.

Although the overall situation is good, there are still many complaints about pest control, mainly due to the wrong attitude towards sparrows.

However, history shows that when such mistakes occur, no one person can be blamed; rather, it is a process of understanding the problem.

Although He Yuzhu knew that Sparrow was wronged, he had little influence and his voice was too weak to make any difference. He could only follow the trend of history and participate in the war to eliminate Sparrow.

However, he also knew that the extermination of sparrows only lasted for two years, and then he found that things were not as he had imagined. Instead of fewer sparrows, there were more pests.

It was then that I realized that although sparrows occasionally eat some grain, they are generally considered beneficial insects that can eliminate pests in the fields.

Then they removed sparrows from the list of the four pests and replaced them with bedbugs.

The slogan was: "Get rid of rats, bedbugs, flies, and mosquitoes."