Siheyuan: Start with a big car

"The boss is my father, money is my mother, no one in the world has a father and mother closer to me than me!"

Yan Jiecheng walked into the factory humming a little tune.

As long as he can do this job well, he can not only earn five dollars, but also curry favor with Zhong Yuemin.

Zhong Yuemin is a child of a wealthy family. By just saying a few words, he can be arranged to be a workshop leader in the factory.

Just when Yan Jiecheng was immersed in his sweet dream, a familiar voice suddenly came from behind him: "Brother, why are you in the factory?" It was Yan Jiefang.

Yan Jiecheng's heart skipped a beat and he was a little flustered. But he quickly calmed down, turned around, and forced a smile: "Jiefang, I just missed you and came to see you." His eyes were a little vague, and he didn't dare to look directly into Yan Jiefang's eyes, for fear that his brother would see something.

Yan Jiefang frowned and looked at Yan Jiecheng suspiciously: "Brother, don't lie to me. You don't work in the factory anymore, why did you suddenly come to see me? Is there something wrong?" He knew his brother too well. Yan Jiecheng never did anything without a profit. His sudden appearance in the factory this time must not be that simple.

Yan Jiecheng thought for a moment, and in order not to expose his true intention, he immediately pretended to be concerned about his brother. He walked up to Yan Jiefang, patted his shoulder, and said with a smile on his face: "Jiefang, I just want to ask you, how is your work in this workshop? Is there anything that is not going well? If you are not happy working here, I can find a way to change your job. You know, I know a lot of people."

Yan Jiefang frowned slightly, and seeing Yan Jiecheng pretending to be profound, he understood a little. He knew his brother's character too well. Yan Jiecheng liked to brag and often made things sound true.

"Brother, don't worry about me. I'm doing well here, you don't need to find a solution for me. Besides, what can you do? Don't fail to help me and get yourself involved." Yan Jiefang said helplessly.

When Yan Jiecheng heard this, he became anxious: "Jiefang, you don't believe me? I really have a way. With just one word from you, I can transfer you to another factory to be a workshop leader. This is not a joke." He spoke with saliva flying, trying to make Yan Jiefang believe him.

Yan Jiefang just shook his head and said, "Brother, I know you are doing this for my own good, but I don't want to rely on your unreliable methods. I work here with my own skills, and I feel at ease. Just leave me alone. If you have nothing to do, go back quickly and don't hang around in the factory. If you are discovered, you will get into trouble again."

When Yan Jiecheng heard Yan Jiefang asking him to leave, he was overjoyed and nodded in agreement: "Okay, Jiefang, I'm leaving now, you just work hard." After saying that, he turned around and left in a hurry, looking back from time to time to see if Yan Jiefang was catching up with him.

He jogged along, looking left and right, his eyes searching like radar to see if anyone else noticed him. When he ran to a corner, he dodged and hid inside, his whole body pressed tightly against the wall, not daring to breathe. He stuck his head out, his eyes fixed on the direction where Yan Jiefang left, silently praying in his heart that his brother would leave quickly.

After a while, Yan Jiefang finally disappeared from sight, and Yan Jiecheng breathed a sigh of relief. He wiped the sweat from his forehead due to nervousness, and muttered softly: "I almost got caught, luckily Jiefang didn't ask too many questions."

After adjusting his breathing, Yan Jiecheng walked out from the corner, and after confirming that there was no one around, he quickly walked towards the logistics warehouse. As he walked, he repeated Zhong Yuemin's instructions in his mind, secretly hoping that the process of taking things this time would go smoothly and that nothing would go wrong again.

Yan Jiecheng cautiously came to the warehouse of the logistics department. The door of the warehouse was half-open. He knocked on the door gently and called out softly, "Old Zhang, is Old Zhang here?"

After a while, an old man in his 50s or 60s walked out of the warehouse. His hair was gray and his face was covered with wrinkles, like the ravines left by the years. He squinted his eyes, looked at Yan Jiecheng, and asked in a hoarse voice: "Who are you? What are you doing here?"

Yan Jiecheng hurriedly put on a smile, stepped forward and said, "Uncle Zhang, it's me, Yan Jiecheng. I have a note here for you." As he said that, he handed over the note that Zhong Yuemin had given him.

Old man Zhang took the note, opened it and looked at it. A subtle look flashed in his eyes. Then he stared at Yan Jiecheng for a while and said slowly: "Are you here to pick up something? Do you know what this is?"

Yan Jiecheng felt a little uneasy, but he still answered, "Sir, I'm not sure. I was just asked to come and get it."

Old man Zhang snorted coldly: "Humph, you young people are meddling in this matter without knowing anything. If something goes wrong, you won't be able to bear the consequences."

Yan Jiecheng had cold sweat on his forehead. He smiled and said, "Uncle, I promise there won't be any problem. Just give me the things."

Seeing his nervous look, Old Man Zhang shook his head and said, "Come with me." Then he turned and walked into the warehouse. Yan Jiecheng hurriedly followed.
Old man Zhang staggered forward in the dim corridor, and Yan Jiecheng followed closely behind him, full of doubts. Soon, they arrived in front of an inconspicuous small warehouse. This small warehouse looked a bit old, with the paint on the door peeling off, revealing an old smell.

Old man Zhang took a bunch of keys from his waist. The jingling sound of the keys was particularly clear in this quiet environment. He picked out a key from among the many keys and inserted it into the keyhole. With a "creak", the door opened. A stale smell hit me in the face. The warehouse was a little dim, and I couldn't see the furnishings inside clearly.

Old man Zhang stood at the door and nodded to Yan Jiecheng: "Go in."

Yan Jiecheng looked surprised and stopped: "Uncle Zhang, aren't you going in? If you don't tell me, how would I know what to take out?" There was obvious anxiety and confusion in his voice, and his eyes were fixed on old man Zhang.

A mysterious light flashed in Old Man Zhang's cloudy eyes. He frowned slightly and said impatiently, "You'll understand once you go in. Why are you talking so much nonsense?"

Yan Jiecheng was in a dilemma. He didn't want to go in without knowing why, but he was afraid that if he offended Old Man Zhang, he wouldn't get what he wanted. Then he would lose the five dollars and the chance to curry favor with Zhong Yuemin. He gritted his teeth and walked into the small warehouse.
Yan Jiecheng walked into the small warehouse step by step. His eyes gradually adjusted to the dimness, and soon, a wooden box came into view.

The box was quietly placed in the corner of the warehouse, as if waiting for Yan Jiecheng's arrival. The box looked heavy, and the wood texture on the surface was rough, but it had an inexplicable sense of heaviness. Yan Jiecheng thought, this must be what Zhong Yuemin asked him to bring. He hurried forward, bent down, and tried to pick up the box. The box was heavier than he thought, and he took a lot of effort to hold it steadily in his arms.

Holding the box, Yan Jiecheng walked out carefully, taking every step cautiously, for fear of accidentally dropping the box.

Yan Jiecheng was holding the box, stumbling a little as he walked out of the warehouse, and saw Zhong Yuemin and Old Man Zhang standing at the door. Zhong Yuemin had an ambiguous smile on his face, and his eyes were full of an unfathomable depth. Old Man Zhang stood aside expressionlessly, looking back and forth between Yan Jiecheng and the box.

Yan Jiecheng was stunned, full of doubts. According to what Zhong Yuemin said before, he should have taken the box out of the factory alone and completed the handover outside the factory. But this scene was completely beyond his expectations. However, Yan Jiecheng did not think much about it. He only wanted to quickly hand the things over to Zhong Yuemin, get the five yuan, and then curry favor with this kid from the compound.

"Brother Yuemin, why are you here? I brought this for you." Yan Jiecheng said as he walked towards Zhong Yuemin, tightening his arms around the box and showing a flattering smile on his face.
The smile on Zhong Yuemin's face disappeared instantly, replaced by a serious and angry expression. He suddenly shouted loudly: "Yan Jiecheng, you are so brave that you dare to steal things in the factory!" The voice was like a thunder outside the quiet warehouse, and Yan Jiecheng was frightened and trembled all over.

Yan Jiecheng widened his eyes, his face full of disbelief: "Brother Yuemin, what are you saying? I...I came to get this box as you instructed!" His voice trembled slightly, and the box in his arms seemed to become extremely heavy, making him a little breathless.

Zhong Yuemin sneered: "Humph, who can prove it? I didn't ask you to do such a thing." Then he turned around and winked at Old Man Zhang. Old Man Zhang understood and turned around to call the comrades from the Security Department of the Steel Rolling Mill.

Yan Jiecheng was completely panicked. He rushed over and tried to hold old man Zhang back: "Uncle, don't go! I am really innocent. It was Brother Yuemin who asked me to come. He gave me a note. You saw it too!"

Old man Zhang shook his hand away and said, "Note? What note? I haven't seen it. Don't try to argue. Stealing is stealing."

Yan Jiecheng looked at Zhong Yuemin again, his eyes full of pleading: "Brother Yuemin, why do you treat me like this? We agreed on this!"

Zhong Yuemin walked up to him, his eyes full of contempt: "Yan Jiecheng, you are too naive. What evidence do you have to prove that I asked you to do it? Just a few empty words from you?"

Yan Jiecheng finally woke up from his dream, realizing that he seemed to have fallen into a conspiracy carefully designed by Zhong Yuemin. His legs began to weaken, and he sat down on the ground, staring at Zhong Yuemin with a dull look in his eyes. His mind was in a mess, and he didn't know what to do.
Zhong Yuemin showed a smug and sinister smile on his face, and he slowly opened the box. The sun shone into the box, and more than a dozen copper rods glowed yellow. These copper rods looked of high quality, and were particularly dazzling outside the dim warehouse.

The moment Yan Jiecheng saw the copper rods, his face turned pale as paper, beads of sweat kept rolling down his forehead, his lips trembled, and he couldn't say a word. He knew the value of these copper rods, and he knew even more clearly their significance as important industrial materials. In this period of material shortage, stealing these things was an unforgivable crime.

"You...you framed me!" Yan Jiecheng finally squeezed out these words from between his teeth, his voice filled with endless fear and anger. He now completely understood that Zhong Yuemin had bad intentions from the beginning, and he had been played around by him.

Zhong Yuemin shrugged nonchalantly: "Hmph, you're just greedy, you can't blame me. If the security people came and saw you holding these copper bars, do you think they would believe that you were instructed by someone? If you were caught, a decade in prison would be a light sentence." His eyes were like an ice-cold knife, stabbing straight at Yan Jiecheng.

Yan Jiecheng's eyes were full of rage, his body trembling slightly with anger and fear. He asked Zhong Yuemin loudly: "Why do you treat me like this? I have always done what you said. How could you frame me like this?" His voice echoed in this small space with a hint of despair.

Zhong Yuemin seemed not to have heard him. With a cold smile on his face, he took out a crumpled piece of paper and a worn-out pen from his pocket and handed them to Yan Jiecheng: "If you want me not to call the security department, it's very simple. Write a confession and admit that you stole these copper rods by yourself and that I have nothing to do with it."

Yan Jiecheng's eyes widened. He looked at the paper and pen as if he were looking at two poisonous snakes that could devour him. He knew very well that once he wrote this confession, he would be firmly controlled by Zhong Yuemin for the rest of his life, and he would never have a chance to turn things around.

"I won't write!" Yan Jiecheng roared, "It was you who asked me to come and get the things. I was framed by you. Don't think of letting me take the blame!" His eyes were full of determination. Although he was extremely scared now, he knew that he could not compromise on this matter, otherwise his life would be really ruined.

Zhong Yuemin frowned, a hint of impatience flashed in his eyes: "Humph, you don't want to write? Then when the security department comes, you will suffer. When you go to jail, don't blame me for not giving you a chance."

Yan Jiecheng said nothing.

Seeing that Yan Jiecheng refused to give in, Zhong Yuemin's face darkened. He winked at Old Man Zhang and said coldly, "Old Man Zhang, go get the security people here. Someone has stolen important materials from the factory. We can't just let this go."

Old man Zhang responded and turned to walk towards the security department. His steps seemed slow, but every step seemed to be stepping on Yan Jiecheng's heart, making his fear spread like a tide.

Yan Jiecheng was really frightened this time.

"Don't... don't go! I'll write, can't I write?" Yan Jiecheng cried, his voice full of despair and helplessness. He knew that once the security department came, he would have no chance to explain himself clearly. Now he could only calm Zhong Yuemin down first and then find a way out of this predicament.

Zhong Yuemin's mouth curled up slightly, revealing a triumphant smile. He stopped Old Man Zhang and turned to look at Yan Jiecheng: "It would have been better if you had done this earlier. A man who knows the current situation is a hero. As long as you listen obediently, there may be a glimmer of hope."

Yan Jiecheng took the paper and pen, his teeth chattering.

He hated Zhong Yuemin in his heart. (End of this chapter)