Siheyuan: Start with a big car

Liu Guangtian stared at Yan Jiecheng with his eyes wide open in disbelief. He never expected Yan Jiecheng to say such a thing. He felt as if his head had been hit hard by a heavy hammer. With a "buzz" sound, he was completely stunned.

"What did you say? Yan Jiecheng, are you crazy?" Liu Guangtian's voice was trembling. He grabbed Yan Jiecheng by the collar, his eyes full of fear and anger. "Do you want to kill me? What kind of place is Li Weidong's office? Can you just steal things there? Do you think you have a long life and want to drag me into it?"

Yan Jiecheng was shocked by Liu Guangtian's reaction, but he still held Liu Guangtian's arm tightly and said in a low voice: "Guangtian, don't get excited yet, just listen to me. If this thing succeeds, we can all benefit, and I have a plan that won't let us be discovered."

Liu Guangtian shook off Yan Jiecheng's hand, his eyes wide open, "Benefits? What benefit can be more important than my life? Do you know how powerful Li Weidong is?

As a worker in the workshop, no one knows Li Weidong's ability better than Liu Guangtian.

Even though Li Weidong is only the laboratory director and deputy factory director now, his status in the factory is higher than that of the factory director.

Chief Li of the Security Department is Li Weidong’s good brother. If he is discovered, he will definitely be in big trouble.

Liu Guangtian became more and more frightened, and turned to leave, his steps getting faster and faster. At this moment, Yan Jiecheng rushed up and blocked his way.

"Guangtian, don't go yet, listen to me." Yan Jiecheng said while panting.

Liu Guangtian shouted impatiently: "What else is there to say? You are trying to kill me, and I don't want to go crazy with you."

Yan Jiecheng gritted his teeth and said, "I'll give you twenty yuan as long as you do me this favor."

When Liu Guangtian heard this, he was so angry that his face turned red. He pointed at Yan Jiecheng's nose and cursed: "Yan Jiecheng, do you think I'm the kind of person who would risk my life for money? You want to buy my life for 20 yuan? You are too naive. I tell you, I will never do this, so don't bother me anymore." After that, he pushed Yan Jiecheng away and walked away without looking back.

Yan Jiecheng looked at Liu Guangtian's back, spat, and said coldly: "You kid want to get rid of me like this? It's ridiculous."

Liu Guangtian walked out of the grove angrily, only to find Liu Guangfu standing by the road. The dim light of the street lamp shone on Liu Guangfu, reflecting his honest and somewhat worried face.

"Brother, why are you here?" Liu Guangtian asked with some surprise.

Liu Guangfu frowned, looked at Liu Guangtian and said, "Don't I know you? Yan Jiecheng is a scoundrel who idles around all day. I'm worried that he might do something bad to you, so I'm waiting for you here. What did he do to you?"

Liu Guangtian's heart skipped a beat. Although he didn't intend to help Yan Jiecheng steal things, he didn't want to tell Liu Guangfu about it, for fear that he would worry. So he pretended to be relaxed and said, "It's nothing serious. We just chatted for a while and talked about some useless things."

Liu Guangfu looked at him suspiciously: "Really? Don't follow him and fool around. That kid is not serious. Don't let him lead you astray. We have a proper job now. We should work hard and not do those crooked things."

Liu Guangtian waved his hands impatiently: "I know, I know, brother. I'm not a child, stop nagging me. Let's go home." As he said that, he pulled Liu Guangfu home, but in his heart he was still thinking about what Yan Jiecheng said, and secretly thanked God that he was not blinded by the twenty yuan.

Liu Guangtian lives in a large courtyard near Xizhimen. It is dinner time and smoke is rising from every household.

Liu Guangtian pushed open the door quietly. The room was dark. He saw his wife Zhang Xiuhua lying on the bed and snoring. Her sleeping posture was quite ugly and the quilt was kicked aside by her.

Zhang Xiuhua woke up dazedly when she heard the door open. She rubbed her eyes and muttered, "Why did you come back just now? Did you buy some meat? I'm almost dying of greed."

Liu Guangtian replied angrily: "What meat? I have spent all my salary this month. I don't have a penny left."

Zhang Xiuhua immediately perked up when she heard this, sat up from the bed, and complained loudly: "What? All the salary has been spent again? Tell me, what can you do? I haven't eaten meat for half a year. I am really unlucky to follow you and suffer every day."

Liu Guangtian was already upset because of Yan Jiecheng's matter, and now he was scolded by Zhang Xiuhua, which made him even more annoyed: "You only know how to eat meat. Do you think I don't want to eat? There is only so much money, and the expenses this month are high. You know that."

Zhang Xiuhua didn't care about that. She continued to complain with her hair disheveled: "High expenses? If you go out less often, you'll have more money, right? Look at the family next door, they have meat for every meal, and then look at us, what kind of life we ​​live. I was really blind to marry a useless thing like you."

Liu Guangtian frowned, looking at Zhang Xiuhua's lazy appearance, and couldn't help but retorted: "How dare you say that? You do nothing at home every day, just sleep all day. If you could go out and earn some money, would we be like this?"

Liu Guangtian looked at Zhang Xiuhua with depression, and his mind kept recalling the past.

At first, like Liu Guangfu, he moved out of his home, got a job, and thought it was time to start a family. But the reality was cruel. He had no family support and no gifts to show for his marriage. Those women with formal jobs looked down on him when they inquired about his situation.

Just when he was feeling a little discouraged, he met Zhang Xiuhua, who was a temporary worker at the supply and marketing cooperative, which was a fairly respectable unit at the time. Liu Guangtian felt like he had hit the jackpot, and was overjoyed to think he had found a treasure.

But who would have thought that after getting married, Zhang Xiuhua's true nature would be exposed. When she was working at the supply and marketing cooperative, she was caught stealing something. The supply and marketing cooperative had zero tolerance for such behavior and fired her directly. Since then, Zhang Xiuhua stayed at home all day, doing nothing, and only thought about eating and wearing good clothes. She would lose her temper with Liu Guangtian if she was not satisfied.
Seeing that Liu Guangtian was speechless, Zhang Xiuhua became more arrogant. She threw back the quilt, climbed out of bed, and walked to Liu Guangtian in a few steps in her slippers. Her already bloated face became distorted because of anger, her eyes were wide open, and she stretched out a stubby finger, almost poking Liu Guangtian's nose, and yelled at him in a hoarse voice: "You useless thing, look at you, you have no ability, and no money. I have been unlucky to follow you, and I have plain soup every day, without even a bit of meat. Can't you be like a man and go out and earn more money?" Liu Guangtian was so angry that he trembled all over. He shook off Zhang Xiuhua's hand and roared: "You still have the nerve to say? If you hadn't been fired for stealing things in the supply and marketing cooperative, would our family have become like this? You lazy woman, you only know how to blame me."

Zhang Xiuhua was stunned for a moment, but immediately jumped up and retorted: "That's because you are incompetent. If you could give me enough money, would I need to steal? You are a waste. You can't even support your wife." After saying that, she sat down on the chair, panting heavily.
Liu Guangtian was already furious at Zhang Xiuhua's accusation, and he was also a hot-tempered person. At this moment, he was overwhelmed by anger and could no longer control his emotions. He suddenly raised his hand and slapped Zhang Xiuhua hard in the face with all his strength.

With a loud and crisp "slap", Zhang Xiuhua was stunned by the slap. She widened her eyes, her face full of disbelief, as if she couldn't believe that Liu Guangtian dared to hit her. After a moment of shock, Zhang Xiuhua exploded like a ignited gunpowder barrel.

"Okay, you Liu Guangtian, you dare to hit me!" She screamed and pounced on Liu Guangtian like a mad lioness. She scratched with her hands, kicked with her feet, and kept cursing all kinds of ugly words.

Liu Guangtian was not to be outdone, he dodged Zhang Xiuhua's attack while fighting back. For a moment, the room was filled with the sounds of the two people shouting and fighting, and various items were knocked to the ground, making a mess.

Uncle Chen in the courtyard was drinking tea in his house when he suddenly heard a violent commotion coming from Liu Guangtian's house, including the sound of things being thrown and men and women yelling and cursing. He was startled, put down his teacup, and hurried out to call a few usually warm-hearted aunties, and ran towards Liu Guangtian's house together.

When he got to the door, Uncle Chen didn't even bother to knock, he just pushed the door open and walked in. As soon as he entered the room, he saw Liu Guangtian and Zhang Xiuhua wrestling with each other, their hair was a mess, and their clothes were torn into a mess. Both of them had angry and crazy looks on their faces, and they didn't notice anyone coming in at all.

Seeing this, Uncle Chen rushed forward and shouted, "Stop it! How can this be ridiculous!" Several aunts also stepped forward, some pulled Liu Guangtian, some pulled Zhang Xiuhua, and it took a lot of effort to pull the two apart.

Uncle Chen frowned and looked at them seriously: "What are you doing? Why can't you talk it out peacefully? Do you have to fight? How can you live like this?"

As soon as Zhang Xiuhua was pulled away, she sat down on the ground and started to cry loudly. She wiped her tears with her hands and cried, "Uncle Chen, you have to make a decision for me! This Liu Guangtian is a piece of shit. He actually hit me. I really can't live with him anymore. I want to divorce him!"

When Grandpa Chen heard the word "divorce", he was shocked. In that era, divorce was not a trivial matter, and it would be discussed by the neighbors. He hurried forward to comfort Zhang Xiuhua: "Xiuhua, don't cry first, talk about it nicely. Divorce is not a joke. Guangtian was wrong, he shouldn't have hit you, I will definitely teach him a lesson."

After saying that, Uncle Chen turned around and rebuked Liu Guangtian with a serious face: "Guangtian, what are you doing? Why do you have to fight when you can't just solve the conflict? You are a grown man, how can you hit your own wife? Husbands and wives should tolerate each other, what you did is outrageous!"

Liu Guangtian panted and said with his neck stiff, "Master, you don't know, she is too much. She does nothing but scold me every day. I was just impulsive."

Uncle Chen glared at him and said, "Impulsive? You can do something on impulse? You are breaking up the family!"

Liu Guangtian blushed and tried to defend himself: "Sir, you don't know, she..."

Uncle Chen interrupted him immediately: "No matter what, it's wrong for you to hit your wife. When a couple lives together, it's inevitable that there will be bumps and bruises. How can you just hit her? You should apologize to Xiuhua now and resolve this matter properly."

Liu Guangtian was very reluctant, but under the stern gaze of Uncle Chen, he knew he had no other choice. He gritted his teeth, walked in front of Zhang Xiuhua, lowered his head, and muttered, "I'm sorry."

Zhang Xiuhua snorted, turned her head away and ignored Liu Guangtian.

Seeing this, Grandpa Chen said to Zhang Xiuhua, "Xiuhua, Guangtian has already apologized to you, so don't be so unreasonable. You two should calm down, live a good life, and don't mention divorce again, okay?"

Zhang Xiuhua sobbed and said, "Uncle, he is like this every time. What's the point of apologizing? My life is too hard."

Uncle Chen sighed, "Husbands and wives should understand each other. Guangtian should stop hitting others. Xiuhua, stop scolding Guangtian all the time. Change your temper and live a good life."

Zhang Xiuhua actually had her own calculations in mind. She knew that in this society, although formal workers like Liu Guangtian did not earn much, they at least had a stable job and a stable income. As for herself, she had not been doing a proper job since she was dismissed from the supply and marketing cooperative. If she really divorced Liu Guangtian, it would be a fantasy for her to find another husband with a formal job based on her conditions. Moreover, she was used to relying on Liu Guangtian, and her life might become more difficult if she left him.

Thinking of this, Zhang Xiuhua sobbed and said to Uncle Chen: "Uncle, for your sake, I will forgive him this time. But he must promise not to hit me again in the future. If he dares to hit me again, I will really die."

Liu Guangtian listened and nodded quickly: "I promise, I will never do it again."

After seeing the two people reconcile, Uncle Chen took a few aunts and left.

...

The next morning, the sun shone in the courtyard. Liu Guangtian packed up and went to work as usual. Zhang Xiuhua stayed in bed for a while before getting up slowly. After eating a simple meal, she felt really depressed at home.

So she decided to go to Chaoyang Park. When she got there, she went straight to the place where people usually played cards. There were already quite a few people there, and it was very lively, with the shouts of people playing cards and the discussions of bystanders intertwined.

Yan Jiecheng was already waiting for Zhang Xiuhua in a corner of the park. He leaned against a tree, staring at the direction Zhang Xiuhua was coming from, with a slight smile on his face.
Seeing Zhang Xiuhua coming over, Yan Jiecheng walked forward with a smile and stretched out his hand to Zhang Xiuhua: "Zhang Xiuhua, you are Liu Guangtian's wife, right? I am Yan Jiecheng, Liu Guangtian's good friend." (End of this chapter)