Siheyuan: Relieve stress and relieve worries

Chapter 285: Changes in the minds of all parties
When Yan Jiekuang returned home, he told Ji Lian about the purchase of the yard in Cuihua Hutong and asked Ji Lian to go to the street office to handle the formalities. Ji Lian took the household registration book and money and went to the street office without even asking the reason.

Yan Jiekuang liked Ji Lian's attitude and had great trust in him. Yan Jiekuang told the children stories for a while, then let them play by themselves and went to the kitchen to cook.

When Yan Jiekuang finished cooking, he heard some noise at the door. He looked out and saw Ji Lian coming back with Shi Lei. Yan Jiekuang asked, "Where are Yongchang and Yongxin?" Shi Lei replied, "They were taken away by their father. Oh, my second uncle asked me to tell you to send Yongchang and Yongxin's things over. Yongchang and Yongxin will live back home in the future."

Yan Jiekuang slapped his forehead and said, "I forgot about my second brother. I should move back home. Lian'er, have you completed the formalities?"

Ji Lian said, "It's done. Director Yan took me to the Housing Management Office to get it done. When do you plan to have it repaired?"

Yan Jiekuang said, "I will go to see Wang Xuan tomorrow. Let's eat first."

Yan Jiekuang brought the dishes to the table, Shi Lei ran to the backyard to call the three little ones, and the family started to eat dinner.

At this time, Yan Bugui's family was also having dinner, but the whole family was eating, Yan Jiecheng and his wife with their children, Yan Jiefang and his wife with their children, plus Yan Bugui and his wife, it was just enough for one table.

Ever since Yan Jiefang came back, Yang Ruiping has never stopped smiling, and the same goes for Shi Xiaoya. Whenever she has nothing to do, she keeps her eyes on Yan Jiefang.

Yan Bugui asked Yan Jiefang while eating, "Have you come back to arrange work? Do you know where to go?"

Yan Jiefang said: "The Criminal Investigation Division of the Municipal Public Security Bureau, I went to handle the formalities this morning. When the leader heard that I had just returned, he gave me three days off, and I will go back to work in two days."

Yan Yongqing almost jumped up, looked at his second uncle with admiration, and said, "Second uncle is really awesome, can you give him a gun?"

Yan Jiefang smiled and said, "Of course, it's okay if you don't have a gun."

Yan Jiecheng was also very happy and said, "Second brother, you have to put on your police uniform and go to our store to see who dares to bully us in the future."

Yan Jiefang asked in confusion: "Is Xiushui Street very chaotic?"

Yu Li said: "It's a mess, not just a mess, there are thieves everywhere, I can't handle it all by myself, the clothes are gone in the blink of an eye."

Yan Bugui stared and said, "Why didn't I listen to you?"

Yan Jiecheng sighed and said, "What can I tell you? There are a lot of bad things in that place. It's much worse than your store. Yu Li didn't want to open it for a while."

Only then did Yan Bugui and his wife realize that it was not easy for their eldest brother to run a business. Yan Bugui turned around and said to Yan Jiefang: "You have to go out more often when you go to work, but you also have to pay attention to safety."

Yan Jiefang was eating and said, "Okay, I get it. I'll just take a walk when I have nothing to do. By the way, I heard that the third brother opened a restaurant. Where is it? I'll go and see it when I have time."

Yan Bugui said unhappily, "They've opened two stores, but they never invited us to visit except for the opening ceremony."

Yan Jiefang laughed and said, "You haven't eaten enough of his food yet, why are you going to the restaurant?"

Yan Bugui said, "How can it be the same? By the way, did he pay me for the wine he brought to my place yesterday?"

Yan Jiefang shook his head guiltily and said, "I don't know."

Yan Bugui looked at Yan Jiecheng again. Yan Jiecheng shook his head like a rattle and said that he didn't know either.

Yang Ruiping said unhappily, "The dishes were all bought by the third brother. You just need those few bottles of wine. If you want them, I'll give them to you."

Yan Bugui finally calmed down and muttered quietly, "If you give it to me, it's like putting it in your left pocket and in your right pocket." Yang Ruiping rolled his eyes at him and said, "Let's eat."

Yi Zhonghai from the Intermediate Court was also having dinner at his home, but Jia Dongxu, Xu Delin and Liu Haizhong were all there, and they were drinking.

While drinking, Jia Dongxu asked Yi Zhonghai, "Master, you see, our courtyard is the best developed by the Yan family, should we also consider it?"

Yi Zhonghai said: "Yes, I want to, but there is no chance. What can we do? Forget about trade. We have been cheated so many times."

Liu Haizhong nodded and said, "Yes, let's open a store or something. The main reason is that the purchasing station and the store are occupied by the Yan family."

"No, isn't the purchasing station owned by the street office?" Xu Delin asked.

Liu Haizhong said: "What do you know? Everyone there listens to Yan Laosan."

Jia Dongxu said: "That doesn't count. He doesn't have much income there. I know that."

Yi Zhonghai asked Jia Dongxu, "I heard that your wife and Delin's wife also opened a store?"

"Yes, I originally planned to open a clothing store or something. My wife said that Xiushui Street is full of clothing stores. If we open a grocery store, then people from the entire Xiushui Street will come to our store to buy things." Jia Dongxu said.

Yi Zhonghai said: "Your wife is really smart and knows how to do business." Others also nodded continuously.

Liu Haizhong asked Jia Dongxu and Xu Delin, "Is your steel mill not profitable? You don't need to do business, do you?"

Jia Dongxu said: "Look at the eldest and stingy Yan family, they have TVs and refrigerators. You may not know that the third Yan family has bought two cars."

Xu Delin also echoed, "Yan Lao San always parks his car at the entrance of the alley. Xu Damao and I have seen it several times."

Yi Zhonghai and Liu Haizhong were very surprised. They knew Yan Jiekuang had made some money, but they didn't expect him to be so rich. Jia Dongxu said, "I heard from my mother that you can see Yan Jiekuang's restaurant. The house belongs to Yan Laosan."

Yi Zhonghai opened his mouth wide, his face full of disbelief, and said, "Then the house in Chaofengzhai also belongs to Yan Laosan?"

Jia Dongxu took a sip of wine and nodded. Even Xu Delin was surprised at this time.

Liu Haizhong said: "Didn't the higher-ups say that some people should be allowed to get rich first? It looks like Yan Laosan is one of them."

Yi Zhonghai remained silent, drinking, and asked, "Does Yan Laokou know about Yan Laosan's affairs?"

Jia Dongxu said, "I don't know. I guess he knows about the car. I also heard from my mother that Yan Laokou went to the countryside to collect a lot of antiques. I didn't see him rarely go to the store. He would go to the countryside whenever he had nothing to do."

Liu Haizhong shook his head and said, "The Yan family father and son are really capable of making trouble."

Yi Zhonghai's eyes lit up and he said, "Haven't you heard the saying, gold in troubled times, antiques in prosperous times? I guess Yan Laokou got a bargain."

Liu Haizhong said: "He is because of Yan Lao San, who studied this. We don't understand it either."

Yi Zhonghai said: "Let's not stay at home all the time. We should go out for a walk when we have nothing to do, otherwise we won't be able to keep up with others."

Jia Dongxu asked: "Master, what do you think we can do?"

Yi Zhonghai said unhappily: "How would I know? Besides repairing machines and making workpieces, what else can we do?"

Xu Delin nodded thoughtfully, and Liu Haizhong asked, "Delin, what do you mean?"

Xu Delin said: "I think it would be feasible for us to set up a processing plant and process the workpieces on behalf of others, right?"

When the others heard this, they instantly became alert. Looking at Xu Delin, Yi Zhonghai smiled and said, "It has to be Delin. This is a good idea. Come, let's discuss it."

The mood of several people immediately became better, and they discussed while drinking.

The next day, Yan Jiekuang found Wang Xuan and took him to Cuihua Hutong. When Wang Xuan saw the shabby yard, his face was full of disgust. Yan Jiekuang explained to him the advantages of this house and told him his ideas.

Wang Xuan arrived at the backyard wall, took a look, and said, "Third brother, this is not right. This is not your backyard wall. Did you make a mistake?"

Yan Jiekuang got a little anxious when he heard this and said, "That can't be possible. My cat and dog both entered this yard through the dog hole in the backyard. I also compared the two alleys and that side is my home."

Wang Xuan shook his head and said, "Third brother, I built your house. Your courtyard wall is made of blue bricks, but this is obviously a city brick wall."

Yan Jiekuang then noticed that the wall below one meter was made of bricks. Yan Jiekuang became a little anxious and said, "Please move aside. I'll go up and take a look."

Wang Xuan stepped aside, and Yan Jiekuang gathered his strength, dug his hands through the cracks in the bricks, and with an effort of his feet, he slid over to the top of the wall. Yan Jiekuang looked down, and what a surprise, he saw a space surrounded by walls on all four sides, about two meters wide, and the same length as the plane length of the two courtyards, with weeds growing everywhere inside.

Yan Jiekuang was thinking about why there was a closed space and what its purpose was. At this time, Wang Xuan shouted from below, "Third brother, how is it?"

This shout brought Yan Jiekuang back from his thoughts. Yan Jiekuang jumped back to the dilapidated yard and didn't say anything. He just said that there were two walls, one in front and one in the back, but it didn't matter, because that was the wall of his backyard.

Wang Xuan then felt relieved and asked Yan Jiekuang when the work would start.

Yan Jiekuang thought for a moment and said, "Three days later, you should fence off the yard to avoid disturbing the people."

After Wang Xuan left, Yan Jiekuang returned to Yuer Hutong, entered the studio, found a pickaxe and a shovel, and jumped into the enclosed courtyard in the middle with his things.

The three children were surprised to see him climbing over the wall. The three children were smart and knew they couldn't climb over the wall, so they just went straight into the dog hole.

Yan Jiekuang thought that something must be wrong when things were abnormal. This space was obviously fenced off by the family in Cuihua Hutong. He wanted to see what was here. Yan Jiekuang rolled up his sleeves and started weeding. As soon as he raised the shovel, he heard a voice from under the wall, "Dad, where is this?"

Yan Jiekuang turned his head and saw the dusty and fat man. He looked at the dog hole and saw the little fat man crawling in it. Yan Jiekuang laughed and said, "You guys are really good. I'm weeding and you guys are playing on the side."

After Xiaopang crawled in, Yan Jiekuang stopped Shi Li and asked her to step back a little. Since the wall was going to be demolished anyway, it would be better to enlarge the dog hole so that at least people could pass through.

After a while, the cave entrance became more than one person tall, and Shi Li also walked in. Yan Jiekuang said, "Okay, you guys play while I get rid of the grass."

Dapang said, "Dad, let us help you. I'll go get my brother's shovel."

The shovel that Big Fat mentioned was actually an engineering shovel, which was used by the three students who went to school. Big Fat and Little Fat ran into the yard, and Yan Jiekuang ignored them and started weeding. When he cleared a space, Yan Jiekuang discovered that there was a stone and brick ground underneath, but it was formed into squares one meter at a time, and the squares were filled with soil.

Yan Jiekuang and the three little guys worked for about an hour and cleared all the grass. Yan Jiekuang then discovered that this was a floor similar to a nine-square grid, but the entire floor was composed of thirty grids, fifteen on each side. Yan Jiekuang first cleared the dirt from one grid, and found that there was actually a wooden floor inside, about thirty centimeters deep, with a copper ring near the right side. It seemed that the wooden floor could be lifted up, but Yan Jiekuang did not lift it up immediately, but went to get a flashlight.

When Yan Jiekuang came back, he saw the three children also learning from him to clean another grid. Yan Jiekuang walked to the grid he was cleaning, passed the shovel handle through the iron ring, stood on the stone bar, and exerted force with his arms, and the lid was opened.

Yan Jiekuang took a flashlight, shone it inside, and was shocked.

(End of this chapter)