Chapter 48: Huang Shuhua

Li Aiguo escorted Shazhu to the railway police station, completed the deposition, and stood up to shake hands with Zhou Ke.

"Sorry to trouble you."

"Ah, given our relationship, why are you being so polite?"

Zhou Ke put the deposition into the filing cabinet and said with a smile, "For intentional assault, Heyuzhu will have to be locked up for at least two to three years. The specifics will have to be discussed and decided by the superiors."

"There's no particular rush about that."

Li Aiguo stood up. "I'm officially reporting to the locomotive depot tomorrow, and I still have some things to prepare, so I won't stay any longer."

"Alright, I'll walk you out."

Li Aiguo pushed the door open and stepped out, running right into a female comrade face-to-face.

The female comrade had not expected to find a stranger in Zhou Ke's office.

Panic flashed across her face, and her small hands hid behind her back.

Unfortunately, it was already too late; Li Aiguo clearly saw two apples clutched in her hands.

It seemed this must be the person Zhou Ke was currently courting.

Li Aiguo looked her up and down. The young woman had delicate eyebrows and clear eyes, carrying a gentle and refined demeanor—the quintessential type of a good wife and loving mother.

Li Aiguo joked, "Zhou Ke, is this my sister-in-law?"

"What sister-in-law? Call her sister-in-law properly!"

Zhou Ke walked out with a grinning laugh, patted Li Aiguo on the shoulder, and introduced them, "Shuhua, this is my childhood friend, a brother I grew up with, Comrade Li Aiguo, a locomotive driver at the Qianmen Locomotive Depot."

"I'm a future locomotive driver. Hello, sister-in-law."

"H-Hello, I'm Huang Shuhua, a propaganda specialist in the Education Section of the depot." Huang Shuhua's face flushed as red as a monkey's bottom, and she bit her lip as she spoke.

"The Education Section? Liu Chunhua's section?"

"Ah? You know Director Liu? No, wait, Comrade Liu Chunhua has already retired from her post; she's not the director anymore."

A look of lingering fear crossed Huang Shuhua's face at the mention of Liu Chunhua.

As a newcomer to the Education Section, she had been bullied by Liu Chunhua quite a bit on ordinary days.

Zhou Ke was also aware of this situation and said with a smile, "Liu Chunhua stepping down is an achievement my brother here played a vital role in."

"You... Oh, right, right, I seem to have heard that Liu Chunhua offended a locomotive driver and was banished by the depot. So that was you all along!"

Huang Shuhua looked at Li Aiguo with curiosity, wanting to see what extraordinary skills this locomotive driver possessed.

Li Aiguo smiled modestly, "That was simply the depot leadership's keen discernment."

"Well, well, your ideological awareness has certainly progressed quite a bit, kid," Zhou Ke teased.

"Call me elder brother, or I won't lend you my bicycle this weekend," Li Aiguo put on a stern face.

"...." Zhou Ke was speechless.

Huang Shuhua laughed, "What bicycle?"

Only then did Zhou Ke remember that he had wanted to give Huang Shuhua a surprise.

He hurriedly nudged Li Aiguo toward the exit. "You're officially starting work tomorrow, so you must still have a lot of things to take care of. I won't hold you up any longer."

"What bicycle? Zhou Ke, are you playing tricks again?"

"Hehe, you'll find out when the time comes."

When Li Aiguo reached the stairwell, he could still hear Huang Shuhua chasing after Zhou Ke with questions.

He shook his head with a bitter smile: Having a wife really is wonderful....

Li Aiguo returned to the quadrangle courtyard around midday.

Wisps of cooking smoke curled from the chimneys of households burning firewood, filling the air with a faint, cozy atmosphere of everyday life.

As soon as he stepped through the front gate, Yan Bugui hurried over and blocked his path. "Aiguo, I heard Shazhu was taken away by the railway police."

"That's true, I just finished the deposition."

"Just look at how this turned out. We're all in the same courtyard. Just look at this, just look..." Yan Bugui wore an expression of deep regret.

He wanted to persuade Li Aiguo to let Shazhu off, but the words stuck in his throat.

After all, what Shazhu and the others had done this time was simply going too far.

"Alright, Third Uncle, nowadays we the people have stood up to become our own masters. Are we still going to let ourselves be bullied by landlords and local bullies? If so, wouldn't the blood of our predecessors have been shed in vain?"

"Who's talking about landlords and local bullies? You can't just throw words like that around."

Frightened pale, Yan Bugui took a step back and laughed awkwardly. "I just remembered I still have some homework to grade, so I'll be going."

He turned around and scurried toward his room in a flash.

He was afraid that if he stayed for a few more words, he would somehow be labeled a 'landlord and local bully' himself.

Li Aiguo chuckled at Yan Bugui's retreating figure and turned to walk toward the back courtyard.

Yi Zhonghai, Mrs. Jia, and Liu Haidong were gathered under the old camphor tree in the middle courtyard, whispering about something.

Seeing Li Aiguo approach, they instantly clamped their mouths shut.

Flashes of anger, fear, and hatred mingled in their eyes.

"Chatting away, are you, folks?"

Li Aiguo greeted them with a cheerful smile, walked past with his hands behind his back, and entered the back courtyard.

Spit!

Watching his back, Mrs. Jia spat on the ground with a vicious expression. "This Li kid is simply too bullying. Matters in our courtyard should be settled within the courtyard. Going to the railway police for help is completely breaking the rules."

"Zip it!" Yi Zhonghai pinched the bridge of his nose in annoyance. "This time the railway police took the man away, and even Deaf Old Lady couldn't do anything about it. Right now, she's making a fuss and demanding I get him back!"

"Deaf Old Lady isn't much to fear, but what if Shazhu spills the beans about us while he's in there? What do we do then?"

Liu Haidong stuck out his large belly, his greasy face full of worry.

He was starting to regret it.

He shouldn't have coveted half of the Li family's rooms in the first place.

As soon as these words were spoken, the expressions of Yi Zhonghai and Mrs. Jia darkened instantly.

Mrs. Jia said with a cold face, "He won't. Shazhu is a fool, he won't confess."

"A railway detention cell is not like the local lockup," Liu Haidong said crossly. "They say the prisoners in there have to carry shovels and build railways. That's such backbreaking work, Shazhu won't be able to take it!"

Yi Zhonghai nodded. "Old Liu's concerns make some sense. We have to be on our guard."

He hesitated, then added, "But right now Shazhu is locked up inside and no outsiders are allowed to visit, so we have no way to sound him out."

Liu Haidong's eyes darted around. "Why don't we go to Li Aiguo and admit our mistakes? As long as Li Aiguo doesn't pursue the matter, even if Shazhu turns on us, it won't be too big of a problem."

"If you want to go, you go. This old woman won't bow her head to that little thief Li Aiguo."

With that, Mrs. Jia stood up. "You guys stirred up this mess, I'm washing my hands of it!"

Having spoken, Mrs. Jia turned on her heel and strode back into the Jia household.

With a loud *bang*, the door slammed shut.

Seeing this, Liu Haidong also stood up and said, "Old Liu—ah, Old Yi, we won't come up with a plan just by discussing it. We'll just have to take it one step at a time."

"For the time being, you'd better not go provoking Li Aiguo."

Being lectured by Liu Haidong didn't sit well with Yi Zhonghai, but this wasn't the time to lose his temper.

He nodded. "I know. Let's stop talking; I still have to figure out a way to placate the Old Lady."

Watching Yi Zhonghai hurry off toward the back courtyard, Liu Haidong shook his head with a bitter smile. "A bunch of forty- and fifty-year-old adults, and we're being played around with by a greenhorn. What kind of nonsense is this!"

Nursing his grievance, Liu Haidong returned home and stared blankly at the doorway.

After a short while, Liu Guangtian, who had been running wild all morning, came back.

He walked up to the threshold, stopped dead in his tracks, and poked his head in to look inside the room.

Upon seeing Liu Haidong sitting imposingly in his chair, with a pair of fire tongs placed menacingly beside him, Liu Guangtian cautiously extended his right foot across the threshold and forced a smile. "Dad, I finally didn't step across with the wrong foot this time, right?"

The last time Liu Guangtian had taken a beating, the reason was absurd: simply because he had stepped in with his right foot first.

"This time you should have stepped in with your left foot first! Wrong again! Go and lie down over there!"

Liu Guangtian: .....

Smiles only transfer; they do not disappear.

The smile on Liu Guangtian's face had simply transferred to Liu Haidong's face.

Looking at the grimly smiling Liu Haidong, Liu Guangtian gritted his teeth, leaned over the wall, and stuck out his backside.