Siheyuan: Walking the Path of Qin Huairu

The director thought for a moment and said, "Xu Huizhen's tavern recently opened a large cafeteria. I see it's very busy. I'll go ask them if they need anyone. But you can only be an ordinary worker, not a leader, so you must obey the work arrangements."

Fan Jinyou quickly expressed his opinion: "Don't worry, Director. I am a brick of the revolution. I will move wherever I am needed. Sorry for the trouble."

The director's wife came to the tavern and told Manager Cao and Manager Xu about her idea. Manager Xu Huizhen immediately expressed her opinion: "Director's wife, this won't work. Our canteen has just opened. Although the business is booming and people are coming and going, our main goal is to make small profits but quick turnover. We are not sure whether we can pay our salaries by the end of the month. We can't hire any more people. We can't afford it!"

Manager Cao also objected, saying, "What can Fan Jinyou do here? He can only talk nonsense. We don't want to keep idle people in our tavern, don't you think?"

Others echoed, "Yes, yes. We don't want such people. We can't have them."

Seeing that everyone was strongly opposed, the director's wife had no choice. When Fan Jinyou heard the news, he felt like he had fallen into an ice cellar in the dog days of summer, and his heart was chilled.

He could no longer be the manager of Gongfang, and Chen Xueru, who had been in love with him, had also betrayed him. Now no one even welcomed him as an ordinary employee. If this continued, he was afraid that he would not even be able to keep his iron rice bowl.

When people are desperate, they tend to get stuck in a dead end. Fan Jinyou thought of Xu Huizhen at this time. In his opinion, Xu Huizhen was kinder than Chen Xueru. She was easier to control than Chen Xueru. So he had an idea of ​​burning his boats.

As the saying goes, it is easy to change a country but difficult to change one's nature. In layman's terms, a dog can't change its eating habits. When Fan Jinyou encountered difficulties, he did not think about correcting his mistakes and starting over. Instead, he always thought about taking shortcuts and taking crooked paths.

At night, when most people turned off the lights and went to sleep, the whole city was immersed in the darkness. Fan Jinyou came to the back door of the tavern in the dark.

He knocked on the door gently and called in a low voice: "Huizhen, Xu Huizhen, open the door."

Xu Huizhen didn't feel safe living in this courtyard, so she was very alert when she slept. The knock on the door woke her up from her sleep. She put on her clothes, went to the window, and paid attention to the movement outside.

Seeing that he couldn't open the door, Fan Jinyou stepped back and looked at the height of the wall. He estimated that he couldn't climb up to this height. He walked around nearby and found a few large stones, piled them outside Xu Huizhen's courtyard wall, and added a few bricks on top because he was afraid that the height was not enough.

He estimated that with this as a stepping stone, he could climb up the wall with his height advantage and the length of his arms. After entering the yard, he would force himself on her and make it a done deal. By then, Xu Huizhen would lose her reputation and would have to marry him obediently? After losing Chen Xueru, it would not be bad to get Xu Huizhen.

If Xu Hui really knew his thoughts, she could only reply: "You eat pig liver and want pig heart, spend silver and want gold, you have a weird fantasy."

Fan Jinyou thought so and did just that. He took a few steps back, took a running start, stepped on the stepping stones, stretched out his arms, and climbed up to the top of the wall.

It was a little different from what he expected, and then he heard a shrill scream, "Ahhhh..." The scream was particularly creepy in the quiet night.

The light in the house next door came on, and then a voice was heard asking questions: "What's wrong? What happened?" Seeing that he had alarmed the neighbors, Fan Jinyou reacted and ran away without caring about his injured hands.

When Xu Huizhen heard the screams, she secretly thanked herself for having the foresight to put broken glass on the wall. If the broken glass pierced her hand, it would be enough to hurt her.

Hu Yingzi was also awakened at this time. She put on her clothes and ran to the yard and asked, "Sister Huizhen, what's going on?"

Xu Huizhen didn't want to make the matter known to everyone. Why? Because widows are prone to gossip. People in that era were still very feudal. If it was known that someone climbed over the wall of her house at night, it would not be good for her reputation. Some gossipers would definitely say something like: "A fly won't bite an egg that has no cracks."

So she just perfunctorily said, "It's the noise outside, it has nothing to do with us, you can go back and continue sleeping."

The next day, just after dawn, Xu Huizhen opened the gate and saw the stones piled at the foot of the wall. What else was there to be confused about? It seemed that the top of her wall was not high enough!

"Ding Dong! The system has issued a task. Call the police, punish the bad guys, and reward 50 bags of milk powder and 30 cartons of Daqianmen cigarettes." The long-lost mechanical sound came from her mind, making Xu Huizhen happy. The system has been silent for a while. The main reason is that she did not go out, and nothing special happened around her.

She called Hu Yingzi over and said, "Yingzi, take a look. It seems someone tried to climb over the wall into our yard yesterday."

Hu Yingzi was also shocked when she saw him and said, "Really? Are you trying to steal something? Sister, what do you think we should do?"

Xu Huizhen: "Watch over here and don't let anyone move. This is called protecting the scene. I'll call the police after work. If you have any problems, find the police."

Hu Yingzi nodded rapidly: "Don't worry, I'll be watching you every step of the way."

As soon as Director Song arrived at work, Cai Quanwu came to report the case and said, "Director Song, the home of the tavern owner Xu was robbed last night. Please send someone to take a look."

Director Song had a good impression of Xu Huizhen from the last enemy spy incident. When he heard that her house had been robbed, and knew that it was not easy for a woman with a child to live, he personally went to the back door of Xu Huizhen's house, bringing police officer Xiao Wang and Cai Quanwu.

Xu Huizhen and Hu Yingzi had been waiting there for a long time. After greeting them, Xu Huizhen briefly described what happened last night, of course omitting the knocking on the door, and treating it as a theft case.

Policeman Xiao Wang stepped on a stool, climbed up the wall and took a look. He said, "Captain, there is blood on the wall. I think the criminal's hand was stabbed. We can start from this point."

Director Song asked him to take a piece of bloody glass back as evidence. Then he stepped on the stepping stones left yesterday and demonstrated the movements of climbing the wall, saying, "This person is quite tall, over 1 meters tall."

Xu Huizhen thought about it for a while. In order to narrow the scope of the investigation, she called Director Song aside and said, "Director Song, before this person climbed the wall yesterday, I vaguely heard someone knocking on the door. So I think it must be someone familiar with my home who committed the crime. You can investigate the regular customers who often come to the tavern to drink. Of course, I hope to treat it as theft. You also know the difficulties of a woman like me, right?"

Upon hearing this, Director Song also understood what Xu Huizhen meant, and he asked again: "Do you have any more specific suspects?"

Xu Huizhen blinked her big eyes and shook her head.

Xiao Wang carefully checked the surroundings and said, "Captain, there are drops of blood on the ground, which means the criminal was seriously injured. With this clue, the investigation will be much easier."

Director Song took Xiao Wang to investigate the single patrons of the tavern who had feelings for Xu Huizhen, and soon caught Fan Jinyou.