Courtyard House: A Great Musician! Red Songs Resound Worldwide

But he, a grown man, wouldn't argue with that old hag Jia Zhangshi.

After thinking for a moment, Li Chaoyang walked straight toward Jia Xudong, who was still standing in the alley.

Without wasting words, he walked over and said, "You're the child's father, so you tell me..."

"How should this be resolved?"

Jia Xudong was glaring angrily at Li Chaoyang with gritted teeth.

But upon hearing his words, she blushed deeply and lowered her head...

His son stole something and got caught red-handed, making his father feel utterly ashamed!

Jia Xudong grew increasingly angry, and turned to storm towards the stick...

"What a disgraceful piece of trash!!"

"I'll fucking beat you to death today, you little brat!"

Banggeng screamed in terror and hid behind Qin Huairu, crying...

Qin Huairu remained silent, simply standing firmly in front of the stick...

But Jia Xudong, filled with shame and anger, didn't care about that. He shoved Qin Huairu aside and prepared to beat her up.

Just then, Li Chaoyang suddenly shouted, "Wait!"

"What?" Jia Xudong turned around angrily.

But when he saw that it was Li Chaoyang who was blocking his way, he wondered to himself, "Does this kid not intend to pursue this matter?"

However, Li Chaoyang showed no intention of letting the matter drop. He simply continued calmly, "If you want to hit the child, please go home and do it. I'm soft-hearted and can't bear to see such a bloody scene..."

"But before you go back, please resolve this matter for me first!"

"After you're done, you can discipline them however you want when you get back..."

“Li Chaoyang…you!” Jia Xudong pointed at Li Chaoyang with a furious expression.

After struggling for a long time, he could only manage to utter one sentence: "What exactly do you want?"

Li Chaoyang glared at him: "Nonsense! Of course we'll compensate you at the original price, what else can we do?"

Chapter Thirty-Six: A Farce, a Farce! This is a farce!

A plate of braised pork isn't actually that expensive; it only costs one yuan a serving at the state-run restaurant at the entrance of the alley.

Even with the value of the ration coupons, it would be at most a little over two yuan, less than three yuan.

However, this is not expensive, only relative to Li Chaoyang.

For Jia Xudong's family, one yuan would be enough for two days' expenses...

You should know that Jia Xudong only earns a little over thirty yuan a month working himself to the bone at the steel rolling mill!

But now that things have come to this point, he has no choice but to pay the money!

The thought of this made Jia Xudong feel like his heart was bleeding...

He immediately regretted calling Bang Geng over to confront him.

If he hadn't shouted that out, the stick would probably still be hidden perfectly well.

There's no way he'll get caught red-handed...that little rascal....

Jia Xudong grew angrier and more frustrated, but in the end, all he could do was huff and puff at Li Chaoyang and say, "Just you wait!"

After saying that, he went straight to Qin Huairu, picked up the stick, and dragged it towards his house...

Bang Geng immediately started wailing and crying for his parents... but Jia Xudong completely ignored him.

Qin Huairu stayed close to him, constantly urging Jia Xudong to go easy on him... not to hurt him, etc...

The family of three had just turned the corner when they could already hear the sounds of a brutal beating coming from the other end of the courthouse...

At this point, Jia Zhangshi couldn't care less about arguing with them anymore and hurriedly went home to stop Jia Xudong.

Judging from Jia Xudong's furious state just now, Bang Geng will probably be bedridden for several days...

The group that had just been righteously reprimanding Jia Xudong's family now wore smiles that seemed to represent victory as they listened to Bang Geng's pitiful cries.

This scene made Li Chaoyang shake his head again.

Bang Geng could have avoided getting beaten up today, and the Jia family wouldn't have had to compensate him for anything.

Because Li Chaoyang originally intended to avoid any interaction with the people in the compound, whether good or bad.

If it weren't for Aunt Zhang's loud shout at the beginning, these people wouldn't have rushed over to catch the thief.

If Jia Xudong hadn't had such a bad temper and wanted to confront his son Banggeng, Banggeng wouldn't have been exposed.

If it weren't for Jia Zhangshi's indiscriminate distortion of the truth and her attempt to cause trouble for Li Chaoyang...

Li Chaoyang didn't want to be aggressive either...

If none of these things had happened, this matter wouldn't have escalated to this point.

He's probably already back inside by now.

In short, what happened today can only be described as a matter of timing and fate...

Ultimately, this is just his fate... He can't blame anyone but himself; thieves always have their day...

Thankfully, this farce can finally come to an end!

Although Jia Xudong just told him to wait, he probably meant that the money would be delivered soon.

But at this point, Li Chaoyang was no longer in the mood to stay there.

Before the Jia family could even arrive, Li Chaoyang nodded to Yi Zhonghai, who had a complicated expression, and prepared to go back inside.

But just as he turned to leave, Yi Zhonghai called out to him, "Li Chaoyang, wait..."

Turning around, Li Chaoyang asked, "Is there anything else, sir?"

"It's nothing else, just remember to lock the doors and windows when you go out in the future," Yi Zhonghai said, seemingly giving a warning. He paused, then continued with a serious expression, "to prevent similar incidents from happening again."

It felt like the old man was implying something.

But Li Chaoyang thought about it and still couldn't figure out what those words meant.

So he simply stopped thinking about it and nodded, saying, "Okay, I understand."

After saying that, he went back, but as soon as he reached the archway of his small courtyard, he saw some freshly picked scallions and garlic sprouts scattered on the steps...

Li Chaoyang frowned, recalling the farce that had just occurred.

He suddenly realized that it must have been Qin Huairu or Jia Zhangshi who sent Banggeng to pick vegetables here.

After picking the vegetables, he saw that his door was open, so he left the green onions and garlic sprouts behind and slipped into the house.

Then the meat theft happened...

Picking up the seedlings from the ground, Li Chaoyang thought for a moment and then returned to the back gate.

Yi Zhonghai was calling everyone to go home when he saw Li Chaoyang return. He assumed Li Chaoyang had come to see if the Jia family had delivered the money, so he pointed to the front yard and said, "Listen, Bang Geng is still screaming in agony!"

"Dongzi probably won't be here anytime soon."

"But don't worry, I'll have him send you the compensation."

“If he doesn’t deliver it, just come to me,” Yi Zhonghai said, looking very impartial.

But that wasn't Li Chaoyang's purpose in coming to him.

He waved his hand and said, "Uncle, that's not what I came to ask."

"I just came here to ask you, do you know who grew those vegetables in the flowerbed in front of my house?"

Yi Zhonghai was somewhat surprised to hear that Li Chaoyang had come to ask this question.

"Oh, you mean that one?"

"That's right. Originally, each family had a flower bed in front of their house where they could plant whatever they wanted."

"It's just that your room has been empty, so everyone just planted some green onions and garlic sprouts in the flower bed."

"This matter was agreed upon by all three of us in charge."

"So it's not fixed whose it is; you can pick it anywhere you want to use it."

"If you want to replant, I'll have someone pull them all up tomorrow and distribute them to each family."

"Is that so..." Li Chaoyang muttered to himself, then thought for a moment and said.

"How about this, sir? Don't pull up those green onions and garlic sprouts, just sell them all to me."

"As for the money, consider it as money for groceries when Jia Xudong brings the compensation later."

"You can decide how to distribute it among everyone when the time comes."

Huh? The people who were about to go home immediately stopped in their tracks upon hearing what Li Chaoyang said...

And their eyes lit up!

Two yuan for a bunch of green onions and garlic sprouts?

Is this child crazy?