Siheyuan, integrating everything, cultivating the city

Li Xiangqian frowned, and this sentence made him pause. "What on earth are you talking about?" His voice became more urgent, as if he was facing an insurmountable barrier, and the uneasy feeling in his heart had been infinitely magnified.

He Yuzhu suddenly raised his head, a gleam of determination flashing in his eyes. "If you want to know, then I'll tell you." He took a deep breath, as if he had made some kind of decision, "That chicken... is not an ordinary chicken. In fact, it is a... test subject."

Li Xiangqian was stunned. A test subject? A series of images quickly emerged in his mind, and all the plots began to piece together into an extremely absurd picture, but no matter what, he could not connect all of them together.

"Test subject?" Li Xiangqian repeated, his tone full of confusion and puzzlement. "What do you mean? What on earth are you doing?"

He Yuzhu's eyes were still flickering, as if he was struggling with some unspeakable fear. He lowered his head and was silent for a long time. Finally, he couldn't help but speak: "I just... I just participated in an experiment, and the chicken was just a part of it. I promised them not to tell anyone, but now you know, maybe... maybe it's no longer a secret."

Li Xiangqian's heart was shaken violently. He could no longer remain calm. His mind was blank. A test subject? What kind of experiment could turn an ordinary chicken into something? Li Xiangqian suddenly felt that he was trapped in a vortex that was difficult to escape. What he was facing might not be a simple villager, but a more complicated situation.

"Experiment?" Li Xiangqian repeated the word slowly, his eyes full of doubt. "What are you talking about? I don't understand at all."

He Yuzhu glanced at him, with a hint of mixed emotions in his eyes. "It's normal that you don't understand. I don't understand either. That chicken...it was originally a normal chicken, but they turned it into part of our experiment." He paused, as if he wanted to say something, but stopped. "I shouldn't have told you this. You shouldn't know, Xiang Qian."

Li Xiangqian suddenly felt an inexplicable fear in his heart. He felt dizzy and as if he was in a completely unfamiliar world. Everything started to get out of control. Every word He Yuzhu said was like a heavy hammer hitting his heart, making him question whether everything around him was hiding something.

"What do you mean by this?" Li Xiangqian's voice was a little unstable. He knew that he could no longer ignore this fact. "Why? Why did you do this? What kind of experiment did you participate in?"

He Yuzhu sighed deeply, and after a moment's silence, he finally spoke in a low voice: "This experiment...it involves something we cannot understand. Some people do these things for the purpose of...to master some unknown power, and we, the participants, are part of their experiment." He looked into Li Xiangqian's eyes, as if waiting for his response, but also seemed afraid of what reaction he would have.

Li Xiangqian's heart was churning, and his mood was extremely complicated. He had never thought that he would be involved in such a bizarre incident, but He Yuzhu's words seemed to have pushed him into a vortex from which he could not escape. His head was getting heavier and heavier, and he could hardly digest the sudden truth.

"You... Is this how you got involved?" Li Xiangqian's voice was hoarse, almost with an unbelievable tone. "Why did you get involved in this kind of thing?"

He Yuzhu lowered his head and said in a low voice, "I just... I just want to protect myself. Maybe I have lost myself a long time ago. Now that you know it all, there is no turning back." He seemed to be trying his best to control his emotions, but his eyes looked extremely painful.

Li Xiangqian stood there, his heart beating wildly and chaotically. All his emotions began to intertwine, doubt, anger, fear, powerlessness, all of which made him feel completely confused.

Li Xiangqian stood in front of the gate of the courtyard, hesitated for a moment, and then pushed open the heavy wooden door. As the door creaked, the dust in the air floated gently. The sun shone through the gray sky, illuminating the withered land in the yard. Several old locust trees stood on both sides of the yard, with sparse branches and leaves, as if the traces of time had left silent marks on their branches. There was no life in the courtyard, only the withered plants in the dusty flower pots and a thick layer of glass dust on the windows.

He took a deep breath, and the air was filled with an old smell, as if every breath of air he inhaled carried decades of history and sedimentation of this place. He moved his eyes slightly and saw the old well in the middle of the yard. The well mouth was filled with things abandoned by the years, and only a few dry vines were left coming out of the well mouth, as if silently telling something. Li Xiangqian stood there, with his hands in his trouser pockets, and lowered his head to think for a while. He didn't know why he came back here, nor did he know what he was looking for.

A few minutes ago, he had just left the office in that tall building. The busy city streets were full of traffic and hustle and bustle. Every minute and every second of life was full of calculations and purpose. But that day, he suddenly stopped and inexplicably thought of this place, the place that once belonged to him and belonged to everything he had never thought of - the courtyard. Over the years, he had completely cut off his memory of this place. He thought he had long forgotten all of this, but this return made everything quietly roll back.

He walked into the yard, his footsteps making crisp sounds on the bluestone slabs. The threshold of the courtyard was still as low as before, and the curved wooden door frame had not changed at all. The mottled tiles on the roof had been baptized by many winds and rains, and today they were still quietly waiting for the arrival of the next storm. Walking through the yard, his eyes could not help but sweep to the stone table in the corner, where he and his father often sat. His father used to like to drink tea and tell stories here. However, his father had left for many years, leaving behind only empty memories and that time that was gradually fading away.

"He Yuzhu." Li Xiangqian whispered the name.

There was a past in the courtyard that he could not forget, and this name was the center of that past. He Yuzhu, a person who once lived with him on this land, a person who accompanied him through those young years. Li Xiangqian remembered that He Yuzhu's eyes were always so clear, as if there was no impurity. They ran and played together in the yard, dreaming about the future, dreaming about how they could make a difference in this city. However, as time went by, He Yuzhu became silent, no longer as lively as before, and gradually lost himself in the world he built.