Siheyuan: I just came across and wanted to chase me away

Chapter 1001 Xu Damao Admits His Mistake

Xu Damao stood in the middle of the courtyard, dizzy from Jia Zhangshi's pointing fingers and scolding. He wondered to himself, "What's going on here?" Jia Zhangshi's grudge against Gu Nan was even deeper. Last time, they almost had a huge fight over territory. Why did she suddenly turn on him today? He opened his mouth to defend himself, but Jia Zhangshi's words came out like a machine gun, leaving him no chance to speak. He could only stare blankly.

As Jia Zhangshi spoke, she grew angrier and angrier, spitting as she spoke. Finally, she took a step closer, pointed at Xu Damao's nose, and demanded, "Tell me! If you hadn't been shouting and talking badly about Gu Nan in the courtyard, would all this trouble have happened? Didn't you sow the seeds of this disaster?"

Liu Haizhong, standing to the side, was completely bewildered. He quietly tugged at Yan Bugui's sleeve and whispered, "Wait a minute, Lao Yan, didn't we agree to criticize Gu Nan? Why is everyone's targeting Xu Damao now? This isn't what we planned."

Yan Bugui glanced at him sideways, inwardly scoffing: "Hmph, now you're getting anxious? Just now, when I asked you to speak about Gu Nan, you cowered like a quail, weren't you just afraid of his deputy factory director position? Now you've remembered your plan." He didn't say anything aloud, but slowly said, "Old Liu, you should go and talk to him about this. After all, you're a big shot now, your words carry weight."

Liu Haizhong was already furious, and Yan Bugui's push only made things worse. He was the boss, that was true, but Gu Nan held real power. What if he really angered him and Gu Nan made things difficult for him at the factory? He'd be crying then. He opened his mouth, but couldn't utter a word for a long time.

Just then, Yi Zhonghai walked over with his hands behind his back, glanced around the yard, and slowly asked, "Old Liu, Old Yan, what are you two whispering about here? Isn't there still something about Gu Nan that you haven't talked about? Why are you just circling around Xu Damao?"

Just as Liu Haizhong was about to continue Yi Zhonghai's line of thought, Yan Bugui spoke up first, his face beaming with smiles: "Old Yi, if you ask me, you're the one who should step in on this. You're close to the Jia family. Back when Jia Dongxu was around, you two were very close. If you speak up, Jia Zhangshi might listen to you."

Yi Zhonghai sneered inwardly. He had only come to watch the spectacle, wanting to see what these two new big shots, Liu Haizhong and Yan Bugui, were capable of. He hadn't expected them to be such useless fools, unable to even control the situation. Back when he was a big shot, let alone Gu Nan, a mere deputy factory director, even the factory director himself could have kept things in check. But now, asking him to step in? That would be foolish. Gu Nan was currently riding high; he didn't need to risk offending him.

So he waved his hand and said to Yan Bugui, "Old Yan, you're wrong. You're the second uncle, and Old Liu is the eldest uncle. You two are in charge of things in the courtyard. I'm just an ordinary neighbor now. I'm neither an uncle nor do I get involved in anything. How can I meddle in these things?"

Yi Zhonghai wouldn't care about these troublesome matters; he just wanted to get them to step in so he could see Gu Nan make a fool of himself.

But it seems unlikely now, so they stepped in to try and provoke Liu Haizhong and Yan Bugui, but it doesn't seem to be working well, so they had no choice but to retreat obediently.

A few words sent the ball back into play. Liu Haizhong and Yan Bugui exchanged a glance, both seeing helplessness in each other's eyes—both wanted to control Gu Nan, but both were afraid of getting burned, so they could only vent their anger on Xu Damao, the easy target. The argument in the courtyard continued, and Xu Damao was being verbally abused mercilessly, cursing these old men in his mind, but he could only grit his teeth and endure the scolding.

Liu Haizhong made no attempt to hide his displeasure. He had intended to take this opportunity to reprimand Yi Zhonghai—after all, this was a college-wide meeting hosted by the current head of the organization, and he couldn't tolerate his predecessor putting on airs. But before he could even speak, Yi Zhonghai acted as if he hadn't noticed his expression, and simply stood at the back of the crowd, hands in his sleeves, adopting a "just watching" stance, leaving Liu Haizhong with a bellyful of words stuck in his throat.

Liu Haizhong looked at Yan Bugui, indicating that Yan Bugui had something to say, otherwise what was going on?

Xu Damao watched as Jia Zhangshi continued slapping her thigh and muttering the same few phrases over and over again: "You made me fall" and "The people you brought in had bad intentions," as if she would never stop. He couldn't help but sneer: "Alright, Aunt Jia, tell me, did I fire the gun? Or did I deliberately bring those people here to cause trouble? If I really did it, the police would have handcuffed me long ago. Why would I be here listening to you mutter?"

Jia Zhangshi was speechless at these words, swallowing back the words that were about to come out. After a moment of stunned silence, she retorted, "But if you hadn't shown the movie and attracted so many people, none of this would have happened! That's when I broke my arm. If this isn't your fault, whose is it?"

Xu Damao was about to retort when Yan Bugui slowly spoke up from the side, a shrewd smile on his face: "Damao, you can't say that. No matter what, you brought the person into the hospital, and the incident started because you showed the movie. You can't escape the blame, can you?"

Actually, Yan Bugui had wanted to bring Gu Nan into the conversation, but when he caught a glimpse of Gu Nan's calm and unwavering gaze out of the corner of his eye, his heart skipped a beat—Gu Nan was now the deputy director of the steel rolling mill, and if he really angered him, his little schemes might not backfire. After thinking it over, he swallowed his words and focused solely on exploiting Xu Damao.

Although they dared not touch Gu Nan, they were more than capable of dealing with Xu Damao. With Yan Bugui leading the way, the neighbors in the courtyard started chattering amongst themselves: "That's right, Damao's actions were dishonest," "The courtyard should be kept quiet," "He needs to learn his lesson"... In the end, someone even exaggeratedly shouted, "This kind of person who disturbs the peace of the neighborhood should be kicked out," as if he had been sentenced to "death."

Xu Damao felt incredibly wronged, but he couldn't bring himself to say it—he had just given Gu Nan a gift a few days ago, and if he were to say now that "those people were after Gu Nan," wouldn't that be like slapping himself in the face? Wouldn't all those pastry boxes and fine fabrics have been given away for nothing? If word got out, people would laugh at him for being a sycophant, pleasing neither side.

After thinking it over, Xu Damao gritted his teeth and looked at Liu Haizhong: "Uncle, fine, I admit I was wrong. What do you suggest we do? I'll take it."

Before Liu Haizhong could even speak, Jia Zhangshi, who was standing to the side, became anxious, fearing that she wouldn't get the benefits. She quickly moved forward, craned her neck, and shouted, "Isn't that simple? My arm is badly injured. He has to cover all my medical and nutritional expenses! Don't even think about getting away with anything less than two yuan!"