Siheyuan: Kong Sanjiu Steals Books and Pretends to Be a Drama God? Bah!

• “There are no good people in the courtyard. Kong Sanjiu is the most bitter of them all.”

• “He stole my brain, and now he expects me to thank him?”

• “Yi Zhonghai: That’s talent! Me: That’s a crime!”

Reborn in 1978 in the courtyard, I caught the newly moved-in tenant, Kong Sanjiu, holding my manuscript and chatting away to Silly Zhu and Yi Zhonghai as if it were his own.

He wore a shabby long gown and spoke in flowery, scholarly language: “Borrowing a book can’t be called stealing… Can you really call it stealing when it’s a scholar doing it?”

Yi Zhonghai slapped the table in approval. “Well said, Nephew Kong! That’s called ‘sharing,’ a way of passing on culture!”

Qin Huairu dabbed at her tears and called him a tragic genius. Xu Damao was green with envy, while Jia Zhangshi had her eye on the royalties he’d earned.

Watching these shameless people use my hard work as his stepping stone, then try to force me to sign away the copyright…

I smiled.