On a snowy night on the twenty-eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, sixty-five-year-old He Yuzhu froze to death in a corner of the rear room in the courtyard house.
He had given his all for his entire life, pouring his wages, grain coupons, and house into filling the Jia family's bottomless pit. He had been Qin Huairu's lifelong support, played the fool of Banggeng for half his life, and been tied down for a lifetime by Yi Zhonghai's promise of care in his old age.
In the end, he was left homeless and froze to death on a bitter winter night. Only before he died did he open the letter Qin Huairu had kept from him for half a lifetime. He saw the regret in Lou Xiao'e's eyes when she had turned away all those years ago, and was consumed with remorse.
When he opened his eyes again, he was back in 1976, before any of those tragedies had come to pass.
This time, Silly Zhu was awake.
Qin Huairu comes to beg for a lunchbox with tears in her eyes? Sorry, the public meal expenses are settled. Whether your three children starve to death has nothing to do with me.
Jia Zhangshi tries to make him clean up after Banggeng's theft? He fires right back: if the boy steals, take him to the subdistrict office. Don't expect to make me the fall guy.
Yi Zhonghai tries to guilt-trip him with talk of neighborly duty and morality? He exposes Yi's scheme to secure someone to care for him in his old age, since he has no children, and tells him to find someone else while he still can.
Xu Damao slanders him and plots against him behind his back? He turns the tables and makes Xu shoot himself in the foot, losing all face.
In his previous life, he spent his whole life living for everyone in the courtyard, only to end up a fool everyone could bully.
What are you writing? You don't have any common sense. How come you got a score of 9 or higher?