A century of poverty

Chapter 112 Encirclement and Suppression

I haven't been back since we sold the shop and moved away.

When I moved back this time, I saw that Zhao Liuxi's family, who owned my store, had become much more assertive. They were no longer the way they used to be, huddled inside. They started to extend their reach outwards, taking the opportunity to get Su Jifu to help their second son get a job at the power company, and their third son also used the prestige of opening the store to get married.

They used to be our neighbors, but now they act like bosses, and their young men are incredibly arrogant. They smash and damage the shop's doors, windows, and utensils without any restraint.

Zhao Daya also invited some aunts, uncles, and cousins ​​to come here to play cards, chat, and comment on people.

There was also a shameless woman next to the eldest daughter-in-law who followed her around all day, arguing about who was the "eldest daughter-in-law" and who was the "youngest daughter-in-law".

I pretended not to see it, and two years passed.

We took back the store, not only accepting the stockpiled, hard-to-sell goods, but also reluctantly keeping goods that shouldn't be sold in this kind of store.

But Zhao Liuxi insisted on removing the profitable "public telephone" and wouldn't leave it behind no matter what we said. We had no choice but to apply for and install a new one.

Repair the damaged door, clean up and rearrange the goods, and reopen the business.

Everyone in Qiaotou Village knows that Su Zhichun has bought a building on the busiest "wholesale street" in town and will be moving soon.

Xiao Yan, a niece of the Su family who had been renting a place since getting married, came to our shop and earnestly said, "Fourth Uncle, Fourth Aunt, there's something I'd like to ask you for help with."

"What is it?" I asked.

Xiaoyan: "My aunt is moving upstairs, so if she sells this apartment, please keep it for me. We've taken a liking to this apartment; it's close to the road, making it convenient for my husband to come and go in and out on his tricycle. We'll take it no matter the price."

We agreed: "Okay! We'll talk to her if she wants to sell it."

Soon, Su Zhichun and Su Lei went upstairs and moved out.

Zhao Liuxi sent his son Zhao Si to set up a public telephone booth at Su Zhichun's front door.

I called Su Zhichun: "Sister, did you know? Zhao Si put a phone on your front door and is operating it as a public telephone."

Su Zhichun: "I know."

Me: "Knowing that, why did you let him set up the stall? Isn't that blatantly stealing our business?"

Su Zhichun: "If you can sell the shop to him, why can't I let him put a phone stand in front of my door?"

Me: "Sis, it's a different story! I sold the shop to him out of necessity, it didn't affect anyone. If they put their phone in front of your door today, are you going to charge them?"

Su Zhichun: "I don't need that little bit of money!"

Me: "No, you're not after anything. Letting him put up a phone call would disrupt my business; isn't that going against us? It doesn't look good to outsiders either!"

"Beep beep. Beep beep—" The phone went dead.

I hung up the phone. Su Long ran over: "Mom! There's a big bunny in our room."

"Really?" I ran over in surprise. It really was a big white rabbit, hopping around on the floor looking for dried scallion leaves and cabbage leaves to eat.

I was surprised; I hadn't heard of any other families raising rabbits before, so where did this big white rabbit come from? I told my child, "If someone comes looking for it, we can give it to them; if no one does, we can keep it for now."

The next day, the white rabbit became a mother: she found a litter of baby rabbits in the corner.

Su Long likes it very much and comes to see it every day. We prepare food for it every day.

Shortly after Su Zhichun and Su Lei moved out, they returned to arrange for the house to be sold. Zhiqiang and I immediately said, "If you're going to sell it, don't sell it to anyone else, sell it to us."

Su Zhichun asked skeptically, "Don't be ridiculous, you guys can actually buy a house?"

I explained, "It's Xiaoyan from Zhixu's second sister-in-law's family who wants to buy it and asked us to reserve it for her. Price isn't an issue; she'll take it no matter the cost."

We'd be happy if you sold the house to her. If you sold it to her, we wouldn't have to worry. If you sold it to Zhao Liuxi, he'd definitely open a shop there; anyone could see that. Then we wouldn't have a good life. You know, selling shops is my livelihood. If they open shops on your property, there would be two shops within ten steps of each other, and we'd never have peace!"

Su Lei grinned and said, "That would be so lively and competitive."

Me: "You can't joke like that. Just say it, don't take it seriously. If Xiaoyan buys it, she'll definitely not open the shop, so it won't stop you from making money. She just wants her son Xiao Guo to be able to get in and out on his tricycle for convenience."

We're family; you can't just watch the Zhao family men run a shop and ruin us."

Su Zhichun: "Then let's not sell it for now, let's put it aside for later."

After they left, Zhiqiang and I said, "It seems like they might sell the house to the Zhao family. Let's go talk to the old man and ask him to tell them not to sell it to the Zhao family. Tonight, we'll close the shop early and go to my father-in-law to tell him about my third sister selling the house and what we're worried about."

After listening, the father-in-law remained expressionless and recited: "When it rains, the ground slips; when you fall, you get up on your own. Relatives and friends lend a hand; wine for wine, tea for tea." After finishing the set of verses, he fell silent.

We returned with trepidation, not knowing when misfortune would strike.

About three weeks later, it started to drizzle from morning until three in the afternoon. When the rain stopped, I went outside and looked up at the sky. The sky was full of dark clouds, moving rapidly.

I turned around uneasily: "Screech—" A taxi stopped in front of me.

The car door opened, and a foot in a bright red high heel stepped down. Looking up, one could see a woman in a black, high-elasticity, tight-fitting long dress, with a long chain handbag tucked into her waistband, and her yellowish-brown hair piled on top of her head.

A very stylish and fashionable woman.

I exclaimed in surprise, "Sis, you're here! Come in!"

Su Zhichun straightened his back and said coldly, "No, I'm here today to write some paperwork with Uncle Zhao. The house has been sold to him."

As she spoke, she clattered along in her high heels, swinging her arms as she entered Zhao Liuxi's house.

My heart skipped a beat. A chill ran down my spine; what I feared most had come to pass. I wonder what they were thinking.

The next morning, I was awakened by the loud clattering of shovels.

Upon going outside, they saw Zhao Liuxi leveling the ground. There used to be a coal shed more than two meters wide between Su Zhichun's house and the road. Zhao Liuxi was removing the coal shed to build a brick house; his intentions were quite clear.

Judging from Zhao Liuxi's eagerness, my heart immediately tightened.

He told passersby that the house was bought for his third son, and that he would level the land and build a house for his son and his wife to open a shop.

Zhao Liuxi was a carpenter, and with his four sons, eldest daughter-in-law Yang Min, and third daughter-in-law Liu Cai, the whole family pitched in. They hired two bricklayers and, on a Sunday, they finished building the small house in one day.

To increase the living space, they also buried the drainage ditch and pipes under the houses. They carved a doorway out of the eastern hillside of the two main houses, connecting it to the adjacent buildings. They removed the original partitions in the courtyard, making it a single, continuous space.

Within a week, the paint was applied, the shelves were stocked, and the business opened for business.

The family immediately became arrogant. When Su Long and his friends went to play under her window, Zhao Daya yelled at Su Long, "Go back to your house!"

Zhao Liuxi and Liu Cai never left the shop, and the other seven or eight people would surround them and help them sell goods whenever they had time.

Liu Cai mainly recruits young people to play mahjong, and if there's not enough room in the outer room, they put it in the inner room.

Zhao Liuxi placed a table by the front door, along with a teapot and teacups. He sat down at the table, a toothpick stuck in his mouth. He greeted everyone he met, "Sit down and have some water. What are you doing here?"

A passerby said, "If you keep giving away free tea, aren't you losing money?"

Zhao Liuxi: "Don't worry. What do we need to spend our monthly salaries on? I pay for the three of us every day when we need to buy goods."

Three months have passed in the blink of an eye, and their series of actions have not brought us down.

When sales declined, I took on odd jobs like hemming trousers, and my income was about the same as before.

Seeing that this approach wouldn't achieve his goal, Zhao Liuxi devised another wicked scheme. He spent two hundred yuan a night to hire a large troupe of Yangko dancers. Every evening after dinner, they would perform around his house, with gongs and drums placed near my house. The Yangko troupe would parade past my door and windows, filling the entire road and causing traffic jams and a smoky, chaotic atmosphere.

People walking can't get through, and people coming to buy goods or make phone calls can't get in.

A customer, in a hurry, squeezed through the crowd of people performing the folk dance to call the other end of the line, covering one ear and shouting, "Hello! Hello!" but the other person couldn't hear him. A few minutes later, he angrily slammed down the phone and left.

My heart was pounding with anger. How could anyone be so humiliating!

Is it possible to provide a platform for evildoers to attack one's own brother?

sorrow

These neighbors, so close they're practically inseparable, suddenly decided to ruin us for profit. The whole family got involved. Who set the stage for them? My elder sister, their closest relative.

Did Su Lei and Su Zhichun do this on purpose? I don't understand.

I've never heard that Su Zhichun and Su Zhiqiang don't have the same parents, so how could something like this happen? If they were short of money, I could understand, but their family had a fortune of millions a few years ago.

If there were past grudges, it would be understandable, but they are truly siblings, with no animosity between them.

We have neither the ability nor the opportunity to compete with them.

They've made their money and moved away, isn't that enough? Do they have to ruin us to make them happy? Do they have to plunge us into misery?

Su Lei was already "swaying sideways with a carrying pole at his waist," and he wasn't satisfied yet?

Don't they have any compassion in their hearts?

One day, two days, three days passed, and Zhao Liuxi's family did this every day. I was so angry that my heart was pounding and I couldn't stop.

My heart was pounding and my chest was trembling; I couldn't lie still. I looked at the clock; it was midnight.

There was no other way; I had to get up at midnight, get dressed, and walk around the shops and alleyways.

Under the dim moonlight, the roads and alleys were deserted. No one knew how deep the hurt I suffered from the contempt and oppression.

How can we stop Zhao Liuxi's evil deeds?

Ask Zhiqiang to call Su Zhichun and ask him to tell Zhao Liuxi to stop doing this. Maybe that will work.

I got back to my room at 2 a.m., but my heart was still pounding and I couldn't lie down. I sat up until dawn.

Another gloomy day began. I said to Zhiqiang, "Call your older sister and ask her to talk to Zhao Liuxi."

After several agonizing days, I noticed that Zhiqiang's eyes were sunken. I desperately hoped that the devilish Yangko dance wouldn't happen again tonight.

But just as I finished washing the dishes after dinner, the sound of gongs and drums suddenly rang out. My heart pounded wildly, as if it were about to burst out of my chest.

Helpless, panicked, angry, and utterly exhausted, he leaned against the doorframe. Zhiqiang fumbled around, wiping here and there.

Was it that Su Zhichun didn't say anything, or that Zhao Liuxi wouldn't listen?

I was furious and stormed out. At that moment, Liu Cai was shaking her head and wiggling her hips to the beat of the drum.

I stood in front of her: "Stop! Stop! You devil! Do you think this is appropriate?"

Liu Cai: "What's wrong with it? If I don't ruin you guys, I'll be letting down the 35,000 I spent. If you're angry, go talk to your eldest sister-in-law." After saying that, she turned around and "twisted" away again.

I went back inside, reflecting on Liu Cai's words. It turned out they had spent 35,000 yuan on this house, which was far above the market price. No wonder they were so desperate to bankrupt us.

Su Lei and Su Zhichun ignored our requests and insisted on selling the house to them. They took advantage of our purchase for Xiao Yan and Zhao Liuxi's eagerness to open a shop to drastically reduce the price.

They're happy to see us struggling in dire straits.

Su Lei has small features and thin lips. His small eyes, which hide a thieving glint, reveal an extremely dark heart.

Four days, five days, six days—it felt like an eternity to us.

I said to Zhiqiang, "Why don't you call your uncle? Let him stop him; maybe that will work."

It was after dinner time again, and everything was quiet outside. Pedestrians and vehicles were moving freely, and everything had returned to normal.

Aunt Li from Daodong Hutong came to my house and chatted with me: "Why didn't that family hire a Yangko dancer today? They do it every night, everyone's cursing them. They block the road, even two tricycles can't get in the alley. They just want to put those things in a spacious spot—they block the road, and people are waiting to go home in the evenings. They're not properly blocking the road, who wouldn't be annoyed!"

Me: "Yeah, it drove all the people making phone calls away!"

Aunt Li: "They even recruit people to play mahjong every day and take a cut. Sometimes there are even big games! There's also a place in the north with a coin-operated gambling machine. I heard they can make twenty a day. That stuff doesn't cost any money or effort."

I said, "I won't do it, no matter how much money you make. A few days ago, that guy—let's not name him—came to discuss putting a slot machine here, offering benefits. When he saw we weren't interested, he even said, 'Our Public Security Bureau has someone protecting you, guaranteeing you won't get into trouble.' I said we still won't do it. We'd rather go bankrupt than betray our conscience. We should be upright. We'll help whoever we can, and if we can't, we won't cause trouble."

Aunt Li: "That's right! Good people are still around!"