Siheyuan: I am the Smart Pillar

Lou Anping was slapped by his father, and he dared not say a word. He was very afraid of his father in his heart, so he had to lower his head and quickly confessed his mistake to Lou Zhenhua. The third son, Lou Zhenmin, sighed and said helplessly to his nephew, "Anping, you must put a bolt on your mouth in the future."

"It's not just you, Anping. All of you kids must be careful with your words and actions. Never say words that look down on others. I, your third uncle, am used to running around outside, and I know a lot of things. Is there a fight between landlords in the countryside right now? It can be said that the scale of the fight is very large. Now everyone is equal, whether we are the ones who carry manure or the farmers who grow crops, we are all comrades of the same class."

Lou Zhenhua nodded and said to the younger generations in the room, "In fact, our Lou family is nothing special. Just like what your third uncle said, our Lou family is just a large landlord. Our Lou family has never done anything against the will of heaven and earth. If it weren't for this, I'm afraid our Lou family would have been destroyed long ago just like those landlords."

Lou Anping wiped the sweat off his face. Although he was a dandy, he was not completely ignorant of the outside world. He had heard from his buddies who were born the same year as him that the current practice in rural areas was to fight the landlords. If you were classified as a landlord, then your life would definitely be over. Girls in the family would not be able to get married, and boys in the family would not be able to find a wife. He used to think that his brothers were exaggerating, but after listening to his uncle's words, he realized that, yes, isn't our Lou family a big landlord?

For the sake of his own life, Lou Anping nodded quickly. He promised his uncle, "Uncle, I will listen to you in the future. Isn't it just going to the Red Star Steel Rolling Mill? Others can work, so why can't we?" Lou Zhenhua nodded with satisfaction and said to Lou Anping with a smile, "Okay, this is a good boy of our Lou family. I will send you brothers to the factory tomorrow, and you must make good friends with the poor and lower-middle peasants."

Several young people nodded quickly. They naturally did not dare to disobey the words of their elders. After the family chatted for a few more words, Lou Zhenhua asked his wife to ask someone to cook. After a while, a table of delicacies from land and sea was served. Lou Zhenhua looked at the dishes on the table, thought about it, and said to his wife, "Yali, don't be so extravagant in the future?"

Tan Yali nodded, and immediately felt wronged. Tears flowed from the corners of her eyes. Lou Zhenhua said unhappily, "Why are you crying?" Tan Yali sighed and said, "I am sad. I am sad. How did our Lou family fall to such a state? You sent them medicines at the beginning, and you were almost caught by the Japanese. Isn't this a case of the cunning rabbit dying and the running dog being cooked?"

Lou Zhenhua's face was very ugly. He glared at his wife and said, "Don't talk nonsense. You must never say such things again. Let's eat the food first. After we finish eating, we can do what I just said. Also, Xiao'e, you kids must make more friends with good backgrounds. This will be good for you in the future."

Lou Xiao'e and other children nodded. They understood that Lou Zhenhua was doing this for their own good. Times change. Young men and young ladies like them used to be the daughters of various families. How could they make friends with those lowly servants? Although they were a little unhappy, they still wanted to accept it.

Far outside the city, in Qinjiazhuang, a big thing was also happening. A group of old men invited a master to perform a ritual, and he was sitting at the gate of the Hejia compound. The old men and women watching the excitement lowered their heads and whispered to each other, because during this period of time, every night, a low cry would be heard in the Hejia compound. The villagers in the village all thought there was a ghost here, and they were in a panic for a while.

Village chief Sun Tiehu is also a superstitious person. If the He family compound is allowed to continue to be haunted, the villagers will definitely be in a panic. If this matter is reported to the higher authorities, he, the village chief, will definitely be the one to suffer the consequences. There is no other way, so he went outside to find a master chef to exorcise the ghosts of the He family.

The master chef jumped around for more than half an hour, and his face looked very tired. The master chef said with a pale face, "Oh my, this ghost in here is really too difficult to deal with. I, the old Taoist priest, fought with him for hundreds of rounds, but I couldn't subdue him." The oldest Qin Sanye next to him was leaning on a cane and tremblingly said to the master, "Master, can you think of a way? This Hejia compound is howling every night, making our entire Qinjiazhuang unable to sleep well."

The master chef pretended to calculate, and Sun Tiehu beside him was very perceptive. He took out a pile of money with a smile and stuffed it into the master chef's hand. The master chef's face was very unhappy, and he pretended to say, "I am not greedy for your money. I will definitely contribute this money to the Three Pure Ones and the Great Master of Demon Subjugation."

The people around nodded one after another, and Sun Tiehu said charmingly, "Master, don't worry. If you can really finish all these things in the He family compound for us, the villagers in our Qinjiazhuang will definitely thank you. Of course, we will thank you very much."

The master chef nodded helplessly, sighed and said, "Forget it. It is the duty of those of us who practice Taoism to exorcise demons. Today, I, the old Taoist priest, will fight against these evil spirits in the yard. Who is afraid of who?" Sun Tiehu asked curiously, "Master chef, what kind of ghosts are in there? Why do they come to bully the simple people in our village?"

The old Taoist snorted coldly and said, "There are three ghosts here, an old lady and an old man. There is also a young man in his teens beside the old man. They all told me that it was the people from your Qinjiazhuang who forced them to death. Because their life span has not yet ended, they can only wander in the world of the living. Do you know the reason?"

Uncle Qin San said tremblingly, "Oh my, these are the old man and the old lady from the Laohe family who are here to settle accounts with us. I told you not to force people to death, but you just don't believe it. If we hadn't forced them like this in the first place, how could the whole family have hanged themselves? It's really a sin, a sin."