Siheyuan: The Counterattack of Passerby

Lin Geng did not disturb him. He just drank tea and smoked quietly, letting Yan Bugui sit there and slowly digest what he had just said.

He had said this much and there was nothing more to say. If Yan Bugui was still stubborn and continued like this after this conversation, then he could only sigh.

Yan Bugui sat at the table for a long time. The cigarette between his fingers burned out little by little until it burned his fingers. The sharp pain from his fingers woke him up. Yan Bugui screamed and quickly threw the cigarette butt between his index and middle fingers to the ground, and instinctively put his fingers into his mouth to blow on it.

Lin Geng looked at Yan Bugui's miserable appearance and couldn't help but smile. He stood up and scooped some cold water from a basin and placed it in front of Yan Bugui, asking Yan Bugui to put his finger in the basin. This temporarily stopped the pain for Yan Bugui.

After the pain in Yan Bugui's fingers eased, he was still in a mess inside. Every word Lin Geng said seemed to pierce his heart, like a nail, wedged into his chest, making him feel so heartbroken that he could hardly breathe.

The heartache he felt this time was not the same as the one he felt when he bought groceries and wine just now. Instead, it was a pain brought about by fear from the depths of his soul. He kept asking himself in his heart, was it really wrong for him to persist for so many years?

At this moment, the faces of his four children flashed through his mind. When the faces of Yan Jiecheng, Yan Jiefang, Yan Jiekuang and Yan Jiedi flashed through his mind one by one, he suddenly realized a problem. He seemed unable to remember the smiling faces of these children. All he could remember were their sad expressions.

In addition, sometimes he could see a subtle hint of disgust deep in the eyes of these children, mixed with a hint of contempt. He didn't care about it before, but now thinking back on the complex expressions in the eyes of these children, he suddenly realized that he might really be wrong.

He has always run his family according to the principles of fairness, justice, diligence and thrift, and believes that as long as he is fair, there will be no problem.

So when he was eating at home, even if he was eating pickles, he would count clearly how many pieces each person had. Even if he was eating peanuts, he would divide them clearly for each person. If possible, even if he was eating a plate of shredded potatoes, he would divide them by the root as much as possible.

Was he wrong to do this? At first he didn't think so, but after hearing what Lin Geng said to him today, he suddenly felt that he seemed to have done something wrong.

Especially when he thought about the fact that when he and his wife get old, their children would ignore them and leave them to die alone, lying in bed with no one paying attention to them, Yan Bugui shuddered and became suddenly frightened. The more he thought about it, the more scared he became.

Finally, Yan Bugui could not sit still anymore. He tried to stand up tremblingly, but his legs were so weak that he could not stand up after two attempts. In the end, he had to hold on to the table and barely stood up. He walked towards the door with a dull look in his eyes, like a zombie.

Lin Geng also stood up, helped him up, and said to him: "Teacher Yan, I can say that everything is easy. Yu Li and I will not go to your house for lunch. You and Aunt Yan should think carefully about what I said to you today. As long as you change now, it is not too late and we can still be good neighbors.

But if you two still insist on your wrongdoings, then even if we reconcile this time, we will fall out again sooner or later! Go back and think about it carefully!"

After saying this, Lin Geng sent Yan Bugui out. He watched Yan Bugui walk back to the front yard with unsteady steps, as if he had lost his soul.

When Yan Bugui returned home, his wife was busy preparing food. Seeing Yan Bugui coming back, she asked him, "Have you told him? Will he come to dinner?"

Yan Bugui still looked distraught. He fell into a chair as soon as he entered the room. His eyes were still somewhat distracted. When he heard his wife's question, he just shook his head slightly and said absentmindedly, "He's not coming!"

When Yan Bugui's wife heard that Lin Geng was not coming, she immediately became unhappy again, so she said to Yan Bugui: "What else does he want? We have come this far, what else does he want? Does he have to fight to the death with our family?

We have bought so much meat and vegetables, and killed the chickens. If he doesn't come, what will happen to these things? Won't they go bad? What a sin! What a sin!"

Yan Bugui finally came to his senses at this time. He glanced at his wife and said unhappily, "Isn't it just what you want him not to come? You're just worried that the food will go bad and you'll eat it. Why are you so long-winded?"

But Yan Bugui's wife had been with him for so many years, and had already learned all of Yan Bugui's calculations. When she heard this, she was immediately unhappy, so she grumbled to Yan Bugui: "How well-off is our family? Can we eat such good food? Normally we can have a fish, but this much meat and this chicken, is this something we can eat?

Otherwise, I will talk to Sha Zhu or Xu Damao and decide to sell the chicken and meat to them, and you can return the two bottles of Erguotou. Wouldn't that save money?

Yes, Lin Geng is so ungrateful that he doesn't come to eat, which saves our family some money! I'll put it away now and wait for Sha Zhu or Xu Damao to come back in the afternoon to sell it to them!"

Yan Bugui suddenly got angry at this time, and slammed the table and said angrily: "You stinky woman, you only know how to be stingy every day, why don’t we deserve to eat? The money is earned by me, why don’t we deserve to eat meat? You are scheming, you only know how to scheme every day, now Jie Cheng and Jiefang have been schemed away by us, are you planning to scheme Jie Cheng and Jie Di away as well, and wait until we are old and no one cares about us, and let us fend for ourselves, will you be satisfied?

Stew the chicken and fry the meat. We will eat them ourselves today! We won’t sell them to anyone else!”

Yan Bugui's wife was stunned by Yan Bugui's yelling. She stared at Yan Bugui blankly. After a long while, she tentatively reached out and touched Yan Bugui's forehead. She asked worriedly, "Old Yan, what's wrong with you today? Are you confused because of the fever?

Don't you think about life? You ate all that meat in one go. Don't you plan to save money for retirement?"

Yan Bugui angrily slapped away his wife's hand that was about to touch his forehead, and snorted coldly, "Take your hand away, I don't have a fever, I'm awake! I'm more awake today than ever before, but I was living like a dog at my age before!"

Yan Bugui's wife was immediately confused. She looked at Yan Bugui like a fool and asked him puzzledly, "Old Yan, what do you mean by this?"

Yan Bugui probably figured it out by now, so he looked at the door, waved his hand feebly and said, "Go close the door, and let's have a good chat!"