Siheyuan: Struggle in the Red Era

This year was quite exciting, and Lin Baoyan doesn't want to experience it again.

After the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, Lin Baoyan moved to a newly built community near the Old Summer Palace. Her external identity was a distant relative of a professor at the nearby Agricultural University. She came here to live with her family because there was no one left at home.

After moving here, Lin Baoyan was admitted to the third grade of junior high school and moved into the school dormitory.

"Student Li Xiang, your dormitory is here. Please stay here first. After you have packed up, go to the Academic Affairs Office." Teacher Cao, who was in charge of arranging student accommodation, took Lin Baoyan to a dormitory for ten people, explained the situation to her, and left.

"Hello, classmates. I'm Li Xiang, the transfer student this year. I'm in Class 3, Grade 3. Sorry to bother you." Lin Baoyan put down the bedding she was carrying and greeted the children in the dormitory.

"Hello, I'm Fang Nan, from my class one. This is your bed." A tall girl stepped out, pointed at the upper bunk near the door, and said enthusiastically, "Let us help you make the bed."

The other two little girls also stood up and came to help her.

"Oh, thank you, thank you."

Lin Baoyan hadn't encountered such a warm reception for a long time. She quickly opened her backpack, took out a rag, and asked, "Student Fang, where can we get water here?"

Fang Nan slapped his head and said, "I forgot. I should clean the bed first. There is a water room over there. Did you bring the basin?"

Lin Baoyan bent down and took out the basin and said, "I brought it. I'll go get some water."

With the help of her classmates, Lin Baoyan quickly settled down in the dormitory and began her ordinary student life.

The school is located in the suburbs and most of the students enrolled are from the surrounding villages and towns. Therefore, the school has one and a half days off per week. Those who live far away from home may only go home once every two or three weeks or even a month, while those who live close to home can go back once a week.

Lin Baoyan visits her cousin's house once a week.

It was soon the end of April and the weather was getting warmer. Lin Baoyan prepared to take the thick quilt back home and replace it with a thinner one.

After finishing classes in the morning, Lin Baoyan returned to the dormitory, put on the quilt she had packed in the morning, and prepared to leave.

Fang Nan looked at the quilt on her back and asked in confusion, "Why are you carrying the quilt home?"

Lin Baoyan said: "My quilt is too thick. I want to change to a thinner one so that I won't keep kicking it off when I sleep at night."

Fang Nan was extremely envious: "Your uncle is so good to you. He even prepared several sets of quilts for you. Doesn't your aunt have any objections? Your uncle's children don't have several sets of quilts as well, do they? Are they so rich? What do they do? Where did they get so many cotton and cloth coupons?"

Lin Baoyan did not answer her, but just smiled at her and said, "I'm leaving. See you next week." Then she opened the door and went out.

It's not that she doesn't want to communicate more with her classmates, it's just that Fang Nan, at first glance, seems very enthusiastic, but at second glance, too enthusiastic. He always likes to pry into other people's privacy, and seems to be very similar to her former classmate Huang Xiaolan. However, Huang Xiaolan never asks about her classmates' family background and relatives. What she knows is all heard from gossip, not from asking around.

Therefore, Lin Baoyan usually keeps her distance from Fang Nan.

Lin Baoyan did not go directly to the Agricultural University to visit her relatives, but returned to her own house in the community first.

Not long after she moved in, she started living in the school dormitory. She didn't know her neighbors very well. She just nodded and greeted familiar and unfamiliar people along the way and then arrived at her own courtyard.

The yard is very small, with only two houses, located in the westernmost corner. There is a wall behind it and a depression outside the wall. The residents on the east side are our own family, and the residents in the front are at least seven or eight meters away.

In short, as long as you don't get too close to Lin Baoyan's house, everything you say and do inside is kept secret.

Lin Baoyan pushed open the courtyard door, walked into the room, took out the key and prepared to open the door, but suddenly paused, put away the key, took two steps back, turned around and wanted to run.

Wu Zhi's lazy voice came from behind: "It's me, why are you running?"

Lin Baoyan rolled her eyes. How could this person just go into someone else's house without even saying hello and just walk into the room?

She opened the door and entered the house.

Wu Zhi was like a big boss, leaning on the chair in her house, throwing something into his mouth from time to time.

She turned around and saw a large plate on the table next to her, half filled with peanut crisps.

"Do you know you're wrong?"

Wu Zhi threw another peanut biscuit into his mouth: "You reacted too slowly just now. You walked to the door and was about to open it before you noticed the abnormality at the door."

Lin Baoyan admitted her mistake: "I didn't expect anyone to come."

"This is not an excuse. Let's not talk about what happened before. Just because you are here now doesn't mean you are safe. You have to be vigilant at all times, because you never know when someone might come out and attack you." Wu Zhiyue spoke, his voice becoming more serious.

"If I were the criminal just now, you would be dead now."

Lin Baoyan lowered her head and admitted that Wu Zhi was right. After moving here, her vigilance had indeed decreased rapidly.

"We chose this place to facilitate our communication. Now it seems that we made a wrong choice. This place is actually quite convenient for criminals to kill people and destroy the bodies."

Wu Zhi grabbed another handful of peanut crisps, looked at Lin Baoyan's lowered head and said, "If you are still so unguarded, we have to consider whether to move you to another place."

Lin Baoyan quickly raised her head and assured: "No, I will be more vigilant in the future, and what happened today will never happen again. You don't need to find a place for me anymore."

Wu Zhi stared at her and said, "I hope you can keep your word. You should know that," he nodded to the east, "it's still a mess there."

During the Chinese New Year, something went wrong in the place where Fang Daming was imprisoned. Someone wanted to kidnap or kill Fang Daming.

Fortunately, Fang Daming was in exactly five minutes at that time, and he managed to kill the robber before the rescuers arrived.

At that time, the place was quickly closed for investigation. Many staff members of Transport Department 9 were unable to go to Lin Baoyan's villa for various reasons. Then Li Mei suddenly canceled her leave and returned to the villa to inform Lin Baoyan that she had to go for a latest examination.

Fortunately, he and Zhou Kangzhan reminded Lin Baoyan on New Year's Eve, and she was still smart. She agreed at that time and went back to the room to get gloves, but she shrank into the space and didn't come out.

When everything was settled, Lin Baoyan was also transferred.

In the past two or three years, the noise made by Transport Department 9 has been getting bigger and bigger, and the things they have produced have been getting better and better, causing all the departments to be eyeing them for benefits. As more and more people know about it, its secrecy and security have become lower and lower.

On the contrary, Lin Baoyan's value is now getting higher and higher, and it is no longer something that Transport Department 9 can handle alone. Transport Department 9 can only let go and let the higher authorities take over Lin Baoyan's placement.

The previous configuration of separate villas and guards can no longer be used. It is too conspicuous. It is better to hide it among the crowd.

So, Lin Baoyan became Li Xiang and studied here quietly for more than two months. She was an ordinary student, just like other students in the class.