Xikang Street in Qingshan District is an old neighborhood that existed before the founding of Xinhai City, and old Shikumen buildings are crowded on both sides of the narrow streets.

In the mid-to-early 90s, Xikang Street was quite dilapidated, but with the renovation of the old city again and again, the old houses of Xikang Street have become the characteristic Shikumen buildings of Xinhai and have been preserved, and the neighborhood has become neat and clean, which has a unique flavor.

By mid-November, the leaves of the sycamore tree had begun to wither for a few days, and the branches and leaves had become sparse.

Standing in front of his small courtyard, looking at the locked courtyard door, Cao Mo, who had just gotten out of the taxi with two suitcases, was a little worried.

If I knew it, I wouldn't have played any surprises.

Call Jiaying in advance to tell him the time to come back, maybe Jiaying can still skip class for a day, and then drag the old woman to the airport to pick him up.

"You figure it out by yourself, I'll go home first! Don't forget that you have to report back to the company tomorrow, and don't forget the conditions you promised me!" Song Yuqing, who came out of the airport and took a taxi with her, saw Cao Mo trapped outside her house, and waved her snow-white wrist gloatingly, so she directly ordered the taxi driver to leave.

Although today is Sunday, after Jia Ying is in her second year of high school, there is basically no day off, and she should have gone to school to make up for classes at this time, and the old woman must not know which house to play cards to.

Cao Mo touched the eaves a few times, but didn't see Jiaying hiding the key there, looked up at the courtyard wall three or four meters high and the plane tree less than one meter apart next to it, or according to the old method before leaving home, first climbed the tree, climbed the courtyard wall, and jumped into the yard.

But he jumped into the yard and was a little confused.

His house is a more traditional old Shikumen house, with a two-story brick building with two bays in the main house, and a small wing room in front and back of the east wall, which serves as a kitchen and bathroom respectively.

The vestibule is a small courtyard of more than ten square meters.

The back patio is smaller, and there was a well in the early years, but after the tap water, the well was filled in, but the back patio courtyard was only ten square meters, surrounded by a high and steep courtyard wall, as if the bottom of the well watching the sky.

In the early years, this small courtyard had only four rooms except for the kitchen hall, and his family shared with his uncle's two families, plus his grandfather was also alive at that time, a total of nine people, very narrow and crowded.

His aunt was full of desire to kick his family out of the small courtyard, and there was no less trouble at first, but later it was his uncle who made a fortune in the home textile business, bought a commercial house near the second ring road and moved out, and this small courtyard was all returned to his family.

His grandmother originally lived with his uncle, but after his father's accident, she moved back to this small courtyard to take care of his brothers and sisters.

When he first started to work, Jia Ying was only in his first year of junior high school, he had to work again, and he was busy studying on his own, and the old woman was not a person who could clean up, so the yard was very messy.

Three years ago, even if the yard was not full of clutter, it was by no means the appearance of planting creeping roses and moon seasons against the courtyard wall in front of me, and the brick road was still planted with lawns!

There is also a small pomegranate tree in the yard, and the heavy pomegranate fruit is hanging from the tip less than a meter high.

The walls of the wings and halls were also whitewashed, and a small round rattan table was placed under the vine trellises.

The old woman is not a diligent person, it's good to gamble, Jia Ying complains all day long that the school knows that she knows to make up classes, and she doesn't sleep enough, and his dad shouldn't have been released from prison - he forgot when his dad was released from prison, but if he is out of prison, it is impossible for Jia Ying not to say it on QQ.

Turned over the wrong yard?

Cao Mo can only think so, open the courtyard door from the yard, and go out to see the house number, that's right, his home is No. 188 Xikang Road?

Cao Mo was about to pull the suitcase into the yard first, and then step into the yard, when a black shadow greeted him at the door - Cao Mo subconsciously raised his foot and kicked it sideways.

When I saw that it was two girls who shouted "catch the thief" in their mouths, it was too late for him to collect his feet, and at that moment he kicked a girl wrapped in a big bath towel out two meters, and sat on the ground with a buttocks, and the big bath towel spread out, revealing the body of a white flower.

"Catch the hooligans, catch the thieves!" another girl waved the broom handle at Cao Mo's face, and shouted loudly, but she shouted fiercely, "Don't come here, we have already called the police, you still have time to escape now, the police will come in less than two minutes......"

"You're ......"

Cao Mo remembered that the girl he kicked away was Cheng Xi's classmate, but he couldn't remember her name for a while.

At this time, he understood what was going on, it must be Jiaying who rented the extra room in the house to these two girls but didn't say a word to him.

When he climbed over the wall and came in, one of the girls was supposed to be taking a shower, and in a hurry another girl was pulled out to catch the thief, wearing nothing but a pair of panties and a large bath towel, and her hair was still wet......

"Look at it, poke your thief's eye!" Another girl beckoned to Cao Mo in the face with a broom handle, blocking the girl behind her, and weakly preventing Cao Mo from approaching them with any other intentions.

"Are you all Cheng Xi's classmates? That, what's your name, Cheng Xi was a freshman, and I went to your school...... " Cao Mo turned his head to the side and said to the sleek girl.

"Chen Chang, he is Cao Jiaying's brother Cao Mo," the girl also recognized Cao Mo at this time, hurriedly covered her chest, picked up the bath towel, wrapped her body, and said with some grievances, "My name is Yu Jing, don't call Yu anything!"

"Yes, yes, yes, I remember that your name is Yu Jing, you and Cheng Xi are in the same dormitory, Cheng Xi was a freshman, I went to your school, and you and Cheng Xi invited me to eat in your school cafeteria - why do you all live in my house?" Cao Mo saw Yu Jing come out to catch the thief directly wrapped in a bath towel but he looked at it, and another girl named Chen Chang also looked at home in pajamas and pajamas.

"It hurts! We live here, and we all pay the rent-" Yu Jing was so aggrieved that she was about to cry, and she rubbed her chest for a while and felt a little stuffy and faintly painful, and complained, "Why didn't you go straight over the wall into the courtyard without saying a word, we thought we were a thief—aren't you in Africa, why did you come back suddenly? Your sister and Cheng Xi were both here yesterday, and they didn't say you were coming back!"

"Jiaying, she doesn't live here, where does she live with her grandmother?" Cao Mo was a little stunned, Jiaying didn't mention to him about moving out and renting out the house at all.

............

............

"Can you bear it, you haven't been back to the country for three years in Africa, and you don't know anything at home;

Yu Jing and Chen Chang came out with brooms to fight thieves, and they really called the police, and they also called Cheng Xi, and it was not easy to deal with the police at this time.

Cao Mo knew that he was at a loss, so he squatted in the corner of the yard, and Ren Chengxi counted him.

After dropping out of school, Cheng Xi initially took the initiative to contact him and ask him to help with something, but later Cao Mo ignored the two and stopped meeting.

Suddenly, three years and six months have passed since the last time we met.

At this time, Cheng Xi was wearing a light coffee-colored professional skirt, long hair tied behind his shoulders with strips of cloth, high heels, black stockings, although his face was still a little innocent and childish, but he also had a bit of an urban beauty, but his face was still so delicate and bright, plucking people's heartstrings.

At that time, in addition to those who were in graduate school, everyone else also went into society and became social people.

"Brother!" A figure pushed away the yard and rushed over, before Cao Mo stood up, people had already pounced on him, "I guessed that you would come back in the next few days, I told my grandmother and Sister Cheng Xi yesterday, my father was released from prison, and you expect to return to China!"

Cao Mo was full of shame, he didn't know when his father would be released from prison, but he didn't have the face to ask at this time.

"Why did you move out with your grandmother?" Cao Mo asked suspiciously, "What's going on in this yard, how did you clean it up like this?"

"Didn't I tell you? Last year, the water and electricity renovation of Xikang Street, the street subsidy funds installed sewage pipes for every household, and the bathroom was renovated at home, so I cleaned up the room and yard by the way, and I pulled my grandmother to do it," Cao Jiaying said proudly, "I thought about renting out the spare room at the beginning—— However, our yard was cleaned up, which was higher than the rent of the nearby houses, and then my grandmother took me to Grandma Xiaojiao's house on the front street to rent a room, and rented out our room, which can be more than 600 a month!"

Seeing Jiaying lying without blinking, Cao Mo didn't take her seriously, so the old woman didn't slam the door like this!

He asked angrily: "Isn't my salary card all with you, the money in the salary card should be enough for you, why do you deduct so much money a month?"

"What if something happens to you and your father, and you have to pay a lot of money to others?

Cao Mo was inexplicably sad.

Four years ago, his father was given a light sentence, and he was finally acquitted, but he still paid 300,000 yuan before the matter was settled. He didn't take Chen Rong's money at that time, nor did he ask his uncle to go to the door, and lost all the savings that his father had in his hands over the years, and the family became poor.

"Jiaying can bear it," Cheng Xi stood aside and ruthlessly exposed Cao Jiaying's lies, and said, "Not only did she rent out this yard, but she would also rent the three nearby yards for a long time at a low price, hire someone to renovate them, and then rent them out to make the difference - she told me that you asked her to do it, and lied to me, Yu Jing, and Chen Chang to give her free volunteer work." Yesterday I also told me that more and more people are traveling to Shanghai now, after the renovation of Xikang Street, from time to time there are tourists who come to take pictures, rent a few yards to renovate as homestays, short-term rental designations can make a lot of money, and said that this is your idea, even the funds for the homestay, you have given her - I have now figured out that you brothers and sisters do not have a good thing, full of lies......"

"Ahh

Cao Mo noticed that Jiaying's jeans were stained with some white ash, where was she going to school to make up classes and hurriedly came back? And she was obviously nearby just now, and when she received the call, she was stunned for twenty minutes before pretending to rush back from school with an excited face, his almost telepathic intuition, he didn't see it just now!