Rumors spread quickly.
"Lin Wei fixed the drainage pipe in half an hour!""He's better than the repairmen—cheaper too!""Did you hear? He patched Old Zhang's roof in the dark!"
People began bringing him tasks—broken door hinges, cracked buckets, jammed drawers.
Every job strengthened him.
[Hard Work Recorded: Woodwork – 5 hours] → Skill Growth x30[Hard Work Recorded: Metalwork – 1 hour] → Skill Growth x12
Before long, someone joked that Lin Wei was the "Siheyuan Spirit"—quiet, hardworking, and everywhere at once.
But not everyone laughed.
Liu Fang watched from a distance, gnawing her lower lip.She remembered mocking him for working too hard.Now the whole courtyard relied on him.
One late afternoon, she approached him while he kneeling by her family's courtyard gate, replacing a rusted hinge.
"You're different now," she murmured. "Stronger. Smarter. It's like… you changed overnight."
He tightened a screw."I'm just working hard."
She frowned. "People work hard all the time. It doesn't make them become you."
Lin Wei didn't reply.Some truths couldn't be spoken aloud.