Chapter 272 - 210: Work, Not... (4)
"Where’s Li Daya’s house?"
"W-who are you? What do you want with the captain?"
CLICK—!
Zhao Wendong shoved the muzzle of his Type 56 carbine right into the man’s mouth.
"S-straight ahead, end of the road, turn left."
𝘧𝘳𝘦ℯ𝓌𝘦𝒷𝘯𝑜𝑣𝘦𝓁.𝒸𝘰𝓂
The villager immediately and obediently led the way, cursing his bad luck inwardly. ’Li Daya must have gotten into trouble,’ he thought. ’They’re here to arrest him. I just don’t know what he did. Was it that business with the two widows, or something else? Could he have embezzled grain?’
Following the villager’s directions, the large truck pulled right up to the front door of Li Daya, the captain of the Li Village Production Team. Li Daya heard the noise and had just thrown on some clothes to check outside when he was grabbed and hauled onto the truck.
"Hey, Zhao Weiguo, what the hell are you doing? We’ve always been on good terms! Are you here to arrest me?"
"Shut up. Daya, take a look at who this is."
Zhao Weiguo stepped aside, revealing Zhao Wendong behind him. Li Daya’s eyes went wide, and his asshole clenched. He recognized this man. He had just seen him with Yang Wenxue at the market a few days ago. Nowadays in Qianjin Commune, Yang Wenxue could shout his lungs out and nothing would happen, but if the man standing before him so much as stomped his foot, the entire Commune would tremble.
"Oh, Captain Zhao, what brings you here? If there’s anything you need Li Daya to do, just say the word."
"Get on the truck and we’ll talk."
Zhao Wendong pulled Li Daya directly onto the truck. By the time they arrived at the home of Zhao Damei’s husband, Li Heihu, Li Daya had heard the whole story and was left speechless. ’The Li family...’ he thought. ’How could they stir up this much trouble right before the New Year? They’re like an old man hanging himself on his birthday—tired of living.’
The moment the truck stopped, the villager who had been forced to lead the way—and gotten a front-row seat to all the drama—scurried off and vanished. Just as Zhao Wendong and the others stepped into the house, a huge, noisy crowd of onlookers from the Li Village Production Team had already formed and was rushing toward Li Heihu’s home.
Inside Li Heihu’s house, a calm-faced Zhao Ergou stood protectively in front of his older sister, Zhao Damei. Zhao Damei sat weakly on the kang bed, holding the hand of a two- or three-year-old girl while cradling an infant in her arms. In his hand, Zhao Ergou brandished a kitchen knife. The moment the conflict erupted and he saw Sanwazi run out, Zhao Ergou knew his Brother San would come to save them. So, he grabbed the knife and stood guard by the kang, trying to buy time. The Li family didn’t know they had come by truck. ’As long as I can stall for a bit, things will be fine once Brother San gets here.’
"Er Gou, what do you think you’re doing?"
Li Heihu’s father glared at Zhao Ergou and the kitchen knife in his hand, his expression grim. "To have someone cause a scene in our Li family... it’s a huge loss of face for me." Standing menacingly behind him were several people: Li Heihu’s mother, his eldest and second-eldest brothers, and his fourth-youngest brother. Each of them stared daggers at Zhao Ergou. Zhao Ergou’s brother-in-law, Li Heihu, stood anxiously between the two groups, a look of turmoil on his face, torn between his own family on one side and his wife and brother-in-law on the other.
"Not doing anything. But I won’t let you bully my sister. As her brother, I absolutely will not allow it."
"Heh, you little bastard, we give you an inch and you take a mile, don’t you? You and your brother, a couple of bean sprouts, think you can come to the Lis’ home and stir up trouble? Hey, where’d that little brat Sanwazi run off to?"
After sneeringly cursing at Zhao Ergou, Li Heihu’s mother finally noticed that Sanwazi had slipped away and vanished in the chaos.
"He couldn’t have gone to find the captain, could he?"
The wife of the Lis’ eldest son reminded them worriedly. Earlier, Zhao Ergou had been worried that parking the large truck right at the door would be seen as showing off, so he had specifically asked Niu Yuesheng to park it farther away. He and Sanwazi had then walked over, carrying the fish. Unexpectedly, this had worked in their favor. The Li family had no idea that Sanwazi had run off to get reinforcements.