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墨書 Inktalez
Village Chief Song Jianguo hung up the phone and locked the phone box. This was the only phone in the village, and whenever someone needed to make a call, they had to find the village chief to unlock it.
After locking the phone box, Song Jianguo looked up at the room full of people waiting for his instructions and asked in confusion, "Why are you still here? Didn't I tell you to go catch that guy from the city?"
Standing closest to him was Wang Baoguo, the captain of the village security team. He had a good relationship with Song Shiting and did not agree with the village's forceful demolition. So when he was chasing after Song Pearl and Zhang Yunye earlier, he had lagged behind. When he turned back, he was at the front of the group.
When Song Jianguo looked at him, Wang Baoguo felt a bit guilty and instinctively lowered his head.
The others did not share Wang Baoguo's self-awareness.
They were still fuming from early in the morning. They had just returned home and barely settled into bed when the village chief knocked on their door, calling them out to catch someone.
In the end, they didn't catch anyone. As soon as the village chief saw that tall young cadre, he said nothing and led everyone back to call the county repair shop to come fix their vehicle.
"Chief, if you think we can't handle it, let's not bother," said Song Dali, whose square face was flushed. "We put a lot of effort into deflating their tires last night, and now we're calling a repair shop to fix it? This isn't how you play around!"
Song Jianguo realized what Song Dali meant. Why did he come back to make a phone call? He even flipped through half of the phone book to find the repair shop's number and called them to tow the vehicle?
They had agreed last night to hold him for a while and release him after demolishing his house. He had damaged their bulldozer tires; deflating his car tires should have been evened out. So why did he call? There was an uneasy feeling in his heart.
"Did those two bulldozers sent by Hongqing Group get flat tires last night? I'll make another call," Song Jianguo said as he took out his keys again. He unlocked it and dialed a number, but after several rings with no answer, he reluctantly hung up. "Are Jiantao and those guys injured badly? Let's go check on them."
Song Jiantao was the secretary of the brigade and a relative of Song Jianguo. In Song Family Village, aside from a few families with different surnames, most villagers shared the surname Song. However, over generations, even among those with the same surname, they weren't very close anymore; many had moved away.
Over the past thirty years, it was Song Jianguo's family that had truly grown strong. His grandfather had six brothers; his father had twelve siblings; now in Song Jianguo's generation, there were already twenty male cousins.
Song Jianguo's father was fifth in line among his siblings; Secretary Song Jiantao was the third son of Song Jianguo's sixth uncle. After locking Zhang Yunye in the conference room, he stayed there with a few others watching over her.
Originally, Song Jiantao had joked about Song Jianguo making a big deal out of nothing and thought there was no need to keep anyone on guard. Little did he know that he and the four security personnel left behind were caught off guard by that young man who knocked them out with one kick.
After Song Jianguo opened the door and woke them up, both Song Jiantao and several others felt sore all over but thankfully were not seriously injured. They saw that young man lying outside by the car while Song Pearl stood beside it; none dared approach again and asked Song Jianguo to call for help instead.
Now seeing that Song Jianguo had returned with four or five people, Song Jiantao knew that Song Jianguo had also suffered losses.
"What's going on? You didn't manage to deal with that young punk either?" Song Jiantao asked.
"What's wrong with that kid? He hasn't done anything at all!" Song Jianguo sat at the long table, his brows furrowed. "I think this Girl named Pearl is a bit strange..."
"What's going on?" Song Jiantao asked.
"Do you remember when your wife was scammed out of thirty thousand yuan two years ago?" Song Jianguo exhaled a puff of smoke and asked Song Jiantao.
"How could I forget? I worked hard selling pigs, sheep, and peanuts to save up for a house for Big Baby, and before I could even deposit it..." Song Jiantao clenched his teeth in anger at the memory. His wife nearly regretted it to the point of drinking pesticide.
"Those two scammers said a couple of things to your wife, and she went home and handed over all the money," Song Jianguo continued. "We didn't believe it then, but now I do."
"What do you mean?" Song Jiantao looked at Song Jianguo warily, excitement flashing in his eyes. "Are you saying that the person Pearl brought is connected to those scammers? Could they be in cahoots?"
"Don't rush me; I'm just speculating. Let's eat first, and later we can bring more people to Song Shiting's house. When the time comes, keep your distance from Song Pearl and that tall guy to prevent any trouble," Song Jianguo extinguished his cigarette and tossed the butt into the glowing coals of the stove.
Liu Cuiying finished feeding the pigs and called for Song Pearl and Zhang Yunye to wash their hands for dinner.
She began to complain to Song Pearl, "I told you to go to the county hospital to see your dad first, but you insisted on coming back and got us into this big mess..."
Song Pearl kept her head down and ate without responding to Liu Cuiying's words. However, Zhang Yunye couldn't hold back. "Auntie, that's not fair. From what I saw last night, if Pearl hadn't come back, your house might have been flattened by now!"
"It's good that she came back, but you all caused this mess... It's lucky that the village chief hasn't sent anyone over yet," Liu Cuiying sighed as she picked up some pickled vegetables and added a green onion to her pancake.
"Is Shi Ting home?"
Just as Liu Cuiying took a bite of her pancake without chewing, she heard the village chief Song Jianguo's voice at the door. She stood up with her pancake in hand and opened the door to find the village chief and Secretary leading more than ten people into the yard.
"Village chief, have you all eaten? Why not come in and eat with us!" Liu Cuiying stepped out of the main room, greeting them warmly as if she hadn't been fighting with a fork just last night.
"No thanks. Is Pearl at home? This Girl has really made something of herself after studying outside for a few years!" Song Jianguo replied coolly.
"Oh, village chief, you're really flattering her. What has Pearl accomplished? It's just that our provincial officials are paying attention to people's lives; Pearl just happened to encounter it. You know how timid she is—she's afraid of strangers and hardly ever leaves the house!"
Seeing that the village chief was targeting Song Pearl as soon as he entered, Liu Cuiying instinctively blocked the door.
"Let the pearl come out, we have something to discuss with her." Song Jiantao, lacking the patience of Song Jianguo, reached out to pull open the door to the main hall himself.
"You haven't been invited in yet, so don't barge into someone else's home," Liu Cuiying snapped back, shoving Song Jiantao aside.
No one had emerged from the main hall yet, but many men, women, and children had gathered at the entrance of Song Shiting's house. Some hadn't even eaten yet, but for some reason, they had been thinking about coming to watch the commotion since they woke up that morning. They strained their ears to catch any sounds from outside.
When they noticed the village chief and the Secretary leading a large group through the village towards Song Shiting's house, these villagers instinctively followed at a distance.
At this moment, they completely forgot that just yesterday, no one wanted to get involved in this messy situation. Even Song Shiting's cousins had only come over reluctantly after Liu Cuiying begged and pleaded with them to help maintain appearances for a while.
"Oh dear, what's going on?" The villagers jostled and clamored together; they had never gathered like this before for a show.
The crowd of onlookers was impatiently hiding at the door, unsure who pushed whom as they surged into Song Shiting's yard.
"Hey, how did you all get in here? I'm telling you, keep an eye on your kids and don't take anything from our house during the chaos!" Liu Cuiying was quite unaccustomed to so many people flooding into her home; her front door was usually deserted. Were they really planning to tear down her house again?
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