That year the flowers bloomed 1981

Chapter 1429 The Fastest Way to Understand Human Nature
The next morning, Li Zhongfa, Li Ye, and Li Kaijian went to celebrate the first birthday of Lao Song's great-grandson.

Jin Peng happened to be home, so he invited Wang Jianqiang and Li Dayong to come over early and join in the fun.

Back when they all ventured to Beijing together, Jin Peng, Wang Jianqiang, and Li Dayong were Li Ye's trusted followers, while Lao Song, Tan Min, and Wei Jiaxian formed another small group. However, the two sides were mostly rivals in secret, but their relationship on the surface was quite good.

After getting in the car, Li Dayong asked, "Is Lao Song having a banquet at home today? Didn't he book a restaurant?"

As Li Ye drove, he said, "I asked yesterday, and they said they'd be having the banquet at home. They don't have many relatives; at most, it'll be a couple of tables of guests from the child's maternal grandparents' house."

Wang Jianqiang also said, "Yes, I've heard Lao Song say before that all his relatives have died."

While the brothers were talking, they didn't notice that Li Kaijian and Li Zhongfa next to them both had amusement on their faces.

Old Song's family lives in the urban-rural fringe area south of Qingshui County. They used to have only a few dilapidated houses without even a courtyard wall, but a couple of years ago they were rebuilt into a two-story villa. If they want to hold a banquet with five or six tables, they don't even need to set up in the courtyard.

However, when Li Ye and the others drove to the vicinity of Lao Song's house, they found that they couldn't even drive close enough. Lao Song's house was packed with people, just like a market, with tables even set up on the street.

Li Ye couldn't help but ask Wang Jianqiang, "Qiangzi, didn't you say that almost all of Lao Song's relatives are dead?"

How could Wang Jianqiang possibly answer that? He had been living in Beijing all these years and knew nothing about the situation in Qingshui County.

Li Zhongfa rolled his eyes at Li Ye: "Back then, the Song father and son were so poor they couldn't even afford to eat, so of course all their relatives died. Now that they've made a fortune, haven't all their relatives crawled out of their graves?"

"Hahahaha~"

Jin Peng and the others laughed. They had all encountered similar situations over the years, but the contrast before and after was not as stark as that between Old Song and his son.

Back then, Old Song and his grandson were truly struggling to make ends meet. The closer they were to each other, the more they would avoid them, for fear that Old Song would ask them for money or food.

To keep his grandson from going hungry, Old Song's silver tongue could fool even the most cunning ghosts.

Seeing Li Ye and his group's car arrive, the people at the gate hurriedly greeted them, "Factory Director Li is here, please make way!"

"What Director Li? He's the general manager now."

The Director Li that everyone is talking about is not Li Ye, but Li Kaijian.

The county fertilizer plant has undergone several expansions over the years and has long been renamed Qingshui Chemical Plant. Li Kaijian has also been promoted three times in a row to become the top leader, making him an extremely prominent figure in Qingshui County.

Hearing the commotion, Song Changchun, Old Song's grandson, rushed over from the yard, greeting Li Kaijian as "Uncle" repeatedly.

"Uncle Li, please come in. We've been waiting for you to start the meal. Grandpa Li, please come in quickly. My grandfather is upstairs watching the children and will be down shortly."

Over the years, Song Changchun has benefited greatly from Li Kaijian's care, so his calls of "uncle" and "grandpa" were sincere.

Li Kaijian gestured towards the people around him with his chin: "Changchun, are these all your relatives? I've never seen them before."

Song Changchun smiled awkwardly and said, "Some are relatives, some are friends. They all came to help after they heard that my grandfather came back."

"Ha, help me out!"

Li Kaijian sneered and stepped into the courtyard.

Following Li Kaijian's cold laugh, many people around him looked rather grim.

When they saw Li Zhongfa, Jin Peng, and others behind them, they felt even more uncomfortable.

If it weren't for these people protecting Li Changchun, they would have already reaped huge benefits from him.

Why are those two men from the Song family so lucky? And why is the Li family so hated?

As soon as Li Ye entered the courtyard, Old Song came down from the second floor and greeted Li Zhongfa and Li Kaijian with a smile, inviting them to take their seats.

Li Ye seized an opportunity to call Lao Song aside to a secluded spot. "Lao Song, yesterday I received a call from Beijing. The police officer who handled Nakamura Naoto's disappearance case back then came looking for me again, along with a few Japanese people. So many years have passed, why have they remembered me again?"

Old Song blinked and said with a smile, "Top scholar, they couldn't do anything to you back then. So many years have passed, what use is it for them to look for you again?"

Li Ye stared at Lao Song sharply and said, "Don't try to play tricks on me. Tell me honestly, what exactly did you do this time?"

Old Song pursed his lips and said seriously, "I didn't do anything. A few days ago, Nakamura Kensuke received a notification from the mainland saying that Nakamura Naoto's car had been found, so Nakamura took the opportunity to come to the mainland. I suspect it was him who did it."

Li Ye said calmly, "Seven or eight years have passed, how come we suddenly found Nakamura Naoto's car?"

Old Song frankly stated, "That car was in the water of Baiyangdian. This year, Baiyangdian experienced a drought, and the water level dropped, which exposed the car."

Li Ye asked with a sneer, "Old Song, how do you know all this so clearly? Do you have an informant in the police force?"

Old Song smiled and said, "No, but I was the one who drove that car in."

"."

Li Ye stared at Lao Song in silence for a full ten seconds, then asked in a low voice, "Did you kill Nakamura Naoto?"

Old Song shook his head and said, "I didn't. Someone else killed them."

"who is it?"

"Scholar, please stop asking. If you keep asking, it will implicate you."

"So you're suddenly thinking I'm involved?"

Li Ye kicked Lao Song in annoyance, but Lao Song chuckled and dodged it.

However, Li Ye could sense that Old Song had really aged. Seven years ago, when he left the capital, he was much more agile than he is now.

After Old Song dodged, he said seriously, "Don't worry, top scholar, I haven't broken the law. Even if they come after me, they can't convict me. We deal with foreigners by using cunning, not brute force."

"Just blow it!"

Li Ye really wanted to teach Lao Song a lesson, but people kept coming up to Lao Song to get close to him, so he couldn't bring himself to do it.

"Sixth Grandpa, you've been doing business outside for so many years, you must have made a lot of money for your grandson, right?"

"Haha, I didn't make much, maybe just a few hundred thousand!"

"Wow, several hundred thousand is a lot. Unlike us, we can't even earn tens of thousands in our entire lives."

"Hahahaha~"

After Lao Song had sent those people away, Li Ye couldn't help but ask, "Lao Song, why are you bragging to relatives you're not even related to?"
Your grandson has been struggling to cope with them for years, and you just casually toss out hundreds of thousands of dollars—can that really feed them?

"Of course it won't fill you up."

Old Song laughed and said, "Changchun has hardly ever handled money growing up, so he doesn't know how to handle the relationship between money and people. I'm spending hundreds of thousands to teach my child how to judge people. Do you think this is a worthwhile deal?"

Li Ye immediately understood.

If you want a kind person to quickly understand human nature, let them lend money to others. Lending money is the fastest way to understand human nature.

Once you can figure out who you can lend money to and who you can't, you'll rarely suffer losses in the future.

(End of this chapter)