Return to 1983 Hunting Xing'an Mountains

Chapter 757: A surprise attack that didn't finish off the enemy but instead paid them money?
After everyone got into the car, Li Fuqiang drove towards Shuangfu Village. Guan Lei, who was sitting in the passenger seat, said, "Brother Qiang, shouldn't we tell my brother about this?"

Li Fuqiang nodded: "We definitely have to tell them. Although these guys are just small-time thugs, we can't underestimate them. We don't have any connections here, and if something happens in the future, we'll easily suffer losses."

Guan Lei pondered for a moment: "So, do you think we went too far today?"

"It wasn't too serious. The guy in the lead took a shot to the shoulder, while my shot was a sand particle that hit my knee. I don't think it'll hurt him much."

"So, did we handle this matter fairly well?"

Actually, Guan Lei isn't very old, and it's normal for him to feel uncertain about this kind of thing since it's his first time doing it. It just so happens that Li Fuqiang is older, so communicating with him is just right.

“I think it makes perfect sense. If we hadn’t made the first move, they would have held us hostage. Once you’re on the defensive, it’s hard to fight back. That’s how they operate on the streets. They’re trying to rob us, and if we don’t want to pay, there’s only one outcome: either we beat them into submission, or we let them bully us…”

Guan Lei nodded: "I don't want to be bullied. I finally earned some money, how can I give it to these freeloaders?"

"That's right. You don't need to think too much. Even if my brother were here, his first thought would be to shoot the other guy twice before we talk."

The old Dongfeng car sped across the icy road. Not far ahead was Shuangfu Village. In just two or three minutes, the car entered Shuangfu Village and parked on a wide street.

Li Fuqiang, Guan Lei, and Wang Hu got off the bus first. After Lao Liu's family members jumped down with their luggage and bedding, they called out, "Guan, why don't you all come to my house for a meal? It's almost four o'clock."

Guan Lei waved his hand and said with a smile, "Let's not go eat yet, Brother Liu. We need to hurry back to Wanye. My younger brother brought his girlfriend back, and my family has already prepared the meal."

"Ah, then I won't keep you any longer. We'll be back to work after the New Year, and I'll need your help then."

"Don't be so polite, Brother Liu. Please help me with this. Once you have a headcount, contact me and I'll set a date to pick you up."

"Okay!"

The other villagers waved goodbye, and Guan Lei took the opportunity to pull Liu Eryin aside and said, "Brother Liu, I want to go to the village office to make a phone call home."

"Okay, I'll take you there. Fourth brother, take your luggage home and tell your sister-in-law I'll be back soon."

"Alright, Brother Li, I won't see you off."

Li Fuqiang waved his hand: "Yeah, hurry home and check on the kids."

Immediately, Liu Eryin boarded the car and directed Li Fuqiang to drive to the village office. The snow in the village office courtyard had been swept to every nook and cranny. Village Chief Zhang was standing under the eaves, watching several children in the courtyard slapping their hands.

Hearing the sound of a car on the street, he assumed it was his son Zhang Yu returning, so he took a few steps toward the gate of the courtyard.

To his surprise, he saw that the person inside the car was Liu Eryin. He narrowed his eyes and, after turning off the car, Liu Eryin raised his hand and shouted, "What are you standing here for?"

"We've been waiting for you to come back, you blind fool! Why are you only coming back now?"

Liu Eryin laughed and said, "I was just thinking of making a lot of things, so I came back just before the end of the year. What, you missed me?"

"Oh my god, what a joke! Me, thinking about you? Have some shame! Hey, Xiao Guan's here..."

Guan Lei greeted him, and Liu Eryin said, "We ran into some trouble on the road. Let Guan call home, and I'll tell you what happened."

"Ah, let's go inside and make the call. We can chat at the door."

Guan Lei and Li Fuqiang went inside, while Wang Hu, Wu Haiquan, Pan Yan, and others remained seated in the car. They didn't let Pan Xiao sit in the passenger seat. Why? It wasn't that they didn't know how to cherish women, but rather that the world was in a bit of chaos, and her sitting in the passenger seat would be too conspicuous. It was safer for her to stay in the car.

Guan Lei entered the room, picked up the microphone, looked up and asked, "Should it be given to Laoshanzi Village..."

“My brother should have gone to Dazhi’s place. Feng Ye is too young to eat at his house. Judging by the time, we should be there soon. Our two cars left around the same time and are about the same distance apart. You can call Jingang Village directly.”

Calling from Malian to Changshou required two transfers because it was a provincial call. The first transfer was to Wanye City, then to Changshou City, and finally to Jingang Village. It took about a minute and a half before someone in Jingang Village answered the phone. They were surprised to learn that the caller was looking for the eldest son of the Zheng family.

"Old Zheng's eldest son just got home. I heard that people from Qing'an Forestry Farm personally brought him back. What's your name? Let me go find it for you."

"My name is Guan Lei. Don't hang up now. Thank you for your help."

"You're just being polite."

After leaving, the man went to look for Zheng Dazhi.

When Zheng Dazhi saw the village chief come to his home in person, he immediately rushed out of the house to invite him in.

The director waved his hand and said, "Dazhi, I won't come in. I just got a call for you. It was Guan Lei from Qing'an Forest Farm. The call is still going on. Go answer it."

"Ah! Wait a moment, I'll go back to my room and be right back."

"I'm going back on my bicycle first, you should hurry up."

Zheng Dazhi was a little flustered. Guan Lei calling at this time must mean something had happened, so he went into the house and said to Xu Ning, who was bragging to his father, "Er Ning, Guan Lei called. He called our village office directly, and he hasn't hung up yet."

Upon hearing this, Xu Ning stood up and smiled at Zheng's father, saying, "Uncle, I'll go answer this call first, and we'll chat again when I get back."

"Wow, you're really busy. You've gone so far, yet you still managed to call me back."

Xu Ning waved and left with Zheng Dazhi. Yang Jun saw Xu Ning's calm gaze and didn't move, staying inside to chat with Zheng's father.

Under the eaves of the village office in Shuangfu Village, Liu Eryin finished telling Village Chief Zhang about what they had encountered on the way. Village Chief Zhang frowned and said, "I've heard about these people before. They're all young people from several nearby villages. How are you going to manage them? As long as they don't kill anyone, just give them some money if they want it. Besides, they don't want any of our village's money."

"Why didn't you ask for it? A kid climbed onto the bus and demanded two yuan from each of us!"

"You didn't mention our village's name?"

"Why did I bring this up..."

"Hey, they've had it pretty tough. There are so many brothers in their family, and five or six people share one piece of clothing. After his dad wears it, his mom wears it, then his sister wears it... I know that old Lu. He broke his leg on the ship's side, and the ship owner only gave him 30 yuan. He spent a lot on medical treatment and medicine, and his kids are starving. I even had Xiaoyu deliver two bags of corn stubble to them last week."

Liu Eryin frowned: "What if they kill someone? Your nephew can't get into trouble."

“It’s impossible for anyone to die. The leader seems to be called Wei Lai. This guy used to transport grain, but then he quit and went to Qiantunzi to learn the trade from a ginseng master. This ginseng master has no children. This autumn, when they went up the mountain to play with sticks, this ginseng master was attacked by a wild boar while trying to save him, and he still can’t get out of bed.”

Village Chief Zhang sighed and said, "What can we do? This ginseng boss had been retired from the trade for many years, but Wei Lai begged him to learn the craft. Now that things have turned out like this, what can he do? Wei Lai has been shot twice now, so he's completely finished."

Liu Eryin glanced at Lao Dongfeng at the door and shook his head slightly: "You can't do something like that! You deserve to be beaten to death." "Being beaten to death is better than starving to death. You just left this year, and a lot of trouble has already happened here in Malian... This Xiao Guan is pretty ruthless..."

"How could I not be ripping people off? Do you know how much money I've made? There are nearly 30 people in one car, and if you put all the money in their pockets together, it would be a thick wad of cash!"

Village Chief Zhang laughed and said, "So you've made quite a bit of money, haven't you?"

"Yeah, if this money gets stolen, we'll have nowhere to turn. They're the only ones with homes, aren't we?"

Village Chief Zhang waved his hand: "That's not what I meant."

Inside the room, Guan Lei finally heard Xu Ning's voice. He quickly and concisely recounted what had happened. After a five or six-second silence, Xu Ning said:

"These people know Brother Liu, so we can't go too far. You fired two shots but no one died, right?"

"No, Qiang and I both kept our money safe."

“That’s fine. Here’s what you do: you and my brother go find this injured guy, then throw him 50 yuan. Giving him money doesn’t mean we’re backing down, but we need to consider that he’s not in our Qing’an territory. Think about it. These young guys are blocking the road in the mountains. Do you think the people in the surrounding villages don’t know? There must be a reason why they didn’t do anything. They’re barefoot, while we’re already wearing shoes, so there’s no need to offend them to death. We’ll take what we want and leave. Brother Liu and the others still have to live in Shuangfu Village.”

"I understand. But what if they want to come and work at our farm?"

“This won’t do. We can’t have this kind of person in our village. If you want to help, you can’t be too direct. Be more tactful.”

"Okay, then I'll discuss it with Brother Qiang."

Xu Ning said, "I'll be home tomorrow evening. Call home then."

"Okay, I got it."

After hanging up the phone, Guan Lei and Li Fuqiang exchanged a glance. Li Fuqiang scratched his head and said, "Isn't 50 yuan a bit too much?"

"I also felt it was too much, but that's what my brother said, so it's like paying money to avoid trouble."

"Ugh, what a mess this is. I should have just shot him once and called it a day. I should have just kept quiet and not fired a second shot."

“If you don’t fire the second shot, you definitely won’t be able to intimidate them. Brother Liu and his men have done a good job in our Lengchang. It’s worth spending 50 yuan on them.”

Li Fuqiang nodded: "So you still want to give these guys who are blocking the road some work?"

Guan Lei curled his lip: "What kind of arrangements would I make for them? It's already a favor that I didn't give them a big competition!"

"Haha, let's go get the address from Brother Liu."

The two pushed open the door, just as Liu Eryin and Village Chief Zhang finished speaking.

Guan Lei smiled and said, "Thank you very much, Village Chief Zhang."

"Don't be so polite, make yourself at home here."

Guan Lei nodded and looked at Liu Eryin, saying, "Brother Liu, I'm thinking of going to check on the injured person's house."

Liu Eryin was stunned, and hurriedly advised, "Brother, he's already been shot, we don't need to be so ruthless."

Li Fuqiang said, "Don't get sidetracked. My brother said they should be from nearby villages, and you've already shown your face and name. My brother's idea is for us to go to their house and throw some money at them, otherwise what if they target your family? You'll still have to live in Shuangfu Village in the future, won't you?"

Liu Eryin and Village Chief Zhang were both stunned. They stared at each other for a long time before Village Chief Zhang clapped his hands and said, "Look! I told you these kids are quite kind..."

"Then...then you really can't do it?"

"Don't worry, you know them all, why would you need to fight?"

"Okay, this is his address. I'll go with you. Let's avoid any misunderstandings."

Village Chief Zhang nodded: "It's best to let him go with you; it will also earn him a favor."

"it is good!"

Immediately afterwards, Guan Lei and Li Fuqiang greeted Village Chief Zhang, and then left the village office with Liu Eryin, got into the car, and drove towards Baisha Village, which was not far from Shuangfu Village.

The journey was smooth, and after fifteen or sixteen minutes, they arrived at the entrance of Baishatun. Liu Eryin asked two people along the way for directions to Wei Lai's house.

The car stopped in front of Wei Lai's house. Four or five people heard the noise and rushed into the yard. When they saw that it was Li Fuqiang, Liu Eryin and others, they immediately grabbed shovels and other farm tools. Two people with guns also rushed out of the house.

"What are you doing here?"

"He's even launching a surprise attack?"

Li Fuqiang pushed open the car door, completely ignoring the man with the gun, and said, "Come and see how Wei Lai is doing."

Liu Eryin said, "Xiao Lü, quickly tell them to put the gun down. Did Wei Lai put it inside?"

Lu Mazi nodded blankly: "He's lying on the kang (heated brick bed)."

"How is he? Have you called the doctor?"

Lu Mazi said, "We had no money, and we were wounded by gunshot. The doctor was unwilling to treat us. His master used a knife to remove the bullet from his shoulder, but it seems that the bone is broken."

Those around them frowned as they looked at the group. Guan Lei said, "We're not here to finish you off. We just heard that things aren't going well for you, and now you've been shot. You probably don't have money for medical treatment. I'll give you some money for your medical expenses."

Lu Mazi was somewhat suspicious, and the others were also completely baffled. What kind of trick was this?

Actually, Guan Lei and Li Fuqiang had already heard Liu Eryin tell Wei Lai's story in the car. When they heard that his master was actually an old ginseng master, they immediately had some other thoughts.

Xu Ning had previously told them that in two years, Guan Lei and Chen Hedong would cooperate to go to the countryside to collect ginseng or some medicinal herbs. It was impossible for Chen Hedong to find all the ginseng growers and mountain products; Guan Lei should also have his own source of goods. Otherwise, problems might arise if the two cooperated.

So Guan Lei's idea was that they would become friends after a fight. He would pay for Wei Lai's medical treatment and see if he could become friends with Wei Lai... Perhaps some people would say, "You've already shot him twice, and you still want to be friends with him? Isn't that ridiculous?"

This is no joke. There are many vivid examples of this kind of "no fight, no friendship" in rural areas today. This is because people's feelings are more straightforward now, without so many complicated details. If you are right and I am wrong, we can talk it out and everything will be fine.

(End of this chapter)