Mixed in 1980

Chapter 504 The Problem of the Road
"The car is blocked? What car is blocked?" Chen Yanche was slightly taken aback, not understanding what he meant.

The employee hurriedly explained, "The trucks transporting agricultural machinery and greenhouse materials are being blocked from entering, and a disturbance has already broken out."

"Qiao Yu, go take a look." Chen Yanche frowned.

"Uncle Village Chief, hurry up, stop catching chickens and go check at the village entrance. Our company's cars are being blocked from entering," Qiao Yu shouted.

I rushed to the village entrance and saw a dozen cars parked in a row. There were two large wooden stakes on the road and several large stones in between.

The four old men sat on the rock, cursing and swearing at the driver who got out of the car.

There were many people gathered around the elderly man.

Chen Yanche pulled Qiao Yu, who was about to step forward, and said, "Let's wait and see. Let the village chief go up and talk first. We won't show up until we have a clear understanding of the situation."

The village chief stepped forward and immediately began to berate them: "Wang Mazi, Lao Gentou, you've gone too far! What are you two trying to do?"

Wang Mazi really does have a face full of pockmarks.

Leaning on a shovel, head tilted back, he said, "Village chief, this isn't our fault. The road belongs to our family. What if such a heavy vehicle damages the road?"

"Bullshit."

The village chief, his face flushed, retorted, "When did this road become yours? It belongs to the village; the government paid for its construction. What business is it of yours?"

Wang Mazi was slightly intimidated, but Lao Gentou, leaning on his hoe, slowly stood up: "Village chief, what you're saying isn't right, is it? How come this road has nothing to do with my house?"

As he spoke, he gestured towards the road: "This land is ours, isn't it? When the highway was to be widened, everyone said what they would say, right?"

The village chief scolded, "What did you say? You made outrageous demands back then, and we had to plead and beg before we lowered our prices to 1.5 times the standard amount."

Old Gentou chuckled, took out a cigarette and lit it: "We all made a promise beforehand, it seems you've forgotten, so let me say it again."

“When the compensation wasn’t sufficient, our two families agreed that the road could be repaired and the villagers could continue to use it, but the land would still belong to our two families.”

"right?"

"The villagers can pass, we don't care, but these vehicles don't belong to the village, and they're all so heavy. They can't get through."

Upon hearing this, the village chief was stunned.

Yes, that's what happened. The village was widening the road and needed to take up a small piece of land, less than a centimeter in size, but these two families asked for 50,000 yuan.

They won't let us fix it if we don't pay.

But there are standards for how much compensation to pay. If your family asks for more, other families will follow suit. If everyone asks for more, then the road won't need to be repaired.

It took the villagers taking turns to persuade them, and after much pleading, the two families finally agreed to widen the road so that two vehicles could pass in opposite directions.

As for what Old Gentou said, it is true.

At the time, the two families couldn't withstand the villagers' repeated persuasion and were even ostracized by them. Saying this was just a way to save face, and no one took it seriously.

Nobody agreed with this.

The road's already been repaired, what else can we do? But this old story was brought up again, making the village chief furious, his face turning red: "Old man, do you even have any sense of reason?"

"Don't you know what these cars are for?"

"So many people in the village are waiting to make money by growing organic vegetables. Instead of helping, you two families are making things worse. Is this how you do things?"

"Weren't those two companies involved in the project?" Chen Yanche took out a cigarette and lit it.

Qiao Yu shook her head vigorously, saying with disdain, "These two families are difficult to deal with. They're very shrewd. If you ask them to raise pigs and chickens, you have to pay them extra, saying you'll have to pay them wages."

"If you ask them to grow vegetables together and then demand rent, we're not doing business, we're doing charity. You'll go bankrupt."

Chen Yanche took a deep breath and slowly exhaled smoke: "They're treating us like suckers."

"That's right!" Qiao Yu said with a wry smile.

As they were talking, Old Gentou spoke again: "Village chief, everything comes down to reason. It was agreed that villagers could pass through, but outsiders could not."

"I'm putting this out there today: if you want to get past me, you'll have to run over me first."

Upon hearing this, the village chief's anger intensified: "The whole village is waiting. You can't do things like this. If you don't move aside, believe me, I'll have someone throw you into the ditch."

"Let's see who dares." Old Gentou grabbed his hoe.

"You, you idiot, tell me, how do you want me to clear the way?" the village chief said angrily.

Old Gentou put down his hoe, took a puff of his cigarette, and said, "Either we pay the original 50,000 yuan, or we'll give each passing vehicle a 100 yuan toll."

The village chief spat and said, "Keep dreaming! Fifty thousand? Blocking the road and charging tolls? Who gave you the guts? Don't you know this is illegal?"

Old Gentou snorted, "This is my land!"

Wang Mazi chimed in, "That's right, it's our land. I'm managing my own land, what's illegal about it? If you don't pay, don't even think about it."

"Damn it, you guys are parasites."

The village chief cursed angrily, then turned to Qiao Yu: "Girl, look at how this was handled. How about we discuss it and just give her some money?" Qiao Yu looked at the boss, but Chen Yanche narrowed his eyes: "You handle this!"

Qiao Yu nodded slightly and looked at the village chief: "Uncle Village Chief, if we give money today, others will follow suit tomorrow, and how will things get done?"

"No, they're the only two people in the village who live like that."

“Uncle Village Chief, if you can make money by being a scoundrel, everyone will become just as scoundrel, or even more so. Can you guarantee that this won’t happen again?” Qiao Yu squinted.

"This..." The village chief smiled wryly.

Qiao Yu touched her nose: "The road issue is originally a problem for your village, there's no reason for us to pay for it."

"But……"

"There are no 'buts'. If the project can't proceed because of road issues, then our cooperation will end here." Qiao Yu waved her hand, interrupting the village chief.

Then he added, "As for the piglets and chicks from before, consider them as free gifts. We can just dismantle the manure treatment plant that the village built."

"I'll go and talk to them again."

The village chief was startled and rushed over, giving Lao Gentou and Wang Mazi a good scolding and threatening to throw them into the ditch, but it was no use.

Forced into a corner, the village chief disregarded his authority and neighborly harmony, pulled out his phone to call the police, and even made a call to the town.

It has to be dealt with.

The poor mountain village finally got investment, and everyone didn't have to contribute money, just some effort, and the share of the profits was even more. How could we let the investors run away?

"Drip..."

A tricycle squeezed in from the side, and Fugui, the internet celebrity who "makes tofu," appeared in front: "Uncle, Auntie, what's going on?"

"Wealth and fortune are coming!"

The villagers were very hospitable. Several of them stepped forward and pushed Lao Gentou and Wang Mazi aside, saying, "Let Fugui come over first. If you keep blocking him, we'll really knock you over."

The road was thus torn open, creating a gap.

After the tricycle passed, Lao Gentou and Wang Mazi blocked the way again. Seeing this, Chen Yanche joked, "You don't even have as much face as them."

Qiao Yu rolled her eyes: "Can you compare them? They came for us, not for her. You can't extort money from her by blocking her."

Chen Yanche narrowed his eyes and stopped talking.

Fugui, curious, asked the people around him, "Auntie, what's going on? Why is the road blocked? What happened?"

The person being questioned quickly explained, "They're making a fuss, ignore them, it's none of your business, just cut me two pieces of tofu."

"Okay, Auntie."

The tofu was laid out on the spot. A piece of tofu was cut off and weighed: "Two yuan and two jiao, that'll take you two yuan. Auntie, would you like some snacks? We have peach shortbread, sponge cake, rice cakes..."

"Give me a pound of peach shortbread."

"okay."

That's how business started. There were many people at the scene, and many people bought food. Some people bought food and squatted down to eat it while watching the excitement.

"Go buy some." Chen Yanche looked at Qiao Yu.

Qiao Yu pouted and bought several pounds of each kind of pastry: "We have three families with seven children over there, this is just what we need to satisfy their cravings."

"Let me have a bite first."

Chen Yanche took a piece of peach shortbread, took a small bite, and his eyes lit up: "The taste is pretty good, no worse than some shops."

Fu Gui had already started his tricycle and was heading towards the village. Chen Yanche squinted his eyes and said, "Old Lin has been waiting anxiously these past few days. Finally, the person has arrived."

"What do you want to do?" Qiao Yu frowned.

Having worked together for over three years, the two senior and junior colleagues had long since figured out Chen Yanche's personality. Seeing his expression, they knew he was up to no good.

“Have them sit down and have a talk.”

"Didn't I tell you not to get involved? This matter is too complicated. That girl has too much family burden and has been hurt in love. It's hard for her to open up to anyone. Don't hurt Lao Lin."

Qiao Yu couldn't help but slap her junior brother: "We won't be here for long, we'll be leaving in the second half of the year. This girl is rooted in the countryside."

Chen Yanche put down the peach shortbread and lit a cigarette: "Old Lin's current state is more like unrequited love, with too many beautiful fantasies."

“Sit down and let’s talk.”

"Only by knowing what reality is like and shattering all illusions can one know what choices to make in the future."

"In the end, Lao Lin is still too inexperienced."

"A PhD from Peking University who has never been in a relationship is most likely to be blinded by love and fantasies. If he runs into a gold digger, he'll be screwed over sooner or later."

(End of this chapter)