Flip the table and divide the family property! Take his wife and daughter into the mountains and eat

Before dawn the next day, a dim kerosene lamp was lit in the dilapidated mud house.

Wei Baoguo pulled out a few yellowed sheets of paper from somewhere, leaned over the broken table with a missing leg, and began to write furiously by the dim light of the lamp.

He wouldn't just throw together a couple of pages when writing this kind of material; instead, he used the same vicious methods he employed back in the day when he was making things difficult for people and carrying out rectification campaigns.

The narrative is concise and detailed, employing techniques like labeling and escalating accusations, with every sentence hitting the nail on the head regarding the sensitive issues in government case handling.

He wrote a long and fluent piece, with neat handwriting, spanning more than ten pages.

At the very top of the letter, Wei Baoguo wrote a striking headline in bold strokes:

Urgent Report Regarding Zhao Shanhe, the Local Tyrant of Kaoshantun, for Gathering Unemployed Individuals, Harassing Relatives, and Seizing Public Property

In this weighty incriminating document, Wei Baoguo took his ability to distort the truth to the extreme, portraying Zhao Shanhe as an utterly wicked and domineering village tyrant.

In his letter, he wrote that Zhao Shanhe, relying on his brute strength, had long kept thugs, set up a private court, and packaged several vagrants as his henchmen, running rampant in the village and making a one-man show.

When mentioning Zhao Shanlin's broken leg, he embellished the story, using extremely bloody and tragic language. He wrote, "In order to monopolize the family property, Zhao Shanhe heartlessly beat his own disabled younger brother until he was crippled, and allowed vicious dogs to tear him apart in public. The cruelty of his methods is appalling."

Then, he even kicked his elderly mother, who had raised him with such hardship, out of the house, leaving her to fend for herself in a drafty, dilapidated dwelling. This is utterly unforgivable!

As for the money Zhao Shanhe earned, he characterized it all as "speculation and profiteering, undermining socialism, and even forced buying and selling, extorting the hard-earned money of ordinary people."

As dawn broke, Wei Baoguo blew the ink away with satisfaction and carefully tucked the thick stack of black documents into his inner pocket.

Before leaving, he dusted off his tattered cotton-padded coat, put on the airs of a retired city cadre, and coldly laid down three ironclad rules for Li Cuihua:

"First, once you're in the county compound, you'd better keep your mouth shut and say as little as possible. Too much talk leads to trouble, so don't bring back the same tantrums you throw around in the village!"

"Secondly, when you meet the leaders and they ask about your painful experiences, like your youngest son with the broken leg, you have to cry your heart out! You are the victim, the one who suffered the most; the more you cry, the angrier the leaders will be!"

"Third, and most importantly, if the leader questions you about details you don't know, just say you were too frightened to remember. Don't try to be clever and make things up, lest someone find a loophole and ruin our important plans!"

Li Cuihua nodded vigorously, agreeing repeatedly, her triangular eyes filled with malice.

The two of them, braving the biting frost of late autumn, sneaked out of Kaoshantun and boarded an early morning long-distance bus to the county.

It was a dilapidated, drafty green bus, filled with the smells of cheap diesel fuel, tobacco, and poultry manure.

The car bumped and swayed along the potholed dirt road, the cold wind blowing straight down their collars through the glassless windows, but the two men felt a burning fire in their hearts. They exchanged glances, both convinced that victory was in the bag.

Around 8 a.m., the bus finally stopped at the county bus station.

As soon as the two got out of the car, they smelled the aroma of meat buns and fried dough sticks wafting from a state-run breakfast shop not far away.

After all that fuss, Li Cuihua's stomach was growling with hunger. She stared intently at the white steam rising from the steamer, refusing to move an inch.

"Old Wei, my stomach is rumbling with hunger. How about we buy a couple of meat buns to tide us over?"

Li Cuihua swallowed hard and reached out to tug at Wei Baoguo's sleeve: "Anyway, we're going to get the big house back soon, so we won't be short of money for a bite to eat."

"Eat, eat, eat! All you ever think about is eating!"

Wei Baoguo's face darkened. He flung her hand away and hissed, "Are you out of your mind? What are we here for today? To complain! To play the victim! If you went to see the leaders looking all smug and healthy, who would believe you were being abused by your eldest son?"

Wei Baoguo grabbed Li Cuihua's arm tightly and dragged her towards the county committee compound: "Let her starve! The more she sees stars and turns pale, the better! When you meet the big leaders later, this miserable state will be solid proof, and then she can cry like a real person!"

Although Li Cuihua was unwilling, she could only swallow her saliva and follow Wei Baoguo forward, turning back every few steps, when she thought of Zhao Shanhe's family fortune.

Around nine o'clock in the morning, the two finally stood in front of the imposing iron gate of the county government compound.

Looking at the solemn office building and the several jeeps parked inside, Li Cuihua, a shrewish woman from the countryside, instinctively felt a chill and shrank her neck, not daring to take a step forward.

In fact, not only Li Cuihua, but Wei Baoguo, whose back was seemingly straight but was hunched over, was also secretly sweating, and his calves were uncontrollably cramping.

He boasted to Li Cuihua, claiming that he used to deal with superiors in his unit, but in reality, he was just a lowly purchasing clerk in the county grain depot.

His supposedly impressive "political skills" and "shrewdness" were all honed in the granary warehouses, where he shrewdly calculated every penny he could from porters and rural farmers.

Back then, he wasn't even qualified to go into the core circle of the county government compound to pour tea for the leaders.

But now he's in a bind; if he shows any weakness, this foolish woman next to him will immediately back down.

Wei Baoguo swallowed hard, forcing himself to appear calm and experienced, and strode over with Li Cuihua.

The gatekeeper, a young man in uniform, stopped the two men, glanced at their tattered cotton-padded coats covered in mud and smelling of rancidity, and their pale, emaciated appearance, and then pointed to the distance in a businesslike manner:

"Ordinary citizens who want to report problems should go to the petition reception room, which is 200 meters to the right of the main gate, and queue up to register."

Upon hearing this, Wei Baoguo immediately stepped forward without saying a word, pulled out a crumpled pack of Daqianmen cigarettes from his patched inner pocket, and painfully tucked a two-yuan bill underneath.

"Young comrade, it must be hard standing guard in this freezing weather. Here, have a smoke to warm yourself up."

Wei Baoguo skillfully stuffed cigarettes and money into the gatekeeper's pocket, his face plastered with a fawning smile that he thought he knew what he was doing: "We have a very urgent case that requires us to meet with a high-ranking official. This is a matter of utmost importance, concerning the safety of the county's assets. Please do us a favor."

The young security guard looked down at the pack of cigarettes and money, his expression froze instantly, and then he flew into a rage.

"What are you doing!"

The young man suddenly flung Wei Baoguo's hand away with such force that Wei Baoguo staggered, scattering his cigarettes and money on the ground.

The gatekeeper pointed at Wei Baoguo's nose and shouted angrily, "This is the county committee compound! What kind of nonsense are you trying to pull here with this kind of social ill? Daring to engage in bribery in front of a government building, are you tired of living? Pick up your things and get out of here! If you dare to pull tugs or disrupt discipline here again, I'll immediately call the security department to arrest you and put you in jail!"

This furious outburst, delivered with great force, resounded loudly at the entrance of the quiet courtyard.

Li Cuihua was already feeling guilty, and the shout startled her so much that her legs went weak and she almost collapsed to the ground.

Wei Baoguo was struck dumb, his old face instantly turning a deep liver color.

He stood frozen in place, unsure whether to go forward or backward, trembling all over, not even daring to pick up the money on the ground.

Just as he was so embarrassed he wished he could disappear into the ground, a deep car horn sounded from the road outside the compound.

A green Beijing Jeep with a special small license plate from the county came to a steady stop at the gate.

The young gatekeeper, who had just been angrily cursing Wei Baoguo, immediately stood up straight and gave the jeep a respectful salute.

The car door was pushed open from the inside, and a middle-aged man in a sharp gray Zhongshan suit with an imposing presence stepped out.

The middle-aged man, holding a briefcase, frowned slightly. His gaze swept over the trembling Li Cuihua and then landed on Wei Baoguo, whose face was deathly pale and whose cigarettes and change were scattered on the ground.

"Making a racket and pulling at the gate so early in the morning, what kind of behavior is that?"

The middle-aged man's voice wasn't loud, but it carried a strong sense of pressure from someone who had long held a position of power. He asked in a deep voice, "What happened?"