I feel right at home in the world of the courtyard house.

Wang Defa was leaning against the corner of the factory wall, smoking. He had long since gotten used to the lingering odor in the toilet, but his smoking habit had inexplicably increased, probably because he wanted to use the strong smell of smoke to suppress the pungent stench.

Before long, several workers came out of the toilet, took off their gloves and masks, and squeezed around Wang Defa without saying a word, completely ignoring the fleeting look of disgust in his eyes, and sat down in rows on either side of him.

"Hey, Captain, here, have a cigarette." Xiao Ma said eagerly, taking out a pack of cigarettes from his shirt pocket, picking one out and offering it to Wang Defa.

Wang Defa glanced at his stained fingers, instinctively pulled back, and waved his hands repeatedly in refusal: "No need, no need, I just finished smoking, look, there's still a cigarette butt left." As he spoke, he shook the nearly burnt-out cigarette butt in his hand, casually threw it on the ground and stomped it out.

"Hey, Captain, don't be so polite with us!" Xiao Ma persisted, determined to shove a cigarette into his mouth.

"No, no, no!" Wang Defa quickly turned his head to avoid it, hurriedly took out a cigarette case from his pocket, and handed them out one by one, "Take mine, take mine, everyone come and take."

Xiao Ma chuckled, deftly stuffed his cigarettes back into his pocket, took Wang Defa's cigarette, brought it to his nose and took a deep drag, then, with a look of pure bliss, teased the others, "The captain's cigarettes are definitely more classy, ​​aren't you guys right?"

The workers nearby chimed in, "Of course! The foreman's cigarettes are all good quality!"

Listening to everyone's praise, Wang Defa felt a sharp pain in his heart, wishing he could slap Xiao Ma twice—half a pack of cigarettes had been gone in such a short time. But he could only force a smile and pretend to be indifferent.

Just then, two horse-drawn carriages slowly approached from a distance. The carriages were surrounded by partitions, clearly not ordinary cargo vehicles, and they stopped directly in front of the toilet. Although Wang Defa had never seen anything like it before, he immediately recognized them as manure carts. Their factory's sanitation team was only responsible for cleaning the toilet walls and floors; emptying and removing manure was not their job.

Seeing several people jump down from the carriage and take out wooden spoons and buckets that emitted a pungent odor, about to rush into the toilet, Wang Defa frowned, nudged the little horse next to him with his elbow, and raised his chin at the people defecating.

"Little Ma, who are those people?"

"Hey, Captain, you don't know, those are people from the commune outside the city, they come to the factory specifically to haul away manure." Xiao Ma's eyes darted around, and he added in a low voice, "Originally, our factory's manure was collected by a special truck sent by the East District sanitation team. But I don't know when it started, these commune people sneaked in and always rush to haul away the manure first. You don't know, manure is a precious commodity these days, there have been countless fights over it! And these people, they don't understand any rules, they don't even greet you, they should at least offer you a pack of cigarettes as a token of appreciation."

As Wang Defa listened, he secretly agreed, feeling that these people were truly impolite, taking such a huge advantage without even a polite word.

"Ordinary people?"

Xiao Ma paused for a moment, then quickly nodded: "Yes, they are the people from the communes below."

Upon hearing this, Wang Defa immediately stood up, dusted himself off, and shouted sternly at the man pulling out the night soil who was about to enter, "Wait! What are you doing? Who dares to barge in like this?"

One of the young men turned around, frowned, and sized Wang Defa up and down, his tone extremely aggressive: "Who are you? What business is it of yours to interfere in this?"

"Hey, I don't believe it!" Wang Defa was enraged by the retort. He spat out his cigarette butt and rolled up his sleeves, ready to step forward. He was seething with anger. "If I can't handle officials like Li Jing'an and Section Chief Zhang, surely I can handle an ordinary citizen like you?"

Seeing this, Xiao Ma quickly stepped forward to stop him, leaned close to his ear and whispered, "Captain, don't go yourself. Who are you? Those are cadres. It's not worth arguing with them. You wait here and watch me!"

Wang Defa looked at Xiao Ma with approval in his eyes and immediately stopped. Xiao Ma strode up to the group of people hauling manure, and they all stopped and looked at him.

"Are you blind? Can't you see our Captain Wang here? Don't you know the rules? Don't you know who's in charge here now?" Xiao Ma came up aggressively and spoke without any politeness.

The young man who had just argued with Wang Defa was immediately enraged and stepped forward, ready to roll up his sleeves and fight, but fortunately, his companions held him back tightly. An old man in his fifties, almost sixty, stepped out from the crowd; he seemed to be the leader.

"Hehe, young man, we've met before, haven't we? We've always been the ones hauling away the manure from this steel mill," the old man said with a forced smile.

"That was before, things are different now! Now it's Captain Wang who's in charge. If you want to defecate, you have to get Captain Wang's permission! You barge in without even saying hello. Do you even respect Captain Wang?" Xiao Ma's tone remained unfriendly as he pressed on.

"I see you're quite old, don't you understand the principle of choosing the right temple and the right Buddha? Do I need to teach you?"

Wang Defa stood at the back, watching Xiao Ma stand up for him, feeling incredibly pleased. He didn't have to lift a finger; someone else had taken care of things. This was what a cadre should be like—what cadre personally leads the charge? He even began to enjoy this feeling.

The old man opposite him also darkened his expression, staring at Xiao Ma and saying coldly, "We came to haul manure with the permission of your factory leaders."

"I don't care which damn leader approved it, it doesn't matter now! Our Captain Wang is the one who calls the shots here!"

Upon hearing this, Wang Defa's heart skipped a beat. He quickly reached out and tugged at Xiao Ma's sleeve, coughing deliberately twice to signal him to stop talking nonsense.

The old man, however, was amused and said coldly, "The leader I'm referring to is Section Chief Gou from your security department. He personally gave us permission to come!"

"Section Chief Gou is a piece of trash! Let me tell you, now it's Captain Wang who's in charge. Even if Section Chief Gou or Factory Director Gou came, it wouldn't make a difference!"

Wang Defa, standing behind Xiao Ma, was already cursing Xiao Ma's ancestors to the eighteenth generation in his mind, wishing he could strangle him on the spot. But Xiao Ma was completely oblivious, turning to the sanitation workers behind him and loudly asking, "Isn't that right, brothers? Even if the security department has a long reach, can they really control our sanitation team?"

"that is!"

"They've overstepped their bounds; they need to be taught a lesson!"

"Captain Wang is awesome!"

The medical team members were all cunning and sly old hands, and seeing this, they all started stirring up trouble, each one shouting louder than the last.

The old man's face darkened completely. He stared at Xiao Ma and said, word by word, "I am Section Chief Gou's second uncle."

Xiao Ma remained defiant, stubbornly shouting, "Even if his father came, it wouldn't make a difference! Our Captain Wang is a genuine college graduate, young and promising, upright and principled! Don't try to intimidate us with your power! Even if we agree, Captain Wang will never agree, right, Captain Wang!"

As he spoke, Xiao Ma loudly incited others, and a chorus of agreement immediately arose around him. All eyes instantly turned to Wang Defa, and the people from the opposite commune, including the old man, stared intently at him, waiting for him to make his statement.

Wang Defa was caught in a dilemma. He cursed Xiao Ma a thousand times in his heart, but now the die was cast and he had no choice but to act. He could only force a stiff, awkward smile and grit his teeth to reply, "Yes...that's right."

Upon hearing this, the old man's face turned completely cold. He waved his hand at the people beside him and said, "Let's go! Let's go back!"

Without a word, the group threw their tools back onto the carriage, turned around, and drove off. Before leaving, the old man glared at Wang Defa, making Wang Defa's heart pound with fear.