Me! A high-ranking official!

Around 7 p.m., Zhao Jianguo took a taxi back to his home in Qianzhao Village.

The elderly couple had just finished dinner and were enjoying the cool air in the yard when they saw their son return with his bag. They were both surprised and delighted, and quickly came to greet him, asking him all sorts of questions: "Jianguo, why are you back again? Didn't you go to town to report for duty? Is it because the conditions in the village are too harsh and you're not used to living there?"

Seeing the worried looks in his parents' eyes, his heart softened, and he smiled, only telling them the good news and not the bad: "How could that be? The town leaders value me a lot. They sent a special car to take me down, and the village chief was also very hospitable. He even prepared a big meal to welcome me. The village is just getting new furniture for my office, and there's a formaldehyde smell tonight, so I just strolled back here to stay for the night. Anyway, it's close by, and I can go back tomorrow morning."

When the elderly couple heard that their son was valued by the leaders and that the village chief was also very polite, they were finally relieved. His mother happily ran to the kitchen to heat up two more dishes for him.

He slept soundly through the night, and after a hot breakfast the next morning, he hailed the same car again and returned to Luo Family Village in high spirits.

When he arrived at the village committee compound, just as he expected, the gate was open, but the place was empty, not even Luo Shuishan's broken bread cart.

Zhao Jianguo wasn't angry. He strolled out of the village committee and saw several villagers sunbathing and chatting under the big locust tree at the village entrance.

He deftly pulled out a pack of cigarettes from his pocket, smiling as he went around distributing them to everyone: "Grandpa, have a smoke. I'm the new village cadre from the county. I wanted to ask, where's our village chief Luo? Why is no one at the village committee?"

Upon seeing that it was a good cigarette, the villager took it, tucked it behind his ear, and pointed to the east end of the village, saying, "You must be the new Secretary Zhao, right? The village chief wouldn't be at the village committee office right now; he'd be at his mud-brick factory at the east end of the village overseeing shipments!"

"Alright, thank you, sir." Zhao Jianguo thanked the villager, put his hands in his pockets, and strolled along the village road toward the mud slab factory at the east end of the village.

As soon as Zhao Jianguo turned around, before he could even take a step toward the mud board factory, he heard a chaotic commotion coming from the village road ahead.

Looking up, I saw four or five people shoving and pushing their way in. Leading the way were two men, one in his sixties with dark skin and an angry expression, and the other in his forties, a burly man with a ruthless and unruly air. The two of them were pulling at each other's clothes while spitting and cursing at each other.

"We have to go find the new Party Secretary and get some justice today! Damn it, this is outrageous!" the dark-skinned, thin old man shouted at the top of his lungs.

"Go ahead! What are you afraid of? I'm building a house on my own land, even if the Heavenly King himself comes, it's none of my business!" the burly man retorted, sticking his neck out.

The old man who had been talking to Zhao Jianguo under the big locust tree immediately stood up upon hearing this, pointed at Zhao Jianguo, and shouted at the group, "Old Heizi, what are you doing? Making a scene over your little plot of land again? Don't bother going to the village committee, hey, this is Secretary Zhao, the new guy from the county!"

Upon hearing this, everyone stopped and turned to look at Zhao Jianguo.

"You're the new Secretary Zhao?" Old Hei's eyes lit up as if he'd grasped a lifeline. He immediately let go of the other man, strode over, and grabbed Zhao Jianguo's arm: "Secretary, you have to stand up for me!"

The burly man, not to be outdone, pushed his way through and shouted, "So what if he's the Party Secretary? Even the Party Secretary has to be reasonable, right?"

Seeing that the group was about to confront each other again, Zhao Jianguo frowned, pressed his hands down, and adopted an authoritative posture: "Alright! What kind of behavior is this, pulling and shoving in the street? I am Zhao Jianguo, the newly arrived first secretary. If you have any problems, come back to the village committee with me, and I will definitely uphold justice for you!"

The group was stunned by his imposing presence and quieted down a bit before following him back to the empty conference room.

As soon as he entered the house, before he could even sit down, Old Hei Zi began to pour out his grievances.

It turned out that Lao Heizi's family worked in the south all year round and rarely returned to the village. When they came back for the Spring Festival at the end of last year, they were surprised to find that their neighbor Li Yushan had demolished the old house and built a magnificent two-story villa.

Building a new house is a good thing, but there is an unwritten and most important rule in rural areas: a "drip line" must be left. That is to say, the house cannot be built right next to the boundary line of two houses. It must be set back a little to ensure that when it rains, the water from the eaves of the house falls on the land of the house itself.

But Li Yushan not only didn't leave a drop of water, he also deliberately built the foundation close to Lao Heizi's courtyard wall when he built the house. What's even more outrageous is that he built a particularly large eave on the second floor of his house. The eave directly crossed the boundary line and extended above Lao Heizi's courtyard!

"Secretary, you be the judge!" Old Hei Zi trembled with anger. "The other day it rained heavily, and the water from his roof poured down like a waterfall into my yard! A layer of plaster was washed away from my yard wall! I went to argue with him, but he was even more arrogant than me!"

"So what if I'm arrogant?" Li Yushan rolled his eyes, looking like a shameless rogue who wasn't afraid of getting burned. "I'm building a house on my own land, I'm spending my own money, I can build it however I want! If you want to build one, build a two-story one! What's it to you whether I leave any water dripping through it or not!"

As Zhao Jianguo listened, his mind cleared up.

Having grown up in the countryside, he knew all too well the conflicts that a drop of water could cause. In the countryside, homestead land is a matter of life and death; not even an inch can be ceded, let alone a foot. Li Yushan's actions were not only taking advantage of the situation, but also taking advantage of Lao Heizi, purely bullying an honest man.

He specifically asked, "Didn't you contact Village Chief Luo about this?"

Old Hei Zi slapped his thigh: "Of course we went to him! We just went this morning, but Village Chief Luo said the county just sent a new secretary, and new officials always have a lot to say. This kind of dispute is exactly your responsibility, so he told us to come to you!"

He sneered inwardly, "You bastard Luo Shuishan, I was wondering why you were nowhere to be seen this morning, turns out you were digging a pit for me here!"

This matter may seem trivial, but it is extremely difficult to handle in rural areas. Li Yushan's house has already been built, so it is impossible to ask him to demolish it. However, if it is not demolished, Lao Heizi will not be able to get rid of his anger. More importantly, he is a newcomer. If he cannot even resolve this dispute, who in Luojia Village will take him, the first secretary, seriously in the future?

Luo Shuishan was watching him make a fool of himself and trying to humiliate him with this incident!

"Since you, Luo Shuishan, want to watch a show, then I'll use this opportunity to establish my authority in Luo Family Village!" He sneered inwardly.

Seeing that Lao Heizi and Li Yushan were arguing more and more fiercely, pushing and shoving each other as if about to come to blows, he slammed his hand on the table and shouted sharply, "What are you doing! Trying to fight in front of me?!"

The two were stunned by the shout.