More than thirty workers went completely mad.
Hunger, cold, and the inflamed gap between the rich and poor turned them into a group of irrational thugs, waving wrenches and iron pipes and howling.
Looking at the group of workers with bloodshot eyes, Li Yuejin, the Party Secretary of the fertilizer plant, hunched over and whispered in the wind, "Old Wang, you've really stirred things up. But Keshantun is such a big place, and it's the middle of the night and pitch black. Do you even know which house that guy surnamed Zhao lives in?"
Wang Jianye straightened the collar of his military overcoat, adopting the air of a veteran cadre: "What's so difficult about this? In a bit, we'll have the security department find a farmer's house with the lights on. We'll knock on the door politely and say that we're from the county state-owned factory visiting the villagers. The villagers are very conscious; when they see our uniforms, they'll definitely be willing to cooperate and lead the way for us."
After he finished speaking, he waved his hand and led the group of menacing workers, stumbling along the muddy path, into the village.
We had just passed a row of dilapidated mud houses at the village entrance and turned into an extremely sheltered mountain valley.
Wang Jianye, who was walking in front, suddenly stopped as if he had been frozen in place.
Li Yuejin, who was following behind, almost bumped into him. He was about to complain when he followed Wang Jianye's staring gaze and froze instantly.
A few dozen meters ahead, a large courtyard with a tall gate and blue bricks stood quietly in the wind and snow.
What truly terrified them was not the oppressive black wooden door, but the dense crowd below the steps.
In the extreme cold and darkness of a night with temperatures as low as minus thirty degrees Celsius.
More than a hundred men, dressed in tattered cotton-padded coats, huddled together against the wall like icicles about to crack.
Their eyebrows and hair were covered in a thick layer of white frost, but each of them was clutching a bulging sack tightly in their arms.
"Old Li..."
Wang Jianye gasped, grabbing Li Yuejin's arm so hard his nails almost dug into the man's flesh. "No need to knock on doors and ask the villagers anymore, this is definitely Zhao Shanhe's house! Damn, just how much money does this kid make! In this minus thirty-degree weather, in the middle of the night, there are still so many people lining up to have him collect hides. This kid's gone crazy for money!"
Li Yuejin was also completely stunned by the scene before him, his face, which was blue from the cold, was contorted with extreme jealousy.
He leaned close to Wang Jianye's ear, his Adam's apple bobbing violently, his voice trembling like a leaf: "Old Wang, your previous intelligence was absolutely wrong! I don't think this is just 20,000 a month, it's 50,000! We have to hold onto this money-making opportunity tightly today! As long as we snatch this business, we'll be set for life, and we won't be stuck being factory managers in this crappy place anymore!"
The two exchanged an extremely greedy look in the darkness.
The next second, Wang Jianye suddenly turned around.
His face, which had just been full of calculation and covetousness, instantly transformed into one of extreme indignation and righteous indignation when he faced the thirty-odd workers behind him.
"Comrades! Did you all see that?!"
Wang Jianye pointed intently at the group of hunters carrying sacks below the steps, his heartbroken voice booming through the wind and snow: "In the dead of night, so many honest, hardworking people are still suffering from the cold, lining up to be exploited by that vampire! This cannibalistic exploitation is happening right under our noses!"
The workers, already freezing and desperate, looked in the direction the factory manager was pointing, their bloodshot eyes blazing with fury.
"As long as Zhao Shanhe takes these hides, he can turn around and exchange them for a lot of money from the Soviets!"
Wang Jianye shouted, inextricably linking Zhao Shanhe's exorbitant profits with the lives of the workers: "With money, he'll collect even more hides, lure more workers from our factory into absenteeism, and undermine the government's interests! When the machines completely rust, our whole families will starve!"
He swung his arm sharply in the wind and snow, issuing a clearing order in the name of justice with remarkable skill.
"Security officers! Take your men and storm this place! Smash this illegal black market! Disperse all these deceived people! Tonight, we absolutely cannot let Zhao Shanhe take even a single piece of his clothing! Block his door tightly!"
"Clear the area! Block the entrance! No one is allowed to sell!"
The head of the security department roared, his face full of menacing features, and charged out like a mad dog, carrying a heavy black rubber baton.
"Get the hell out of here! This is a black market for speculation and profiteering; no selling anything is allowed! Go home now!"
More than thirty state-owned factory workers, who had long been thoroughly brainwashed and driven mad by jealousy and poverty, brandished their cast iron wrenches, pipe wrenches, and rubber batons, and charged into the swirling snow.
……
On the steps of the Zhao family compound, ravaged by wind and snow, the atmosphere was so oppressive that it was hard to breathe.
More than a hundred hunters, clutching their burlap sacks tightly, stood like rows of frozen terracotta warriors in front of the tightly closed, dark wooden door.
The snow below the steps had been trampled into a muddy mess, mixed with dark red blood that had flowed from Liu Laizi and the bearded man.
The two men had long been beaten into submission, lying limp in the snowdrift like two tattered sacks.
But the tall courtyard gate above them remained completely still.
"Second Brother..."
A young hunter, his lips blue from the cold, sniffled and strained to turn his stiff neck: "Why isn't Zhao Shanhe opening the door yet? Did we shout our loyalty too softly? Can't they hear us inside?"
The old hunter, called Second Brother, clutched the sack containing the gray squirrel pelts tightly, his whole body trembling like a leaf.
He glanced at the faint light shining through the crack in the door, then looked down at Liu Laizi, who lay motionless on the ground, a ruthless glint of desperation flashing in his eyes.
"How about... we pull those two bastards off the ground and beat them up again?"
The second brother bit his chapped lips, his voice hoarse like sandpaper: "Does Zhao Shanhe think we weren't ruthless enough, that we weren't sincere enough?"
The young hunter swallowed hard, his saliva brimming with ice, and shook his head repeatedly: "I can't go on, Second Brother. Half my body is numb from the cold, and my throat is burning. If you want to hit me, go ahead. You have a loud voice, shout into the door a couple more times..."
The second brother was about to force himself to stand up and kick Liu Laizi on the ground a couple more times.
Suddenly, a series of chaotic, heavy footsteps echoed through the wind and snow.
Immediately afterwards, dozens of flashlight beams swept over like a flurry of swords, forcing the hunters on the steps to squint.
"Don't fucking move! Put those things down!"
The security chief's hoarse, raspy voice boomed arrogantly in the darkness.
The hunters were all dumbfounded.
They turned around and saw more than thirty people wearing thick military overcoats, carrying cast iron wrenches and black rubber batons, rushing down the steps like a group of bandits who had suddenly come down the mountain.
The second brother stood frozen in place, clutching the sack in his arms tightly, his cloudy eyes filled with confusion.
"Who are you... what are you doing here?"
The second brother, speaking with a heavy local accent, cautiously shrank back.
"What do you do? Security from the county tractor factory!"
"You've all been fooled by that vampire Zhao Shanhe!"
The head of security, his face contorted with menace, stormed up the steps, pointing his baton at the second brother's nose, spitting as he shouted in the cold wind: "This is an illegal black market for speculation and profiteering! Zhao Shanhe cheated you with exorbitant prices, jeopardizing the livelihoods of all the factory workers! We're here on behalf of the county's state-owned factory to clear this place out. Get the hell out of here! Tonight, not a single piece of leather is to be sold to him!"
The thirty-odd workers following behind, relying on their numbers, also joined in the commotion, waving their cast iron wrenches and pipe wrenches.
"Get out of here! Anyone who dares to pass leather through this door is ruining our workers' livelihoods!"
"Get out of here! If you don't leave now, we'll take you and the stolen goods back to the factory!"
The hunters on the steps were all dumbfounded.
What deception? What about jobs in state-owned factories? What about speculation and profiteering?
Their minds, frozen stiff by the minus thirty-degree cold, simply couldn't comprehend the grand pronouncements of these factory cadres who received their monthly government salaries on time.
They only clearly understood one crucial sentence: This group of people in factory uniforms were going to block Boss Zhao's door, prevent them from selling leather, and confiscate the leather as stolen goods!
The second brother stared blankly at the head of the security department, his chapped lips trembling violently.
He glanced at the sack he was clutching tightly in his arms, then at Liu Laizi, who lay oblivious to his fate at the bottom of the steps.
We risked our lives fighting bears in the old forest, and just now we broke the bones of a fellow villager as a pledge of allegiance, all in exchange for this life-saving ration.
Now, you bunch of people with secure jobs are trying to cut off our entire family's livelihood with just a few words?
The head of the security department, seeing the group of peasants staring at him without moving, assumed they were intimidated by the security department's sign.
In an attempt to steal the credit from Director Wang, he swung his black rubber baton with extreme arrogance, slamming it hard against the sack his second brother was protecting in his arms, and reached out to snatch it away.
"Can't you understand human language?! I told you to get lost..."
"Fuck you!"
The second brother's originally cloudy eyes instantly became bloodshot, so red they looked like they were about to bleed in the snowy night.
He completely ignored the police baton hitting his shoulder, and suddenly sprang up like a wild boar protecting its young. His withered hands gripped the head of the security department tightly around the neck, and with a frenzied, reckless force, he slammed the burly man, who weighed over 180 pounds, onto the snow-covered ground, which was full of ice shards and blood.
"How dare they cut off our livelihood! Kill these skinned bandits!"
The second brother's piercing roar snapped the hunters out of their dread.
The hundred or so hunters around them, who had long been driven to the brink of despair by the extreme cold, suddenly erupted in a chilling wolf howl.
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