Tokyo Knights: The Odd Jobs X Files

Li Xin gave Lai Shenglei a grateful look. Lai Shenglei really knew how to talk. She knew how to make things sound reasonable and how to say things in a way that made people feel comfortable.

Sure enough, when the village chief heard Laisheng Lei say this, he immediately believed it: "Oh, I see!"

There's no way around it; with her looks, people can't help but believe what she says.

However, the village chief still pushed the money back to Li Xin, saying, "Take the money back. This is what you earned through hard work outside. You need money to spend outside too. Why give it all to us? We don't lack money right now."

"You don't lack money?"

Li Xin was stunned for a moment.

“A woman came a few days ago, saying she was from some kind of charity foundation, to help us with post-disaster reconstruction. She gave us and several nearby villages a lot of things, so we really don’t need money right now.”

The village chief told Li Xin.

When Lai Sheng Lei heard about the charity foundation, she immediately guessed that it was run by Li Xin. Before, when she taught Li Xin how to avoid taxes, Li Xin was so excited when he heard that he could donate money to the charity foundation without paying taxes that he hugged her.

Thinking of this, Lai Sheng's face flushed slightly.

Upon hearing this, Li Xin immediately knew that it was Fujii Takako's doing, and he couldn't help but feel happy, thinking to himself that he hadn't helped Fujii Takako avenge her in vain.

However, a charity fund is a charity fund, and the money in a charity fund cannot be used however one pleases, so Li Xin still pushed the money to the village chief.

"Village chief, even if someone helps with the reconstruction, the village will still be short of money. You must accept this money!"

Li Xin said to the village chief, then added, "I still have enough money of my own!"

Yes, every time I come to our coffee shop I just drink hot water, so the money is definitely enough.

Lai Sheng Lei muttered a complaint to herself.

Knowing Li Xin's stubborn nature, the village chief had no choice but to accept the money, but still said, "Alright, I'll take the money, but I dare not keep it myself. Who knows when I might spend it in a moment of confusion. I'll give it to Old Wang, I'll feel more at ease with that guy."

Old Wang is the village party secretary, Secretary Wang. Everyone in Shibali Village trusts his character, so all this money can only be entrusted to him for safekeeping.

Li Xin was aware of this as well, and nodded, saying, "No problem, it's just that you, village chief, have to put in a good word for me with Secretary Wang."

He insisted on leaving Shibali Village, which angered not only the village chief but also Secretary Wang, who was not as easy to deal with as the village chief.

"That guy, I can't control him."

The village chief said with a crooked mouth.

A wealthy businessman from Hong Kong came to donate about three million to Shibali Village, but Secretary Wang handed it all over to the disaster relief team. Because of this, he was so angry that he hasn't made up with Secretary Wang yet.

Even so, the village chief still wanted to entrust the more than 300,000 yuan that Li Xin gave him to Secretary Wang for safekeeping, which shows the trust between the two.

However, the village chief was just saying it in anger. After he finished speaking, he still said, "But your house has nothing right now, so it's uninhabitable. It's not good for you and this young lady to not have a place to sleep. Old Wang has a big place, so you can go stay there. Come on, I'll take you there."

This is actually still an attempt to speak up for Li Xin.

Li Xin, of course, knew that this was the village chief's "arrogance," and said with a smile, "Thank you, village chief."

"No need for thanks, I just couldn't bear to see that young lady have nowhere to sleep!"

The village chief rolled his eyes and said, while Li Xin smiled but remained silent.

Lai Sheng Lei watched with great interest Li Xin, who had no temper at all and was as soft as dough. This Li Xin was completely different from the Li Xin outside. But perhaps this was the real Li Xin. The Li Xin outside was a strong shell that had been developed to cope with unfamiliar environments.

Led by the village chief, Li Xin and Lai Shenglei arrived at a house not far away.

This is the village committee, but villagers usually call it the "brigade," which is the production brigade, a habit left over from the past.

This place serves not only as Secretary Wang's office but also as his residence. Because it serves many other purposes, it has a lot of rooms, which is why the village chief asked Li Xin and Lai Shenglei to sleep here tonight.

A few lights shone from the room, and Secretary Wang was still working. During the day, he had to work with the villagers, so his regular duties had to be done at night. Fortunately, the electricity had been restored, otherwise, it would have been really difficult to manage without lights at night.

"Old Wang, open the door!"

The village chief knocked on the door. Upon hearing the noise, Secretary Wang put down his work, got up, and opened the door, his expression quite rude: "Old Lu, what brings you here so late at night?"

After opening the door, Secretary Wang quickly noticed the two people following behind the village chief. After a moment of uncertainty, Secretary Wang quickly said, "Ah Xin?"

Although Li Xin's appearance has changed a lot, both the village chief and Secretary Wang watched him grow up. They know Li Xin better than their own children. In fact, Li Xin is their child. So the village chief recognized Li Xin without much effort before, and at this moment, Secretary Wang also quickly called out Li Xin's name.

"Secretary Wang..."

Li Xin called out to Secretary Wang, which was a way of acknowledging his identity.

Upon seeing Li Xin, who had been away from home for many days, Secretary Wang was moved, but soon a stern expression appeared on his face: "You still know how to come back!"

Li Xin's legs trembled slightly. Although the secretary Wang in front of him was just an ordinary middle-aged man in his fifties, and his body was still quite strong, even if he didn't use his internal energy and was left to fight, he couldn't possibly cause Li Xin any harm. But Li Xin was just terrified of the village secretary.

"Old Wang, Old Wang, forget it, forget it. The child's back is more important than anything else. What's with that expression? Are you trying to scare the child away?"

The village chief stepped forward to persuade him, while pushing Secretary Wang into the house.

Seeing that Secretary Wang was a little scared because he was angry, Li Xin gently nudged his arm and whispered, "Your Secretary Wang is just sharp-tongued; he's always worried about you."

She had just heard Secretary Wang's concerns about Li Xin on the phone yesterday, so how could she not know his care and love for Li Xin?

Encouraged by Lai Sheng Lei, Li Xin entered the room. There wasn't much in the room, just a desk and a bed board. There were no bedding, only a small blanket.

Although this was partly due to the fact that Shibalipu Village had just suffered from flooding and had not yet recovered, Li Xin knew that the situation was roughly the same on Secretary Wang's side before.

"Tell me, what have you been doing all this time?"

Secretary Wang asked Li Xindao in a rather forceful tone.

Li Xin repeated what he had said to the village chief to Secretary Wang, and at the same time, following Lai Shenglei's words, described his job as a bodyguard.

Secretary Wang was also aware of Li Xin's skills. After Li Xin got a bit older, his village, Shibali Village, never lost a village fight against the neighboring villages. He was quite capable in combat, so becoming a bodyguard was indeed a good career path for him.

But in his heart, Secretary Wang still hoped that Li Xin could study hard, get into a good university, and become someone who could contribute to the country's development in the future.

Well, this is probably a common view among his generation.

"So, you came back this time just to deliver money?"

Secretary Wang asked Li Xindao.

"Yes."

Li Xin nodded.

"Take this money back, it's of dubious origin!"

Secretary Wang glared at Li Xin and said.

Although Li Xin's words seemed reasonable on the surface, this did not convince Secretary Wang that the money was clean.

Secretary Wang has always been wary of large sums of money from dubious sources. Why did the Hong Kong man who claimed to be searching for his ancestors hand over more than three million yuan in aid to Shibalipu Village to the disaster relief team? Was it simply because he was so upright that he lost his mind? No, it was because he felt that the Hong Kong man's origins were questionable and that he couldn't accept the money.

The second attempt to deliver the more than 300,000 yuan failed, leaving Li Xin in a bind. At this moment, Lai Sheng Lei smiled and said, "This is not some money of dubious origin. Look at this."

As she spoke, Laisheng Lei took out a stack of documents from her handbag and handed them to Secretary Wang.

Secretary Wang did not take the document, but looked at Lai Shenglei with a suspicious gaze: "Who are you?"

Lai Shenglei's voice was slightly different from when she answered the phone earlier, so Secretary Wang didn't recognize her. Of course, this was also because Lai Shenglei had deliberately changed her voice when she answered Secretary Wang's phone earlier.

“I am Ashin’s colleague. I came back with Ashin to visit his family.”

Lai Sheng Lei smiled slightly.

"colleague……"

Secretary Wang took the document from Lai Shenglei's hand. The village chief curiously went over to take a look, but quickly looked away. Sigh, he couldn't recognize a single word!

Most of the document was in English, with some in German. It was understandable that the village chief couldn't understand it, but Secretary Wang had studied abroad and was most proficient in Russian. He could communicate normally in English, and although he wasn't fluent in German, he knew a little. So he could roughly understand the document.

This is an employment contract. A company called "Lian Jewelry" hired Li Xin as the security manager for the exhibition.

The contract also included a commendation notice for Li Xin's recovery of a diamond necklace worth over a million dollars for "Lian Jewelry" during his work, with a reward of 15 million yen. Including the 5 million yen commission mentioned in the previous contract, the total amount was 20 million yen.

These documents were specially compiled by Lai Shenglei so that when she visited Secretary Wang, she could prove to him that Li Xin was doing well in Japan and had not done anything illegal or disorderly. But now, these documents are just for proving that Li Xin has a legitimate job in Japan and can also come up with so much money.

"Twenty million yen...that's a lot!"

Secretary Wang was somewhat incredulous.

The village chief asked Secretary Wang, "Twenty million yen, how much is that?"

He knew that the Japanese currency was cheaper than the RMB, but he didn't know exactly what the exchange rate was.

Secretary Wang thought for a moment and said, "About two million."

The village chief's heart nearly jumped out of his chest, but he quickly cheered up: "I knew Ah Xin would amount to something! Look, he's made so much money in such a short time!"

"It's still not possible to prove that these documents are all genuine..."

Secretary Wang stubbornly insisted, but in his heart he had already believed it, because the writing and format of the document seemed very standard to him, and it didn't seem fake.

Lai Shenglei continued to smile: "If Secretary Wang doesn't believe me, you can call 'Lai En Jewelry' to verify. You can check the phone number yourself, so I won't mention it to avoid you misunderstanding that I'm lying to you."

"Lian Jewelry" is yours, isn't it? You can just do whatever you say, Xiao Lei.

Li Xin looked at Lai Sheng Lei with immense gratitude.

Facing two family members who knew him intimately, Li Xin knew he couldn't possibly fool them. If it weren't for Lai Sheng Lei's company, he might not have even been able to get past the village chief.

Chapter Ninety: Two Gold Bricks?

It was getting late, and Li Xin's house was empty and uninhabitable. Secretary Wang arranged for Li Xin and Lai Shenglei to stay at his place, though they would stay separately. In these matters, rural people are more particular than city people.

It was called an arrangement, but in reality, it just meant giving the two of them two bed boards and three blankets. One blanket was for Li Xin, two for Lai Sheng Lei, and the extra blanket was for Lai Sheng Lei to put underneath, so it would be a little softer.

Given the current conditions in Shibalipu Village, Secretary Wang has no way to offer Laishenglei any more preferential treatment.

Lai Shenglei had no complaints about the arrangement and even thanked the village chief and Secretary Wang. She was somewhat prepared for the situation and was not a pampered young lady. She had experienced hardship and could endure it, so these things were nothing to her.

The next morning, Lai Sheng Lei, who had slept very soundly, came out of the house. She had gone to bed before nine o'clock the night before, which was the earliest she had gone to bed in years, so she was full of energy.

As soon as she stepped out, she saw Li Xin return carrying two rabbits. He said to Laisheng Lei, who had just come out, "Little Lei, I didn't treat you to anything last night. The village chief asked me to hunt two wild rabbits for you as an extra meal."

Last night, Li Xin and Lai Shenglei only ate some leftovers at Secretary Wang's place. The village chief felt bad for Lai Shenglei, his guest, and told Li Xin to make it up to her.

Looking at the rabbit that Li Xin was holding by the ear, struggling and pitifully pleading for help, Lai Sheng Lei smiled and said, "Thank you, this is really too much trouble for you. This rabbit... how about I take care of it? I've been running this coffee shop for a long time, so my cooking skills are pretty good."

The two rabbits rolled their eyes, completely gave up struggling, and became motionless.

"Oh, is that so? Okay, then these two rabbits are yours, Xiaolei."

Li Xin said with a smile.

Laisheng Lei smiled and accepted the two lifeless wild rabbits, then walked towards the village committee's kitchen.

The news of Li Xin's return quickly spread throughout the entire Shibali Village. Because Li Xin was very popular in Shibali Village, people from every household came to visit him after he had been away from the village for many days. The village committee was surrounded by a huge crowd. In the end, it was only after Secretary Wang shouted that the villagers quieted down.

"Everyone, go get to work first. We can have lunch together at noon, and then you can talk to Ashin!"

Secretary Wang addressed everyone, and upon hearing this, they stopped crowding around Li Xin and went about their own business, but still kept saying goodbye to Li Xin before leaving.

Seeing how warmly the villagers welcomed him back, Li Xin was deeply moved. He was willing to risk his life for Shibali Village because the people of Shibali Village were worth it.

The main task in Shibalipu Village at present is to restore housing. Most of the villagers are still living in simple temporary housing, which are prefabricated houses. The houses that have been built are mostly unfinished, or even unfinished, because the walls have not been cemented yet. They are just four brick walls with a roof.

According to Secretary Wang, the plan is to concentrate efforts on rebuilding the foundations on each family's original residence, then constructing the bare-bones houses so that everyone can move out of the temporary housing first.

After all, these prefabricated houses are not sturdy, and living in them is inconvenient. When autumn comes and the weather turns cold, it's easy to get cold in them. We should build a sturdy, windproof brick house first, and then consider other options.

With limited government resources and many disaster-stricken areas, Shibalipu Village will never trouble the government with problems it can solve on its own!

Under Secretary Wang's leadership, the people of Shibalipu Village embarked on the work of rebuilding their homes in great enthusiasm.

Originally, due to the scarcity of supplies, the reconstruction work was extremely difficult to carry out, even though the people of Shibalipu Village were eager to rebuild their homes. However, a Japanese woman came and said she was from a charity foundation. She brought a lot of supplies to Shibalipu Village, which made the reconstruction work go smoothly. Now that Ah Xin has returned, everyone's spirits are even higher.

After handing the rabbit over to Laisheng Rui, Li Xin no longer needed to take care of it and joined everyone in building the house. With Li Xin's help, the construction progressed much faster—Li Xin was strong; while others carried two baskets of bricks each, Li Xin carried four baskets or more, and his baskets were bigger than others'. He also walked faster than others, and one person could do the work of ten. With Li Xin taking the lead, the others dared not slack off and put in all their effort, which naturally increased the efficiency.

At noon, everyone should have gone home for lunch, but because Li Xin had returned, everyone gathered together and set up twenty or thirty tables in the open space of the village, like a banquet—for the people of Shibali Village, Li Xin's return was a big event worthy of a banquet!

Originally, Li Xin should have been the main character since his return, but it's clear that compared to the Li Xin we've watched for nineteen years (even though he's changed now), the new young lady is definitely more attractive and worth watching.

"Ah-Xin, who is this young lady?"

An older man leaned on Li Xin's arm, a knowing smile on his face that all men understood.

"This is my colleague, she came back with me."

Li Xin replied.

"Just colleagues? Not a romantic partner?"

The uncle was a little disappointed. It was a pity that such a beautiful young woman wasn't his Ah Xin's wife.

Li Xin blushed slightly: "No, we're just colleagues."