CHAPTER 562: CHAPTER 338: BULLY

At one o’clock in the early morning, Li Dajing shuffled in his slippers, groggily went to the yard to urinate, feeling refreshed he shook his body, but when he turned around, he was dazzled by the light from the next yard, reflexively covering his eyes with his hand and snapping to awareness.

Curious, he cocked his ear to listen, he could hear people murmuring softly, but couldn’t make out what was being said. He then moved a stool that had been placed under the eaves against the wall, stood on his tiptoes to take a look over, and saw members of the Li family, old and young, gathered around a pile of jujubes, picking them into a sack. Under the eaves, there was already a row of filled sacks.

Li Dajing watched for a while, then "swooshed" down from the stool and tiptoed back inside, relentlessly teasing his wife Wang Cuixia with smiles.

"Nuts!" muttered Wang Cuixia, dissatisfied, and turned over to continue sleeping.

"Get up, you get up quickly." Li Dajing was energetically dragging his wife up from bed, and Wang Cuixia, rubbing her eyes, pinched his thigh: "You don’t sleep yourself, nor let others sleep, tomorrow morning I still have to cook and stew pig feed!"

"I have to tell you something, isn’t Fourth Grandpa’s family interesting? The jujubes at 50 cents a pound, they’re actually staying up late picking them into sacks." Li Dajing said while patting the kang bedstead: "Honest folks, eh!"

"Really?" Wang Cuixia perked up.

"Why would I lie to you? They’re still bustling around, you’d see if you went over." Li Dajing pulled the blanket and lay down comfortably: "Didn’t the Secretary ask everyone with a jujube garden to have a meeting tonight? Probably Boss Song is coming tomorrow..." He flipped over and frowned, "Could it be someone other than Boss Song coming?"

"Could be," said Wang Cuixia as she put on her clothes and climbed down from the kang: "I’ll go have a look."

"Listen for a while, I’ll be waiting for you," Li Dajing called after her.

Ten minutes later, Wang Cuixia returned, shivering with cold.

"What did you hear? Tell me." Li Dajing, who had been eagerly waiting, pressed her urgently.

"Not even considering how to treat people well, don’t even pull me up into the kang to warm up first," grumbled Wang Cuixia as she climbed onto the kang and pulled the blanket over herself, looking at her expectant husband: "Go pour me a cup of hot water."

Li Dajing jumped down from the kang and nimbly brought over a cup of hot water: "You’re really picking faults."

Wang Cuixia took a few sips, then deliberately delayed before saying: "I heard Li Youbao’s daughter-in-law asking her father-in-law, after picking their own jujubes, she would rush back to her parent’s home overnight and lets her brother’s family prepare to sell theirs too."

"That doesn’t sound right," Li Dajing said, his expression turning serious, then he asked after a thought: "Didn’t you hear who is buying and for how much?"

"No," Wang Cuixia shook her head: "Forget it, we’ll know early tomorrow morning, let’s sleep."

"Seeing how you acted, I thought you heard something useful." Li Dajing pulled the blanket over and lay down: "Early tomorrow, you go and find out, hurry back and tell me."

"Stupid old man!" Wang Cuixia slapped her husband: "Always pushing everything onto me!"

Li Dajing made a snorting noise from his nose and said: "If you would give me a son or a daughter, I wouldn’t need you to do anything. I would take care of you like a lady."

"I’ll find out for you tomorrow." Wang Cuixia quickly placed the water basin at the foot of the kang, turned off the light, and lay down, but her mind was a mess, making it hard to fall asleep.

"Cuixia..." Li Dajing reached his hand over, "we still got a chance, don’t get disheartened."

"Da Jing," Wang Cuixia turned and hugged her husband, sighing: "Or shall we stay away from Boss Song a bit more, accumulate some good deeds, maybe we’ll still have hope."

"Is that something you can just stay away from if you wish?" Li Dajing was somewhat despondent: "We are childless, looked down upon by others, so we can only struggle for face in terms of ’money’."

"But what if it happens?" she asked softly.

Li Dajing pondered for a while, muttered: "If it happens... If it happens, we’ll donate the money to the temple for Master Kong Jie to chant for the child, accumulate virtue."

"But we can’t donate it all, still need to save for the child’s education, university exams."

"Alright, alright..."

...

At seven o’clock in the morning, it became lively in front of the new house built by Li Xiaobei’s Uncle at the edge of the village. The new house, prepared by the Uncle for his two sons, hadn’t been lived in yet, but it was aired out and perfect for use as a storage room.

Old Sir Li borrowed a large balance scale from the village committee, found an old scale craftsman from the village to recalibrate it, and everything was ready. He stood at the doorway and called out: "As I said yesterday, three and a half per pound, jujubes should be clean and crisp, don’t accept those with discrepancies, everyone check your goods properly, those who haven’t picked cleanly should take them back to re-sort, as long as the goods are fine, everyone gets their share, no need to worry."

"Fourth Grandpa, my family’s are definitely fine, check ours first," said a strong middle-aged man carrying a large sack and dumping it on the clean concrete floor, pointing: "Last night, we picked them under three lamps, guaranteed to be up to standard."

Li Xiaobei’s father and the two brothers from Uncle’s house hurried to check the goods. The elder brother, Li Youbao, tasted one and nodded: "Uncle, they’re quite dry and crisp."

"That’s right, we don’t do shady business." The man called Uncle, looking at Old Sir Li: "Uncle, do we settle accounts now or wait until the goods are taken away?"

"The money is already transferred to our passbook, we’ll go to the bank after everything is collected, store it directly, too much money at home isn’t safe," Old Sir Li said with a chuckle: "I wouldn’t dare to withdraw it."

"Hahaha..." A burst of good-natured laughter erupted from the crowd, and those with nimble hands and feet had already started to help inspect the goods and bag them, dragging them over to the scale.

Li Dajing’s wife listened for a while, slipped out of the crowd, and ran back home. Ten minutes later, Li Dajing rode his motorcycle towards the county, fuming inwardly, wishing he had known to plant jujubes in his own family. Damn it, what was this compared to the bit he made running errands for Boss Song?

Every time he thought of the villagers with jujube gardens grinning and counting their money, he felt unbearably uncomfortable. Being already embarrassed was bad enough, but now to be the poorest – how could one live like that?

...

After dinner, Li Dajing sat on the sofa and sulked while chain-smoking, dropping a pile of cigarette butts on the floor in just a short while.

Wang Cuihua sighed, "Dajing, if it’s really bothering you that much, let’s go and give Fourth Grandpa a heads up right now. They hide as much as they can, what do you say?"

"How could that work?" Li Dajing irritably took a sip of water. "If Boss Song finds out, he would chop off my hands."

Wang Cuihua sighed again and went to clean the stove, her mind in turmoil. They were neighbors and friends with Fourth Grandpa’s family, and they had helped each other a lot. This situation... She untied her apron. "Dajing, I’ll go talk to them. If Boss Song finds out, just say your wife didn’t listen to you, and I’ll accept any beating or chopping."

"You old lady, how can you take charge in this kind of matter?" Li Dajing stood up and dragged her back into the house. "Just stay at home. I’ll go."

"Once you’ve spoken, come straight back, don’t get caught by Boss Song there."

"Old lady, mind your own business!" Li Dajing muttered discontentedly as he left the house. Just as he reached the edge of Uncle Li’s new courtyard, he saw a string of lights flickering in the distance, growing brighter. He quickened his pace and rushed into Uncle Li’s courtyard.

The entire Li family was guarding Uncle Li’s new house courtyard. Seeing Li Dajing rush in, Li Xiaobei’s older brother Li Youbao greeted him with a chuckle, "Brother Dajing, who’s chasing after you?"

"Fourth Grandpa, hurry! Hurry! Boss Song is coming, quick..." Li Dajing spoke and then dashed out again, vanishing in the blink of an eye.

"What is Dajing up to?" Uncle Li didn’t catch on immediately and asked doubtfully, "Boss Song is coming, what does it have to do with us?"

"That bastard Song Zufu has driven away all the grain traders in our county, pressing the jujube prices so low on purpose.

As soon as we start harvesting, the news will quickly spread to other villages. Even if Liangyou doesn’t need that much for now, our fellow villagers can sell them elsewhere for more than 50 cents.

He must be targeting our jujubes, trying to intimidate us so nobody dares to oppose him in the future. How could I forget about him?" Old Sir Li nervously stood up. "Quick, start moving it to the truck, then take it to the back garden. He won’t be able to see clearly at night, and as long as the trucks come to take it away early in the morning, we won’t have to fear him."

"All these rooms are already full, it would take us till dawn to move everything out with just our dozen family members. I’ll go find some help," Li Youbao said, preparing to dash out.

"It’s too late," Old Sir Li sighed. "I can already hear the motorcycle. Youbao, get all the families with jujube gardens here to help.

If anyone doesn’t want to come, don’t force them. These jujubes already belong to us, and they aren’t obliged to help." After saying this, he let out a "hmph": "I refuse to believe Song Zufu dares to kill or set fires!"

"He may not dare to kill openly, but he’ll secretly harm people, and as for setting fires, he really dares." Uncle Li suddenly knelt down. "Oh heavens, are you jealous of the Li family finally having some good days?"

"What are you doing?" Old Sir Li kicked his son in disgust. "Get up, I don’t believe he can keep acting so high and mighty forever, and I don’t believe his brother who’s the Secretary will keep protecting him forever. Just wait, one day, he’ll get his comeuppance!"

"Let’s not worry about the future, the key is the current situation," Aunt also joined the conversation. "Now that we’ve been blessed by Little Bei’s success, we thought we were on the cusp of good days, but whether it’s a blessing or a curse, we can’t be sure yet."

Li Xiaobei’s mother opened her mouth but receiving a warning look from her husband, she quietly stepped back, clearly very displeased.

"Fourth Grandpa, I’m here!"

"Uncle, I’m here!"

"Fourth Grandpa..."

"..."

Watching a group of strong workers come to help, many without orchards of their own, Old Sir Li calculated the time since his grandson left and wore a puzzled expression: "Did Youbao go to your place?"

One of the men laughed heartily: "No, it was Dajing who came. Dajing said Boss Song was coming to cause trouble and asked if we were willing to help. Fourth Grandpa, you’ve done good for the villagers; how could we not help? Those of us without jujube gardens even hope to get on your good side in the future!"

Old Sir Li waved his hand heartily: "After the jujubes are shipped off, I’ll host a feast!"

"Alright, don’t be stingy then," someone joked in return.

"Not at all, not at all!"

Five minutes later, Song Zufu, leading with his Passat, followed by more than thirty motorcycles, pulled up and stopped outside Uncle Li’s new house.

Nu’an’s second update. (To be continued. If you like this work, welcome to Qidian (qidian.com) to cast your Recommendation ticket and monthly ticket, your support is my greatest motivation.)