County Hospital. Inpatient Ward!
Wang Guoguang looked at his eldest son, who was packing his things, and the several hospital directors and department heads standing behind him with a look of distaste, muttering, “What are you doing here? Trying to intimidate these ordinary folks?”
Wang Anmin replied with a wry smile, “Don’t say that—am I really the kind of person who would do that?”
“Does that matter? Look at the fuss you’ve caused just by showing up!”
Wang Anmin knew exactly what his father meant. He didn’t get angry, but turned to the hospital director and said, “Director Zhu, I’m not here to inspect the hospital today. I’m just an ordinary person here to take my elderly father home. You should all go back to work!”
Director Zhu immediately breathed a sigh of relief and was about to dismiss everyone else so they could return to work, intending to stay behind to assist.
But just then, Old Man Wang spoke up: “Wait a minute!”
Director Zhu replied immediately, “Old Man, please tell me what you need!”
“Does anyone here know the name of the young man who brought me in that day? I vaguely heard him mention his name to Dr. Liu!”
At that moment, Old Man Wang’s attending physician stepped forward and said, “Old Man, that young man’s name is Li Yi. He’s from the Red Flag Commune!”
“Li Yi from the Red Flag Commune!”
Then I, Wang Guoguang, turned to my eldest son and said, “Eldest son, remember this—he’s the man who saved your old man’s life. You’d better make sure to thank him properly!”
Wang Anmin replied immediately, “I’ll remember. In a few days, I’ll pay that young man a personal visit at his home!”
“That’s the spirit! Hurry up and get ready—let’s head home!”
“Alright!”
After that, the Wang family packed up their belongings and left the hospital.
After taking his father home, Wang Anmin returned to work!
He knew his father was the kind of man who always repaid kindness. Without that young man’s help, his father would almost certainly have perished on the road—it was truly a life-saving favor.
As his son, he had to do something to show his gratitude; otherwise, he would truly be unworthy of being called a son.
With that in mind, he immediately assigned a task to his secretary, instructing him to look into the background of Li Yi from Hongqi Commune.
Due to his position, he didn’t intend to make a big show of it, so he didn’t reveal the full truth to his secretary.
Little did he expect that this concealment would lead to a major mix-up.
Since the secretary didn’t understand why he was investigating an ordinary commune member—assuming instead that the man had somehow offended him, the county Party secretary—the secretary adopted a stern tone when calling the commune.
This sternness was no small matter; it immediately sent a wave of panic through the entire Red Flag Commune.
The commune’s top officials didn’t dare take this lightly. They immediately summoned all the village party secretaries and production team leaders to a meeting to determine exactly who this Li Yi was who had offended Secretary Wang, and what he had done!
At that very moment, as he set up his stall outside the sugar factory, he had no idea that, through a series of misunderstandings, he had gone from being a ne’er-do-well everyone wanted to beat up to a criminal!
Truly, while he was setting up his street stall, trouble came out of nowhere!
……..
At the entrance to the sugar factory!
Business was surprisingly good today. When the workers learned that Li Yi had actually prepared white-crust flatbreads—and that each cost only five cents—their enthusiasm was reignited.
A serving of liangpi paired with a white-crust pancake cost just 25 cents—and it tasted absolutely delicious.
In less than half an hour, all 110 white-crust buns were sold out.
When the workers at the back of the line found out there were no more pancakes left, they couldn’t help but grumble.
Li Yi could only promise to make more pancakes tomorrow, ensuring everyone would get to enjoy cold noodles with pancakes again.
He worked until 1:30 p.m., finally selling the last serving of liangpi, and then headed to the supply and marketing cooperative to restock.
However, when he arrived at the supply and marketing cooperative, he noticed that the atmosphere there was a bit off today.
Taking a closer look, he noticed that there were quite a few unfamiliar faces both inside and outside the supply and marketing cooperative.
At first, he thought they might be ticket scalpers, but upon closer inspection, they didn’t look like it. Every one of them was burly and muscular, with rosy, healthy complexions—a far cry from the sallow faces of ordinary scalpers.
More importantly, Li Yi didn’t see Liu San—the man who had previously sold him bicycle and sewing machine ration tickets—standing by the utility pole!
Clearly, those strangers weren’t ticket scalpers!
Judging by the wary, scrutinizing glances they cast at passersby, it wasn’t hard to guess who they were.
However, Li Yi didn’t give it a second thought; after all, he was just an ordinary citizen and couldn’t possibly be their target.
So, after securing his mule cart, Li Yi strode straight into the Supply and Marketing Cooperative!
After his usual big shopping spree, Li Yi drove the cart back to the village!
However, the moment he got home, he sensed something was off. He saw his parents in the courtyard, along with the former Party Secretary Feng Kai and Brigade Leader Zhang Tongfu.
With so many people gathered at his home—and it seemed they had been waiting specifically for him—Li Yi immediately sensed that something was amiss.
Hearing the creaking and groaning of the mule cart, the people in the courtyard all instinctively stood up.
Seeing that it was indeed Li Yi returning, his father, Li Shankui, immediately came over to take the reins and said to Li Yi, “Let me take this. Uncle Feng and Uncle Zhang have something to discuss with you!”
Li Yi immediately strode over and said, “Uncle Feng, Uncle Zhang, you wanted to see me?”
Feng Kai said with a grave expression, “Yi, tell me straight—what exactly have you done?”
Li Yi was instantly baffled. He’d gotten into trouble? How come he didn’t even know about it?
“Uncle, what are you talking about? What’s wrong with me?”
“Yiwa, if you really did something wrong, I’ll take you to turn yourself in and try to get you a lenient sentence. You can’t keep it hidden—if they find out, the consequences will be unimaginable!” Feng Kai said earnestly.
Captain Zhang, standing nearby, chimed in, “That’s right, Yi. You can’t go against the government!”
Li Yi hurriedly said, “Uncles, I really haven’t done anything wrong…”
Before Li Yi could finish, Feng Kai frowned and said, “You little rascal, if you hadn’t done anything wrong, the commune officials wouldn’t have ordered a special investigation into your case—and they wouldn’t have asked us to take you to the commune!”
Li Yi was baffled and asked immediately, “Uncle Feng, are you saying the commune officials want to investigate me and need you guys to take me there?”
“Yeah. They held a special meeting just for you this afternoon. If you hadn’t done anything wrong, would those leaders have gone to such lengths?” Feng Kai said, puffing on his cigarette.
Li Yi thought it over carefully. Could it be that someone had reported him for setting up a stall at the sugar factory gate?
Probably not. If it had been a tip-off, the Industry and Commerce Bureau and the police would have gone straight to the sugar factory gate to arrest me. Why would they have the commune do it for them?
Apart from that, he didn’t seem to have done anything else out of line.
“Don’t worry, uncles. You must have misunderstood. It’s highly unlikely the commune called me in because I did something wrong!” Li Yi said immediately.
“What do you mean?”
“Uncle Feng, think about it. If I’d really committed some serious offense, the police would’ve come to arrest me long ago. They wouldn’t be leaving it to you guys to lecture me!”
Upon hearing this, Feng Kai and Zhang Tongfu realized he had a point.
These days, people can get arrested for the slightest rumor or trivial matter. If the higher-ups really had evidence that Li Yi had done something wrong, they wouldn’t be going easy on him.
“Then why is the commune investigating you?” Zhang Tongfu asked, puzzled.
“I’m not entirely sure myself. Since they want to see me, I’ll just go to the commune tomorrow!” Li Yi said.
“Right, then everything will be clear!” Zhang Tongfu said.
Feng Kai nodded and said, “Alright, I’ll go with you tomorrow!”
“Alright!”
……..