Back in Li Gang’s office, Li Yi saw the guy still slumped in his chair, sipping tea and reading the newspaper!
A large teapot was still boiling on the stove. As the water neared a boil, steam forced the lid of the heavy iron pot to rattle loudly, but the man seemed oblivious.
That carefree demeanor was truly enviable!
Seeing Li Yi push the door open, Li Gang immediately tossed the newspaper aside and asked with a smile, “Finished your call?”
“All done!”
Then, looking at the guy who looked like a retired government official, Li Yi said with a smile, “Your job is so laid-back—it’s really enviable!”
Li Gang grinned and said, “It’s not that we don’t want to work—we just don’t know what to do!”
“If you really wanted to work, you’d have plenty to do. I’d say you’re just being lazy!” Li Yi said with a laugh.
“It really isn’t that. It’s mainly because right before the New Year, the city organized a major crackdown on local public security, and we arrested quite a few people.”
Li Gang continued, “Public order in the county is excellent now. Aside from the occasional street patrol, the entire county bureau is basically sitting pretty!”
Seeing how earnestly the man spoke, Li Yi took him at his word. After all, Qing Shan County was a small place with a modest population.
In a place like this, public order is naturally quite good, so it’s only natural that the county police don’t have much to do.
“To be honest, I’m actually a bit envious of your job!” Li Yi said with a sigh.
Thinking back on his past and present lives, Li Yi had always been as busy as a spinning top; he’d never had a single day as easy and carefree as Li Gang’s.
However, Li Gang smiled wryly and said, “What’s there to envy? It’s laid-back, sure, but I only make thirty or forty yuan a month—not enough to live on, but enough to keep me from starving!”
“Are you short on money?”
“Heh, nobody ever has too much money!”
Then Li Gang added, “By the way, I heard from Brother Wang over the New Year that your wife went to Beijing for a month and sent you five or six hundred yuan. Is that true?”
“It’s true. Sister-in-law An Hong manages sales where I work, so she gets bonuses!” Li Yi replied.
“Good heavens! Five or six hundred yuan a month? We work our butts off all year and barely make five hundred yuan total. We’re the ones who should be envious!”
“That’s different—running a business involves taking risks!”
Li Yi continued, “Besides, your jobs aren’t exactly what you’d call ‘working your fingers to the bone’!”
Li Gang chuckled. “You’re right about that! By the way, do you have anything else to do after this?”
“Nothing in particular. What do you have in mind?” Li Yi asked with a smile.
“If you’re free, how about grabbing lunch together?”
“Sure. Are Team Leader Wang and Plant Manager Liang in the county? If they are, should we invite dxmbang too?” Li Yi asked.
“No, his work is focused in the city right now. He might not even come back to the county once a month. But Director Liang should be here!” Li Gang said.
“Then let’s invite Director Liang!”
“Sure!”
“By the way, how’s Captain Wang doing these days? Is he still the head of the Criminal Investigation Division?”
Li Yi recalled that Wang Anguo had cracked a major murder-and-robbery case not long ago and was said to have distinguished himself—he wondered if he’d been promoted.
“Yes, he’s still the head of the Criminal Investigation Division. But he was awarded a first-class merit just before the New Year—it’s only a matter of time before he gets promoted!” Li Gang said with a touch of envy.
“Haha, don’t envy him too much. A Criminal Investigation Division Captain at the county bureau at twenty-six or twenty-seven—your future is just as bright!” Li Yi said with a smile.
“I’m nowhere near Captain Wang’s level!” Li Gang said.
“Take it slow—no need to rush. You’re still young!”
“Hahaha, you’re right!”
Li Gang continued, “I’ll give Old Liang a call right now and tell him to head straight to the State-Owned Restaurant for lunch. Their hot pot is really excellent!”
“No need to call. I’m heading to the sugar factory in a bit, and I’ll mention the lunch thing to him while I’m there!”
“That works too!”
Li Yi glanced at his watch and saw that it was already 9:30. He said, “I’ll head over to the sugar factory first, then let’s meet at the State-run Restaurant at noon!”
“Sure!”
……….
After leaving the county bureau, Li Yi didn’t head straight to the sugar factory; instead, he drove to the nearby credit union.
He planned to withdraw some money!
Now that the cold storage issue had been settled, the batch of Kesh sheep from the village could be shipped to Beijing.
Plus, with so many families in the village running out of food, Li Yi certainly wasn’t going to hold onto the villagers’ hard-earned money. He might as well withdraw it all while he was in town and distribute it to them right away.
The county credit union wasn’t far from the county bureau; he arrived in less than a few minutes.
When Li Yi walked into the credit union with his passbook, he found there weren’t many people inside; several teller windows were empty.
Come to think of it, that made sense. In those days, people rarely dealt with banks; often, if they had money at home, they’d rather hide it away in some nook or cranny than deposit it in a bank.
Banks in this era didn’t handle transactions at service windows like they did in later times; instead, they operated through individual teller counters.
For security reasons, an iron grille separated the staff behind the counters from the customers outside.
After a quick look around, Li Yi approached an unoccupied counter, handed over his passbook, and said, “Comrade, could you help me withdraw some money?”
The woman behind the counter looked up at Li Yi, took the passbook, and asked, “How much would you like to withdraw?”
“About 40,000 yuan.”
Uncle Feng and the others had already mentioned yesterday that there were over 500 sheep being sold this time, with each one fetching roughly 120 yuan, bringing the total value to over 60,000 yuan.
According to the agreement Li Yi had signed with the village, regardless of the selling price, he was entitled to half of the proceeds.
So, out of the 60,000 yuan, he only needed to pay the village 30,000 yuan.
But just to be on the safe side, Li Yi decided to withdraw 40,000 yuan—that should be more than enough.
However, his bold move startled the woman serving him behind the counter.
She first opened Li Yi’s passbook and examined it carefully. When she saw the balance—over 500,000 yuan—she was genuinely taken aback.
That’s over 500,000 yuan!
For ordinary workers like them, an annual salary of just over 400 yuan meant that even working for a hundred years would only amount to 40,000 yuan—so 500,000 yuan was practically an astronomical figure in their eyes.
“Com…rade, are you really going to withdraw that much money?”
“Yes, I have an urgent matter that requires the money. Surely you have that much here, don’t you?” Li Yi asked.
“If you’d come to withdraw it a while back, we wouldn’t have had that much cash on hand. But the credit union has been issuing loans to various communes and production teams lately, so we do have the funds!” the woman replied.
“That’s good. Then please help me withdraw it!”
“Sure thing!”
The clerk then began processing the transaction at the counter.
Since the 100-yuan bills hadn’t officially entered circulation yet, the largest denomination was still the “Big Black Ten.” Plus, the amount Li Yi wanted to withdraw was quite substantial, and since there was no bill counter, every withdrawal had to be counted by hand.
As a result, the woman behind the counter spent nearly half an hour counting before she had finally finished counting the 40,000 yuan.
By the time Li Yi walked out of the credit union carrying a large bag of cash, it was already 10:30.
He then got in his car and drove straight to the sugar factory!
Although it had been a while since Li Yi had been there, the elderly security guard at the gate still recognized him.
After Li Yi explained his purpose and handed over a pack of cigarettes, his car was allowed to drive straight into the sugar factory without even being registered.
However, when Li Yi arrived at the administrative building of the sugar factory—a route he knew like the back of his hand—he found the area below the building swarming with ordinary people dressed in homespun cloth.
A massive crowd of several hundred people had completely surrounded the office building, leaving no room to move—he had no idea what was going on!