Chapter 43: Wang Anguo’s Headache

Over the next two days, Li Yi juggled delivering goods and running his stall while also helping build the house, keeping him as busy as a bee.

Of course, the progress on the house was encouraging.

In just two days, with everyone pitching in, they had purchased all the stones, red bricks, and lumber needed for the house.

Although the money was flying out the door, Li Yi was in high spirits.

After all, these building materials would soon be transformed into a tall, spacious brick house, and it was in such a house that he would marry Tang Xue, making up for the regret he had carried with him his entire life in his previous existence.

Compared to that, what does this little bit of money amount to?

But while Li Yi was busy and focused on his work, Wang Anguo had been having a very hard time these past few days.

As the deadline set by the Municipal Bureau draws ever closer, they still have no leads whatsoever, which has made him seem rather irritable.

Criminal Investigation Division. Conference Room!

The room was filled with smoke; everyone had a cigarette clamped between their fingers. To an outsider, it would look like the place was on fire.

But no one paid any attention to that; everyone had their heads bowed, their expressions extremely grave.

“Smack!”

Wang Anguo slammed his hand down on the conference table in front of him and shouted angrily, “Still no news? What the hell are you lot doing?”

Deputy Captain Li immediately stood up and said, “Captain Wang, please don’t get angry. The team has done their best…”

“Is ‘doing our best’ enough? The public and the higher-ups are all waiting for us to crack this case. What they want is results—do you understand that?” Wang Anguo shouted.

“Captain Wang, our team of over three thousand people has turned the county upside down, but we still can’t find the human traffickers’ hideout or any trace of the children. We’re at a loss…”

Wang Anguo slammed his fist on the table again. “What do you mean, ‘we’re at a loss’? Do you expect me to explain this to the parents who’ve lost their children?”

Deputy Captain Li thought for a moment and said, “Could it be that our approach is wrong?”

“What do you mean?”

“Captain Wang, our search these past few days has focused entirely on the county seat. Do you think the traffickers might not even be in the county seat at all?” Deputy Captain Li asked.

“That’s possible, but if we expand the search beyond the city limits—or even to the townships and communes below—we simply don’t have enough manpower to handle it,” Wang Anguo said gravely.

“But we’ve already mobilized the militia from every commune—we simply don’t have any extra manpower!”

Wang Anguo thought for a moment and said, “If we don’t have enough people, we’ll have to bring in reinforcements from other counties and districts. In any case, we must solve this case as quickly as possible—otherwise, the reputation of our county bureau will be completely ruined!”

“Team Leader Wang, if we’re going to borrow personnel from other areas, we’ll need to submit a request to higher-ups…”

“I’ll handle the report. You all immediately consult the map and redraw the priority search areas. I’m calling the county and the municipal bureau right now!” Wang Anguo said.

“Yes, sir!”

Following Wang Anguo’s calls, several counties neighboring Qingshan County quickly dispatched large numbers of personnel into Qingshan County. At the same time, checkpoints were set up within the county to do everything possible to cut off any chance of human traffickers fleeing to their counties.

In an instant, the atmosphere throughout Qing Shan County grew increasingly tense!

…….

Aside from Wang Anguo, who was in a foul mood, there was another person feeling rather miserable at the moment. This person was none other than Xu Hong, who was determined to take revenge on Li Yi.

After returning from the county seat that day, Xu Hong had been thoroughly mocked by the people at the educated youth commune.

Everyone had been eagerly awaiting his return to share the money with them, but in the end, they didn’t get a single penny.

When they heard that the state-run restaurant wouldn’t accept mushrooms from outside vendors, the other educated youths looked at Xu Hong with utter contempt.

As the saying goes, it’s not that people don’t recognize quality—it’s that they compare one thing to another.

They’d heard that Li Jia’s good-for-nothing son delivered hundreds of pounds of mushrooms to the county seat every day, while Xu Hong—who’d clearly promised a market—hadn’t managed to sell a single pound.

When you compare the two, it’s immediately clear who’s better and who’s worse!

Xu Hong was furious. This wasn’t what he’d intended—the staff at the state-run restaurant had clearly said they’d buy his mushrooms, but he never expected them to change their minds the very next day.

Furious, Xu Hong immediately told the people at the educated youth commune that Li Yi had deliberately prevented the state-run restaurant from taking their mushrooms, even going so far as to have them claim the mushrooms didn’t meet standards.

Hearing this, the sent-down youths at the camp reached the peak of their frustration with Li Yi, and one after another, they spoke out, harshly condemning him for being dishonest.

Seeing that he had successfully diverted the anger of these educated youths, Xu Hong finally breathed a sigh of relief.

He was now filled with resentment and jealousy. Since he, Xu Hong, couldn’t do business, no one else would be allowed to either.

Anyway, the anonymous tip had already been sent up; now he just had to wait for that Li guy to get his comeuppance!

Oh, and that slut Tang Xue—this time they’d better throw her in jail too. Only then would he be able to vent his pent-up hatred.

But what frustrated Xu Hong was that no matter how long he waited, he never received any news of Li Yi’s arrest.

Every day, watching Li Yi drive his bright red mule cart into the county seat and return to the village loaded with supplies, Xu Hong felt a mix of impatience, rage, and helplessness.

He didn’t know where things had gone wrong or why this was happening. It seemed like all it would take was for someone to casually investigate at the sugar factory’s gate to catch him red-handed, so why was Li Yi still walking around completely unscathed?

In his rage, he had no idea that at that very moment, every single soldier, police officer, and militia member in the county was busy searching for human traffickers and missing children—who had time to go after a small-time trader?

After all, across the entire county, there were at least two thousand, if not three thousand, people conducting illicit trade on the sly—how could they possibly catch them all?

Besides, the authorities haven’t been cracking down on this as strictly as they used to in the past couple of years. Even if they caught someone, the most they’d do is confiscate the illegal proceeds.

Since the higher-ups were taking this approach, they naturally turned a blind eye.

So what Xu Hong considered a major case was, to the county bureau, nothing more than a minor matter.

If the bureau weren’t so busy at the moment, they certainly wouldn’t have ignored a tip like this.

At the very least, they wouldn’t just set it aside like this; they’d send someone to investigate the actual situation.

As long as the scale isn’t too large, the most likely outcome would be a warning or detention.

If the amount involved were particularly large, they would handle it more seriously.

But to be honest, judging by the cases of this nature investigated in recent years, the amounts involved for most people are only a few hundred yuan, and cases exceeding a thousand yuan are rare.

So, the county bureau generally doesn’t pay much attention to these kinds of cases.

Not to mention that the entire bureau is currently swamped with the missing children case, and they’re already stretched thin—they’ve even had to borrow personnel from neighboring counties.

Under these circumstances, where would they find the manpower to investigate such a trivial matter?

One thing led to another, and Li Yi’s case was put on hold!

Li Yi was completely unaware of this, but Xu Hong wasn’t having it.

Furious, he decided to pay another visit to the county bureau tomorrow. No matter what, he was determined to have that good-for-nothing arrested; otherwise, it would be a travesty of justice given all the injustices he had suffered.