Chapter 53: A Blow to the Heart

Upon hearing Li Yi’s words, everyone looked at Xu Hong with anger in their eyes.

It wasn’t just that snitching on others was wrong; more importantly, this kid was completely cutting off their source of income!

Right now, the children from more than half the families in the village were working for Li Yi. Calling it “working” wasn’t quite accurate, though, because Li Yi didn’t actually want those kids in the first place—he was worried about problems arising—it was the villagers who had begged him to take them on.

So, in the eyes of many villagers, it was entirely Li Yi who was making money off their children.

Just think—even for kids as young as seven or eight, Li Yi paid them one or two yuan a day, and older children could earn as much as five yuan a day. That was far more than the work points they earned working in the fields.

If Li Yi were arrested, the mushroom business would go under, and their source of income would dry up.

Just then, a deep voice rang out: “Xu, the educated youth, is what Little Yi said true? Did you really go to the county to report him?”

Everyone turned to look and discovered that Feng Kai, the village Party branch secretary, had arrived at some point.

Feng Kai had originally come over that evening to remind the kids at the educated youth camp to close their doors and windows tightly because a heavy rain was expected.

He hadn’t expected to find this crowd gathered here watching the commotion. After catching a few snippets of the conversation, he immediately realized that rascal Li Yi had been in a fight again.

He was quite angry at first and was about to step in to stop it, but then he heard Li Yi’s explanation and finally understood what had happened.

Xu Hong lay on the ground, groaning, but didn’t answer Feng Kai.

He wanted to deny it, but he was worried Li Yi might drag him to the police station for a confrontation.

At the same time, he was a bit baffled. He’d clearly seen with his own eyes that the police had arrested him—how could they have let him go so quickly? Did that mean street vending was allowed now?

Seeing him looking like a beaten dog, everyone could tell right away that they hadn’t wronged him at all.

“Xu, I’m not trying to criticize you, but the way you handled this was really under the belt!”

After setting the tone, Secretary Feng continued, “Even if you and Xiao Yi have a conflict, that’s a difference of opinion between comrades—something that can be mediated within the organization. Going behind people’s backs to report them like this—at best, it undermines revolutionary comradeship; at worst, it’s retaliation!”

“More importantly, even if you found something amiss in Xiao Yi’s behavior, your first thought should have been to report it to the production team and the village Party branch, and secondly to the commune—not to go straight to the county Public Security Bureau.”

“You must understand that if Xiao Yi is arrested, he won’t be the only one implicated. The production team leader, myself as the village Party branch secretary, and even the commune leaders could all be dragged into this!”

As soon as he said this, the looks the crowd gave Xu Hong grew even more furious.

“Secretary Feng is right—this kid is out to ruin people!”

“Exactly, exactly! If those commune officials get the short end of the stick, they’ll take it out on our brigade. In the end, won’t it be us ordinary members who suffer?”

“You shouldn’t be doing this. You’re clearly making things hard for yourself and don’t want us to have it easy either. You’re so sneaky and malicious…”

These members were locals after all, and deep down, their sympathies naturally lay with Li Yi.

Never mind that Li Yi had turned over a new leaf; even back in the days when he was up to no good and constantly pilfering things, no one had ever thought of turning him in to the police. So who was this out-of-town educated youth to be running his mouth?

At that moment, Secretary Feng motioned for everyone to quiet down, then turned to Zhou Guangya and said, “Zhou, as the leader of the educated youth group, you tell us—how should we resolve this?”

Zhou Guangya was also at a loss. He wanted to suggest letting it go, given how badly Xu Hong had been beaten.

But seeing the angry expressions on the other villagers’ faces, he knew that even if such a suggestion were to be made, it certainly shouldn’t come from him.

With that in mind, he could only turn to Tang Xue, who was standing nearby.

He reasoned that since Tang Xue was Li Yi’s fiancée, if she pleaded on Xu Hong’s behalf, Li Yi would surely listen.

However, to his dismay, Tang Xue showed no reaction to his pleading glance, as if she hadn’t understood at all.

Seeing this, Li Yi couldn’t help but chuckle to himself.

His wife, though she usually seemed cute and a bit clueless, knew exactly where she stood when it really mattered.

If she’d actually pleaded for Xu Hong just now, Li Yi would’ve been truly disappointed in her. When someone’s trying to ruin your husband, and you still plead for them—what else would that make you but a sanctimonious hypocrite?

When Tang Xue noticed Li Yi watching her, her face flushed slightly, and she immediately lowered her head.

Although she hadn’t known Li Yi for very long, she knew he was a man of deep loyalty and honor, with a certain swagger of the underworld about him.

If she had actually pleaded on Xu Hong’s behalf just now, he might not have said anything on the surface, but he would certainly have felt uncomfortable inside.

She wasn’t crazy enough to make her man feel bad over some backstabbing, bullying little scoundrel.

Seeing that no one was coming to her aid, Zhou Guangya gritted her teeth and said, “How about this, then? Let Xu Hong apologize to Brother Li Yi.”

Before Li Yi could say a word, Li Na spoke up loudly, “What’s an apology worth? It’s a good thing my brother wasn’t sentenced to prison; otherwise, even flaying him alive would be too lenient!”

Feng Kai also said in a stern voice, “Just an apology is indeed a bit too lenient. Let him pay Li Yi 10 yuan as well—that’ll serve as a lesson for him!”

Zhou Guangya glanced at Xu Hong and asked, “Xu Hong, do you agree?”

“I… don’t have any money!”

Feng Kai glanced at him and said coldly, “If that’s the case, don’t blame the unit for withholding your personnel files later. Plus, you’ll need a certificate from the unit to return to the city!”

The threat was clear.

Xu Hong gritted his teeth and said, “Fine, I’ll pay the ten yuan, but I’ll have to give it to you next month. I really don’t have any money right now!”

Feng Kai glanced at Li Yi and asked, “What do you think, Yi?”

“I don’t have any objections!”

But then Li Yi changed his tone and added, “I’ve always believed that whether we’re villagers or friends, we should at least be comrades in the revolution. It’s normal to have disagreements—we should voice them openly so everyone can judge who’s right and who’s wrong. What kind of person stabs others in the back like this?”

“If Xu Hong can betray me behind my back today, then tomorrow he might betray any one of you—or even go so far as to harm the entire village. A man like that sends a chill down my spine!”

As soon as these words were spoken, the expressions of everyone present changed—including the educated youth—and their gazes toward Xu Hong were filled with wariness.

That’s right—if Xu Hong could harm Li Yi today, he could harm them too!

This man is simply too dangerous. From now on, we should avoid him whenever possible. We don’t need more friends, but we certainly don’t want to accidentally make an enemy out of him.

Having someone secretly sabotage you every now and then would be absolutely miserable!

There’s nothing more devastating than that!

Seeing that he had achieved his goal, Li Yi didn’t linger any longer. He immediately went over to join Tang Xue and Li Na, ready to head home!

And so, the storm subsided!