Chapter 908: Li Gang Again!

? Nothing happened that night!

The next day, just as dawn was breaking, Li Yi was sound asleep with his wife in his arms when the village loudspeaker blared!

“Attention, men and women of the village! To celebrate the early distribution of funds in our Nianzi Mountain Village, and to welcome Yi and Xue back home, the entire village will gather for a meal at the school cafeteria this noon. Men, assemble now at the village committee office to prepare for slaughtering pigs and sheep. Women, head to the school cafeteria to clean up…”

Perhaps for fear that someone might be sleeping too soundly to hear it clearly, the announcement over the loudspeaker played three times before it ended.

Li Yi glanced at his watch—it was only six o’clock.

He rolled over and was about to go back to sleep.

There was nothing he could do about it—he’d gone to bed a bit late last night, and his eyelids were already drooping; he really didn’t feel like getting up.

He hadn’t stayed up late because he’d had a deep conversation with his wife last night, but because the two kids had worn him out.

He wasn’t sure if it was the change of scenery, but the two little ones just wouldn’t go to sleep. It wasn’t until 1:30 a.m. that they finally drifted off, lulled to sleep by Jiang Xue.

But just then, a series of footsteps suddenly echoed from the courtyard, followed by the “clop-clop” of a large animal’s hooves hitting the ground.

The moment he heard that sound, Li Yi knew his old man must be up already.

Based on his father’s daily routine, he would first lead the mules and horses out to the open field to roll around, then take them to the well to drink some water.

After returning, he would shoulder his carrying poles and head to the well to fetch water.

Usually, he had to carry at least three loads (six buckets) to meet the family’s daily needs.

With that in mind, Li Yi immediately crawled out of bed and began getting dressed; he was going to help his father carry water.

There was nothing he could do when he wasn’t home before, but now that he was, he couldn’t let his old man work so hard.

Once dressed and out of the house, Li Yi saw that Zhang Ziqiang, Zhou Wen, and Zhang Feng had all gotten up and were doing stretching exercises in the courtyard; it looked like they were preparing for basic training.

Seeing Li Yi come out fully dressed, Zhang Ziqiang immediately stepped forward and asked, “Brother Yi, are you heading out?”

“Yeah, I’m going to the well to fetch water!” Li Yi replied.

“I’ll go. I know where the well is!” Zhang Ziqiang offered.

“No need. I can’t have you guys doing this—it’s not part of your job!”

With that, Li Yi picked up the shoulder pole from the windowsill, hooked the metal bucket onto it, and headed toward the front gate.

Seeing this, Zhang Ziqiang and Zhou Wen immediately followed him.

The well wasn’t close to their new home—it was a good three hundred meters away.

It wasn’t a big deal to walk there normally, but carrying two buckets full of water made the journey feel quite long.

“Brother Yi, since getting water is such a hassle, why don’t we just dig a well in the yard?” Zhang Ziqiang asked curiously.

“I’d love to, but unfortunately, the ground here on the West Slope is full of rocks. Not only is it hard to dig, but there’s no water either!” Li Yi said with a hint of resignation.

A few years back, the production team had planned to drill a mechanized well here to boost crop yields on the farmland. Unexpectedly, after wearing out several drill bits and spending half a month drilling over a hundred meters deep, they still didn’t find any water.

Later, after professional exploration, they discovered that the ground here was entirely composed of molybdenum ore. Not only was there no groundwater, but even if there had been, the metal content would have been too high. That’s why Li Yi didn’t dig a well in the yard after building his house.

After hearing Li Yi’s explanation, Zhang Ziqiang said again, “Well, if that really doesn’t work, we’ll just run a pipe to the house. Otherwise, carrying water like this every day is just too exhausting!”

Li Yi shook his head and said, “Water pipes are fine in the summer, but it gets too cold in the winter. No pipe can withstand temperatures below minus thirty degrees.”

As for the water shortage, Li Yi didn’t have a very good solution either.

The best solution would be to bring his parents to live in Beijing, but they refused—unless he built them a new courtyard right next to the well.

But even if he had the money, his parents wouldn’t agree to it. After all, their family already had two courtyards—one old and one new—and they simply couldn’t bring themselves to ask the village committee for another plot of land.

As they spoke, the group arrived at the well in Banbanhaobang.

There were quite a few people drawing water; after all, with only two wells in the entire village and everyone tending to come at the same time, the crowd was naturally large.

What surprised Li Yi, however, was that the area around the well had changed. Not only were there dozens of large stone troughs set up—presumably for the village’s large livestock—

After all, with so many cattle, sheep, mules, and horses, there simply weren’t enough troughs to go around.

Stepping closer, Li Yi was astonished to discover that a water pump had actually been installed inside the well.

At that moment, the pump was steadily drawing water from the well.

When they saw Zhou Yang approaching, everyone greeted him, and Li Yi returned each greeting in turn.

Uncle Jin Kai, holding the hose, immediately asked Li Yi to bring over a bucket. He aimed the hose at the bucket, and with a steady “whoosh,” both metal buckets were full in less than a minute.

Li Yi then hoisted the buckets onto his shoulders and headed back to the house.

After making four trips back and forth, he finally filled the large water jar inside the house. Li Yi also set two additional buckets aside next to the stove in the kitchen.

By the time Li Yi had finished carrying water, Jiang Xue and his older sister had both gotten up, and his mother had even prepared breakfast—yet not a single one of the three children had woken up.

After a simple breakfast, his father went to the farm to help slaughter pigs and sheep, while his mother headed to the elementary school.

Li Yi didn’t stay home either; he took Zhang Ziqiang and Zhou Wen by car to the county seat, leaving only Jiang Xue and his older sister at home to watch the kids.

Upon arriving in the county seat, Li Yi headed straight for the county police bureau!

In the Criminal Investigation Division’s office at the county bureau, Li Gang was holding the routine morning briefing when suddenly a young police officer pushed open the door, walked over to him, and whispered a few words.

Li Gang immediately stood up, asked the deputy captain to continue leading the meeting, and strode out of the conference room.

As soon as he reached the door of his office, Li Gang spotted Li Yi and immediately said cheerfully, “Brother Li Yi, when did you get back?”

Seeing Li Gang, Li Yi was equally delighted and replied with a smile, “I just got back yesterday afternoon, and I came to see you today!”

“Hahaha, that’s music to my ears!”

Li Gang then opened the office door and said, “Come on in!”

Once inside, Li Gang poured Li Yi a glass of water and said, “I was just hearing Brother Wang talk about you yesterday—I didn’t expect you to show up today!”

“Hahaha, I can’t stand being missed!”

Li Yi then asked, “By the way, is Brother Wang in the county seat right now?”

After placing the cup in front of Li Yi, Li Gang replied, “No, he’s still in Ning City. I just spoke to him on the phone!”

“Brother Wang mentioned he’s being transferred to Beijing. Once you guys are all gone, I’ll be the only one left here. Sigh!”

“What’s the matter? Do you want to go to Beijing too? If you do, I might be able to pull some strings for you,” Li Yi asked with a smile.

If it were anyone else, Li Yi definitely wouldn’t have bothered with such a trivial matter, but when it came to Li Gang, he didn’t mind giving him a hand.

Like Jiang Longcheng, this guy had a straightforward personality and was loyal—he was a friend worth keeping.

More importantly, Li Yi thought of Wang Anguo. He was heading to the capital all by himself, with no one to turn to—not a single person he could trust by his side.

If Li Gang could be transferred there as well, it would be good to have someone to look out for him.

Upon hearing Li Yi’s words, Li Gang was taken aback for a moment. He had indeed been thinking along those lines and was just considering whether to ask Li Yi for help, but he felt a bit too embarrassed to bring it up.

After all, this was a personnel transfer—from a remote county to the capital—and it would undoubtedly require extraordinary connections, so he really felt a bit embarrassed to bring it up.

But he never expected Li Yi to bring it up on his own—it left him both surprised and deeply touched.

For a moment, Li Gang was so taken aback that he forgot to reply…

……….