I'm sweating bullets. If I don't get along with them in the future, even if I can afford a house, it won't really be mine. But it'll also be very convenient to harm someone later. I've discovered a way to do it without bloodshed.
They lined up to drink water. I taught Xu Delong how to use the tap, and then told him to go back after he finished drinking the water, and that I would get them some food.
When they returned to the tent, they found that there were still two people left behind, and they had already roasted a rabbit.
...I was riding my bicycle, a rabbit leg dangling from my mouth, one hand gripping the handlebars, my silk jacket unbuttoned, humming a little tune as I rode along the path. If this were a TV show, guerrilla fighters would be jumping out of the bushes. There were several rice and flour processing factories in the outskirts of the city; with enough money, grain was plentiful. I bought two tons of rice and flour, 100 barrels of oil, and whatever seasonings I could find. Eventually, the grain factory owner simply assigned his old accountant to me, who was constantly keeping track of everything in a notebook. After finishing my purchases, I told the old accountant to hand over the accounts to someone else, saying, "I still need to buy some pots and pans, so come with me and help me calculate the costs." The factory owner had originally planned to hoard goods during the earthquake, resulting in a serious backlog of inventory. With such a big buyer as me, he readily agreed, even though he was just borrowing the old accountant's services. He even lamented his bad luck in not having a daughter; I wonder what he was really up to.
By the time I finished buying the kitchen knife, cutting board, bowls, and chopsticks, it was already past 10 a.m. The factory owner had his brother-in-law drive out a large Liberation truck. I had come prepared with two taels of cash in my pocket, but I ended up spending it all—from now on, we'll be spending money by the tael!
Finally, I sat in the passenger seat of the Liberation truck, feeling elated and carefree. Things went much more smoothly than I had imagined.
But I quickly changed my mind—when the car arrived, all I saw was endless weeds. Forget tents and people; not even a trace of human activity was visible. Had these 300 men deserted me because they hadn't had enough to eat or drink? Surely, soldiers led by Yue Fei wouldn't be like this.
The driver, seeing my stunned expression, asked, "Where are you going to put it?" I told him to wait, opened the car door, and jumped out. Before my feet even touched the ground, a pair of strong hands grabbed me and dragged me into the bushes. Before I could even scream, my mouth was covered. I closed my eyes, and four words kept repeating in my mind: My chrysanthemum is doomed!
Then I heard a voice exclaim in surprise, "Soldier Xiao?" I opened my eyes and saw a young soldier with a childish face staring at me. Then dozens of people stood up from the bushes. Xu Delong ran up to me and said apologetically, "It was a misunderstanding. We thought they were the enemy."
The factory owner's brother-in-law was quite a tough guy. After being pulled out of the car, he held up a wrench, pointed it at his head, and shouted, "Don't come any closer! Come closer and I'll show you what kind of filling it is!"
...
I explained to him for ages, but he still wouldn't put down the wrench. One of the soldiers, getting impatient, grabbed him and subdued him with a simple takedown. The brother-in-law screamed shrilly, "I never smuggled fake pesticides, and I never sold Japanese rice! You can't treat me like this..."
In the end, I spent ages apologizing to him, telling him they were just a group of joke-loving hikers. After unloading all the grain and seeing the driver off, I shouted to a somewhat apologetic Xu Delong, "Remember, in this era, you have no enemies except those who ask you for money!"
I asked him curiously, "Why aren't you all staying in your tents? Where's the others?"
Xu Delong pointed to the bushes around him: "They've all hidden themselves. We have a rule that no one is allowed to stay in the tents after noon."
I looked at the treacherous thicket of grass and, upon closer inspection, could vaguely make out soldiers sitting with their knees drawn up to their chests. I said fearfully, "You haven't attacked any passersby, have you?" I was genuinely afraid they would drag a few unconscious people out of the grass and claim they were Jin spies. Fortunately, Xu Delong shook his head and said, "We can distinguish between civilians and enemies."
At the time, I felt awkward hearing these words, but I didn't know what was wrong. Later, I realized that Xu Delong meant that I looked like a public enemy.
I should have gone back after leaving the food; if Baozi found out I'd run away in the middle of the night, the consequences would be dire. Just as I was about to leave, I noticed a group of workers busy at work in the open space in the distance, along with a bulldozer. Those dilapidated houses had already been razed. Since it was already late, I simply asked Xu Delong to take four soldiers, and we went over to take a look.
The old bricks from the original house had already been piled up, and several strong workers had drawn a large circle on the ground with lime before stacking bricks on top of it. I didn't know what they were doing, but I chuckled and said, "You've worked hard. You said you'd come today, and you really did. You're true to your word." A worker with a fierce face glanced at me and grunted as a greeting.
I stood there awkwardly for a while, and the more I looked around, the more uneasy I felt. I grabbed the fat man and demanded, "What are you doing?"
The burly man shoveled a shovelful of mud onto the pile of bricks, shook off my hand that was holding him, and said impatiently, "Who are you? Can't you see? This is a canteen being built." As he spoke, he threw a brick onto the mud and piled it up with the shovel.
I pulled him up again: "This is the cafeteria you built for me? Don't think I don't know anything. Even I know that you have to lay a foundation before you can build a pigsty!"
The burly man was about to turn on me, but seeing that I had other people following me, he slapped my hand away and said in a menacing tone, "That's how our boss says to do it. If you have a problem, talk to him!"
"Where's your bastard boss?"
The bald man, carrying a bag of water pipes, walked out of the workers' shed and said lazily, "How dare you talk like that—"
I pointed my finger at him and yelled, "I only hired you because of your second uncle, and I've paid you every penny. Is this how you work for me?"
Lai Zi grinned, but his words carried a hidden threat: "Watch your mouth—aren't you just a fraudulent school that went bankrupt after a couple of months? What's the point of laying a foundation?"
I kicked down the pigsty that the thugs had built and roared, "Rebuild it for me!"
Lai Zi's face paled in shock, and he snarled, "You don't even know who your brother Lai is? You're really asking for trouble! I'm giving you a chance to apologize, or none of you will leave here alive!" At that moment, seven or eight more workers with thuggish looks emerged from the shed, along with the few who were building the pigsty, making nearly 20 people surrounding the six of us. Seeing that this intimidation wasn't enough, Lai Zi casually called out to the side of the construction site, "Someone's causing trouble, huh?" A dozen or so more swarmed around, carrying steel bars and shovels. Looking closely, I realized none of them looked like honest workers; Lai Zi had clearly gathered a bunch of thugs to fool us.
With a compassionate heart, I calmly said to him, "We agreed that you had to work properly, I didn't expect you to just do this half-heartedly..."
Lai Zi stretched out his hand at me and chuckled coldly, "Where's the contract? Do you have one?"
I sighed. The leper swaggered, swinging his arms smugly, and said, "Apologize to me now, and I'll pretend you didn't say anything, okay?"
I said, "What if I don't?"
"Hehe, let's see what my brothers have to say?"
Clinging to my last hope, I said, "You need to know that what you're doing is illegal."
“Go ahead and sue me,” the scoundrel said arrogantly.
"Okay..." I asked him very sincerely, "If we fight later, will you avoid hitting my face?"
"That's hard to say, fists and feet have no eyes. But don't worry, it won't leave you with any disabilities."
I sighed, "Your kindness finally saved your life—" I turned to Xu Delong and the other four and said, "Did you hear that? They want to build a shoddy project to harm you. If a fight breaks out later, you can slap them in the face, but don't cripple them." The young soldier next to Xu Delong, who had once captured me, asked seriously, "Can I kick them in the groin?"
I said, not entirely satisfied, "Look at you, kid. I said no crippling—if you're going to kick someone, at least leave one for them, understand?"
The leper said angrily, "You're about to die, and you're still trying to talk your way out of things..."
Before he could finish speaking, I slammed a brick down on his head—nobody knows where that brick came from. A brick only comes from where it's meant to come from!
While I bent down to pick up another brick, the battle was already halfway through—half of the scoundrels were lying on the ground. Seeing that there were more wolves than meat, the two 300 warriors started to politely defer. The younger one pointed to a thug wielding a shovel in front of them and said to the older one, "Big brother, you do this one." The older one, greedily and politely, said, "You should do it, brother. You're still young and need more training..."
Xu Delong's legwork was amazing; he could kick someone flying with a single kick, just like Stephen Chow in "Kung Fu Hustle." But the people he kicked down weren't dead or seriously injured—that's what you call skillful control. The other soldiers weren't as adept at controlling their kicks; they had to be careful not to kill their opponents and incapacitate them with a single blow. This delay meant that some who sensed trouble would run away, and we, outnumbered, couldn't chase them all.
When I picked up the brick and started looking for someone again, all I could do was look around blankly. Lai Zi's men were either lying down or running away. I squatted down in front of Lai Zi and said with concern, "Are you alright? I told you not to hit my face, but you wouldn't listen."
Lai Zi covered his head, knowing full well that the situation was hopeless, but still shouted, "You wait, I'll gather my brothers and deal with you!" After saying this, he suddenly stared into the distance, lost in thought. Was he thinking of his old mother and the girl in the house?
I followed his gaze and smiled.
It turned out that the commotion we caused here had already alerted the other 300 units. Seeing that the enemy was beginning to flee, they launched a coordinated manhunt from all directions. None of those poor rogue workers could escape their clutches; in less than the time it takes to smoke a cigarette, the captured workers were all thrown to the ground. The Iron-Blooded 300, with their hands behind their backs and feet naturally spread apart, surrounded us in an enormous circle.
I strutted around Lai Zi with a smug look on my face: "You don't even know who your brother Xiao Qiang is. You're so shameless. You don't have a chance to apologize anymore. To make up for the fright you caused my fragile little heart, in addition to the cafeteria, dormitory and teaching building, you also have to build me a large auditorium, add half a meter to the campus wall, and you also have to clear the weeds for me."
The leper said in a tearful voice, "That's not what we agreed on..."