Chapter 393: Liu Haizhong's Self-Inflicted Dead End (Revised)

How Liu Haizhong bullies others with his influence at Yagangchang.

As far as Shazhu is concerned, these things.

They have nothing to do with him.

His relationship with Liu Haizhong is one of utter irrelevance—like horses and cows that have nothing to do with each other.

One is the renowned Elderly Team Captain of Yagangchang, the other is the keeper of the Bird-Shit-Free Warehouse; their standings are clearly not on the same level.

Shazhu doesn't care how much power Liu Haizhong wields; seeing himself as already reduced to a nobody, he's always had just one idea: stay as invisible as possible, avoid involvement and ignore those scheming matters.

I can't afford to provoke you, but I can dodge you.

Shazhu has this mindset.

You, Liu Haizhong, as the Elderly Assault Team Captain at Yagangchang, ought to be mighty and imposing. I, sorting my scrap in Sihuocangku, ought to be timid and cowardly.

Let's keep to our own affairs—well water doesn't interfere with river water.

Yet he doesn't want to do anything.

Yet whatever it is, it keeps rushing to cling onto you.

Just as Shazhu was alone indoors, avoiding reading and studying, Liu Haizhong, for some unknown reason, insisted on causing trouble for Shazhu today.

He brought his two lackeys, Zhang San and Li Si, and jogged all the way to Sihuocangku.

He couldn't even be bothered to lift a hand.

He simply kicked the door open.

Before he even entered the room, the voice blaming Shazhu and slapping a label on his head flew into Shazhu's ears ahead of Liu Haizhong.

"Shazhu, Deputy Factory Director Li assigned you to Sihuocangku as a storekeeper to have you work actively here, but the other workers are all diligently doing their jobs while you loaf alone in the room—you've gone against us. I tell you, Shazhu, as long as I, Liu Haizhong, am at Yagangchang for a day, you won't get away with slacking off there. Zhang San, Li Si, go in and see if Shazhu is playing cards."

Liu Haizhong is Deputy Factory Director Li's lackey.

Zhang San and Li Si are the lackeys among lackeys.

What did Liu Haizhong say?

What are they doing?

Following Liu Haizhong's instructions, the two entered the room, rolling up their sleeves to give Shazhu a harsh lesson.

But when the two reached the table and saw Shazhu studying the factory's safety regulations, their expressions instantly changed—just a moment ago they had the swagger of lackeys, the next second they vanished without a trace.

Shazhu wasn't, as Liu Haizhong accused, slacking off and goofing around; instead, he was studying cultural knowledge.

Who said Shazhu can't use his free time to study?

This lawsuit.

Take it all the way to heaven.

And Shazhu is in the right.

Zhang San and Li Si instantly turned into cowardly weaklings.

Outside, Liu Haizhong saw Zhang San and Li Si standing there unmoving and urged them with a sentence.

"Zhang San, Li Si, what's going on? Don't you listen to what I, Liu Haizhong, say?"

"Team Captain Liu, it's not that we won't listen, but something's not right; you'd better come in and see."

Let the fellow Daoist perish, not the poor Daoist.

Great disaster looms.

Zhang San and Li Si, each lost in thought, were figuring out how to put the chamber pot on Liu Haizhong's head.

"Team Captain Liu, you're the captain; this matter should be decided by you."

"Such a hopeless case—this little matter still needs me to personally handle it."

Liu Haizhong, after muttering a complaint, belly out, walked in.

Upon arriving, he glanced at Zhang San and Li Si, who weren't listening to him, then turned his gaze to Shazhu. The instant his eyes touched the Yagangchang safety production manual, Liu Haizhong's composed face turned as pale as Xiao Wang's and Xiao Li's.

All he could think was:

He wanted to cause trouble.

He never expected Shazhu to be studying cultural knowledge, pencil in hand, with several blank sheets on the nearby table, some bearing written characters.

The facts on the scene.

Clear as can be.

Shazhu isn't loafing; he's studying cultural knowledge—those written sheets are proof of his learning.

This is Liu Haizhong's first cause of panic.

His second cause of panic was the words he spoke when kicking the door open: accusations that Shazhu was lazy, that he loafed indoors doing nothing proper, that he was a disgrace to Yagangchang.

At this very moment.

These accusations Liu Haizhong leveled at Shazhu were like a loud slap, viciously striking his chubby cheeks.

From the fact that Shazhu uses his break time to study cultural knowledge, we see he's not a disgrace to Yagangchang—he ought to be its pride.

If it were someone else.

Working as a keeper in the Bird-Shit-Free Sihuocangku, others would let themselves go, but Shazhu can hold himself to strict standards day after day.

After work.

He actively improves his knowledge.

A copy of Yagangchang's safety production manual is nearly worn out from Shazhu's constant flipping.

This shows Shazhu is very diligent.

Liu Haizhong couldn't help but swallow a mouthful of saliva.

Twisting his stiff cheeks, he slowly looked at Shazhu, the stalemate lasting half a day, before he muttered a few words.

"Shazhu, Second Elder says this is all a misunderstanding—do you believe it?"

Seeing that the situation was not good.

He gave in.

The crucial point is, this isn't something that just because you, Liu Haizhong, say to give in, it will give in.

Shazhu could guess with his toes what fate awaited Liu Haizhong; his title as Team Captain of the Elderly Assault Team at Yagangchang was probably at its end.

He is not a saint.

They've come to his door.

He still has to be magnanimous and act like an uninvolved bystander.

He wouldn't.

"Team Captain Liu, if you were in my shoes, would you make a big thing small and settle a small thing? It's now 4:10 p. m., the rest time for the workers at Yagangchang; I'm using my rest time to study the factory's safety production regulations, yet you say I'm wrong, say I'm not doing anything proper. I want to ask you, Team Captain Liu, what do you consider proper work?"

Facing Shazhu's questioning.

Liu Haizhong squeezed out a smile uglier than crying.

Then he stopped speaking.

Who let them make the mistake of being too hasty, failing to find out in advance what Shazhu was doing; if they had known Shazhu was studying cultural knowledge, they wouldn't have rashly come to his door, and then staged a futile effort like trying to steal a chicken only to lose the rice, not only failing to catch Shazhu but also implicating themselves.

A deep regret welled up.

It arose from the pain in Liu Haizhong's heart.

He looked at Shazhu, who had been avoiding him these past days, and suddenly realized he had done something like lifting a stone only to drop it on his own foot.

Liu Haizhong regretted it.

What a pity.

There's no medicine for regret.

"Team Captain Liu, as the Team Captain of the Elderly Assault Team at Yagangchang, I ask you: when I'm tired from work, I relieve my fatigue by reading books indoors; does this also interfere with your affairs, Team Captain Liu, and do you not like it? Surely I can't be forbidden from reading the Yagangchang safety production manual?"