Chapter 45

Li Long didn't return that night, but Li Jianguo wasn't particularly worried. The events of the past few days made Li Jianguo realize that his younger brother had become much more steady in his actions. Since he hadn't returned, it was highly probable that he had been delayed by something. So, although he didn't sleep very soundly that night and went out to check twice when the dogs barked, he wasn't overly concerned.

When he got up the next morning, he explained to Liang Yumei:

"Little Long must have run into something in the mountains; he'll be back tomorrow for sure—I have to go to the team to make up the work points for the horse-drawn carriage."

"Then hurry up and go, and explain it clearly to the team leader," Liang Yumei said, "so it'll be easier to borrow the carriage next time."

Judging from the current situation, the Li family actually all knew that there would be no shortage of times Li Long would borrow the horse-drawn carriage in the future.

When Li Jianguo returned again, his expression was a bit strange.

Liang Yumei asked him what was wrong.

"The team leader said that Gu Ermao was caught yesterday. The team leader went to pick him up yesterday afternoon and was fined twenty yuan."

"Caught? Why?" Liang Yumei was somewhat surprised. "What did he do?"

Although Gu Ermao was a bit flighty, he didn't have much courage; he shouldn't have done anything heinous, right?

"They said it was speculation and profiteering—he was caught at the black market yesterday morning."

"The black market? Then Little Long..." Liang Yumei immediately became worried.

"Little Long is fine. This Gu Ermao just followed Little Long to the black market. He saw Little Long buy things and leave with the horse-drawn carriage, so he tried to follow him, and as a result... he got caught."

"Why did he want to follow Little Long?" Liang Yumei's face darkened instantly. Gu Ermao used to associate with Li Long quite a bit, and Liang Yumei had talked to Li Long about it, but the Li Long of that time wouldn't listen at all.

Now that Li Long clearly seemed to have turned over a new leaf and wasn't hanging out with such riffraff, for Gu Ermao to still be following Li Long, what good intentions could he possibly have?

"He confessed everything, saying he wanted to follow our Little Long into the mountains to learn the route. Li Long is able to bring back a lot of things every time, and they had gone into the mountains twice but hadn't gained anything, so he wanted to follow him and see if he could memorize the route, but who knew..."

Speaking of this, Li Jianguo gritted his teeth:

"Damn it, this bad egg even told the joint defense team members that Li Long had sold things at the black market, saying he wanted to report and expose him to earn merit..."

"What does this little bastard want to do?" Liang Yumei was completely furious this time. In rural areas, there is still a general belief in loyalty. If you weren't caught doing such a thing, and you insist on saying it out loud, that's making an enemy. Even if it's not a mortal enemy, at the very least, there will absolutely be no association in the future.

"The team leader said they didn't pay any attention to him. Since they didn't catch him in the act, they also rely on evidence." Li Jianguo said slowly, "The team leader said to tell Little Long to be careful when he goes out in the future. We still need to be cautious around the New Year; policies might change later, but for now, we still have to listen to those above."

"Hmph." Liang Yumei's anger hadn't subsided.

"When Little Long comes back, we'll talk to him properly." Li Jianguo said, "We have fish and meat at home, much better than in previous years; let's not stir up any more trouble this year."

"We'll talk when he gets back." Liang Yumei sighed. "As for the Gu family..." "Don't you worry about it, this matter isn't over." Li Jianguo sneered, "With the Gu family doing such a thing, I'll see what face Gu Laoda has to see me in the future!"

The Gu family was also shrouded in gloom. Twenty yuan was not a small sum; their family could only scrape together fourteen yuan, and the remaining six yuan was covered by the team leader, Xu Chengjun.

Although Gu Ermao didn't look like he had any injuries on his face, there wasn't a place on his body that didn't hurt. Mainly, he had insisted from the beginning that he wasn't there to buy or sell anything. But would the joint defense team members believe him? The point was that when the leader came over to look, he was still crying injustice, but the leader ignored him. After the leader left, those two joint defense team members were so angry that they gave him a good beating.

"What kind of thing did you do?" Gu Ermao's father, Gu Laoda, pointed at him angrily: "If you didn't admit it, you didn't admit it. Why did you drag the Li family's second son into it? Did he provoke you?"

"If it weren't for him, how could I have been caught?" Gu Ermao didn't feel he was wrong at all, tilting his neck and talking back, "If he had told me the route or taken me into the mountains, wouldn't this have been avoided? If I'm not having a good time, I can't let him have a good time either!"

"Whether he's having a good time or not, I don't know, but you're not going to have a good time from now on." Gu Laoda was almost laughed to anger by his own stupid son. "Once the people in the team know about this, don't even think about going out. Just wait and see how they poke your spine!"

"How would the people in the team know?" Gu Ermao was a bit worried when he heard it would spread, but he was still holding onto some luck. "Only the team leader and you went over. If you don't say anything and the team leader doesn't say anything, how would they know?"

"The team leader won't say anything?" Gu Laoda felt for the first time that his son was truly hopeless. "The team leader doesn't need to tell many people; he only needs to tell Li Jianguo... You, come with me to the Li family at noon to apologize!"

"I'm not going! Even if you beat me to death, I'm not going!" Gu Ermao couldn't afford to lose face like that, so he turned and went into his own room.

"Sigh!" Gu Laoda slapped his thigh. His wife had gone out to gossip with others; it probably wouldn't be long before they knew about this ugly business of theirs!

Sure enough, before long, Gu Ermao's mother, Sister-in-law Liu, ran in in a panic. Seeing Gu Laoda, she asked:

"Where's Ermao?"

"In the inner room." Gu Laoda said irritably, "I told him to come with me to the Li family to apologize, but he won't go."

!.

"It's too late!" Sister-in-law Liu also slapped her thigh hard. "It's already spread throughout the team. They're saying Ermao was caught and sold out the Li family's second son, but they didn't care and just fined Ermao. Now everyone in the team is saying that the Li family's Little Long has connections and that our Ermao is a piece of trash..."

As she spoke, she entered the inner room and said to Gu Ermao in a panic:

"Ermao, go hide at your uncle's place for a couple of days, otherwise, who knows what the people in the team will say about you!"

Gu Ermao had heard his mother's words just now, and he was also a bit panicked. Originally, he had thought that after breaking up Wu Shufen and Li Long, he could take advantage of the situation. Now, Wu Shufen could still talk to him, and there had been some progress. If she found out about his business, wouldn't that be ruined?

But now, leaving the team to go to his uncle's place, he was truly unwilling.

"His father, hurry up and think of a way!" Sister-in-law Liu saw her son wasn't moving and came out to urge Gu Laoda. But what way could Gu Laoda think of?

Just as Gu Ermao's matter was fermenting and spreading, team leader Xu Chengjun received another phone call, and he was so angry he could die.

Tao Dayong of the Tao family was caught red-handed selling fish at the black market!

He was almost fainting!

None of these people were worry-free!

Xu Chengjun actually knew clearly that the occurrence of these two things couldn't be separated from Li Long. They all saw that Li Long was doing well, making money, getting things, and having no trouble, so they all wanted to learn from him. But they didn't have his luck, and as a result, both were caught.

Damn it! He had to lose face again!

Thank you all for your monthly tickets, recommendation tickets, and follow-up support. The data is pretty good right now, and I hope it can be maintained.

(End of chapter)