Chapter 99: When it rains, it pours

After hearing that, Li Jiaci's reaction wasn't as strong as imagined.

Instead, he calmly exhaled a puff of smoke.

"Brother, who exactly is messing with us?"

Zhang Chuqiang asked.

"We'll discuss this later!"

"First, let's check the losses!"

Li Jiaci finished speaking and walked toward the car fleet.

At that moment, Zhang Chuqiang suddenly shouted, "Brother, watch out for the nails on the ground!"

"It's fine."

Since trees lined both sides and water pooled on the ground, the falling snow melted quickly.

Li Jiaci kept his eyes on the ground, avoiding the scattered nails.

The person who scattered the nails was clever, sprinkling them into the car fleet's wheel tracks.

Mountain road drivers know that even on a route driven hundreds of times, accidents can occasionally happen, so most drivers stay within the wheel tracks to reduce risk.

This indicates that the other side also has mountain road drivers.

Li Jiaci had a preliminary guess, but now wasn't the time to discuss it; getting the car fleet back safely was the priority.

"Why aren't you answering the phone?"

Zhang Chuqiang rushed over and replied, "There's no signal here—I tried calling you over a dozen times, but none went through!"

Upon hearing that, Li Jiaci took out his phone and tried calling Zhao Chen.

Sure enough, a busy tone came through.

Li Jiaci said, "I'll go back and get help; you wait here!"

"Okay!"

Before leaving, Li Jiaci inspected each of the cargo trucks.

Almost all the tires were punctured by the nails.

Two drivers also had large bumps on their heads, the size of a bowl.

Fortunately, no one was injured or killed.

Li Jiaci drove back and, halfway, found a few tow truck drivers.

Mobile phone signal was restored.

He first called Liu Jiang and briefly explained the situation.

This also reassured the brothers.

After an afternoon's effort, the car fleet finally returned safely to the lumber yard.

Li Yihu led the workers in unloading the cargo, managing to get all the timber off the vehicles before dark.

Due to the blizzard, the car fleet's mishap, the tow trucks, and other factors, today's shipment was far insufficient; Liu Jiang, after much persuasion, finally appeased the middlemen.

And only after promising to make up the missing timber tomorrow did those middlemen agree to stop.

Li Jiaci no longer cared about those matters; as long as his brothers returned safely, he didn't mind if the business fell through.

That evening, Li Jiaci summoned Zhang Chuqiang outside and handed him the keys to the big truck.

"Brother..."

"From now on, you'll be in charge of leading the car fleet and driving the lead vehicle!"

Zhang Chuqiang said with some self-reproach, "Today's incident is mainly my fault—I pushed them too hard!"

"As long as everyone's unharmed, from now on when you go out, you must be careful and vigilant—never be careless!"

"Nothing like today should ever happen again!"

"You guys are my only family—none of you can come to harm!"

Li Jiaci sighed and gave him a heavy pat on the shoulder.

"Brother, rest assured—I'll definitely be careful from now on!"

Zhang Chuqiang promised.

The night was deep.

Wang Yingna spread the dried blanket on the bunk bed, sat on the edge swinging her legs, and waited for Li Jiaci to come over.

In the night, a tall, familiar figure appeared.

She gave a faint smile, patted the bed for the newcomer, and said, "Come over, keep me company for a chat!"

"It's this late—aren't you going to rest?"

Li Jiaci sat beside her and, as an aside, took off his shoes.

"I'm bored!"

"The lumber yard is so big, I can't find anyone to talk to!"

"Even though I know you guys ran into trouble, I can only stay here and worry!"

"Your brothers are also cold toward me!"

Wang Yingna glanced at the other two dormitories, let out a soft hum, showing a hint of resentment.

She eats and lives with them, always keeping her head down and never seeing them lift theirs, thinking she's already gotten along with them, but when something happened, no one was willing to tell her the full story.

Li Jiaci chuckled: "Those guys are all greenhorns—they've hardly ever interacted with women!"

"You're around women all the time, yet you're not close to me either!"

Wang Yingna tilted her head and said.

"What would I get out of being close to you?"

Li Jiaci gave her a sideways glance, finding it somewhat amusing.

At most they could only be considered friends; if you really wanted to define it, they were basically like siblings.

Since Li Jiaci treated Wang Zhen as his own brother, Wang Zhen's sister was naturally also his sister.

But Wang Yingna didn't see it that way.

She poked Li Jiaci's cheek, smiling like a flower: "It's fine if you don't get close to me; I'll just take the initiative to get close to you!"

"Talkative, hurry up and go to sleep!"

"I'm tired after a day, I don't have time to idle chat with you!"

Li Jiaci impatiently waved his hand.

Without waiting for Wang Yingna's answer, he just burrowed into the blankets himself.

Wang Yingna pursed her lips and muttered to herself: "You'd rather freeze here than sleep in my warm, soft blankets—go ahead and freeze to death!"

She rolled her eyes at the ceiling, stuck out her tongue at the eyes-closed Li Jiaci, then got up and returned to the dormitory.

The next day.

A clamor came from outside the lumber mill.

Li Jiaci set down his ledger and said to Li Yihu beside him: "Second brother, go see what's causing the commotion outside!"

"Got it, big brother!"

Li Yihu hurried out.

Not even three minutes later, he returned to Li Jiaci with a solemn expression.

"Big brother!"

"Something's happened!"

"Dozens of lumber mills are demanding refunds!"

Hearing that, Li Jiaci frowned: "Reason?"

"They said the timber we gave them yesterday got soaked by meltwater and is completely unusable, and we tried to pass off inferior goods as good..."

Li Yihu said this and slammed his fist on the table, exclaiming angrily: "Sure, there was a heavy snowstorm yesterday, but before shipping I and Liu Jiang both inspected the goods—we removed any soaked timber, so the shipped lumber had no defects at all!"

Li Jiaci naturally knew his own brother wouldn't make mistakes in his work.

"Hmph."

"To mess with me, they really went out of their way!"

Li Yihu hurriedly asked: "Who?"

Li Jiaci didn't answer, but quickly strode to the gate.

He wanted to see what these petty traders were basing their slander on, openly splashing dirty water on him.

Arriving at the gate.

Several petty traders were arguing heatedly with Liu Jiang.

"After trusting you so much, you actually tried to fool me with waterlogged timber!"

"Yeah, you didn't deliver as agreed yesterday, but now you're giving us defective goods—what's gotten into you after just a few days?"

"Why waste words with them—just refund the money!"

"Right, refund the money!"

……

Liu Jiang's ears were hurting from all the shouting.

He waved his hands and said: "Stop shouting, isn't it because you said the goods had a problem? Unload them and I'll inspect!"

"You mean you're blaming us for lying, huh?"

"How laughable—your own goods are faulty, yet you're so arrogant!"

"If one person asks for a refund, it might be their issue; but when so many of us demand a refund, it's definitely your problem!"

The petty traders kept shouting without end.