Chapter 121: Rural Absurd Past Events Chapter 121

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Protagonist:

Li Xiulan

In the blink of an eye, the day of the village cadre election arrived.

The entire village gathered at the Village Committee Square.

Under the supervision of town government staff, the candidates Zhang Zhongtian and Liang Yuanchao took turns going on stage to give speeches, outlining their future plans for governing the village, after which the villagers began on-site voting.

Zhang Zhongtian painted a beautiful future for everyone, told them about the various benefits the highway would bring, and also promised everyone that he would vigorously develop the planting industry in the future, take the lead in finding purchasers, and ensure that everything they grew could be sold for money.

Liang Yuanchao, on the other hand, focused his attention on solving various trivial matters in the village, such as what problems a household might encounter and how he would solve them.

He did not paint grand pies for the villagers; every word he spoke was plain and unadorned, very practical, yet the villagers of Shanggou Village had already grown tired of his style of inaction, plus Zhang Zhongtian had gone door-to-door giving gifts long before.

So the final election result held no suspense; Zhang Zhongtian won with an overwhelming majority of votes, becoming the new Village Committee Secretary and Village Chief.

Seeing her own husband dejected because of his defeat, Zhou Aidi comforted him:

"Don't be sad either, what's so good about being a village cadre? Working yourself to death for just that bit of salary; since Zhang Zhongtian likes doing it, let him do it!"

Liang Yuanchao, however, shook his head and sighed:

"Letting Zhang Zhongtian do it will ruin the whole pot of congee! How could they choose Zhang Zhongtian! Is it just because Zhang Zhongtian gave them some cigarettes and oil! Treating the election as child's play for such petty gains, truly too short-sighted; don't they know that all the money Zhang Zhongtian spent now will be scraped back from every single villager of Shanggou Village in the future! Sigh!"

Zhou Aidi gave a dry laugh:

"What can be done, everyone is like this, they compromise for a little sweetener; besides, everyone probably feels that whoever is village cadre is all the same, and it doesn't have much to do with themselves!"

Zhou Aidi was speaking the truth; actually the villagers had little enthusiasm for the village cadre election, feeling from the bottom of their hearts that it didn't have much to do with them; whoever became village cadre, wouldn't everyone just live the same as before?

Liang Yuanchao didn't know what to say, just hung his head dejectedly.

He truly had Shanggou Village's best interests at heart, but never expected the villagers would not appreciate it.

And at this moment, on the other side.

Li Xiulan and Wang Zhanggen, having just participated in the village committee election, were walking home.

"I said so, Uncle Zhongtian was sure to win; he does things much more reliably than Liang Yuanchao!"

Li Xiulan felt genuine joy from the bottom of her heart that Zhang Zhongtian had become Village Committee Secretary.

"But I heard that Zhang Zhongtian embezzled quite a lot of money in this demolition..." Wang Zhanggen was expressionless.

He had originally wanted to cast his vote for Liang Yuanchao, but Li Xiulan insisted on voting for Zhang Zhongtian; he couldn't persuade her otherwise, and in the end still voted for Zhang Zhongtian.

"What does that have to do with me? The money he embezzled isn't mine; as long as he can help solve my problems, that's fine!"

Li Xiulan said exactly that.

Zhang Zhongtian had helped her resolve the conflict between her and Yang Xiaocai, and for this she already harbored gratitude.

She was just like this; because she had no culture or knowledge, she was short-sighted, always judging right and wrong based on her stance, rather than determining her stance based on right and wrong.

She prejudged in favor of Zhang Zhongtian's side first, then went to judge right and wrong; naturally, no matter what happened, she would find excuses for Zhang Zhongtian.

Actually, it wasn't just her; many villagers in Shanggou Village were like this.

This was also the reason why Zhang Zhongtian was able to win by a landslide.

Wang Zhanggen was speechless about this, but also couldn't say anything more.

He didn't want to quarrel with Li Xiulan again over the village committee election matter.

No matter who was elected as village cadre, everyone still had to continue living, still had to work as usual.

The next day, Li Xiulan and Wang Zhanggen continued going to work.

By now they had been working at Zhang Liangang's construction site for nearly a month.

Today was the day for pouring the roof of the first floor.

The two started busy early in the morning and worked until past seven in the evening; only then did they finish the roof pouring work.

By the time they returned home it was already very late; fortunately the three children at home were very sensible and had already prepared dinner, waiting for them to come back and eat.

While eating dinner, Zhang Zhongtian suddenly showed up at the door.

"Zhanggen, Xiulan, eating dinner."

Zhang Zhongtian wore a polite smile on his face, greeting them.

"Uncle Zhongtian, you're here; do you want to eat together?"

Li Xiulan hurriedly greeted him.

"No need, no need, I've already eaten; just came to tell you something."

Zhang Zhongtian laughed heartily, harmless and very kindly.

"What matter?"

Li Xiulan hurriedly stood up to pour a cup of tea for Zhang Zhongtian.

Zhang Zhongtian then said:

"Isn't the highway construction about to start? Today I went to communicate with the town government people; the higher-ups will issue the contract, and they want me to take the lead in finding local workers — one, it can guarantee project progress; two, it can solve local employment. Just wanted to ask you two, do you want to come do the project with me? You do masonry work, so I thought of you first."

Zhang Zhongtian was telling the truth.

Although the highway construction is contracted by specialized state-owned road construction companies, because the law deliberately left a loophole, the people who take on the project at the door are allowed to subcontract layer by layer; finally subcontracted to the bottom layer, after layers of profit-skimming, it only then reaches the grassroots workers.

Zhang Zhongtian pulled connections at the town government side, and only then obtained a contracting right at the very bottom; the people above promised to let him find people to construct this section of road in Shanggou Village, but the profits brought by taking this project, he would definitely have to kick back a large portion upstairs.

"But this is a national project; doesn't it need technical talent? Can we ordinary common people handle it?"

Wang Zhanggen spoke up at this moment, asking this very question.

He felt that such a huge project as building a highway would actually let small migrant workers like them do the construction; that was simply too much like child's play.

Zhang Zhongtian said: "High-technical-content work naturally goes to technical workers; low-technical-content work is done by workers without skills; many jobs aren't solved by technique, they still need manual labor! We small migrant workers just need to do rebar tying, transport cement, lay road surfaces and other work without much technical content; those big machines, we can't operate them either."

What Zhang Zhongtian said was the truth; work that can be outsourced to the bottom level is certainly all work with little technical content, yet both bitter and tiring.

Wang Zhanggen nodded, and spoke no more.

Li Xiulan, however, was somewhat moved; this is building an expressway for the Country, that not only earns money, but is also an honorable thing!

So she asked:

"Uncle Zhongtian, if we go work with you, what are the salary and benefits like?"

Zhang Zhongtian then asked:

"How much money can you all earn in a day now helping others build houses?"

Li Xiulan answered honestly:

"My husband and I combined can earn thirty-five yuan a day."

Zhang Zhongtian thought for a moment, then said:

"I'll give you two twenty yuan each per day, adding up to forty yuan a day; how do you feel about that?"

Li Xiulan was immediately overjoyed:

"That's great! We can earn five more yuan each day, and it's close to home too!"

However, Wang Zhanggen wore a long face:

"We've already agreed to help Zhang Liangang build a house, we must keep our word; we can't just not do someone's project because of a bit of small money."