Chapter 66

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Protagonist:

Li Xiulan

Liang Yuanchao insisted on resigning, and Zhang Zhongtian could only accept it in the end.

He reported Liang Yuanchao's resignation to the Town Government, and the Town Government had Zhang Zhongtian temporarily take over Liang Yuanchao's position.

Next year is the village cadre election held once every five years; before new village cadres are elected, all big and small matters in Shanggou Village will be handled by Zhang Zhongtian.

Zhang Zhongtian accepted this arrangement and began his career as the acting manager of Shanggou Village.

He immediately convened a meeting for the whole village, spoke frankly to everyone about the demolition compensation, hoping the villagers would abide by the clauses of the demolition agreement and not come to the village committee to demand demolition compensation in advance anymore!

He also declared that Li Xiulan's case was a special situation, and Liang Yuanchao had resigned voluntarily because he gave her preferential treatment, receiving corresponding punishment; this matter was thus settled. Anyone still unhappy could go to the Town Government to seek an explanation, but not cause trouble at the village committee. Everyone is from the same village—you see each other with heads down and heads up—so don't make things too stiff.

After Zhang Zhongtian spoke so sincerely, the villagers stopped and no longer demanded demolition compensation.

Now everyone knew that Li Xiulan was the only person in the whole of Shanggou Village to receive demolition compensation in advance. Because of this, they held quite a grudge against her, thinking she was unreasonable and sought special treatment, thinking she cared only for her own benefit and ignored others' lives.

Everyone thought that Liang Yuanchao, such a good Village Committee Secretary, resigned only because of the trouble she caused.

For a time, Li Xiulan became the target of public criticism, and her reputation in Shanggou Village was worse than before.

Li Xiulan had heard some of the rumors, but she knew she couldn't change anything, so she didn't bother to explain, pretending she hadn't heard.

Let others say what they want; she couldn't control it!

She just needed to live her own life well.

So she put all her energy into building the new house.

In the past few days, Lin Dajun had already drawn up the blueprints for her. After looking at them, she thought they were fine, and the matter of building the new house was put on the agenda.

Lin Dajun had her pick an auspicious day to break ground; at that time, he would bring his construction team over to dig the foundation.

Li Xiulan carefully studied the almanac and found that seven days later was an auspicious day for breaking ground, so she agreed with Lin Dajun to start work seven days later.

"I have some good news for everyone!"

That day, Lin Dajun called Zhou Hongwei, Liu Xiaoli, and Wang Zhanggen into the small restaurant to eat, preparing to tell everyone some good news.

By then they had already finished the previous construction site.

Wang Zhanggen rented a small room in town to live by himself and had been waiting for the next construction site to start.

As for where the next construction site was and whose it was, he didn't bother to manage it, and didn't even ask much.

He thought these matters should be handled by the foreman Lin Dajun.

All he had to do was do his own job well.

"What good news?"

Liu Xiaoli hurriedly asked.

Zhou Hongwei was also full of curiosity.

Wang Zhanggen, on the other hand, looked indifferent.

Lin Dajun said:

"Didn't I tell you before? I've negotiated a new construction site, and the start time for this site has now been confirmed: seven days from now!"

"That's great; having work means earning money!" Liu Xiaoli looked delighted.

Now she only thought about earning money. After all, she was a widow, with no man to rely on; only money could bring her a sense of security.

"Where is the new construction site? Is it still in town?" Zhou Hongwei asked while eating peanuts.

Lin Dajun answered honestly:

"In Shanggou Village."

As soon as these words were spoken, Wang Zhanggen, who had been silent, trembled inwardly.

He secretly felt something was not quite right.

"Shanggou Village, it's quite far from town..." Zhou Hongwei frowned slightly.

Lin Dajun said: "Actually it's not far, only ten-plus kilometers. It takes twenty minutes by motorcycle. Both you and I, Hongwei, have motorcycles, so at that time we can each carry one person and go to the construction site together. I've also agreed with the employer that she will provide us with free lunch at that time, so we just need to go in the morning and come back in the evening."

"Zhanggen, you're from Shanggou Village, aren't you?"

At this moment, Liu Xiaoli suddenly said such a sentence.

Everyone's gaze immediately turned to Wang Zhanggen.

Wang Zhanggen was stunned, then gave a dry laugh:

"Yeah, I'm from Shanggou Village, but..."

Wang Zhanggen hesitated, unable to finish his sentence.

Lin Dajun asked:

"What's wrong, Zhanggen?"

Wang Zhanggen hesitated for a moment, then said:

"I have an improper request for everyone. Can we not let the people of Shanggou Village know of my presence? I don't want my wife to know about this. Actually, during this time I've been doing masonry work in town, I've been hiding it from her. She still thinks I'm working in the city."

Zhou Hongwei immediately showed a hint of contempt:

"What are you hiding from your wife for? She's your family!"

What Zhou Hongwei looked down on most was men who hid everything from their wives.

Because in his view, such men would almost certainly be unfaithful to their wives.

Thinking also that recently Wang Zhanggen had been very close to Liu Xiaoli at work, with plenty of ambiguity, he became even more certain that Wang Zhanggen was a scumbag.

"We had a falling out and had a big argument. I'm afraid that after she finds out, she'll want to argue with me again."

Wang Changgen smiled bitterly and explained.

Zhou Hongwei said sarcastically:

"If there's a conflict, just talk it out and it's settled; hiding it will only make the conflict grow deeper."

Wang Changgen was very annoyed by Zhou Hongwei's sarcastic lecture and wanted to retort, but before he could speak, Lin Dajun stood up and said:

"Enough, stop talking! Since Changgen has made his choice, we just respect his choice!"

Lin Dajun was an experienced man who had long seen that Wang Changgen and Zhou Hongwei didn't get along, so whenever there was the slightest sign of trouble, he would step in immediately to suppress it, so as not to damage the internal unity of the construction team.

Lin Dajun then said to Wang Changgen:

"Changgen, we can choose not to say anything, but whether you can keep it hidden forever depends on you, after all, the villagers of Shanggou Village definitely know you, we work in the village and see the villagers often, especially the employer, whom we almost see every day; if you want to keep it hidden forever, it's not easy!"

Wang Changgen said:

"As long as you don't say anything, I have a way to keep it hidden."

He was quite confident in himself.

He had already decided that when entering the village, he would not only wear a straw hat but also a face veil, wrapping himself up tightly; as for that employer, he would try not to contact them, and he would definitely be able to keep it hidden forever.

However, the next second, Liu Xiaoli asked a question, which made Wang Changgen immediately panic and no longer so confident.

"Uncle Dajun, what's that employer's name?"

Lin Dajun said honestly:

"Li Xiulan."

Wang Changgen trembled violently and was stunned.