Chapter 906

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Protagonist:

Li Xiulan

Facing Zhong Hongtao's questioning, Wang Erhai explained patiently:

"I went to verify the Zhang family's assets. Right now, aside from that villa which is worth some money, there's nothing else of value in their home. The money in Yao Aina and Zhang Zhiqiang's bank cards and deposit certificates, added together, only comes to 2,378.6 yuan total. These are all verifiable. Town Mayor Zhong, if you don't believe me, you can send someone to check again."

Zhong Hongtao fell into deep thought. After a long while, he finally spoke:

"Before Zhang Zhongtian died, didn't he transfer the New Era Restaurant to you? How much transfer fee did you give him?"

Wang Erhai answered truthfully:

"250,000."

Zhong Hongtao mused:

"250,000 is not a small sum. It got spent this fast?"

Wang Erhai said:

"Zhang Zhongtian's son's rehabilitation costs are a bottomless pit. His own cancer treatment also cost a lot. 250,000 in the face of a serious illness is basically nothing. What's more, the Zhang family was hit with two serious illnesses directly."

Speaking up to here, Wang Erhai pleaded:

"Town Mayor Zhong, for the sake of Zhang Zhongtian's dedicated contributions to Shanggou Village during his lifetime, let's specially approve this impoverished household quota for his family. Besides, his family really is an impoverished household right now."

However, Zhong Hongtao waved his hand:

"It's not that I don't want to, it's that I really can't."

Faced with Zhong Hongtao's answer, Wang Erhai could only sigh.

Zhong Hongtao explained further:

"Their family has a luxury villa. Based on that point alone, they don't meet the impoverished household standard. If their family becomes an impoverished household, and then someone with ulterior motives blows the matter up, deliberately twists the narrative and takes things out of context, and it turns into a major news story in the end, who's going to bear the responsibility? You, this temporary village cadre, or me, this Deputy Town Mayor? Neither of us can shoulder this responsibility!"

Faced with Zhong Hongtao's words, Wang Erhai was unable to refute.

In recent years there have been quite a few news stories about impoverished households living in luxury mansions, and they all caused quite a stir.

Zhong Hongtao didn't want to get entangled in this kind of troublesome matter, so naturally he didn't want to open this precedent for the Zhang family.

So in the end he made his position clear:

"Unless the Zhang family sells their villa, otherwise it's impossible for their family to get an impoverished household quota."

Wang Erhai smiled bitterly:

"Their family only has that one property. If they sell it, they'll have nowhere to live."

Zhong Hongtao said:

"That I don't care about."

Then he said to Wang Erhai:

"Erhai, in our remote mountainous area, there are plenty of miserable people. You mustn't be overly overflowing with sympathy. Doing the work you're supposed to do well is already very good. Being a township cadre, if you're overly overflowing with sympathy, you won't do a good job."

Wang Erhai laughed dryly:

"Thank you, Town Mayor Zhong, for your well-intentioned reminder. I'll adjust my mindset properly from now on."

Coming out of the Town Government, Wang Erhai lit a cigarette for himself, looking worried and grim.

He didn't know how to go tell Yao Aina about this.

Yao Aina had pinned quite high hopes on him.

He smoked several cigarettes in a row at the Town Government gate.

Wang Erhai suddenly had a flash of inspiration.

He thought of another way!

So he hurriedly turned back to find Zhong Hongtao.

Seeing Wang Erhai turn back, Zhong Hongtao was a bit surprised:

"Erhai, is there something else?"

Wang Erhai said:

"Town Mayor Zhong, we only stipulated that impoverished households can't have self-built houses exceeding 100 square meters. There's no stipulation that disabled subsidies also can't have self-built houses exceeding 100 square meters, right?"

Zhong Hongtao was stunned for a moment:

"This... there really isn't."

Wang Erhai said:

"Then we can apply for a disabled subsidy for Zhang Zhiqiang."

Zhong Hongtao smiled:

"This subsidy is probably just a drop in the bucket. It's a lot less than the impoverished household's minimum livelihood subsidy."

Wang Erhai said: "Better than nothing."

Then he asked again:

"Single-parent families raising children also have subsidies, right?"

Zhong Hongtao nodded:

"Indeed there are, but also very little."

Wang Erhai still said the same thing: "Better than nothing!"

Immediately he hurriedly helped Zhang Zhiqiang apply for all kinds of subsidies one by one.

A bit here, a bit there. If they all get approved, in a month it would add up to two or three hundred yuan.

After finishing these matters, Wang Erhai only then returned to Shanggou Village.

He told this good news to Yao Aina.

Yao Aina held his hands, her face full of gratitude:

"Erhai, really, thank you so much!"

Yao Aina even once thought, might as well just die and be done with it.

If not for a precious grandson still needing someone to care for him, she might have long ago taken her son and gone to reunite with her late husband.

Now with these subsidies, she finally had the courage to go on living.

Wang Erhai then said:

"Auntie Aina, what I could help you get is only this much; the poor household subsistence allowance, truly can't get it — the town leaders said, unless your family sells this villa, otherwise it's impossible to get on the subsistence allowance quota."

Yao Aina smiled bitterly:

"The family has only this one property; if we sell it, where will my son, my grandson, and I live? Sigh! I can't earn money either; if I could earn money, that would be great."

These words of Yao Aina moved Wang Erhai; Wang Erhai suddenly thought of a method, and said:

"Auntie Aina, how about you come help me work? I'll give you fifteen hundred yuan a month."

Yao Aina was stunned, her face showing surprise:

"Erhai, what work do you want me to help you with?"

Wang Erhai then said:

"I recently contracted a piece of land to raise chickens, dug a fish pond to raise fish; you just help watch the chicken farm, usually feed the chickens, manage the weeds and such — my mother will also do this work together, the workload assigned to you isn't much, and in your free time you can also bring your grandson along, care for your son."

Yao Aina's face was full of delight and excitement; she hurriedly said:

"Really? Then thank you so much, Erhai!"

Fifteen hundred yuan a month — to tell the truth, this salary is very low.

The current minimum wage level in the city has already risen to seventeen or eighteen hundred, nearly two thousand.

But for Yao Aina, this was charcoal in the snow, it was life-saving timely rain.

So that very afternoon, when Wang Erhai took Yao Aina to the farm, she worked very hard that day; when there was really no work to do, she would even go find work to do herself.

Li Xiulan saw this and hurriedly told her to take it easy working, not to wear her body out; Yao Aina said it wasn't tiring at all, she could still do more work.

Li Xiulan heard this and couldn't help but fall into a trance, thinking back to when she was very short of money and in great difficulty, she went to follow Lin Dajun doing masonry work, also gritting her teeth saying it wasn't tiring, saying she could do more work.

With Yao Aina helping watch the farm, Wang Erhai could also free up time to do other things.

Actually on the village committee side, he still had quite a lot of work to be busy with.

Although Shanggou Village's population loss is severe, the trivial matters in the village are surprisingly many.

But this is also a matter of course.

The large number of middle-aged and elderly people left in the village, they don't understand various modern equipment; many don't even know how to use mobile phones — if the phone screen won't turn on, they think it's broken; if they accidentally press the volume button and there's no sound, they also think it's broken.

Many elderly people come to find Wang Erhai to fix their phones every few days.

Just this one point alone makes things plenty tough for him.

Add to that now all kinds of affairs are moving toward intelligence.

Cooperative medical care payments, electricity bill payments, cable TV turning on and off, and so on — many trivial matters, the villagers all come to find him.

He almost never refuses anyone who comes, and goes to help.

After all he's a village cadre; village cadres exist to serve the villagers.

This morning, Wang Erhai had just finished adjusting an old person's phone screen brightness when he received a call — it was a staff member from the town government calling, asking him to go to town to attend a clean government meeting, saying the inspection team has come down and is currently carrying out "tiger-swatting fly-swatting" anti-corruption inspection activities throughout the county, and the town government must convey the clean government spirit to every village cadre.

So they summoned all the village cadres in the town to hold this meeting.

Wang Erhai naturally actively responded.

However, when he arrived at the town government's conference hall and saw the corruption cases the host shared on the PPT screen, he was dumbfounded.

A familiar name entered his vision.

One of the county town's representatives of petty officials with huge corruption... Li Zhongxian!