Chapter 193: Nothing fresh about the village's troubles

Wu An immediately became interested.

Lao Jiang asked, "A An, are you alright?"

Wu An said, "That's definitely fine."

"That's pretty impressive, someone keeps messing with you and you're fine." Lao Jiang chuckled, then asked, "Do you want to know who's messing with you?"

Wu An fell silent for a few seconds, then suddenly changed the subject: "Last time I bought my dad a few packs of Hua Zi cigarettes; he felt they were strong when he smoked them. How many Hua Zi do you have here?"

Lao Jiang: "I have two packs here."

"Give them to me, I'll take them all." Lao Jiang nodded, took out two packs of Hua Zi from the back room; the village's public security is poor, so he doesn't dare display such expensive cigarettes on the counter.

Lao Jiang put the cigarettes down and said, "Not many in our village can afford to smoke Hua Zi, but recently Shen Nan came back and he's taken quite a few from me."

"These past two days, Chen Gui came to me to return two packs of Hua Zi."

"You say it's strange, but he's never bought Hua Zi from me before."

"His son hasn't come back either lately."

"Who gave Chen Gui those two packs of Hua Zi?"

Wu An snorted, "You've said it all already, why are you still being evasive? It's obviously Shen Nan who gave them to Chen Gui."

"Shen Nan wants to make a big move in our village, so buttering up Chen Gui is normal."

So.

It makes sense for the two of them to be together.

Lao Jiang nodded.

Wu An asked, "That's it?"

Lao Jiang shook his head.

Wu An picked up the two packs of cigarettes, tucked them under his armpit, and said, "Lao Jiang, I thought this place was our village's intelligence hub."

"I guess the news isn't very reliable either."

"Wait!" Lao Jiang saw Wu An take both packs of cigarettes, got a bit anxious, and said, "There's more, there's more—Chen Gui often comes here to sell cigarettes."

"He himself never buys them."

"I'll just say it straight: that bachelor Lin Bin often buys cigarettes for Chen Gui, and when Chen Gui can't smoke them all, he comes to sell them to me."

Wu An blinked: "What leverage does Chen Gui have over Lin Bin?"

Lao Jiang shook his head.

Wu An made a move to leave: "This news is boring; if there's nothing exciting, I'm just going to go."

Lao Jiang suddenly stamped his feet in frustration, silently cursing Wu An as a sly brat, thinking that if he didn't spill some useful info today, he wouldn't get any benefit at all.

He lowered his voice and shouted, "There's something exciting."

"Put your ear over here."

"This must not be known to a third person."

Wu An nodded.

Seeing Lao Jiang like that, he really was curious to hear what he had to say.

Lao Jiang leaned in to speak into his ear.

Wu An strategically clenched his fist and then placed it under his nose.

Damn!

The middle-aged man's tone was not ordinary.

Lao Jiang said, "You know Lin Hu and Lin Bin, paternal cousins, grew up together from childhood; before they fell out, their relationship was like that of real brothers."

"Their relationship could be this good not only because they live close, but also because they've studied together since they were young."

"And they've always been in the same class."

"Just that Lin Hu dropped out of middle school before finishing, while Lin Bin studied a bit better, went to high school but didn't get into college."

"Lin Hu's wife, that tigress, was their middle school classmate."

"And that guy Lin Bin is still a bachelor; given his loneliness, it's normal for him to do something out of the ordinary, right?"

Wu An's eyes widened dramatically, "Damn, that's awesome, this gossip is explosive."

He saw some melon seeds nearby, picked them up and started cracking them.

Moreover, don't even mention it.

This useful info is quite stimulating, it makes people curious, so he urged Lao Jiang to elaborate on the details.

Lao Jiang was speechless: "I haven't even seen it myself, where would I get the details!"

"If you want to know, go ask Lin Bin."

Wu An gave a hehe laugh: "Don't provoke me, I might actually go ask."

"You guess whether Lin Bin will tell me or not."

Lao Jiang blinked.

After thinking it over, he muttered, "Damn, Lin Bin might just satisfy Wu An to shut him up and spill all the details."

"How did he not think of that?"

"Besides, he's been guarding this little secret all day, not even daring to talk in his sleep at night."

He shook his head, came back to his senses, and asked, "Are you planning to use this to mess with Chen Gui?"

Wu An looked bewildered: "How to do it?"

Lao Jiang glared: "How would I know."

Wu An: "I don't know either."

That's it.

He gave the money for two packs of cigarettes, but only took one pack.

Lao Jiang looked at the pack of cigarettes on the counter, hehe laughing: "This kid… he'll definitely pull it off, Chen Gui… you probably picked the wrong person."

"Oh, and there's Shen Nan kid…"

"I don't know if Wu An can handle it."

He muttered, also quite looking forward to watching the show.

The head of Xixi Village's information center, who seemed glamorous, actually just guarded the small shop all day, couldn't go anywhere, just pointed and watched the fun to kill time.

……

Wu An walked out of the small shop, and greeted the villagers coming to the shop with a smile.

After walking a few steps, he turned back.

He couldn't help wondering why Lao Jiang helped him.

Surely he also had something going on.

Was he targeting Chen Gui, Lin Bin, or Lin Hu?

Wu An was thinking, feeling a bit annoyed.

Whatever.

He still needed to maintain good relations with Lao Jiang; this Xixi Village information head still had some weight, Wu An thought, later he'd definitely have to cooperate with him.

He needed to figure out how to make use of this information.

Walking home, A Qing came running over excitedly, still holding his phone, shouting happily: "Brother, I got it."

Wu An took the phone and looked; it was fairly clear, and asked: "How did you get it?"

A Qing said: "I saw him, pretended to take a selfie, but was actually filming him."

"I even stared him down on purpose."

"He also looked at me."

"I just deliberately provoked him, asking 'What are you looking at?'"

"Shen Nan was about to leave, but angry he stopped right there, asking if I was looking for trouble."

"I just went 'click click click click' and took a bunch of shots, then ran off."

"He was so angry he chased two steps, wearing those ridiculous leather shoes, he couldn't even smell the fart I let loose."

Wu An laughed hahaha.

Then he sent it to Zhao laoban; soon Zhao laoban replied, saying that's exactly this handsome guy.

Wu An put away his phone.

Okay.

Then it's settled.

A Qing asked: "Brother, did you set this up with Shen Nan and Chen Gui together?"

Wu An nodded.

No matter how involved Shen Nan was, anyway he's dealing with those two, it definitely counts as "reasonable retaliation."

A Qing said: "Brother, how are you going to do it?"

Wu An's eyes flashed, saying: "Come on, let's go find Lin Hu and see what his attitude is regarding the fishing boat compensation."

A Qing scratched his head, he couldn't quite keep up with Brother's train of thought—this isn't about plotting revenge, why suddenly he's fixated on Lin Hu?

He followed along.

Coincidentally, Lin Hu was at home.

Wu An knocked on the door.

Lin Hu came to open the door; seeing it was Wu An, his face darkened, he instinctively wanted to close the door, but A Qing directly threw the brick in his hand to block the door.

Lin Hu saw it, his eyes almost popped out.

Bringing a brick to knock on the door?

What are you trying to do?

He said angrily: "Wu An, what do you want? I've already been punished, I don't owe you anything."

Wu An said: "Let's not beat around the bush—compensation hasn't arrived yet; the office should have notified you, right? This money is supposed to be paid to me."

Lin Hu shook his head: "I have no money."

Even before the compensation was settled, he just said "I have no money," almost as if he'd written "I don't want to pay" on his face.

Wu An said: "Lin Hu, I'm negotiating with you now; you'd better also negotiate properly with me."

Lin Hu sneered: "Talk about what? We've got nothing to talk about."

"I'm not scared."

"Cut the nonsense."

After saying that, he kicked the brick away, slammed the door shut with a bang; immediately after, a woman's inquiring voice came from the courtyard, clear and pleasant to hear.

Everyone in the village says Lin Hu's wife is a tigress, fierce as hell; just listening to her voice you can't really tell.

Maybe.

Maybe she's just fierce toward Lin Hu, but toward outsiders she might be another way.

If Lin Hu knew his tigress wife climbed over the wall to someone else's house and turned into a cute little kitten, who knows what he'd think!

Thinking about this,

Wu An couldn't help but laugh.

A Qing scratched his head, not understanding why, after being shut out, Lin Hu's attitude was still so arrogant, how could Brother still laugh?