Chapter 476: Night Visit to the Town Government

Man Yatou said with a grin, "Fourth Uncle, can you hitch the cart for me!"

"No problem!" Li Sigou stuffed the money into his pocket and trotted off to lead the ox.

By the time the ox cart was hitched, Liu Sanman had also returned.

Behind her followed a short man in his thirties, and further back followed an old woman in her sixties.

The old woman had a square face, puffy eyes, a sallow complexion, and a large black mole at the corner of her left eye; one look told you she was not someone easy to get along with.

She shouted as she walked, "Liu Sanman, your mother is almost dead, why bother treating her? It would be better to save the money and use it to get your Third Uncle a wife!"

Upon hearing this, Man Yatou quickly ran over to block her and scolded her without any politeness: "Old hag, stop dreaming! This money is given by the state; if it isn't used for medical treatment, it has to be returned!"

He Yuzhu took one look and felt this old woman had quite the flair of Jia Zhangshi, perhaps even surpassing her.

He couldn't help but wonder, could there really be such a shameless person in this world!

On second thought, he secretly felt fortunate for Man Yatou—if this family didn't have this little girl, they would have likely been picked clean by this old hag long ago.

The old woman was stunned by these words and said hesitantly, "Dead girl, are you lying to me?"

Man Yatou pointed at He Yuzhu: "This big brother is the person in charge of my mother's medical treatment; if you don't believe me, go ask him yourself!"

Before the old woman could come over, He Yuzhu walked straight toward her and said coldly, "Old woman, if you dare to scheme against this money, I will send you directly to the police station."

The old woman was intimidated by his sharp gaze and immediately cowered, muttering, "What kind of lousy rules! A person who is about to die, why bother saving her? Isn't it just wasting money for nothing..."

He Yuzhu turned to the crowd and said loudly, "Everyone listen up, the funds are for a specific purpose, and every cent spent must have an invoice!"

Man Yatou immediately understood He Yuzhu's intention; she walked up to the short man and said, "Third Uncle, you drive the cart over, and I won't treat you unfairly. When it's done, I'll give you a running-errand fee, but don't you dare scheme against my mother's medical money!"

Liu Sanshu chuckled, revealing a mouthful of yellow teeth, and asked, "Man Yatou, how much of a running-errand fee can you give?"

"Five thousand!"

"Good, can you give it in advance? I want to go to the county town to buy a pack of cigarettes," Liu Sanshu said, leaning close to Man Yatou.

"Here!" Man Yatou casually pulled out a five-thousand note and handed it to him.

Liu Sanshu took it with a grin, drove the cart, and took Man Yatou's three older sisters toward the county hospital.

Man Yatou leaned close to He Yuzhu and lowered her voice: "Brother, those two women in the neighboring courtyard haven't left; I saw them watching me from upstairs!"

"Got it, be careful at home by yourself!"

He Yuzhu turned and prepared to leave—he intended to pretend to leave and return to keep an eye on them once it got dark.

Man Yatou suddenly grabbed his hand: "Benefactor brother, my family is too poor and has nothing to give you, but we have some dried wood ear mushrooms, bracken, and shiitake mushrooms stored at home... do you want them?"

He Yuzhu's eyes lit up: "I do! I was actually planning to ask you to collect some mountain goods for me."

Man Yatou became happy and pulled He Yuzhu to see the stock.

He Yuzhu saw that in a corner of her house, there were actually over a dozen sacks of mountain goods piled up.

Opening them, he saw two sacks of wood ear mushrooms, four sacks of bracken, and even more dried bamboo shoots—a full eight sacks.

It seemed the Liu family's daughters were truly hardworking people.

"Man Yatou, sell all these mountain goods to me! I won't separate them; let's calculate it at a flat rate of three yuan per jin, is that okay?"

Man Yatou quickly waved her hands: "Brother, I wanted to give them to you!"

He Yuzhu smiled: "Brother isn't short on money, and your family is suffering, so I must buy them. Once your mother's illness is cured, your whole family still needs to live well; you should renovate the house then."

Upon hearing this, tears streamed down Man Yatou's face.

He Yuzhu scanned them with his system; the several large sacks added up to over three hundred jin.

He took out nine million yuan and handed it to Man Yatou.

The little girl took so much money, her hands trembling, not knowing what to do.

"Keep this money safe yourself; don't let your sisters see it. They have soft personalities and can't hold onto money," He Yuzhu whispered a warning.

Man Yatou nodded vigorously.

"Tomorrow, go help me collect some mountain goods; I want as much as you can get!" He Yuzhu said.

He was collecting these items partly for his own use and partly for He Daqing. There were many people helping with the construction this time, and northerners quite liked these dried goods.

Furthermore, it could provide the local people with some tangible benefits.

Man Yatou quickly agreed.

Just as He Yuzhu was about to leave, he caught a glimpse of a little lobster crawling slowly across the courtyard.

His heart filled with joy, and he asked, "Do you have these things here?"

Man Yatou was stunned and explained, "We call them 'Big-headed Shrimp' here. I heard someone brought them from Nanjing many years ago; now they are everywhere in the river ditches and paddy fields, and we usually catch them to crush up and feed to the chickens and ducks."

He Yuzhu had been looking for these for a long time and hadn't encountered them; he hadn't expected to run into them here.

He couldn't help but laugh: "Man Yatou, you really are a little lucky star!"

Man Yatou said, "Brother, if you like them, take them all!"

"Then I won't be polite!" He Yuzhu carried one basket on his back and let Kajia carry the other.

Just as Kajia went to carry it, a little lobster was crawling out; she reached out to grab it, but the little lobster suddenly pinched her finger.

"Ah!" A scream rang out.

He Yuzhu wasn't bothered, but Xie Hong and Xie Lan in the next room quickly drew their guns and looked over.

Discovering that the big woman was actually afraid of "bugs," the two looked at each other and smiled, then put their guns away.

"You're so tall and sturdy, why are you still afraid of this?" He Yuzhu teased.

"This thing looks like it crawled out of hell!" Kajia cursed while sucking the blood on her hand.

"Since you say it's a thing from hell, don't eat it when I cook it," He Yuzhu joked.

"I wouldn't eat it!" Kajia answered firmly.

After He Yuzhu left, Xie Hong and Xie Lan began to argue.

Xie Lan said, "Sister Hong, we should leave here and go report to the Big Boss!"

Xie Hong shook her head: "When we left, the Big Boss said we must investigate what is in the vehicle."

"But the vehicle is already parked inside the Town Mayor's office, there must be precautions, how are we supposed to check it?" Xie Lan said.

"We will go over at midnight; we must see what is actually loaded on the vehicle. We cannot let An Daiyuan lead us by the nose!" Xie Hong said.

The two argued for a long time, but in the end, they followed Xie Hong's idea.

Returning to the courtyard, the cook for the Town Mayor's office was preparing a meal, and He Yuzhu also began cleaning the Little Lobster, scrubbing them with a brush.

Liu Erhei leaned over and asked: "Captain, what are these things? They look so ugly."

"People around here call them Big-headed Shrimp, I call them Little Lobster," He Yuzhu said.

Town Mayor Shao Lin also walked over: "Brother He, we use these to feed chickens here; are you going to eat them?"

He Yuzhu nodded: "Once you finish eating, you will know, this is a famous dish."

Dinner was served, and the Town Mayor's office made three dishes in total: the Braised Pork was made by He Yuzhu's side; the town cook made stir-fried minced meat with sour long beans and stir-fried dried radish with cured meat; plus He Yuzhu's fourth dish—Spicy Crayfish.

There were over seventy people eating, and many Cadres from the town heard there would be a dinner party, so they all came back after work to accompany the guests.

He Yuzhu brought out Erguotou, while the town brought out rice wine.

At first, the locals would not eat the Little Lobster, feeling it was embarrassing, and the people on He Yuzhu's side did not know how to eat them either.

But seeing He Yuzhu peel the Little Lobster and eat with great relish, not even touching the other meat, everyone became curious. Seeing his movements were skillful, as if he had eaten them countless times, the crowd began to try them one after another, and once they tasted them, they found they could not stop.

After Shao Lin learned from He Yuzhu and ate a few, he slapped his thigh hard: "My god, I have lived all these years in vain! We have such good things locally, yet we didn't know how to cook them!"

Before long, the local Cadres also began to taste them.

The locals already liked spicy food, and once they tasted the Spicy Crayfish, they immediately fell in love with the flavor.

Shao Lin stood up swaying, patted He Yuzhu's shoulder hard and said: "Little Brother He, you must leave the recipe behind; we will have a treat in the future!"

He Yuzhu laughed: "Town Mayor, no problem!"

The meal was enjoyed by both host and guests, and it was not until everyone was slightly tipsy that they gradually dispersed.

He Yuzhu, however, was not idle and went directly to lie in ambush near Man Yatou's house.

At midnight, Xie Hong and Xie Lan changed into night-traveling clothes and came out.

He Yuzhu followed them quietly.

The two women hovered outside the Town Mayor's office for a while, then quietly climbed the wall and jumped into the courtyard.

Just as they approached the car, a dark shadow suddenly rushed over from behind.

Just as they were about to draw their guns, they were struck on the neck with a palm and collapsed softly to the ground.