Chapter 329: Little Thief, Wait Until I Get You!

Two yuan was absolutely not to be accepted, but Li Ye, by refusing money, had committed yet another offense.

"I'm telling you, Zhongfa! Your grandson's so spoiled—two yuan for lucky money and he still complains!"

Li Zhongfa looked at his grandson, deeply exasperated.

He knew Li Ye was coming home today, so he'd sent Li Ying to intercept him at the crossroad—but this kid still showed up, stubborn as ever.

But Li Ye said: "Second Cousin, today's already the tenth. After the fifth, the New Year's over. I'm an adult now—why should I still take lucky money?"

Wu Juying snapped back: "Don't you dare call my grandson spoiled. Xiao Ye is cultured and knows proper manners—don't go slandering him."

"Cultured and knows manners? Perfect—I'll teach him filial piety today."

Second Cousin crushed his cigarette and stared at Li Ye: "Xiao Ye, your cousin's in trouble."

"I've never come begging at your door in all these years. Now I'm asking—do you, as a junior, owe him help or not?"

Li Ye smiled faintly: "Help if it's due, don't help if it's not."

Everyone froze, then fell silent, smoking in silence.

Second Cousin, humiliated, raised his voice: "What do you mean 'not due'? That's your own cousin! The joint venture hires dozens—why hire outsiders when you've got family?"

Li Ye ignored Second Cousin and turned to his grandfather: "Grandpa, doesn't the joint venture's hiring depend on the Hong Kong side? How did you get it assigned to us? Are you willing to compromise principles for family?"

"What do you mean 'compromise principles'?"

Second Cousin snapped: "Yesterday's exam—five or six people cheated, hired proxies. They get away with it, but we're the only ones punished? Then your college degree is worthless!"

"What are you talking about?"

Wu Juying exploded, pointing at Second Cousin: "Who are you calling uneducated? If your grandson could study, wouldn't he have passed yesterday? Why come here begging? I never scold my grandson, and you're going on like this?"

"I'm his elder—I can't even scold him?"

"You have no right to!"

Second Cousin, reeling from Wu Juying's tirade, turned red and pale.

He didn't understand—why had the Li family, so calm before, turned so sharp the moment Li Ye walked in?

They didn't know: though Li Zhongfa was head of the household, Li Ye was everyone's forbidden line. Put bluntly—if he offended Li Ye today, Li Juan and Li Ying would remember the grudge forever.

Seeing Second Cousin humiliated, everyone fell silent, only the sound of cigarettes crackling filling the room.

A woman in the corner awkwardly stood up, apologetic: "Uncle Li, we were just being foolish—sorry. My husband and I are leaving now."

The man sitting next to her rose too, gave Li Zhongfa a nervous smile, and followed her out.

But Li Zhongfa stood: "Man Cang's wife, why rush? You haven't eaten! You must eat before you leave."

But the woman smiled awkwardly: "No thanks—we ate too much at lunch. We'll walk while it's still light."

"Sit down, sister," Wu Juying blocked her: "After dinner, Xiao Ye will drive you home."

"No, no—we're country folk—we can't ride in a sedan!"

But Wu Juying said: "Why not? When Zhongfa was in trouble, if you and his Fourth Uncle hadn't given us thirty jin of grain, Xiao Ye would've starved. Let him drive you—it's only right. You're eating this meal."

Just then, Han Chunmei brought out the food: a large pot of braised pork with cabbage, another of pork ribs with potatoes.

Everyone fell to eating silently, while Li Ye studied Fourth Uncle and "Man Cang's wife."

Fourth Uncle was thin—likely came alone. When Li Ye entered, he'd sat in the corner with Man Cang's wife; another boy, "Xiao Gu," had no seat and squatted beside them.

And Xiao Gu was the one who'd helped Li Ye unload his things from the car.

Now at the table, Xiao Gu kept his head down, gnawing steamed buns—only when his mother slipped him a bite of food did he quietly eat it.

Li Ye felt Xiao Gu was quieter than Wang Qiang had been, yet different.

Wang Qiang was a bit simple-minded; Xiao Gu seemed stubborn.

Since Xiao Gu was youngest, he sat beside Li Ye. Li Ye pushed a dish toward him: "Brother, eat this—don't just chew buns."

Xiao Gu nodded silently: "Thank you."

Wu Juying said: "Xiao Ye, who are you calling brother? You must call Xiao Gu 'Little Uncle.'"

Li Ye froze, turned to Xiao Gu—realized he'd just added another elder to his life.

Li Ye blinked in surprise, turned to look at Xiao Gu, and realized he'd spoken out of turn—now he had another elder to reckon with.

Li Zhongfa cleared his throat, eating as he spoke: "I can't influence the joint venture's hiring—but I won't let you come for nothing.

The factory's installing new production lines, so we're rebuilding part of the plant. Tomorrow, send your kids to report—work as construction laborers for a few months, earn some wages."

Second Cousin and others exchanged glances; someone asked: "Zhongfa, no chance at a real job then?

Those cheaters—you can kick them out and replace them with our people, right?"

Li Zhongfa put down his bowl, coldly: "Why didn't you report them when they cheated? Now the exam's over—what's the point? You didn't want to offend anyone then, now you want me to?"

"We thought our own kids would pass! Didn't expect you, the director, to be useless!"

"How much use do you want? Why don't you try applying for construction work yourselves?"

Li Zhongfa's icy gaze made the greedy men uneasy.

Li Ye, too, saw the pattern.

The construction jobs had been planned all along—but Li Zhongfa held back, so they wouldn't think it easy or worthless.

He let them wait a day, let their arrogance fade, then offered the job as a consolation.

On this front, Li Ye realized he still had much to learn.

After everyone ate, Xiao Gu and his mother, along with Fourth Uncle, refused to ride Li Ye's car—walked away instead.

Li Ye gave them two flashlights: "Take these. Bring them back tomorrow when you come to work."

As for the others who lingered, hoping for a ride, Li Ye ignored them, turned, and walked back to his room.

Took two yuan for lucky money and now want a ride? Not even the base fare.

Once everyone left, Li Ye found Li Zhongfa.

"Grandpa, you're planning to help Fourth Uncle and Xiao Gu's family, aren't you?"

Li Zhongfa glanced at Li Ye, smiling: "How'd you know?"

Li Ye said: "No need to guess—if not for them, you'd have let Grandma drop enough hints to drive them out."

"Who are you calling hint-dropping? Little brat, say that again?"

Wu Juying opened the window from the main room, glaring at Li Ye.

Li Ye hurried: "Hehe, Grandma, I meant—Grandpa can't do it, but you can, right?"

Li Zhongfa added: "Yes. Your grandma's usually gentle—but when needed, she can be sharp."

Li Zhongfa also said: "Yes, your grandmother is usually gentle, but when she needs to be, she can be formidable."

Wu Juying, satisfied with their insincere flattery, snorted and shut the window.

Li Zhongfa sighed: "Xiao Gu's father died two years ago. He's the only pillar left. I truly want to help."

"And Fourth Uncle—if he hadn't helped me back then, I might've broken a few bones."

Li Ye said: "So you'll let them work construction first, then find a way to make them permanent?"

Li Zhongfa looked at Li Ye: "That's my plan. Do you think it's right?"

"If Grandpa thinks it's right, then I, your grandson, must agree," Li Ye grinned. "But Grandpa, what if Second Cousin's kid…"

"They won't last," Li Zhongfa cut in. "If I can't tell hard workers from lazy ones, I've wasted my years. I won't force them out—they'll quit themselves. Then they can't blame me."

Li Ye paused, then gave his grandfather a thumbs-up.

Truly, his grandpa was brilliant.

Then Li Ye asked: "Grandpa, about the cheating in the exam—what happened?"

Li Zhongfa said: "Hard to avoid. We prepared ahead—signed the contract with Hong Kong the day before, held the exam yesterday, to catch those trying to bribe their way in.

But the exam was rushed—some proxies slipped through. Still, out of five or six hundred, maybe ten or so—no major impact."

"Still an impact," Li Ye shook his head. "Easy fix: after everyone arrives, hold a second assessment—say, to pick team leaders by score. Remove those with absurd results. Then you can quietly rehire Xiao Gu and others—legitimately."

Li Zhongfa nodded: "Good idea. I'll try to clean up the joint venture's culture before I retire—can't let Mr. Pei get cheated."

As he spoke, Li Zhongfa glanced sideways at Li Ye—he suspected his grandson had a stake in this, though he didn't know how much.

Li Ye asked: "Grandpa, you're so fit—won't retire and just relax?"

As Li Zhongfa spoke, he glanced sidelong at Li Ye, guessing his own grandson had a share in it—though he didn't know exactly how much.

Then Li Ye said: "After retirement, why not become the Hong Kong side's manager? Whether this company grows or our family prospers—it'll all depend on you."

Li Zhongfa took a long moment to understand—Li Ye had planned from the start to squeeze every last drop from his old bones!

But from Li Ye's tone, the joint venture was his to command.

Lao Feng will update tomorrow at three a. . Originally planned three updates today, but a small issue came up.

The kid's exam results came out this afternoon—his mother exploded. Lao Feng had to break it up—she was really hitting him.

Then tonight, as I was writing, their bickering sounded like demonic noise, wrecking my rhythm.

Sigh~—still over a decade of hard times ahead.

Then, when I wrote at night, the two of them bickering felt like demonic noise, throwing off my writing rhythm.

Sigh~ There are still over a decade of hard days ahead!