Chapter 75: Beating Up Wang Erlaizi, and Ye Haodong, the Second-in-Command of the Tobacco Bureau!

Just then, some villagers arrived to deliver river snails. Seeing them, Wang Erlaizi quickly followed them inside.

“Hey, hey, hey! Zhang Meihua! Sell your river snails to me! I’ll buy them from you for fifty cents a catty too!”

Zhang Meihua, who had been grabbed, frowned and backed away as if avoiding a plague. “Who would sell to you? You ungrateful wretch, you even bullied Teacher Wei!”

“Forget fifty cents a catty, I wouldn’t sell to you even if it were a yuan a catty!”

“Do you think everyone in our village is as heartless as you?”

“You’re worse than a dog! Get lost!”

She unleashed a torrent of abuse, turning Wang Erlaizi’s face blue with anger.

Heaven knew, he had secretly followed Xie Zhao to the county seat. After getting in touch with Zhao Wuyi, he had started trying to buy river snails. But he never expected that after shouting his lungs out for most of the day upon his return, he wouldn’t get a single snail!

The moment the villagers saw him walking down the road, they simply shut their courtyard gates!

Let alone selling him river snails!

Unwilling to accept this, he had resorted to underhanded tactics, thinking he could just come to Xie Zhao’s house and snatch their suppliers.

But he never expected that even after chasing them to Xie Zhao’s house, they still refused to sell to him!

“You dare come to my house to snatch our suppliers? You’ve got some fucking nerve trying to walk all over me!”

Xie Cheng finally lost his patience.

With lightning speed, he snatched up a carrying pole and rushed forward, letting out a loud shout.

“Sanliuzi! Close the gate!”

Sanliuzi was originally tying up the donkey by the entrance. Hearing Xie Cheng’s shout, he reacted instantly and slammed the courtyard gate shut.

Wang Erlaizi froze for a second, startled. He spun around to flee, but Xie Cheng did not give him the chance this time.

The carrying pole came swinging down toward his head with a rush of wind.

“Ouch!”

Wang Erlaizi shrieked in pain.

Xie Cheng worked in the mines and had strength to spare. He specifically targeted spots that would hurt like hell without breaking any bones: the buttocks, the back, and the thighs. As blow after blow rained down, tears welled up in Wang Erlaizi’s eyes from the sheer pain.

“Murder! Ouch! Xie Cheng is trying to kill me!”

He howled like a slaughtered pig.

Xie Zhao stood by with his arms crossed, watching coldly. Seeing that the beating had gone on long enough, he finally reached out to stop Xie Cheng.

“I… I’m going to report you!”

Wang Erlaizi lay on the ground, groaning in pain, with a dark purple welt from the carrying pole across his face.

Now that his anger had cooled, Xie Cheng felt a bit worried that Wang Erlaizi might actually go to the police. However, he did not let it show, instead glaring fiercely at Wang Erlaizi with cold eyes.

“You dare?!”

Wang Erlaizi shrank back instantly, whimpering and groaning, too sore to speak up.

Yet his eyes were filled with venom, malicious and fierce.

“Go ahead and report us if you want.”

Xie Zhao sneered, stepping forward with his arms crossed. He stood before Wang Erlaizi, looking down at him.

“You trespassed on private property and harassed a woman. My brother only beat you to protect her rights and safety. Everyone here saw it!”

“If the police are going to arrest anyone, they’ll arrest you first!”

“Isn’t that right, everyone?!”

By now, quite a few villagers who had come to deliver river snails were peering over the courtyard wall. Seeing Wang Erlaizi get beaten up, who among them wasn’t secretly thrilled?

Hearing Xie Zhao’s call, they all craned their necks and shouted in agreement.

“Exactly! He had it coming! He was grabbing a woman against her will! I saw it!”

“Meihua! You must speak up for Xie Cheng! When the police arrive, they’ll drag Wang Erlaizi away and put him before a firing squad to get you justice!”

“Well beaten! Serves him right! He deserved every bit of it!”

The crowd was in an uproar, their voices ringing loudly in his ears.

Wang Erlaizi widened his eyes.

Damn it.

This Xie Zhao was completely twisting the truth!

He was both furious and anxious, and his body was in excruciating pain.

Yet not a single person was on his side!

“You… just you wait!”

Wang Erlaizi could no longer bear to lie there. Gritting his teeth, he scrambled up from the ground and limped toward the exit, nursing his pain.

Before leaving, he did not forget to throw out a threat.

“I’ll make sure you…”

But before he could finish, Xie Cheng shot him a freezing glare. Terrified, Wang Erlaizi immediately shut his mouth, turned around, and limped out the door as fast as he could.

The crowd watching from the courtyard wall burst into laughter.

“That Wang Erlaizi actually wanted to copy Xie Lao’er’s family and do business! Who would dare sell to him?”

“A good beating will keep him quiet for three days! That was so satisfying!”

“Exactly! He even bullied Teacher Wei! What a scumbag!”

*

Meanwhile.

In the county seat, inside the office of the deputy director of the Tobacco Bureau.

Cheng Gang stood rigid, looking nervously at the middle-aged man in front of him.

This was the second-in-command of the Tobacco Bureau, Ye Haodong.

Holding a cigarette from a pack of Phoenix Cigarettes between his fingers, Ye Haodong slowly swept his gaze over Cheng Gang and asked, “How did you know there was an ambush?”

He spoke very slowly, but Cheng Gang felt an invisible pressure weighing down on him.

Cheng Gang was still in a state of shock.

He had established a connection with the Tobacco Bureau years ago, and the person he had always dealt with was the dispatcher, Xiang Jiefang.

Although Xiang Jiefang was only a dispatcher, he had direct control over the distribution of tobacco, which gave him significant power.

It was also Xiang Jiefang who had informed him about this delivery operation.

Over the years, Cheng Gang had vaguely guessed that Xiang Jiefang had someone backing him. That was why, as soon as the police showed up yesterday, he had rushed to find Xiang Jiefang, hoping he would report to his superiors and get to the bottom of the matter.

Otherwise, he wouldn’t even dare show his face.

But this afternoon, Xiang Jiefang had called him over directly.

He said someone wanted to meet him.

Cheng Gang had guessed it would be the backer behind the scenes, but he never expected that person to be Ye Haodong!

The second-in-command of the Tobacco Bureau!

“Well? Is there something you can’t say?”

Ye Haodong narrowed his eyes and flicked the ash off his cigarette, his sharp gaze scrutinizing him.

At this moment, a storm was raging in his own mind, but he was always good at hiding his emotions, so he did not let it show.

How was this possible?

That shipment of goods was something he had personally arranged with his contacts in the north!

Because the cargo was so valuable, he had been extremely cautious, ensuring that everyone who could get close to it was one of his trusted confidants.

Yet even so, the news had somehow leaked?

If the goods were hijacked, the authorities would follow the clues straight to him, and as the second-in-command of the Tobacco Bureau, he would never escape!

The other party was clearly coming after him!

Fortunately, fate was on his side!

Cheng Gang, standing right in front of him, had actually saved him by a stroke of luck!

Right now, he only wanted to thoroughly investigate the ins and outs of this entire affair!

Cheng Gang snapped out of it, smiled, and said to Ye Haodong, “Bureau Chief Ye, there’s nothing I can’t tell you.”

“I only avoided risking the meeting because I listened to a young man’s advice.”

Right then, Cheng Gang told Ye Haodong the entire story of his meeting with Xie Zhao and everything Xie Zhao had said to him, leaving nothing out.

Ye Haodong finally looked shocked.

Who was this man?

How could he have found out such information?

Was it just a coincidence, or was there another reason?

“Go find him and bring him to see me! Immediately!”

Ye Haodong said in a low, serious voice.