Extreme Almightiest Young Master

Chapter 244: Wan Li Lai

"Everyone go home, Yiwen and Dongchen, come with me," urged Village Chief Lin Guangyi, seeing that the demolition team had left and that there was no need to gather there any longer. He instructed the villagers to quickly disperse to their homes to cook, all the while contemplating in his heart that the matter was certainly not over. In the village, only Lin Dongchen and Lin Yiwen were better off, and it made sense to discuss these matters with them. After all, as people who had seen the wide world, they should be able to give him some good advice.

The villagers respected the village chief’s words and collected their tools to return home, but they couldn’t stop wondering about the demolition team’s machines having a tire blowout. It had happened neither earlier nor later, but precisely when they were about to forcibly demolish—this was just too strange.

"Alright!"

"Alright!"

Hearing the village chief’s plans, Lin Yiwen and Lin Dongchen immediately agreed, because this matter also concerned their own houses, and it was not something they could avoid. The village turning to the two of them was indeed to seek a solution for the village, and they understood this well. Thus, they promptly followed Lin Guangyi and Lin Xueyou back into the village.

Lin Feng and Lin Jie were also trailing behind, both striving to understand what was really happening with their ancestral home’s demolition this time.

...

It wasn’t long before they reached the village chief’s house, where a group of them sat down in his spacious living room around a big round table. Lin Xueyou was busy serving tea to everyone.

"Yiwen, Dongchen, you two are the most capable people in the village. Now that the village has encountered such a serious problem, you must help! You’ve seen it yourselves, if we don’t resolve this issue, the demolition team will definitely return," Lin Guangyi was utterly helpless, unable to fathom how things had turned out this way. The ancestral home where generations had lived was now facing demolition—how could he face his ancestors after his death?

"Village Chief, it’s not that we don’t want to help. As you know, Zhang Lan and I have been away from the Zhongzhou area for over five years, and our connections here are pretty much gone. Isn’t this what our society is like nowadays? We approached so many people, and most don’t want to be involved with things like this. Finally, we found someone with good connections to step in and reach out to Wanlilai Company. But then he came back and told us that Wanlilai Company is acting on behalf of Yuegang Company, that they have a contract, and that everything about the demolition is legal and proper—there’s simply no managing it!" Lin Yiwen expressed his frustration upon hearing the village chief’s words, lamenting the loss of his once significant connections in Zhongzhou after his son’s incident which left him nearly without any connections anymore. Even reaching out through one of his good contacts had not been fruitful.

"Village Chief, Yiwen and I have really tried our best and truly cannot be of help," Zhang Lan also shook her head resolutely. Demolition matters were handled between companies and local governments. Although she had some friends in business circles, they couldn’t assist with such issues. Now, she could only look on in distress, just like her husband, powerless to do anything.

"Village chief, although my enterprise is in Zhongzhou, I am purely a businessman and don’t have much contact with political figures. I’ve asked around quite a bit, and no one wants to do us this favor. I’m just as helpless as Brother Yiwen—I truly want to help the village, but I just don’t have the capability," Lin Dongchen too felt utterly helpless. His connections in Zhongzhou had always been limited to various business departments and he had little to no acquaintances elsewhere. With the village in trouble, he felt the same desperation and was at a loss for what to do.

"What should we do then? The demolition crew is sure to continue, and if you two can’t find a way, then what can be done? But no matter what, I can’t let them demolish the ancestral house. What are we to do? This is giving me a headache!" Upon hearing that both Lin Dongchen and Lin Yiwen had already tried to seek help from others without success, Lin Guangyi’s brow was deeply furrowed, and he smoked his cigarette nervously and rapidly, feeling increasingly irritable inside. Without a way to stop the demolition crew, their only choice was to forcibly keep them out, but such an approach was not a solution and would inevitably lead to severe problems.

Seeing the village chief like this, everyone else was also anxious and upset. If they clashed with the demolition team again, and if things escalated, resulting in injuries to the villagers or even in loss of life, that would be truly irretrievable.

The atmosphere at the table became oppressively tense in an instant, and not a single person said a word; they could only sit there, sighing.

"Village Chief, could you start from the beginning and tell us what happened? I’ll try to find a way to help the village." Lin Feng, seeing that his parents and Lin Jie’s parents were out of options, felt compelled to come up with a solution himself. But first, he needed to understand the situation to help resolve the issue for the village.

"Village Chief, perhaps my son might have a solution." Lin Yiwen’s eyes lit up when he heard his son speak. Since his son’s return, he had become much more mature; perhaps he might come up with a solution.

"Yeah, Village Chief, please tell us the details. Maybe Lin Feng really can find a way to deal with this." Lin Dongchen was inwardly shaken by Lin Feng’s words. In the past, he would never have thought highly of Lin Feng, but ever since Lin Feng came back, he had changed dramatically. He had done things that nobody would have expected of him, and Lin Dongchen even owed his life to him. Maybe Lin Feng could indeed find a way to address the village’s problems.

"Then Xueyou, tell us the situation; even a little bit of hope is good." Lin Guangyi began to see Lin Feng in a new light after hearing what Lin Yiwen and Lin Dongchen said. Although he did not understand why they trusted Lin Feng so much, given the current situation, any glimmer of hope was better than none.

"Let me explain, I am very familiar with the details of the situation; it started three years ago. Yuegang Zhenqiang Company came to the mountain near our Lin Family Village, claiming to have found a mineral water resource. Soon after, they set up a water factory here, selling all the water they produced—it was fairly profitable, and many villagers worked there as laborers," Lin Xueyou took over from his father when he heard Lin Feng’s question, hoping that what Lin Feng said might be true and that he could help resolve this major problem for the village.

"Then, not far from the water factory, the company developed a small tourist attraction. You know, the scenery around here has always been beautiful; it just hadn’t been developed. We were very pleased with their development because it created job opportunities and brought other sources of income. At that time, we happily agreed to it. The attraction was a success, and more and more people began visiting our place. Many villagers even started family-style inns and restaurants. The development of the tourist spot made the people of Lin Family Village quite wealthy," Lin Xueyou said, still feeling happy about the obvious benefits that had come to the villagers.

"All was well until the end of last year when Yuegang Zhenqiang Company suddenly announced plans to increase their investment in the tourist spot near our Lin Family Village. They wanted to collaborate with us on developing some kind of a resort villa. They signed a contract with the village and promised to arrange employment for the villagers, among other conditions. The villagers had a good impression of the company from earlier dealings and thought the company was helping them get rich. After signing the agreement, which would guarantee jobs, everyone was excited about securing future employment, so they just signed it without closely reading the thick document, which was mostly in English and had little Chinese. Most of the villagers couldn’t understand it and found it too tiring to read the whole thing," Lin Xueyou said, his teeth itching with hatred, for the troubles began with that contract, which was the size of a book and interspersed with English that no one had time to fully read before signing. It was clearly a trap. But at the moment, everyone was too preoccupied with the employment arrangements promised after signing the agreement, and no one read the contract carefully. If anyone had known what it contained, they would have never signed it on pain of death.

"Little did we know, the disaster stemmed from these carelessly signed words. No one expected that buried in that contract was a clause that essentially meant voluntary consent to demolition and compliance with relocation plans! It turned out that Yuegang Company had already made some deals with the government and received their support to buy up the entire village’s land. Without knowing this, the villagers had unwittingly signed the contract," Lin Xueyou’s emotions were clearly full of rage, because it was this carelessly signed contract that had led the village into such a completely passive situation.

"Only when people started coming to the village to arrange relocations did the villagers realize that something was wrong. A dispute arose, and the other party then presented the original contract with the clearly written signatures of the villagers, leaving everyone speechless. They then informed us that they would build two apartment blocks in a remote area to accommodate us as compensation. It was only then that the villagers realized they had been duped. Immediately, we all ran to Yuegang Zhenqiang Company’s water factory to confront them."

"However, to our surprise, Yuegang Zhenqiang Company had already sold the development project to Wanlilai Company from our county town at a low price. In other words, the entire development had nothing to do with Yuegang Zhenqiang Company anymore. It was Wanlilai Company who had used Yuegang Zhenqiang Company’s name to fool the villagers into signing that contract. But the contract was already signed, and all we could do was stand by powerlessly. Not willing to just give up their ancestral homes, the villagers had disputes with Wanlilai Company, and that’s what led to the subsequent incidents," Lin Xueyou continued, his voice growing louder with anger, as the troubles in the village were ultimately caused by Wanlilai Company, which he now loathed intensely.