novelraw Chapter 53 A Grand Show Performed at the Entrance of the Supply and Marketing Cooperative
Chapter 53 A Grand Show Performed at the Entrance of the Supply and Marketing Cooperative
How could this be some poor relative who's desperate and trying to freeload?
This is clearly a trap someone deliberately set for him, waiting for him to jump in!
Could Li Xianglian, that taciturn woman who wouldn't utter a word even after being hit three times, possibly come up with such a vicious plan?
Why?
He was living a life of luxury in the county town, wearing polyester clothing and leather shoes, and was about to become the deputy director.
Why should my future be ruined by these mud-covered people covered in manure?
Why does that haggard Li Xianglian have to come to this glamorous world and tear off her fig leaf instead of staying in her hometown and suffering quietly?
Zhao Gang is a staff member of the supply and marketing cooperative, a respectable person, and he wants to be a city dweller!
"You wicked woman! You've ruined me!"
Zhao Gang roared, the veins on his neck bulging like earthworms, and reached out to snatch the red booklet from Li Xianglian's hand.
"Harm you? Pshaw!"
How could Niu Guihua let him succeed? Her 160-170 pound body sank down, her buttocks landing solidly on Zhao Gang's inner thigh.
Zhao Gang screamed in agony, feeling as if his thigh was about to break.
Immediately afterwards, a nauseating smell of sour sweat mixed with the stench of not having showered for days hit the top of his head, almost making him roll his eyes back.
Niu Guihua was getting more and more aggressive. She pressed Zhao Gang's shoulders firmly with both hands, spitting all over his face: "Listen to this, everyone! This is the face of a scholar! He's having an affair outside, bringing a pregnant woman home, and he still blames my daughter for harming him? God, may lightning strike this Chen Shimei to death!"
The onlookers pointed and whispered, their disdainful voices like spitting phlegm all over Zhao Gang's face.
"Shameless, they look so respectable."
"This time he's been exposed. Who would dare to do business with him again?"
Just as things were getting out of hand, a dusty figure slipped out of the crowd like an eel and headed straight for the supply and marketing cooperative's office building at the back.
Er Gou ran like the wind, deliberately yelling in his hoarse voice, "Something terrible has happened! Someone's been killed! There's been a murder at the family compound!"
The howling and wailing along the way turned the once quiet office building into chaos.
In the innermost room on the second floor, Director Liu of the supply and marketing cooperative was holding his precious purple clay teapot. He had just taken a sip of tea and hadn't even had a chance to savor the flavor when he was startled by the shout, which made his hand tremble.
The scalding hot tea was poured all over his crotch.
"Ouch! Which bastard is wailing like that!" Director Liu jumped up from the heat, his fat face trembling, looking quite comical.
Er Gou burst into the office, his face contorted with terror, panting heavily. "Director Liu... Director Liu! Something terrible has happened! Your clerk Zhao is... is being surrounded by a group of debt collectors at the entrance of the family compound!"
"So what if they've surrounded it! Go find the security department!" Director Liu said irritably while wiping his pants with a handkerchief.
"No, no!" Er Gou slapped his thigh in frustration. "They say they were caught cheating and are getting beaten bloody! Even Section Chief Wang's daughter... that pregnant Wang Lili, is being shoved and crying her eyes out!"
"What?"
Director Liu froze, his eyes widening in surprise. "Wang Lili is here too?"
He couldn't be bothered with Zhao Gang's affair, but if this matter involved the daughter of Section Chief Wang from the Finance Department, and she caused a scene at the main gate, wouldn't the Supply and Marketing Cooperative lose all face?
If this year's selection of advanced units falls through, he can forget about being the director!
"Quick! Lead the way!"
Director Liu slammed the teapot down on the table, then rushed out, still damp in his pants. His fat jiggled with each step, making a thud on the floor.
Er Gou followed behind, head down, a mischievous smile hidden beneath his messy hair.
This fire has now completely spread to the roof beams.
At the entrance of the family compound, the sun blazed down fiercely, but it couldn't warm the chill in people's hearts.
Wang Lili stood to the side, her face deathly pale. The hand she was using to protect her stomach was trembling violently, and her knuckles had turned white.
She looked at Zhao Cuifen, who was lying on the ground in a disheveled state, rolling around in a rage—the mother Zhao Gang had mentioned who had died young; she looked at Niu Guihua, whose face was full of scars and who looked fierce—a shrew who had fallen from the sky; and then she looked at Li Xianglian, who, despite being dressed in rags, had a straight back.
A feeling of nausea I'd never experienced before welled up in my throat.
Is this Zhao Gang's home? Is this the home he described as "a scholarly family that has long since fallen into decline"?
This is a bunch of scoundrels! A bunch of vampires! A bunch of maggots that crawled out of a cesspool!
And she, Wang Lili, the daughter of a county-level cadre, actually got pregnant out of wedlock for this man who was full of lies, and had to be watched like a monkey by this group of people in public.
"vomit--"
Wang Lili couldn't hold it in any longer, so she bent over, clutched her chest, and began to dry heave.
Seeing this, Zhao Gang, drawing strength from who-knows-where, suddenly pushed Niu Guihua aside and scrambled over to help her up: "Lili! Lili, listen to me, this is all a misunderstanding..."
"Don't touch me!"
Wang Lili screamed and retreated as if avoiding a plague, her long fingernails scratching wildly in the air. "Zhao Gang, you disgust me! You don't even recognize your own mother, you already have a wife and you still come to mess with me... You're a beast!"
"Lili..." Zhao Gang's outstretched hand froze in mid-air, still covered in dirt and Niu Guihua's saliva.
Just then, a series of hurried yet steady footsteps suddenly came from the periphery of the crowd.
"Get out of the way! What are you all staring at? Don't you all have jobs?"
The voice wasn't loud, but it carried an air of authority that came from years of issuing commands.
The originally chaotic crowd, like tofu cut open with a knife, automatically parted into a path.
A middle-aged woman wearing a dark gray Lenin suit walked in quickly.
Her hair was neatly styled, without a single stray hair. Although her face showed the marks of time, her skin was extremely well-maintained.
Her cold expression and the shrewdness and competence that emanated from her very being instantly silenced the surrounding chatter.
It's Wang Lili's mother, Yan Xiujuan.
Yan Xiujuan had only rushed over after hearing from a neighbor that her daughter had been bullied at the door, so she dropped what she was doing and hurried over.
Upon arriving at the scene, she understood everything at a glance, as if her mind were a clear mirror.
The red booklet on the ground, the old woman kneeling and begging for mercy, and the rural woman who, though silent, exuded the air of a proper wife.
This play is a perfect example of "Qin Xianglian Goes to the Capital to File a Complaint"!
Yan Xiujuan felt a buzzing in her head, and a surge of blood rushed straight to the top of her head.
The son-in-law she carefully selected, Zhao Gang, who seemed honest, hardworking, and easy to manipulate because he had no parents, turned out to be a heartless man who abandoned his wife and children.
What's worse is that my own daughter is already heavily pregnant!
"mom!"
The moment Wang Lili saw her mother, the last shred of her composure crumbled, and she burst into tears, throwing herself into her mother's arms. "Mom... he lied to me! He lied to me about everything!"
Yan Xiujuan's heart was broken by her daughter's crying.
But she had spent decades working in government compounds and knew that if she joined in the commotion now, she would truly embarrass the Wang family.
This matter must not be blown out of proportion, at least not openly. Hesitation will only lead to chaos.
"Shut up! Stop crying! Aren't you embarrassed enough already?"
Yan Xiujuan scolded her in a low voice, but held her daughter's body tightly with her hands, afraid that she would harm the fetus.
She raised her head, without any insults or tantrums, but simply gave Zhao Gang a cold look, as if he were a dead dog.
In that instant, Zhao Gang felt as if he had been stripped naked and thrown into an ice cave in the dead of winter, chilled to the bone.
"Zhao Gang, you're really something, you're really good."
Yan Xiujuan's voice wasn't loud, but it carried a chilling coldness that sent shivers down one's spine. "You've been treating our whole family like monkeys, haven't you? We'll settle this score later."
After saying that, she didn't even glance at the messy family on the ground, grabbed Wang Lili's arm with surprising strength, and said, "Come home with me! Don't let people laugh at us here!"
Before Wang Lili could say anything more, Yan Xiujuan pinched her arm hard, making her jump in pain. She could only cover her face and, dragged by her mother, staggered out of the crowd.
Zhao Gang watched the mother and daughter's departing figures. That was his golden ladder to wealth and glory! If the ladder collapsed, he would be smashed to pieces!
"Mother-in-law! Lili! Please let me explain! I was forced! I was really forced!"
Zhao Gang frantically tried to chase after him, his hands flailing wildly in the air as if grasping at the last straw.
"Zhao Gang! You undisciplined wretch! Where are you going?!"
A loud shout came from behind, like a bolt from the blue.
Director Liu squeezed in, panting heavily. His chubby face was a deep purplish-red, and his forehead was covered in sweat.
Upon seeing the mess on the ground and the whispering and pointing of the crowd around him, he became furious.
Upon hearing this voice, Zhao Gang trembled, his legs went weak, and he almost knelt down.
He stiffly turned his neck and saw Director Liu's dark face, which seemed to say "You're finished." He felt a wave of dizziness wash over him; it was all over.
"Director Liu...?"