Reborn in 1981, starting by smashing my iron rice bowl.

Chapter 166 Wei Guohui Goes to the Countryside

Seeing that Liu Weidong's side had reinforcements, Mad Dog's accomplices were even more on high alert. However, they were all from other villages and weren't afraid to fight the villagers, so they showed no intention of running away. Instead, they took out the weapons they had prepared beforehand and confronted the group.

On one side, everyone was protecting Liu Weidong's private plot of land, while on the other side, Wang Deli was determined to oppose him. Neither side was willing to back down, and a fierce conflict was about to break out.

Liu Weidong sneered, "Wang Deli, you'd better think this through. If we really fight today, this will blow up. Do you think you can handle the consequences?"

"Liu Weidong, I'm just following the town's instructions. If this gets out of hand, you'll be the one who can't handle it!" Wang Deli was still quite defiant, but he was already starting to have doubts.

After all, the old man knew what he was doing; this whole thing was orchestrated by him and Deputy Mayor Ren Hao. Even Mad Dog and his gang were just thugs from neighboring villages. If things really escalated, he'd be the one in deep trouble.

However, if he didn't destroy Liu Weidong's private plot today, Wang Deli would lose what little prestige he had left, and no one in the village would take him seriously anymore. Therefore, he knew in his heart that he had to get this done today, no matter what!

This old fox was cunning enough; he quickly came up with a plan and said fiercely to Liu Weidong, "Don't be so smug, you little brat. I'll go and invite the town leaders over and have them handle this personally. Let's see if you still dare to talk back then!"

After saying that, Wang Deli hurriedly ordered one of Mad Dog's accomplices to go to town and invite Ren Hao over so that the deputy mayor could deal with these ungrateful villagers!

The guy quickly got on his bicycle and sped off towards the edge of the village.

Many people previously thought that Wang Deli was talking nonsense when he said it was a decision made by the town. After all, the town's leaders are all high-ranking officials; who would care about such a trivial matter as private plots?

However, now that Wang Deli had actually sent someone to invite the deputy mayor, everyone started to have doubts. Even Hao Jianjun couldn't help but whisper to Liu Weidong, "Brother Weidong, what do we do next?"

Liu Weidong was not afraid at all and confidently told everyone, "Don't worry, I have a way to deal with these bastards!"

Just as Liu Weidong was calming everyone down, two people rode bicycles slowly to the village entrance.

The older man was Wei Guohui, who had previously expressed his desire to personally visit the grassroots level. The middle-aged man who came with him was Wei Guohui's secretary, Li Haoran.

As a county official, Wei Guohui could certainly travel to the countryside by car. However, doing so would alert Wang Deli, thus defeating the purpose of the investigation.

Wei Guohui is quite old, and he was exhausted from riding all the way from the county town to Hexi Village, his forehead covered in sweat.

Seeing this, Li Haoran quickly advised his leader, "Secretary Wei, you must be exhausted. Take a rest!"

Wei Guohui wiped the sweat from his forehead and shook his head helplessly, saying, "I'm old, useless now. Back in my youth..."

Old Wei had only spoken half a sentence when Mad Dog's accomplice sped out of the village on a bicycle and frantically rang the bell from a distance.

Wei Guohui was old and not as agile as a young man. He didn't have time to move aside, and the guy's bicycle was right in front of him in the blink of an eye.

Actually, although the roads in this village couldn't compare to those of later generations, they were at least wide enough for tractors to drive on and for two bicycles to pass at the same time. Mad Dog's accomplices were deliberately bullying people, so they started intimidating Wei Guohui from a distance.

Just as he was about to hit Wei Guohui, the guy suddenly swerved the handlebars, the bicycle grazing past Old Wei as it sped away, not forgetting to turn around and yell, "Old man, a good dog doesn't block the way!"

"Stop right there!" Li Haoran couldn't stand it, and shouted as he was about to chase after the kid to teach him a lesson.

"Alright, Haoran, don't get angry with this kind of person." Instead, Wei Guohui stopped Li Haoran, shook his head at him, and said, "We're here to understand the situation, let's not cause any trouble!"

Li Haoran frowned and said, "But this kid is too arrogant. He's clearly doing it on purpose. I didn't expect the people in this village to be so unreasonable!"

"Young man, I don't like hearing that!" The old man, who was enjoying the cool air by the roadside, frowned and said, "We don't have this kind of disrespectful brat in our Hexi Village. He's not even from our village!"

Wei Guohui knew there was more to the story as soon as he heard it, so he simply pulled his bicycle over to the side and asked, "Old man, do you know what that young man did?"

Seeing that Wei Guohui was quite polite to him, the Third Grandfather didn't hide anything from him and sighed, "Alas, it's all because the village chief brought these outsiders here, just to target that kid Liu Weidong. It's really too much!"

Unexpectedly, a casual question yielded such an important clue. Wei Guohui and Li Haoran exchanged a glance and continued calmly, "Could it be that this young man named Liu Weidong has harmed the village's interests, which is why the village chief is so meticulous in dealing with him?"

Third Grandfather quickly shook his head and said, "How could that be? Speaking of which, Wei Dong has made a great contribution to our village. Everyone is counting on him to get rich through hard work. He just offended the village chief. Strictly speaking, the one who harmed the village's interests is the village chief!"

As people get older, they become more talkative. It's rare to encounter a stranger willing to chat with him, so the Third Grandfather couldn't help but open up. In addition, he had a high seniority in the village, and even Wang Deli didn't dare to offend him, so he spoke about the village chief without reservation.

As Wei Guohui listened to his great-grandfather's rambling on for a while, his brows furrowed even more deeply. The old man's account was similar to, or even more detailed than, what Liu Weidong had said when he first came to complain.

Things like Wang Deli withholding everyone's wages, and even though it's almost summer, he still hasn't paid out a portion of last year's wages, instead depositing the money in the bank to earn interest—Liu Weidong never mentioned these things before.

Wei Guohui was furious that the village chief at the grassroots level was so audacious as to do something so outrageous.

Even Li Haoran shook his head repeatedly after hearing this, and couldn't help but whisper to Wei Guohui, "The village chief of Hexi Village has gone too far! It's truly shocking! No wonder you insisted on coming down here to see for yourself, otherwise we would have had no idea such a thing existed!"

"So we still need to visit the grassroots level often and resolutely eliminate these parasites that suck the blood of the people!" Wei Guohui sighed, then said to the Third Grandfather, "Old man, from what you're saying, the village chief is making things difficult for Liu Weidong right now. Can you tell me where he lives? I want to see for myself just how outrageous the village chief is!"

After a moment's hesitation, the Third Elder said to Wei Guohui, "Alright, I'll take you there!"