Chapter 47 You just want to take advantage of me!

Xiao Jinchuan was helpless and could only come over to understand the situation.

"Deputy Captain Xiao is here, and we trust you. Please help us decide what to do with this land."

A tall man spoke first: "We want to build a house, and this is the boundary of the homestead we reserved before. But he insisted that our eaves crossed the line and occupied their land."

Another shorter man followed suit, "We agreed when we measured the land that anything beyond this line would belong to ours. Now that your roof has exceeded the line in the air, it's definitely taking up space!"

"You're talking nonsense. This is my own house. It doesn't cross the ground line, so it doesn't count as occupying land."

The short man turned to look at Xiao Jinchuan. "Deputy Captain Xiao, you see, you're a shrewd person. Their eaves extend thirty centimeters beyond the homestead, and they're already covering ours. This is affecting the Feng Shui."

"Bah, it's a new society now, and you still believe in feng shui? You're going against the policy!"

The short man said: "You also consider Feng Shui when building your house. If you have the ability, then why not?"

"You are making far-fetched arguments!"

"Tsk, tsk, tsk, you're using a word you learned. Do you even know what specious arguments mean? You're a complete illiterate."

Seeing that it was about to escalate to the level of personal attack, Xiao Jinchuan quickly called a halt.

“Are there any previous records of this homestead?”

Ge Jinglan watched the excitement from the side: "Yes, the village secretary had it measured before. It's all in the village and the records are there."

The short man immediately gained confidence: "Yes, these are all recorded in the village. Let's go and take a look. If you, old thief, occupy our land, I will smash all the eaves of your house."

The tall man was not afraid: "There is still a lot of space between our two houses. If I say I don't occupy it, then I don't occupy it."

"Come on, let's go to Murakami and see. I just don't believe it!"

The people around were watching the fun intently, and when they heard this, they all started clamoring to follow Murakami to take a look.

"You two follow me, the rest of you wait here."

Xiao Jinchuan was afraid that the matter would become too serious, so he only called the two of them.

The three of them went to the village committee together. After Xiao Jinchuan explained his purpose, the village secretary put on his glasses.

"Deputy Captain Xiao, please wait here for a moment. There are too many things going on in Murakami. I need to look for them now."

Xiao Jinchuan nodded, looked at the two people who looked like fighting cocks, and sighed helplessly.

"How about you two sit down and wait?"

The tall man snorted coldly and turned his head to the left: "I don't want to sit, I want to stand. I don't want to be inferior to others."

The short man laughed sarcastically: "You really are illiterate. Is this how you use the term 'inferior'? If you say so, then Deputy Captain Xiao is also inferior to others since he is sitting here now?"

Xiao Jinchuan: ???

How did the fire get to him?

The tall man suddenly felt guilty and quickly explained: "That's not what I meant, I just... I just..."

Seeing that he couldn't explain clearly, Xiao Jinchuan could only raise his hand: "I know that's not what you meant. I didn't ask you to sit down because I think you're inferior. There aren't many village leaders, and there are many things going on on the island. It will take him a long time to find them, so you'll have to stand for a long time."

The tall man thought it made sense.

She sat down on the chair and continued to turn her head away from him: "I'll sit down. I want to align myself with Deputy Head Xiao and the organization."

The short guy was unhappy when he heard this and sat down on the chair on the other side.

"Only if you follow my lead, only if you are aware, I will sit down too, I will follow my lead!"

He also turned his head, looking left and right.

Xiao Jinchuan's face was full of helplessness. Judging from the situation, these two people seemed to be of the same mind. How could they have caused such a big fuss?

Xiao Jinchuan thought it would be difficult to find, but he didn't expect it to be so difficult.

The cup of water was filled three times, but he still didn't see the secretary. He was getting a little restless.

"Or you guys wait here. I have something else to do today. When you find it, ask someone to call me."

The short man stood up immediately: "No, the secretary is his uncle, I'm afraid they will cheat if you're not here!"

"You're wrong. We don't select cadres based on personal connections, and we don't take matters involving homesteads lightly. We won't give more just because someone is a relative. This is clearly written in black and white."

The tall man chimed in: "That's right, you have a bad heart and think everything you do is dirty. Just because I'm your uncle, does that mean you'll definitely favor me?"

The short man didn't speak to him. Instead, he looked at Xiao Jinchuan sincerely and said, "Deputy Captain Xiao, what do you mean by nepotism?"

"Hahaha, you still have the nerve to call me illiterate? Look at yourself, you don't even know what idioms mean. You are the illiterate, the biggest illiterate in our area."

"It's none of your business. I admit I'm illiterate, and there's nothing to be ashamed of. But if you're illiterate and you still don't admit it, then that's shameful."

"Who are you calling shameful?"

"I'm talking to you!"

Seeing that they were arguing again due to a disagreement, Xiao Jinchuan felt like his head was about to explode.

"Stop arguing. The matter is not settled yet. What's there to argue about?"

Both sides immediately quieted down.

But Xiao Jinchuan's thoughts drifted to other things. These two people kept saying "illiterate". Doesn't this mean that there are many people like them on this island?

“Let me ask you, are there many illiterate people on the island?”

The short man answered first: "A lot, a lot. I'm relatively good. I can recognize some simple words and do some math. There are many people who don't know a single word."

The tall man said silently: "I am better than him. I know more words."

"You're just talking, if you're capable, let's have a competition."

"Just bibi."

Xiao Jinchuan raised his hand helplessly, and the two of them fell silent again.

"So everyone lives like this even though they can't read?"

"Yes, everyone on the island was very poor. Just making ends meet was already difficult. Just imagine, if it's like this now, how poor must we have been when we were young? Sometimes we couldn't even get enough to chew on tree bark, let alone go to school. The few words we knew were from what we heard from others."

"But it really doesn't have much of an impact. We've all lived like this our whole lives and are used to it. As long as the next generation can study hard and leave the island, our wish will be fulfilled."

“There are always places whose scenery we cannot see, but as long as each generation goes a little further than the previous one, that’s enough.”

When the short man said this, the tall man rarely argued, because he agreed with it from the bottom of his heart.

It would be a lie for Xiao Jinchuan to say that he wasn't shocked. These people were all quite knowledgeable, they just lacked a platform to learn.

It would be great if we could set up a literacy class so that everyone could have the opportunity to learn to read.

A plan gradually took shape in my mind.

After waiting for a while, the secretary still didn't come out, and Xiao Jinchuan really couldn't sit still anymore.

"I have something else to do..."

Before he could finish his words, he saw the secretary coming out holding a booklet with a dusty cover.

"It's been a long wait. There are so many things, and this was recorded several years ago, so it's a bit slow to find."

Xiao Jinchuan could only swallow the rest of his words back.

"fine."

He flipped it open and found the boundary line between the two families. He saw that it clearly stated that it was only ten centimeters away from the tall man's house wall, and there was a stone placed at the edge of the field.

"Come here, both of you, and take a look. Is what's written here correct?"

The short man scratched his head, a little embarrassed: "Deputy Captain Xiao, I can't read very well!"

Xiao Jinchuan looked at the tall man again.

"I can't read either."

"But I believe Murakami's records are correct. Captain Wang was watching over them and measuring them bit by bit."

But when I said it, I felt something was not right.

"Of course, I believe you, just take a look."

The short man also expressed his opinion: "Me too, me too."

"Okay then." Xiao Jinchuan closed the booklet and said to the secretary, "Please come with me. Let's go take a look together."

"Okay, okay, okay."

The secretary agreed without hesitation, put on his coat and followed him out.

The people waiting in the fields to watch the excitement have not yet dispersed, and it seems that there are more of them than before.

Xiao Jinchuan couldn't help but hold his forehead with his hands. These people's days were really leisurely.

He glanced around until he saw Song Yunqing in the crowd.

The two looked at each other in the air, and Song Yunqing waved at him excitedly.

Xiao Jinchuan raised the corners of his mouth slightly in response to her.

"Oh, you are finally here. We have been waiting for a long time."

"If you don't come again, I'll go home and cook."

The short man waved his hand and said, "Here we are, don't worry, let's hear what the secretary and Deputy Head Xiao have to say."

The secretary took the book and found the stone. It had been so long that it was buried underground, leaving only a tip on top.

Someone nearby immediately picked up a hoe, and after a few hoe strikes the knee-high rock was fully exposed.

"Yes, it's this stone. We agreed that the tip of this stone would be the boundary."

The short man was immediately amused when he saw it. The tip of the house would be less than ten centimeters away from the tall man's house, almost brushing against the wall. He extended the eaves another thirty centimeters, which was definitely too much.

The tall man's face turned grim. "We weren't that close at the time, and I just stuck out a little bit of my roof. I didn't take up any space in their house, so it doesn't count."

"Then if the water drips from your eaves and falls onto our house, does that count as taking advantage?"

"It's common for water to drip from the eaves. Do you have the ability to stop God from raining?"

"Stop arguing for now."

Xiao Jinchuan found a hemp rope, one end of which he held, while the other end was in the secretary's hand.

The two men remeasured the homestead boundary and marked clear lines on the ground with lime powder.

Now everyone can see clearly that the tall family has indeed crossed the line, and not just a little bit.

"Look, look, if you don't believe me, you have to believe Deputy Head Xiao and the Secretary."

The tall man was very dissatisfied and said, "I just extended a little bit, so it doesn't count as taking up the actual land of their house."

Xiao Jinchuan put away the hemp rope: "Since you said you believe me, then I will tell you whether it counts or not."