"Who are you?"
Liu Changhe saw an old man jump out and casually asked a question.
Xiao Changsuo puffed out his chest and stood up straight, looking quite dignified.
"Reporting to the leader, I am the village head of this village. Xiao Weiguo is a notorious scoundrel in our village who has been causing trouble for a long time. Please, leader, do us justice."
"A scoundrel?"
Liu Changhe looked back at Xiao Weiguo.
With thick eyebrows, big eyes, and an upright appearance, he doesn't look like a hooligan at all.
Xiao Weiguo knew that he had to speak up now.
The old man hates him to the core; if he's not stopped soon, who knows what he might do next.
"Village Chief, it was wrong of me to stop your mentally challenged nephew from marrying my sister, but you can't just make things up like this! I can't just watch my sister jump into a fire pit and do nothing about it, can I? Your mentally challenged nephew can't even count to three. How will my sister live after marrying him?"
Liu Changhe was surprised to hear that such a thing had happened.
"What's going on, comrade? Tell me, what kind of society is this? People are still forcing marriages?"
Xiao Changsuo was a little dumbfounded. How did the conversation suddenly turn to forced marriage?
He did take advantage of someone's vulnerability in that matter, and it wasn't very presentable, but ultimately, it was because Xiao Weiguo wasn't doing his job properly.
Even flies don't lay eggs without cracks. If Xiao Weiguo had followed the right path and could support his younger siblings, he wouldn't have considered this.
Xiao Changsuo jumped up as if he had been stepped on a dog's tail.
"No, Xiao Weiguo, we're talking about your speculation and profiteering. What nonsense are you spouting?"
Xiao Weiguo sneered, pointing his finger at his nose and saying, "Old man, you're just looking for revenge. You say I'm inflating prices and engaging in speculation, then let me ask you, how much does a pair of socks cost at the supply and marketing cooperative?"
"Ah, this..."
Xiao Changsuo was speechless.
He certainly knew how much the socks cost at the supply and marketing cooperative. But he couldn't say that in this situation.
Xiao Weiguo didn't give him a chance to speak and continued, "Everyone knows that socks at the supply and marketing cooperative cost about two yuan a pair, but I'm selling them for one yuan and fifty cents. What, are you raising prices?"
Yes, they are 50 cents cheaper than the supply and marketing cooperative. Not only did they not inflate prices, but they also gave up a lot of profit, okay?
The onlookers began to whisper among themselves and discuss the matter.
They believed that Xiao Weiguo was right. People would secretly point at Xiao Changsuo from time to time, and unpleasant words would occasionally reach Xiao Changsuo's ears.
It's also because he's been the village head for so many years, and his attitude towards the villagers hasn't been very good; he always acts superior and has offended quite a few people.
At this point, no one stood up to speak up for him.
In fact, Xiao Weiguo's words contained a fallacy of equivocation. He replaced speculation with price gouging. They sound the same, but they are actually quite different.
One aspect is the whole, which includes many aspects, including price gouging.
His mention of price gouging was merely elaborating on a single detail.
It's like someone accusing you of a crime, and you denying it—it's the same principle. It's just that you phrase it cleverly, and nobody notices.
Xiao Changsuo was speechless after being asked that question, and couldn't say anything for a moment.
He felt something was off, but couldn't quite put his finger on it, and froze in place.
Liu Changhe was not happy about this.
“Village chief, what are you reporting without evidence? As a frontline cadre, you need to be mindful of your personal image.”
His words were quite serious. If an official doesn't even care about their image, what kind of official are they?
"Furthermore, what exactly happened with the forced marriage? We live in a new society, how could such a thing still happen? Officers, shouldn't you investigate this matter thoroughly?"
Ultimately, Xiao Changsuo was just an old farmer. Even though he had been a village chief for half his life, he had never experienced anything like this.
Originally, I came forward to report Xiao Weiguo, but how did I suddenly become the one being reported?
"Sir, it's nothing. It's just a minor dispute between villagers. It's not worth making the government worry about it."
As he spoke, Xiao Changsuo secretly backed away, preparing to slip away.
Liu Changhe glanced at Xiao Weiguo, and seeing that Xiao Weiguo didn't say anything, he didn't bother to argue with him anymore, letting him slink away from the courtyard.
It wasn't that Xiao Weiguo didn't want to seize the opportunity to deal with Xiao Changsuo; it was just that the incident happened before his rebirth. His predecessor had accepted two hundred yuan from someone, which meant that he was also one of the participants. If it really came down to it, he couldn't escape responsibility either.
There will be plenty of opportunities to deal with the old man later; there's no need to dwell on this one thing.
The four police officers were present the whole time and listened to the argument for a long time, so they basically understood what was going on.
Nine times out of ten, Xiao Weiguo was wronged, but they had official duties to perform and couldn't just leave.
He had no choice but to bite the bullet and step forward, saluting Liu Changhe and saying, "Commander, if there's nothing else, please let us take him back. As long as there are no problems, I believe we won't make things difficult for him."
Police officers in this era are very serious. A mission is a mission, and they will carry it out to the end, even if it means facing their superiors.
Upon hearing this, Liu Changhe flew into a rage.
Two large eyes stared intently at the police officers.
"So all that explanation was for nothing? Did you guys forget to listen?"
"I'm sorry, sir, we were just following orders. Please understand."
The four police officers were stubborn and insisted on their principles. Whether someone was guilty or not was not their concern; their task was to take the person back for questioning.
This finally angered Liu Changhe.
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