"Brother Qi, someone from the team went to the village chief to complain, saying I abused my power for personal gain and helped my relatives reduce or forgive their debts."
Sure enough, what Zhou Qimin said was almost the same as what Zhou Qijia had imagined.
"Ah? What should we do then? Do we have to return the food we borrowed from the team?" Qiuxiang was anxious. If her family's debt could not be forgiven, they would not be eligible to borrow food from the team. If she returned these hundreds of kilograms of food to the team, would her family starve to death?
"The village chief talked to me today and asked me to give up my position as team leader and reflect at home for a period of time." Zhou Qimin hung his head, looking very lost.
Zhou Hongming's words were so unpleasant that Zhou Qimin didn't know how to tell Zhou Qijia.
Village chief Zhou Hongming had Zhou Qimin called to the brigade headquarters early in the morning, saying that something had happened.
As soon as Zhou Qimin entered the door, Zhou Hongming's face furrowed.
Zhou Hongming asked Zhou Qimin why he didn't report to the village before forgiving Qiuxiang's debt. As a team leader, he should consider the interests of everyone, not just one family.
Zhou Qimin was about to say something in Qiuxiang's defense when Zhou Hongming interrupted him, saying that because of Qiuxiang's family incident, their first squad had taken the lead in breaking the rules, and now, several families in the third and fourth squads were causing trouble. Those families owed the team food and money, and when the grain was distributed at the end of the year, they had to repay their debts, so they had to borrow money from relatives and scrape together money to pay it off.
In those days, everyone was desperately poor, and the poorer the family, the more honored it was. But even the poorest family still needed food, right? Remembering how hard they had to work to borrow money to repay the team's debt, yet Qiuxiang's debt was forgiven, the villagers were immediately unhappy.
Several women ran to the village chief's house, clamoring to take back the food and money they had returned to the team. It didn't make sense that they were all from Zhoujia Village, and Qiuxiang's family didn't have to pay back the debt, so why should they?
Each of the five families owed nearly as much debt as Qiuxiang's. If the village forgave everyone, who would repay the team's food and money in the future? If they just borrowed and didn't repay, even if the village had more grain reserves, it wouldn't be enough.
After being criticized by Zhou Hongming, Zhou Qimin became depressed.
Thinking about it carefully, Zhou Qimin was the one who acted too hastily. When distributing the grain, Zhou Qimin used Qiuxiang's family's difficulties to impress the team members, and did not even think of asking the village chief to make the decision.
He hadn't done his job properly. He was the captain of the first team, and Zhou Qijia was a cousin. He should have considered avoiding suspicion before making any decision. Before distributing the grain, he, as the team leader, should have reported Qiuxiang's family's difficulties to the village chief. As long as the village chief approved it, the other villagers wouldn't have any complaints.
At the end, Zhou Hongming criticized Zhou Qimin and asked him if he was interested in Qiuxiang and that was why he was trying so hard to help their family?
Zhou Qimin was immediately furious. He had accepted the previous criticism, but Zhou Hongming's final words had made him look like a pervert who was after Qiuxiang's beauty. Although Zhou Qimin's actions were not upright, he had a clear conscience.
If it weren't for the old village chief, Zhou Qimin wanted to punch Zhou Hongming in the face. Before he became village chief, Zhou Hongming had a dishonest eye and was always staring at the beautiful young wives in the village. If it weren't for the "tiger" at home, who knows what would have happened?
Zhou Qimin had selfish motives in helping Qiuxiang's family get rid of their debt. He just couldn't bear to see his once healthy and strong cousin die one day because his family ran out of food.
Two years ago, Zhou Qijia was injured. After waking up, he realized he was paralyzed. He wished he could die immediately, so as not to burden his family. It was Zhou Qimin who advised him: "Life is about hope. Who knows, one day, Zhou Qijia's illness might be cured? With hope, life will get better day by day."
In just two years, the Zhou family, once well-off, had been reduced to poverty. Many people in the village thought Qiuxiang would marry someone else. After all, she was still young, and no intelligent woman would want to spend her whole life with a paralyzed man who couldn't walk.
Qiuxiang was a stubborn person. For two years, no matter how much her family pushed or begged her, she had always stayed by Zhou Qijia's side and never left him. If Qiuxiang hadn't fallen out with her family over the forced marriage, she wouldn't have been left with nowhere to borrow money to pay off her debts.
Qiuxiang's kindness and righteousness made Zhou Qimin look up to her. Logically, with the Zhou Qi family in such a state, no one would say anything about Qiuxiang marrying again. After all, Qiuxiang had given birth to several children for the Zhou family, carrying on the family line.
It was out of pity that Zhou Qimin discussed with Zhou Zhigang to reduce Qiuxiang's family's debt. At that time, Zhou Qimin himself did not know that deep down in his heart he was wary of Zhou Hongming.
Zhou Hongming had changed dramatically since becoming village chief. In the past, he'd taken advantage of his status as the chief's son to frequently peek at pretty girls. Zhou Qimin was worried that he might use the debt to embarrass Qiuxiang. After all, Zhou Hongming wasn't exactly a kindhearted person.
Zhou Qimin didn't consider himself a chivalrous hero, but his sympathy for Qiuxiang was genuine and not mixed with any other messy thoughts. He could swear to heaven on this point.
"Brother Qimin, I'm sorry to have troubled you because of my family's affairs." Zhou Qijia forced himself to stand up halfway and reluctantly saluted Zhou Qimin. Indeed, Zhou Qimin had helped a lot in the past two years. He, Zhou Qijia, was not an ungrateful person.
Because of his family's affairs, his brothers were implicated. He felt sorry for it.
"Qijia, don't say that. We grew up together, and this is what I should do." Zhou Qimin felt embarrassed. In the past few years, when Zhou Qijia was doing well, they had helped him a lot. Zhou Qimin's position as team leader was recommended by Zhou Qijia and some team members.
The old village chief initially wanted Zhou Qijia to be the team leader, but Zhou Qijia said that he was young and not as practical and steady as his cousin Zhou Qimin.
It was because of Zhou Qijia's strong recommendation that Zhou Qimin became the captain of the first team. Zhou Qimin always kept these feelings in his heart.
"Brother Qimin, if the village really doesn't agree, I'll have Qiuxiang return the grain tomorrow." Zhou Qijia's words were difficult to say, but he still said them. Because his family's affairs had caused Brother Qimin to be punished, Zhou Qijia couldn't just turn a blind eye.
"The child's father!" Qiuxiang exclaimed. Return the food? How would their family survive?
"Qiuxiang." Zhou Qijia looked at his wife with a guilty look. In the past two years, Qiuxiang had become much more haggard. When he married Qiuxiang, he intended for her to live a good life. Unfortunately, fate played a trick on him. He became like this. It was all his fault. He had dragged down the whole family.
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