Chapter 51 The Electrician Was Kicked to Death
Seeing that the village chief had temporarily ended his conversation with the villagers, Su Tangtang walked over with Huo Yizhou.
The village chief saw them and smiled, "What brings you all here?"
He had been busy and hadn't noticed when the two of them arrived.
Huo Yizhou said, "Let's see if there's anything we can do to help."
The village chief sighed, his brow furrowed. "This rain is really worrying. If it keeps going like this, our village will definitely be flooded."
“The village electrician just came to me and suggested digging ditches along the road to divert the accumulated water into the river,” the village chief continued, “but there are always some people who are unwilling to cooperate.”
As he spoke, his tone became somewhat annoyed, "That He Wudian, he just won't cooperate no matter what I say, it's infuriating!"
The two men were at a loss for words, and simply listened quietly to the village chief's complaints. After he finished speaking, the village chief waved his hand and said, "It's raining so hard, you should hurry back and avoid catching a cold."
Su Tangtang said softly, "It's alright, village chief, we can lend a hand too."
The village chief insisted, "No need, no need, there are enough people in the village, everyone is busy."
Su Tangtang nodded, and the two were about to leave when they suddenly heard a quarrel coming from ahead.
"Don't dig!"
A gruff male voice roared.
The village chief looked in the direction of the sound and saw He Wudian standing in front of the team digging the ditch.
The village chief quickly walked over, and Su Tangtang and Huo Yizhou exchanged a glance and followed.
The old electrician patiently explained, "This land is just rented by you. We have already spoken with the landowners, and they have agreed to dig."
He Wudian refused to back down, saying, "These are the corns I planted. If you dig them up, how much will I lose?"
"About ten acres from here are all land belonging to my family and the land I rent," he said, hands on his hips. "If the village offers me compensation, I'll agree; otherwise, forget it!"
"In the face of disaster, everyone has a responsibility. Aren't you being too selfish?" the old electrician said seriously.
He Wu snorted, "I can't care about that. My family can't suffer any losses."
The old electrician was furious and stopped talking to him, taking the lead in digging.
Seeing this, He Wu rushed forward to stop him, but the old electrician dodged aside and continued to swing his shovel.
He Wu was furious and shoved the old electrician hard.
The old electrician, who was over sixty years old, staggered a few steps and almost fell down after being pushed like that.
The village chief quickly stopped him, "He Wudian, what exactly do you want!"
"I want compensation!" He Wudian persisted.
The village chief's tone was firm: "No compensation! This is for the good of the whole village. If we compensate your family, wouldn't the other families have objections? Where would the village get the money?"
He Wu started acting like a rogue, "Then don't dig anymore, let's find another place!"
The old electrician was stubborn too: "This ditch has to be dug today!"
"You dare to dig again and see what happens!" He Wu shouted.
The old electrician ignored him and picked up his shovel to continue digging.
In a fit of anger, He Wu kicked the old electrician, causing him to lose his balance and fall heavily into the muddy water.
The crowd gasped and rushed to help the old electrician, only to find that he was unresponsive and seemed to have fainted.
A villager shouted in a panic, "Village chief, the electrician can't be woken up!"
The village chief rushed over, and Su Tangtang and Huo Yizhou followed closely behind.
He Wudian then panicked, muttering, "I didn't use much force."
The village chief helped the old electrician up, gently patted his face, and carefully checked his breathing; it was very weak.
Su Tangtang immediately took out her phone and dialed 120, while calmly saying, "Find a place without standing water and lay the person flat."
The village chief tried to lift the man up, but couldn't manage it. Seeing this, everyone helped carry the old electrician to a higher place so he could lie down.
Outside the crowd, He Wu stood there, pale-faced and at a loss. He hadn't expected things to turn out this way, and he certainly hadn't expected that a light kick would knock him unconscious.
He even suspected that the old man was faking it.
Not long after, the old electrician's family arrived.
His daughter arrived. Upon seeing her father lying unconscious on the ground, her legs went weak and her eyes instantly reddened. She knelt down and held the old electrician's shoulders, her voice trembling, "Dad, Dad, wake up."
She suddenly looked up at He Wudian, tears streaming down her face. "Even if he insists on digging, you can't hit him! He's so old. If anything happens to my father, my whole family will never let you off the hook!"
He Wudian's face was deathly pale, his lips moved, but he couldn't utter a single word.
Su Tangtang gently patted the woman's back and whispered comfortingly, "Don't worry too much, we've already called an ambulance, it'll be here soon."
The drizzle continued to fall, and only the woman's suppressed sobs could be heard in the field. The villagers who had gathered around remained silent, and the air was so heavy that it was hard to breathe.
Soon, the sound of an ambulance siren grew louder as it approached. The medical staff quickly went to check on him and, after repeatedly measuring his vital signs with an electrocardiogram, their expressions gradually turned grave. "There are no vital signs."
These words struck like a thunderbolt, and everyone's faces were filled with shock.
The village chief's voice trembled, "This...this is impossible."
The other villagers looked at each other in disbelief.
Upon hearing this, the electrician's daughter collapsed to the ground and burst into tears.
The most flustered person was He Wudian.
He was trembling all over, repeating incoherently, "Impossible, absolutely impossible, I only kicked him lightly."
He then added, "Wasn't he sick before? Could it be that his old illness has relapsed?"
He wanted to shirk responsibility.
But nobody paid him any attention, since he was the one who kicked the man to death.
Not long after, police cars arrived at the scene. Since someone had died, calling the police was inevitable. After understanding the situation in detail, the police handcuffed He Wudian, and the old electrician's body was sent to the funeral home.
After the police cars and ambulances left, the crowd fell silent.
No one expected things to turn out this way.
Someone asked in a low voice, "Village chief, shall we continue digging?"
The village chief wiped his face, his voice hoarse but firm, "Damn it, the electrician can't just leave like this."
"He did it for our village."
Before he could finish speaking, the village chief's eyes reddened and tears fell.
Everyone stopped talking and continued digging.
As the crowd gradually dispersed, the village chief squatted down alone, lit a cigarette and held it between his fingers, but never brought it to his lips.
Smoke curled up, blurring his weary face. He lowered his head and murmured hoarsely, "If I had agreed to give He Wu some compensation back then, would Old Ma have stayed?"
Su Tangtang and Huo Yizhou stood quietly behind him, without saying a word, simply keeping him company.
"I should have agreed to him, I should have agreed..." The village chief's regrets came one after another, like fallen leaves blown by the wind, unable to stop.
Huo Yizhou squatted down and gently patted his trembling shoulder. "Even if you agreed to compensation back then, if he was determined to obstruct, he would always find another reason. This matter cannot be entirely blamed on you."
The village chief sighed deeply, "Yes... He Wudian's family is not short of money. He is the most well-off in the village. Why would he care about that little bit of compensation?"
He wiped his face, his voice even lower, "I just feel so sad, so very sad."
He waved his hand, his back looking particularly lonely, "You guys go back first, leave me alone for a while."
Huo Yizhou nodded, took Su Tangtang's hand, and the two quietly turned and left, leaving the village chief alone squatting by the ground, the cigarette slowly burning out, just like his silent sigh.
-
"He was perfectly fine just a moment ago, and now he's gone," Su Tangtang murmured, still finding it hard to believe.
Huo Yizhou gently pulled her into his arms and stroked her back.
On the way back, the two remained silent.
After a long while, Su Tangtang suddenly spoke up, "If only we could have pulled them apart in time when He Wu kicked the electrician."
She simply couldn't accept that the living, breathing person was gone.
Huo Yizhou pulled her into his arms and patted her shoulder gently. "We were all caught off guard. Nobody expected He Wudian's kick to be so powerful."
Su Tangtang buried her face in his chest, feeling a tightness in her chest.
After a long pause, she asked sullenly, "What will be He Wudian's sentence?"
Huo Yizhou pondered for a moment and said, "It's hard to say right now; it depends on how the two families negotiate."
Su Tangtang sighed.
Huo Yizhou didn't say anything, and the two hugged each other for a long, long time.
-
The next day, the rain finally stopped, the sky cleared, and the sun shone brightly. Because the ditches had been dug the day before, the floodwaters in the village were slowly receding.
If the end of this flood came at the cost of a life, then this "end" is far too heavy, leaving one with a bitter and painful feeling.
The news of the electrician's death had spread throughout the village. His body was taken away and cremated soon after. Once the floodwaters in the village had completely receded, his family held a grand funeral for him. Almost the entire village came, and the crowd stood in a sea of black.
The director also brought the entire production team to pay their respects.
In front of the mourning hall, the electrician's wife and children cried so hard they almost fainted. Their grief tore at everyone's hearts. The village chief, with red eyes, had already arranged for several women to support and care for them, fearing they might not be able to hold on.
-
After the rain, the floodwaters receded, leaving behind mud and devastation. The villagers tallied their losses, their faces heavy with grief. This flood had caused severe damage to almost every household.
The show's recording resumed, and the guests returned to the onion field to continue working. Su Tangtang bent down and pulled up an onion. Her fingertips touched the outer layer, which was soft, mushy, and wet. She couldn't help but whisper, "It's ruined."
Huo Yizhou squatted down to the side, brushed away the mud to take a look, and said, "It's been soaked in water for too long. This harvest will probably be far worse than before the rain."
"In the face of natural disasters, humans are truly insignificant," Su Tangtang sighed softly, gently placing the spoiled onion aside.
Zhou Yan looked up at the sound and replied, "Yes, I just picked out several bad ones too."
Lin Lang straightened up and patted the mud off his hands. "Mine too, many of them have rotten roots."
Looking at the damaged onions scattered on the ground, everyone felt a pang of sadness.
If you haven't farmed this land yourself, you might not understand the regret and heartache. But they have shed their sweat on this land and know how difficult it is for every crop to grow from sowing to maturity. Now, seeing the harvest damaged, the sense of loss is all the more real.
“The vegetables we planted before probably won’t survive either,” Su Tangtang said, looking at the vegetable patch that had been flooded by the rain in the distance. “They’ll either be washed away or drowned.”
Huo Yizhou stood up and looked at the blazing sun. "Let's replant once the land has dried a bit more."
Lin Lang bent down and picked up a still-intact onion, gently wiping away the mud. "That's how farming is. You're at the mercy of the weather. If it's ruined, you can plant another one and wait."
Zhou Yan echoed softly, "Yes, as long as the land is still there and the people are still here, there is always hope."
Under the sunlight, the group fell silent, continuing to bend down and pick up the surviving onions one by one from the damp mud. The land was silent, and so were the people, but the gentle movements in their hands seemed like a silent agreement, a reconciliation with the land, and a continuation of life.
A few days later, Su Tangtang and the others finished picking the onions. This time, everyone tacitly refrained from thinking about who came in first, and even Meng Meng, who was always looking for trouble, quieted down.
Because the harvest was halved, the director did not hold a selection, and everyone received a golden vegetable shaped like an onion.
Two days later, the electrician's case was finally settled.
He Wudian's family paid 500,000 yuan in compensation, and the electrician's family accepted the settlement. For this family, which was not well-off to begin with, 500,000 yuan was an amount that could support their lives and also allow the deceased to rest in peace.
This sudden tragedy came to an end, and the two families never spoke to each other again, and the mere mention of He Wudian would evoke great anger in them.
Although He Wudian was spared a severe sentence, he still needs to serve six months in prison.
After learning the result, Su Tangtang simply sighed softly. This compensation might be able to slightly soothe the pain of the survivors and provide the electrician's family with a livelihood. In the face of such reality, this was already a comforting ending.
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