Chapter 50: Killing the Chicken to Frighten the Monkey
When Zhou Ping'an and the team leader arrived at the educated youth site, Gao Qingmei and others were stopped in the yard outside the site, and several little Hongbins were staring at them.
Lu Guohua and others were angry but dared not say anything. They could only watch them rummaging around in the house.
Zhou Pingan was immediately furious when he saw this. He gave the captain a look and then directed his anger at Xiao Hongbin: "Who asked you to come to the Five Star Team to cause trouble?"
Xiao Hongbin knew that Zhou Ping'an had a backer, so he didn't dare to confront him. A man in a white shirt came forward and said with a smile: "Secretary Zhou, we just received a report that someone here is reading banned books."
Zhou Pingan shouted, "Everyone, come out! Even if someone reports it, if we really want to search, we need the consent of our brigade, and our people will accompany you to search."
He sneered: "Who knows if you will put the things you brought into their rooms and then accuse my members of stealing."
"Secretary Zhou, they are educated youth." The little leader reminded.
"Their household registration is in my Five-Star Brigade, so they are part of the brigade, and therefore my members." Zhou Ping'an looked at the little leader coldly: "Let your people come out immediately, or I will go to the county committee."
"Chen Shengli, it is not yet your uncle's turn to make decisions in Ningshan Commune."
Chen Shengli secretly cursed Zhou Pingan for being a clumsy old man, and then changed his face. Just as he was about to say something, he heard the captain's scolding: "What do you want to do?"
Zhou Pingan glanced at Chen Shengli coldly: "It's best if I don't find any problems."
After saying that, he rushed into the room where Lu Guohua and the others lived. He saw the captain holding the wrist of a boy of about sixteen or seventeen years old, who was holding a book in his hand.
Zhou Pingan stepped forward and snatched the book from him. After reading the title, his face turned as dark as the bottom of a pot: "Okay, you dare to use a banned book to slander my members."
"Lu Guohua, go ask Huo Zhiqing to borrow a bicycle to report to the police at the commune. Zhang Tiesheng, go to the brigade and find 20 strong men to escort these people to the commune. I will now ask the cadres of the commune, are they dissatisfied with my Five-Star Brigade? So much so that Chen Shengli and his men used such dirty means to plot against my members."
He stuffed the banned book into his trouser pocket. The book was too big, and no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't get it into Xiao Hongbin's hands.
The team leader dragged Xiao Hongbin outside and said, "Let's go to the commune now and seek justice."
Yu Wanqing, Huo Lanci, Li Wenzhou and others were at work. When they heard the news, they rushed over. Huo Lanci said, "Let's go to the Youth Educated Office to ask these people whether they want to cut off the livelihood of the Youth Educated."
Li Wenzhou nodded: "That's right, this matter will not be over until it is clarified."
The team leader happened to hear these two sentences when he came out. He looked at Huo Lanci in approval and said, "Some people will go to the Youth Office, and some will stay here, keeping the place as it is now and waiting for the people from the commune to come and inspect it."
"Some of us will go to the commune with us."
Yu Wanqing said: "Gao, Wang, Zhong, and Zhou will stay, while Huo, Li, Ji, Guo, Zhang, and Ou will go to the commune. Chu and I will take the rest to the Youth Affairs Office."
Yu Wanqing whispered something as she passed by Gao Qingmei.
Gao Qingmei looked at Yu Wanqing in surprise, then nodded calmly and mouthed silently: I understand.
Chen Shengli didn't expect that the matter was not accomplished, but the Five Star Brigade would cause a commotion. He stepped forward to stop Huo Lanci and others and said, "It's just a misunderstanding. There's no need to make a big deal out of it."
Chu Ming stepped forward and took the man aside. Xiao Hongbin wanted to continue making trouble, and Chen Shengli was pushed in the midst of the shoving and shouting. Immediately afterwards, more than 20 members came. Following Secretary Zhou's arrangements, they carried Xiao Hongbin to the commune without saying a word.
The leaders of the commune never expected that the people of the Five-Star Brigade would bring so many Xiao Hongbin to the commune. The commune secretary looked at Zhou Pingan with a gloomy face and said, "Old Zhou, what are you doing?"
Zhou Ping'an pointed at Chen Shengli and the others and said, "These little bastards searched the educated youth's house without saying a word and without the consent of the Five-Star Brigade."
"When they couldn't find anything, they tried to put a banned book in there to slander the educated youth. They also cut off their clothes. They thought they wouldn't dare to resist, so they just bullied them."
Chen Shengli was shocked. The incident of releasing banned books and slandering the educated youth point was indeed true, but the incident of cutting clothes was nonsense.
He looked at the dozen brothers, all of whom were shaking their heads, proving that this was all slander: "No one cut their clothes, and no one released banned books to slander the educated youth site. Everything was done according to normal procedures."
"Secretary Zhou, you can't help them just because they are educated youth. It won't do you any good."
Listen, this is a threat.
Zhou Pingan smiled angrily: "It doesn't matter if he doesn't admit it. Secretary, you can send someone to the educated youth site to check and see the mess."
The commune secretary glanced at Chen Shengli and said to the people around him, "Take my bike and take someone to the Five-Star Brigade Youth League to see what the situation is like."
On the other side, Yu Wanqing and Chu Ming brought people into the Ningshan Commune Youth League Office.
They explained the whole story, and Chu Ming looked at the person in charge of the Youth Educated Office: "We responded to the call and came here, but now we are being targeted by the local Xiao Hongbin. It's clear that they don't want us to survive here."
"If Ningshan Commune doesn't welcome the educated youth, then they should have said so earlier. Please explain the situation to the superiors and send us back." Yu Wanqing looked at the chubby head of the educated youth office in front of her: "If Ningshan Commune can't give us justice today, we will go to the county educated youth office and the city educated youth office to find the leaders."
This incident has a huge impact and must not be left unresolved, otherwise they will continue to do it next time.
The educated youth were away from home, and if even the most basic safety issues could not be guaranteed, many people would think that they were easy to bully.
If they are lucky, they will be assigned to the Five-Star Team, where everyone from the secretary to the team leader is a good person. What if they are unlucky and are assigned to a more remote place?
If you encounter something like this, is there anyone you can turn to for help?
So we cannot set this precedent and just solve problems as they arise.
It also lets everyone see that the educated youth are not easy to bully.
This time, Yu Wanqing and Huo Lanci wanted to kill a chicken to scare the monkeys and also to scare those evildoers with ulterior motives.
The head of the Youth Affairs Office looked at the two youth leaders in front of him and said quickly, "We will definitely get to the bottom of this."
"In order to avoid unnecessary trouble, we would like to ask you to accompany us to the commune to sort out the whole matter now. We also ask you to uphold justice for us anytime and anywhere." Yu Wanqing smiled and put the man on the spot. If the director of the Youth League Office did not take action, then they would have to use other methods.
The director of the Youth League Office did not want to get involved in these matters at first, but seeing that this group of people would really go to the county to cause trouble, he had no choice but to compromise and asked two people to follow Yu Wanqing, Chu Ming and others to go to the commune.