Poisonous Tongue
Heavy snowflakes danced in the courtyard as gusts of north wind howled across the fields. Through a door, in the dark house, Li Youlan and Li Yutao sat around the stove warming their hands.
The soybeans on the stove were crackling and fragrant as they roasted. Li Yutao picked up a soybean, tossed it into the air, caught it in her mouth, and chewed it with a crunching sound. As she chewed, she turned her head to look at Xu Tangmian, who was walking back and forth with her pregnant belly.
"Sister Tangtang, haven't you had enough exercise yet? Sit down and warm yourself by the fire," she said.
“I’m a little worried about Chunsheng.” Xu Tangmian walked to the window again and looked out with a worried expression. “I don’t know what the situation is at the factory. And with this heavy snow, it’s going to freeze to death if we ride our bikes outside.”
“It’s common for other businesses to sabotage your business. Don’t worry too much now that you’re pregnant,” Li Youlan patiently comforted her. “You have to trust Alin’s abilities. He will definitely be able to handle it.”
"I'm back!" Xu Tangmian's eyes lit up and she jumped up excitedly, running lightly to open the door.
Yu Chunsheng parked the car, stomped his feet to shake off the snow, and then went inside. As soon as he entered, the snowflakes on his eyebrows melted into water and slid down his face.
He took the hot towel from Xu Tangmian and greeted Li Yutao with a smile: "Little Tao is here too? I saw Weidong looking for you."
Li Yutao pursed her lips and said nothing.
He then took out five strings of candied hawthorns from the canvas bag he was carrying, gave one string to each of the three women, and casually placed the rest on the table next to him.
Just as he let go, there was a knock on the door, and then Song Weidong pushed the door open and walked in, saying with a smile, "It's so lively here."
Yu Chunsheng put his hand back down and picked up a string of pearls, handing it to him.
Song Weidong waved his hand with a smile, "I don't eat it. It's only the women and children who like to eat this."
Suddenly, a hand wearing a black leather glove darted out from outside the door, took the candied hawthorn, and declared firmly, "If he won't eat it, I will!"
Li Yutao frowned: Why does this voice sound so familiar?
The door was pushed open with a whoosh, and Li Qingmang's tall figure stood in front of the door, with a vast expanse of white behind him.
"Close the door! It's freezing!" Li Yutao, who was sitting right in front of the door, threw the red woolen gloves she was holding at his face.
Li Qingmang did as he was told. Several people in the room looked at him at the same time and nodded, saying in a serious tone like a leader on an inspection tour, "You guys do your thing."
Then he wandered around the house on his own, looking at the living room and then heading to the bedroom, which made Yu Chunsheng, who couldn't stand it any longer, ask, "Who are you looking for?"
Li Yutao quickly stood up and explained, "I'm sorry, Brother Yu, this is my brother."
"Your brother?!" the group exclaimed in unison.
Li Qingmang straightened his collar, raised his head, and smiled lightly, "I am indeed the one who is talented."
"What are you trying to do, Li Qingmang?" Li Yutao asked impatiently, hands on her hips. "How did you find this place? Did your parents send you?"
Li Qingmang's gaze lingered on Song Weidong for a moment, then he patted her head and said softly, "Of course not, my silly little sister. How could I let you bring such a shady person back to meet Mom and Dad?"
"Are you crazy?!" Li Yutao snapped, taking a step back and then grabbing Song Weidong's arm. "Brother Dong is much more upright than you. You're the one who's indecent!"
“You call him ‘Brother Dong’? Aren’t you ashamed?” Li Qingmang rolled her eyes, then put her hands on her hips and looked at the simple furnishings in the room, frowning as she said, “Your ‘Brother Dong’ lives here? Isn’t this too simple? When have you ever suffered such humiliation in your life?”
Yu Chunsheng and Xu Tangmian: "..."
"Shut up!" Li Yutao quickly stopped him, then nodded apologetically in the direction of Xu Tangmian and his wife, before glaring at him and saying, "If you can't speak properly, then don't. If you think this place is bad, then get out. Nobody welcomes you."
"Xiao Tao." Song Weidong, who had been silent all along, tugged at her arm: "Don't say that, he is still your brother."
"Look at him, he's an old man after all, his words are so sweet." Li Qingmang walked up to Song Weidong and said with a disdainful look, "You won my sister over with those sweet words, didn't you?"
Song Weidong: "..."
Li Youlan couldn't stand it anymore and stood up to speak up: "Comrade, although you are Xiao Tao's brother, that doesn't mean we should be ridiculed like this by you. As Wei Dong's family, I ask you to take back the insults you just made to him."
"Are you his mother? You look quite young." Li Qingmang smiled innocently and said, "I'm not going to tell you, we're from different generations. If you want to scold me, wait for my mother to call and then complain to me."
Li Youlan: "..."
Apart from Li Yutao, everyone present gritted their teeth and endured this uninvited guest.
Unbeknownst to him, he casually sat down on the small stool that Li Yutao had been sitting on, with his hands behind his back, picked up a soybean and took a bite.
"Ptooey! It has no taste!" The next second he got up and spat it out, which landed right in a pair of Yu Chunsheng's work shoes on the shoe rack behind the door.
Yu Chunsheng rolled up his sleeves, about to speak, but Song Weidong and Li Yutao grabbed his left and right hands respectively.
Xu Tangmian also tried to persuade him: "Alright, alright, he's Xiaotao's own brother."
Li Qingmang turned around and, seeing Yu Chunsheng like this, suddenly became interested. He took off his general's coat, casually threw it on the ground, and assumed a wrestling stance. He jumped up and down a couple of times and said "Hey!" in a serious tone: "Come on! Let's see who is the number one Baturu in this year's Rural Championship!"
Yu Chunsheng: "..."
He suddenly lost his energy and had no desire to fight him anymore.
Isn't that just plain stupid?
Li Yutao blushed deeply with embarrassment, picked up her military overcoat and threw it at him. She pulled him aside and whispered angrily, "What are you doing here! Are you trying to embarrass me?"
The others on the other side were also at a loss, not knowing what to do with this "uninvited guest".
Just as the atmosphere was getting awkward, the door was kicked open again.
Xu Tangmian shuddered, a chill running down her spine: "What day is it today? And who is this deity who has come to visit...?"
Wang Youli rushed in excitedly, his right fist clenched. "Factory manager, we have a lead!"
Li Qingmang turned around, a sneer playing on his lips, and said, "You're still a factory worker..."
"Shut up!" Li Yutao said, and tried to push him out.
"Okay, okay, I won't say anything anymore. It's so cold outside." Li Qingmang crossed his arms and shivered a couple of times, then made a zipping motion to his lips. Only then did Li Yutao stop chasing him out.
Yu Chunsheng glanced at the two of them, then looked at Wang Youli and said, "You speak."
Wang Youli nodded: "As you instructed, Factory Director, I called him out for a meal. At first, he absolutely refused to talk, saying it was a factory secret. Later, I placed the wine you gave him in front of him and told him that our factory director is a rare and wonderful person, he..."
"Get to the point," Yu Chunsheng couldn't help but interrupt him.
“Hey!” Wang Youli swallowed and continued, “He said that there’s a newly opened printing factory in town. He privately treated their boss to a meal and declared that no matter how many orders we give them, they will raise the price by 15%. In short, they absolutely cannot sell to us.”
"15%?" Yu Chunsheng sneered. "They're really going all out."
Wang Youli also cursed a couple of times, then opened his right hand and said, "That guy happened to come to the paper mill a couple of days ago. A piece of paper fell out of his briefcase and was torn up by the paper mill manager as trash. My brother saw that there were words on it, so he picked up a few pieces and put them in his pocket, which happened to be the one I got."
“I didn’t graduate from primary school, and I’ve almost forgotten all the characters I know. Factory manager, please take a look at what this says.”
Yu Chunsheng spread the scraps of paper on the table, and several heads crowded around at the same time.
Only a few words were visible above, which could be pieced together to read: "Introduction... Fengzhen... Meixiang... Liu, a villager from our village... business negotiations..."
There is also a red circular official seal, only half of which remains, with the words "Meixiang Village, Huaifeng Town" written on it.
Meixiang Village has three teams: Team 4, Team 5, and Team 6. Xu Tangmian and his group are in Team 5. Team 4 is where Kong Lin and his group went to the countryside before.
Xu Tangmian and Yu Chunsheng exchanged a glance, both thinking of that person in Beiping.
But...Beiping is thousands of miles away from here. Could it be that Xu Zhilian has already found out their true identities and abandoned his official duties just to get rid of them?
But if it weren't for Xu Zhilian, who would have such a deep grudge against Yu Chunsheng?
"Oh, another one surnamed Liu."
Li Yutao turned her head and glanced at him, "What did you say, brother? What do you mean by the surname Liu?"
"Didn't you send Aunt Wang back to Beiping with a girl named 'Zhi Meizi'?"
"Yes." Li Yutao still remembered that poor girl. Because she couldn't survive in this village, she specifically called her parents and asked them to contact an orphanage in Beiping to send Zhi Meizi there.
“She’s doing alright at the orphanage. I often visit her and bring her snacks and clothes. I remember once I saw a letter her parents wrote to her on her desk. The return address was yours, and the sender’s name was something like Liu… I forgot. Anyway, he came to see Zhi Meizi again later, and I had the security guard kick him out.”
“Liu Peng,” Yu Chunsheng said firmly.
“Oh right, right, right.” Li Qingmang clapped his hands and chimed in, “I remember now, I was even talking to Zhi back then about how a grown man could have such a name—Liu Yueyue.”
"Who is Liu Peng?" Xu Tangmian turned to ask Yu Chunsheng.
"You forgot? That stepfather who tried to molest Zhi Meizi, I beat him up back then, and later called the police to arrest him."
"Is that Liu Peng?" Xu Tangmian couldn't help but curse, "How come this swordsman is still alive?"
Li Qingmang picked up another fragment, which had a signature on it, and said thoughtfully, "The timing matches up too. That day was our birthday." He nudged his sister.
“In previous years we celebrated our birthdays together. I was a little bored because you didn’t come home, so I took a cake to the orphanage to visit Zhi Meizi and happened to run into her stepfather.”
Xu Tangmian said softly, "Could it be that Liu Peng is behind this? But where would he get so much money to open a factory? He doesn't have the brains or the ability."
“What’s so difficult about that?” Li Qingmang scoffed. “Where’s your home phone number? I’ll make a few calls.”
...
"Not even a phone?" Li Qingmang frowned as he looked at Li Yutao. "What's going on? Why come to a place like this to train?"
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
