Beginning with the Ubume Bird-Chapter 265 - 5 Establishing One’s Mission

Chapter 265: Chapter 5 Establishing One’s Mission

Li Yan looked down and saw that Mrs. Cui’s fingers bore the grey calluses of broken skin. She had even fallen on the way, leaving dirt prints on her pant legs.

Upon hearing Mrs. Cui’s weeping complaint, Li Yan showed little expression on his face, but he spoke with a somber voice, “Auntie, what happened? Tell me about it.”

Shivering, Mrs. Cui recounted the events in a scattered manner, but Li Yan got the gist of it.

A company from the province, with assets of over forty billion, had built a vast stretch of factory buildings in the town. In recent years, they were expanding and planning to take over the village land.

The brigade had not discussed it with the villagers. In any case, acting first to gain the upper hand, they had long since signed a contract and sold the land.

Among the land designated for the factory expansion, there were ancestral graves of several families in the village. Without anyone keeping watch, the factory’s bulldozer had leveled them all. Bones were scattered across the ground. Mrs. Cui’s old man’s family was among them…

...

This stirred up a hornet’s nest. The villagers did not accept any compensation, and pointing at the brigade secretary’s nose, they declared they would sue until death.

Mr. Liu, Mrs. Cui’s old man, was a stubborn fellow. He had led several petitions, but they led to nothing due to insufficient paperwork. The issue had not been properly resolved for over three months.

Li Yan had also caught wind of this previously. It was during a dinner conversation that his childhood buddy, Zhang Jiyong, had brought it up.

Zhang Jiyong knew a little more. The trouble lay in the fact that close to Li Yan’s town, there was approximately a battalion’s worth of military stationed. Regardless of whether outsiders believed it or not, at the corner alley next to the fruit stalls on the main street of the town, there were glaring signs that read “Military Restricted Area”.

The factory expansion was to make equipment for the military unit. Jiyong wasn’t clear on the details, but with such connections, the water was deep.

Jiyong was gnashing his teeth at that time.

“This can’t be messed with. The more you stir it, the worse it gets.”

And so, the issue was delayed. A few households took the money, and with the additional intimidation, they backed down. But with ancestors’ graves desecrated, how could everyone swallow their pride and remain silent?

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Mr. Liu was a tough guy in his youth. Seeing no justice, he cursed down the main street, with a cigarette dangling from his lips, and leading his sons and nephews, drove out several large soil transport trucks from his home, blocking the factory entrance solidly. Outsiders couldn’t get in, and those inside couldn’t get out.

The factory was enraged, but a real conflict would leave Mr. Liu at a greater disadvantage.

Seeing her old man cursing his ancestors and leading people out in the morning, Mrs. Cui panicked. Thinking of Li Yan’s family’s standing in the area, hoping that Dayan had connections, if not to resolve the matter, then at least to prevent her husband from causing trouble, she went to find Li Yan.

“Auntie, wait for me for a bit. I’ll put on some clothes, and you take me there to see,” Li Yan said before turning to go inside. Lady Dan handed him a jacket, which Li Yan nodded at and donned before heading out.

He borrowed a bicycle from a neighbor and pedaled away with Mrs. Cui, heading straight for the factory.

They rode in silence.

By the time Li Yan arrived at the factory entrance, he could still see the broken pieces of the barrier that had been knocked down. The trucks still blocked the entrance, and the crowd surrounded the area, three layers inside and three outside, even more than Li Yan had imagined. From within the crowd, high-pitched “Fight?!” “Fight?!” could be heard.

Li Yan took a few looks, spotting a pool of blood on the ground. Nearby were groups of men, faces bloodied.

On one side were a few of Mr. Liu’s nephews and sons, clearly outmatched and having taken losses, each of them bearing wounds, appearing very disheveled. Many could barely stand.

On the other side were workers from the factory, each in ill-fitting uniforms, exuding an unruly air. The locals easily recognized that several were known roughnecks from the town, and it was obvious that the factory had brought them in specifically for this.

Both sides were pushing and shoving, fingers almost touching each other’s faces.

Mr. Liu’s face was stern as he sat hunched over the steering wheel of the lead truck. His eyes, bloodshot, stared straight ahead. His eldest son was below, his shirt covered in dust and blood, staring red-eyed at the representative from the factory.

From a distance, Li Yan noticed a man squatting on the curb, smoking without a word, eyeing Mr. Liu’s group with a certain look of superiority, a scar stretching across his jaw.

Li Yan recognized this person.

“Heh.”

Li Yan chuckled softly under his breath. After comforting Mrs. Cui with a few words, he pushed through the crowd to the front of the truck. The atmosphere was so tense that surprisingly, no one noticed him approaching.

Thump~ Thump~ Thump~

Mr. Liu’s eyes flickered as Li Yan knocked on the outside of the window. Mr. Liu rolled down the glass, his voice rough with tobacco and alcohol, “Dayan, what brings you here?”

“Uncle, open the door.”

Mr. Liu licked his lips, opened the truck door, and Li Yan hopped up, taking a seat in the passenger side.

“Uncle, are you all right?” he asked.

“I’m fine.”

With a fierce expression, Mr. Liu said, “Your aunt came looking for you, didn’t she? It’s unnecessary. You’ve only been back a few months; don’t get involved in this.”

Hey, you still don’t know me, huh? I love a good commotion. Besides…” Li Yan’s words sounded ominously heavy, “if my dad didn’t decide to move our family graves to Guangdong before he left, today it would be me driving here.”

Despite his words, Li Yan was in no hurry to intervene. A couple of years earlier, he would have dared to snatch the steering wheel from the old man and plow right into the factory compound. But the Li Yan who had bobbed and weaved for half a year in Yan Fu was not about to do that.

At present, it seemed that this situation was roughly as expected, but as they say, there’s a cold logic to these matters. A good is sold by appearance, a man trusted by his words, and Mrs. Cui’s account might not be entirely factual. If Li Yan intervened blindly, he would likely end up the bad guy in everyone’s eyes.

Even if Li Yan was committed to handling the issue, he still had to wait and see first.

Coming to someone’s rescue like drawing a sword—easy said than done.

…

The factory’s approach was to try negotiations before resorting to force. Unfortunately for Li Yan, he was too late. He had missed the “negotiations” phase; it was time for “force.”

Though the noise was deafening, within the standoff crowd, a man with a face full of horizontal meat stood out due to his factory badge and stridently high-pitched voice.

He jabbed his finger into Mr. Liu’s eldest son’s face.

“Get lost, hear me?”

“Call the cops! I’ll call for you!”

There were shoves and verbal exchanges on the villagers’ side, and both sides used vulgar language. But this man’s swearing was exceptionally vile. The villagers were at a disadvantage in a scuffle but were still unwilling to leave, resulting in a deadlock.

Just then, a deafening sound erupted from within the factory.

Li Yan looked back to see a small two-hundred-meter crawler crane approaching; it made the seven or eight-meter trucks seem insignificant in comparison.

A middle-aged man with a work badge seemed to strut with the force of a gale. He patted the cursing “worker” on the back and stepped forward with a booming voice.

“I’ve spoken to you nicely, haven’t I? You want to be tough, is that it? Well, look here,” he said, pointing behind him.

“This thing behind me can lift hundreds of tons of steel. You want to be difficult, do you? Well today, I’m dealing with troublemakers.” His voice grew louder as he went on.

“I’ll count to three, get someone on that crane, and if that stubborn old fool doesn’t move his vehicles, I’ll toss everything, people and trucks alike, the hell out of here!”

Li Yan was sitting in his truck, listening. He reached out, took the teacup from the dashboard in front of the old man without hesitation, unscrewed the lid, and blew on the steam.

Mr. Liu’s lips moved: “Dayan, this isn’t your business.”

Li Yan waved a hand dismissively, saying nothing.

“You dare?!”

Mr. Liu’s eldest son became incensed at those words. A burly man, he glared fiercely. The middle-aged man, who was just commanding the scene, quickly retreated two steps and made eye signals to Scarface, who was squatting on the curb smoking.

Scarface took a drag from his cigarette, spat, and stood up.

“Liu Xuewu~”

As he opened his mouth, it was clear he was a local,

“Me, I’ve kept my mouth shut this whole time, to save your face.” His gaze turned frosty: “Move your trucks and get to whatever you need to do! Yeah~”

Mr. Liu’s son’s face darkened, and after a long silence, he said hoarsely, “Zhang Jiyong, you son of a bitch, how would you like it if someone dug up your ancestors’ graves? Would you still talk like this today?”

Scarface scowled, chuckling coldly: “No appreciation for kindness.”

When he turned and was about to shout “Get on the truck,” his gaze met with Li Yan’s, who was drinking tea by the truck window.

Instantly silenced, others looked towards the truck, and upon seeing Li Yan, they all fell silent.

All eyes were fixed on Li Yan as he drank his tea.

Li Yan sipped his tea noisily, his gaze following the tilted cup and fixed on Scarface, without uttering a word.

“…”

It was only after a good while, and the factory manager tugged on Scarface’s sleeve, that he spoke unwillingly.

“Big Brother Dayan, when did you get here.”

Li Yan ignored him, finished his tea, leaned on his truck window, and then spoke slowly: “Zhang Gangming.”

Li Yan was also speaking the local dialect.

“I’ve kept quiet all this time, to save your face.”

Li Yan counted on his fingers: “Strip off the dog skin you’re wearing, and go do whatever it is you need to do.”

He didn’t leave any face for Zhang in his words. Unsatisfied, Li Yan added:

“Yeah~”

The last word was heavily accented in the local tongue.