Beginning with the Ubume Bird-Chapter 266 - 6 Awaiting the Right Time
Chapter 266: Chapter 6 Awaiting the Right Time
Scarface clenched his teeth vigorously and, with downcast eyes, walked over to the front of the truck.
He turned sideways to block the view of others and passed a cigarette to Li Yan.
Li Yan took it but didn’t light it, just held it in his hand.
“Big Brother Dayan, you can’t do much about this.”
Scarface whispered, “I respect you, mess with me, and I’ll admit it. But even if you kill me, the graves are already leveled, and now you step in, what can you do?”
...
After a pause, he glanced at Mr. Liu beside Li Yan,”The boss here, you know him, Duan Wu. He said that if it’s about money, he’ll give more.”
The factory had been set up here for a few years now, the boss was surnamed Duan, a well-known figure locally. It wasn’t that Scarface was making nicknames for him; the boss started from scratch, his family was poor in his childhood, and he really was known as Duan Wu.
Scarface went on, “But if you make a fuss, you won’t get a penny, and who loses out? It’s still them. Mr. Liu has tried to petition several times, all to no avail. Don’t you understand what’s going on here?”
Li Yan didn’t take up his point, and instead asked, “Zhang Gangming, do you have a hand in this grave-leveling matter?”
Scarface was taken aback, “No! No! Taking a person’s money to dispel their disasters.”
“Fine. Then call over the ‘young man’ who was about to throw my brother with a crane.”
Li Yan pinched the cigarette. His attitude towards Zhang Gangming was far from polite.
Scarface hesitated for a moment and then turned to walk towards a middle-aged man in charge inside the factory.
This Scarface, named Zhang Gangming, was notoriously fierce locally.
Li Yan had dealt with him a few times shortly after returning from Guangdong. Zhang Gangming had suffered losses at the hands of Li Yan, and he’d been tamed thoroughly, switching from bad to good, from good to bad.
This man wasn’t actually from the factory; the factory had hired him and a few of his brothers to come over, donned them in uniforms, and specifically asked them to do this job.
The onlookers were clear-eyed and knew what was happening. Seeing the turn of events, they discussed amongst themselves.
Over there, Zhang Gangming was muttering something with the factory’s staff members, while Li Yan turned his head to speak to Mr. Liu.
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“Uncle, I have a few words to say, don’t take offense.”
Mr. Liu had just received Li Yan’s help and was too embarrassed to speak up. Hearing Li Yan’s words, he quickly waved his hands, “Big Brother Dayan, you speak your mind, I owe you a favor.”
“With this matter, to tell the truth, we’re in the right. But there’s a saying that goes, it’s better to be a lawyer than a troublemaker. There’s always a place in this world where reason prevails. If it can’t be resolved in the village, go to the county, and if the county doesn’t work, go higher. There’s nothing wrong with that. But uncle, if you bring dozens of people and block the factory with cars, you’re losing your grounds. If they call the police and the station detains you, tow away your cars, what are you going to do? You’re not young anymore, you have to think about yourself, and you have to think about your children, right?”
After a moment of silence, Mr. Liu spoke up, “Big Brother Dayan, I had no other choice, I have a nephew who knows a leader, surname Bing, and he has clout. He can come over this afternoon. My nephew advised me privately, I needed to make a scene, and bring out the factory people. That’s the way this can be dealt with.”
Li Yan frowned, feeling that this didn’t sound reliable, but not knowing how to object. After a moment’s thought, he asked, “This Director Bing…”
“Director, he’s a director, Director Bing.”
“Alright, Director Bing. When he comes, can this be solved?”
“It should be.”
Li Yan took out his phone and glanced at it, it was not yet four o’clock.
“Fine, so he’s coming in the afternoon. I’ll think of a way to stall until he arrives. It’ll be worth the trouble Mrs. Cui made in rushing to find me with an anxious and pale face.”
Meanwhile, Zhang Gangming also finished whispering to the middle-aged man wearing an employee badge,
and after a while, the man approached Li Yan. He sized up Li Yan, in his twenties, dressed smartly, holding a teacup in his right hand with an unlit cigarette between his middle and index fingers.
He eased his expression, “Brother, how should I address you?”
Li Yan pushed the car door open, jumped down from the truck, still holding the teacup in his hand.
“You seem older than me, just call me Li Yan.”
Li Yan said this and the factory manager, seemingly a veteran in management, immediately stretched his voice, “Li Yan, we have a policy in our factory…”
“Bullshit.”
The man didn’t dare to say another word, his eyes bulging like two quail eggs.
The stainless steel cup in Li Yan’s hand, thick as an apple, shone brightly. In an instant, as if squeezing a rag dry, Li Yan crumpled it into a ball with only three fingers, his pinched cigarette remaining intact between his index and middle finger.
Li Yan threw the crumpled steel aside, his right hand heavily landing on the man’s shoulder:
“Rest assured, I don’t stir up trouble without good reason, but there are a couple of things you need to tell me.”
The man coughed, “Ah, I am the head of the External Combustion Engine Division at Dujiangyan Co. Ltd., my name is…”
“No, no, no, that’s not what I’m asking.”
Li Yan waved his hand dismissively.
“I ask a few things.” After a pause, Li Yan said, “Is this project your responsibility?”
“Uh, no, our boss is in charge of that.”
Li Yan raised an eyebrow, “Duan Wu?”
“Right.”
“Okay, then let me ask you another thing, does Duan Wu know you guys are digging up ancestral graves?”
The man immediately became serious, “He truly doesn’t know about it. The land from the village has been delayed for over a year than the original plan, and we have production contracts with the client; the pressure is huge. We heard there were graves in the land, thought they were unclaimed, but we didn’t expect…”
Li Yan nodded, “Alright. I’ll take you at your word.”
The other man’s face turned awkward. Talks of unclaimed graves were excuses; the village’s cemetery was marked out, visited annually for tomb sweeping. It was just an excuse by the factory.
Li Yan continued, “One last question. You said you had a contract with the client.”
Li Yan emphasized the word “client,” on which the man stiffened as if the word granted him immense power.
Li Yan smiled, “Don’t keep bringing up the ‘client,’ you’re providing equipment for the corps, right? It’s not a big deal. The corps didn’t ask you to dig up other people’s ancestral graves, did they? To put it plainly, you’ve just disregarded the villagers. Once trouble arose, you regretted it but feared making a big scene, so you try bribing your way through, using threats and temptations. Let’s be clear about it though, anyone can claim they’re tough, but wearing a tiger’s skin doesn’t mean anyone will be fooled, right?”
The middle-aged man swallowed, “How do you want to solve this, just tell me.”
Li Yan looked him in the eye, “After this incident, as for what the village secretary will do, let’s leave that aside. Who’s the person in charge of the excavation now? Where is he? We didn’t come here for money, we just want the factory to hand over the person. As for right and wrong, we can discuss that further.”
The man shook his head, “I can’t decide that. Shall I call the higher-ups and see what they say?”
“That works too, go ahead and ask your superiors. I’ll try to calm down the elders on this side. Pushing sixty, they can’t bear much more. When people arrive in the evening, give us a response, and I’ll persuade the old man and everyone here to leave.”
The middle-aged man thought it over for a moment, “Alright, let’s agree on that.”
As the man walked away, Li Yan turned and said to Mr. Liu in the car, “Uncle, it’ll be settled by tonight; it shouldn’t be a problem.”
Mr. Liu, who had been dazedly listening on the side, waited until Li Yan finished before speaking up, “Dayan, can he really discuss with his superiors to hand over the person?”
Li Yan snorted with a cold laugh, “Discuss my ass.”
The middle-aged man hurried back inside as if his feet were greased, rubbing his own shoulder. A worker next to him asked, “Boss, who are you going to call?”
The middle-aged man glanced at him irritably, “I’m not calling anyone.”
