Official Career Storm
Chapter 588

Chapter 588: Chapter 588

Song Guanchao took back what he had just said; this village was indeed fierce.

People here didn’t just stop cars to demand tolls, they went straight for dead chickens to extort money.

These kinds of situations were found all over the country, quite rampant in earlier years, but they’ve become much less common in recent years.

He hadn’t expected that under Lingjiang’s very nose, this kind of thing still existed.

Song Guanchao truly felt like he had his eyes opened.

He didn’t want any further complications, so he rolled down the car window with a smile and said, "Auntie, your chicken is awesome, able to fly so high."

The old woman stood with her hands on her hips and said, "This is a genuine old hen raised in the mountains, it has strong wings, or it wouldn’t have been able to fly so high, right?"

"Ah, that explains it. Just looking at it, you can tell it would taste good. I’m really sorry for hitting it."

Song Guanchao took out a hundred yuan: "Here, take this money, please don’t be too modest with me."

The old woman cursed, "I’ve raised this chicken for two years; the feed alone cost more than a hundred yuan. Are you taking me for a beggar?"

"How much are you asking for then?"

"Add another eight hundred!"

"Eight hundred? Auntie, that’s not the way to deal with people..."

"What did you say? Extorting you?"

The old woman’s eyes, the size of green beans, suddenly opened to their limits, and she turned around shouting, "Old man, come out. Our chicken’s been hit to death, and this person is accusing me of extortion!"

Almost as soon as she called out, a small old man, about fifty years old, rushed out of a house by the road with a fierce and ghastly look, holding a hoe in his hand:

"Who’s extorting? Who’s extortion? This genuine mountain-reared old hen, is asking you for a few hundred unreasonable? Huh? Is it?"

"Not unreasonable at all, it’s just that I’m not familiar with the price."

Song Guanchao hurriedly took out another eight hundred yuan and handed it over: "Auntie, please count it."

The old woman grabbed it, and her money counting moves were even more professional than a bank clerk’s.

Seeing that the amount was correct, she thrust her hand into her pocket, grabbed the chicken, and turned to leave: "Be more careful when driving next time."

"Hey, Auntie, aren’t you going to leave the chicken with me?"

The old woman turned her head and cursed, "You killed someone, paid the compensation, and still want the corpse?"

"..." Song Guanchao was utterly speechless at her twisted logic and downright fallacy.

Song Guanchao sighed deeply and turned his head to ask, "Did you get that on camera?"

Zhou Qian was also holding back a laugh: "Got it."

"Good that you did, otherwise we couldn’t even claim it back."

He had just been promoted, earning 3,500 a month, and eight hundred was nearly one-fourth of it gone.

But on top of that, he had a transportation subsidy, attendance bonus, and so on, plus the housing fund, which made over ten thousand a month in total.

But even so, eight hundred still hurt, especially since the chicken had been taken away as well.

He was just releasing the handbrake when Lu Feng said, "You’re still driving? Go any further, and you can leave your car wheels here today."

"Is it that fierce?"

"Absolutely." Lu Feng said, "When I first came here, I had to spend just under three thousand to get past this road."

This statement left Song Guanchao a bit at a loss.

He figured that it was probably because a party committee secretary, Li Zhuang, emerged from the village, that the villagers were so brazen.

"Let’s get out then."

Song Guanchao pulled the car to the side and stopped. The old woman from before came out again.

"This is my land, who gave you permission to park?"

Song Guanchao was really tired of this: "Auntie, I’ll just park here for a moment."

"No way!" the old woman said: "Either drive away or pay a parking fee!"

"How much?"

"A hundred," the old woman added another sentence: "A hundred for half an hour!"

"...Okay, I’ll pay you when I leave."

Song Guanchao had never suffered such a dumb loss, and what was more, he didn’t feel he could make a scene about it.

Lu Feng said, "If you want to check on subsidies, there’s a person you can ask about it."

He pointed to one of the houses, "The man of that house is called Liu Dongliang. The village pretty much ostracizes him; I heard he’s on welfare."

"Let’s go check it out."

Arriving at the entrance, Song Guanchao peered inside, and in the yard he saw a small, slender old man, who he guessed was about sixty, sitting on a stool smoking.

Song Guanchao called out from across the doorway, "Old man, do you have any water? Can we get a drink, please?"

Liu Dongliang looked up and, with a timid nod, said, "Yes, yes."

He went inside to get a kettle of boiled water but showed no intention of inviting them in.

Song Guanchao unscrewed the lid, pouring water while casually asking, "Old man, the policies here are pretty good, right? You get your low-income assistance money every month, don’t you?"

Liu Dongliang suddenly wore a terrified expression, his lips quivering for a long time before he said, "Don’t, don’t ask."

This reaction clued Song Guanchao into something unusual.

His tone immediately shifted as he put on a stern face and said, "Liu Dongliang, I’m asking you, did you get the assistance or not?"

Hearing his own name, coupled with that serious demeanor, Liu Dongliang panicked further and didn’t dare lie: "No, no, I didn’t get it."

"Where’s the money, then?"

"I, I’m not on the list for assistance; the township says I don’t qualify."

Song Guanchao roughly understood the situation and screwed the lid back on the cup, giving Lu Feng a signal with his eyes before turning to leave.

They had barely taken a few steps when Lu Feng suddenly whispered, "Someone’s coming."

Looking over, they saw two men in their forties approaching.

The men had wary looks in their eyes as they sized them up.

The strangers did not stop them, instead heading straight into Liu Dongliang’s house.

Seeing these two, Liu Dongliang shivered in fright.

The two men brought him into a room and demanded, "Who were those people?"

"I don’t know, I don’t recognize them."

"What did they want from you?"

"Nothing much, just some water to drink."

"Old Liu, you fucker, don’t play dumb!"

The man on the left slapped him several times, "If you don’t come clean, I’ll torch your house! What did they want?"

Scared out of his wits, Liu Dongliang didn’t dare to hide anything and recounted verbatim what Song Guanchao had asked.

Hearing this, the two men grew visibly uneasy.

Liu Dongliang became a target in the past over assistance issues when he went to report it in the county city and even petitioned in the prefecture-level city.

After being brought back, Zhuzi was specifically instructed by Li Zhuang to keep Liu Dongliang under close watch and prevent him from contacting anyone from outside.

After all, defrauding farmers of subsidies, if exposed, would really land them in jail.

Who would have thought that someone would show up today with questions?

"Bro, call Secretary Li," one of them said, "I’ll stop them."

The middle-aged man with a crew cut quickly instructed and came out of the yard, looking left and right and saw Song Guanchao and his group walking towards the car.

He dialed a number on his phone while quickly following after them.

Phone connected, he said, "Zhuzi, get everyone to come to San Ye’s house at the entrance of the village."

"What’s up?"

"We’ve got troublemakers in the village."

After hanging up, the man picked up a stone from the ground and chucked it at Song Guanchao from about twenty meters away.

Song Guanchao heard the whistling of the stone and immediately turned around.

Seeing the stone coming at him, he dodged aside.

He might’ve dodged, but the car didn’t.

The stone hit the windshield, making a loud "crack", and the glass webbed like a spider’s web.

The two women and Lu Feng all jumped in fright.

Turning around, they saw the man charged at them furiously.

The man, without a word, approached and swung his leg to kick.

"Smack!"

Song Guanchao was quicker, slapping him across the face. The man spun around on the spot like a top from the blow.

Song Guanchao then lifted his leg and kicked him in the back, sending him sprawling face-first like a dog eating shit.

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