The assistant sent by Lisa’s father was named Li Duzhi. Officially, he was there to help Wang Hongwei secure the hill in Guanjia Village. In reality, he was there to keep an eye on Wang Hongwei so nothing went wrong, and to inspect North Mountain while he was at it.
Wang Hongwei had learned from a phone call with his son that Li Duzhi was no ordinary employee at Lisa’s family company, so he treated him with great care. When the two men came down from the mountain, both their trousers and shoes were predictably filthy. Wang Hongwei had no experience with mountain paths and had not realized they should wear boots, so he hurriedly invited Li Duzhi back to his house.
Madam Li rummaged through cupboards and boxes before finally finding a pair of boots. They were old and covered in dust, but after a good wipe they were at least wearable.
Li Duzhi was not pleased with the boots, but his leather shoes were already dirty and would take hours to dry after washing, so he had no choice but to make do. A suit paired with long boots looked thoroughly mismatched. Suppressing his discomfort, Li Duzhi went into the living room.
Wang Hongwei changed his clothes as well.
The two sat in the living room discussing the hill contract. Neither thought there should be any major problem, though Li Duzhi still had some concerns.
Wang Hongwei might not have noticed it, but Li Duzhi could tell that Secretary Guan did not actually want them to contract North Mountain. The moment he mentioned this, Wang Hongwei thumped his chest and told him not to worry.
“Assistant Li, you’re worrying for nothing. Other than us, who in Guanjia Village can afford the contract fee? I already asked around. No household in the village has any intention of taking it. Even if an outsider tried competing with us, they couldn’t beat us.”
“You’re that confident?” Li Duzhi privately looked down on Wang Hongwei. He knew this family wanted to climb up through his boss, acting as though a few million yuan in assets put them on equal footing. If they had not been somewhat useful, his boss would never have allowed Miss Lisa to date Wang Ningkai.
“Of course.” Wang Hongwei had lived most of his life, yet he could not see through this junior nearly a generation younger than him. “Guanjia Village is somewhat hostile to outsiders. Without connections, contracting one of the hills is impossible. There’s no need even to negotiate. Secretary Guan will reject them outright.”
Li Duzhi stopped worrying once he heard that. He had known about this issue for some time. His boss had been interested in Guanjia Village’s hills for more than a day or two. If the company wanted to expand and advance further, they needed more and better resources. His boss had set his sights on Guanjia Village before, but the moment Secretary Guan heard they were outsiders, he refused them directly.
Later, the boss happened to discover that the man Miss Lisa was dating, Wang Ningkai, had originally come from Wangjia Village and now lived in Guanjia Village. The plan they had intended to abandon was immediately revived. This time they were smarter. They went through a Guanjia Village local contacted by Wang Hongwei, and sure enough, Secretary Guan did not reject them immediately.
“Then settle this as quickly as possible.” Li Duzhi did not want anything unexpected to happen. The sooner it was finalized, the sooner he could go back and report. He had no desire to return to this place again.
“All right. I’ll go talk to that person again this afternoon. We should be able to handle the paperwork tomorrow.” Wang Hongwei agreed immediately.
The person he meant was an elderly man from Guanjia Village. The old man had a son who worked at Wang Ningkai’s construction company, and the family was preparing to leave Guanjia Village. To persuade the old man to help, Wang Hongwei and Wang Ningkai had discussed it and decided to promote his son to foreman, more than doubling his wages. The man now supervised a crew of twenty or thirty workers. Having received such a benefit, the old man’s family readily agreed.
That afternoon, Wang Hongwei made a trip to the old man’s house.
The next day, Wang Hongwei and the other two men brought their documents to Secretary Guan’s home. Before they could even explain why they had come, Secretary Guan’s first sentence stunned both Wang Hongwei and Li Duzhi.
“What? North Mountain has already been contracted?” Wang Hongwei cried in a trembling voice, disbelief written all over his face. Only moments earlier, he had been bursting with confidence. The plunge from the clouds straight into the mud was almost more than he could bear.
“That’s right. You came one step too late.” Secretary Guan wore an expression and tone of regret. Whether the regret was real or fake, everyone present understood perfectly well.
“Secretary Guan, didn’t you say before that nobody had contracted it? How did someone suddenly appear out of nowhere? What exactly happened?” Wang Hongwei could hardly describe the shock of watching a cooked duck that was practically in his hands suddenly fly away.
“When you asked before, there really wasn’t anyone. Someone came later.” Secretary Guan was not exactly lying. Papa Wang had approached him first, but at the time he had not mentioned any intention of contracting North Mountain. Secretary Guan himself had only learned of their decision yesterday.
Wang Hongwei collapsed weakly into the chair.
“Secretary Guan, can you tell us who it was?” Li Duzhi had experienced enough major situations to remain calmer than Wang Hongwei. He had never been as optimistic about the matter in the first place, so this outcome was not entirely beyond what he had imagined. Because of that, he quickly noticed something suspicious.
No matter how much Secretary Guan wanted to keep the mountain away from them, he would not recklessly hand it to another outsider. The person who beat them to it was therefore most likely someone from Guanjia Village. Yet Wang Hongwei had confidently told him yesterday that no such person existed. Li Duzhi wanted to know who it was.
Hearing the question, Wang Hongwei looked toward Secretary Guan as well.
“There’s no harm in telling you. Brother Wang knows this person too. It’s Guan Maohui.” Secretary Guan knew they would find out sooner or later, and Wang Cheng’s family had never asked him to hide it, so he simply told them.
Guan Maohui?
The name meant nothing to Li Duzhi.
Wang Hongwei, however, could not possibly fail to know him. Guan Maohui was the father of Wang Cheng’s mother, Guan Lanfang. The old man had lived in Guanjia Village for more than seventy years. Secretary Guan would naturally be happy to let him contract North Mountain, and because he was a local, there was no need to notify Wang Hongwei’s side first.
“That’s impossible. How could Guan Maohui possibly have enough money to contract North Mountain?” Mentioning Guan Maohui inevitably brought Wang Cheng’s family to mind. Then Wang Hongwei remembered the developer’s purchase of Fengxia Mountain and immediately thought of Wang Cheng. “It was Wang Cheng, wasn’t it?”
At that, Li Duzhi immediately remembered the father and son they had seen on the mountain the previous morning. The handsome young man with short hair seemed to have been called Wang Cheng. It was him?
Secretary Guan figured Wang Hongwei would go looking for Wang Cheng sooner or later, so he decided to lay everything out plainly. “That’s right, it was Wang Cheng. On the second day after Mid-Autumn, he had his father come ask me about North Mountain. Naturally, I told them what was going on. After that, they came by several more times and seemed interested in taking the contract, so I told them that if a local resident contracted it, I could include another hill for free. They apparently thought that was a good arrangement, because yesterday they came and completed the paperwork. North Mountain is already under their name now.”
Wang Hongwei was so furious that his hands and feet trembled. Never in his wildest dreams had he imagined that the people cutting off his son’s bright future would be Third Brother’s family. Even though Secretary Guan’s wording clearly favored Third Brother and Wang Cheng, Wang Hongwei was convinced Wang Cheng had deliberately done this to oppose him.
After leaving Secretary Guan’s house, Wang Hongwei headed straight for Wang Cheng’s home.
Li Duzhi and the elderly man hesitated before following. Li Duzhi wanted to see what happened next in case there was still room to turn the situation around. The old man followed because of his son. Now that the deal had fallen through, he did not know whether Wang Hongwei’s side might suddenly go back on their promise and remove his son from the foreman position, so he came along in the hope that perhaps he could help. It was around ten in the morning when Wang Hongwei stormed into Wang Cheng’s house without even knocking.
Hearing the commotion, Wang Ziyu hurried out with the miniature pig in her arms. She was surprised to see Eldest Uncle. Before she could say anything, he sharply ordered her to call Papa Wang and Wang Cheng out, looking as though he had come specifically to start an argument. His face usually wore a false, genial smile, but now he could not even be bothered pretending.
“Eldest Uncle is looking for Dad and Second Brother? They’re not home.” Wang Ziyu frowned. She disliked the feeling Eldest Uncle gave her right now. He looked completely like someone who had come looking for trouble.
“Where are they?” Wang Hongwei demanded.
“Eldest Uncle, what do you need Dad and Second Brother for?” Wang Ziyu asked warily.
“I told you to tell me where they are, so just tell me!” Anger had gone to Wang Hongwei’s head. He was not taking Wang Ziyu seriously at all, and the good temper and polite mask he normally wore were gone.
The more he behaved like that, the less likely Wang Ziyu was to tell him. “If Eldest Uncle won’t say what this is about, I can’t tell you either. You should come back another time. Maybe Dad and Second Brother will be here then.”
Wang Hongwei nearly choked on his own anger. Li Duzhi was the more intelligent one. They were the ones asking for something now, so they had to lower their posture. He therefore explained their purpose more tactfully. “Little sister, we only want to ask your father and second brother about the mountain contract. We don’t mean any harm. Can you tell us where they are?”
“Oh, that’s all? They’re over at the new house.”
The sudden cooperation made all three men pause. Of course Wang Ziyu had never intended to keep it from them. Papa Wang and Second Brother had already told her that if Eldest Uncle came looking, she should tell him. Her earlier resistance had simply been because she did not want to make things too easy for them. It was obvious why they were here. Second Brother had already told her about Eldest Uncle’s situation.
Wang Hongwei had no time to scold Wang Ziyu for disrespecting an elder. He immediately led the others toward the new house.