PCJ – Chapter 292 You Can’t Walk Out of This Door

Qian Hong, the grain station worker in charge of weighing, hurried over and saw the two men, one with a crooked mouth and the other limping wide-eyed in disbelief. “What happened to you two?” she asked.

Jin Xingjiang replied with a miserable face, “I don’t know. Suddenly, we ended up like this.”

“Comrade, you be the judge. We farmers work so hard to grow rice and hand over more than half to the state. Look at the quality of this rice. How can this be considered average? They want us to take it back! I just want to know, does the grain station here still have any fairness?” an older man came over, holding a handful of rice.

“And ours! Look at this fine rice! they seemed it unqualified. If this isn’t qualified, I’d like the grain station to show us what qualified rice looks like. Let’s have a comparison!” Zhang Manyin, who knew the quality of rice, wasn’t afraid to cause a stir.

“This is clearly bullying us! They’re deliberately making things difficult to lower the grade and pay us less!” Zhang Youlian decided that since things were escalating, it might as well become a big issue. After all, with so many farmers gathered, the grain station workers couldn’t handle a full-blown conflict.

“Yeah, I’ve heard it too—if you don’t give them cigarettes, they’ll intentionally lower your grade. The few who got top grades today all handed over cigarettes. If the grain station continues this kind of corruption, we’ll go back and tell the villagers not to bring their rice here anymore. We work so hard to bring it, and they deliberately tear the bags and lower the grade. Do they think farmers are so easy to push around?”

It turned out more people had grievances with these two corrupt workers. Qian Hong wasn’t a manager, but seeing the situation spiraling out of control, she ignored Jin Xingjiang and Ye Jianhu. She was well aware of their nature. Normally, the farmers were docile and wouldn’t speak up, and as a colleague, she wouldn’t either, lest she be seen as siding with the farmers and betraying her own people.

“Folks, please stay calm. I’ll report this to the station leaders right away and have them investigate the situation. If what you’re saying is true, the leadership will definitely deal with them,” Qian Hong assured the crowd.

The farmers just wanted to hand in their rice smoothly and get paid so they could buy more farming supplies. The chaos today was only because Ye Jianhu and Jin Xingjiang had gone too far, infringing on the basic rights of these honest farmers.

Now, Ye Jianhu and Jin Xingjiang were panicking. One had a crooked mouth, and the other couldn’t walk properly.

Although Ye Jianhu could still move, his crooked mouth kept drooling. Jin Xingjiang was sitting on the ground, unable to stand.

“Jianhu, we need to come up with a plan. If Station Leader Tang comes, we’ll be in big trouble,” Jin Xingjiang said nervously.

“Don’t worry. I caused all this, so I’ll take full responsibility. I won’t drag you into it,” Ye Jianhu said, thinking Jin Xingjiang was blaming him. Even with his speech impaired, his temper was as fiery as ever.

“Jianhu, what do you mean by that? Now’s not the time to point fingers. We need to solve this before Station Leader Tang gets here,” Jin Xingjiang said, clearly anxious. If the truth came out, they’d be in big trouble.

“So, what do you suggest we do?” Ye Jianhu asked, wiping his mouth with his sleeve.

“Jiaohua, did you make them like this?” Zhang Yuanbao suddenly asked.

The scene had been noisy, but when Zhang Yuanbao spoke, the crowd fell silent, making his question stand out.

“Yuanbao! Who told you to speak nonsense? They got sick, that’s why they look like that. It has nothing to do with anyone else!” Hu Xiaoqing quickly scolded Zhang Yuanbao, but her reaction caught the attention of many keen observers.

Ye Jianhu and Jin Xingjiang weren’t fools. They immediately connected the dots.

“Whoever lies will get a crooked mouth.”

That phrase from earlier flashed in Ye Jianhu’s mind. Right after that child said it, his mouth had become crooked.

“Lying with a guilty conscience makes your mouth crooked.”

Jin Xingjiang recalled the words from Zhang Jiaohua. He had sensed something was off earlier, and just as he was about to get help, his leg gave out. If it had only happened once, he might’ve called it a coincidence. But when two such incidents occurred, who could believe they weren’t connected?

“Little one, we were wrong. Could you please let us go?” Jin Xingjiang pleaded with Zhang Jiaohua.

“You’ve got it wrong. Nobody did anything to you. You brought this upon yourselves,” Zhang Manyin shouted.

“Yes, yes, we’re not good people. We shouldn’t have reversed the truth, marking your high-quality rice as unqualified. We were momentarily confused,” Jin Xingjiang admitted, slapping himself.

“Little one, I shouldn’t have lied earlier. Could you forgive me? I’ll re-evaluate your rice and give it the top grade. How about that?” Ye Jianhu added quickly.

“It’s not just about one person. Go ask the other farmers who brought rice here whether they think you should be let off,” Zhang Jiaohua said coldly.

“Don’t let them off! These two are the worst! Earlier, when I complained, he poked three holes in one of my rice sacks, saying he had to thoroughly check the quality. Then he rated my rice as average. Heaven knows I had sifted it twice, removed all the half-filled grains, and dried it in the sun for three days. And still, he gave me an average grade. People like him deserve to live with crooked mouths and limps forever! They look down on us farmers? Well, let them be despised by everyone for the rest of their lives!” a man in his thirties shouted, pulling out a rice sack with three thumb-sized holes from a bundle.

“Yes, don’t let them off! These two have been corrupt for a long time. I’ve heard that to get a top grade from them, you have to give them cigarettes. Look, they’ve got several packs stuffed in their pockets, all given by people delivering rice here,” someone pointed out, pulling cigarettes from Jin Xingjiang’s pockets.

Ye Jianhu, still able to move, took a few steps back, shouting, “Don’t come near me! I’m telling you, if you touch me, I’ll call out, and a truckload of thugs from Gezhuping Town will show up in no time!”

His threat made the farmers hesitate.

“I don’t believe you. I don’t think you can even make it to the door.”

A child’s voice came from the back of the crowd.

“Why are we afraid? There are so many of us, and we’ll let him get away? Now that things have escalated, we need to make this a big issue. If we don’t, they’ll think they can treat us however they want, rating our rice however they please. Even if we hand it over, who knows if we’ll ever get paid!” the man in his thirties rallied the crowd, ready to move in.

As Ye Jianhu bolted for the door, his legs suddenly gave out, sending him crashing to the floor. His hands barely saved him from losing a few teeth. His leg had gone limp, just like Jin Xingjiang’s.

The group of farmers surrounded Ye Jianhu, some kicking him as he groaned in pain.

The station leader, Tang Zhangyun, rushed over. Collecting rice was the most important task for the grain station each year, and if this got out of hand, his job would be on the line. It was the 1990s now, and things had changed. Farmers were usually quiet and obedient, but once provoked, the consequences could be dire.

Tang Zhangyun couldn’t have been unaware of the corruption at the grain station, but he had turned a blind eye. These jobs weren’t easy to get. Take the two troublemakers on the ground—they had been brought in by local officials, so even though they weren’t necessarily relatives, their connections meant they had to be tolerated. Tang Zhangyun had let them slide as long as they didn’t push things too far. But now, these two had gone too far.

“You two, get up and explain what happened,” Tang Zhangyun demanded as he approached.

“Station Leader Tang, you have to help us! They did this to us!” Jin Xingjiang, seeing Tang, clung to him like a lifeline, not thinking whether Tang could actually fix their predicament.

“I’ve heard all about what you two have done. It’s my fault for letting you go too far. Fellow villagers, I’m the station leader, Tang Zhangyun. When I heard what happened today, I rushed over. I’m shocked by the actions of Ye Jianhu and Jin Xingjiang. I greatly admire the enthusiasm of the farmers who’ve come to turn in their rice, and I deeply apologize for the incident,” Tang said, going on for a while without addressing how the two would be dealt with. He only promised to re-evaluate today’s rice, but for what had already been stored, nothing could be changed.