Chapter 494 The Locals Aren’t Very Friendly

Chapter 494: The Locals Are Not Very Friendly

"Dad, I'm too ashamed to go to school. How could you leave such a handle for others to grab onto?" Xue Ying complained.

Enraged, Director Xue would not tolerate her challenging his authority and immediately slapped her.

"You eat my food and drink my water, relying on my power to bully others outside, and now you turn around and blame me?"

Xue Ying, covering her cheek, sobbed and hid behind her mother.

No matter how much resentment she harbored, she dared not voice it.

"Old Xue, what good does hitting the child do? What's most important now is to solve the current predicament."

Director Xue gave a cold laugh, "Solve? Teach me how to solve it!"

"Go to Jiao Zongyao! You were acting under his orders; everything was his command, what does it have to do with you?"

Director Xue felt all his strength drain away like air from a punctured balloon.

He slumped into a chair, head hanging low.

The newspapers were filled with criticism of him; there was no place to hide.

Even Jiao Zongyao probably wouldn't be in any better shape.

It's over, completely over.

He closed his eyes in despair.

As he had thought, Jiao Zongyao wasn't any better off.

He had offended many people in the past, and countless eyes were watching him, just waiting for him to stumble so they could kick him while he was down.

Director Qian had never gotten along with him and was even less likely to help.

Other than waiting for disaster to strike, he couldn’t think of a single solution.

He looked at his panicked wife and child, squinting slightly.

"What are you afraid of?"

He snorted coldly. "We've got money. When things settle down, I’ll make arrangements to send you to Hong Kong. This world’s big enough—surely there’s a place for our family."

His wife hesitated. "But what if someone comes to raid our home? What about all our valuables?"

Jiao Zongyao pressed his lips together. "I’ll hide them in the old house later."

Over the years, he had raided many homes and accumulated quite a fortune.

If the tables really turned one day, he would definitely find a way to protect these things.

They were the first to suffer, but the state-owned factory wasn’t faring much better either.

As Jiang Yu’s superior, Factory Director Zheng was also implicated and caught in the storm.

He sat in his office in silence for a long time, reading the scathing interview piece over and over again.

"Jiang Yu," he muttered darkly, "dropping a bomb out of nowhere."

They got roasted to perfection.

No wonder Director Qian personally went to invite her yesterday, but she wouldn’t give in—she clearly had an ace up her sleeve.

With this piece of news, not only would they have to bring her and He Tingyue back, but Factory Director Xue and Jiao Zongyao were done for.

"Good! Just great!"

The madder Director Zheng got, the harder he laughed.

"Get me Jiang Yu and He Tingyue—now!"

From outside came a timid reply: "Director, Department Head Jiang and Section Chief He left Beicheng early this morning."

Zheng massaged his temples, his head throbbing.

Not only was he furious himself, but he was also about to face fury from higher-ups.

And yet, the masterminds behind this had vanished into thin air, leaving behind a total disaster.

Originally, getting rid of that troublemaker Xue should have made him happy.

After all, without him, promoting Lan Raoping would’ve been a done deal.

But now, he was at his wit’s end.

Meanwhile, Jiang Yu, who was currently on her way to Yunan, was blissfully ignorant of everything happening back home.

When she had first arrived, Yunan was reeling from floods, its homes shattered.

Months later, everything was slowly recovering.

Now Jiang Yu saw a completely different scene.

As luck would have it, the village Ding Jianan contacted this time turned out to be Tong’an Village.

Tong’an Village sat at the edge of Yunan, a fortunate area that had escaped the floodwaters.

After staying in Tong’an Village for two days, they moved on.

Later, they reached where Chen Yu was stationed and had a good talk with him.

"If I’d known you were coming, I would’ve taken a couple of days off to show you around."

From the flood until now, Chen Yu had been buried in work and only recently found some breathing room.

When the topic of Beicheng came up, Jiang Yu offhandedly asked, "Engineer Chen, do you know Jiao Zongyao?"

Hearing that name, Chen Yu’s face fell.

"How could I not know him?"

Jiao Zongyao was about the same age as Chen Yu, but he and Qin Kangyi were thick as thieves, despite their age difference.

What Qin Kangyi didn’t realize was that this man was a snake in the grass, who had long had designs on the Qin family.

"When the Qin family was raided, he led the raid himself."

Just thinking about it made Chen Yu boil with rage.

"His father passed away, his mother was gravely ill, and his siblings were in school—each of which was supported by the Qin family. And all of this became the evidence Jiao Zongyao used to denounce them."

He still couldn't forget the disgusting face Jiao Zongyao had back then.

Putting on a righteous front while looking down his nose, he accused Qin Kangyi of profiting off the people's suffering.

In dragging the Qin family through the mud, he seized their assets for himself.

Jiang Yu narrowed her eyes. "So in the end, most of the Qin family’s wealth ended up in Jiao Zongyao's pockets?"

Chen Yu shook his head. "Not entirely. Plenty of people wanted a piece of the Qin fortune, but Jiao definitely got the biggest cut."

At the time, Jiao wasn’t yet deputy director, but he was already in cahoots with the director over the Qin family matter.

Later, after becoming deputy director, he pulled the same trick on that director.

But he miscalculated one thing—even if he managed to take down the head of the Textile Industry Revolutionary Committee, he still couldn’t take over the position.

"A backstabbing, two-faced leech who got ahead by stabbing people in the back will get what’s coming to him someday," Chen Yu said, not hiding his disgust.

Her eyes gleamed with sarcasm. No wonder he liked seizing family assets so much—it had become second nature.

But with the Qin family’s money in his hands, even if he were removed from office, he'd still be living large.

And who could say he hadn’t lined his pockets elsewhere?

Leeches like him should've been dealt with years ago.

"Mr. Chen, we won’t take up more of your time today. The others are waiting for us."

Chen Yu asked, surprised, "That rushed?"

"Director Ding still needs to shoot scenes in Tongle Village. It’s not far from here, but we have to get there before dark."

Hearing that, Chen Yu furrowed his brow.

"What village?"

"Tongle Village."

He tsked. "What do you need to go there for?"

Jiang Yu explained, "It’s a spot Director Ding set up. Any problem?"

"Not really," Chen Yu shook his head. "It’s just that the locals aren’t exactly welcoming."

Earlier, during his work inspecting the dikes, he had checked out plenty of places.

Tongle Village was tucked away deep in the hills. Unless you grew up there, it was easy to get lost.

There were only a handful of tiny hamlets, totaling maybe a few dozen households.

The villagers kept to themselves, didn’t take kindly to strangers, and were suspicious of outsiders.

"Besides Tongle Village, what other villages are around?" He Tingyue asked.

Chen Yu thought for a moment. "There’s Tongqiao Village and Liujia Village."

"Tongqiao Village?" The name rang a faint bell with Jiang Yu.

He Tingyue chimed in, "Fu Xiangyang's cousin is in this village."

At the mention of Tongqiao Village, Chen Yu tsked.

"People there've got serious attitude problems. If you can help it, better stay clear of them."

Chen Yu had always thought something was off about those small villages, though he couldn't quite put his finger on it.

Once his work ended, he made a point to steer clear of the place and soon pushed the matter from his mind, without giving it much further thought.

If it could be helped, he certainly didn’t want Jiang Yu going there either.

"Engineer Chen, could you help find out something about people from Tongqiao Village? My sister was sent here by her mother-in-law to wait out her pregnancy—supposedly somewhere in Tongqiao Village."

Chen Yu’s face fell. "What kind of normal person'd send their daughter-in-law there for confinement? The area was flooded before; locals are barely getting by themselves—who's got time to look after someone else?"