The Sweetness of the Seventies
Chapter 109: Everyone Comes to Help_1

Chapter 109: Chapter 109: Everyone Comes to Help_1

Village Chief Qi hoped that through this incident, he could bring down Zhou Sihai and, by the way, drag Qi Jianguo out as well.

"Go to the Educated Youth spot and bring Lin Xiaoru with you. Also, Section Chief Zhou, what about the other person who accused He Tiantian? Bring them too. Let’s go to the office together. If we don’t sort this out, then the matter of hitting our Qijia Village elders and kids can’t just be left at that," said Village Chief Qi with a chuckle. Although he was smiling, everyone could see there was not a hint of mirth in his eyes.

Zhou Sihai could mention Lin Xiaoru without any concern because Lin Xiaoru was just a young person from the city, but Qi Jianguo was different—he had his dirt. If he brought up Qi Jianguo, even if this matter blew over, Qi Jianguo would bite back. Failing in his task would only earn him a reprimand from Director Zheng, but if Qi Jianguo revealed that incident, he might lose this cushy job!

"That’s confidential, I cannot tell," Zhou Sihai refused, somewhat frantic and flustered, "Village Chief Qi, this is related to the revo-lutionary cause, you can’t be shielding someone who’s consorting with the enemy and betraying his country!"

"How do you know they have overseas connections anyway? Besides, even with overseas connections, not everyone is a traitor. Comrade He Tiantian’s family is in Nan City. Have you been to Nan City or has some unit from Nan City sent you a letter saying Comrade He Tiantian is a traitor? Without investigation, there is no right to speak. On what grounds do you say Comrade He Tiantian is a traitor, conspiring with the enemy and betraying the country? Everyone say, isn’t that right?" Village Chief Qi spoke confidently, not worried at all since the connections with He Tiantian had already been established, and he wasn’t afraid of the repercussions at the office.

Zhao Dajiao stepped forward and said, "You have no official papers, only an anonymous denunciation letter and you want to arrest He Tiantian. As the director of women in Qijia Village, I suspect you’re going after her because she’s pretty and you want to bully her. It is a new society now; women can hold up half the sky. Bullying a young girl like this, we, the vast number of working women, do not agree. Isn’t that right, sisters?"

Aunt Liu and some older matrons spoke up with voices louder than that of men: "That’s right, you can’t bully the young girl! When He Tiantian and I went up the mountain to cut grass, she worked harder and faster than I did, extremely diligent and earnest—a good comrade. She was recognized as advanced recently, elected by hundreds of people from our Qijia Village."

The other Educated Youth and villagers might recognize her, or perhaps not understand, but He Tiantian was the girl who had the closest relations with the villagers in Qijia Village. Polite, usually quiet and smiling when seeing others, willing to help, she took care of Third Grandma Qi.

Zhou Sihai’s forehead began to sweat; he felt a bit guilty, but still maintained a tough facade. If he backed down this time, he would never be able to carry out his work in Qijia Village again.

However, here, their group of over a dozen people were definitely at a disadvantage against the hundreds of villagers present.

If that was the case, then they would go to the county seat—that was his turf, where he didn’t believe he couldn’t handle these country bumpkins.

"Let’s go, to the county seat immediately. I refuse to believe you can still defy heaven," Zhou Sihai pronounced self-righteously. Once he gets his hands on He Tiantian, he intended to torment her severely. Since arriving at the unit, he had not suffered such a loss, and he took note of this grudge.

Village Chief Qi nodded and said, "It’s getting late now, it will be dark by the time we get to the county seat, and we won’t be able to get anything done. Let’s set off at midnight and arrive at the office early tomorrow morning."

"No, we’re going now," Zhou Sihai insisted. "What if He Tiantian runs away?"

Village Chief Qi pointed to his own nose and said, "If He Tiantian runs away, you can take me out and re-educate me!"

Village Chief Qi was now offering a guarantee for He Tiantian!

"You..." Zhou Sihai was so angry he was lost for words. Initially, he had planned to take advantage of the evening to arrest the people from Qijia Village first, so by the next morning at the office, no one would dare to help He Tiantian.

"Who knows if you’ll hit us with a blackout blow in the dark county seat?" someone muttered sotto voce. Nobody was a fool here; they all understood the advantage of home ground.

Zhou Sihai narrowed his eyes, scanned the crowd, and said, "Heh, well, in that case, we shall see you all at the office tomorrow."

"No missing each other!" Village Chief Qi wasn’t particularly courteous and didn’t show a bit of fear toward Zhou Sihai.

"Let’s go!" Zhou Sihai knew that if he didn’t follow what Village Chief Qi had said, he and the people he had brought wouldn’t be able to leave Qijia Village.

Zhou Sihai led his group away in disarray, like locusts fleeing a field.

Once outside the village, one of them couldn’t hold back and asked, "Section Chief Zhou, are we just going to leave like this?"

"Not leaving? Do you still want to eat in Qijia Village?" Zhou Sihai replied irritably, getting on his bicycle and finding it especially hard to pedal. Looking down, damn it, the valve core had been removed.

"Fuck his grandfather!" someone cursed. "These people from Qijia Village really have no idea of what’s what! They actually dared to tamper with our bicycles. We’ll definitely teach them a lesson when they go to the county town tomorrow."

Zhou Sihai quickly got off his bike, stomping his feet and cursing, "Qi Dazhu, He Tiantian, you wait for me."

The group had to push their bikes and leave, wanting to return to Qijia Village to find someone to repair them, but they also knew that no one there would fix them for them, so they had to go to Hujia Village for repairs.

He Tiantian, carrying Qi Xiaoyan on her back, wanted to check with Wang Shuilian’s home first. But they hadn’t gone far when Qi Xiaoyan woke up.

"Sister Tiantian, I’m fine, put me down, please. I get dizzy when I’m too agitated," Qi Xiaoyan said quietly, "We have medicine at home; no need to go to the hospital."

He Tiantian, with tears in her eyes, choked up, "It’s all for me that you fainted."

Hearing this, Qi Xiaoyan smiled faintly, "My health has always been poor, and I got too excited today. All I knew was that I couldn’t let Zhou Sihai take you away! Fortunately, my dad arrived. Don’t worry, we’ve made so much effort, it will be okay."

"I hope so. If something does happen, I don’t want to implicate the people of Qijia Village, nor do I want to cause trouble for Grandpa Qi, Professor Wang, Professor Gu, and the others," He Tiantian said, her eyes blurry with tears.

As they near the village, He Tiantian saw Third Grandma Qi, tiptoeing on her bound feet, using a walking stick, heading their way.

"Girl Tian, are you okay?" Third Grandma Qi, hearing that someone was running to the agricultural team in the village and that someone wanted to arrest He Tiantian and had hit Qi Xiaoyan, couldn’t sit still alone at home and, despite the pain in her feet, had made her way here.

Seeing that it was Third Grandma Qi, He Tiantian wiped her tears with one hand and said, "I’m temporarily fine, Xiaoyan fainted, I’m taking her home."

Liang Hongyu also followed, saying, "Third Aunt, it’s alright, don’t worry. Here, let me help you, let’s go home."

"Ah!" With nothing much she could do to help and seeing that He Tiantian was fine and the village secretary’s family was assisting, probably ensuring all would be well, Third Grandma Qi wiped her moist eyes and went back to the village with them.

He Tiantian put Qi Xiaoyan on the bed, and Liang Hongyu hurriedly brought water for Qi Xiaoyan to take her medicine.