Chapter 51: Road Bullies

When Li Xian heard that Wang Qinghe had been beaten, he sprang up from the ground in a hurry. 

"What happened?" Without taking the time to put on his shoes, he ran towards the courtyard to find his motorcycle and asked.

"I'm not sure of the details. I went to Liu Xiao Bridge just now and saw Wang Qinghe and his team coming back in a tractor. Both Wang Laosan and Wang Qinghe were injured and had already gone to the clinic!"

As Li Xian kicked his motorcycle into action, he couldn't help but worry; they had just clashed with the bus people yesterday, and now Wang Qinghe and the others were beaten up. Was it really as Old Zhou had said?

But there was no time for speculation. He told Li Pi to stay at home and rode off to the clinic.

When he arrived, the clinic was already crowded with people. Dr. Zhang was treating Wang Qinghe's injuries. Pushing through the crowd, Li Xian saw that Wang Qinghe had a gash more than a foot long on his arm, still bleeding profusely. Wang Laosan was lying on an iron bed with a bruise on his forehead.

Before Li Xian could ask questions, a group of men angrily surrounded him and recounted what had happened that morning.

The Red Flag Forest had some exterior work left unfinished. Wang Qinghe had arranged the manpower the night before, and early this morning, they drove a tractor to the Red Flag site. But halfway there, they were stopped by a bus from the Eight-Nine Forest. Before anyone could react, the three young men who had been beaten the night before got out of the bus and attacked them with weapons.

The men had never seen such a situation before and scattered in fear under the threat of sticks and clubs. The three young men then kicked the cement and tiles from the truck into a ditch by the roadside. During the scuffle, Wang Qinghe's arm was scraped by the tiles, and Wang Laosan got a blow to the head with a club.

With injuries and damage to the materials, the workers had no choice but to return.

Hearing the chaotic recount of events and seeing the injuries on the Wang brothers, Li Xian was truly enraged.

He couldn't believe that someone dared to be so overbearing right at his doorstep!

"You guys are twelve strong men, and you let three people bully you?"

Chastised by him, the men lowered their heads.

Seeing Wang Qinghe's pained expression, Li Xian calmed down a bit and said, "Is that all? Where are they now? Didn't you call the police?"

"They ran away, drove off…"

"Went to the forestry bureau."

"What's the use of calling the police? They said they were connected with Wang Baogan from the forestry bureau…"

The crowd answered timidly.

Li Xian took a deep breath to calm himself. He didn't want to stir up trouble, but if this matter wasn't dealt with today, he feared it might lead to being bullied in the future.

After a while, he exhaled and said, "The monk can run away, but the temple will still be here. I don't believe they won't come back!"

Seeing the varied expressions on everyone's faces, he waved his hand, "Find a vehicle and call everyone back. No work today. We need to get this sorted out!"

With Li Xian's orders, seven or eight tractors rushed out. By the afternoon, the construction teams that had been dispatched to various forest sites returned covered in dust.

Around four in the afternoon, the Red Leaf bus, with the lowered sun casting long shadows, drove back into the forest.

On the bus, the three young men were still joking about the morning's events. They were all locals from the forestry bureau and felt a natural superiority over the forest workers, so they hadn't taken the incident seriously.

In their view, the mountain folks had never seen much of the world and would surely be scared off after a bit of intimidation.

As the bus slowly entered the forest, a group of people with large axes and shovels surrounded it.

Seeing this, the people on the bus were intimidated.

In the morning, they had acted tough because they had weapons. But now, facing a crowd armed with various implements, they dared not be arrogant. No one was foolish; surrounded by so many people, who knew if a stray blow might end up killing someone?

Xu Bing, the ticket collector, got off the bus with trembling legs and took out a cigarette from his pocket, offering one to the young man at the front of the crowd.

"Big Brother… Can we talk this over…?"

"You're the bus owner?"

Noticing the nervousness in Xu Bing's eyes, Li Xian sneered and asked.

"No, the bus belongs to Third Brother. I'm in charge of the money… You know Third Brother, right? Xu San from the forestry bureau."

Hearing that he wasn't the owner, Li Xian lost interest in his excuses and waved his hand, "Get out. Leave the bus. Tell your bus owner to come and talk."

The three young men, who had feared being beaten up today, were relieved as they hurriedly fled under the watchful eyes of the angry men.

---

By the time they left the forest, it was already past five in the afternoon, and there were no convenient vehicles to the forestry bureau.

Fearing trouble if they left the bus behind in the forest, the three men dared not stay nearby. They spent the night on the road, hungry, and finally arrived at the forestry bureau to find Xu Changjiang, known as Xu San.

Xu Changjiang was puzzled as to why the three had come to find him so early. Hadn't they been out on the road yesterday afternoon?

Hearing the three, who were starving and slurping noodles, recount what had happened, he was furious!

Before they could finish their meal, he jumped up, "You three were supposed to drive the bus properly, and you went and made a mess?! Damn it, you're a bunch of useless fools!"

The three, having been beaten, dared not retaliate. Once Xu Changjiang had vented his anger, he hesitantly asked, "Third Brother, the bus is still at the forest. What should we do?"

"What should we do? They're forcing me to go there and apologize! Damn you three, you've made me lose face!"

"Third Brother! We can't apologize to them. Those mountain folks are very unruly. If it weren't for them picking up people on the road, we wouldn't have fought with them." Xu Bing, with his face already bruised, said.

Seeing Xu Changjiang deep in thought, he continued, "They're just taking advantage of being locals. Third Brother, everyone in the forestry bureau knows you. Are we afraid of them? If you bow down now, it'll be embarrassing!"

This struck a chord with Xu Changjiang.

His expression changed several times as he thought it over. After a long pause, he waved to his men, "No matter what, the bus is in their hands. Let's go to Eight-Nine. I want to deal with the kid who dared to take my bus!"