Chapter 590: Wang Meilan's Buying Spree (2)

On the edge of the crowd, a woman stopped to gaze at Wang Meilan from afar, a half-jin bag of candy in one hand and her grandson in the other.

Her little grandson, with a piece of candy in his mouth, tugged on his grandmother’s sleeve and said, “Grandma, I want a can of soda.”

Hearing this, the woman looked away and felt her pocket. ‘Your dad and mom will be back the day after tomorrow…’ she calculated, then said, “Alright!”

Hand in hand, the grandmother and grandson walked toward the beverage counter. Meanwhile, the crowd near the candy counter parted as a hunched-over Li Baoyu, shouldering a large burlap sack, hurried out of the Supply and Marketing Cooperative.

Wang Meilan and Jin Xiaomei emerged from the crowd arm in arm. Jin Xiaomei asked Wang Meilan, “Sister-in-law, what else should we buy?”

Wang Meilan glanced around and immediately spotted the woman with her grandson. She tugged Jin Xiaomei’s arm, pulling her along. As they walked, she pointed ahead and whispered, “Follow her. She’s good at getting through crowds.”

“Huh?” Jin Xiaomei paused, startled. “What are they even buying? Are we just going to follow them?”

“Who cares?” Wang Meilan said boldly. “Whatever she buys, we’ll buy!”

The woman shielded her grandson with both hands as she squeezed up to the counter. It was different from the last time Zhao Jun had come. Back then, this counter had only sold the soda in cans. Today, however, they also had orange-flavored soda in glass bottles.

The woman took out her money and said to the clerk, “One can, please.”

Before taking the money, the clerk didn’t call out the order to her coworker. Instead, she told the woman, “One thirty-five!”

“How much?” the woman exclaimed, her voice loud. “It was one-thirty when I came last month!”

The clerk tilted her head, one hand resting on the counter and the other tapping the cash box. “You said it yourself, that was last month. The price went up.”

“My god, that’s a total rip-off,” the woman muttered. She pointed at the bottled sodas behind the counter and asked, “How much are those?”

“Twenty cents!” The clerk, who worked for a fixed salary and wasn’t bothered by sales volume, added, “The bottle has a five-cent deposit, which you get back on return.”

“I’ll take these!” The woman slapped fifty cents on the counter and said loudly, “Two bottles!”

Her grandson was not happy. He tugged his grandma’s hand, whining, “Grandma, I want a can!”

“My dear grandson, we’ll drink this instead,” the woman said, patting the boy’s head. “I’m buying two so you can share one with your auntie when we get home.”

The clerk took the money and called out the order, “Two bottles of soda.”

After that, she turned to Wang Meilan and asked, “What can I get for you?”

“Cans!” Wang Meilan was experienced this time. After stating what she wanted, she immediately gave the quantity: “Two cases.”

Then, Wang Meilan pointed to the stacked cases of bottled soda. “And give me ten cases of that.”

“How many?” The clerk couldn’t believe her ears for a moment. The woman with her grandson, who was standing nearby, stared at Wang Meilan and asked, “Do you own a shop somewhere? You must be here to buy stock, right?”

…

While Wang Meilan was on her shopping spree in Lingnan, six men were gathered in a shack at the Lingxi New Logging Camp: Zhao Youcai, Wang Qiang, Lin Xiangshun, Zhou Chengguo, Liu Jinyong, and Hong Yuntao. They were discussing the man-killing “Big Cannon Egg.”

When Zhou Chengguo heard Zhao Youcai say that he and his dogs had tried to corner the boar but failed to take it down, he asked instinctively, “Why isn’t my brother Zhao Jun here?”

Zhao Youcai heard him and replied, “He went to Lingnan on business.”

“Ah.” Zhou Chengguo nodded. “Well… why not let my brother Zhao Jun give it a try tomorrow?”

Zhao Youcai’s face darkened, and he said nothing. At this moment, Liu Jinyong, who was sitting to the side, spoke up. “Master Zhao, tomorrow is Monday, and you have to work. I happened to hear from Secretary Zhou that your son is on break. Why not have him come in your place?”

As soon as Liu Jinyong said this, Zhao Youcai lowered his head slightly, his eyelids drooping. Zhou Chengguo, Liu Jinyong, and Hong Yuntao saw nothing unusual in this. But Wang Qiang and Lin Xiangshun, who knew Zhao Youcai well, recognized the signs. ‘Zhao Youcai is furious. Liu Jinyong had better watch his back from now on.’

Just then, there was a knock on the shack door. “Come in,” Liu Jinyong called out, and the door opened.

“Leader Liu!” The person who entered was none other than Dou Baoguo. After that scoundrel was fired from the Forest Farm, he had taken over for Zhao Qingzhu—who had gone home to arrange Niu Guoliang’s funeral—and was now managing Zhao Qingzhu’s crew.

“Dou…” Liu Jinyong wasn’t sure what to call Dou Baoguo for a moment. Then he noticed another person standing behind him.

The man was around thirty years old and about five-foot-seven. Slung over his back was a 16-gauge shotgun.

“Leader Liu!” The former production manager’s attitude was now perfectly respectful. Dou Baoguo addressed Liu Jinyong deferentially as he introduced the man beside him. “This is Xue Liwei. He’s from Lingnan, and he’s here to help us hunt the wild boar.”

Liu Jinyong had been worrying about that very boar. Hearing Dou Baoguo’s words, he quickly stood up, walked over to Xue Liwei, and extended a hand. “Welcome!”

At that moment, however, the gazes of Zhao Youcai and Wang Qiang fell upon the gun on Xue Liwei’s back.

This gun was different from most 16-gauge shotguns. Like the one Wang Qiang had at home, it was fitted with a machine gun barrel.

Xue Liwei’s, however, seemed to be an even better modification. It had a long sight, was over a meter and a half in length, and the body was polished to a gleam. It was clearly very well-maintained.

‘A gun like this feels heavy in the hands, with an excellent feel,’ Zhao Youcai thought. ‘It fires reliably every time, almost never misfiring.’

Suddenly, Zhao Youcai glanced over at Zhou Chengguo, just as Zhou Chengguo was looking back at him.

After their eyes met, Zhao Youcai turned to Xue Liwei. Xue Liwei was shaking hands with Hong Yuntao at that moment, but Zhao Youcai’s voice cut in, “How are you related to Xue Baojun?”

At these words, Xue Liwei looked at Zhao Youcai in surprise and answered, “He’s my third uncle.”

Zhao Youcai nodded without a word.

Zhao Youcai remained calm, but Xue Liwei was not. ‘We’ve never met before,’ he thought anxiously. ‘How did he figure out the connection to my third uncle just from my name?’

But seeing Zhao Youcai and Zhou Chengguo sitting comfortably on the kang, while even the two security team leaders were relegated to sitting on its edge, Xue Liwei didn’t dare to be disrespectful. He took two steps forward and asked Zhao Youcai cautiously, “Sir, do you know my third uncle?”

Zhao Youcai glanced sideways at Xue Liwei and said flatly, “My name is Zhao Youcai. Has your uncle ever mentioned me?”

“Ah!” Hearing Zhao Youcai’s name, Xue Liwei immediately bowed slightly. “So you’re Uncle Zhao! My goodness. My uncle is always talking about you.”

Zhao Youcai nodded again, then pointed to Zhou Chengguo beside him and said, “This is Zhou Chengguo. Your uncle must have mentioned him too.”

“Whoa!” Xue Liwei exclaimed upon hearing the name. He quickly turned to Zhou Chengguo. “Uncle Zhou, you’re my idol!”

“Huh?” Zhou Chengguo hadn’t expected such a remark. He laughed and said, “What’s all this about?”

Xue Liwei shuffled two steps closer, his voice full of reverence. “My third uncle told me all about it! Twenty years ago, that Tiger… it was you, Uncle Zhou, who brought it down with two shots!”

“Haha.” Zhou Chengguo smiled faintly. “That was so many years ago. I can’t believe Brother Xue still talks about that.”

Zhou Chengguo, Zhao Youcai, Xue Baojun, and Han Shengli—these four men were the tiger-hunting heroes of the Yong’an Forest Farm from twenty years ago.

But after the hunt, Xue Baojun and Han Shengli were fired from the Forest Farm for stealing the tiger bones in the middle of the night. Both disappeared without a trace afterward.

And this Xue Liwei was Xue Baojun’s own nephew.

In front of Zhao Youcai and Zhou Chengguo, Xue Liwei didn’t hide anything. “Uncle Zhao, Uncle Zhou, Zhao Qingzhu sent me. He said his brother-in-law was gored to death by a wild boar, and he asked me to bring my dogs to get revenge for him.”

At this point, Xue Liwei turned to Zhao Youcai. “Uncle Zhao, when I was entering the Logging Camp just now, I saw that pack of dogs outside. They must be yours, right? Well, since you and Uncle Zhou are here, I’ll be on my way!”