HPDBC Chapter 1726 The Righteous and Awe-inspiring Li Ruhai
Chapter 1726 The Righteous and Awe-inspiring Li Ruhai
Chapter 1726 The Righteous and Awe-inspiring Li Ruhai
After seeing the Japanese away, Li Ruhai hurriedly returned to the Zhao family compound and told Zhao Jun and the others everything the Japanese had asked him to do.
No sooner had Li Ruhai finished speaking than a furious roar rang out from behind him: "You bastard, Li Ruhai!"
Li Baoyu grabbed Li Ruhai by the back of his collar with one hand and pulled him into his arms. He then clenched his fist and pressed it against Li Ruhai's nose, shouting, "You dare to be a persuader for the Japanese devils? Do you think my fist isn't hard enough?"
"Let go!" Li Ruhai shoved away Li Baoyu's fist, then shrugged hard, shaking off Li Baoyu's hand that was grabbing his collar, and said angrily, "What are you doing? Did I tell them to speak to their people?"
As he spoke, Li Ruhai pointed out the window and said irritably, "That little devil led several men, and they all looked tough and burly, armed with knives, guns, and cannons. I had to find a way to get away, didn't I?"
"Serves you right!" Li Baoyu said, "Then who told you to go with them?"
"Do you know?" Li Ruhai said, "If I knew they were Japanese devils, I'd rather die than go to their grandma's grandson!"
"Alright, alright!" At this moment, Zhao Jun raised his hand to signal the two brothers to calm down, and then asked Li Ruhai, "Ruhai, what about that thing you promised the Japanese?"
"What did I promise him?" Li Ruhai laughed. "I promised to put in a good word for him. So, if you don't agree, what can I do?"
As he spoke, Li Ruhai took out the two hundred yuan that Ishii Keiya had given him from his pocket, threw it on the sofa table, and said to Zhao Jun, "Brother, although the Japanese devils are not human, if I don't do things for them, this money is not earned honestly, so I can't spend it."
As soon as Li Ruhai said this, everyone looked at him with strange eyes.
"Why are you all looking at me like that?" Li Ruhai glanced around. He couldn't afford to offend Zhao Youcai, Li Dayong, and the others, so he could only look at Li Baoyu and ask, "What? Can't I improve, improve?"
"Yes! Yes!" Li Baoyu nodded repeatedly, smiling as he touched the back of Li Ruhai's head, saying, "You've really changed a lot in just three days! I'm very pleased!"
"Get out of my way!" Li Ruhai shoved Li Baoyu's hand away, glared at him, and said, "You're just hoping I'll become a traitor so you can kill me!"
Hearing Li Ruhai's words, Li Baoyu chuckled. Then he heard Li Ruhai say, "You wait until my sister-in-law enters the house. I'll give you acupuncture every day, and I'll complain about you every day."
Everyone laughed heartily upon hearing this, except for Li Baoyu, who made a face and coaxed Li Ruhai, saying, "What are you doing, Ruhai? I was just making fun of you."
Li Ruhai glared at Li Baoyu again, and at this moment Zhao Jun picked up the stack of money and asked Li Ruhai, "Ruhai, if you're not going to spend it, what are we going to do with this money?"
"I've donated it!" Li Ruhai waved his hand and said generously, "I'll donate it to the forestry bureaus in the Greater Khingan Mountains that were affected by the disaster, to support their reconstruction!"
Li Ruhai's words were resounding and thought-provoking, causing Zhao Jun's expression to change.
In May of last year, several forest farms under the four forestry bureaus in the Greater Khingan Mountains caught fire simultaneously, triggering the most serious forest fire since the founding of the People's Republic of China.
The fire lasted for 28 days, claiming 211 lives and causing direct economic losses of more than 500 million yuan and indirect losses of nearly 7 billion yuan.
There is a Chinese saying: When one place is in trouble, help comes from all sides.
Last year, around this time, people across the country donated money, supplies, and grain coupons to the Greater Khingan Mountains. As part of the forestry system, the Yong'an Forest Area naturally followed suit.
The Zhao family wasn't so wealthy back then. When Zhao Jun received his salary, he donated his and Zhao Youcai's entire month's wages. Wang Meilan, who was at home, donated two hundred yuan to the village headquarters.
Later, the forest farms in the Greater Khingan Mountains were rebuilt quite well, but at this time Zhao Jun was thinking about something else.
That was when he was doing business outside in his past life, chatting with someone about that fire.
Someone recalled seeing soldiers returning home at the train station after the disaster relief efforts that year.
The soldiers were riding in black leather cargo boxes. When they stopped, the doors were open, and you could see that all the soldiers were shirtless, their bodies were covered in black soot, and some of them had bandages wrapped around their bodies, probably from burns sustained during the disaster relief efforts.
The train carriages were filled with thousands of soldiers, sitting quietly and almost without making a sound.
"Sigh!" Zhao Jun sighed softly, raised the money in his hand, and said to Li Ruhai, "Ruhai, you were right."
“It’s a sure thing, brother!” Li Ruhai said firmly. Zhao Jun said, “Okay, I’ll take the money first. I’ll ask my brother-in-law what to do with it when I’m done with it.”
"Our Ru Hai is really something!" Suddenly, Li Dazhi praised Li Ru Hai, and said with a smile, "I just met Ru Hai last year, and he wasn't this sensible."
Li Dazhi put it mildly, but he believed that while the death by a thousand cuts at the end of last year might have been a bit excessive, it was definitely not unjust to kill Li Ruhai with a single blow.
"Hahaha..." Before Li Ruhai could say anything after being praised, Li Baoyu shamelessly laughed loudly, "Birds fly far when they follow phoenixes, and people's character improves when they associate with virtuous people. Ruhai is with me every day, how could he not improve?"
"You're kidding me," Li Ruhai shoved Li Baoyu away, saying, "How dare you say that?"
After speaking of Li Baoyu, Li Ruhai extended his hand to Zhao Jun and said, "I owe my success today to my elder brother, who taught me how to be a person and how to do things. My elder brother taught me what it means to not refrain from doing good because it is small, and not to do evil because it is small!"
Hearing Li Ruhai say this, everyone looked at Zhao Jun, and Li Dayong and Jin Xiaomei's eyes were filled with gratitude.
Zhao Jun, however, was completely bewildered. He frowned and looked at Li Ruhai, asking, "What do you mean by 'small' or 'big'? Did I say that?"
Li Ruhai: "..."
The day was spent in laughter, food, and drink. Because the Japanese devils were keeping things in the way, Wang Meilan didn't go out to dig for wild vegetables.
The next day, Wang Meilan led several women, from the elderly to Li Tongyun, to Xishan to dig for wild garlic. Meanwhile, Zhao Jun led his Zhao family gang to wade in the water to catch fish.
When the two groups left, they both took large pancakes with them, leaving Zhao Youcai at home to look after the house, receive business customers, and cook for the children who came home from school at noon.
Around 1 p.m., the Zhao family returned from fishing and gave Wang Meilan and her group a ride back to the Zhao family compound on their way to Xishan.
With so many people around, especially his daughter-in-law, Zhao Youcai knew how to behave.
Upon seeing that they had all returned, Zhao Youcai warmly greeted everyone, saying, "Come inside quickly, wash your faces. I brought out lunch for you all, have something to eat!"
When spring arrives, strong winds blow, covering your body, face, and hair with dust. When you get home, you have to wash your face and then clean and tidy your hair.
"There's still food?" Xie Sunshi asked with delight. She had already filled her stomach with a large pancake, so she could eat it or not. But when there was food, everyone would be happy to have a hot meal.
"Yes!" Zhao Youcai lifted the pot lid and said, "They're all sitting in the pot, still warm."
After Zhao Youcai finished serving the food, he went to get bowls and chopsticks.
At this moment, Wang Meilan, who had just finished washing her face, walked to Zhao Youcai's side and whispered, "Go and wash that big head of his for us."
Upon hearing this, Zhao Youcai glanced at Wang Meilan and muttered as he walked out, "I think you look like you have a big head!"
As he spoke, Zhao Youcai walked to the door. To the left of the door were two fish traps, and to the right were earthen baskets filled with small garlic cloves.
Zhao Youcai picked up a soil basket, pushed open the door, and went out.
After leaving the house, Zhao Youcai picked up the large water tap under the window and walked quickly to the well.
Zhao Youcai sat the earthen basket in the water's edge, then muttered to himself as he forcefully pushed water out.
The earthen baskets were all woven from tree branches, and the baskets had gaps that prevented water from being stored.
Once the water tap was full, the earthen basket was also full of water. Zhao Youcai grabbed a handful of small garlic cloves with both hands, first turning them over continuously, then shaking them to remove the dirt, dirt, and withered grass roots mixed in.
While waiting for the car to pick them up, Wang Meilan and the others sat idly on a fallen tree at the foot of the mountain, so they picked all the small wild garlic they had dug up.
Zhao Youcai washed it twice, then lifted the earthen basket, and water gushed out from the gaps in the basket.
Once the water had drained sufficiently, Zhao Youcai carried the basket back into the house. As he entered, he glanced at the water tap placed by the door.
The water's edge was full of small fish that Zhao Jun and his men had caught. Zhao Youcai glanced at them, then looked up at the people eating at the table and asked, "Shall I make you some fish sauce too?"
Zhao Youcai's words were somewhat sarcastic. Before eating, everyone had to squeeze in pieces of wheat ears, small boat nails, and the like. By the time he cleaned the fish and made fish sauce, everyone would have already finished eating.
"Dad!" But Zhao Youcai had barely finished speaking when he heard Zhao Jun call out to him. Zhao Youcai turned around and saw Zhao Jun pointing inside, saying to Zhao Youcai, "The fish in that pond are all old man fish. If you want to make fish sauce for us, you can put it in there."
Zhao Youcai: "..."
The old man fish are big, so they're easy to clean. And with about ten of them, there's enough fried sauce for everyone. Unlike those small fish, which would take a hundred or so to clean.
As soon as Zhao Jun said this, Ma Ling immediately got up and said she would help Zhao Youcai clean the fish.
Seeing this, Yang Yufeng and Xu Chunyan, together with Ma Ling, cleaned up more than twenty old man fish in just three or four minutes.
Zhao Youcai, who wished he could slap himself a few times, started heating oil in a wok and made a sauce to braise the fish.
To make it cook faster, Zhao Youcai cut the fish in half along its spine before putting it in the pot.
The old man fish has only one big bone. After removing the bone, the two pieces of fish meat were cut into small pieces by Zhao Youcai.
Once you put the fish into the pot and turn on the heat, the broth will be bubbling away. Cover the pot and simmer for a few minutes, and the fish sauce will be ready in no time.
Zhao Jun picked up a small clove of garlic, about seven or eight cloves, and haphazardly placed them on top of the rice in his bowl.
Then, Zhao Jun picked up a piece of fish coated in sauce and placed it on a clove of garlic. Immediately afterwards, Zhao Jun held the bowl in one hand, his lower lip against the rim, and used chopsticks to shovel rice into his mouth with the other.
The rice, pushed along with the garlic and fish sauce, burst in the mouth. The garlic's fragrant spiciness, combined with the savory and salty sauce, stimulated the taste buds.
The flavor was so good that the rice was gone before I knew it. After one bite, I wanted another. That's what you call a dish that makes rice more palatable.
After everyone had eaten and drunk their fill, Li Ruhai went to the inner room to report back to Ishii Keiya. Following the information left by Chen Yifeng, Li Ruhai made an outside call and asked the exchange to transfer him.
When the call connected, it wasn't Chen Yifeng or Ishii Keiya on the other end. But upon hearing that they were looking for Ishii Keiya, the person on the other end quickly told Li Ruhai to wait a moment.
Li Ruhai waited for about five minutes before Ishii Keiya's polite greeting came from the other end of the phone.
Li Ruhai didn't mince words and said directly to Ishii Keiya, "I've told my older brother about your matter. He doesn't agree, so I'm out of options."
Ishii Kei, who had been waiting for a phone call, was not satisfied and kept asking Li Ruhai what was wrong.
Seeing the Japanese soldiers pressing him for details, Li Ruhai thought for a moment before saying, "My elder brother said you are not human, but sons of bitches. Good people can't be beaten by you one after another."
After Li Ruhai said this, there was silence on the other end of the phone. Li Ruhai quickly said, "Anyway, that's the matter. You give me the money, and if you want it back, I'll have someone wire it to you."
This morning, on his way to work at the forest farm, Zhao Jun specifically called Zhou Jianjun, the farm's logistics manager, to inquire about the donation. Zhou Jianjun said he would give him the money, and whenever he went to the city to handle some business for the farm, he could send the money over there.
Therefore, Li Ruhai learned about the practice of sending money.
Even after Li Ruhai said all that, Ishii Keiya was still unwilling to give up and asked Li Ruhai over the phone to help persuade Zhao Jun.
"Alright, I really can't do this," Li Ruhai said. "Well, you said you didn't want the money, so forget it!"
After saying that, Li Ruhai hung up the phone without hesitation.
As soon as Li Ruhai hung up the phone, Li Baoyu, who had been eavesdropping nearby, came over and asked, "He said he doesn't want it anymore, right?"
"Yes!" Li Ruhai responded. Li Baoyu pressed, "If he wants it back, are you really going to send it to him?"
“Send it!” Li Ruhai said without hesitation, “I didn’t do anything for him, so I’ll just send it over.”
After saying that, Li Ruhai realized what Li Baoyu meant and immediately said, "It's just two hundred yuan, right? I'll transfer it to him, and then I'll still donate what I'm supposed to!"
With that, Li Ruhai puffed out his chest and said, "A real man's word is his bond!"
“Yes! My dear son!” At this moment, Jin Xiaomei’s voice came from the outer room, supporting Li Ruhai: “If the Japanese devils want it, give them the money, and then you can donate it. Mom will give you the money!”
Upon hearing this, Li Ruhai was instantly stunned. This was the first time in all these years that Jin Xiaomei had supported him!
Unlike Jin Xiaomei's pride and Li Ruhai's emotion, Ishii Kei was also furious at this moment, babbling a long string of words in Japanese, probably cursing Li Ruhai.
Besides Chen Yifeng, Mori Mayumi, and Murata Tomotaro, there was also a bald man in the room. The four of them looked at the crazy Ishii Keiya, and none of them dared to say a word.
Kei Ishii struggled for a while before finally stopping, panting heavily. His chest heaved as he took a couple of deep breaths before saying to Chen Yifeng, "Mr. Chen, could you please accompany me to that mountain village again?"
"Go now?" Chen Yifeng glanced out the window and said, "It's not possible today. If we want to go, it will have to be tomorrow."
"Then tomorrow!" Kei Ishii gritted his teeth and muttered, "These mountain folk, they won't listen to reason, they'll have to suffer the consequences!"
(End of this chapter)