Chapter 20: Metamorphosis, Crazy Wind, Rectification and Guests
Yehao Dong hugged her, gently saying: "Money is earned by people, it belongs to the king, and supplements are just that, but having too much can be overwhelming, so one needs a good physique to withstand that wealth. We have this physique now, and even if we lose everything, it's not a big deal. It's like playing cards - I'm empty-handed at the card table now, but what I have is all winnings. If I lose, I'll just start over. In this world, only people are first-class, and you only appreciate things after losing them. Dajie's kindness to us isn't fake in any way, so no matter what happens in the future, I won't blame her. I heard that a member of Nongjia's previous generation has taken a liking to my Xīn Lǜ Group and plans to acquire it entirely. Now, both the financial and sales departments at Xīn Lǜ are staffed by people arranged by Nongjia, so everyone is worried if this is true?"
Jiang Lan nodded obediently: "Yes, before I came, Director Zhong Zhi Min told me a lot, and it's roughly the same as your guess."
"Hey, don't worry about it, I've got everything under control. No one can take my stuff unless I give it to them myself. Even if someone tries to take it by force, I'll burn it all down and make a big show out of it! That uncle of your sister's is just making a fuss for nothing. I've already thought this through and sent letters with instructions on what to do next. Just let Zhu San'er follow the instructions in the letter when the time comes."
Jiang Lan pointed at Ye Haodong's head: "What, a fire that burns everything clean, you bandit! Don't you care about those laid-off employees who have been re-employed? They've followed you through thick and thin for the sake of your career, and now you just abandon them?"
Ye Haodong was also a bit annoyed, the bigger things this person did, the greater the responsibility, and everything in family and national affairs went against his wishes. Why can't people just do as they please? Fortunately, Laozi still had a trump card, and he wouldn't really push this matter to an impasse.
A week later, the truck sent by the instructor's department from Shi Wei Zi City finally arrived. Lin Xiangwu helped Ye Haodong put Jiang Lan on the truck. Ye Haodong stood under the truck, gazing longingly and foolishly. Before leaving, Jiang Lan saw Ye Haodong like this and couldn't help but feel moved, thinking that her lover was reluctant to part with her. Who would have thought that this guy was actually thinking that his lucky days were finally coming to an end?
In the New Year of 1997, the farm was like a prison where winter had thoroughly begun. The prisoners usually had nothing to do, and in order not to let these people idle away, the squadron arranged political study and various labor tasks every day, and also accepted Ye Haodong's suggestion to organize various cultural and sports competitions.
Various competitive activities not only consumed the excess energy of prisoners, but also brought out many outstanding figures. The group of prisoners is both the most foolish and the most intelligent. Foolishness lies in desire, while intelligence lies in the brain. Ye Haodong suggested that management cadres learn from the experience of Sifangtang Prison, organizing competitions such as jump chess, military chess, Go, poker, and two major ball games.
The result of the competition shocked all the cadres, including Old Branch Captain Wang Qing-shan. The prisoners lost only one game to the armed police team in basketball, but won first place in all other events! Among them, the first-place winner in chess was Ye Hao-dong, who had been trained by a famous coach, while the winner of Go was unexpectedly Ho Ping-chao, who had won with ease. It turned out that this young master had been a professional Go player before he came in. The poker game was the least suspenseful competition, and Ye Hao-dong, as a big miscellaneous person, used his power for personal gain to become one of the popular players among the prisoners. His partner was a Shenyang prisoner named Shun-zi, who was an old swindler with incredible skills. Although Ye Hao-dong had learned some tricks from Da Ding-zi and Crab-leg, they were far inferior to Shun-zi's skills. However, it was enough to deal with the proletarian revolutionaries and the old soldiers' team cadres. In front of such opponents, the two of them didn't dare to cheat, but they exchanged secret signals through their eyebrows and smiles, fooling several old soldiers who were used to holding guns and a few small armed police officers. After a few rounds of cards, they won overwhelmingly.
During the football match, it was Kim Yong-cheol's turn to show off his skills. The ball technique of this Korean stick is not ordinary, and it can be said that he dominated the entire game by himself. The data after the game confirmed this point. In the two games of the offender team, a total of 9 goals were scored, including 6 from his direct shots, 1 from the opponent's own goal, and the remaining 2 were all scored by his teammates after he passed out threatening balls.
After all the competitions were over, it was a few days of visiting again, followed by a labor competition. The hustle and bustle didn't end until the end of the first month of the lunar calendar. For those old-timers who had no one to visit them at home, the day when their thoughts fluctuated the most in previous years passed just like that amidst laughter and chatter. As soon as they left the first month behind, everyone in the prison let out a sigh of relief. Next came the time to summarize the work for the whole year. While summarizing achievements and rewarding merits, the cadres also didn't forget to formulate plans for commutation based on the prisoners' performance and the number of work points last year.
Ye Haodong did not disappoint everyone's expectations and became the prisoner with the most reduced sentence, with a reduction of eight months. The moment he received the court's notice, Ye Haodong's expression was very disappointed, and his disappointment was not hidden at all, making He Ruqiu's face turn black. This kid had only been here for half a year and had already reduced his sentence by more than the time he had spent here, looking like he was still not satisfied with that. How could this not make Old He, who had worked hard to fight for Ye Haodong, angry? This was just a small interlude, after receiving the court's notice, Ye Haodong immediately called home and told his mother Wang Lin the good news.
Days passed one by one, and before I knew it, May had arrived.
Aiyiguli has been avoiding Ye Haodong these days. Since that embarrassing thing happened, Aiyiguli's impression of Ye Haodong changed to a pervert, even though Ye Haodong remained calm and self-disciplined, humorous and diligent as always.
Ye Haodong was completely unaware of the young girl's concerns, and he thought that his own exceptional abilities and bravery had intimidated her. In these few months in Western China, Ye Haodong saw a lot and thought a lot. The land and people here had an immeasurable impact on his future actions.
When he went out to work, there would occasionally be times when he was idle. Every time this happened, he would sit on the dunes of the desert and gaze at the endless grasslands that seemed to move across the sandy sea. Occasionally, Kazakh or Uyghur herders would drive large flocks of cattle and sheep across it. The vast and free land echoed with their unrestrained songs, and in the unintelligible voices, there was a certain longing that moved Ye Haodong's heart. The vast sky, the big flock of sheep, the endless grasslands... Having experienced the prosperity of the south and the humid climate where the sky meets the water, having also experienced the severe cold of the north where snowflakes flutter for thousands of miles, now he had also experienced the majestic scenery of the desert. The magnificent and vast mountains and rivers of his motherland stimulated Ye Haodong's longing for freedom. At this moment, he secretly vowed that no matter how his future path would be, this was his last time turning back.
As a big prisoner, he is the one who has the most opportunities to get in close contact with other prisoners. Because of various reasons, the prisoners who come here reflect the survival rules of the whole society. There are gangsters who have been locked up since 1983 for fighting; there are also former high-ranking officials who made mistakes in politics, economy and personal life. Big or small things, everyone who comes here will unconsciously take out the wonderful performances they have experienced and share them with others to show off. It seems that every experience can be written into a book, and Ye Haodong is one of those people. Through the lessons and successes of these people's experiences, Ye Haodong learned how to live more freely in this world, how to keep his true nature and live according to his own aspirations without worrying about coming back here again.
Their experiences have proven that everything in the world seems to be connected with the principle of interdependence and mutual generation, Laozi is indeed one of the most famous sages in the world, who has thoroughly explained the great way of human society with only 5,000 words.
Ordinary people fear petty thugs, petty thugs fear big thugs, big thugs fear the police, the police fear high-ranking officials, and high-ranking officials fear even higher-ranking officials. Higher-ranking officials are afraid of ordinary people, so they set up a disciplinary committee to deal with corrupt officials. Ye Haodong wants to find a profession that doesn't have to be afraid of anyone from these fears. In the end, he really summed it up and decided to become a big thug who is both liked and disliked by higher-ranking officials, feared by high-ranking officials, not dared to be controlled by the police, and also liked and feared by ordinary people. Is there such a person in this world? If not, then I will be the first!
He looked through ancient and modern figures, and finally summarized a person who was suspected to be this kind of person. In that chaotic era, under the neon lights and beautiful advertisements, in the old Shencheng that made the world infatuated, there was someone who barely did it, his name was Du Yuesheng. In an even older era, there was a man named Shen Wansan who tried to do it, but unfortunately he failed and eventually became a fattened pig.
Life went on under the wild wind blowing in the vast desert. Like the wild winds that ravaged the desert for four seasons a year, the wild winds in the prison cell never stopped. Ye Haodong often saw prisoners being abused by the sick and sadistic team leader of the second squadron. The dark side of the prison cell had never disappeared, and the cadres would clean up the big shots and disobedient prisoners, who would then go on to torment honest and new prisoners. Ye Haodong remained indifferent to all this, keeping his heart unchanged amidst the turmoil inside and outside the prison.
As the 7.1 handover anniversary approaches, there are constant documents from higher authorities in the prison about maintaining stability and strengthening civilized construction. Due to the harsh weather and heavy study tasks, all labor reform projects have been suspended in the prison, and prisoners stay indoors every day studying the spirit of the documents. Cadres are extremely vigilant, like they've been injected with chicken blood, and even organizing studies has become meticulous. This nationwide stability maintenance storm is also raging fiercely in this remote desert prison!
One day at the end of May, a group of unusual soldiers and their escorted prisoners arrived at the station, totaling twenty people, twelve soldiers and eight prisoners. They temporarily needed to rest here for a day, He Ruqiu received instructions from his superiors that these prisoners must be kept tightly guarded, and the prison authorities must actively satisfy all the requirements of these military personnel.
