Chapter Twenty Negotiation
The handover of the reservoir went smoothly. Heizi gave the man who used to be in charge of the reservoir 2,700 yuan and that settled the matter. The man thought it was too little but didn't dare say anything.
The day after the handover, Hei Zi and Zhu Xiao Fei found a construction team to start building their house.
It was almost frozen, Hei Zi was on the scene every day to speed up the construction progress. At noon, he asked Zhuo Xiaofei and Yin Le to bring two younger brothers to deliver the cooked meals to the construction site, with plenty of wine and meat at their service. The contractor didn't take long to finish building the house.
After the house was covered, Heizi began to prepare for buying coal, tables and chairs, benches and some daily necessities. In the second year of spring, one or two thousand kilograms of fish seedlings must be bought and put into the reservoir, and then someone will be found to take care of them, so that it looks like a fish farm.
After Er Cheng's mother was sent to the hospital, she received very good treatment and fully recovered a month later when the first snow fell.
Hei Zi was very sympathetic to Er Cheng, and since Er Cheng's family had no relatives in the village, few people helped them. When Er Cheng's mother was discharged from the hospital, Hei Zi bought two tons of coal for Er Cheng's family at the same time. Er Cheng's father almost cried when he returned home, as nobody had ever helped him like this before in his entire life except for his parents.
After building a good house and buying these things, Heizi and Zhu Xiaofei's savings were exhausted. As the first snow fell on the ground, people from outside who worked in the village also returned one after another. The number of households opening up in the village gradually increased, and the dozens of villagers who loved to gamble were scattered among other people's homes, with very few people coming to Heizi's gambling den again.
The weather turned cold, and the wind blew snowflakes flying wildly. Hei Zi and his brothers sat on the kang, smoking, the kang was burning very hot, Yin Le occasionally shifted positions, as if afraid of being roasted to death.
"Heizi picked up a small cushion and threw it over, saying: 'Leer, sit on this.'"
Yin Le sat on the cushion and stopped fidgeting.
Everyone is anxious in their hearts, winter is a good time to start, everywhere are idle and painful gamblers looking for excitement, but since there are free gambling dens in the village, who would come to Heizi's place.
"Hei Ge, San Ye in the village has opened a big gambling den. Not only does he not charge any money, but he also promised that if anyone gets caught playing at his place, he'll pay the fine himself." Er Cheng said in a low voice while leaning against the quilt.
Hei Zi stubbed out the cigarette butt in the ashtray, picked up his tea cup and took a sip of water, saying: "Brothers, don't be discouraged, there will always be a way."
San Ye is a foreman named Zhao Qing San, fifty-five or sixty years old, of medium build, strong and robust. In his youth, he traveled extensively throughout the south and north, suffering many hardships. It wasn't until he was over forty that he returned to the village and established a construction team, earning him great prestige in the village.
In the past two years, a steel plant was built in the town. He somehow managed to get all the construction projects and made over 10 million yuan in just two years. The town government still owes him over 20 million yuan in debt. He's not worried about the local police coming to his house to arrest gamblers, these people don't dare to mess with him.
Er Kui saw that everyone was silent and stretched his waist, saying: "What's the matter with you all? Tonight, Lu Xiangzi said he would bring people to have some fun."
As soon as Lu Xiangzi was mentioned, Zhu Xiaofei got angry. This kid owed the most money, with interest and principal totaling 400,000 to 500,000 yuan.
"These days have been busy, I haven't found Lü Blind Man yet, he owes a lot of money, right?" Zhù Xiǎofēi asked.
Er Kui has been helping Zhuo Xiaofei settle accounts, he is the most familiar with the situation. Er Kui said: "Lu Mangzi owes more than 200,000 yuan, and if you add interest, it's already over 500,000."
Hei Zi didn't think anyone owed so much money, he asked: "Is there still someone who owes money?"
Xiao Fei took out a small notebook and flipped through it, saying: "There are still five, the debts aren't too much, the most is just over 10,000."
Xiao Fei read out the names of people who borrowed money and the amounts one by one. Hei Zi roughly calculated that if all this money was collected, there would be at least 27,000 to 28,000 yuan. It's also possible to do something with this money.
"Xiao Fei, don't rush to ask for Lu Mangzi's money first. I need to talk to him tonight. As for the other five people's money, we should urge them to return it. When the money comes back, we can do something else." Hei Zi said.
Xiao Fei nodded and said, "Lao Wu, I think we should go collect the debt today. We've never collected it since the beginning, and it's always been the borrower who wins the money and initiates the exchange. It's time for us to collect this time."
Er Cheng heard them say: "Hei Ge, the five people that Zhuo Ge mentioned earlier, three of them haven't come for over ten days, probably because they're afraid to pay back the money and have gone to play at other places."
Er Cheng said that the other bureau is not referring to the village people's bureau, but rather the several mixed bureaus opened by the iron mine workers' dormitory area. Now the villagers don't come to Heizi's bureau to play anymore. If those who love to play from the iron mine all go to those mixed bureaus to play, Heizi's place will be completely deserted.
Hei Zi nodded after listening to Er Cheng's words and said, "Le Er, take two people with you now to find those three. The money they owe is not much, just a few thousand yuan, let them return it immediately."
Yin Le listened to Hei Zi's arrangement and jumped down from the kang. He said to his two younger brothers: "You guys follow me."
Yin Le's two younger brothers, who were always by his side, were extremely loyal to him. Without saying a word, they jumped down from the kang and followed Yin Le.
Yin Le and the other two left, Hei Zi thought for a moment and said: "Xiao Fei, I heard that Xiao Liang's car is going to be sold. Let's go ask around this afternoon and see if we can buy both the car and the route."
Xiao Fei didn't expect Heizi to open up the sports car.
Liang Zi was one of the first private car owners in town, initially making a lot of money, but due to his love for gambling, he lost it all. Now he has two buses running between county towns, which aren't worth much money. The route isn't as competitive as it is now, and as long as you pay the relevant departments, you can still get it done, so the route doesn't cost much either. As long as you can recover 200,000 to 300,000 yuan for buying a car, there shouldn't be any problem.
"Lao Wu, running a car is hard work, can we do it?" Zhu Xiaofei looked at Er Cheng and Er Kui sitting on the kang.
Hei Zi hadn't spoken yet when Er Cheng said: "Zhu Ge, don't worry about this, we can endure hardships, following you and Hei Ge to do whatever is fine."
Er Kui also said that as long as Hei Zi and Zhu Xiao Fei want to do something, he will go with them.
"Two successes." Hei Zi said: "Tonight if Lu Mangzi brings people to you, let them play first. Tell Lu Mangzi that I want to have a chat with him."
Er Cheng nodded, and Hei Zi jumped down from the kang and said: "Xiao Fei, let's go find Liang Zi and see if we can buy both of his cars. We can't hang ourselves on one tree."
Heizi and Zhu Xiaofei came out when the wind was very strong, the cold winter wind made people feel extremely piercing, blowing snowflakes straight into their necks. The two raised their collars, facing the wind along the small road towards the town.
