CHAPTER 423: CHAPTER 416: STEALING WATER

Sisi stayed in Yuequan Village for most of the month, only leaving after she learned about Jianguo and Donghua’s college entrance exam scores.

Jianguo’s score was very high; he applied to the Economics and Management program at Tsinghua University. With his score, there should be no issue. Although Donghua’s score wasn’t as high, he still made the cut for the engineering university he applied to.

At the end of July, Sisi drove away from Yuequan Village. She had long planned to visit Tian Xinhua during the summer break. She didn’t mention it over the phone; instead, she intended to surprise him.

Upon learning that Sisi was going to visit Man Yin, Jin Wanming and Li Yuedi got busy and prepared a lot of food, like beef jerky, meat sauce, fried small fish, tea eggs, and tea leaves – some for Sisi to eat on the way and some to bring to Tian Xinhua.

Sisi was planning to drive to Province S herself. She flipped through the map; from Shanghai to Province S it’s only just over 1,500 kilometers. It would take about two days by car. The main reason is that she has quite a few things to take with her this time, and it would be impossible to carry everything by herself without a car.

Tian Xinhua resides in Huangyuan County located in the northern part of Province S, well-known nationwide as the hometown of jujubes and also as a historical revolutionary base, a city steeped in history. However, the life of the locals there is truly harsh. As the Old Man says, their staple food is sorghum cakes, and even these cannot be eaten dry at every meal – only at midday, with watery ones in the morning and evening.

What the heck is a sorghum cake? It’s the crop that farmers look down upon the most. Modern people always advocate for eating whole grains, which is why sorghum has had its day in the sun. However, in the old society, sorghum was a type of grain not even fed to livestock, because animals could gain weight even by eating grass, whereas only by eating sorghum would they lose weight.

The Old Man shook his head when he spoke of the half-year he spent in Huangyuan County. That’s why he strongly opposed Sisi’s decision to follow Tian Xinhua and suffer with him there. Going there would just break his old heart.

Sisi set off for Province S without the Old Man knowing, but by now, the Old Man must have found out, and he is probably cursing at home right now!

Sisi was both driving and feeling joyous. She had been driving for one day and had covered most of the distance. In another half-day, she should arrive in Province S. She wondered what kind of expression Tian Xinhua would have when he saw her tomorrow?

So looking forward to it...

After resting in Space for one night, Sisi continued her journey. The trip was relatively smooth, although there were some reckless individuals along the way who were all frightened off by Sisi’s gun. Ever since the incident at Lupan Gorge, Sisi had gotten a gun and some bullets from Tian Xinhua, and now they were proving to be useful.

Huangyuan County, Mijia Town

Tian Xinhua had been as busy as a spinning top lately. As summer began, Huangyuan County faced a severe drought – no rain for two months. Although Mijia Town wasn’t the hardest hit by the drought, the situation was still dire.

Fortunately, Mijia Town had a large water reservoir, which served as the main water supply for the entire county. There was sufficient stored water, but it still needed to be used sparingly. Hence, he had been busy dealing with the drought, stressed and harried.

Some villages had smaller water reservoirs, which became the villages’ precious assets. However, it was precisely because of these smaller reservoirs that a major incident occurred.

While dreaming of cuddling with his sweetheart Ah Nan, Tian Xinhua was awakened by a phone call. It was his assistant Old Xu, who called to report a fatality in Xingzi Village, with Old Xu’s voice trembling incessantly.

Startled by the news, Tian Xinhua immediately awoke, hurriedly got dressed, and took the car that Old Xu had prepared to head for Xingzi Village at dawn.

Upon arriving, Tian Xinhua learned what had happened. Xingzi Village faced a serious drought, and the little water provided by the government was insufficient. They set their sights on the small reservoir of the neighboring Shexing Mountain Village, with the whole village sneaking to the dam at midnight to drill a hole and steal water.

However, due to their lack of experience, the hole was drilled too large. Water from the dam suddenly burst through the opening, creating a flood that sent those below the dam running for their lives.

After the water subsided, they discovered that a young man from the village had been washed away, and his body was found downstream.

The current situation was that the residents of Shexing Mountain Village were not letting it go and demanded Xingzi Village to compensate for the water, while the family of the deceased young man also refused to give up, insisting the village committee give an explanation before they would allow the burial of the young man.

When Tian Xinhua arrived, the body of the young man was laid out at the entrance of the village committee, not even covered with a piece of cloth. His pale, ghastly face, coupled with his damp hair, was frightening to see. Old Xu, who was behind Tian Xinhua, felt chilly down his back and shivered several times.

Facing the young Mayor, the party secretary of Xingzi Village, Ma Junshan, breathed a sigh of relief as if he had seen Guanyin Bodhisattva, and came over with a distressed look.

"What happened?" Tian Xinhua asked with a stern face.

Ma Junshan knew that although this young Mayor looked young, his methods were incredibly ruthless. He didn’t dare to hide a single word and explained everything in detail.

"Mayor Tian, we had no choice. If we don’t water the crops in the fields, we won’t be able to survive this year!"

Seeing that Tian Xinhua was silent and his expression seemed to soften somewhat, Ma Junshan grew bolder and continued: "Mayor, Shexing Mountain Village has taken advantage of being upstream and cut off all the river water, leaving us downstream without water. At first, we didn’t plan to take much, just enough for the crops, with a small hole. But who could have known the hole would grow so big? Who could have foreseen this? Hai Min was only twenty-three, and now he’s gone, wuu wuu!"

As he spoke, Ma Junshan started to cry. It wasn’t so much sorrow for the deceased young man but fear that he might lose his position as the secretary and might face disciplinary action.

The more Ma Junshan thought about it, the more scared he became, feeling that he might have no bright future. It was one thing for himself, but it affected his wife and children too! With this thought, his crying grew even more mournful.

"Crying for what? Is that all you’re good for?" Tian Xinhua rebuked in annoyance. He had always wanted to remove this weak, incapable, and indecisive party secretary of Xingzi Village. There hadn’t been a good reason to do so, but now he had one. Right now, though, he had to deal with the water theft incident and soothe the family of the deceased. Once this matter was resolved, he would deal with Ma Junshan.

Thinking this, Tian Xinhua felt a headache coming on and glared fiercely at Ma Junshan. What a waste, thinking of stealing water without the ability? And he wondered if Zhou Guoqiang from Shexing Mountain Village had arrived; that guy wouldn’t be easy to talk to.

It turns out that although Shexing Mountain Village and Xingzi Village were neighbors, they belonged to two different towns. Xingzi Village was under the jurisdiction of Mijia Town, and Shexing Mountain Village was part of Shijuzhen. The mayor of Shijuzhen, Zhou Guoqiang, was ex-military, not someone to be taken lightly.

Tian Xinhua thought for a moment, whispered a few instructions to Old Xu, who then left on his mission. Meanwhile, Tian Xinhua followed Ma Junshan to console the family of the deceased.