Living in a Siheyuan

Chapter 108 Something unexpected happened

The next day, Li Ping'an arrived at the factory.

This time he didn't need to report to Director Yang. This was the second transaction, so Li Huaide could just talk to Director Yang himself.

During this period, the factory solved the food problem and the workers were full of enthusiasm for work.

Today, the factory also announced that there would be rice with pork tomorrow. Everyone was given meal coupons. This caused a sensation in the entire steel mill.

It was really rare to be able to eat such good food in this day and age. Everyone was eagerly looking forward to tomorrow's lunch.

Now the employees of the steel mill are full of energy and enthusiasm every day. Compared with other factories, their treatment is simply too good to be true.

Especially after the dinner the next day, everyone was like a chicken with blood injected. They boasted about the treatment they received in the factory to everyone they met. This also made the steel mill famous for a while. Even the Ministry of Industry got the news.

That day, Director Yang was called to the department by a phone call.

Facing the old leader's questioning, Director Yang knew that he could not hide the matter, so he told him everything that happened.

After hearing this, the old leader pondered for a moment and said, "So you don't know his background either?"

Director Yang shook his head and said, "I really don't know. We don't even know how to contact them. They have to contact us every time."

The old leader thought for a moment and said, "Can we trade more of their stuff?"

"No, they only give us so much each time. We also wanted to trade for more food, but they disagreed. They said they could only give us this much. It seems like they also sent food to other places."

After asking for a long time, there was no result. The old leader sent Director Yang back first and told him that someone would come to investigate later and asked them to cooperate well.

After Director Yang returned to the steel mill, he immediately called Li Huaide, Li Pingan and Secretary He together and told them what the old leader said.

Li Huaide was a little angry when he heard this and said, "We finally found a channel to buy food, but they couldn't wait to come and investigate. If this channel is lost, who will be responsible for getting food for us? Are we going to watch tens of thousands of people in the factory starve to death?"

Secretary He also sighed: "I had expected the higher-ups to investigate a long time ago, but I didn't expect it to come so soon. After all, it's impossible to keep so many things secret."

Director Yang also said with some melancholy: "Forget it, let's wait until the investigation is completed. We still have to wait for the decision from above as to what to do in the future."

Li Pingan was just a bystander. Seeing that they were helpless, he was also considering whether to continue delivering food to the factory.

If I’m not careful this time, I’ll get myself into trouble.

Sure enough, just two days later, Li Pingan was called into a separate office.

Three people in cadre uniforms sat there, with serious expressions on their faces.

A man in the middle, who was about 40 years old, said, "Your name is Li Ping'an, and you are 22 years old this year, right? Do you know why we called you here?"

"Yes, it's about food, right?"

"Yes, it seems you understand it too. Then tell me what happened? We know that you were the one who contacted those people."

"I don't know, actually. I don't know them. The first time I met them was when I was on my way home from get off work. A kid handed me a piece of paper. It contained the details of the deal and asked me to take it back to the factory to discuss it."

"I didn't dare to delay, so I handed the note to Director Li and Director Yang as soon as I got to work the next day. Director Li was with me the whole time."

"Then how did you contact each other the next few times?"

"They also contacted me by sending me a note. And the children who sent the notes were different. Each of them was given a few candies by others to run errands."

This is true, but it was just a play performed by Lu Dehua and Li Pingan. The purpose was for this moment.

Then he asked Li Pingan about some details of the transaction process in detail. What Li Pingan said was basically consistent with what Li Huaide, Zhao Xinguo and others said.

Seeing that they couldn't get any results from asking Li Pingan, they sent him away.

Two days later, it was as if nothing had happened, and no one came to inquire about it.

But Li Pingan knew that this matter was definitely not over. There would definitely be people asking about it later. He just pretended not to know.

Director Yang and Li Huaide couldn't understand what they meant. They didn't say whether they agreed or not to continue buying grain.

Finally, Director Yang and his team decided to continue purchasing.

Tens of thousands of people in the factory are waiting for food. This is the biggest problem now. If we don't continue to buy food, the workers in the factory will go hungry. Then what's the point of production?

Besides, the gold they wanted to exchange with Lou Zhenghua was already ready, so what was the point of not exchanging it for food?

So everyone was waiting for those people to inform them of the time and place of the next transaction.

This time, Li Pingan did not plan to continue trading at the same place as last time.

This time he found a small forest in the suburbs and planned to trade there.

He knew that something unexpected might happen in this transaction, so he was extra careful.

More than half a month passed, and it felt like time was almost up. Li Pingan continued to act with Lu Dehua. This time, Liu Mi dressed up as a middle-aged woman delivering a note to a child. The main theme was a mystery.

When he took the note to Director Yang's office, Director Yang looked at the address and said, "Why did you change the location this time? Will there be any problems?"

After two contacts, Li Huaide thought he had a good understanding of Lu Dehua and his group. He said, "It shouldn't be the case. They just want to do business. And they also value credibility."

"Maybe they moved to a new location for safety reasons? After all, they have to be careful too."

Director Yang thought about it and felt relieved, so he said, "Then you better be careful this time. I'm afraid the higher-ups may not have given up investigating this matter yet."

Li Huaide said: "They didn't object last time. I guess they plan to turn a blind eye, right? Otherwise, if the workers knew that they were the reason they were hungry, they might even cause trouble. Who will be held responsible then?"

"That's why I agreed to continue the deal. Otherwise the workers would have eaten us."

Now that the decision has been made, let’s all continue to make preparations.

When Li Ping'an arrived at the steel mill at night, Li Huaide was standing there with a grim face, and there were two strangers wearing security uniforms beside him.

Li Pingan knew at a glance that these two people were definitely not from the Security Department. It seemed that the higher-ups were also waiting for this transaction.

Li Huaide said to Li Pingan: "Pingan, these two people are from the investigation team. They will go with us."

At this time, an older man said, "Comrade Li Ping'an, just trade as you did the last time. We won't disturb you, we're just here to watch."

After hearing this, Li Ping'an looked at Li Huaide.

Li Huaide nodded silently. There was nothing he could do, because he had so much power.

Just like last time, there were ten people from the security department and three cars. Li Ping'an drove with Li Huaide, Zhao Xinguo, and the two people from the investigation team.

The group followed the address and drove to the outskirts of the city. When they got to the woods, they saw Lu Dehua waiting for them with a flashlight.

The truck behind stopped and Li Pingan drove to Lu Dehua's side.

As soon as he got off the car, Li Pingan saw 20 to 30 people surrounding him, all fully armed. They were all elite soldiers.

Now Li Ping'an was angry. Was he planning to wipe out everyone at once?

He had no ill intentions, he just couldn't bear to see people go hungry. I understand you want to investigate. Anyway, there is no evidence, it won't have any impact on him.

But this time, the intention was to take Lu Dehua away as well.

So now Li Pingan has no intention of playing anymore. I sent you food out of kindness, but you didn't appreciate it. You won't starve anyway. Never mind.

So he used his consciousness to explain to Lu Dehua.

When Lu Dehua saw Li Huaide and the others get out of the car, his face changed. He shouted angrily, "Okay, you guys still want to rob your fellow thieves. I think you are courting death. Let's not contact each other anymore!"

After shouting, he shouted to the woods: "Destroy everything, we retreat!"

Without waiting for Li Huaide and the others to reply, he turned and walked into the woods.

Immediately afterwards, several loud explosions were heard.

At this point, everyone in the audience was stunned. What was going on? Why did it turn out like this?

They were confused, but the two people from the investigation team were not.

All I could hear was them whistling and shouting, "Chase them! They're in the woods!"

At this moment, twenty or thirty people suddenly appeared from the surroundings and rushed into the woods like a gust of wind.

Now everyone understood that they were just a bait to lure out this group of people.

Li Huaide was so angry that the veins on his hands were exposed. If these people wanted to retaliate just now, they were unprepared and didn't know what the consequences would be.

He looked angrily at the investigator on the side. The man didn't care about Li Huaide's anger at all.

"We suspected they might have connections overseas. So we planned to bring them back for investigation. But we didn't expect them to find out so quickly. We hope they don't get away."

Li Pingan felt amused when he heard this and wanted to catch him.

He threw out all the bombs he got from the black market last time. All 30,000 kilograms of rice in the woods were blown up. He put all the pork into the space. And Lu Dehua had already entered the space to rest. Where could they find someone?

Sure enough, after a while, several fully armed men came over. They said, "Leader, we failed. They may have discovered us earlier. Everyone has evacuated. The food on the scene has also been destroyed. There is no trace left."

This made the investigation team on the side angry and shouted: "Are you all idiots? How did you let people find out in advance? You didn't even catch one person, how are we going to explain it when we go back? Now we don't know when they will show up again."

Faced with the leader's anger, the operatives lowered their heads and said nothing. This operation was a complete failure.

Li Huaide secretly exchanged glances with Li Pingan. Both of them saw gloating in each other's eyes.

Since the operation failed, Li Huaide and his team were unable to purchase food. They had no choice but to withdraw. A few people were left at the scene to guard it, and they would look for clues tomorrow morning.

It was already late at night when he got back. Li Pingan was anxious to go home and rest. There would probably be more to come tomorrow.