Siheyuan: The Counterattack of Passerby

When several people saw that Lin Geng had all the necessary documents, and one of the villagers was literate, they looked at Lin Geng's work permit and letter of introduction, compared them with Lin Geng's photo, and confirmed that there was no problem with Lin Geng, they all became enthusiastic and gave Lin Geng directions, telling him to follow this road, go forward, turn right at an intersection, and go all the way to a place called Zhaojia Village where the road ended.

After arriving at Zhaojia Village, he could talk to their village chief, leave the tricycle at the village branch, and ask them to send someone to guide Lin Geng into the mountains to look for wild boars.

In fact, there are quite a few wild boars in the mountains in this area. They will come down the mountain from time to time to destroy the food in the farmland. They also hope to hunt more wild boars.

The roads in the mountains are difficult to travel, wild boars are hard to hunt, and there are also ferocious beasts such as blind bears and leopards in the mountains. It is easy to lose your life if you encounter them.

There was a kind-hearted old man who advised Lin Geng not to go into the mountains, but to ask around in the villages to find out which village had killed a wild boar. The villages were too poor now and were all willing to sell the wild boars in exchange for some money or cloth coupons, industrial vouchers or the like.

After listening to this, Lin Geng thanked the villagers and said that he still wanted to go to Zhaojia Village first. If it was too dangerous to go into the mountains, he would then go to the surrounding villages.

The villagers saw that there was indeed a bow and a bag of arrows on Lin Geng's tricycle, and it looked like he knew how to hunt, not like someone who wanted to go into the mountains to hunt wild boars on impulse, so they waved their hands and asked Lin Geng to continue moving forward.

After Lin Geng turned into a small road, the road became more and more difficult to walk on. Not only was it narrow, but it was also bumpy. He rode on it in a bouncing manner. Halfway through, the chain even fell off. He had to stop and re-hook the chain and continued pedaling forward. At noon, he finally found a small village along a small road. The road ended here, and he was sure that this should be the Zhaojia Village that the villagers talked about.

Before he got close to Zhaojia Village, several men of different ages walked out from the roadside. They were all thin, ragged, and had pale faces.

They each held a hoe, shovel, dung fork and other miscellaneous items in their hands. There was also a middle-aged man who was a little stronger, holding a homemade musket, who blocked Lin Geng's way.

Lin Geng was riding his tricycle and looking around. When they suddenly jumped out and blocked his way, he was startled and quickly braked to stop, raising his hands above his head to indicate that he was not a threat.

"What are you doing? Why did you come to our village? Tell the truth, otherwise we will not be polite!" The middle-aged man in the lead, holding a homemade musket, pointed the muzzle of the musket at Lin Geng and asked loudly with a vigilant look on his face.

Lin Geng raised his hand and said with a smile: "Don't be nervous, don't be nervous, I'm not a bad person! I'm a purchaser from the purchasing department of the Red Star Steel Rolling Mill in Sijiu City. I came here to buy some unplanned materials for the factory. I wandered all the way out of the city!"

"Bah! You're talking nonsense! The roads here are so difficult to travel on. No factory buyer has ever come to our village. How did you get to our village? Tell the truth!" The middle-aged man holding the rifle did not believe Lin Geng's words, and continued to question Lin Geng with a vigilant look on his face.

Lin Geng then said helplessly: "Don't be nervous, I'm not lying. I can show you my work permit and letter of introduction now. After you see them, you will believe that I'm not a bad guy! Besides, who would ride a tricycle into the mountains? Don't you think so?"

The middle-aged man hesitated for a moment, shook the gun in his hand, and ordered Lin Geng: "Slow down, take out your work permit and letter of introduction for me to see!"

Lin Geng then put down his hand, took out his work permit and letter of introduction from his pocket and handed them to the middle-aged man.

The middle-aged man continued to point the gun at Lin Geng, carefully took Lin Geng's letter of introduction and work permit, then handed the gun to a young man next to him, continued to stare at Lin Geng, opened the work permit and letter of introduction and took a look.

After reading it, he showed an embarrassed look on his face, coughed dryly and said, "Is that...that third kid from the Zhao family here? I can't read! I can't understand!"

When Lin Geng heard this, his face darkened. He thought to himself, "You can't read, what the hell are you doing? You said you didn't understand after you finished reading. Aren't you kidding me?"

Several villagers nearby also stretched their heads to look, but after taking a look they all looked confused. It was obvious that they didn't know how to read, so it was useless for them to look.

Someone said, "The third kid from the Zhao family isn't here. How about I go call him?"

The middle-aged man looked at Lin Geng, then at the photo on his work permit. He seemed to realize that Lin Geng and the photo on the small notebook were the same person. Moreover, Lin Geng looked young and had a pretty face. So he thought for a moment and waved his hand, saying, "Forget it. Let's go back first. This guy doesn't look like a bad guy. Let's go back to the village and talk about it!"

After he finished speaking, everyone's hostility towards Lin Geng lessened a little, and they all put down their hoes, shovels or dung forks that were pointing at Lin Geng.

Lin Geng smiled and said, "Don't worry, everyone. I'm really not a bad guy. Would a bad guy dare to ride a tricycle around so brazenly? Besides, would a bad guy dare to show you his work permit and letter of introduction? I'm just a purchaser at the steel mill. I wanted to buy some mountain products, so I came all the way here!"

The middle-aged man also put away his musket and nodded, saying, "Well, then go back to the village and tell us first! There is someone in our village who can read. Let him see your work permit and letter of introduction. If there is no problem, it will be fine!"

So Lin Geng agreed and said, "Okay, I'll listen to you. Let's go to the village first and ask someone to look at my work ID to prove that I'm not a bad person!" Then he pushed the tricycle and followed these people towards the village.

The village is not big, with only about 20 to 30 households. It is located in a valley in the mountains. There are few farmlands around, and they are scattered here and there. There are no large tracts of farmland. It can be seen that the per capita farmland area here must not be large, and life must be more difficult.

The houses in the village are all adobe houses, and the roofs are made of thatch or wheat straw. Some houses are slightly better, built with stones, and the roofs are made of stone slabs instead of tiles. These are considered the best houses in the village.

There were a few dogs wandering around in the village. They started barking when they saw Lin Geng, a stranger. However, after being scolded by the middle-aged man and the villagers with him, the dogs immediately tucked their tails between their legs and ran to the side in shame, making way for the road.

The middle-aged man took Lin Geng to the village branch. The so-called village branch was actually a small dilapidated temple, but now it has been converted into a village branch. The room was very small and dark inside.

At this time, someone ran over and called a young man. The young man had a lame leg and it was not easy for him to walk. He was pale and thin, and his clothes were tattered. Some villagers heard that a stranger had come to the village, so they also came to watch the fun.

Lin Geng was obviously not used to being watched by so many people like he was a monkey. He took out a box of cigarettes with a smile and distributed cigarettes to everyone. The villagers saw Lin Geng giving them cigarettes, so they all showed their honest smiles and took the cigarettes with a smile, but they were reluctant to light them up. After putting them under their noses to smell them, most of them put them away carefully.

Only the middle-aged man in the lead looked at Lin Geng's cigarettes and said, "Oh, Daqianmen, good cigarettes! These cigarettes are not cheap, they must be several cents a box, right? Young people don't know how to live! Smoking such expensive good cigarettes, isn't this a waste of money?"

But after smelling the cigarette, he took out a flint from the cloth bag at his waist, struck the tinder with a click, lit the cigarette, took a deep puff, inhaled deeply into his lungs, then exhaled the smoke with a look of enjoyment and said, "What a good cigarette!"

Lin Geng looked at these villagers. They were all in tattered clothes. It was already very cold in the mountains, but many of them were still wearing very thin clothes. Some of them were shivering with cold standing there. Some children had shoes that were torn and their toes were exposed, but they were still hiding behind the adults excitedly and secretly looking at Lin Geng with curious eyes.