Chronicle of the 70s-Chapter 27 - 0 getting married

When Li Jianqing arrived at the address on the note with five teenagers, they were in the midst of celebrating a joyful occasion with gongs and drums.

Li Jianqing looked at the note somewhat suspiciously, "Your sister has been taken to Wang Xiwang's house at Wei River Production Team, come rescue her quickly!"

They had asked around along the way, and indeed, this was Wang Xiwang's house. However, the family was hosting a wedding, and the crackling sound of firecrackers made the onlookers cheer even more.

Standing next to Li Jianqing, Ma Sanjue whispered helplessly, "San'er, could it be false information given by someone?"

Li Jianqing stubbornly shook his head, yet he started to doubt as he observed the scene. However, Qin Family's Fatty had already walked into the crowd and approached a villager with a nod and a bow, offering a cigarette, "Hey, fellow villager, someone here is getting married, seems quite lively."

At that moment, an old man turned around, saw the young man giving him a white cigarette, his eyes lit up, and he took it without smoking, tucked it behind his ear, and said with a grin, "Yes, it's Wang Xiaohanzi from Wang Xiwang's family who is getting married."

Xiaohanzi? Hearing this, Li Jianqing who was behind rushed forward, grabbed the old man's arm, and asked, "What did you say, the one getting married is an idiot?"

Seeing a strange young man with an improper expression, the old man didn't want any trouble, quickly pulled away his arm, and muttered as he pushed through the crowd, "Who are you guys, what are you doing in our village? Whatever you said, I don't know." He quickly disappeared into the crowd.

Seeing this, Qin Xiaopang frowned and said to Li Jianqing, "Man, can't you keep calm? How can you just search someone's house without any evidence? We need to find out some information first to confirm if the person is here," then he scratched his head in irritation.

Li Jianqing suddenly realized he was being too hasty. He was about to try and chat with someone like Qin Xiaopang did, when four or five people pushed their way out of the crowd, scolding them, "Which production team are you from? What are you doing in our production team? Recently, many families from our village lost chickens and ducks; did you steal them? Come on, villagers, surround these thieves." With these words, the onlookers' eyes widened, and they quickly surrounded the six young men.

Seeing this, Li Jianqing was about to shout but was pulled back by Qin Xiaopang, who said with a smile to the crowd, "Hey, what are you saying? It's not a good habit to falsely accuse someone of stealing; this could be a charge of defamation, and you could be sentenced if reported to the police!"

This statement made everyone wary. Li Jianqing's eyes lit up. His sister always told him to think before acting impulsively, which he never thought was a problem before, but now during this incident, he realized his approach was different from others.

Seeing everyone stunned, Qin Xiaopang took a breath and said, "Old and young masters, since we are all here, let me just mention something. Actually, we are here for a reason. You all know that a little girl from Li Family Village Production Team went missing recently." He glanced over at the few people who just stormed out, noticing their expressions turn odd.

Li Jianqing, becoming even more alert, noticed someone quietly slipping away towards the yard, as if to tip someone off.

Li Jianqing felt urgent, but he knew from the recent experience that he shouldn't act rashly. He realized that he needed to handle things cautiously, as acting impulsively can ruin things.

Qin Family's Fatty saw everyone nodding, acknowledging they knew what happened, and a young fellow even chuckled out, "Yes, she eloped with her lover!"

Everyone burst out laughing at once. In these times, eloping is considered extremely disgraceful. If caught, one might even be charged with hooliganism. The peasant families are particularly conservative; for a girl to elope is the utmost disgrace. If a family has such a child, the whole clan would be too ashamed to lift their heads.

As the laughter subsided momentarily, Li Jianqing, with red eyes, addressed everyone, "Uncles, aunties, brothers, sisters, who doesn't have siblings? My sister is only fourteen this year, innocent and kind-hearted. She would definitely not elope with someone. Our whole family believes she must have met with misfortune!"

The source of this c𝐨ntent is freeweɓnovēl.coɱ.

Then he pointed towards the courtyard where a wedding was being celebrated and said, "This morning we received a message that the Wang family's Wang Xiwang has kidnapped my sister, so we came here to see if this message is true." As he spoke, tears started streaming down his face: "Fellow villagers, everyone has children, I hope you all can have sympathy for my sister."

At these words, everyone was stunned. Among them, a middle-aged woman with a headwrap looked suspiciously at the Wang family's courtyard and murmured, not too loudly, "No wonder, this fool suddenly wanted to take a wife! Turns out he has kidnapped someone else's fine girl!"

As soon as these words were spoken, the surrounding area buzzed with discussions as everyone began to talk.

Meanwhile, a middle-aged man emerged from the courtyard wearing glasses and looking furious, with seven or eight strapping young men behind him, each holding a thick wooden stick, appearing very threatening.

Seeing this, the crowd hastily cleared a path, allowing the two groups to stand face to face.

The middle-aged man looked at the six young men coldly, a cruel smile lifting the corners of his mouth, "Who sent you here? Do you know how many years you get for defamation?"

This caused a stir among the crowd, and discussion flared up again, with whispers among the crowd, "This Wang Xiwang is in charge of family planning, heard he has as much power as the county head!"

Hearing this, the crowd roared with discussion.

The man called Wang Xiwang, upon hearing the comparisons of his power to that of the county head, merely curved his lips slightly, displaying a smug smile, and did not bother to correct them, becoming even more arrogant.

Qin Family's Fatty snorted and burst into laughter, unable to stop himself, clutching his belly, and pointing at Wang Xiwang in front like he was a clown.

Wang Xiwang's face immediately turned sour as he coldly stared ahead.

Qin Family's Fatty, seeing everyone looking puzzled, explained with a cheeky smile, "Oh folks, let me educate everyone today. Our county government structure generally consists of the Party committee, People's Congress, government, Political Consultative Conference, and Disciplinary Committee, commonly known as 'Five sets of teams.' The family planning is just a small department, how can it be as powerful as the county head? It's laughable indeed, simply responsible for regulating childbirth, how could it be more powerful than the county head!" He finished and burst into loud laughter, as if he was about to choke from laughing.

Upon hearing this, the crowd's look towards Wang Xiwang changed, no longer fearful. After all, how powerful can someone who oversees childbirth be!