Dou Baoguo had just washed his face in Zhao Qingzhu’s shack when a group of loggers flooded in.
They had worked for ten days, fought, and gone on strike. This logging job was a real roller-coaster. But for these ordinary men, the whole point of leaving their families to come up the mountain was to earn money.
Now, it seemed earning money had become a pipe dream. So, the loggers wanted to at least get paid for the days they had worked.
However, the Forest Farm only tallied and settled accounts for the contract loggers at each Logging Camp around the 24th or 25th of the month, with wages being paid out around the 10th of the following month, along with the official Forest Farm employees.
These loggers had only started trickling in after the 25th of last month. This month’s 25th was still a long way off, but they couldn’t just walk away from ten days of hard-earned wages.
As luck would have it, a top leader was right here. There was no way these loggers were going to let Dou Baoguo just leave.
"Fellow workers!" Afraid of getting beaten up again, Dou Baoguo quickly raised a hand to gesture to the crowd of loggers. "Your Leader signed a contract with the Forest Farm. You can all keep working here with peace of mind! Keep at it until the day the road is finished!"
The scoundrel wasn’t wrong. Zhao Qingzhu did have a contract with the Forest Farm, so if the loggers wanted to keep working, they could.
But they had beaten up four inspectors. Now that their backer had fallen, it would be a miracle if they didn’t face retaliation later.
After placating the loggers, Dou Baoguo got up to leave. Zhao Qingzhu and Niu Guoliang followed to see him out of the shack.
But as soon as he stepped out of the shack, Dou Baoguo was dumbfounded again.
’Zhou Chunming!’ Dou Baoguo ground his teeth, cursing him inwardly. This morning, after his meeting with Zhou Chunming, he had come out of the office to find his private car gone.
Dou Baoguo had his secretary call the motor pool, who said the car had been dispatched elsewhere.
Li Chaoyun then called dispatch, but the person who answered, Wu Feng, just gave him the runaround, never clarifying where the car had been reassigned.
Dou Baoguo knew right away that this was definitely Zhou Chunming’s doing, a little trick to trip him up. But feeling he held the winning hand, Dou Baoguo had climbed into Zhou Chunming’s car without a second thought.
Now, Dou Baoguo remembered what Zhou Chunming had said earlier—that there was a meeting at two o’clock this afternoon, and he would have to make a self-criticism.
He glanced around and hurriedly said to Zhao Qingzhu, "Quick, get me a horse-drawn cart to take me back!"
"Huh?" Zhao Qingzhu froze for a moment. When he came to his senses, he said to Niu Guoliang, "Liangzi, hurry up and bring the cart over."
"Well..." Niu Guoliang said, "Brother-in-law, we’re on strike today. The horses aren’t hitched!"
It wasn’t just Niu Guoliang; none of the loggers in their crew had hitched their carts today.
This was what Dou Baoguo himself had arranged. But now, hearing this, Dou Baoguo flung his arm and roared, "Then go hitch one now!"
...
As Dou Baoguo was about to leave the Logging Camp’s main gate in the horse-drawn cart, he happened to cross paths with Zhao Jun, who was coming out of Elder Yang’s shack to use the latrine.
"Well, well!" Seeing Dou Baoguo in a horse-drawn cart, Zhao Jun grinned. "Farm Director Dou, are you out here experiencing the life of the common folk? Swapped your big-ass jeep for a horse cart!"
"Hmph!" Dou Baoguo glared at Zhao Jun and said coldly, "Zhao Jun, you just wait. I’ll be back!"
"Heh..." Hearing this, Zhao Jun just chuckled, paid Dou Baoguo no more mind, and went straight into the outhouse.
Watching Zhao Jun’s retreating back, Dou Baoguo was so angry his cheeks trembled. After a long moment, he turned his head and said to Niu Guoliang, "Let’s go! Now!"
"Giddy-up! Yah!" Niu Guoliang cracked the whip, and the cart drove off.
...
Early the next morning, as a jeep pulled up and slowly came to a stop in front of the Forest Farm office building, Zhou Chunming was already waiting there with the Forest Management Director and a few other directors.
The car door opened, and Director Chu got out. He shook hands with Zhou Chunming and the others one by one, but then glanced around before asking Zhou Chunming, "Elder Zhou, where’s Dou Baoguo? He called me the day before yesterday and said he was going to show me your new Logging Camp and the new road."
"Director Chu." Zhou Chunming took a step forward and said in a low voice, "Dou Baoguo is at home."
"What?" Director Chu was taken aback. He said urgently, "He’s the one who invited me, but he’s at home? What’s that supposed to mean?"
"He couldn’t make it," Zhou Chunming said, gesturing toward the office building. As he invited Director Chu inside, he added, "Director Chu, let’s go into the office first. We can talk things over slowly."
Ten minutes later, an enraged Director Chu slammed his hand on the table and shot to his feet. "This Dou Baoguo is completely out of line!" he roared. "All he talks about is increasing production and supporting the construction of the Divine Land! But look at what he’s actually been doing! What kind of mess is this?"
"Indeed!" the Forest Management Director chimed in from the side, both kicking Dou Baoguo while he was down and shifting blame. "That Dou Baoguo is a glory hound. He says all the right things, but his heart is in the wrong place!"
Hearing this, Director Chu fell silent for a moment. He then looked up and asked Zhou Chunming, "Regarding this Dou Baoguo, how does your Forest Farm plan to handle him?"
"Well..." Zhou Chunming said, looking troubled. "Director Chu, as you know, although he’s been at our Forest Farm for a while, his official file was only transferred over last month. It hasn’t even been a full month since he officially started, and now this..."
Zhou Chunming trailed off, not saying any more. Dou Baoguo had been sent down from the bureau. He’d only been here a few months, and if the Forest Farm were to fire him, it would be difficult to explain to their superiors.
People who didn’t know the full story might think Zhou Chunming was building his own little kingdom at the Forest Farm and couldn’t tolerate outsiders.
"Sigh!" Director Chu sighed and shook his head in frustration. "This really is a tricky situation." He then pointed at Zhou Chunming and said, "Keeping him at home for now is the right move. When I get back, I’ll call a meeting to discuss this. We’ll figure out how to deal with him then."