Chapter Seventy-Five: The Model Couple

“We’re finished!”
Li Dabiao’s wife, Sister Zhang, gave him a swift kick on the backside.
“Why did you kick me?”
Li Dabiao looked a bit aggrieved.
“Why? Didn’t you say that if we took their ignition handle, they wouldn’t be able to drive the truck? But look, their truck’s already out of the village—what do you say to that?”
Sister Zhang pointed at the Liberation truck disappearing in the distance, wishing she could swallow Li Dabiao whole.
“Wife, I… I didn’t expect this either.”
Li Dabiao stared blankly at the departing truck, then suddenly slapped his thigh. “How could I forget!”
“What could you possibly remember?”
Sister Zhang smacked him hard on the back of the head.
“So what do we do now?”
“What else can we do? Let’s go back for now. At least we know where they’re getting their grain. When we get home, we’ll bring some money and buy up the millet too. I don’t believe that Xu Fei can outdo my second uncle!”
Li Dabiao nodded repeatedly.
Let’s set aside what happened after they left Xiaozhang Village.
Meanwhile, Xu Fei and Village Chief Zhang visited several nearby villages.
With much effort and persuasion, Village Chief Zhang helped them collect just under fifteen thousand jin of millet.
“We’re still five thousand short.”
Village Chief Zhang glanced at the sky. “It’s noon already. Let’s go back and eat first. This afternoon, I’ll take you to some farther villages.”
Xu Fei looked ahead.
The township was just up ahead, and there was a restaurant there.
“No need to keep running back and forth. Let’s eat at the restaurant.”
So An Laosan drove them to a small restaurant called “Welcome Inn.”
The place was modest, with only three tables inside.
The owner was a rotund man in his forties,
accompanied by a wife more than ten years his junior.
She was a strikingly refined woman.
When Village Chief Zhang entered, the woman greeted them with a smile, her eyes lingering on Xu Fei’s face for a few moments.
“Do you know me?”
Xu Fei teased her.
“No, but weren’t you the one who came to Xiaozhang Village a few times to buy millet?”
Xu Fei was taken aback.
“That’s right.”
“Word about you has spread all over the township.”
Xu Fei smiled and shook his head.
“Zhang Ying, go tell Er Fatty to cook up some proper dishes.”
“So, is Chief Zhang treating today?”
Village Chief Zhang nodded with a smile.
Xu Fei quickly said, “Chief, don’t be polite with me. This meal is on me.”
He stood up and walked over to the counter.
“Madam, I’ll give you the money now. If there’s any left over, you can return it; if it’s not enough, I’ll make it up.”
“Oh, you…”
Village Chief Zhang waved to the proprietress from his table. “Zhang Ying, don’t take his money.”
“It’s fine, Chief. If he wants to treat you, don’t refuse.”

Zhang Ying accepted the fifty yuan with a smile.
“By the way, are you from Donghai?”
Xu Fei nodded with a smile.
“I want to ask about someone.”
“Who?”
“Do you know Xu Fei?”
“Hm?”
Xu Fei glanced at her. “Why do you ask? Do you know him?”
Zhang Ying shook her head. “I don’t.”
“Then why ask?”
“My cousin came back from Donghai yesterday and borrowed money from us, saying she had to repay Xu Fei.”
“Your cousin? Is her name Yang Liping?”
Zhang Ying froze.
“You—you know my cousin?”
Xu Fei smiled and nodded. “I am Xu Fei.”
“What?!”
Zhang Ying promptly shouted toward the kitchen, “Er Fatty, come out here, quickly!”
“What’s the matter? I’m busy!”
Er Fatty called back from the kitchen.
“Oh, just leave it! Come out, come guess who this is!”
Er Fatty reluctantly emerged, wiping his hands on his apron as he looked at Xu Fei. “Isn’t this the guy who came in with Chief Zhang? What’s going on?”
Zhang Ying pulled Er Fatty over. “This is Xu Fei, the man who did our sister a huge favor and saved Maomao’s life!”
“What?!”
Er Fatty was stunned too.
He stepped forward with a big grin and gripped Xu Fei’s hand. “Benefactor! So it really is you!”
As the three of them spoke,
An Laosan and Village Chief Zhang came over as well.
“What’s going on, benefactor? What’s the story, Er Fatty?”
Zhang Ying then recounted to Village Chief Zhang and the others what had happened a few days prior at Donghai Second Hospital.
“Xu Fei, I’m truly surprised! Good people like you are rare these days.”
Village Chief Zhang praised him.
An Laosan patted Xu Fei’s shoulder with a laugh.
Xu Fei looked genuinely bewildered.
“Wait—you’re surnamed Er, so how are you Yang Liping’s brother?”
Er Fatty chuckled. “My surname isn’t actually Er; it’s Yang. I’m the second child in the family. I have an elder sister—Yang Liping.”
So that’s how it was.
Er Fatty’s real name was Yang Chao. Because of his cooking skills, he married into Zhang Ying’s family as a live-in son-in-law.
His sister, Yang Liping, remained in Yangshugangzi.
After her child’s surgery was successful, she rushed over to borrow money from her only brother to repay her debt.
In recent years, Zhang Ying and her husband had earned some money running the restaurant.
They gave Yang Liping twelve hundred yuan.
“My sister just left this morning. If she knew her benefactor was here, she’d never have left.”
Xu Fei hadn’t anticipated this.
“Actually, I told her there was no hurry about the money, she just…”
“My sister is quick-tempered—she can’t stand owing anyone anything. By the way, benefactor, what brings you here?”

Xu Fei explained the purpose of his visit.
“You’re buying millet? Why didn’t you say so earlier? In Yangshugangzi, if there’s one thing we have, it’s millet.”
“Really?!”
Yang Chao glanced at Zhang Ying. “Wife, I’ll go prepare the food. We’ll close the restaurant this afternoon—I’ll take our benefactor to the village to buy millet.”
“Alright, go ahead.”
Both husband and wife were straightforward people. Yang Chao went into the kitchen to cook,
and Zhang Ying closed the restaurant.
The couple sat down to eat with Xu Fei.
After a short rest,
Village Chief Zhang said his car was full and returned to his village.
Yang Chao then took Xu Fei and the others straight to Yangshugangzi.
The journey was uneventful.
True to its name, Yangshugangzi was surrounded by poplars, with about a hundred households.
Upon entering the village,
Yang Chao headed straight to the village office.
All the villagers were surnamed Yang; the village chief was a man in his fifties.
After introductions,
the chief, who had already heard that Xiaozhang Village had sold a lot of millet recently but didn’t know how, was delighted.
He made an announcement over the loudspeaker.
Soon enough,
over a dozen households gathered at the village entrance, each bringing several hundred to over a thousand jin.
In this way,
they quickly collected another ten thousand jin.
Xu Fei thought it over.
He didn’t want the villagers to take any back,
so he bought it all.
Twenty-five thousand jin.
As for the money,
Yang Chao vouched for him, and Xu Fei promised to bring it in the next few days.
The village chief agreed.
And so,
Xu Fei and An Laosan loaded up the twenty-five thousand jin of millet
and headed home.
Everything seemed to be going according to Xu Fei’s plan.
Except—
he had overlooked one thing:
Li Dabiao and his wife, who had once stolen their ignition handle.