Chapter 31: Taking Responsibility

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Li Qi’s mind was somewhat dazed.

Having lived in a later era, he had at least a vague understanding of the medals issued by the Ministry of Public Security. A Third-Class Heroic Model Medal was generally awarded only within the system.

Very few were ever given to ordinary citizens.

He had never imagined that he himself would receive one.

Just how much influence did the old woman Qiu Shuyun, whom he had saved, actually possess?

Xu Tiesheng saw through Li Qi’s thoughts at a glance and lowered his voice.

“Don’t assume this is all because of Auntie Qiu’s connections. In fact, the people in that van were connected to a major illegal-mining case. If you hadn’t provided the clue, they might well have escaped this time.”

A thunderclap seemed to explode inside Li Qi’s mind.

The key words had triggered something, and his memories came surging back like a river.

The illegal-mining case in Taihe City, with Niuxin Town as its most notorious example.

Five small coal pits deep in the mountains were involved. Over the course of several years, their owners—five men led by the notorious Four Dragons—had purchased more than three hundred illegal miners from other regions. They deceived the men with promises of high-paid mining work, only to have them illegally imprisoned once they arrived.

The miners lived each day without seeing sunlight, forced to dig coal underground for years on end. The slightest resistance was met with fists and kicks.

They were paid not a single cent, and even their food was rationed to the barest minimum.

It could be said that the blood and tears of those more than three hundred miners had purchased the extravagant lives enjoyed by the owners of the pits, Four Dragons and the others.

Worse still, when miners fell ill, the owners refused to treat them. At most, they tossed them a few random pills. If an illness became serious enough to affect their work, the miner would simply be buried alive.

Such horrifying crimes had actually taken place in an era that had already entered the period of reform and opening up.

In his previous life, the illegal-mining case had never been solved. It was not until roughly two years later that the more than one hundred miners who were still alive were finally rescued.

He had also heard that two reporters from the provincial press had once disguised themselves as miners and risked their lives to enter one of the pits in an attempt to expose the truth. They had subsequently vanished without a trace.

The timing seemed to match the moment when those two provincial reporters arrived in Taihe City.

Li Qi’s memories were interrupted by the racket made by the Gao family.

Led by Diao Xiaojiao, the members of the Gao family could no longer suppress their grievance and confusion.

“Comrades from the Public Security Bureau, great officials who uphold justice! What are you doing? This boy beat one of our people and extorted money from us. How can you still give him a certificate and a medal? Are you trying to bully ordinary people like us to death?”

Diao Xiaojiao was sobbing so hard that tears and mucus ran down her face. She had originally intended to retract her agreement after Li Qi signed the letter of forgiveness, then turn the tables and demand some of the money back.

But when she saw the certificate and medal in Li Qi’s hands, even she, reckless as she was, did not dare move.

These were no longer things that ordinary commoners like them could touch.

Xu Tiesheng could not be bothered to deal with the shrew, much less explain anything to them. He waved his hand and ordered the policemen to drive the Gao family out of the station.

Li Qi put away the certificate and medal, then raised the embroidered banner high and handed it to Xu Tiesheng.

Xu Tiesheng beamed with delight and hung the banner inside his office.

He chatted with Li Qi for a few more minutes about ordinary household matters, focusing particularly on what Li Qi intended to do in the future. Only then did he personally escort Li Qi and Li Mantang out of the station together with Liang Bing.

Li Qi told Li Mantang to go home first while he went to the savings office to deposit the money.

What he did not know was that, in a small alley not far from the police station, several people were standing and watching. At their head was Wang Fuliang, a huge, broad-shouldered man with a face full of coarse flesh. He was watching Li Qi’s departing back.

Only after Li Qi had gone some distance did Wang Fuliang turn around and look at the pale-faced, sharp-featured young man standing behind him.

The young man’s eyes and brows bore a striking resemblance to Du Li. He was her younger brother, Du Ming.

Wang Fuliang said viciously, “This is the useless little punk you told me about—the one you said I could twist around my finger and beat whenever I pleased.

“Your sister said I should break one of his legs and make him obedient from then on. She’d give me five hundred yuan afterward.

“Did you see that? The man who just held his hand and personally walked him out was Xu Tiesheng, the director of the town police station.

“When Director Xu frowns, I and every one of my brothers will end up spending ten or fifteen days in jail.

“You call this a useless little punk?

“Who gave you the nerve to make a fool of me like this?

“You’re a damn firecracker blowing up in someone’s backside—playing with your life as if it were a joke!”

The angrier Wang Fuliang became, the harder he struck. He slammed a massive punch into Du Ming’s face. Blood immediately burst from Du Ming’s nose and mouth, and he crouched on the ground, covering his lips.

Still unsatisfied, Wang Fuliang raised his foot and launched into a flurry of kicks.

Du Ming shrank into the corner, wrapping his arms over his head for protection as he begged without pause, “Brother Fuliang, please spare me! It was all my sister’s idea. I truly didn’t know he had such powerful connections.

“Please stop hitting me. I know I was wrong. I’ll never dare do it again.”

Wang Fuliang kicked him several more times, leaving the boy’s head covered in shoe prints. Only then did the rage in his heart subside somewhat.

He said coldly, “If you hadn’t been clever a few days ago—stopping an illegal miner who was trying to escape from the mountains and bringing him to me, which made Brother Four Dragons very happy—today’s matter would never end so easily.

“Now get lost!”

As though granted a pardon, Du Ming scrambled away on hands and knees, crying and cursing as he went to settle accounts with his sister, Du Li.

Wang Fuliang’s face was dark enough to drip water.

Li Qi. Again, Li Qi.

A few days earlier, that slut Liu Yuting had claimed she could squeeze twenty thousand yuan out of Li Qi. Wang Fuliang had spent more than an hour crouching outside in the dead of winter, freezing so badly that he had wet himself, and in the end had not gotten a single benefit from it.

Although Liu Yuting had obediently served him for half the night afterward, using every position and trick imaginable, the fire in his heart had still not been fully extinguished.

And now this fellow was evidently on such familiar terms with the director of the town police station.

What was he carrying?

A certificate—and a small box. Was that a medal?

What right did a petty delinquent, an unemployed loafer who had dropped out after junior high, have to receive a medal from the police station?

Having someone like this remain in Niuxin Town might not be a good thing.

Brother Four Dragons and the owners of the other small coal pits had made the mountains as impenetrable as an iron barrel. Outsiders could not get in at all, but if someone inside leaked information, things would become difficult to control.

With that thought, he and several of his men mounted their motorcycles and sped toward the illegal coal pits.

At that moment, Li Qi had no idea that he had already attracted the attention of Wang Fuliang, the town’s notorious local thug.

After depositing ten thousand yuan, he was filled with delight.

That was enough to buy two stalls!

In roughly eight years, those stalls would bring him a stable annual rental income of more than two hundred thousand yuan.

He wondered how large a bonus the mine would give him. If it reached three thousand yuan, then together with the two thousand or so he already had, he would be able to buy another stall.

Wasn’t life getting better already?

After tucking away his passbook, Li Qi headed home.

But his mind had begun dredging up every report and memory he possessed concerning illegal miners.

In his previous life, the mining disaster had not been prevented. It occurred right on schedule, after which the crackdown began.

Even so, the small coal pits in Niuxin Town continued operating for nearly two years before they were gradually shut down.

That alone showed how astonishing the profits were, and how formidable the forces behind the pits must have been.

It was only then, after efforts from many sides, that the illegal miners kept captive there were finally able to see the light of day again.

Li Qi had no intention of becoming a hero, even with a Third-Class Heroic Model Medal in his hands.

He knew all too well how utterly deranged the owners of those illegal coal pits were, with Four Dragons at their head.

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He had a classmate named Ren Yingcai whose particular business was supplying controlled weapons to the illegal coal pits.

Whenever large-scale armed clashes broke out in the mountains over control of the mines, Ren Yingcai would ride his motorcycle up there carrying one or two large sacks filled with all kinds of terrifying blades.

Not to mention the guards who stayed in the mountains year-round. In their hands were old muzzleloaders, I-shaped air rifles, saw-bored rifles secretly purchased from Inner Mongolia, and single-barreled hunting guns.

No one dared recklessly venture into the mountains occupied by those several illegal pits.

Even so, Li Qi still wanted to try to intercept the two reporters from the provincial press.

According to later reports, the two reporters should only just have arrived in Taihe City at this point. There might still be time.

With that thought, Li Qi simply sat beneath a large tree by the roadside, his mind spinning like a computer.

One piece of information after another was extracted, then discarded.

He thought for more than an hour, but achieved nothing.

There was simply too little relevant reporting. Later, the only mention he had seen was in a provincial newspaper, which said that two reporters had arrived in Taihe City at this time and later disappeared.

In the end, their remains were excavated from Four Dragons’ coal pit, and both men were posthumously awarded a provincial-level Distinguished Contribution Medal.

As for Four Dragons, despite committing such enormous crimes, he was sentenced to death with a reprieve.

He ultimately spent more than twenty years in prison before being released.

Although Li Qi sighed inwardly at these events, he knew there was nothing he could do to alter them.

He recalled the names of the two reporters: Tian Miao and Li Shi.

With no other leads for the moment, Li Qi got up and went home.

When he reached the entrance, he discovered that the main gate had been replaced with a brand-new wooden door and could not help stopping in surprise.

Was this really his house?

He had only been gone for two days, yet his eldest sister had already tidied the courtyard until it was immaculate. Even the filthy plastic sheeting outside the windows had been replaced with new material, nailed up neatly and evenly.

Inside, the greasy, dirt-stained curtain had been washed clean. The stove, once thick with grime, now gleamed. The windows were bright, the room spotless—so clean it was almost shocking.

Li Qi’s eyes instantly filled with tears.

Long live his hardworking, capable eldest sister!

Now this was a place fit for human habitation.

Unfortunately, his good mood lasted less than a minute.

His eldest sister, busy preparing food in the kitchen, gestured with her eyes to indicate that guests had arrived.

When Li Qi entered the inner room, he saw several people standing there.

He recognized them at once: his paternal uncle Li Manjiang and his daughter, Li Tianzhen. What surprised him was the exceptionally graceful and imposing middle-aged woman standing beside Li Manjiang. She was presumably his wife, Wang Yue.

This woman was formidable. Although she held a position in the Organization Department, she had established several companies in the name of her eldest brother. Relying on the financial authority wielded by her husband, she had secured numerous municipal construction projects.

She did not undertake the projects herself. Instead, she subcontracted them and pocketed a pure profit of twenty percent.

The money was not taken for nothing. Any project subcontracted through her required no concern over later inspections or payments; she would personally coordinate the necessary relationships.

That was why the wealthy contractors who paid her were not resentful in the slightest. On the contrary, they competed to work with her. Some even voluntarily surrendered an additional share of their profits, asking only to maintain good relations with her.

It could be said that most of the Li family’s wealth had been earned by this woman.

In his previous life, this woman had never appeared at all. Perhaps she had felt that Li Qi’s family was too insignificant to warrant her presence.

Behind Wang Yue stood an elderly man. His features bore some resemblance to those of Li Qi’s father and his paternal uncle, Li Manjiang. Li Qi thought carefully for a moment before realizing that he was supposed to address the man as Third Granduncle, an elder from their ancestral village.

Uncle Manjiang truly had not given up. He had brought an elder to seize the moral high ground and force Li Qi to donate a kidney.

Sure enough, the instant Li Qi entered, Li Tianzhen spoke displeasedly.

“Why are you injured again? All you know how to do is cause trouble. Can’t you behave yourself for once?

“If your injury delays the transplant operation and something happens to my brother, can you bear the responsibility?”

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