The snow has stopped. With such heavy snow, I have something to do in the morning.

Zhang Guoquan picked up the shovel leaning against the wall, pointed it at the entrance of the courtyard and began to shovel the snow, digging out a path that could pass people.

The snow was already up to his knees. Zhang Guoquan had been working all morning, and his body began to sweat slightly.

At this time, Yang Lei was already doing work from door to door.

In winter, even if people are sick, they don’t have to do crops or work everywhere. It’s a rare leisure time in the year.

When people have free time, they always have to find something to do. Women get together to chat about household chores and children. Some discuss the affairs of other people in the village. They inevitably gossip and add jealousy, and things change from word to word.

It tastes bad, but they like this kind of taste.

When men get together, in addition to drinking and bragging, they also play cards and gamble.

There is no way around it. When people have free time, drinking and gambling are inevitable. It is better to bet on a smaller scale, as it will not affect the family.

But as long as there is gambling, there will always be a loser, and I am afraid that the one who plays big will lose half his life, which often puts the whole family into an embarrassing situation.

No one can stop a person who loves to gamble. If you follow him in a hurry, there is nothing you can do against him.

On this day, the village was blocked by heavy snow. The heavy snowfall was a good sign, but early in the morning, something happened that almost killed Yang Lei.

While Zhang Guoquan was shoveling the snow, Yang Lei was going door-to-door to persuade the villagers. It was not going well at first. When the village got electricity, as long as the strong laborers who could mine river sand met the workload, they would be

You will enjoy free lighting time for half a year.

With black and white writing on the paper, signatures and fingerprints, the village committee will definitely keep its word.

Such a promise has indeed tempted many people. They are not willing to go to the river beach to mine river sand for a small salary in the cold weather. They are not willing to do it.

It is said that the village will be electrified in the future, and the lights will be bright, but it will cost money. They are still wary of such unnecessary expenses, but now the party secretary has promised to use half a year's electricity for free. Some people are indeed ready to do it.

.

That's half a year, and they don't want to be idle anymore.

At the beginning, he said a few words of comfort, but they were almost convincing. Yang Lei was extremely happy for the idea proposed by Zhang Guoquan.

When he came to another house, he stopped. It had a low courtyard wall and a dilapidated mud house. This was the home of a second-rate man.

Other people have begun to clear the open space in front of other houses, so that when the weather clears and the snow melts, the door will be muddy and unable to stand.

Only Er Laizi still has thick snow piled up in front of his house. Er Laizi usually spends his time gambling instead of doing serious business.

He bet his father to death, bet his mother-in-law to run away, and run away with the children. However, he did not restrain himself because of this. He felt that he had no worries and no scruples, so he intensified his actions.

Can gambling be a one-person affair? As long as someone gambles with him, it will harm several families and become a nuisance to the village.

I don't know whether he was overjoyed or was dazzled by the victory. Yang Lei actually thought of letting his second-rate son mine river sand, so that he could sleep at home every day and find someone to play cards with when he woke up.

It's better to do something serious than to do something that hurts the family.

He thought so, and with good intentions, he walked through the snow and walked into the yard. There was a native dog tied up in the corner of the yard. He was lying timidly in the corner. When he saw Yang Lei coming in, he also

There was no calling.

As soon as I opened the door of Er Laizi's main room, a strong smell of alcohol hit my face.

The room was pitch dark, the oil in the kerosene lamp had burned out, and the dark light cord was exposed.

The dirty wooden table was covered with greasy vegetable oil. It was probably because it had not been cleaned for many years. The vegetable oil was mixed with a thick layer of mud, making it look dirty.

There were four men lying around the square table, sleeping soundly. It was such a cold day and they didn't have anything to cover them. They were really not afraid of freezing to death.

Needless to say, it must have been another night of playing cards. There was a pile of scattered playing cards under the drained wine bottle on the table, mixed with vegetable oil and spilled white wine, and the playing cards were already soaked.

Yang Lei shook his head helplessly, and when he took two steps forward to wake up a few people, he accidentally kicked a wine bottle, and the sound woke up one of them. His name was Yang Dafu.

Yang Dafu opened his eyes and rubbed them twice. When he saw Yang Lei, he was slightly surprised: "Yang, Party Secretary Yang, why are you here? Come on, have a drink."

Yang Dafu picked up the wine bottle on the table and shook it twice: "Ah, I'm sorry, my brothers drank it all last night."

Yang Lei had no expression on his face: "Dafu, I'm not here to drink. I have something to do with the bastard."

Yang Dafu seemed to have not sobered up yet. He glanced at Yang Lei with drunken eyes, then reached out from under the table leg and kicked the second-rate boy sitting opposite him.

"Hey, bastard, don't sleep, Party Secretary Yang has something to do with you."

The second laizi woke up leisurely with his arms propped up. The remaining two people also woke up when they heard the noise. Yang Lei recognized that one of them was Yang Dafu's younger brother Yang Daqing, and the other was also from Yangjiazhuang, but his surname was not Yang.

, but his surname is Zhao.

The surname Yang is a common surname in Yangjiazhuang and belongs to the original residents. The ancestors named Yang lived on this land.

How many years ago, no one can remember clearly, people fleeing famine came to Yangjiazhuang. The people of Yangjiazhuang were kind and took those people in. After many years, they slowly integrated with the people of Yangjiazhuang and became part of Yangjiazhuang.

elements.

In addition to the big surname Yang, there are also dozens of families with the surname Li, Sun, Zhang, and Wang. Like the family surnamed Zhao, that is the most common surname except the big surname Yang in Yangjiazhuang.

Yes, there are hundreds of households.

On the surface, Yangjiazhuang is peaceful, but secretly, there are many forces competing with each other, and no one is convinced.

The person named Zhao is one of these forces, and this force is not small.

Since they cannot compare with the number of people with the surname Yang, those with the surname Zhao mainly aim to win over people with different surnames in the village, but even then, there are not many.

Moreover, many people with different surnames are honest farmers and do not like to get involved in these things.

Therefore, this force with the surname Zhao set its sights on people like Er Laizi and Yang Dafu. People like Er Laizi are the scourge of Yangjiazhuang, and the surname Yang is also the scourge of people surnamed Yang.

Since there are few of us named Zhao, I will recruit the gamblers and bullies named Yang to harm you people named Yang. Over time, the group of people named Yang will definitely be cannibalized by them step by step.

Gradually, the force named Zhao formed a "black" force because people like Er Laizi joined it.

Yang Lei knew the person named Zhao in front of him. His name was Zhao Chunniu. He was a representative figure of the force named Zhao. He was also the biggest competitor for the two village party secretary candidates. His status and prestige in the village were no less than that of Yang Lei.

.

If it weren't for those old guys like Mr. Yang relying on their prestige to lobby the dozens of representatives who participated in the voting for village party secretary, the village party secretary would probably belong to him, Zhao Chunniu.

Everyone in the village knew that Zhao Chunniu looked down on Yang Lei and was holding on to his will to unseat Yang Lei in the election of the next village party secretary.

Otherwise, he was hot-headed at the time, thinking of trying to influence the second-hand man's mentality, and came to the second-hand man to dig river sand, but Yang Lei didn't expect that Zhao Chunniu was here.

As long as Zhao Chunniu is here, the second-rate scoundrel will have a backer and will never buy into Yang Lei's fault.

It's a good thing that Zhao Chunniu is not here. After all, they all have the surname Yang. A kind and sincere persuasion might help the second-rate son to find his way back.

Even though they were here, Yang Lei couldn't turn around and leave. He said to several people: "It just so happens that you are all here. It saves me having to look around, so I will tell you all together."

The second laizi bared his big yellow teeth and said, "Let me tell you, Party Secretary Yang, what are you going to say? If you want to persuade me to stop playing cards in the future, then I'd better advise you not to talk too much."

Zhao Chunniu was really as strong as a cow and about the same age as Yang Lei. He picked up the cigarette case on the table and knocked it a few times before dropping a cigarette from the empty cigarette case.

As soon as he held it in his mouth, Yang Dafu hurriedly struck a match and lit it for Zhao Chunniu.

Zhao Chunniu tilted his head, took a deep breath, patted Yang Dafu's hands, then folded his arms, and while smoking, he squinted his smoke-stained eyes and looked at Yang Lei without saying a word, just crossing his arms like that.
Chapter completed!