Chapter 342: Chapter 338: 338: Give an Inch, Take a Mile

The pit-digging laborers were employed by Wang Haifeng and disregarded instructions from strangers.

Still, hustling in the city, they knew to be cautious, so they pointed across the road, “Someone over there hired us.”

The two who arrived were temporary workers from the Management Committee, responsible for road land maintenance. After asking across the street, the response they got was that there was no intention to destroy vegetation – people danced square dances there every day, and that activity had a bigger impact on vegetation, right?

When these two heard “square dance,” they guessed what the proprietors intended, but that was not their concern.

The property manager hurried to negotiate after hearing the news, but Xu Lei is resolute in his reply: “You don’t care about others square dancing, but now that I hire someone to dig a few pits, you start nagging. Do you think I’m easy to bully?”

The property management felt helpless; digging pits indeed damaged the land and had a greater impact than square dancing, yet Xu Lei was obviously muddling through. They did not dare to stop him outright and could only mediate.

Xu Lei was adamant: “How big of a deal is it to dig a few pits on this hillside?”

“If you don’t want us to dig, we can negotiate. Just ensure that nobody will dance here in the future.”

How could the property management make such a guarantee? Those old men and women were tough to deal with.

As a couple of square dancers passed by and tried to intervene, the supervisor Gazi shut them down with one sentence: “Is this land purchased by you?”

As for a public exercise area? It truly wasn’t; the designated spot for square dancing wasn’t absent, situated beneath the White Pagoda over four hundred meters away.

Wang Haifeng had no specific requirements for the depth of the pits, and the laborers worked happily. By evening, a hose was dragged from the opposite villa straight into the pits, filling them with water.

The onlooking square dance members were instantly infuriated. Wasn’t this taking things too far? It was downright bullying!

But no matter what they said, the property management knew well that Xu Lei had gone so far as to hire laborers to dig pits, he must be harboring deep resentment, and hence, they didn’t dare let a conflict arise, doing their best to hold them back.

They also promised to coordinate a resolution as quickly as possible.

The villa let loose over ten cubic meters of water, turning the area opposite into a complete mess, leaving not just the pits but even the undug sections a muddy disaster.

Thinking of square dancing here tomorrow morning was out of the question.

Zhou Xiaotong had witnessed this farce from start to finish, and only at the end did she shake her head and scoff, “Such a waste of effort.”

She had stayed outside the entire time without entering Feng Jun’s villa, and the main supervisor of this matter was Gazi.

Gazi had a good impression of Zhou Xiaotong, especially after he learned she had inquired about his nickname in Chaoyang, which made him think even more highly of her.

He had no designs on the girl, knowing full well the vast chasm between them. The noble air she carried was not something he could touch.

Lu Xiaoning also liked beautiful women and harbored his own aspirations, but in his heart, his wildest pursuit was limited to someone like a county television station’s fairy anchor. The idea of having designs on the children of high-ranking people from the capital was beyond his daring.

However, since he had no such lofty hopes, he found it easier to chat with her, “Sister Xiaotong, do you think what we did was meaningless?”

“Gilding the lily. It wasn’t necessary,” Zhou Xiaotong replied disdainfully, curling her lip, “A hose could’ve solved the problem. Why dig pits? Just water it for two hours every night; let’s see how they continue their square dancing.”

“Right, right,” Gazi realized, nodding his head, “just watering is enough, and we don’t need to worry about anyone stopping us… I need to mention this to Brother Jun.”

“Isn’t that a bit improper of you, Xiaoning?” Zhou Xiaotong said with a sly look, “That was my idea, and you’re just going to use it like that? Is that appropriate?”

“Okay then, my bad,” Lu Xiaoning quickly agreed, nodding, “Do I need to compensate you in any way?”n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

Gazi may be straightforward and a stickler for certain points, but he was not a fool. He liked Zhou Xiaotong but was also aware that Feng Jun disapproved of her, so he didn’t want to be in her debt.

Zhou Xiaotong had too many ideas for pranks in her head, and such offhand suggestions weren’t precious to her, so she answered casually, “Ask Feng Jun what to do about my having no place to stay tonight?”

Gazi left and soon returned, “Brother Jun said you could go for a SPA… Sister Xiaotong, what’s a SPA?”

“Go search for it yourself,” Zhou Xiaotong unceremoniously replied and then turned to leave, “I’ll come back tomorrow.”

Watching her walk away, Gazi scratched his head and then cast the matter aside.

That night, he was to try his first Cultivation session, seeking the sensation of Qi; this was his top priority.

But he wasn’t the protagonist; the night sped by in the blink of an eye without him finding the sensation of Qi.

When he arose from his practice at six o’clock, it was essentially the commotion outside that had roused him.

The square dancing crowd finally noticed something was wrong with their dance floor. Then someone suggested it was the neighbors opposite who had caused the damage. After a brief discussion, they simply started dancing on the street.

Sounds unbelievable, doesn’t it? There’s nothing unbelievable about it. When there are many people, they embolden each other. Otherwise, how could there ever be ‘extreme walking groups’ on expressways?

Someone suggested that we shouldn’t occupy the entire road, we should stick to the side near the villas, lest they destroy our exercise spot again!

Most people didn’t care much, but once someone took the lead, others followed. After all, dancing in the middle of the road was quite dangerous and prone to provoke public anger.

When the dancers moved to the front of the villas, the noise level shot up—not to mention Gazi, everyone in the villas woke up, even Li Xiaobin, who enjoyed nightlife and loved to sleep in.

Xu Leigang stood at the entrance to his villa, glaring at the bunch angrily, wishing he could rush out and throw punches and kicks.

However, considering his adversaries were over twenty elderly men and women, and more were constantly arriving, even someone as reckless as him had to think about the consequences—it was really impossible to lay a hand on them.

Of course, he couldn’t lay a hand on them, but he could curse them out, though with the square dance music cranked up so high… you know how that goes.

Some people heard Xu Leigang’s roars, but they pretended not to, and danced even more cheerfully instead.

This scene didn’t just give Fatty Xu a headache—the passing vehicles had to slow down too. There weren’t many residents in the development zone, quite fewer than in the city center, but a lot of people drove cars. Even at six in the morning, you’d see three or four cars passing by every minute.

All these drivers, facing the exuberant middle-aged and elderly dancers, could only reduce speed and drive slowly, honking their horns only on rare occasions.

Even the crows were startled awake, perching in trees and cawing loudly.

Someone in the crowd yelled, “Who has a hunting rifle? Shoot down that damn bird!”

The square dancers were all over fifty, and those who felt affection for crows… were truly few and far between.

Feng Jun walked slowly to the villa, stood in the courtyard motionless, and watched the group with a strange expression on his face.

Before long, Gazi burst out, “Brother Jun, something’s not right here… is someone deliberately targeting us?”

Feng Jun was silent for a while before he cracked a slight smile, “No problem, who’s targeting whom… that’s still up in the air.”

Having said that, he turned around and went back into the villa.

The number of people dancing hit its peak at seven-thirty, nearly reaching fifty.

Many, after finishing dancing, didn’t leave but sat down on the curbside, “Ah, it feels so much better to dance on the road, breaking a sweat… feels refreshing all over.”

Others noticed that the crow had returned to the yard, “Why isn’t that ominous bird fighting with the dogs anymore?”

Perhaps the dogs had sensed something off about the crow because by eight o’clock, there were over thirty people sitting on the curb and at least twenty dogs surrounding the small villa.

Seeing so many dogs, even the crow behaved, staying quietly in the courtyard and not daring to chase them off anymore.

Xu Leigang blew his top again and went looking for the property management to coordinate—if you don’t take care of this, I’ll have to take matters into my own hands.

How could the property management handle such a matter? Nevertheless, they still sent someone to help mediate—which was essentially just muddling along.

Gazi was also becoming enraged. If this were in the county town, blocking someone’s door like this could have led directly to a fight.

While he couldn’t lay hands on them, thinking of Sister Xiaotong’s suggestion yesterday, he attached the hose intending to spray the people outside—no need for hands, just a cold shower for all in early February.

He didn’t think his idea was wrong. In Chaoyang, such tactics were considered mild.

Sister Xiaotong came over early in the morning, seemingly out of boredom.

But her timing was perfect. Seeing Gazi ready to turn on the water, she hurried to stop him, “Hey, hey, don’t mess around.”

She inevitably had to explain when she saw his confusion: this is Zhengyang, not Chaoyang. If you spray someone with cold water and they catch a cold or get sick, you’re going to have a lawsuit on your hands.

Indeed, that’s the difference between big cities and small county towns. In small towns, everyone judges who’s right and wrong, and those who are wrong face public criticism. But in big cities, people sue each other at the drop of a hat.

After hearing this explanation, Gazi reluctantly put away the hose, still muttering to himself, “These big city folks are too sensitive. Back in Chaoyang, if you dared block my door, you’d have to first consider whether you’re tough enough.”

Let’s not even talk about the chaos. Sister Tong watched for a while before suddenly asking, “Why isn’t Feng Jun coming out?”

“He’s gone out,” Gazi didn’t hide it from her, “He might not come back today, do you want to come in and sit for a while?”

Lu Xiaoning was a very simple person, and the people from Chaoyang treat their guests well, not leaving them out in the yard. At the very least, they would invite them into the house and serve some tea or whatever.

With Feng Jun around, Gazi didn’t want to make decisions on his own, knowing Brother Jun didn’t quite see eye to eye with her. But now that Brother Jun was out, as a quasi-host, inviting a guest into the room didn’t seem inappropriate.

(Update ends here, calling for monthly votes.)