Zhu Lijia was just at the east end of the town, walking down Meihua Highway and then down to Huaxi Village's village road, it took only seven or eight minutes to arrive. It was a three-story small Western-style building with bright lights, from afar you could tell that this little building had an extraordinary air about it.

  On the way, Li Feng briefly introduced Zhu Li's situation to Shen Hua.

  Zhu Li is from Meixi Town, and in the early 1980s was the manager of the Municipal Construction Company. In the late 1980s, he caught the first wave of entrepreneurial fervor and left his job to return to Meixi Town, where he contracted with the town's construction station, pulled together a team to take on projects, and became one of the earliest wealthy individuals in Meixi Town.

  If Zhu Li hadn't fallen heavily on the ground in front of the Zhen Cultural Station building, his family might not be half a bit worse off than those of Chu Yi Liang and Pan Shi Gui.

  There was no need for Li Feng to elaborate, Shen Huai could imagine some of the situation.

  At first, when building the Cultural Station Building, Zhu Li almost invested three million yuan.

  Zhu Li didn't have a net worth of 30 million at that time, and part of the funds should have been borrowed from ordinary people, but he just didn't expect this project to drag him down.

  In 1993, suffering from inflation, the official interest rate for private enterprises to borrow from banks was as high as 16%, while folk borrowing usually had an interest rate of 2% or 2.5% per month, or even higher.

  The town still owes Zhu Li over 18 million, and even if He Qingze agrees to increase the annual repayment amount to 2 million afterwards, this 2 million is still far from enough to pay the interest.

  Zhu Li planted a big tree on the Cultural Station building, and later voluntarily gave up the contract for the construction. He didn't have a good attitude towards the town leaders, even harboring resentment, which is not hard to understand.

  Shen Huai wanted to stop the car by the side of the road, and they walked along the path towards the inside.

  "This Zhu Li is still pretty good, he was quite generous in his early years, and the sandstone road in the village was built with his money." Li Feng has been working in Meixi Town for many years, just like He Qing She, and is very familiar with the situation in Meixi Town.

  As I walked closer and passed through the glass spring door, I saw that the hall downstairs was packed with people.

  Li Feng smiled wryly, knowing that at the end of the year, those who sat in Zhu Li's house were all debt collectors. At this time, he accompanied Shen Huai to find Zhu Li, which was self-inflicted suffering, and it was likely that he would be entangled by these creditors of Zhu Li.

  "That fat guy is Zhu Li." Li Feng pointed at the middle-aged fat man with a bitter expression, squeezing out a smile as he spoke to the creditors.

  Shen Hua thought that Zhu Li should be like Chu Yiliang, both being dignified and extraordinary entrepreneurs, but he didn't expect him to be a slovenly-looking fat man.

  Li Feng didn't dare to directly bring Shen Huai into the main house, seeing a woman's shadow in the west wing room, knowing it was Zhu Lijia's wife, pulling Shen Huai towards there and softly calling out: "Zhu Lijia's family, I am Li Feng from the town..."

  The room fell silent for a moment, as if two women were whispering inside. Shen Hua didn't hear clearly, he wanted to walk over and knock on the door, trying to show more sincerity, but unexpectedly, the door suddenly opened, and a basin of water splashed out with a "splash".

  Shen Huan couldn't dodge, and was splashed right in the face. From head to toe, he looked like a drowned rat, standing there stupidly. It wasn't so much that the sudden splash of water caught Shen Huan off guard, but rather it was Zhu Yi, standing at the door with the foot basin, who left him speechless.

  Shen Huai stood there in a daze, unable to understand why the world was so small.

  Perhaps even if he was given a hundred days to mentally prepare, he would not have thought that he would be in Meixi Town, and under such circumstances, call Zhu Yi to pour a large basin of foot-washing water.

  ***********

  Li Feng did not know the stormy waves in Shen Huan's heart, he just saw Shen Huan being splashed with a basin of water and standing there stunned, whoever would be caught off guard by such a sudden move.

  Li Feng saw Zhu Li's daughter holding a foot basin at the door, and he couldn't help but be shocked too. Seeing her bare feet in slippers, he could completely understand that the girl had splashed out washing water on him. He was so angry that he wanted to go up and slap her. What the hell is this?

  Li Fengqiang suppressed the anger in his heart, and when he saw Zhu Li's wife standing in the room, he knew it was this woman who had instructed her daughter to pour that basin of water. He burst into a loud scolding: "You've eaten wolf's medicine, what kind of madness is this?"

  Li Feng knew that Shen Hua had taken the blame for him, but he would rather take it himself than let Shen Hua get away with it. Huang Xinliang and Chu Qiang, who were accompanying him, also jumped in fright.

  Li Feng didn't care about alarming the landlord, he walked to the other side of the main room and kicked the door with a "bang bang" sound, pointing at Zhu Li through the door and scolding loudly: "**Zhu Baozi, get out here! If I don't strip your skin off today, my surname isn't Li."

  Zhu Li still didn't know what had happened, opened the door and ran out, saw Li Feng standing outside with the town's party committee director, and a young man who was drenched from head to toe, didn't know who it was, but seeing Li Feng's furious expression, even if the basin of water hadn't been poured on his head, he knew he had been provoked.

  "Sorry, sorry, we were sitting in the main room, didn't you hear us calling out to open the door?" Zhu Li was also dissatisfied with Li Feng, although he didn't know who the young man Li Feng had splashed water on was, but as long as it was a town official, he would have liked to splash a basin of foot-washing water at him too. He just couldn't make things look too ugly on the surface, so he scolded his daughter, "How come you don't have eyes, can't you see if there's anyone outside when splashing water?"

  "Zhū Pàngzi, your mom is blind!" Li Fēng furiously rushed over, bumping against Zhū Lì's shoulder and violently pushing him towards the wall corner. "I yelled out to open the door, and this basin of water splashed out - wasn't it intentional?" Grabbing onto Zhū Lì's collar, he was itching to punch him a couple of times.

  The creditors all came out to watch the excitement, and several from Mei Xi Town saw that Deputy Secretary Li Feng of the Party Committee was going to hit Zhu Li, so they quickly stepped in to mediate, with Chu Yiliang also intervening.

  Chu Yiliang saw that the one who had been drenched from head to toe was actually Shen Hua, and his son Chu Qiang also followed Shen Hua, Li Feng, and Huang Xinliang over. Knowing that Zhu Lijia had gotten into big trouble this time, he hurried over to mediate, asking: "Secretary Shen, how did you and Secretary Li end up here?"

  "Chu... General Chu, why are you also here?" Shen Huai's upper body was completely soaked, and he didn't know if it was the chilling cold or the unexpected encounter with Zhu Yi in this situation that left him so shocked, his words couldn't help but tremble.

  Shen Huai asked him why he was at Zhu Baozi's house at night, and Chu Yiliang also felt a bit awkward.

  Chu Yiliang is also Zhu Li's creditor, who borrowed 300,000 yuan from him in the early years and has not returned it yet. 300,000 yuan is not a small number, Chu Yiliang can generously donate 100,000 yuan to the town, but he will not let 300,000 yuan go down the drain with Zhu Baozi.

  Chu Yiliang rubbed his nose and replied to Shen Huai's question.

  "Zhu Pangzi owes me 300,000 yuan. No matter whether he can pay it back or not, he will come to collect debts by the end of the year," Chu Yiliang looked at Shen Huai so wretchedly, pulled Zhu Li's collar and dragged him over, scolding, "Zhu Pangzi, this is the newly appointed Secretary Shen of Meixi Town. What did you do wrong to him that your daughter poured a basin of water on him?"

  Zhu Li was also stunned, never expecting that this young man would be the newly appointed Party Secretary of Meixi Town. Although he had been working outside on projects for many years, he still knew something about the strong-willed Party Secretary of Meixi Town.

  "Secretary Shen just found out about the Cultural Station building today, and despite being busy with disaster relief work for two days and one night without sleep, he insisted on pulling me over to help you solve this problem. He also said that he hopes to continue entrusting the town's engineering projects to you. This broken thing at the Cultural Station is Du Jian's dirty fart, and you have the guts to splash this foot-washing water on Du Jian's head; your mother is blind, Secretary Shen came over voluntarily to help you solve the problem, and you splashed a basin of foot-washing water on Secretary Shen." Li Feng was also furious, pointing at Zhu Li's fat face and scolding loudly, venting his grievances towards Du Jian as well.

  Li Feng spilled the beans about the night visit, and Zhu Li knew he was in trouble. This was no longer just a matter of offending the town secretary. The other party had originally come to solve the problem with good intentions, but now that the foot-washing water had been poured away, not only would the problem not be solved, but the town would also withhold his 18 million yuan in engineering funds from then on, and he would have no recourse.

  Thinking of the consequences of this disaster, it's likely to be a family broken and people dead. Zhu Li was also anxious, repeatedly saying sorry to Shen Huai, anxiously wanting to kneel down, seeing his daughter still foolishly standing at the west gate, with a fiery temper, rushing over to grab the troublemaking daughter and beat her twice, to appease Shen Huai and Li Feng.

  Shen Huai grabbed Zhu Li, he didn't touch him, but thought to himself that it was no wonder Zhu Yi splashed the basin of foot-washing water on him. He looked at Zhu Yi with complex emotions.

  Zhu Yi only came back to her senses when her father rushed over to grab her, and she hastily threw down the foot basin, turned around and went upstairs. It seemed that looking at Shen Hua again made her feel disgusted. Seeing his daughter being so willful, Zhu Li was even more angry and resentful, and he scolded his wife: "Look at how you've spoiled her, it's all gone to her head!" In his heart, he was worried that if his daughter continued with this attitude, Shen Hua and Li Feng would be furious and vent their anger on him.

  Li Feng was so angry that he couldn't help it, and although he didn't lose control to the point of scolding Zhu Li's daughter, he had no good temper towards Zhu Li either. If not for being held back by others, he really wanted to go up and slap him hard a couple of times.

  The foot washing water was originally warm, and it didn't feel cold when it was just poured on the body. Standing outside for a while, Shen Huan's whole body was chilled to the bone. He knew that Zhu Yi had also recognized him, and her shocked and resentful gaze as she turned around made Shen Huan feel very uncomfortable in his heart.

  If it weren't for those annoying things before, she might still be a naive and innocent little girl, being admired and pursued by many boys, living a simple and happy school life.

  Shen Huai pressed down on Li Feng's shoulder, wanting to calm him down, but his body was frozen with rage, his teeth chattering as he trembled, unable to speak a word.

  Huang Xinliang and Chu Qiang still felt that Shen Hua was not quite right, so they quickly supported him into the house. Seeing the heater in the room, Chu Yiliang hurriedly brought it over to blow hot air on Shen Hua's body, and also asked Zhu Li to quickly find a set of clean clothes for Shen Hua to change into.

  Downstairs were all creditors, three or five people accompanied Shen Huai to the second floor to change clothes.