Is today Qixi Festival? Besides brothers and sisters, happy Qixi!

  Zhu Li's clothes were too big and loose, and Shen Huai looked comical wearing them. However, outside it was freezing cold, and if he didn't change out of his wet clothes immediately, Shen Huai's sturdy body would not be able to withstand it.

  Zhu Yi didn't show up again; Zhu Li's wife brought over a bowl of ginger tea, probably also to scold him severely, and she knew that her instigation had caused no small trouble for her daughter, so she came over with a embarrassed face. Shen Huai saw her appearance, if he didn't take a sip of the ginger tea, Zhu Yi's mother would probably burst into tears on the spot.

  Zhu Lichang was dark and fat, but his wife was elegant and refined, over 40 years old, with the charm of a mature woman. Although not as charming as He Yuemei, she was also a great beauty in her youth.

  Shen Huai only then realized that Zhu Yi's beauty was inherited from her mother; if she had looked exactly like her father, she wouldn't have gotten into this kind of trouble.

  Shen Huai took over the ginger tea and drank two mouthfuls of hot tea, only then did his body not feel so stiff.

  Zhu Yi's bedroom was just next door, and Shen Huai didn't know what Zhu Yi was like in the room next door, nor did he know if she would suddenly take a kitchen knife and rush over to chop him into a bloody mess, dazedly thinking about past events.

  Although he could have shifted all the blame to that scoundrel before, he had also "absorbed" other people's memories and life experiences, so it was inevitable that others' shadows would overlap with his own. When he saw Zhu Yili, Shen Huai felt a shock, followed by a twinge of guilt about past events.

  Although it's not very deep, Shen Hua still feels a sense of guilt.

  Zhu Li's face was red with anger; Chu Yiliang saw Shen Huai wrapped in a blanket, holding a bowl of hot tea, his body still shivering with cold, and knew that this splash had frozen Shen Huai enough.

  Heavy snow fell, and Donghua also had an unusually low temperature tonight. The city and county issued frost warnings. At this time, the outdoor temperature was around 7 or 8 degrees below zero, with water freezing instantly, and anyone who splashed it would not be able to bear it.

  Besides, it's still Zhu Liji's daughter-in-law's foot washing water. If this gets out, who knows, it might become a laughing stock?

  Chu Yiliang saw Shen Huai remain silent for half a day, not saying a word, and didn't know what kind of thunderstorm he would unleash on Zhu Li after he calmed down, so it wasn't good to try to persuade Zhu Li either; he just let Zhu Li stand there in a panic, making excuses.

  His hair was still dripping wet, with a hint of soap scent, but it was Zhu Yi's foot washing water. Shen Huai's body couldn't catch his breath for a while, so he silently drank the ginger tea, not speaking, listening to Zhu Li standing there explaining.

  Zhu Li in Meixi Town was originally a wealthy family, and he and Chu Yiliang were among the first to get rich in Meixi Town. They built a stylish small building and bought a car. Although Zhu Li himself didn't look very good, relying on his talent and practical ability, his beautiful wife, who had given up her youth for him, gave birth to a boy and a girl, which was considered a great success in life. However, he suffered a big setback at the Cultural Station building.

  Zhu Li was initially reluctant to take on the Cultural Station building project, but couldn't withstand the town's semi-coercive urging and eventually accepted it. To make up for the engineering funds, Zhu Li put all his previous savings into it, not to mention that he still owed nearly two million in loans afterwards.

  Zhu Liren is not good-looking, and can even be said to have a somewhat despicable appearance, but he has an extremely strong personality, and all the debts he owes are paid back to the last penny. In recent years, although he no longer undertakes construction projects in town, he still has a team of people who can help him take on outside projects. These days, taking on projects usually requires paying engineering fees upfront, which has drained Zhu Liren's energy, making it impossible for him to take on high-profit projects. Every year, he struggles to find work outside, and even with the 180,000 yuan that the town can scrape together at the end of the year, he can barely pay the interest.

  In '93, I had a personal debt of 2 million on my back, these days were unbearable.

  Many people lent all their family property to Zhu Li, even though they knew he was a trustworthy person, but from time to time they would come to his house to check on him, fearing that he would abscond with the whole family. In these three or four years, creditors have been coming one after another, and by the end of the year, groups of people would gather at his home, making it difficult for Zhu Li's family to maintain a normal life; Zhu Li's wife was also driven to nervous breakdown due to the debt issue.

  Shen Huai could also somewhat understand Zhu Yi's choice and the pain of experiencing a family upheaval back then.

  This year Zhu Li also had a bad luck, a project he contracted, the investor lost money and ran away with the funds, causing Zhu Li to lose more than 200,000 yuan in engineering fees that he didn't get back.

  At the end of this year, not only the previous creditors but also the workers below came in groups to ask for wages. Zhu Li sold his car and barely paid off the workers' wages. As soon as Zhu Li sold his car, the news spread, and other creditors panicked, staying overnight at Zhu's house and refusing to leave, making Zhu's family restless and on the verge of collapse...

  Zhu Li's wife heard that Li Feng had come to call on her, and she thought back to the past. All these disasters in front of her were because the town government had forced her family to take on the construction project of the Cultural Station building, and then owed them money for so many years without returning it. The evil fire in her heart was uncontrollable, so she instructed her daughter Zhu Yi to pour out the foot-washing water to vent her anger.

  "I didn't mean to pour tea on Secretary Shen." Zhu Li's wife apologized in a tiny voice, as small as a mosquito.

  Li Feng glared at Zhu Baozi's wife: "They didn't intentionally pour water on Shen Huai, they just wanted to pour it on him." However, Chu Yiliang was present, and he didn't dare scold Zhu Li's wife, so he could only vent his anger on Zhu Li's head, angrily scolding him: "Zhu Baozi, you have the guts to go pour water on Du Jian; apart from Du Jian, who in this town has wronged you? Think with a clear conscience, if you poured this basin of water on my head, can you still be at peace?"

  Shen Hua slowly regained his composure, and it can be said that he recovered from the shock of seeing Zhu Yi for the first time. Only then did he start thinking about how to turn this situation around. He looked up at Zhu Yi's mother and asked: "Are you really willing to pour dirty water on Secretary Li, without considering pouring it on me?"

  "I, I didn't mean to make Zhu Yi scold Secretary Li..." Zhu Yi's mother hastily turned red in the face, as if splashed with red ink, "As long as Secretary Shen can calm down, you can scold me all you want!"

  Shen Huai smiled and said to Chu Yiliang, "Director Chu, don't you think I'm being wronged? For no reason, I took the blame for Secretary Li and got splashed. This makes me so angry! If Old Zhu's daughter were to pour another basin of foot-washing water on Secretary Li, I think my anger would be almost gone..."

  Chu Yiliang burst out laughing and said, "This is indeed the case. White has taken advantage of Li Xieyan's weakness, which prevented me from seeing his good show." He was afraid that Shen Huan would be angry about this matter and vent his anger on Zhu Dangzi, who had been almost crushed by debt in recent years. If Shen Huan really took out his anger on him, Zhu Dangzi would probably not have a good time.

  Chu Yiliang saw Shen Huai ease the tension, and he didn't mean to shift his anger to Zhu Baozi. He even joked with Li Feng to relax the atmosphere, and he admired his magnanimity. Immediately, he also relaxed and started joking with Li Feng.

  Li Feng also knew how much Zhu Baozi had suffered for the debt over the years. If he himself was splashed with dirty water, he could only swallow his pride and admit it, and he didn't have the courage to get angry with Zhu Baozi. Li Feng was mainly afraid that Shen Huai would be furious about this matter and harbor resentment in his heart.

  Li Feng heard Shen Huai and Chu Yiliang making fun of him, so he relaxed a bit and felt that he had scolded Zhu Li too harshly earlier. He smiled and retorted to Chu Yiliang, "You damn thing, I knew you didn't have any good intentions; you should let your son go first and see how you'll feel then!"

  Chu Yiliang burst out laughing, he was familiar with Li Feng; between a township cadre and a private boss, it's more of a symbiotic relationship, no one says they must suppress the other, usually speaking is also very casual, the key is to bring this atmosphere back.

  Zhu Li's heart was racing fast with sweat, and he finally let out a slight sigh of relief. He glared at his wife and ordered: "Call Zhu Yi over and have her give Shen Secretary a sincere apology!"

  "It's nothing, it was just a misunderstanding from the start. If I really have to apologize sincerely, it would make this matter seem too serious." Shen Huai said.

  Shen Huai still couldn't calm down when facing Zhu Yi, thinking that Zhu Yi probably also disliked seeing him, and if Zhu Yi's mother were to forcibly drag Zhu Yi over, it would only make the atmosphere even more awkward.

  Shen Huai felt strange again: it's been over a year since everything happened, and Zhu Yi's parents seemed to be unaware of what had occurred at school...

  Zhu Li was also afraid that if he forcibly pulled over his daughter, who had become somewhat stubborn and eccentric in her personality, it would make the atmosphere even more awkward, so he didn't insist. Instead, he kept apologizing profusely.

  Shen Huai stood up, leaning on the sofa, and said to Zhu Li, whose expression had eased: "Don't take today's matter to heart; I'm here because the town owes you an apology. Regardless of what happened in the past, whoever should be responsible will take responsibility. Now that I'm the town party secretary, if I can't resolve this issue properly, it's my fault. So after learning about this, I brought Secretary Li over and we discussed a practical solution; didn't expect something unexpected to happen..."

  Zhu Li has only taken on outside projects in recent years. Li Feng called him saying that there was a project in the town that wanted to find him, but he directly scolded Li Feng back, and every year except for debt collection, he had no contact with the town officials.

  All Zhu Li could hear about Shen Hui were rumors, some good and some bad. However, his impression of the township officials was very poor. He heard that the woman who contracted the Zuxi Hotel was Shen Hui's mistress, and thought that even if Shen Hui was good, he had limitations after all, and at the end of the day, he was still a greedy and lustful official.

  Knowing that Du Jian was going to be transferred, Zhu Li thought that He Qing She was slightly more upright in doing things, and the matter of collecting debts could only be made with more effort on He Qing She's body. At the end of the year, Zhu Li went to the town twice, and He Qing She agreed to increase the repayment to 2 million per year, so he didn't think about going to find the newly appointed Shen Huan again, also afraid of being extorted by Shen Huan again.

  Zhu Liman never thought that Shen Hua would take the initiative to take over the matter of the Cultural Station building, and even in the midst of disaster relief, he would actively seek him out, and he didn't know what to say.

  Thinking of the hardships over the past few years, Zhu Li couldn't control himself for a moment, and tears flowed freely.

  He burst into tears and couldn't stop, a big man sitting there crying like a child; Zhu Li's wife stood beside him, also unable to hold back her tears, crying until she was tear-stained.

  Watching Zhu Li cry like this, Xun Yi Liang also felt heartache, walked over, patted his shoulder and said: "I know your character, today I came to join in the excitement, really sorry for you, let me apologize. Don't worry about my money, as long as you can pay it back eventually; I won't mention interest again, that would truly hurt our relationship."