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Chapter 159: Rumors
Taozi saw Lv Yuan and Yang Limin when she entered the room. She greeted Lv Yuan with surprise. After Xie Hushan and the two women finished talking, she asked Taozi:
"What does Secretary Han want to see me about?"

"It shouldn't be a big deal. A kid playing on the street came over and told me that he saw you and wanted to let you know and asked you to come over." Taozi said to Xie Hushan.

Xie Hushan looked at Yang Limin and said, "You are also the second secretary of the brigade. Is there anything going on in the brigade these days?"

"It shouldn't be a big deal. If Secretary Han really has something important to do, he wouldn't ask the child to run errands. Even if he has something important to do, I don't have time to come and have a free meal." Yang Liming thought for a while and said to Xie Hushan.

After Taozi came back after delivering lunch to her grandmother, the four of them started eating. The two women were the main ones talking. Lu Yuanzheng told Taozi that Xie Hushan was very famous in the county. When she went to the bicycle factory to find her aunt Ma Jianhua, even Sister Ma had heard of Xie Hushan's name.

If Sister Ma hadn't met Xie Hushan, she would have been fooled into believing the rumors.

After listening to what Lu Yuan said, Taozi became so angry that her face turned pale.

Because the reputation of her third brother as spread outside was not a good one at all.

Lu Yuan told Taozi that it seemed that everyone in the county was talking about a big gangster named Hu Saner, who had just recently emerged in Bingyang County.

It was said that when he was drinking in the steel plant's guesthouse, he saw a beautiful female family member of a steel plant worker, dragged her into the room and behaved molested towards her. The woman's husband rushed over to rescue her, but ended up being molested by him as well.

She also said that men were worse off than women because they were both injured.

After that, the security department of the steel plant went to rescue people, but they were also beaten by him. After beating them, he called for people to surround the steel plant and wanted to beat people with guns.

Forcing the steel plant to apologize to him was not enough. In the end, the big gangster named Hu Saner even forced the female family member to divorce her husband and follow him. Finally, the leader of the steel plant convinced the woman and her husband, and the woman followed Hu Saner to be his mistress. Only then did the big gangster give up.

Not only Taozi was almost mad with anger after hearing this, but Xie Hushan was also almost dumbfounded... Was this talking about himself?

Could it be that the woman herself paid to spread the rumor? Why did it sound like the woman was praised as being so beautiful and stunningly gorgeous, and that the man was just someone who was attracted by her beauty?

Although that old woman is indeed pretty, she is already in her thirties and I am only nineteen. Even if I like to have affairs, it shouldn't be disrespectful to the elderly, right?

And forced the steel plant leaders to do ideological work to make her divorce her husband?
Stop making trouble!

For me, if I really want to do this, I will never force a woman to divorce. Wouldn't it be better if she has a husband? She has a husband to support her, and I only need to take care of her and don't have to bear too much responsibility.

"Are you talking about me, sister-in-law?" Xie Hushan smiled at Lu Yuan:
"Lao Yang has seen that elder sister. She is not that pretty. Lao Yang also chatted with her for a long time. He said he was trying to get her to talk to him for me. I don't know if it was for me. Anyway, I didn't see what she said. Sister-in-law, why don't you ask Lao Yang what that elder sister looks like?"

Lv Yuan turned her head to look at Yang Limin beside her:
"You talked to him for a long time?"

"He's talking nonsense. You can definitely tell he's lying. Just ignore him." Yang Liming picked up a piece of fungus and put it in Lu Yuan's bowl, saying with a smile.

Lu Yuan knew that Xie Hushan was deliberately trying to provoke Yang Limin, but she just liked to tease Yang Limin, so she deliberately put on a stern face:
"Why doesn't he just talk nonsense about others? Flies don't bite seamless eggs. Tell me quickly, is that woman pretty?"

Yang Limin sighed, nodded resignedly, then took the initiative to recall and introduced to Lu Yuan:

"He seems to be short and fat, with a lot of moles on his face, a flat nose, an overbite, and two missing teeth..."

This time it was Xie Hushan's turn to be so angry that he glared:
"Get lost! So I led people to surround the steel mill just for this thing. Does that count as me leading people to protect everyone in the steel mill from being ruined by her?"

"A bunch of girls want to be your mistresses. Be careful. My sister-in-law said that several girls in her factory asked her what you look like." Lv Yuan said to Xie Hushan with a smile:

"Really? They said you bought that woman a lot of beautiful clothes, jewelry, and watches. They were all exactly the same as what I saw with my own eyes."

Xie Hushan laughed out loud:
"It's nothing. If Taozi hadn't gone to the Friendship Restaurant with me, I wouldn't have been able to explain it clearly."

"Taozi, you went to dinner with him. Hu San really has a conscience, unlike some of his comrades. Come on, tell me, what is the Friendship Restaurant like? Is it high-end? I haven't been there either." When Lu Yuan heard that Xie Hushan took Taozi to dinner, she immediately became interested and asked Taozi gossipy questions.

Xie Hushan looked at Yang Limin and said, "Nephew, can you translate for me? How did the rumor spread to this extent?" "My guess is that it was probably two or three groups of people who spread the rumor about what you did. For example, one group was the people from the steel plant on the day of the incident, and another group was the waiters at the Friendship Restaurant? Something like that. Then, someone might have mixed the two stories together and it became what it is now." Yang Limin put a piece of fish meat with the bones removed into Lu Yuan's bowl and said to Xie Hushan:

"So, don't do this kind of thing in the future. Look at your image now. If you keep doing this, if someone in the organization hears the rumor, you won't be able to join the party this year."

When Xie Hushan heard that there was no hope, he nodded with satisfaction, then picked up the beer and handed it to Yang Liming.

"Did the steel mill make a lot of money?" Yang Liming asked as he took the bottle of beer cooled with well water that Xie Hushan handed to him.

Xie Hushan turned his head and looked around like a thief:
"Am I showing off my wealth? No, I didn't do anything except eating and drinking. Even if I eat in a special kitchen, the food I eat is much worse than that of Ma Dabo's. How can you tell that I'm rich?"

"Han Laogou, Ma Laowu came to hang around for no reason, but I didn't notice it. How did you see it?"

"Why should we look at it? Secretary Han and Uncle Wu may not consider these things. You can tell me yourself. From the time Lv Yuan and I came to your place, we have not heard any sound of tractors from your warehouse until now. How many tractors have I seen going in and out?"

"They are either unloading scrap steel or coal, or shipping steel coils." Yang Limin took a sip of cold beer, exhaled a refreshing breath, and said to Xie Hushan:
"By the way, I haven't asked you yet, where did you get all this coal? You must consume a lot every month, right?"

Xie Hushan looked at Yang Limin, picked up the bottle and clinked it with him. Seeing that Taozi and Lu Yuan were talking about what to wear that day and didn't pay attention to them, he lowered his voice and said to Yang Limin:
"I'm telling you this, but you can't tell anyone else..."

"Can you please not talk to me in that tone? I get scared when I see you like this." As soon as Yang Liming saw Xie Hushan's thieving behavior, he knew that the source of the coal might not be very regular.

It may not be said that Xie Hushan broke the law, but Yang Liming estimated that what he did was definitely not legal.

"I got it through my connections at the railway. It doesn't sound illegal, but this matter cannot bear detailed discussion." Xie Hushan said:

"I have a buddy who works on the railway with several of his brothers. Two of his brothers' parents are railway police officers. I decided to wait in the freight yard to load the coal."

Yang Limin was speechless after hearing what Xie Hushan said: "Is it so difficult for you to visit the coal company and sign a contract normally?"

"It's not that I don't want to sign a contract with the coal company to buy coal. I definitely want to. You've been in the county before, and you know the arrogance of the iron boss, coal boss, and steel boss, who control important materials. They may be able to perfunctorily say a few words on the surface, but when something really goes wrong, the county magistrate may not even listen to them." Xie Hushan defended his behavior with a wronged expression on his face:
"I went there, but they ignored me as a small factory manager. The person in charge told me that if I wanted to have coal supplied to my small factory, I had to pay him at least 5,000 yuan in bribes. Then he might consider signing a contract to supply coal to the steel mill."

"Didn't give it to you?" Yang Liming picked up the Peony cigarettes that Xie Hushan was smoking. After this guy became the factory director, he immediately changed his cigarettes from Beidaihe to Peony.

"If you give me money, I'll be a beggar on my knees. If you don't give me money, I'll be a beggar on my knees." Xie Hushan also picked up a cigarette, grabbed Yang Limin's wrist, and lit it with his fire before continuing:
"So I thought, instead of giving you the kickback, I might as well make other arrangements. I found a connection with the railway freight yard and sent a tractor directly to the railway freight yard to haul coal."

"Then the railway police informed the coal company that there had been a theft at the freight yard and that a batch of coal that the coal company was waiting to ship out was lost. Fortunately, the railway police worked tirelessly and successfully solved the case, helping the coal company recover its losses and allowing them to go and get the money."

"Isn't this a form of forced sale?" Yang Liming coughed twice and said to Xie Hushan.

Xie Hushan said to Yang Limin:
"I got the coal, the railway police got a banner from the coal company, and the coal company didn't suffer any loss. They got as much money as the coal they lost. The railway freight yard manager and my friends got my kickbacks, so everyone was happy."

"Later, the coal company understood what was going on. So now they find it troublesome to restock, so they just dump dozens of tons of coal in the yard for a long time, making it easier for me to steal."

Yang Limin looked at Xie Hushan and said, "I can't even say anything about this fellow. Has this incident caused any loss to the country?"

Although he took the coal, he compensated for the loss according to the market price. But if you say he did nothing wrong, there is a big problem here. If the coal company really takes it too far, everyone who helped him do this job will be in trouble.

In other words, the coal companies do not want the relationship with the railways to become too strained.

"Scrap steel is also a way to get through the back door by asking for favors. The working class has degenerated. Comrade Lao Yang, they all know very well that what belongs to the country belongs to the country and cannot be considered as one's own wealth..."

Hearing Xie Hushan slandering the working class again, Yang Limin interrupted him: "Stop talking nonsense. How much do you earn if you brag so much?"

Xie Hushan straightened his back:
"Not much, 30 tons a month. The factory is small and we don't plan to expand it, so the income is low. I've worked hard for two months and only got 4,800 yuan. Otherwise, how could I have the money to let you bring your wife to eat and drink for free?"

(End of this chapter)