novelslam Chapter 114 The Actions Hidden Behind the Rumors
Chapter 114 The Actions Hidden Behind the Rumors
Chapter 114 The Actions Hidden Behind the Rumors
Zhou Rui ran out of the house and headed towards the town.
His family didn't have a 28-inch bicycle, so he had to rely on his own two legs. Aunt Li's family did, so he planned to ask her when he passed by her house.
Zhou Rui ran very fast, and by the time he reached the Li family's door, he was already panting heavily. Part of the reason was his poor physical strength, and another part was that he was in a hurry.
"Aunt Li, Aunt Li, are you home?"
Zhou Rui didn't care about anything else and went straight up to knock on the door rhythmically but with a little force, shouting as he did so.
It's a little past nine o'clock now, and Aunt Li's family has also gotten up. In addition, Zhao Qingya has already gone to school in the county town with Zhao Jianjun, so it's highly likely that only Aunt Li is at home now.
A moment later, the door opened, and Aunt Li looked at Zhou Rui in astonishment.
"What's wrong, kid? Is something urgent? Why are you so out of breath so early in the morning?"
Aunt Li wanted to invite Zhou Rui inside to rest for a while, but Zhou Rui waved his hand apologetically, "Aunt Li, I won't come in. I'll come again when I have time. Right now, I have something urgent to attend to, and I'd like to borrow your bicycle, is that alright?"
He came to borrow the vehicle again, even though he had previously sworn not to lend out tricycles.
Okay, we won't be borrowing a tricycle this time; we'll be borrowing a bicycle instead.
Zhou Rui felt embarrassed again, but the situation was urgent, and he had to bite the bullet and borrow it, even if it meant losing face.
Fortunately, Aunt Li cared about him a lot and, almost without hesitation, turned around and pushed a 28-inch bicycle out of the house.
"Here you go. You seem to be in such a hurry, so I won't keep you any longer. Just remember to drive carefully and be on your way."
Aunt Li continued to care for and show concern for this younger generation as usual. He didn't ask what happened, nor did he pull Zhou Rui into the house to sit down.
Zhou Rui helped the bicycle over, stepped onto it, greeted Aunt Li, and then rode towards the town.
Having a 28-inch bicycle really saved effort and made it much faster.
Zhou Rui arrived in town quickly. It wasn't market day, so there weren't many people.
Riding his old-fashioned bicycle, Zhou Rui didn't linger in town but headed in one direction.
During casual conversations at home, my father would often reveal which village he would be going to work as a helper.
As Zhou Shiwei mentioned two nights ago when he came home from work, it's a place in the opposite direction from Zhou Rui Village.
He didn't linger in the town, but quickly headed towards his destination.
After passing through the town and walking along the country roads, it took about ten minutes to finally arrive at a village.
This village wasn't as wealthy as Zhou Rui's village. Aside from the fact that most of the houses were made of adobe, even those adobe houses were quite small.
Zhou Rui had visited this village several times, usually for drinking and other hospitality purposes.
He asked an old woman in the village for directions.
Zhou Shiwei and his team came to help a farmer build a house. The farmer had saved up money for many years, and since his son was getting married, they took this opportunity to divide the family property.
Zhou Rui asked for directions and rode his old-fashioned bicycle towards a place in the village. The country road was difficult to travel, with ups and downs and muddy stone slabs, so he got off and pushed the bicycle after traveling a short distance.
He encountered many people on the road, and although they all thought Zhou Rui looked unfamiliar, some recognized him.
"Isn't that Zhou's kid from the village next door? What's he doing here? It looks like his dad's helping Wang Laosan with his work?"
"Zhou Rui? Is that the Zhou Rui who betrayed his master and ancestors, disrespected his elders and was unfilial? I heard that his ancestor was beaten and scolded when he went to beg for a bowl of water."
"Really? This is too much! How could someone do such a thing?"
As Zhou Rui passed by a small dam in the village, he saw that three or five women had already gathered together early in the morning to make clothes and sew shoe soles.
They saw Zhou Rui pass by, and one of them recognized him, which sparked a conversation.
The others had also heard about what happened in the neighboring village to some extent, and they all started gossiping.
But clearly, they are all negative news.
Zhou Rui actually heard it, but he ignored it completely. He had more important things to do. However, a few meters after he walked away, he heard two more sentences of conversation.
"Don't talk nonsense. I got a clear answer from their village secretary."
"Zhou Rui isn't a bad kid at all. It's just that his second uncle, the elder of that Yang family's wife, is bullying people and trying to freeload."
"Is that really true? Then who said Zhou Rui beat and scolded the old man? Was it you, Old Lady Duan?"
"When did I say any of that? You're making a baseless accusation."
"It's absolutely true, their village Party secretary said it himself!"
Several women chatted amongst themselves, with the one who seemed to have the most say in clarifying things for Zhou Rui.
Zhou Rui stopped after walking a few meters, but did not turn around and continued walking.
He didn't understand; perhaps the information really did come from this person, but more likely it was something the elders had done.
A warm feeling rose in Zhou Rui's heart.
He was never alone; he had family behind him, and his family was the source of his motivation and support for everything.
Not far from here, in an open space, Zhou Shiwei and his friends were working. Zhou Shiwei was a skilled worker and knew how to do many things, so he helped out here and there.
"Hey bro, how's it going?"
"Let me tell you, don't listen to those people's nonsense. The reason Zhou Rui's actions that day was—"
While helping others, Zhou Shiwei recounted what happened that day.
Because he had a good reputation within the engineering team, no one usually doubted what he said.
Moreover, he was helping others at the time, so there was naturally a sense of kinship involved.
Not far from him, Zhou Shijie was doing the simplest physical labor. Unlike Zhou Shiwei, he didn't have the privilege of running away at any time; instead, he stayed in one fixed position.
At the same time, the place he was standing in was a bit high, more than three meters high.
"Master, have you ever heard of Zhou Rui?
Zhou Shijie also stopped to chat with someone working with him.
The two were quite familiar with each other, and the other person was an honest person.
But even the most honest person will get annoyed after being asked the same question over and over again.
"Hey, Lao Zhou, you've told me this at least five times today, please stop."
"I know Zhou Rui is innocent. I know what that elder was up to that day. You don't need to repeat yourself."
The worker was a little helpless; in just this short period of time this morning, the man had told him five times.
Seeing this, Zhou Shijie chuckled dryly and then shut up.
But after only five or six minutes, he spoke again: "Master, master—"
No one responded to him, because the old man carried his things away.
After that day, Zhou Shijie became less talkative, but today he is unusually talkative.
In another place, Zhou Ming was doing the same thing, but his work was much easier, with no heavy lifting.
This gave him the opportunity to talk to anyone he could find, and he would get a little angry if the other party didn't listen.
And so, time ticked by, and Zhou Shijie was preparing to jump over another platform to find his next target—