Volume Four: Awakening of Insects Chapter 135: Shaler the Stubborn Ox

The scene was in total chaos. People could no longer write couplets, and many started hurling curses at Sha Qiang. Not a single person in the village looked upon Sha Qiang with favor, let alone offered to help him.

"Who dares to hit my brother Sha Qiang?!"

From afar, a man rushed over wielding a wooden club. Sha Qiang perked up. The newcomer was none of other than Sha Meng.

"Meng cub, go to Lower Village and rally some men! Smash this place to the ground!" Sha Qiang roared. "Damn it, beat the living daylights out of those bastards, and I'll take the blame if anything happens."

"You'll take the blame my foot! Just you?" Sha Jinhe, Sha Dagen, Tao Qiang, Tao Youneng, Tao Huan, and a dozen other men stepped forward, grabbing tools to block Sha Meng. Tao Youneng gripped a hoe and shouted fiercely at the charging Sha Meng, "Come on over, Sha Mengzi, and let's see if my hoe can crack open your skull!"

"You-neng cub, our affairs in Lower Sha are none of your damn business, are they?"

Sha Meng stopped in his tracks from a distance, not daring to come any closer.

"Lower Sha people might not be my concern, but if you get beaten to death, I'd at least spit on your corpse. However, if anyone dares to lay a hand on Luer, they have to deal with me, a Tao, first." Tao Youneng brandished his hoe. "If you've got the balls, come and try."

"Fine... Just wait until the men from our village get here."

"Aren't there plenty of Lower Village folks right here?" Tao Youneng laughed. "Sha Long, are you going to hit Luer? Sha Dahai, are you?"

"None of our damn business!" Sha Long tossed his head. "Meng cub, don't drag us Lower Village people into this. What does it have to do with us? If you want to fight, step up and say so yourself, but don't drag us into your dog-eat-dog mess. Even if you get beaten to death, it has nothing to do with me."

Sha Mengzi stared in astonishment at Sha Long and Sha Dahai. Sha Qiang's face turned livid with anger.

"Fine... You guys... Luer cub, just you wait."

"Sha Qiang cub, I'll take on whatever you've got." Luer stepped forward, pointing at Sha Meng. "Meng cub, you want to come and hit me, right? Come on then. No need for them to help. If you dare take a single step closer and I don't beat you half to death today, my name isn't Luer."

"Luer cub..."

Seeing Luer take a step forward, Sha Mengzi retreated two or three steps. They were about the same age, but Sha Meng had suffered too many beatings from Luer and Gangmengzi. Every time they fought, he ended up bruised and battered, never once getting the upper hand. The mere sight of Luer filled him with cowardice; how could he dare approach?

Witnessing this, the crowd burst into loud laughter. Sha Qiang had blood at the corner of his mouth, his face as pale as a vegetable leaf, as he pulled out his mobile phone.

"Fine, just you wait..." Sha Qiang acted nothing like a man in his thirties. Normally he possessed some petty cunning, but right now he looked utterly idiotic. "If I don't make your lives hell for the New Year, my surname isn't Sha."

He dialed Mayor Wang's number, and the call went through almost immediately. Luer looked at him with utter disdain, while the others cast sympathetic glances. Sha Qiang was bound to lose a physical fight, but when it came to official connections, who didn't know about Luer's strong backing?

"As if that son of a bitch wouldn't mind changing his surname anyway. If he kept his word, he would've dropped the surname Sha long ago."

Someone sneered.

"If he drops the surname Sha, he might as well take mine. I wouldn't mind adopting a stray cub like him."

Tao Youneng took it a step further.

"Mayor Wang..."

"Oh... Sha Qiang, what's the matter?"

Mayor Wang sounded somewhat surprised. They had parted ways only a short while ago; why was he calling again?

"I... I've been beaten up." Sha Qiang's tears fell, exposing his cowardly side without a doubt. "Could you send someone from the police station... please?"

"Oh, where are you? Who dares to hit you, President Sha?" Mayor Wang still held Sha Qiang in high regard, especially after County Magistrate Yang expressed interest in him, making him value Sha Qiang even more. Hearing that Sha Qiang had been injured, he naturally took the matter very seriously. "Tell me, who dared to beat you up? I'll have the police station dispatch men to arrest him right this instant."

He was making the call right in the middle of the crowd, so everyone could hear the voice coming from the phone clearly. Hearing Mayor Wang's words, Luer's cousin Sha Jinhe and Sha Dagen grew somewhat anxious. They had just returned from Guangzhou recently and were not entirely clear about the situation back home.

"I'm right here in Lower Sha Village! That bastard Sha Luer actually dared to hit me! Mayor Wang, you must get justice for me!"

Hearing Mayor Wang's words, Sha Qiang's face puffed up with arrogance once more.

"What? You and Sha Luer got into a fight?" Mayor Wang was taken aback. "Why on earth would you go and provoke him?"

Upon hearing Mayor Wang's response, the blood instantly ran cold in Sha Qiang's veins. Meanwhile, the onlookers rejoiced, especially Luer's cousins, who looked positively triumphant. Tao Youneng and the others had anticipated this outcome all along, so they felt no surprise.

"Mayor Wang, he was the one who hit me... And he even threatened to make sure I don't live to see the New Year!" Sha Qiang put on a pitiful facade again. "Mayor Wang, you have to stick up for me."

"Alas, of all people, why did you have to go and provoke him?" Mayor Wang sighed. "You'd better just make peace with him. He is our town's new model for poverty alleviation."

"Make peace with him?" Sha Qiang glared furiously at the gloating crowd around him. "Damn it, is Sha Qiang someone you can just push around? Since he wants to ruin my New Year, I'll make sure he doesn't have a good New Year either."

"Stop making a fuss. I'll come over and mediate."

Seeing that Sha Qiang still wanted to act tough, Mayor Wang added:

"You'd better not cause trouble, or even I won't be able to protect you." Mayor Wang's tone turned stern. "Nobody will be able to protect you!"

He had to threaten Sha Qiang, implying that even Magistrate Yang wouldn't back him up blindly. He was anxious; Sha Qiang had close ties with him, and the town party secretary probably knew about it as well. Once this affair with Sha Luer blew up, it would inevitably implicate him. Besides, Sha Luer was a poverty-alleviation model; if anything went wrong, how could he answer to his superiors above?

Feeling deeply depressed, he furrowed his brow and got into his car. Why was it that whenever something involved Sha Luer, misfortune always followed? Was Sha Luer his nemesis? On the way, he was forced to notify Xie Dapo at the police station—if a real disaster struck, he couldn't shoulder the responsibility alone.

By the time Mayor Wang arrived, the situation had calmed down considerably, as Sha Qiang's father and Luer's eldest uncle had temporarily regained control of the scene. Sha Shengyuan had long since heard the news that Luer had beaten up Sha Qiang. Originally, he wanted to rush over immediately, but he possessed far more experience than Sha Qiang. With age comes wisdom, and unlike Sha Qiang, his reputation and popularity within the village were not half bad.

He knew that going straight to Luer would be useless. Having watched Luer grow up from childhood, he knew Luer was not a troublemaker. Even though he had wealth now, he remained just as he had always been: warm and courteous to others, kind-hearted, and always helping people rather than bullying them. He understood his own son all too well and knew for a fact that Sha Qiang must have provoked the conflict first.

Luer was no longer the Luer of the past. With money came power, and he had excellent connections at both the town and county levels. Although Sha Qiang had managed to hook up with the deputy county magistrate's connections this time, he wouldn't necessarily come out on top against Luer. He had heard rumors that even the deputy county magistrate's own cousin hadn't gotten the better of Luer, let alone someone with merely a distant connection.

The only person in the village who could hold sway over Luer was Old Man Shengtian. Therefore, he went to seek out Luer's eldest uncle first.

Old Man Shengtian had already caught wind of the fight between Luer and Sha Qiang. He had intended to head over, but upon hearing that Luer had won, he simply sat tight at home, had his old wife pour him a bowl of liquor, and happily started drinking. Unable to contain his joy, he hummed a tune as he drank. His wife couldn't help but laugh and scold him.

"Are you losing your mind in your old age, acting like a madman? What are you singing for?"

"What do you damn well know about anything? I'm happy, so I'll sing!"

Luer's aunt knew why the old man was so pleased, and amid his scoldings, she smiled and went back to her chores. When Old Man Shengyuan arrived, he was still drinking. The moment he laid eyes on Shengyuan, Old Man Shengtian called out:

"Brother Shengyuan, come and have a bowl of old wine! It's freshly brewed, tastes fantastic." Seeing the terribly gloomy expression on Shengyuan's face, Shengtian felt even more delighted. "Wife, pour another bowl of wine!"

"I'm not here for wine." Old Man Shengyuan pulled a long, bitter face. "Luer and the Sha Qiang cub have broken each other's heads open. I've come to beg you to go and keep the peace. How could I possibly have a mind for drinking?"

"Broken heads open?" Old Man Shengtian feigned ignorance. "How did they get into a fight, and where?"

"Stop putting on an act for me," Old Man Shengyuan said with a bitter smile. "You're celebrating with a drink, yet you're still pretending. I know you're happy, and fine, be happy if you want. But no matter what, we share the same ancestor; you can't just sit by and watch these two cubs tear each other apart to the death, can you?"

"Hmph..." Old Man Shengtian chuckled. "What you say makes sense. But then again, you as an old man ought to properly discipline your Sha Qiang cub. Just because he's made a bit of money, he looks down on everyone. Look around the village—is there a single soul willing to associate with him?"

"You think I don't know my own hardships, brother? He doesn't even show respect to me, his old man. His wings have hardened, so when does he ever listen to me?" The two old men lit their dry-tobacco pipes, Shengyuan's face clouded with misery. "I can only humor him; I don't even dare scold him anymore."

"Brother, I'm not blaming you, but you're far too soft. If it were me, I would've beaten him out with a couple of clubs long ago!"

Despite saying that, Old Man Shengtian still had to give Shengyuan some face, so he got up and walked out the door while they talked. However, the two old men only managed to keep a lid on things to prevent the situation from worsening; Sha Qiang stubbornly stuck his neck out, dead-set on saving face, and sat on the ground refusing to budge. Mayor Wang arrived right in the middle of this deadlock.

After ascertaining the facts of the matter, Mayor Wang first rebuked Sha Qiang, and then criticized Luer.

"Luer, you're a boss now, an entrepreneur dedicated to poverty alleviation. How can you go around hitting people?" Mayor Wang started by buttering him up with high praise, followed by a mild, toothless reprimand. "Think of how bad the influence is. Look, since you hit someone, go and offer him an apology, and let's call it square, alright?"

Luer's anger had not yet subsided, and hearing Mayor Wang demand an apology for Sha Qiang instantly set him off.

"Apologize to him? Not in a million years!" Luer cast a contemptuous glance at Sha Qiang. "If he doesn't apologize to my Sister Ying today, every single time I see him from now on, I'll beat him up! The son of a bitch wasn't raised on human food; he must have been raised on shit!"

"Er..."

"You want to hit me? Come on then!" Emboldened by Mayor Wang's backing, Sha Qiang grew arrogant again. "Damn it, come over here and let's see whether you beat me to death or I beat you to death!"

Luer lunged forward to strike him, but the people nearby hastily grabbed hold of him to hold him back.

"Enough! Are you two ever going to finish?"

"Mayor Wang, he can bully me all he wants, but he insulted my sister! Even if you drag me off to prison, I'm not afraid!" Luer's eyes were filled with pure hatred. "I never went to his house to provoke him; what the hell gives him the right to come over here and curse my sister?"

"Why are you so damn stubborn like an ox?"

At his wit's end, Mayor Wang shook his head helplessly. Fortunately, Xie Dapo arrived just then, driving his vehicle over.