As August arrived, Lingnan entered the hottest month of the year.
The city's streets and alleys were lined with vendors and farmers selling lychees and longans. Amid their cries came whispers and rumors.
An old farmer from Guizhuling had set two baskets of lychees by an alley near the vegetable market. He sat in the shade, fanning himself with a straw hat.
Suddenly, a young man walked up to the baskets and began picking through the lychees.
"Handsome, these are all homegrown. No pesticides. Have some." As he spoke, the old farmer grabbed a plastic bag and scooped a handful of lychees into it.
The young man suddenly asked, "Where are these lychees from?"
"From around Guizhuling. They're all homegrown, so don't worry!"
"Guizhuling? You mean the place by the garbage recycling plant? I don't want them anymore."
Huh? The old farmer froze with the scales in his hand and hurriedly asked, "Handsome, I really did grow these myself."
"It has nothing to do with whether you grew them yourself. Who'd dare eat anything from near a garbage recycling plant? They dump all that wastewater straight out." The young man shouted as he walked away.
People around the vegetable market began talking all at once.
"Old Zhang, what's going on?"
"I don't know."
"Seems like something happened over in Guizhuling. I heard there's a garbage recycling plant there, and garbage and wastewater are everywhere."
"Is that true? Won't the district do something about it?"
"I heard someone got the garbage contract. My uncle's friend works at the district sanitation bureau..."
"Ah, it's us ordinary people who suffer."
"We can't buy lychees from Guizhuling anymore."
Rumors quickly spread through the market. Then, passed from one relative to another, they soon swept through the entire city.
The ones who suffered most from this were the Guizhuling farmers, who had no way to defend themselves. City residents shunned their lychees, longans, and vegetables in droves.
Farmers in several villages in Guizhuling Township were up in arms.
In the small square by the ancestral hall, a burly middle-aged man clutched a hoe and shouted angrily, "Third Brother, go call everyone over. We have to make that garbage plant give us an explanation."
"That's right!"
"Damn it, I'll fight them!"
"I'll go get people too."
Just as dozens of villagers armed with hoes and rakes were heading toward Guizhuling Industrial Park, they ran into a group of more than ten sorting workers who had just finished their shifts and were on their way home.
One of the workers was from the same village. He asked, completely bewildered, "Dashan, what are you all doing?"
The middle-aged villager leading the group cursed hotheadedly, "Fuhai, it's none of your business. Get out of the way!"
Seeing that things were going badly, Zheng Fuhai immediately pulled two clansmen from his branch of the family aside. "Xiao Lie, what's going on?"
The indignant young man cursed as he tried to explain, his words tumbling over one another. Zheng Fuhai caught a few key phrases and thought, This is bad. He hurriedly pushed his way to the front of the crowd.
Zheng Fuhai roared, "Dashan, stop right there!"
His dozen or so coworkers hurried to stand beside him. Some ran back into the factory, and the security guards quickly reacted. They notified plant manager Huang Guotong while promptly calling the police.
At the scene, Zheng Fuhai tried to keep things from getting worse. He rattled off his words at the top of his lungs. "Dashan, do you know what you're doing? This is a mass brawl! Have you even thought about your wife and kids at home?"
"You believe whatever people tell you, and you don't even realize you're being used! The factory has already called the police. Everyone disperse now, and put away your hoes and rakes."
After Zheng Fuhai shouted at them, the villagers lost the aggressive momentum they had started out with. Quite a few began to have second thoughts.
But Zheng Dashan, too proud to back down, continued to yell, "I'm not leaving today! Let's see what you can do about it."
Just then, plant manager Huang Guotong hurried over. "Fellow villagers, let's talk this out. Don't get worked up. Put away your hoes and rakes first, and send a few representatives inside so we can discuss this."
Zheng Dashan wasn't having it. "We can talk right here. It's not like we've got anything to hide."
Still, Zheng Fuhai's words had calmed quite a few people down. Before long, villagers from other villages began arriving one after another.
Meanwhile, the Pubian Town police station realized how serious the situation was. They quickly called for support from the district and mobilized all available officers to head for Guizhuling Industrial Park.
Huang Guotong feared that something might happen. He tried to calm the villagers and had workers bring out some plastic chairs from the factory, then led the villagers to an open area beside it.
Steady-handed Zheng Fuhai gathered a dozen clansmen and called over a few respected village elders—locally known in Hailufeng as respected village figures, usually elderly people of standing. They collected the villagers' hoes and rakes to prevent trouble.
Representatives from more than a dozen villages sat around a makeshift table assembled from wooden tables, and people began sharing their views.
The more Huang Guotong listened, the more he sensed something was wrong. He asked, "You're saying people in the city claim the factory is discharging pollutants and contaminating the crops, and now nobody wants to buy Guizhuling's agricultural products?"
Indignant, Zheng Dashan slapped the table. "That's right! Your factory has to give us an explanation. Otherwise, we'll take this all the way to the provincial government. Even if we have to go to Beiping, we'll fight you to the end."
"There must be some misunderstanding. Our factory is here to deal with pollution. Why would we discharge pollutants into the surrounding area?" Huang Guotong explained.
"Bullshit. I don't believe you."
The officers who rushed over from the police station saw hundreds of people at the scene and didn't dare act rashly. Before long, Cai Haiyi, the district deputy from the city, also arrived in a great hurry.
Lin Baijie, Huang Xiuyuan, and the others arrived right behind him.
"Mr. Huang, we need to handle this carefully." Cai Haiyi looked deeply worried.
Huang Xiuyuan remained calm and didn't panic. "Deputy Cai, our company will handle this properly. I have a few small requests."
"Go ahead. As long as they don't go against the rules, I'll do everything I can." Cai Haiyi didn't want the situation to escalate any further, either.
Huang Xiuyuan leaned close and whispered a few things in his ear. "..."
After hearing him out, Cai Haiyi's eyes widened. "Wouldn't that make things even more complicated?"
"The innocent have nothing to hide. My factory has done nothing wrong, so why should we act guilty? Wouldn't that just make it look like we were trying to cover something up?"
"Mr. Huang, you're sure there hasn't been any discharge?"
Huang Xiuyuan asked in return, "If I were discharging pollutants, why would I do this?"
At that, Cai Haiyi felt reassured.
With Cai Haiyi and Huang Xiuyuan stepping in, they soon reached an agreement with the villagers.
The plan was to have the local villagers select 15 representatives; invite 15 randomly chosen city residents from the district; and have the district send five environmental protection officials to form a joint assessment team dedicated to evaluating pollution at Guizhuling Industrial Park.
To make the results more scientific and authoritative, the district and Suiren Company would also jointly ask Lingnan TV Station to provide live coverage.
A joint testing team made up of three independent testing agencies would conduct a comprehensive inspection of Guizhuling Industrial Park and the local crops, soil, water, and villagers.
Faced with this plan, the villagers had nothing more to say.
At the same time, Suiren Company promptly reported the matter to the police and requested an investigation into who had spread the rumors.
Shiguang Information, a subsidiary, also posted an account of how the incident had unfolded, along with some information, on Shiguang Blog.
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