After breakfast the next morning, Li Long drove to Team 4.
After crossing Reed Gully, he stopped at Team Leader Xu Chengjun's house as he passed the western settlement.
Xu Chengjun had just finished breakfast and was walking around his yard to help his digestion. Seeing Li Long drive up, he guessed he had come about yesterday's incident.
Once Li Long had parked by the roadside, got out, and walked into the yard, Xu Chengjun asked, "Heard about what happened yesterday? I figured you'd come over."
Li Long pressed a bag of Russian candy and a European-style scarf into his hands and said with a smile, "I heard, I heard. You've still got it, Team Leader. You even fired a shot. The township didn't give you any trouble, did they?"
Xu Chengjun looked at the gifts and said politely, "You didn't have to bring anything. What is all this?"
"Russian candy for Mingwa to try. The scarf's from Europe. Your wife can wear it when she goes shopping. It's quite fashionable."
"All right, then I won't stand on ceremony." Xu Chengjun put the gifts on the table in the yard, then continued:
"How could they criticize me? Those bastards came onto our turf to cause trouble. Were we supposed to let them bully our people? We're a village collective. You may have leased Little Haizi, but it's still our village reservoir.
"Yesterday, those scumbags' village director even called me, saying we'd been a bit too rough and that two of them seemed to have broken bones.
"I cursed him right back. I said those bastards had it coming! If they came onto our turf to catch fish and crabs, they should've behaved themselves.
"But no, not only did they misbehave, they even bullied children. Did they think Team 4 had