By the time Li Long reached the roadwork site, Meng Hai had already tied Zhang Xingwang to the tractor.
Meng Hai was pointing at his nose and cursing him out, telling the others that anyone working on this road crew had better stick to the job. Anyone with other ideas need not come; he would not force them.
But if they refused to listen while working and tried to show off on their own, they could not blame Meng Hai for getting tough!
After learning what had happened, Li Long announced directly to the road workers:
"When we make big brooms this autumn, I won't buy any from Zhang Xingwang's family."
Everyone present went pale at those words.
Even Meng Hai was a little surprised. He had not expected Li Long to go that far.
No matter how Meng Hai had cursed him earlier, Zhang Xingwang had kept quiet, with a trace of defiance still on his face.
But that single sentence from Li Long broke him. Hearing it, he hastily begged for mercy:
"Comrade Li Long, I won't do it again! I lost my head just now when I saw that deer-I really am a good swimmer. I'll never do it again-please let me off this once. I'm really good at making big brooms, and my family makes excellent ones too-please don't refuse to buy them!"
Over the past two years, especially last year, every household had earned hundreds or even a thousand yuan making big brooms. Eight yuan a day on the road crew could not compare!
With those words, Li Long had effectively wiped out well over half of Zhang Xingwang's family's annual income!
"Absolutely not!" Li Long did not budge. "Do you realize that if anything happened to you in the water, your family wouldn't be