Chapter 18 The Key Person
"Heavy machinery can't pass through the village, you've damaged our roads!" That was the claim from Shanyan Village.
Xia Liu could only scoff at this. The roads were damaged? These mere dirt roads, how deep could they possibly sink? Even if they did sink, couldn't you just fill them in with sand and gravel?
To put it plainly, there were people from Shanyan Village who were stirring up trouble behind the scenes, so, of course, Xia Liu couldn't let the excavators and dump trucks return.
Hiring the excavator and dump trucks cost eighty thousand yuan. Although it was less than expected, if he let them return now, the thirty thousand yuan deposit would be washed away.
So Xia Liu shouted to the villagers blocking the road, "Fellow villagers, from its establishment, Osmanthus Village has never had proper road access, and generation after generation has endured very harsh living conditions. We all belong to the same community, and you all must understand the hardships of not having road access. Today, I, Xia Liu of Osmanthus Village, want to dig a road, and I hope to have your support. If the road is damaged, I will finance the repairs."
Xia Liu was truly sincere. Although Shanyan Village and Osmanthus Village had old grievances, these were conflicts of the past and should not be passed on to future generations. Everyone present was a simple villager; how could he bear to hold a grudge against them?
However, Xia Liu's sincerity didn't even make a small ripple in the eyes of some people. Among them, a young man from Shanyan Village stood up and pointed at Xia Liu, saying, "Nice words, but tough access is indeed hard. But what if those dump trucks tip over during transit and crush houses? Not to put it harshly, but who would be responsible if people died?"
"Exactly! Who would be responsible!"
"The roads in the village are uneven to start with, plus the added pressure from heavy weights. If there truly was a landslide and the vehicles toppled over and killed someone, who would be responsible?"
...
As soon as the young man spoke, the Shanyan villagers blocking the road became agitated. Some of them were genuinely worried about safety issues, while others were simply looking for trouble, adamantly against giving Osmanthus Village a way out.
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Faced with this situation, Xia Liu got straight to the point, "Please don't worry, the construction team is professional, and there won't be the safety issues that brother mentioned. If someone is deliberately making things difficult for me, I will apologize where necessary. Please grant Osmanthus Village a road."
"Stop with the useless talk. If we say no, it's no!" the young man shouted again.
A few other young men also started shouting loudly, anger plastered across their faces.
Xia Liu gave them a look and recognized them as familiar faces — they were the same few who had previously blocked the road and gotten a lesson from him.
Seeing this, Xia Liu realized that this was Li Hao purposely making things difficult for him.
"I'd like to hear what your village chief has to say."
"Get lost! The village chief won't meet you!"
Xia Liu hadn't finished speaking when the young men became agitated, picking up stones and throwing them at the excavators and dump trucks parked by the roadside.
The vehicles were being damaged, worrying the drivers. They had witnessed such incidents before, but this time seemed particularly extreme. The work hadn't even started, yet the vehicles were already being vandalized. If they forcibly started the job, there could be deadly consequences.
The drivers got anxious and approached Xia Liu to suggest retreating for the day and tackling the village's issues before resuming work.
Regarding the deposit, if things couldn't be resolved and the project couldn't continue, then they would return half of it.
Xia Liu had no objections; he instructed the drivers to head back first. The vehicles whose cabs had their windows smashed needed replacements immediately. Once the issues with Shanyan Village were resolved, he would cover the repair costs.
Xia Liu followed the convoy back to town, mulling over many things. Getting those young men from Shanyan Village to back down was definitely out of the question.
To allow the vehicles to pass, all they needed was the approval of the majority of the villagers and the village chief of Shanyan Village.
And all this required was intervention from key figures.
Key figures...
The only person Xia Liu could think of was the town mayor, but since he had clashed with the mayor's son last time, getting the mayor to speak on his behalf seemed harder than reaching the heavens.
Even if he managed to get help, given Li Hao and the mayor's son's way of doing things, opening the road was bound to encounter numerous issues.
Now, many could smooth the progress of the project, but they had to be from the county!
Xia Liu thought about trying his luck. If he could gain support, getting someone with a higher status, like the county chief, would be best. Everyone knew him, and if he went to Shanyan Village, those villagers would surely step aside without a second word.
Upon reaching the county, Xia Liu found out where the leaders of the county worked and rushed there immediately.
The county government's main gate was majestic, and the security personnel were diligent. Xia Liu was unsurprisingly stopped.
Others who were stopped alongside him were holding banners, pleading for the government to deliver justice and help them reclaim their housing rights.
After inquiring, Xia Liu learned that these people had paid their down payments only for the developers to abscond with the money, leaving behind an uncompleted building. This was why they had come seeking help.
Xia Liu smacked his forehead; he had chosen a bad day to come.
Because of the incident at the county government gate, the leaders came out immediately.
Thanks to this opportunity, Xia Liu also saw the county chief — a bald man around fifty with a somewhat chubby figure.
He told those who had been swindled to go home first, assuring them that the issue with the unfinished building would be resolved promptly and that the losses to the people would be minimized.
Xia Liu looked around and realized that his clothes were quite out of place. So, he went into a mall and bought a new set that looked respectable.
Returning to the county government gate, Xia Liu inquired again from the security personnel, who now treated him differently.
However, once it was confirmed that Xia Liu was neither a county government official nor a relative, they still refused his request to enter.
To get in, one needed an invitation or to be accompanied by an official. Otherwise, one could only go to the Citizens' Hall across the street to submit a handling request and then wait for a result.
Xia Liu was somewhat disappointed as he stepped aside; he didn't have time to wait — the road issue needed to be resolved as soon as possible.
Soon, he saw several cars casually entering and exiting the main gate, sparking an idea in his mind.
If he also drove a car, surely the security would open the gate for him, but it had to be a car worth at least hundreds of thousands.
In the county, a car also represented a kind of status. Xia Liu roamed the streets, pondering how to procure a car.
Compared to the city area, the county was much more backward, without even a place to rent a car.
Buying a car now was not feasible; he could only offer money to someone to drive him in.
However, after stopping several cars and explaining his situation to the drivers, they all refused him.
The drivers were also afraid of getting into trouble; after all, who would risk driving someone into the county government unless there was a hassle, and if the passenger caused trouble, it would be bad news.
Left with no other options, Xia Liu wandered to a hotel entrance, where a particular license plate caught his attention...