Substitute Driver's Notes

Chapter 24: Rules Again

What people in the martial arts world say about Li Wei, the great hero, is another story. The current situation is that Li Wei's exaggerated plea for help has prompted his senior brother, who is the deputy captain of the provincial criminal investigation team, to mobilize a large force.

Bypassing the city authorities and directly dispatching provincial-level forces to arrest people is a major taboo in officialdom.

What was supposed to be a major, decisive strike turned out to be a bunch of spineless thugs.

Fortunately, Brother Long said he had someone's life on his hands, and it was still unclear whether this was true or not, so he needed to be interrogated.

If it weren't for the friendship spanning three generations, Liu Zhongguo would have turned against him long ago, even before Li Wei severed ties.

Lin Lei looked at Li Wei with a wry smile: "You really are the second senior brother! You can talk about this bunch of things like it's the truth? Alright, you should just go home!"

Liu Zhongguo, his face dark, gritted his teeth and growled, "Take them all back with you. I want to see how someone who was originally honest and kind has learned to even dare to deceive the senior brother."

Lin Lei shoved away the SWAT officer who was about to handcuff Li Wei, and winked at Liu Zhongguo, saying, "It has nothing to do with Second Brother. He was also fooled by this Brother Long. Hey? Brother Long, why are you being so honest?"

Brother Long, who sat down on the ground with one foot in the air, smiled bitterly: "With five or six guns pointed at you, anyone would behave."

To ease the tension, Lin Lei continued smiling and pulled his senior brother away, whispering something to him.

Turning around, she pulled Li Wei along and patted him on the shoulder: "Don't say anything when you get home, just go do what you're supposed to do. I told you not to study hard, and you wouldn't join the army back then, otherwise we could definitely... Sigh! Go home and get some sleep, don't let my sister-in-law worry."

Li Wei agreed in a daze and began to pick up the pickaxe handles scattered all over the ground.

The fourth junior brother, who had been silent all along, asked curiously, "Second senior brother, what are you doing?"

"Oh! A pickaxe handle costs more than ten yuan. This is my trophy. I'll clean it up and sell it to a vendor to earn some pocket money to buy cigarettes."

The three brothers were immediately speechless.

Liu Zhongguo pointed at Li Wei, his lips trembling, before finally letting out a sigh.

The fourth junior brother shook his head and bent down to help.

Afterwards, the apprentices worked together to clean up the mess, breaking the hundreds of pickaxe handles into more than thirty bundles, which they then carried to Li Wei's motorcycle.

Li Wei ignored the three brothers' slightly red eyes and stared at the pickaxe handle with a troubled expression.

A standard pickaxe handle is 1.6 meters long and weighs 11 kilograms. There are more than 300 of them! How can this little motorcycle carry them all?

There aren't any taxis around at this hour. Even if there were, they probably wouldn't bother to come over and ask if anyone needs a taxi, since they see the commotion from afar.

In the end, it was Lin Lei who called over a few people to drive the evidence van and help deliver it back.

Watching Li Wei's departing figure, the three brothers looked at each other and sighed.

"Second Junior Brother is like a different person. Is he under so much pressure in life? He used to be such a brainless and arrogant young hero, Li."

"Maybe, after all, it's an old district!"

"Let's look back! If a suitable opportunity arises, let him do something. We can't just stand by and do nothing."

The wind was so strong that it brought tears to Li Wei's eyes.

I said I would definitely work hard to make money in the future.

I didn't steal or rob. Although I lost face, these things are enough to cover the cost of my daughter's art class for a semester.

The rest can be used to take the child to KFC or McDonald's.

This is extra income; my wife probably won't be so calculating about it.

When Li Wei returned to the residential area late at night, the car doors were already locked. He called out, and the gatekeeper came out to take a look. He saw several armed police officers in a van. Without asking any questions, he opened the gate wide, then went back to the gatehouse and drew the curtains, indicating that he knew nothing.

Several young people helped unload the items into the storage room.

After seeing off the honest young men, I checked the time and it was past 2 a.m.

Going upstairs now will definitely keep my wife from sleeping.

Li Wei looked at the mosquitoes in the storage room with pity, guessing they hadn't had a proper meal in a long time.

Let's feed these poor mosquitoes tonight!

He spread out a few cardboard boxes, covered his head with his coat, and lay down casually.

Once the lights were turned off, all that remained was the excited buzzing of mosquitoes; the surroundings became quiet.

"Smack!" Another mosquito was swatted dead. Suddenly, Li Wei heard a low sobbing sound outside the door.

Startled, Li Wei sat up, sighed, opened the door, and looked at Lu Lili standing outside.

"Why aren't you sleeping at home? What are you doing downstairs in the middle of the night? You say you're tired from work, but I don't think you're tired at all."

Lili, her eyes red-rimmed, entered the storage room, turned on the light, looked at the pile of pickaxe handles, and gently pulled Li Wei: "Go home and sleep! I thought you were fighting again, so I haven't slept. Is it cheaper to buy goods at midnight? You can try to do some small business, but these aren't easy to sell. Let's go home first, I'm so sleepy."

Li Wei breathed a sigh of relief. It was good that his silly wife hadn't become smarter, otherwise it would have been hard to explain.

They went upstairs in a daze, took a quick shower, and then fell asleep in each other's arms.

At daybreak, the couple was woken up by their daughter. The siblings stood angrily side by side by the bed, staring coldly at them.

"Mom and Dad, what time is it? Why aren't you up and making breakfast? My sister and I are going to be late."

"Exactly, what were you doing making such a racket in the middle of the night? Not getting up in the morning and not sleeping at night, this is poisoning the pure minds of children. I need to make up for it with ice cream."

Lu Lili blushed and deliberately snuggled closer to Li Wei: "Is it any of your business to manage a child? Get out, my husband and I need to get up."

Li Siyu covered her eyes: "Oh my god! I can't watch this. She's acting all cute in a man's arms right in front of her daughter, how disgusting! Come on, little brother, they're going to have another baby for you. Let's go buy some breakfast."

Li Qiwu glared angrily, his eyes wide: "I'm not leaving! I don't want my younger brother and sister! You two, get up now!"

Even though Li Wei wasn't shy, he was still a little embarrassed and quickly nudged his wife to get up.

Lu Lili teased her son for a few moments, then quickly got up.

Hearing the mother and her two children laughing and joking outside, they unanimously decided to go out for some "san" (a local specialty, pronounced "sa").

Li Wei shouted, "You're so corrupt, Lili! You can only drink the three-yuan kind, not the five-yuan kind!"

Instantly, three heads peeked out from the doorway, six dark eyes staring at Li Wei.

"No way, we want the kind with meat in it, it's ten yuan a bowl today," Li Qiwu said stubbornly.

"Pah! You spendthrift! You'd be better off having an eight-yuan mutton soup and a two-yuan sesame seed cake. That's much more economical." Li Wei quickly advised his son on how to save money.

"Eight yuan? That's mutton offal soup, there's hardly any meat in it, I won't eat it. If I'm going to eat something, I'll get the fifteen yuan one."

"Lu Lili, give your son a beating and starve him for three days and three nights. Your father has lived for over thirty years and has never been able to afford to eat on the fifteenth of the lunar month more than a few times."

"Brother! Dad is right. Pure mutton gets stuck in your teeth; offal is much easier to chew."

Lu Lili urged, "Let's hurry up! Otherwise, don't blame me if we're late."

Two screams rang out, followed by the sound of hurried footsteps, and they ran away.

Lying flat on the bed, Li Wei smiled broadly; life was still wonderful.

After a quick breakfast, Li Wei picked up a pickaxe handle and went to the market to sell his wares.

"Four yuan and fifty cents, bring it over! Any amount is fine," the wholesale stall owner said leisurely, sipping his tea and glancing at the pickaxe handle.

"What? Four yuan and fifty cents? That's outrageous! Don't you recognize me, you swindler? When I bought it, you gave me fifteen yuan a stick and said you were making friends and wouldn't make money off me. Now you're asking for four yuan and fifty cents? You call that not making money off me?" Li Wei glared angrily.

The stall owner looked up, sizing up Li Wei as if recalling the past: "Really? But these aren't my goods."

Li Wei slammed the pickaxe handle heavily on the ground, put his left hand on his hip, and said, "I'm going to teach you a lesson, you unscrupulous merchant. You're denying what happened yesterday?"

"Hey! Coming here to act like a jerk so early in the morning? Don't you know any rules?"