The Happy Farmer Wanderer-Chapter 208: Must Be Standardized!_1

Gong Ge was chastised, but far from showing any displeasure, he sincerely said to Li Qing, "We’re used to doing things our own wild way, and indeed we should learn properly from Qingzi."

Li Qing quickly gestured with his hand, "Gong Ge, you’re flattering me too much. We should learn from each other, learn from each other."

In front of Lü Zong who didn’t know the ropes, his skills had probably been seen through.

Lü Zong’s lips curled into a hint of a smile, and he let out a chuckle, "Qingzi, don’t be modest. These guys can be said to be people I trust a lot, but honestly, they’re too rash in their actions."

"You should really teach them more on a daily basis. Like this time, I understand the general situation. If it weren’t for you holding them back, who knows what kind of chaos they might have caused."

"Lü Zong is too kind," Li Qing said.

He was truly unable to cope with Lü Zong’s unexpected praise.

And he was quite worried that if he were suddenly to fall from grace one day, he might be badly hurt.

Afterwards, Li Qing took Gong Ge and the others to the police station with Ding Dayou in tow.

Officer Wang was shocked to learn the purpose of their visit and found it somewhat hard to believe.

But fortunately, this time he didn’t scowl at Gong Ge; instead, he surprisingly said a few kind words.

After Officer Wang had clarified the general process, Ding Dayou was held back to assist with the investigation.

After leaving the police station, Li Qing checked the time; it was already past six o’clock.

He declined Gong Ge’s invitation to dinner and called Xu Keqing.

Xu Keqing had been off work for over an hour, and he wasn’t sure if she was still in.

As soon as the call went through, it was immediately hung up.

Li Qing was a bit stunned; was she angry, or was it just inconvenient?

Moments later, a message from Xu Keqing came back, "I’m already home, it’s not convenient to take calls, some other time."

"There was an urgent matter this afternoon; I’ve just finished dealing with it," Li Qing vaguely explained.

Xu Keqing could be quite domineering, and without an explanation, Li Qing was worried she might hold a grudge against him.

"I roughly guessed that. With your impetuous nature, if there wasn’t anything important, you definitely would have been waiting for me," Xu Keqing replied, "Alright, that’s that. We’ll get in touch another day."

Li Qing couldn’t help but feel embarrassed.

Had he seemed that eager?

Sensing that Xu Keqing was truly inconvenienced from her words, he didn’t send another message.

The fact that things hadn’t worked out with Xu Keqing left Li Qing with a slight sense of regret.

But in reality, his desire wasn’t that strong.

After thrice enjoying the pleasures yesterday, the exertion had been quite intense, and he hadn’t yet recovered from the excitement.

In the following days,

Li Qing kept himself busy with his own affairs, following the usual routine.

At the same time, he took the time to run around the nearby towns with Gong Ge and the others.

After several days of effort, they had barely managed to find seven villages willing to cooperate with them.

But the situation remained that there were more wolves than meat.

The money that Liang Zhongliang and his group could earn had been halved, and the distances they had to travel were much longer than before.

In the past few days, Li Qing clearly felt a growing discord.

Whenever they gathered, there were mostly complaints.

This gradually filled Li Qing’s heart with anxiety.

The more urgent the situation became, the less he seemed able to do anything about it.

Almost all the nearby towns and villages had been visited, and going any further would mean considerably longer journeys.

Li Qing genuinely didn’t know how to break through the current deadlock.

And on this day, Ding Dayou was released from the police station.

This irresponsible young punk immediately called Li Qing.

Li Qing gave him an address and asked him to wait there, saying he would join him after delivering goods to Yu Baishuo.

The address given to Ding Dayou was a fast-food restaurant.

Every morning, Li Qing met up with Brother Gong and the others there.

After delivering the now scarce daily supply of Wenguan tender leaves of barely twenty pounds, Li Qing rushed to the fast-food restaurant.

Brother Gong and the others had already arrived.

"Brother Li, Brother Li!"

Upon seeing Li Qing, Ding Dayou bowed and nodded, calling out with a subservient air.

Li Qing couldn’t help but smile bitterly; the kid looked the part of a born lackey.

"Is anyone else missing?" Li Qing glanced over at Brother Gong’s group and asked.

"Missing someone?" Brother Gong muttered in surprise, turned his head to count, then glared and bellowed, "Where are Duan Pangzi and those three? Hurry up and call them; it’s almost noon, and they still don’t know what they should be doing, getting lazier by the day."

With a pale complexion, Liang Zhongliang spoke softly, "Brother Li, Brother Gong, I’m afraid they won’t be coming."

"Not coming? Why not?" Brother Gong’s eyes widened as he shouted.

Liang Zhongliang shrank his neck, "It’s probably still... about the money. Duan Pangzi has been grumbling more than once that with the way things are now, he might as well do odd jobs instead."

"Ingrates, they are indeed. We gave them face, and now they can’t even cope with such a small issue. What else can we expect from them? They don’t even have the decency to notify me; they just decide not to show up on their own, the nerve!" Brother Gong yelled in fury, pulling out his phone.

Li Qing thought for a moment and stopped Brother Gong.

"Brother Gong, they are your men, and I speak out of turn. People have their aspirations; there’s no need to force them," Li Qing said. "The current earning situation really isn’t good; we can’t blame them for how they feel."

Brother Gong’s anger didn’t subside due to Li Qing’s words; it flared up even more.

"Back in the day, all the wining and dining was on Lü Zong’s tab; why don’t they remember that?"

"These ungrateful bastards, conscience eaten by dogs, can’t even hold out for a few days?"

"If this had happened in the past, had they dared to do such a thing, someone would have broken their arms!"

Liang Zhongliang and the others instantly fell silent, as if recalling days gone by.

"Lü Zong has indeed been somewhat distant from the brothers since he started the restaurant business, I admit that. But even if they worked as waiters there, they would be out of place; we simply can’t use them. Because of these matters, they have been resentful for a while, and it’s not just about the current situation," Brother Gong said somewhat helplessly.

Li Qing’s brows rose slightly.

The implications of Brother Gong’s words gradually became clear to Li Qing.

Lü Zong wanted to transition, focusing solely on running the restaurant and the dance hall, and getting involved in the Wenguan Leaves business.

As a result, his old crew was somewhat surplus to requirements.

Simply because they were of no use.

These men were great at brawling and causing trouble, but as Brother Gong mentioned, they couldn’t even carry plates steadily, let alone be willing to do it.

"Brother Gong," Li Qing said, furrowing his brows, "we can’t continue to be so undisciplined; we need to have clear rules and structures to manage them, with clear rewards and punishments."

"Moreover, from what I’ve learned these past few days, we must go farther to possibly pave the way, which requires rules all the more!"