“Mom, why is that tractor heading straight for us?!”
Lin Baozong stood in the snow outside the commune gates, shouting at the top of his lungs. As he yelled, he desperately shrank behind Zhao Cuifeng.
Through the swirling wind and snow, the Dongfanghong tractor let out a beast-like roar. Its front end swerved erratically, tracing crooked lines in the muddy snow.
Zhao Cuifeng narrowed her eyes and spat on the ground. “Xu Ling! You blind girl, have you lost your mind?! Where do you think you’re driving?!”
Up on the tractor, Xu Ling’s face was smeared with black grease and dirt. Her hands gripped the steering wheel so tightly that her knuckles were stark white.
She ignored Zhao Cuifeng’s screaming curses completely, her eyes locked onto a rotting wooden utility pole by the side of the road.
Sister Wanshuang had told her that the base of this pole was rotten. With the heavy wind and slick roads, an accident could happen easily.
When Sister Wanshuang had given her those meat buns, her eyes had been so warm and sincere. She was the only person in the entire commune who truly treated her with respect.
There was no way in hell she’d let these two bloodsuckers from the Lin family steal Sister Wanshuang’s job.
Setting her jaw, Xu Ling slammed her right foot all the way down on the accelerator.
The tractor let out a deafening roar, its heavy wheels churning up huge clumps of black slush from the snow.
Five meters from the pole.
Xu Ling’s eyes swept across the ground. Half-buried under the snow was a sharp, triangular rock she had placed there earlier.
The moment the right front tire rolled over it, the steering wheel would recoil violently, creating what anyone else would see as an absolute, uncontrollable skid.
“Down you go!”
Xu Ling roared. The tractor’s wheel smashed heavily onto the sharp rock.
The vehicle lurched violently. The steering wheel jerked wildly to the left with so much force that it instantly knocked Xu Ling’s hands free.
Taking advantage of the momentum, she threw her body to the right, tumbling out of the driver’s seat and landing with a heavy thud in a snowbank by the roadside.
“The steering wheel’s locked! Get out of the way!” Xu Ling rolled in the snow, shrieking at the top of her lungs. Her desperate voice sounded terrifyingly genuine in the freezing wind.
“Oh God!”
Lin Baozong’s legs turned to jelly from fright. He collapsed onto the ground, scrambling on all fours toward the corner of the security guard’s hut.
Zhao Cuifeng panicked as well. Her foot slipped, and she landed hard on her rear in the snow, nearly sending the transfer document in her hand flying.
“Get down!” Zhao Cuifeng screamed, shielding her head tightly with both hands.
The next second—
The heavy front end of the tractor veered effortlessly past the main gates of the commune and slammed with precision into the wooden utility pole.
BANG!
A dull, thundering crash shook the ground of the commune compound.
The utility pole, long rotted at its base, snapped instantly.
CRACK!
The sharp, brittle sound of splintering wood pierced the air. The towering pole, dragging several thick black power lines along with it, came crashing toward the ground with a rush of wind.
SPARK! SNAP! POP!
A blinding cascade of blue electrical sparks exploded in midair. The dazzling flash illuminated the dreary, snow-filled sky with a ghostly white light.
As the falling wires pulled tightly, the distribution box atop the commune gate let out a heavy explosion.
Zzzzt—
After a few final dying gasps of electric current, the commune building—which had been dimly lit moments ago—instantly plunged into dead silence.
Inside the guardhouse, the lid of Old Zhang’s enamel mug clattered loudly from the shockwaves.
“What happened?! An earthquake?!” Old Zhang yanked the door open and rushed out. His face turned pale the moment he saw the utility pole lying across the middle of the road.
“Holy hell! The power lines are down!”
Zhao Cuifeng scrambled up from the snow. Without even bothering to brush the mud off her rear, she shouted in a panic, “Can the commune still stamp the paperwork then?! When will the electricity be fixed?!”
Old Zhang spat, pointing at the charred, snapped end of the pole. “Stamp my ass! Can’t you see the high-voltage line is severed? In a snowstorm like this, it’ll take until tomorrow at least for the county power bureau to send someone out!”
“Tomorrow?!” Zhao Cuifeng’s voice screeched like a chicken being squeezed by the neck. “No! It has to be stamped today! I have urgent business!”
“What’s the point of yelling at me?! If you’re so tough, go reconnect the wires yourself!” Old Zhang glared at her testily, then turned to yell toward the snowbank. “Tomboy Xu, you dead yet? If you’re not dead, hurry up and drag yourself up!”
Xu Ling groaned as she crawled out of the snowbank. A tree branch had scraped a bloody line across her face, making her look thoroughly battered.
“Uncle Zhang, the road was too slick,” she rasped, rubbing her shoulder and limping over with a look of lingering terror. “The wheel caught on a rock and skidded, and the steering wheel snapped right out of my hands. I think my shoulder’s dislocated… It hurts like hell.”
Lin Baozong scrambled up from the corner of the wall and pointed at Xu Ling, spewing curses. “You wretched girl, did you do that on purpose?! You just don’t want me to take over the job!”
Xu Ling raised her brows in fury and spat right at Lin Baozong’s feet.
“Pfft! I almost lost my damn life, and you’re standing there blowing smoke out of your mouth! If you think I did it on purpose, go report it to the police! Let’s see if they arrest me—a tractor driver injured on the job—or a mouthy, good-for-nothing hoodlum like you!”
Cowed by her outburst, Lin Baozong shrank his neck back and looked at Zhao Cuifeng helplessly. “Mom, look at her…”
“That’s enough!” Zhao Cuifeng interrupted her son, irritated. She felt the transfer document hidden in her jacket; the damp chill seemed to be soaking deeper into it.
She felt like something was off, but looking at the snapped pole and the sparks covering the ground, she couldn’t spot a single flaw. Could it really have been an accident?
Meanwhile, about a hundred meters away from the commune entrance, beneath the shadow of a large camphor tree, a green military jeep sat quietly in the wind and snow.
The window was cracked open just a sliver.
Zhou Jiting sat in the back seat, a half-burned cigarette pinched between his fingers. The ember glowed softly in the dim cabin.
His gaze pierced through the snow, settling precisely behind the tractor’s right front tire.
There, half-concealed in the snow, lay a triangular stone covered in mud. One corner of the rock bore a clear tire tread mark, and the soil crushed beneath it was still fresh.
Zhou Jiting narrowed his eyes.
In his mind, he swiftly replayed the tractor’s trajectory from moments ago: from the initial acceleration, to the complete lack of slowing down at the turn, to the seamless leverage used to slide after crushing the rock… right down to the rolling motion of the female driver as she leaped from the vehicle.
Every single detail reeked of well-rehearsed deliberation.
It was no accident. It was a carefully staged act of sabotage.
Zhou Jiting withdrew his gaze, the face of the woman from the supply and marketing cooperative surfacing in his mind.
Lin Wanshuang.
Locking down the counter with a heavy iron padlock, spouting laws and regulations with a helpless, aggrieved air—appearing soft on the outside, yet driving her opponents into a corner with every step.
This woman was even smarter—and far more resourceful—than he had imagined.
“Commander, the road ahead is blocked by the power pole. Our vehicle can’t get through,” the adjutant in the passenger seat turned around and asked in a low voice. “Should I go down and clear it?”
Zhou Jiting didn’t answer immediately. He stubbed out the cigarette butt in the car ash tray.
The white smoke drifted slowly through the dim interior, blurring the sharp profile of his face.
“No rush,” Zhou Jiting leaned back against the seat, his voice indifferent. “The play isn’t over yet.”
The adjutant was somewhat bewildered, but he followed Zhou Jiting’s gaze.
Out in the snow, Zhao Cuifeng was dragging Lin Baozong, attempting to step over the power line that was still crackling with sparks.
“Mom, I don’t dare go over! That thing has electricity, it’ll shock us to death!” Lin Baozong refused to take a step, clutching the hem of Zhao Cuifeng’s coat as he pulled back.
“Coward! Follow me!” Zhao Cuifeng gritted her teeth, her eyes filled with frantic desperation. “If we don’t get this stamp today, and that wretched girl Lin Wanshuang backtracks, the prize we’ve almost secured will fly right out of our hands!”
From behind them, Old Zhang let out a cold laugh. “Go on, head across! The fewer deadbeats around, the less grain the commune wastes.”
Zhao Cuifeng froze in her tracks, her face turning an alternating shade of green and pale white.
She stared at the wire still zapping and sizzled on the ground, ultimately lacking the courage to take that step.
Inside the jeep, Zhou Jiting slowly exhaled a plume of smoke and murmured under his breath, “What nerve… bold enough to sabotage public property.”