Don’t be fooled by David Thompson being a local thug—Chinese farmers have their own kind of cunning, and there’s no way he’d give up such a juicy opportunity.

So, the matter of Andrew Brooks came up again.

Chapter 9: The Widow Knocks

For those putting up the money, building a road is an expensive undertaking. But for the villagers of Donglinshui, it’s a rare chance in their lives to get a hefty cash subsidy for their households.

That’s why so many villagers want to join the roadwork. Unfortunately, David Thompson doesn’t plan to send out all the available labor.

There’s a limit to how many people can participate in the road construction—that’s one reason. On the other hand, Chief also wants to use this opportunity to show off his own value.

Are you close to David Thompson? No problem—even the thirteen- or fourteen-year-old boys in your family can go. If your relationship is just so-so, you’ll have to bring some gifts to pay respects to the Chief.

Of course, the village is poor, and Mr. Thompson doesn’t have high expectations. Two chickens or fifty or sixty eggs are enough. The Chief mainly wants to see if people have the right attitude. Of course, if someone can slip him thirty or fifty yuan, that’s even better.

But the village is poor—how could the villagers be well-off?

There’s a widow in the village—well, actually, a “living widow.” Her husband is bedridden. She’s also surnamed Li, and not far removed in kinship from David Thompson. To take care of her husband, she wants to earn some money too. Even if she’s not strong enough for heavy labor, someone still needs to cook and bring water, right?

The bedridden man has already drained all the family’s savings, and continues to be a burden on this fragile household. The widow has no money.

Her surname is Chang—Helen Chambers. In her youth, she was considered a beauty in the surrounding villages. In fact, she’s not that old now, only thirty-five, and she has a sixteen-year-old daughter who looks much like she did at that age.

Helen Chambers brought a dozen eggs, mustered her courage, and went to see David Thompson. “Uncle, our family is poor, this is all I could bring. For Jack’s sake…”

David Thompson cut her off right away, his lecherous eyes roaming up and down her body. “Helen, don’t you know what your big brother wants? Why are you playing games with me? What’s the point?”

Of course Helen Chambers knew what the Chief was after. But by custom, David Thompson is Jack’s clan uncle—doing that kind of thing would be a scandal.

Besides, David Thompson is crude and ugly. Just thinking about this dark, ugly uncle climbing on top of her made Helen Chambers feel sick to her stomach.

But that wasn’t even the worst of it. The real problem was that this Chief was utterly shameless. Based on past experience, even if she gritted her teeth and agreed, in a few days David Thompson would probably move the Chief’s office right onto her kang bed.

Wouldn’t her Jack be driven to death by anger?

Helen Chambers left the Chief’s house in low spirits. Luckily, a close friend gave her a tip: “Helen, isn’t there a new Deputy Chief in the village? He’s a city kid—maybe he’s got a kind heart.”

A city person? They’re all slick, Helen Chambers knew that. Still, it couldn’t hurt to ask for help one more time. Besides, that Mr. Brooks was fair-skinned, tall, and handsome. If she had to choose, she’d rather let this city boy mess around with her.

But he might not even be interested in her!

Actually, she was underestimating herself. She was in her thirties, with big, bright eyes and smooth, fair skin—nothing like a typical country woman. Dressed up, she could outshine a model. No wonder the Chief had his eye on her.

With these thoughts in mind, Helen Chambers decided to give it another try. Still feeling uneasy, on a whim, she brought her daughter Little Joan along to see Andrew Brooks.

Lately, Andrew Brooks had been feeling a bit bored. There wasn’t much going on in the village, and life was monotonous to the extreme. The village committee did have a black-and-white TV, but it had been broken for four or five years. The long nights were lonely.

Coincidentally, he’d just come into a bit of money. He’d sent half to his parents, and still had five thousand left. He was thinking about whether he should buy a color TV for the village committee.

No one had ever seen an official fix up the government office, but Andrew Brooks wasn’t like other people. In the eyes of Luo Tian Shangxian, RMB was just paper—yes, just paper, at most, paper that didn’t mind getting wet.

He was still mulling it over when Helen Chambers came in with her daughter. “Hehe, Deputy Brooks, you’re still up?”

“Not yet, come in and sit,” Andrew Brooks quickly beckoned. “Helen, it’s so late—what brings you here?”

He was quite pleased, since it was another chance to practice his social skills. Right now, if he wanted, he could cultivate for thirty or fifty years and definitely ascend again. But because of his lack of social skills, he didn’t dare make any big moves, and it really troubled him.

“It’s nothing, just… my family is poor and we need money. I want to help with the roadwork, but the Chief says I’m a woman,” Helen Chambers said, her eyes darting, not daring to look Andrew Brooks in the eye.

That’s just how people are—once you have something on your mind, you instinctively try to hide it. All the more so since she’d always been a virtuous woman and never done anything improper.