Reborn in the Great Northern Wilderness in 1982, I farmed and hunted to support my whole family.

Upon hearing this, Li Chuzi's heart skipped a beat. Although the idea was a bit underhanded, it might actually work.

He looked at Li Mu, somewhat hesitant: "This... will it work?"

Li Mu gritted his teeth and said, "There's no other way now, we can only give it a try."

After discussing it for a while, the two decided to go find Li Jianguo immediately. They arrived at Li Jianguo's house and knocked on the door.

When Li Jianguo opened the door, he saw Li Mu and Li Chuzi. He instinctively tried to close the door, but Li Mu reacted quickly and blocked it, saying, "Brother Jianguo, don't rush to close the door. We need to talk to you."

Li Jianguo and Li Mu had never gotten along, and when Li Mu came to his door, he wondered to himself, "What do you want with me?"

Li Mu smiled and said, "It's nothing serious, I just wanted to chat with you."

Seeing Li Mu's somewhat strange smile, Li Jianguo became even more suspicious: "What are you talking about? What's there to talk about?"

Li Chuzi urged from the side, "Hurry up, stop dawdling, we have something to tell you."

Li Jianguo had no choice but to let the two into the house.

The three sat around the table, and Li Mu got straight to the point: "Brother Jianguo, we know you have a good relationship with my uncle, so we'd like to ask you to help us persuade him to stop digging the pond without permission."

Upon hearing this, Li Jianguo frowned: "This matter? Why don't you go directly to him?"

Li Mu sighed and said, "We went there, but he wouldn't listen. Uncle Tao even got sick because of this. We had no other choice but to come to you."

Li Jianguo felt a little smug, never expecting that he would still be of use in the village, and he took advantage of the situation to climb the social ladder.

"What does your business have to do with me? I can't control him." Li Jianguo deliberately put on airs, picked up his teacup and took a sip.

Seeing that he wouldn't listen to reason, Li Mu pulled out fifty yuan from his sleeve and slammed it on the table, saying, "Brother Jianguo, please accept this small token of my appreciation. As long as you help us persuade my uncle to stop digging the pond without permission, this money is yours."

Fifty dollars!

That was no small sum at the time; it was enough for an ordinary family to live on for several months.

Li Jianguo's eyes lit up when he saw the money on the table, but he quickly regained his composure and said, feigning calmness, "What are you doing? I'm a man of principle. How could I betray my friends for such a small amount of money?"

Seeing his feigned attitude, Li Mu sneered inwardly, but his face was full of smiles: "Brother Jianguo, what are you saying? We're all from the same village, it's only right that we help each other out. Just take this money as a token of our appreciation."

Li Jianguo took another sip of tea before slowly saying, "Alright, then I'll reluctantly try to persuade him. But you must remember, this isn't something I wanted to do; you begged me to do it."

Li Mu nodded repeatedly: "Yes, yes, Brother Jianguo, we've got it all. As long as you're willing to help, anything is fine."

Li Chuzi watched from the side, thinking to himself, "This Li Jianguo is really a money-grubber. But for Uncle Tao's sake, we can only swallow our anger."

The three chatted for a while longer before Li Mu and Li Chuzi got up to say goodbye.

Li Jianguo saw them to the door, and before they left, he reminded them, "Remember, this matter must be kept secret. Don't let outsiders know."

Li Mu and Li Chuzi readily agreed before turning to leave.

Tao Qingshan woke up after drinking three bowls of medicinal soup, and immediately began to curse and rant.

"Those two bastards are infuriating! I've been working so hard for the village, and they're such a handful, digging a pond without permission and talking back to me!"

Zeng Dazhen advised from the side, "Calm down. The doctor said you need to rest and not get angry."

Tao Qingshan snorted, "How can I not be angry? If something really happens because of what they did, the whole village will suffer!" He cursed a few more times before calming down, panting heavily with an angry expression on his face.

Everything that needs to be done on the land right now must be reported and cannot be moved without authorization.

Zeng Dazhen dared not try to persuade her anymore and could only silently wipe away her tears.

Tao Qingshan lay on the bed for a while, but still felt a tightness in his chest. He struggled to sit up and said, "No, I have to go see them. I can't let them run wild like this."

Zeng Dazhen was startled and quickly stopped him: "What are you doing? The doctor said you should rest properly, don't run around."

Tao Qingshan glared at Zeng Dazhen and said, "How could I not know how to rest properly? But how can I trust them to do this? I have to keep an eye on them and make sure they don't cause any bigger trouble."

Zeng Dazhen couldn't persuade him otherwise, so she helped him up, put a coat on him, and then let him go out.

Tao Qingshan arrived at Li Siming's house and found the door tightly closed, so he knocked on it hard.

He Yinglian was tidying up her things inside when she heard a knock on the door. Thinking it was Li Siming returning, she said irritably, "You rascal, you finally decided to come back? I thought you'd died out there."

As he spoke, he opened the door, only to find Tao Qingshan standing outside. He was immediately stunned.

Tao Qingshan didn't waste any words with her. He went straight into the house, looked around, and saw that a large pit had been dug in the yard. He couldn't help but feel angry.

"Is this how you dig a pond? It doesn't even look decent, and you think you can make money raising fish? You're dreaming!" Tao Qingshan cursed.

Seeing Tao Qingshan's posture, He Yinglian was also a little scared, but she refused to back down: "Uncle Tao, what are you doing? We're digging our pond, what's it to you?"

Tao Qingshan trembled with rage: "Did you get the village's permission to dig this pond? This land belongs to the village, not yours! What you're doing is illegally occupying village land!"

Upon hearing this, He Yinglian immediately became furious: "You old man, how can you be so unreasonable? How is it illegal for us to dig a pond? Look at Li Mu and the others digging a pond, why don't you say they're breaking the law?"

Tao Qingshan snorted: "Li Mu and his group dug the pond with the village's approval and all the necessary permits. What about you? You have nothing, yet you dare to dig a pond without permission. Isn't that illegal?"

He Yinglian was rendered speechless by Tao Qingshan's retort, but unwilling to admit defeat, she said arrogantly, "Anyway, we've already dug this pond, so there's no way we can fill it back in. If you insist on making us fill it back in, we'll fight you to the death!"

Seeing her so unreasonable, Tao Qingshan was even more furious: "You're being completely unreasonable! I'm telling you, this isn't over! I'm going to report you to the village and let you know what's what!"

With that, Tao Qingshan turned and walked out the door.

When He Yinglian saw that Tao Qingshan was really about to leave, she panicked and grabbed his sleeve. Tao Qingshan lost his balance and hit his head on the door frame with a thud, suddenly fainting.

Upon seeing this, He Yinglian was so frightened that she quickly let go, took a few steps back, and stared wide-eyed at Tao Qingshan lying on the ground, at a loss for what to do.