Inspector Wang smiled faintly, took the cigarette, and said, "Captain He, no smoking in the warehouse."
He Xianghua was all smiles. "I know, I know!"
Inspector Wang took a long steel probe, inspected each of the burlap sacks of grain from He Xianghua's family one by one, and then said, "First-grade."
"Thanks!" When no one was looking, He Xianghua slipped him a pack of cigarettes and said in a low voice, "The ones behind us are my brother-in-law's."
The inspector glanced up briefly. When their turn came, he graded their grain as first-grade as well.
Li Xiangyang saw it all. He felt that the grain from He Xianghua's family and his own was no different from that of the two families before them, yet they had only been rated second-grade.
He thought they would argue with the grain station staff, but instead, they just pulled their grain over to the winnowing machine.
