"Dad, didn't I tell you last time? I have a way to buy sweet potato noodles. People in the village don't have to worry about starving to death without food."
"I'm not afraid of an accident. What if you can't buy it anymore?"
"Dad, I have put another 2,000 kilograms at home. If you lend it to the village, you must remember it clearly. When the chickens start laying eggs, remember to get it back in time. Don't save too much. If you save too much, it will make anyone want it."
"Don't worry, I know what's going on. Is it safe for you to make these sweet potato noodles?"
"No problem. I'll go into the mountains tomorrow to see if I can harvest anything."
The next morning, Su Wen took dry food and water, picked up his shotgun, and set foot on the road into the mountains. He was careful along the way, always paying attention to his surroundings.
After walking through the mountains for a day, Su Wen didn't gain much. When we were going down the mountain, Su Wen went to see the chickens raised in the village. The free-range chickens were pretty good, but the piglets raised in the village were a bit miserable. All twenty piglets were skinny and listless. look like.
Back in the village, Su Wen went to the village chief's house and asked, "Second Grandpa, please take away the piglets raised in our village. I'm almost starving to death."
"Twenty yuan a head, you can take away all ten piglets."
"Second Grandpa, you tricked Second Fool. He's already so thin that he only costs ten yuan a head."
"Awen can't do it for ten yuan. It's hard for me and the villagers to explain. Selling meat costs more than ten yuan."
"Second Grandpa, if you sell such a little piglet, will anyone want it?"
"This..." The village chief hesitated for a moment, and then said, "One hundred and fifty yuan, all for you."
After Su Wen left the village chief's house, he felt secretly proud. As long as these ten piglets are fed well and their nutrition can keep up, there will be no big problem.
At dawn the next day, Su Wen left home on his bicycle. He planned to visit other villages after finding nothing in the mountains. The villages along the Chaobai River have experienced a better life due to drought in the past few years. These are the villages that are close to water sources and can easily be irrigated.
The fields were very dry and turned yellow. There was only a line of green where the stream flowed down from the mountain. The stream had naturally stopped flowing long ago. Only the sweet potatoes grown in the fields survived, and those growing wheat basically withered away.
In a place called Wangzhuang Village, which is seven or eight miles away from the Chaobai River, the situation in this village is better than that of other villages Su Wen passed. Although the wheat on the field was a little withered, Su Wen could see that the wheat had already headed, and if it rained with luck, there would still be a good harvest.
Soon Su Wen knew why the wheat fields in this village were still producing harvests. A long water-carrying team slowly came from a distance. Looking at the long team carrying water, Su Wen had some doubts that the water they were carrying was from the Chaobai River. It’s hard to imagine how hard it would be to walk seven or eight miles carrying two buckets of water.
Su Wen went to the village chief and said, "Hello, old man, I am the buyer of the Hongxing Steel Rolling Mill in the city."
Before Su Wen could finish his words, he was interrupted by the village chief, "Comrade, our village has nothing to sell to you. A buyer from the city just came here yesterday and everything that can be sold in our village was sold. "
Su Wen smiled slightly, took out a pack of cigarettes from his bag, took out one and handed it to the village chief, "Old man, do the water the villagers carry come from the Chaobai River?"
"Yes, we make two trips a day. We leave at around 4 o'clock in the morning, come back at nine or ten, and then go again in the evening. It's too hot during the day and people carrying water can't stand it."
"It's so hard to be so far away."
"It's nothing to work hard, just be content if you can have water." The village chief sighed, and then said, "The drought in the past few years has made the crops in the fields worse and worse, and the water in the ponds has dried up, so we can only Carrying water from the Chaobai River. Although it is hard work, we are willing to make these efforts for the livelihood of our family and the village. Our village has a good relationship and has a good relationship with Xiaoshanzi Village by the river, so we can get water from them. The relationship is not good. Who told you to fetch water? It’s fine for people to drink, but don’t even think about using it to water the fields.”
Su Wen felt sad when he heard this. He knows what a lack of water means to farmers. Unfortunately, his sympathy is of no use. He is not a savior and cannot help them.
When we arrived at Xiaoshanzi Village on the banks of the Chaobai River, the only people left in the village were the elderly and children. "Uncle, I am the buyer of Hongxing Steel Rolling Mill in Sijiucheng. Where is the mayor of our village?"
"The village chief and all the adult men in the village are on the river dam. They are guarding there to prevent the water in our village from being stolen by others."
When Su Wen heard this, he felt bitter in his heart. He understands that in this drought year, water means hope, hope of survival. He thanked the uncle and walked towards the river dam.
Su Wen walked towards the river dam and saw a group of strong men resting in the shade of the trees by the river from a distance, apparently guarding their water source. He came closer and the village chief saw him and stood up.
"Hello, I'm a buyer from Hongxing Steel Rolling Mill in Sijiucheng. My name is Su Wen." He took the initiative to introduce himself. He also took out the letter of introduction and gave it to the village chief for review.
The village chief looked at him, opened the letter of introduction, read it and said, "Hello, my name is Li Ergou, and I am the chief of this village. Are you here to purchase goods in our village?"
"Yes, the supply of supplies is tight now. We purchasers come to the village to buy some unplanned supplies."
"There is nothing extra in our village that we can sell to you now. Except for fish, the Chaobai River is almost drying up. We have caught a lot of fish. Unfortunately, our supply and marketing cooperatives here have stopped collecting fish. They collected too many fish." If you can’t sell it, it’s summer again, and as long as the fish dies, it will go bad very quickly.”
"Then how do you preserve your fish?"
Li Ergou walked forward for a while, stopped and pointed at a pond that was disconnected from the river and said: "We have put all the living big fish there. If it is obvious that we can't feed them, we will disembowel them at noon." Break the belly, apply salt water and dry it in the sun to make dried fish. You see these dried fish on the beach are what we made today. Now the sun is so strong that they can be dried in a few hours."
Su Wen looked at the dried fish drying on the beach, and his heart moved, "Village Chief Li, I want all the dried fish in your village. It costs 30 cents a pound. How about it?"
"Are you sure you can eat them all? The ones below are just the results of our village today, only a small part, not all." Li Ergou looked at Su Wen and asked with some suspicion. There were also buyers from the city a few days ago. They just bought a few live fish and left.
"How many? I might not be able to carry too many, so I just have a bicycle."
"Not that much, just over a hundred kilograms. Once the fish is dried, it will lose its weight."
"No problem, I want more than a hundred pounds."
Li Ergou had a look of joy on his face when he heard this. He didn't expect that this buyer was actually willing to buy dried fish from their village. He nodded and said, "That's great! You rest here for a while, and I'll get you the dried fish."
