After the meal, Village Chief Shitou smoked a cigarette sent by Yang Liufang, with a happy smile on his face. He told Yang Liufang that he would go to collect water early the next morning and then distribute the water to the villagers before sending Yang Liufang to Wangshawan. Only then did Yang Liufang learn that Chen Shan’s village was called Wangshawan.
Yang Liufang went to the village headquarters after getting up. When he had nothing to do, he looked through the "People's Daily" placed in the village headquarters. Although it was already mid-October 1986, the latest newspaper in the village was still in 1986. In June, this was the result of poor information flow caused by inconvenient transportation. Yang Liufang read from "The Ministry of Commerce proposed to vigorously organize industrial products to go to the countryside" to "Encourage Party Members to Invest in Reform and Revitalize the Economy". He read and re-read the economic news word for word, imagining that he could have money to make industrial products. How great it would be to be a sales agent.
In March, the People's Daily published an article "Actively restoring traditional business ties with other places to open up the unsaleable situation of brooms in Jinghai County" and a commentator's article "Talk about the unsaleable brooms in Jinghai County". These two articles touched him even more. big. Isn't it the basic skills for people like them to survive by actively contacting and communicating with the outside world, and taking advantage of information gaps and time differences to sell goods and make profits? It also shows that the reform has truly benefited the public from top to bottom, from the coast to the inland. This is why he became accustomed to reading the People's Daily in the future. It is not only a national media, but also an authoritative information source that cares about the national economy and people's livelihood. It's just that in the ravines of the Loess Plateau where news is blocked, these newspapers have expired for half a year and are still lying in the village headquarters, failing to fulfill their functions.
Near noon, the head of Shitou village came back from carrying water and distributed it to the villagers as usual. After that, he asked Yang Liufang to go back for dinner. It’s still steamed potatoes, which is the staple food here, but there are more dishes. In addition to cooking eggplant mixed with garlic paste, which she learned from Yang Liufang, the village chief's aunt also made a large portion of scrambled eggs with tomatoes.
The village chief's mother-in-law and Gawa still went to the kitchen to eat. Yang Liufang and the village chief Shitou ate at the table in the cave, but the table was a little wobbly. The head of Shitou Village said that Gawa was too naughty and used this place as a ladder to climb up and down all day, and she was about to fall apart again. Yang Liufang promised Village Chief Shitou that when he returned from making furniture for his father-in-law's house, he would make him a set of tables and chairs with Jiangnan mortise and tenon structure, so that this problem would not arise.
After the meal, the two unloaded the buckets, loaded the goods, caught up with the donkey cart and headed for Wangshawan. The head of Shitou Village also deliberately hung the new lantern on the most conspicuous place on the shaft of the car. At some point, the village chief's aunt made a protective cover for the lantern with red cloth and protected it. On the way, Yang Liufang proposed to settle the share with the village chief Shitou.
"Brother Shitou, look at the share of these two shipments, I have to give it to you."
"Ouch, brother, don't be ashamed of your brother. This is unacceptable. I used to think that you were like those salesmen, coming today and leaving tomorrow, but I didn't expect that Ermeng (we) have become brothers. You give Ermeng ( We) have so many things, including the pancakes we used, the vegetables we ate, this new lantern, and the cigarettes we smoked. Your sister-in-law and I don’t know how to thank you. How dare you ask for money? !”
"Brother, is this okay?"
"It can be done, it can be done!"
"Brother Shitou, come on."
"A little while?"
"Um!"
Oh, that mule in the lead
The three lamps
Oh, that bell you brought with you
That sound of oh wow wow
That Haba with the white neck, oh
The one facing south
Oh, that guy who drives the animals away
Oh, come on
If you were my brother/sister
Move your hand
You are not my brother/sister
Take the path you have to take
The head of Shitou Village sent the Yangliu Fang and goods directly to Wangshawan Village Headquarters. Wang Shan's father was smoking dry tobacco on the grinding plate in the village yard in the warm autumn sun. When he saw them coming in, he called Wang Shan to greet them. Wang Shan quickly walked out of the cave, and he was very happy to see Yang Liufang arriving. After the last time the two of them went to Zhaomacuan to sell goods, he liked getting along with Yang Liufang, who was experienced in business and understood etiquette. After dropping out of high school, he only stayed in the village office and went to see his girlfriend Yinhua. After all, people who had read books and seen the urban world did not have many topics to talk about with those people in the village who talked about family affairs all day long.
The head of Shitou Village tied up the donkey cart and went to offer cigarettes to his father-in-law. His father-in-law took the cigarette and clamped it to his ear. He said the cigarette was boring, but he knew it was from Yang Liufang and was very pleased that Yang Liufang was sensible. Wang Shan helped Yang Liufang unload the goods. After unloading, Yang Liufang took out two bars of soap, two tubes of toothpaste, and two toothbrushes and gave them to Wang Shan, saying they were for Wang Shan and his future sister-in-law. Wang Shan liked it very much and said that it happened to be gone, which saved him from going to the city. He thanked himself for Yinhua. Yang Liufang took out the only remaining pack of cigarettes and said to Wang Shan sheepishly:
"Third brother, look, I promised to buy it for you last time, but I bought less. I'll give the remaining pack to the old village chief."
Wang Shan nodded approvingly, and Yang Liufang walked out with a cigarette. He saw that the bag of vegetables he had brought back from Yantan was also on the grinding plate. It seemed that Aunt Shitou had not forgotten to share the good things with her mother's family.
"Sou (Uncle), I've caused you trouble. You can take advantage of this."
"Oh, my dear, it's no trouble. This old man (uncle) can't have it." After several pushbacks, Yang Liufang finally put the cigarette on the grinding plate. When the old village chief saw Chen Shan coming out, he asked him to take his brother-in-law and Yang Liufang to see the tree.
"By the way, call a few young people and mark them. After you leave selling your goods, uh (I) will arrange for them to cut down the trees."
"I know." Wang Shan agreed and led Village Chief Shitou and Yang Liufang out of the village.
The village head was in the center of the village. Along the road, he saw young people coming back from the fields after harvesting. He stopped and said, "Brother, if you have nothing to do, go and see the trees with yourself."
As his son-in-law, the head of Shitou Village hurriedly offered the cigarette to him. The man named "Brother Wa" quickly took it and happily asked his mother-in-law to go home first while he followed them to see the tree. Then several people happily took the cigarettes and lit them, and followed them around the village. When they passed by these beheaded willows, if Yang Liufang liked them, he would ask them to pick up a stone and put it under the tree or use it on the ground. Make a wedge out of the stick to mark. A total of seven or eight willow trees with a diameter of an arm's length were chosen. After marking the trees, Chief Shitou blew the smoke again before everyone dispersed. Wang Shan took Village Chief Shitou and Yang Liufang home for dinner.
After dinner, the village chief Shitou wanted to return to the village. The old village chief asked Wang Shan to bring a lantern to his brother-in-law. The village chief Shitou said proudly: "You have a new lantern on your forehead! Xiao Yang gave it to you."
"Oh, that's good. Just be careful on the road."
"I know."
Since Yang Liufang wanted to go back to the village headquarters to sleep, Wang Shan took his brother-in-law and Yang Liufang to the village headquarters together. After seeing off the village head Shitou, the two chatted for a while at the village headquarters before Wang Shan left.
The next day, Wang Shan put on a brand new blue tunic suit and a cadre hat to the village headquarters early. Yang Liufang was washing up, with a mouthful of toothpaste foam. He raised his head, saw it, and whined, "Third brother, you look like a boss." Then, Yang Liufang put on his blue work clothes and sandals, which was indeed a bit nondescript. . The two stood together, and the gap immediately became apparent.
