When the donkey cart arrived at Yantan, the sun had already set. Yang Liufang asked the old man to drive the donkey cart directly to the vegetable farmer's land. He jumped out of the car and before he could speak, the vegetable farmer had already come out of the shack.
"Xiao Yang is back?"
"Well, old man (uncle), uh (I) am back."
"Is the matter done?"
"Look."
"Hey! So many. Why did you buy these carpentry tools? Do you know how to make furniture yourself?"
"Yes, uncle (Uncle), I studied carpentry with a teacher in my hometown for two years."
"Oh, that's great! This young man is not simple."
"Sou (Uncle), I have to ask you to help me move the goods to the donkey cart and drag them with the carpentry tools to the bus stop. Wait for Brother Qin or his comrades to come over and give me a piece of it."
"Well, then, Ermeng (us) can move quickly. Brother, please help Ermeng (us) keep an eye on it." With that, the vegetable farmer uncle handed over a cigarette.
"Okay, okay, I need help talking." The man driving the donkey cart said as he took the cigarette.
"No, it's not much. Meng (we) can move it ourselves."
The two of them finished moving the goods here and loaded them on the donkey cart. The man in the donkey cart turned the cart around with the animals and headed towards the road. As soon as we arrived at the station, a military truck drove over. But it's not Brother Qin, it's one of his comrades, very young. He opened the door and jumped out of the car easily.
"Hello, who is Xiao Yang?"
"Hello, brother of the People's Liberation Army, I am."
"Oh, hello, I am a comrade of the Qin family army. He is on a mission. I was entrusted by him to take you with him from here." The young soldier spoke clearly and decisively.
"Thank you. How do you think we pretend?"
"Let's do this, put part of it into the co-pilot and stuff it into the joint of the tanker." He said as he started to move the goods, and Yang Liufang and the vegetable farmer followed suit. It was quickly moved and coded. Boxes or bags were stacked on the passenger side, and long tools such as saw blades and saws were stacked at the connection between the carriages. While they were loading the goods, the vegetable farmer went to the vegetable field to pick a half-snake skin bag of spinach, brought it over, and stuffed it into the connection between the carriages. Yang Liufang hurriedly thanked him.
After paying the fare to the driver, saying goodbye to the vegetable farmer, he got into the car from the driver's side and sat in the seat between the driver and passenger. Qin Jiajun's comrades also got into the car, closed the door, activated the military card, and drove towards the oil field. Along the way, the two of them were relatively reserved and didn't speak much. The air was a bit solid. Yang Liufang had nothing to say.
"Hello, you and Brother Qin are both from the transportation team?"
"Yes, Brother Qin is our platoon leader."
"Oh, so that's it."
"He didn't tell you?"
"No, he took me with him three times. I only know that he came from Henan to serve as a soldier."
"Yes, our platoon leader is very nice." The two of them chatted for a while, and soon arrived at the oil field. Brother Qin's comrades gave him another piece of cake. It was probably because Brother Qin had told him to drop him off where it was easy to catch a ride, and then he helped him code the goods before driving away.
Yang Liufang successfully caught a tractor pulling bricks here. No need to ask, he came from Hongtu Village, because the red bricks from Hongtu Village are used throughout Xizhou and even in several surrounding cities. It is said that the fired red bricks are like iron. solid. He could only send Yang Liufang to the three-way intersection. Yang Liufang was very grateful and took out a cigarette to salute him. The master helped him load the goods into the car, and the two headed for the three-way intersection.
When they arrived at the three-way intersection, Village Chief Shitou was already waiting here. When I saw the tractor coming, I greeted it from a distance. Sure enough, Yang Liufang was carrying Yang Liufang on the truck.
"Oh, but when I came back, (I) met three cars."
"Thank you, Brother Shitou."
"You're welcome. Come and move the goods. Oh, there are so many this time."
"Well, the replenishment also includes some carpentry tools. There is also half a bag of spinach given to our family by the uncle of the vegetable farmer in Yantan."
"That's so embarrassing. I haven't met them in person, but I always eat their food."
"It's okay, Brother Shitou, we are all our own people. Come on, here is this for you." Yang Liufang handed him another pack of cigarettes.
"Look, here, I didn't even bother to finish the last pack. Come on, big brother, you can also smoke one. Thank you for sending (my) brother back."
"It's okay, the folks in the village help each other." The driver also started to help, and soon moved the goods and tools to the donkey cart of the village chief Shitou. It was already dark now, and with the light of the car, the village chief Shitou lit the lantern sent by Yang Liufang. The lanterns that usually look very bright are a bit eclipsed in front of the car lights. After the tractor left, it took a long time to get used to it, but as the night began to draw closer, the lights became brighter and brighter.
"Brother Shitou, I met a saleswoman when I was buying tools. She said her mother was the principal of Hanwangchuan Middle School."
"Oh, Principal Wang of middle school? Her daughters have graduated from college and are working?"
"Oh, so you know each other."
"Of course I know her. She taught me mathematics back then. Alas! He is a good person, but his life is a bit bitter."
"Oh, life is miserable, what happened to her?"
"She is a girl from a big city. She is from Shanghai. She was an educated youth who came to join our queue in 1958 or 1959."
"Educated youth? Why did you become a teacher again? We also have educated youth there. According to my parents, they all work together with everyone."
"Yes, it was the same with their group of people who came to our place. At that time, the educated youth from Ermeng (our) village lived in Er (my) house, and Teacher Wang often came to play with us. Oh, Teacher Wang is now Principal Wang. She After graduating from high school, he is proficient in reading poetry, singing, mathematics, and painting, and he is also good at playing the accordion. He is really versatile." Village Chief Shitou introduced incoherently and lit a cigarette.
"But the intellectuals! They don't have the strength to tie a chicken, and they are not very good at farm work. According to the Buddha, the centimeters they earn are not enough to feed themselves. Because educated youths come here every year, they can't even live in E's house. Ha (Part 2). Later, they were given three rooms to live in by themselves. Oh, it’s the house at the village headquarters now. Every village here (ours) does the same thing. They know a lot, Ermeng (We) always go to see what’s new.”
"Later, Hanwangchuan Primary School was short of teachers, so I asked Teacher Wang to take over as a substitute. Because she was good at teaching, she was later transferred to Hanwangchuan Middle School as a teacher. Well (I) caught up, and she taught elementary school mathematics and junior high school mathematics. . Hehe, it’s just that (I) am too stupid and can’t study well, so I let her down.”
"Then she also taught Wang Shan and Yinhua?"
"Of course, Teacher Wang, she has taught many children in Hanwangchuan. All in all, you said her daughter is a classmate of Wang Shan and his unmarried daughter-in-law Yinhua."
"Indeed, she said so herself."
"Well, that should be, 1965, it was 1965. Somehow, Teacher Wang got close to the educated youth who jumped in the queue at the same time. It is said that the man's family was a capitalist roader, and he couldn't do a good job in Hongtu Village. , I was lazy to eat. Not long after I got married, Teacher Wang got pregnant, and there were a lot of rumors at that time. Teacher Wang gave birth to a child in 1966, when I graduated from junior high school, and she stopped teaching me."
"Later, in 1977 or 1978, I heard that both he and the man took the college entrance examination, and then the man was admitted to a prestigious university. According to the policy, the village did not stop him and gave full support, so he left Teacher Wang and his children. As for Teacher Wang, she was admitted to Xizhou Teachers College because she had too much time to take care of her children. She took her children to finish their studies. Because of the matter of settling her children, her own household registration had also been settled. He is with us and is studying in a teachers college, so he can only be assigned to Emeng (ours) as the principal, and there is no news about that man."
"So this child has never had a father?"
"We don't understand the world of intellectuals. Anyway, Teacher Wang has always been the principal here. The man never came back, so she raised the child alone. Later I heard that the child went to Xizhou I went to college, but I didn’t expect to be assigned to a supply and marketing cooperative after graduation.”
"It's such a tragic story."
The two of them arrived home unknowingly as they chatted. The village chief's mother-in-law had been waiting for them with Gawa. Gawa and Yang Liufang were no longer strangers. Under the light of the lantern, she saw Yang Liufang coming in and hugged his legs. The village chief's mother-in-law said: "Look at this baby. , kiss his old man (uncle). Well (I) will get you some food."
"Sister-in-law, I brought some spinach back. You can choose some scrambled eggs and we can eat them together. Eat more spinach to replenish iron and vitamins. I also want to ask, in the future, I can get some spinach seeds from the vegetable farmer and plant some here."
"Oh, that's good. Thank you (my) brother first." The village chief's mother-in-law went to cook. The two of them ate hot potatoes and spinach and scrambled eggs. They felt very delicious.
After eating, the two unloaded the goods and tools and loaded the buckets, so as not to delay the village chief Shitou's hauling water the next day. Yang Liufang also gave village chief Shitou and his mother-in-law a toothbrush and a tube of toothpaste, telling them to brush their teeth every day and be civilized and hygienic.
"Hey, I used to only see you brushing your teeth with those educated youths, but I didn't expect that we (us) would also become civilized people."
