Due to his biological clock, Yang Liufang wakes up naturally at 5:30 in the morning. Village Chief Shitou has formed a habit of working with him here these days, so the two of them got up early and continued working. Li Tongfu slept a little longer and got up early to cook. At 7:00, Li Tongfu made breakfast and the four of them finished eating. After the meal, Yang Liufang heated up hot water again and washed his whole body, put on another set of clean work clothes, and put on the military coat and big-toe shoes Zhang Feng bought. After putting on the new clothes, he took a photo of the clean water in the washbasin. In the photo, except for the fact that his hair has grown very long because he hasn’t had a haircut in two months, he looks so handsome.
When using the basin as a mirror, Yang Liufang thought that he should also buy the mirror to be mounted on the dressing table. This time he went to the city and bought it together. Li Tongfu was also dressed in the same way. After getting dressed, he went to check the goods again to see what was missing, and he wanted to make up for it together when he went to the city. The two brothers saw that nothing was missing, and then led by Wang Shan to the village headquarters. After the village chief heard this, he arranged for someone to contact the tractor immediately. After a while, the tractor arrived directly at the village entrance. The two got on the tractor and went straight to Xizhou.
Calculating carefully, Yang Liufang has not been in the city for almost a month since he entered the city on October 26th because he was busy with furniture making work. The river beach road in Zhaomagou is full of winter atmosphere. The tractor chugged forward, and the two of them unconsciously stood up the fur collars of their coats in the carriage, hunched their necks to avoid the wind, and the moisture vapor they exhaled quickly formed a moist patch where it came into contact with their cheeks. . Occasionally, there are a few willow trees on the roadside that are bare, and the wind shakes the branches and makes a whining sound. Because walking along the river, you can occasionally see white frost on the withered grass, and the willow trees are tightly wrapped in coats.
As we approach the outskirts of Xizhou City, the number of vehicles and pedestrians gradually increases, and occasionally buses join us. In the distance, we can see large chimneys similar to factories in our hometown, standing tall with thick white smoke. cigarette. Only later did Yang Liu learn that this was when the heating company began to provide warmth to thousands of households living in the city.
This time they planned to go to the wholesale market first. Yang Liufang asked him to get off the bus four stops early as usual. What Li Tongfu wanted to say, Yang Liufang patted him on the shoulder. He instantly understood that businessmen can always understand each other at critical moments. After the driver left, the two changed to a bus. After the bus arrived, they did not go to the wholesale market first. Yang Liufang took Li Tongfu to the train station square.
Only the pagoda-like pine trees beside the square are still green, and the branches of the weeping willows that once shaded the willows are all bare and dancing in the wind, and it hurts if they are occasionally slapped on the face. When I arrived under the willow tree where I polished my shoes, the bricks were still there.
"Brother, I'm just here to shine my shoes and wait for you."
"Oh, I was still in Zhengzhou at that time, and I was worried all day long that you wouldn't be able to hold on and would be hungry. Hahaha... Now it seems that I was worrying too much."
They walked to the square again. The patrolling police were still there, but they didn't see Officer Chen. Maybe they had all changed their clothes and no one could recognize each other. Yang Liufang took Li Tongfu to the exit of the station to see the fellow who repaired and shined shoes, and found that another vendor had already replaced him.
The two walked eastward along the wall of the station, crossed the sidewalk, and arrived under a row of street vendors. Yang Liufang took Brother Afu directly to the restaurant where he often eats beef noodles, and they still queued up. He ordered a big cow each for Brother Afu and himself, and they were both meat and eggs. Seeing Yang Liufang skillfully ordering noodles with a Xizhou accent, Li Tongfu sincerely admired him. He didn't expect that his brother would be so easy-going and quickly integrate into the local area.
The two took off their coats and ate up a large bowl of beef noodles with meat and eggs. There were beads of sweat on their foreheads. I went to the barber shop nearby to get my hair cut, and then walked to the market. Because the weather was colder, there were obviously fewer people on the street. When they arrived at the market, Boss Zhou and Boss Chen saw the two little "gods of wealth" Yang Liufang and Li Tongfu coming, and invited them in for tea respectively.
"It's not time to order the next batch of goods yet. Why, are you having trouble going to the city?"
"Well, my brother, please buy some goods, and I will follow you to buy a machine that can spray paint."
"Oh, we are not allowed to sell machines here. I guess you will have to go to the supply and marketing cooperative."
"Yes, we came here to ask you two where we can find them. By the way, we can replenish some goods that need to be bought here."
"Go to the place where the supply and marketing cooperative sells industrial products." Lao Zhou also agreed.
"Brother, if you need anything, ask the two bosses to prepare the goods for us." Li Tongfu put forward the goods he needed according to the list he made. The two bosses took note of it and went to prepare it separately. They were packed into two large bags. The savvy Li Tongfu asked for another 100 pairs of cotton socks in one size and wanted to try selling them.
Boss Zhou and Boss Chen packed the goods into two snakeskin bags and took them to the station in a yellow croaker cart. They took the bus to Yantan, then transferred to No. 31 and arrived at the Chengbei Supply and Marketing Cooperative. After getting off the bus, I went to the industrial product sales department of the Supply and Marketing Cooperative and asked from counter to counter, but no one understood what they needed. Li Tongfu simply took Yang Liufang to the hardware sales department to find Yanhua. She happened to be on duty, and they became familiar with each other. She was also very happy to see Yang Liufang.
Yang Liufang described the equipment he needed, and Yanhua took them directly into the office of the director of the industrial products sales department of the supply and marketing cooperative. After hearing this, the director didn't understand much. He only knew about air pumps and various types of snakeskin tubes. We have them all, and we have to go to the building materials store to buy the snakeskin hose. I don’t know where to buy the watering can and spray gun. There are watering cans for watering flowers and cleaning glass. He also gave them the number of the gas pump counter and asked Yanhua to take them to buy it.
After Yang Liufang heard this, he thought about the air pump. Is the so-called spray gun like the clip on the end of the air pipe of the air pump? Now that I have bought these myself, and then bought a pump and a watering can for watering the flowers, is it possible to modify one? Forget it, at this point, we can only treat the dead horse as a living horse doctor. You can't go to Haining again just for this air pump and spray gun.
When they arrived at the counter designated by the sales director, they saw air pumps, both electric and manual. Since the village did not have electricity yet, they could not count on electric ones. I bought a manual air pump. The manual air pump is much cheaper than the electric one. This human-powered air pump is like a large air pump, a large ladder-shaped metal frame. In the middle of the frame is an air tank. One end of the air tank is connected to a pressure gauge with an air nozzle, and the other end is a support rod. When used, People need to step on the foot pedal to fill the air tank first. If continuous use is required, people need to step on the foot pedal to keep inflating. After learning how to use it and paying the money, the two of them carried the air pump and followed Yanhua to the building materials sales department to buy air pipes.
Yanhua took them to the building materials sales department and found the counter selling pipes. Through the salesperson's introduction, they learned that the so-called snakeskin pipes are plastic hoses with nylon thread added to them, so that they can withstand greater pressure. There are various types of pipes. Yang Liufang chose a 20-meter air pipe with a smaller diameter than the air pump nozzle so that it can be stretched farther when spraying. The salesperson saw that her colleague Yanhua had brought them and cut them an extra meter. Based on his own thoughts, Yang Liufang bought two watering cans for watering flowers and cleaning glass, and a pump from the building materials sales department, and cut two glass mirrors by the way.
Finally, I went to Yanhua's counter to buy the clips needed to fix the trachea. After everything was ready, Yang Liufang let Li Tongfu look after him and went to the Yellow River Labor Market to hire a car. When he arrived at the labor market, he chose a walking tractor for 15 yuan. Although he is no longer the shoe shiner he was when he first came to Xizhou, he knows that making money is not easy, so he is still very frugal.
With the help of the driver, the two loaded up the purchased goods, said goodbye to Yanhua, and set off on the tractor. In order to save gas money, the tractor master took a shortcut to Yantan, passed the oil field, and then took the three-way intersection where Yangliu Fang often got off. This way, the journey was more than 10 miles closer than the road to Zhaomagou River Beach, but the road was not as long. It's so easy to walk, the bumps are uncomfortable. When crossing Yantan, Yang Liufang originally wanted to go down to see the vegetable farmer, but he saw no one in the large vegetable field, and it was cold, so he didn't want to move, so he didn't go down.
Along the way, Yang Liufang told Li Tongfu about the embarrassment he had been on this road and the time he was so hungry that he almost fainted at the three-way intersection. Yang Liufang was sitting in a bumpy carriage wrapped in a military coat, recalling the painful experiences of the past few months. He found that all the past was a prologue. Without all the hard work in the past, how could I be where I am today?
