Chapter 74

Qi Weidong seemed to be preoccupied along the way. He brought Xia Juhua to his home in silence. After entering the house, he looked around before asking Xia Juhua to sit down.

After everyone sat down, they had to say what needed to be said. Qi Weidong told Xia Juhua in detail how he was buried in the pit by his uncle:

Qi Weidong's youngest uncle was a college student at the Agricultural College in the 1950s. He was assigned to work in Pingde County. Before the movement, he was gradually promoted to deputy county governor in charge of agriculture. Now he is called deputy director of the Revolutionary Committee.

Before becoming deputy county chief, Uncle Qi had been working in the agricultural department. He was a little affected when he was making the leap because he was reluctant to boast about production. However, three years after the disaster, he was reassigned to his job and became deputy county chief. After the movement, he was still the deputy director in charge of agricultural production in the county.

Because of his uncle's experience, Qi Weidong was not interested in the Red Team and never thought of joining. He did not want to be bound by constraints, and he would not stay in the formal job that expected everyone at that time for long. His biggest wish was to make more money, eat better and dress better.

His standards for eating well and dressing well are different from Xia Juhua's, and his goal of making money is also different. Because of his uncle's experience, his family does not have high expectations for Qi Weidong, as long as he does not cause trouble.

If Qi Weidong had been engaging in minor trouble in the black market in Pingde County, there would be nothing that Uncle Qi could not help solve - as order was gradually restored, even if he was only the deputy director of the Revolutionary Committee in charge of agriculture, his words still carried weight in a large agricultural county.

Qi Weidong was too optimistic about the vermicelli from Pingan Village and came up with the idea of ​​​​transporting it to other regions for sale, but problems arose during transportation. When Qi Weidong reported the name of Uncle Qi, both the person and the goods were fine, but Uncle Qi discovered that he was reselling vermicelli.

In the past, Uncle Qi turned a blind eye to Qi Weidong's black market reselling things, but this time he set his eyes on vermicelli.

He is the deputy director in charge of agriculture. He knows very well that sweet potatoes are not easy to store. He also knows that sweet potatoes can last farmers half a year. He also knows that in order to support the disaster-stricken areas in the south, most of the remaining grain in the grain warehouses of Pingde County are sweet potatoes.

The problem is that Uncle Qi has been in charge of agriculture for so many years and is very experienced in weather. Like Xia Juhua and others, he does not have much hope for agricultural production after the spring.

Therefore, the importance of sweet potatoes in the granary to Pingde County is self-evident. Now that they know there is a production team that can produce vermicelli in large quantities, it would be a joke for Uncle Qi to let Qi Weidong go.

Uncle Qi had thought about using administrative orders to have the people in Ping'an Village process vermicelli for all the grain stations in the county, but Qi Weidong's words dispelled this idea.

Qi Weidong said: "Uncle, I know you want to leave some life-saving food for the people in the county, but do other leaders of the Revolutionary Committee think the same as you do?"

After hearing this, Xia Juhua's resentment towards Qi Weidong disappeared. It must be said that Qi Weidong's idea of ​​​​leaving the food in Pingde or Chengping moved Xia Juhua.

According to what she knew in her previous life, the entire Chengping area would suffer from drought after the spring (please forgive Xia Juhua, no matter in her previous life or this life, she was just a rural woman, and she only thought and cared about the places she could access), and the year before, this region used all the grain that could be transported after the harvest to support the disaster-stricken south.

All that was left in the granary were sweet potatoes, which were inconvenient to transport and store. Once other leaders of the county revolutionary committee knew that Ping'an Village could make a large number of sweet potatoes into vermicelli that was easy to store, no one could guarantee that someone would ship the vermicelli to the disaster area for their own political achievements or to curry the favor of their superiors.

It's not that Xia Juhua is selfish and unwilling to support the disaster area. If you ask a person who knows that he will soon run out of food to take out the life-saving food in his mouth and give it to others, I believe that few people can do it. It's not about selfishness, it's just for survival.

"Then what did your uncle say?" Xia Juhua asked Qi Weidong weakly.

Qi Weidong said in a low voice: "The second batch of sweet potatoes were from a commune grain station that my uncle got through his connections. He wanted Ping'an Village to turn all the sweet potatoes from all the commune grain stations in Pingde County into vermicelli."

"Aren't you afraid that other county leaders will find out?"

"Those people are thinking about how to achieve political achievements every day, and no one cares about the grain station. They will only hold a meeting at the grain station when they need grain. Normally, except for my uncle, no one goes to the grain station to check whether the stored grain is safe." Qi Weidong felt sorry for his uncle when he talked about this, and his expression was as angry as Xia Juhua's.

"Xiao Qi, has your uncle ever thought about this? When there is a shortage of food in the spring, some members' homes will soon be out of food. At that time, will the grain station have to take out relief food? If the grain station takes out vermicelli instead of sweet potatoes, can this matter be kept secret?" Xia Juhua didn't dare to think about what would happen when people found out that the sweet potatoes in the grain station had turned into vermicelli.

Qi Weidong sneered: "Auntie, do you really think those people... Don't you know that every year after the granary harvests the sweet potatoes, less than half can be sent to the winery. Of the rest, less than half is distributed to the citizens, and a large number of them rot every spring. Last year, because the granary could not be empty, they did not even distribute the sweet potatoes that should be given to the citizens. Otherwise, how could there be sweet potatoes for sale on the black market?"

"They can't just give everyone a pile of rotten sweet potatoes as relief food, right? So as long as they can give everyone something to eat, they don't care what they give everyone to eat."

Haha, for the first time in her life, Xia Juhua that hoped the spring breeze would come soon and that the household contract responsibility system would be implemented soon, so that the grain that the farmers had worked so hard to grow for a year would not be wasted in a place she didn't know about.

But the production capacity of the Pingan Village production team is too limited. Let alone another 100,000 or 200,000 kilograms of sweet potatoes, even if it is only another 50,000, I am afraid that some people will give up.

So although Xia Juhua admired Uncle Qi's courage and responsibility, she had to say, "Xiao Qi, the people in Ping An Manor are really useless."

Everyone was too tired. If Xia Juhua hadn't known this, why would she have taken the women to visit the county town? It was just to let relax their tense nerves - she herself didn't have anything urgent to buy.

"Captain Xia, right?"

Such a person has a positive image at first glance, and Xia Juhua guessed his identity at the first time. However, she did not take the initiative to greet him, but looked at Qi Weidong.

Qi Weidong's head was almost down to his chest. When he heard someone coughing, he raised his head and whispered to Xia Juhua, "Captain Xia, this is my uncle, Deputy Director Qi of our County Revolutionary Committee."

"You don't have to tell me about my duties," Uncle Qi said to Qi Weidong impatiently, his eyes fixed on Xia Juhua. "Captain Xia, your production team has solved the problem of sweet potato storage and opened up new ideas for the county's grain stations. Thank you."

The leader's words were very high-level. Xia Juhua waved her hands repeatedly: "Director Qi, we were forced to do this. Who wouldn't want to rest for a few more days in the middle of winter?"

Uncle Qi did not show any displeasure because Xia Juhua was not polite: "No matter what, at least the sweet potatoes of your Pinganzhuang production team can be preserved, and the members have more food to eat, which helps the county solve the burden of a production team. So I still want to thank you."

More food? Xia Juhua realized that the leader was much harder to fool than Qi Weidong, so she simply stopped trying to be clever and waited quietly for the leader's next words.

Uncle Qi did not let Xia Juhua wait any longer. His frowning brows gradually tightened, and the smile just now was replaced by a serious look: "Comrade Xia Juhua, you can take the initiative to take over as the production team leader of Ping'an Village, and lead the members to quickly develop agricultural and sideline production. This is enough to prove that you are a good comrade with a big picture in mind."

"It has been proven that you are not only capable of solving the production and living problems of the Pingan Village members, but also capable of helping more people solve their food problems. Could you bear to watch the people who, like the Pingan Village members, work hard in the fields, go hungry in the spring and even in the fall because of improper storage of sweet potatoes?"

"Director Qi, I..."

"Comrade Xia Juhua, I told Wei Dong that I would report to the Red Team. I was just trying to scare him. I hope you don't feel any psychological burden. But I am really worried about the vast number of comrades in Pingde County. They are different from the citizens in the county town. They don't have a ration every month."

"The sweet potatoes in the grain station are their last hope. Are you going to watch the members of Pingde County, except for the Pinganzhuang production team, see their last hope rot in the grain warehouse?"

Leader, you are so eloquent, how come you are only the deputy director of the Revolutionary Committee? Xia Juhua looked at Uncle Qi steadily and found that his worries were genuine. Unconsciously, she recalled the scene of people fighting over a piece of wild vegetable during a natural disaster in the previous life.

If possible, who would want to see such a scene? If it wasn't to avoid such a scene from happening again, why didn't Xia Juhua just be a rural woman and quietly make some mats, flour and peanuts to earn enough money to support her family?

Xia Juhua's original idea was not to be a leader for Fei Jin Bali. Now, Uncle Qi told her that this would allow a wider range of members to no longer repeat the fate of starving in their previous lives, and Xia Juhua's heart was shaken.

"But Director Qi, the members of our production team have been skipping meals for almost three months. We haven't even had a day off during the Chinese New Year. We are really exhausted." With her remaining rationality, Xia Juhua tried to convince Uncle Qi, and even more so to convince herself.

Director Qi nodded and said, "Yes, the members of Pingan Village are too tired. Not only do they have to leak powder, but they also have to promote the county supply and marketing cooperative. There is really no room for more people to leak powder."

Xia Juhua nodded vigorously and told Director Qi that the members of their Ping'an Village were not conservative, and they would do their best to teach anyone who wanted to learn how to leak powder from them.

But Director Qi did not do as Xia Juhua wished: "Other production teams or brigades are not as united as the people in Ping'an Village. Once the news that all the sweet potatoes in the grain station were turned into vermicelli is known, it will probably bring trouble to Ping'an Village."

"Uncle, do you think this will work?" What Qi Weidong hated the most now was that Ping'an Zhuang would get into trouble because of the leaked powder. To be more precise, he was afraid that it would bring trouble to Xia Juhua: "Doesn't the supply and marketing cooperative pay cash for the reed mats from Ping'an Zhuang? Can't the grain stations do the same as the supply and marketing cooperative, paying processing fees to Ping'an Zhuang members and asking them to help with the leaked powder?" Even if this were a semi-official action, Ping'an Zhuang would have some excuse to the outside world.

Uncle Qi did not answer Qi Weidong's words. His frowning brows were no longer locked, and he looked at Xia Juhua with a half-smile.

Was it so obvious that she wanted to get more sweet potatoes? Xia Juhua quickly calculated in her mind how many sweet potatoes each household had left after the Ping An Village members leaked vermicelli twice, in addition to the vermicelli that should be given to Qi Weidong. She did not react to Qi Weidong's words for a while.

As the first person to deal with Xia Juhua, Qi Weidong understood his uncle's expression and looked at Xia Juhua with some worry. At this time, Xia Juhua had already calculated that every household in Pingan Village had earned at least 400 to 500 kilograms of sweet potatoes.

This does not include the half pound of sweet potatoes withheld by the production team, and the vermicelli that members lost when using the sweet potatoes originally distributed by the production team. It's pure loss!

The sweet potatoes that are sold purely can also be made into vermicelli. With these vermicelli, and the fact that not many people in Ping'an Village sell surplus grain before the Spring Festival, it should be enough for everyone to survive until the summer harvest next year!

Then, as for the next step of leaking noodles, members of Ping An Zhuang can indeed earn money without the sweet potatoes, so everyone can choose whether to continue leaking noodles and how much to leak according to their own physical strength.

Xia Juhua figured it out. She looked up and met Uncle Qi's eyes. She said without hesitation:

"Director Qi, this is a big deal. I have to discuss it with the members. As for whether the members want to earn processing fees, it is up to them to decide. But our production team's spring ploughing cannot be delayed."

Uncle Qi and Qi Weidong nodded in unison. Uncle Qi also promised Xia Juhua that he could help Ping'an Village contact the Red Star Commune Agricultural Machinery Station and let them send a tractor to help Ping'an Village with spring ploughing.

"I heard that tractors all use diesel, which costs several dollars a day." Xia Juhua's desire to rent a house came back.

Uncle Qi was amused by her: "It is the job of the agricultural machinery station to help the production team carry out agricultural production. Besides, the county will also give them some subsidies. I just heard that the Red Star Commune Agricultural Machinery Station has made a plow suitable for our local area. Can you help them test it in Pingan Village?"

He is indeed the deputy director in charge of agricultural production. He knows exactly what agricultural tools are produced by a commune's agricultural machinery station. Xia Juhua's liking for Director Qi has risen to 12 points, and she sincerely invites him to visit Ping'an Village when he has time.

Uncle Qi did not refuse, but hoped that Xia Juhua would give Qi Weidong an answer as soon as possible. After all, the weather was getting warmer day by day, and people could not wait even for sweet potatoes.

After the matter was settled, Qi Weidong wanted to treat Xia Juhua to lunch - if one had to say that Xia Juhua and Uncle Qi got along well, Qi Weidong would be the happiest - he finally didn't have to worry about when his uncle would turn against him, and when Xia Juhua would find out the truth and never cooperate with him again.

That's right, the one who is worried about the lack of long-term cooperation now is not Xia Juhua, but Qi Weidong: whether it is the fried peanuts or vermicelli that came out of Xia Juhua's hands (although the latter batch of vermicelli was obviously not his), Qi Weidong made a lot of money. He would be stupid not to have long-term cooperation with Xia Juhua.

Xia Juhua's heart had already flown back to Ping'an Village, so she had no mood to have dinner with Qi Weidong. Moreover, she was also thinking about the women who came to the city with her. She wondered if Zhao Xianzhi would think of going to see Director Lin and take the women to buy some "processed products" or something when she couldn't wait for her.

Seeing that Xia Juhua was really anxious, Qi Weidong pushed out a bicycle to take Xia Juhua to the supply and marketing cooperative. Xia Juhua suddenly remembered Liu Zhishuang's suggestion and asked Qi Weidong: "Is it easy to find a bicycle ticket now?"

Qi Weidong, who was always obedient at the morning meeting, was happy: "Auntie, other people have to queue up to find bicycle tickets. If you wanted one, why didn't you tell my uncle?"

Xia Juhua shook her head quickly: "I'm just asking, your uncle is such a big leader, how can you bother him for such a small matter."

Although she seemed to be asking casually, Qi Weidong, who wanted to continue the cooperation, took it to heart. He thought that he had to find a bicycle ticket for Xia Juhua as soon as possible, and it would be best if he could deliver it to Xia Juhua when she wrote back to him.

No matter how many members of Ping An Village agreed to leak fans and earn processing fees, Qi Weidong decided that he had to find the bicycle ticket himself and deliver it to Xia Juhua personally.

There were several women dressed in rural clothes standing at the door of the supply and marketing cooperative. Xia Juhua recognized them from a distance. They were the ones who came with her from Ping'an Village. When Qi Weidong stopped his bike, Zhao Xianzhi rushed over, looked Xia Juhua up and down, and asked, "Captain, why did you take so long? Are you okay?"

Qi Weidong's mouth twitched, but Xia Juhua smiled and said that she was fine, and asked: "Why are you all standing here? You have bought everything. What did you buy?" No matter how worried she was, she had already taken the people out of Ping'an Village, and she couldn't let everyone make a wasted trip.

Zhang Cuiping came over and said, "Auntie Xianzhi said you were called away, so we didn't have the energy to buy anything. We thought of waiting for you at the door, in case you..."

Xia Juhua quickly stopped Zhang Cuiping and introduced her to everyone vaguely: "This is Xiao Qi. All the men in your families know him."

Well, the well-trained female comrades of Ping'an Manor immediately understood Qi Weidong's identity, became enthusiastic towards him, and asked him when he would go to Ping'an Manor again, and if he did, he should not forget to visit them at their homes.

The change in attitude was so obvious that Xia Juhua was embarrassed to admit that she had brought these people out. Qi Weidong felt that the women of Pingan Village were just as worth getting to know as Xia Juhua, so he smiled and asked everyone if they were hungry, and he wanted to treat everyone to a meal at the hotel.

Faced with everyone's rejection, Qi Weidong took out a handful of grain coupons from his pocket and forced Xia Juhua to accept them, saying that it was not that he did not want to treat the guests, but he was afraid that the women comrades would feel uncomfortable eating with him present, so Xia Juhua was helping him to treat the guests. Not accepting the grain coupons meant that she did not believe in his sincerity in treating the women comrades.

This made Xia Juhua feel a little reluctant to refuse, but she thought that she could use the meal as a chance to test the women's attitudes, so she agreed. Just agreeing to Qi Weidong was not enough to complete the task, Xia Juhua had to take the women to see Director Lin.

Unexpectedly, Director Lin had something to do at home today and did not come to the supply and marketing cooperative. Fortunately, Director Zheng happened to meet Xia Juhua and knew that she was bringing the women to visit the county town. He waved his hand and asked the custodian to take everyone to the warehouse where the "processed products" were piled up.

Such a grand gesture really shocked the women of Ping An Village. They calculated the money in their hands and carefully picked out the things they needed but were reluctant to buy at other times.

Finally, Xia Juhua looked around and found that the most popular items were cloth. There was no other way. Every woman loves beauty and doesn't want to dress herself up. In the past, it was fine if there was no condition, as new clothes had to be given to men and children first. Now that there is finally an opportunity, isn't the first choice of many women to make new clothes for themselves?

Not everyone chose cloth. Some people even bought brown sugar and headscarves, which they usually wouldn't buy. Xia Juhua bought a pair of rain boots for everyone in her family. She almost laughed when she bought them:

I know that there will be no rain after the beginning of spring, but I still bought rain boots. I really got a bargain. Because the rain boots are out of season, they are also piled up in the "disposal" warehouse. The price is 50 cents cheaper than usual, and no receipt is required. This thing will not go bad if you keep it for a year. I don't know when I will come across such a cheap one next time. Naturally, I have to buy it.

As soon as she picked out the rain boots, all the women in Ping'an Village thought that rain boots were a must-have item and they all wanted to pick a pair. In the end, she bought up all the rain boots in the warehouse and even scared the custodian of the supply and marketing cooperative: they said a pair would be 50 cents cheaper, but a pair of rain boots cost 2.7 yuan. When did rural women become so rich?

Xia Juhua wanted to take advantage of the meal to test the women's opinions, but in the end she didn't say it out loud: More than twenty women came today, and one small table in the state-owned hotel could not accommodate them all. Four tables were filled. What else can I say?

Since we can't get down to business, let's just eat. We are all people who live by our own means, and no one wants Xia Juhua to pay for everything alone. In the end, Xia Juhua spent all the food coupons Qi Weidong gave her, and everyone paid for it themselves.

They didn't eat anything good, just a bowl of egg drop soup and two meat buns for each person, which was enough for the women to sigh that it was delicious. The girls who came with them went home and thought of words to show off to their younger sisters.

Looking at these women who were so easily satisfied, Xia Juhua wished she could take them to the county town every day to stroll around and eat meat buns and drink egg drop soup every day.

But you need money and food coupons.

So everyone found that the captain was silent on the way back to Ping'an Village. Her silence led the women who were comparing their purchases to silence as well. Technician Xue looked sideways at Xia Juhua who was sitting in the co-pilot seat from time to time, wondering if he was late in picking up the person and made Xia Juhua unhappy.

Xia Juhua was thinking, if the men in Ping'an Village were really allowed to earn processing fees by selling their sweet potatoes, how much would Guanqi's uncle-in-law be asked for per pound of sweet potatoes?