Over the next two days, Liu Changhai, Guo Daming, Li Tang, and seven or eight others, each carrying a letter of introduction, were dispatched to provincial capitals across the country to promote watermelons.

The remaining members of the Lijiapo commune got up before dawn and went to bed late every night, and all the children went to work in the fields.

Forget about picking corn, everyone worked together to harvest 400,000 jin (200 tons) of ripe watermelons.

Guo Haiguang and Li Jinshan, two old men, were the main force. They taught everyone how to tell the ripeness of watermelons, and also guided them on how to prepare lime water and how to disinfect thoroughly.

The two of them were exhausted, their wrinkled faces turning sallow.

Li Jin was worried that the two of them would be too tired, so he had Li Jinshan's eldest grandson Li Xiangchao, second grandson Li Xiangqian, Guo Haiguang's eldest son Guo Jinfang, Zhao Xiaojun's father Zhao Suixin, and the custodian Liu Yuliang's eldest daughter Liu Lanhua learn from them. He let the younger people do the running around work.

On the seventh day of the tenth lunar month, the sun in the sky looked a bit pale.

The temperature wasn't as high as it had been a few days ago, and the two old men were worried. They approached Li Jin and said, "I think the weather's not right. Could it snow?"

Guo Haiguang was so worried that he stopped smoking his pipe, his thick, dark eyebrows furrowed into a ball of ink. "Once it freezes, all the watermelons will be ruined!"

Li Jin was also worried; he couldn't just watch 1.6 million yuan in cash go down the drain!

After discussing it for a while, the group decided to make two plans: one was to pick the watermelons in shifts, day and night, and put them in the warehouse as soon as possible; the other was to distribute them to the homes of the commune members if the warehouse at the brigade headquarters was not enough.

Another issue is that if the watermelons cannot be shipped out in time, they will have to be made into canned watermelons.

Today should be the day when the Yanjing Department Store and Yong'an Department Store come to pick up watermelons.

Li Xiangdong was a little uneasy early in the morning. He was both anxious about the earthworm turning over tomorrow and worried about the poor sales of watermelons in the next few days.

He was very confident in the quality of the watermelon, but he didn't know how much purchasing power the general public had these days.

Zhao Xiaojun, Guo Yuxi, Li Xiangjie, and Li Guoqing were all packed up and sent to the provincial capital by Liu Changhai and his team for sales. No one was waiting at the village entrance, so Li Xiangdong carried Li Yan to the village entrance to wait for the truck.

At 10 a.m., two green Yan brand trucks appeared one after another at the entrance of the village.

Master Yu and Master Li also saw Li Xiangdong and honked their horns to greet him!

Master Yu stopped ahead of Li Xiangdong and greeted him enthusiastically, "Xiangdong, get in the car! Let's go load the watermelons!"

Master Li stopped the truck, nimbly jumped out, and grabbed Li Xiangdong, saying, "Load it for me first, I need 10,000 jin!"

Master Yu grabbed Li Xiangdong's other arm, "Isn't there a first-come, first-served rule? Little Li, I was here first!"

Master Li retorted sharply, not giving an inch, "We both entered the village at the same time, and besides, I was the one who first told Xiang Dong I wanted 10,000 jin!"

Master Yu said, "Our Yanjing Department Store is the face of the whole country. If there's anything good, won't we get it first? What are you trying to grab?"

As they were talking, the two of them simultaneously released Li Xiangdong and, like fighting cocks, huddled together, ready to fight.

Li Xiangdong quickly stopped the two men, saying, "Masters, please don't fight!"

He then asked Master Li, "Do you want 10,000 jin?"

Master Li nodded.

Li Xiangdong then asked Master Yu, "How many kilograms do you want?"

Master Yu glanced at Master Li smugly, "I want 50,000 jin!"

Li Xiangdong asked in surprise, "You want so many? Will you be able to sell them all?"

Master Yu hummed in agreement, “The hotels and several high-end restaurants all want watermelons.”

Li Xiangdong understood; this meant there were other sales channels, which was great!

"Masters, let's go! It's just 60,000 catties of melons! We have them all, they're ready!"

Sixty thousand catties, it took five hours just to pack the melons today.

By noon, the melons were still packed, so Li Jin asked several capable and efficient women from the brigade to prepare lunch at the brigade headquarters and invited Master Yu and Master Li to eat.

Alcohol is not allowed. Although no one is checking for drunk driving now, Yu and Li are both very responsible and have a little bit of competition in their hearts. They both want to get the melon to Yanjing first.

Now, Qiongsu watermelons have become a new trend in Yanjing City, and everyone likes to buy one when visiting each other!

Although the price of 80 cents per pound is not cheap, spending a few dollars to buy one makes it a presentable gift.

After loading the watermelons, Li Jinshan and Guo Hailiang specifically instructed the two drivers, "When you're ready to put the watermelons on the shelves to sell, cut off the wood ash covering the watermelon vines."

They sold 60,000 jin of watermelons in one go, freeing up two rooms.

Li Jinshan directed the process of having cartloads of freshly picked watermelons disinfected with wood ash and then stored in the warehouse.

The thought of earning a dollar today made everyone forget the hard work of the past few days.

One of the young men shouted loudly, "Hurry up and unload! Let's work harder! Let's harvest another 20,000 jin tonight!"

The young women and wives were amused and giggled. "You're just bragging! If you can pick 20,000 jin of watermelons tonight, I'll marry you a beautiful and plump wife tomorrow!"

...

October 8th, midnight.

Apart from those picking melons in the fields with torches lit, the other commune members, who had worked hard all day, were fast asleep.

Looking at the pitch-black sky, without even a glimmer of moonlight or starlight, Li Xiangdong felt as if his heart was suddenly wrapped in a black cloth.

Even breathing became difficult.

Li Xiangdong got out of bed, gently pushed open the door, took a deep breath of the clear night air, and his mind seemed to clear up a little.

...

It is located in Yanling City, more than 1,600 miles away from Huichuan County.

Chen Haiting, the municipal party secretary, was standing by the window of his office in the municipal party committee building, gazing at the deep night, just like Li Xiangdong.

He was even more nervous than Li Xiangdong.

"Knock knock knock~"

A soft knock came from the door.

"Enter--"

With a creak, the secretary pushed open the door and entered. He tiptoed to Chen Haiting and said, "Mayor Chen, all the citizens and community members have been mobilized and are now staying in tents set up in the open space. The county party secretary and the county head are with the people and are on standby at any time."

Chen Haiting nodded slightly.

The secretary hesitated, but Chen Haiting said in a deep voice, "Speak your mind!"

"Mayor Chen, Vice Mayor Wang and the others are waiting for you outside. They have some complaints about your decision to shut down the entire city and have everyone stay out in the middle of the night."

"Has Director Sun from the Earthquake Bureau arrived?"

"They've arrived, and they're outside."

"Let's go to the conference room!"

The long table in the conference room was full of people. As soon as Chen Haiting walked to the door of the conference room, he heard a lot of noise inside.

"Old Chen is really something, believing an anonymous letter so readily, going to all that trouble to stop production!"

"If the provincial or capital authorities find out about this, Old Chen won't be able to keep his job for long!"