In the end, Yun Zhiqi decided: "Since we're out here, let's go take a look and also learn about the surrounding area."

This time, because I brought a few young men who were related to the villagers of Majia Village, we received a warm welcome from everyone.

They ate their fill of hot soup and rice, but to avoid troubling others, they found an open space to spend the night, just like the first time.

The next day, we followed the river westward. Xihe Village was also on the outskirts of the county town; we could reach it by simply following the river.

The path along the river should have been explored by the locals, so everyone moved quite quickly, and by noon they had reached Xihe Village.

Upon seeing this group of strangers, the villagers of Xihe Village were very wary, and though they were scattered, a large group quickly gathered around.

"Where did you come from? What brings you here?" an old man from Xihe Village asked.

"Hello, sir! We're from Pinghe Village. We heard there's a gas station around here, and we wanted to see if they sell any oil." Yun Zhiqi quickly offered a cigarette.

The old man pushed his hand forward, refusing Yun Zhiqi's cigarette. "So you're from Pinghe Village. How is Yun Min'an from your village?"

"My second uncle is doing well, thank you for your concern. And you are?" Hearing that the other party knew his second uncle, Yun Zhiqi felt that the chances of success this time were relatively high.

"Are you Yun Ming'an's brat?"

Yes. What is your name?

“Go back and tell him that I am Liu Shitou, and they will know.” After saying that, he looked Yun Zhiqi up and down. “I can’t believe that your father, who is so honest, would have such a slippery son like you.”

"You flatter me. Actually, I'm just an honest person." Yun Zhiqi touched his hair, feigning embarrassment.

"...Just call me Uncle Stone! For the sake of those two old men, I'll sell you some oil."

This surprise came so suddenly; I didn't expect the purpose of this trip to be achieved so quickly.

"Go and call your Uncle Jun over." Liu Shitou told the little boy next to him to hurry up and call him.

Looking at the dilapidated village in front of them, they were not as lucky as the Ma family village to have so many building materials to rebuild their houses. They could only build simple shacks with wooden planks.

Everyone was very worried about how they would get through the coming winter.

Before anyone arrived, everyone was chatting idly, "Uncle, why aren't there any houses built in our village?"

"We can't build it without the building materials." At this point, Liu Lei also felt a deep sense of despair.

"Actually, everyone can use a mixture of lime, sand, and clay to clean up the fallen old bricks. That way, each family should be able to piece together one or two rooms." Yun Zhiqi couldn't bear to see everyone struggling through the winter, so he told the old man in front of him this method.

"Come sit here and tell me the specifics of how to do it." Hearing this, his enthusiasm increased even more.

"Sanhetu is..." Everyone told them everything they knew and explained the proportions clearly.

"This stuff is good, but it's useless without quicklime."

"Of course there is! There's a lime factory about 20 kilometers ahead, but I don't know if the road is passable now." A villager nearby quickly provided the information upon hearing that there was hope for house construction.

"That's right. Others can come all this way to find oil, and we're not far from here, so we can organize everyone to go and search together."

At that moment, a man with only one arm walked towards Liu Lei. "Dad, you were looking for me?"

“He is your Uncle Quan’s son. They want to come and buy oil. You can sell them some.”

Liu Lei looked helplessly at his elderly father, inwardly thinking: "Can we still buy it with money now? That's not how you use favors. What if someone offers to buy it later? Should we sell or not?"

"No, Brother Jun, right? We all know money isn't very useful right now. We brought some cured meat with us, intending to barter. If you still want to exchange it for something else, we can discuss it." Hearing that they could buy oil, Yun Zhiqi quickly agreed! He couldn't risk offending people by trying to get a small advantage with worthless money. It would be a real shame if they were easily dismissed with a small gift.

"Come on, let's talk over there." Seeing how cooperative this group of people were, Liu Jun stopped being coy and led them to his little gas station.

"To be honest, because of the earthquake a while ago, there were some explosions, and everyone is guessing it might be from the nearby gas stations. Now many people in the village have a lot of complaints about my gas station, fearing that one day an explosion might affect them. I can't bear to throw it away, so I transported some to the mountains before. I still have several large barrels here. How many do you want?"

Upon seeing the nine large metal oil drums in front of them, everyone's eyes lit up.

How many liters are in each of your oil drums?

"

"Each container holds 200 liters, and a gas can usually weighs around 190 jin (65 catties)."

Yun Zhiqi walked to the side and did a simple calculation, and realized that each person carrying 100 jin of oil back should still be within their means.

Si Cheng then pulled the cloud-patterned flag aside, saying, "I can carry a bucket."

Seeing the certain look in Si Cheng's eyes, Yun Zhiqi agreed.

“We need 6 barrels. Do you want to go and discuss it with everyone? After all, you also need to rush to harvest here.”

"No need, we don't have much farmland here. And it's not really suitable for harvesters."

"Can you carry it back?"

"We have to carry it even if we can't, it's really not easy to come all this way." Yun Zhiqi was also helpless about the current traffic situation. The roads are just too uneven. If only we could push a cart, it would save everyone a lot of effort.

Finally, it was agreed that 100 catties of cured meat would be exchanged for one barrel of oil. Since the meat brought was not enough, only one barrel of oil could be exchanged, and the exchange would be made again when needed next time.

Seeing that everyone had brought containers, Liu Jun found several special containers in his storeroom.

"It's safer to use mine. You can return it to me next time you come."

"Thank you so much. Don't worry, I'll definitely bring it to you next time."

Liu Jun waved his hand, indicating that he didn't care much about these containers.

That night, everyone simply made do near Liu's house and exchanged information with each other through Liu Jun.

Because the riverbank is higher here, it's temporarily impossible to cross from the county town to the other side, and there's also the town government on the other side, so there haven't been any major problems here yet.

However, based on the information they heard from Pinghe Village, Liu Lei and his group have reassessed the situation and decided to discuss a plan in the village after seeing them off tomorrow.