The two went to Li Wu's house first, and asked him to go to Zhou Yiding's house. When Zhou Yiding heard about cutting bamboo and making bamboo pipes, he curled his lips and said, "Why waste so much energy? Just go to the county town and buy some pipes!"

Zhou Huaian sneered, "I went to check it out a few days ago. The plastic steel pipe is extremely expensive. If you want to pull it from the ditch to the forest, it will cost at least two or three hundred yuan.

It's so expensive, and I don't feel safe leaving it outside. I have to carry it in and out every time I drain the water. The bamboo pipe can be left there without fear of it being stolen. If it breaks, I can just replace it with a new one, and it doesn't cost any money."

"That's right, let's go!"

Zhou Yiding went back to the house, changed into yellow rubber shoes, took a machete, and went to the bamboo forest with several people. Zhou Huairong and Zhou's father had already dug a pile of yellow mud and picked up a lot of stones and piled them in the ditch.

They planned to block the ditch first, and when the yellow bricks and cement arrived, they would build a groove on both sides of the ditch and make a gate. When water was needed in the future, they could insert the gate to store water.

Zhou Huaian and several others entered the bamboo forest with machetes, and specifically picked out the old and thick bamboos to chop. Soon they had chopped down a large pile of bamboos in the forest.

A few people picked the bamboo joints clean and carried them to the opposite forest. Zhou Huaian said to Zhou Huairong and others, "Ding Dingmao and I will go to the river dam to sift a few loads of sand and build a reservoir when the third brother comes back."

Zhou Huairong nodded, "Okay, I'll open up the bamboo joints and wait for you to come back."

After Zhou Huaian and his companion came back with the sand, Zhou Huaishan also came back. Everyone pushed the cart several times before they transported the sand and bricks to the back mountain and Baihua Forest.

At this time, the water level in the ditch was slowly rising. Xu Hongbing and Zhou Yiding mixed the mortar, and Li Wu and Zhou Huairong built the grooves for the gate plates on both sides of the ditch. They took a bamboo strip to measure the size, and gave it to Zhou's father to send down the mountain to find a carpenter to make the gate plates.

Zhou Huaian got some bricks and mortar, re-pasted the drainage hole that had been reserved in advance, and then buried the bamboo pipe in it.

Everyone was busy for two or three hours before they connected all the bamboo pipes one by one and led them into the forest. Zhou Huairong returned to the ditch and dug a gap. The water flowed out through the bamboo pipes, into the drainage ditch that had been dug long ago, and into the mountains and forests where the saplings had just been planted.

Watching the water flow into the soil and small bubbles appearing, the surrounding soil slowly became moist, and the originally dry herbs and weeds in the forest gradually regained vitality.

The water flowed for about twenty or thirty minutes, and then the flow in the bamboo tube became smaller, leaving only a thin stream. After all, the weather had been dry for too long, and there was not much water flowing down from upstream. They had to build a few more reservoirs to store more water on a regular basis.

If they wanted to build a few more reservoirs, the bricks, cement, and sand and gravel they brought back would be far from enough. Several people split up to do the work, some sifting sand, some hauling cement, and some moving stones from the ditch. It took a whole day to prepare all the materials.

Then they selected several flat, low-lying areas in the forest and built a few three-meter square reservoirs. They left them to dry for a day before starting to store water.

We were busy on the mountain for two or three days in a row, building four or five reservoirs in the Baihua Forest, two in the medicinal field behind the mountain, and installing a lot of bamboo pipes.

Fortunately, there were many bamboos in that bamboo forest, so even after cutting down so many, there was not much left.

After the gate was closed, the water flowed through bamboo pipes into several reservoirs, and then was distributed to various parts of the Hundred Flower Forest. The wilted saplings were rejuvenated by the watering of mountain spring water.

After the reservoir was repaired, Zhou Huaian and Zhou Yiding took sister-in-law Yang Chunyan to the forest where white hyacinth grew.

It may be due to the bad weather. More than a month has passed, and the growth of the white hyacinths is not very good. But such a large area is really pleasing to look at.

Li Qiuyue said in surprise: "Oh my god, it's so big, I wish I had discovered it earlier."

Zhang Xiuxiang: "Yes, the piece we dug two years ago was not this big, and we sold it for 200 yuan. If we dig all of this up, it will sell for 400 to 500 yuan!"

"It's the same this year." Yang Chunyan picked up a hoe and dug up a tree. "You see, there are several seedlings on one tree. If we dig them all up, we can plant all the remaining fields."

"You guys should start digging quickly. There's so much. It will take at least two days to dig it all up in the mountains." Zhou Huaian picked up a hoe and started working.

As expected, the few people were busy on the mountain for two days before they dug up all the white hyacinths, and it took another two or three days to plant them all.

By the end of the month, the village's electric poles and wires had been installed. Electric poles could be seen everywhere, standing upright on the sides of the fields and on the roads at the foot of the mountains.

Electricians from the power bureau began to enter homes, set up ladders, lay lines, and install electricity meters. Zhou Huaijun and two other people followed them up and down every day to learn installation techniques.

The row of houses in Xiaoshulin is too far back, so Zhou Jiaming and his friends are most concerned about whether the electrician has come home and whether the electrician has started installing the meter. They are afraid that the electrician may have missed his house.

When most of the electricity meters were installed, several posters promoting the idea that "electricity tigers" can eat people were posted on the bulletin board of the brigade's dam.

Zhou Datian also borrowed Zhou Yiding's tape recorder and put it in the propaganda room. The loudspeakers in the village, which had been silent for a long time, sounded every day, teaching everyone how to use electricity safely...

Let me tell you all, electricity costs money, a kilowatt-hour of electricity costs a few cents, so don’t forget to turn off the lights when you go to bed.

On the night when electricity was supplied, everyone heard Zhou Datian excitedly shouting on the loudspeaker, "5, 4, 3... The electricity is on, the electricity is coming..."

Yang Chunyan's family all looked up at the light bulb that looked like a small gourd and was hanging from the electric wire on the beam, with bright yellow flowers blooming.

When I walked into the yard, the lights at the front and back doors were on. The 25-watt bulbs illuminated the entire yard brightly, unlike before when the lanterns only illuminated the surrounding area.

Zhou's mother said happily: "How can such a small thing be so bright? It's so bright that I can do some needlework at night with my reading glasses."

"Why do you do so much needlework? Wait until the TV comes back and watch some TV shows, war movies, operas, boxing, whatever you want to watch." Zhou Huaian sighed, "What a pity, it would be great if there was TV tonight."

Father Zhou smiled and said, "It will be there later. It's our own, so what does it matter if it's a few days earlier or later?"

Zhou Jiaming and others cheered outside, "The power is on! There's electricity..."

"Big pot, big pot..." When Xiao Jiuer heard the cheers of his brothers and sisters, he pulled Yang Chunyan's two fingers and was about to walk out of the yard.

"Let's go out and take a look." Zhou Huaian picked him up and walked out of the yard. Yang Chunyan also followed him outside.

When Zhou Jiaming and the others saw them coming out, they all ran over and said, "Dad, look, the entrance to Uncle Yiding's house is so bright!"

Zhou Jiakang looked at him with resentment, "Dad, why hasn't your TV come back yet?"

Zhou Huaian rubbed him and said, "You don't study hard, and you just think about TV every day."

Zhou Xiaoqian next to him asked, "Aunt, are you going to take the old man, grandpa, and grandma to the provincial capital to play?"

Yang Chunyan smiled and nodded, "Yes! We'll leave on the fifth day of the New Year."

Zhou Xiaoru pulled her and said, "Aunt, which is farther, the provincial capital or the flower market?"

"The provincial capital is far away, and it takes more than ten hours to get there by train." Yang Chunyan thought about the time she took a train for an entire night to go to the provincial capital in her previous life, and the speed of today's trains might not be as fast as in the future.

Zhou Xiaowen: "It's been a long time. What should I do when I sleep at night? Should I sleep sitting up?"

"Har, there is a sleeper berth..."

“…”

“…”

That night, every household in Funius Village had lights on, and the village was no longer dark.

*******

Early in the morning on the fourth day of March, Zhou's mother and Yang Chunyan got up and wrapped a dozen rice balls and mixed a bowl of spicy chicken nuggets. They put two pieces of lean bacon and the bacon chicken separately in an enamel jar and a lunch box. The rice balls that needed to be kept warm were wrapped in several layers of towels before being put into the lunch box.

Then there was Xiao Jiuer's rice porridge, milk powder, and thermos filled with boiling water, which filled the back of the bag.

Wang Zhen and Yang Dongmei came back from the provincial capital and said that it was much colder there than here. Yang Chunyan and Zhou's mother packed their jackets and sweaters and took them with them, and it took them a while to fill up the two luggage bags.

Dr. Wang bought a yard for the two in the provincial capital and renovated it. The two went back to buy some furniture, and then he came back to pick them up to go to the provincial capital to attend the wedding.

The bedding, quilts and furniture that the Yang family bought for Yang Dongmei will have to wait until they come back to host a banquet before they can be delivered to Ning'an.

Zhou Huaian put the luggage on the tractor. Yang Chunyan held Xiao Jiuer in her arms. Zhou's father, mother and old man, all dressed in new clothes, got on the tractor.

The old man sat on a bamboo chair in the truck bed, looked at his brand new white-soled, black-surfaced thousand-layer cloth shoes, and the Zhongshan suit on Lala, and said, "I don't feel comfortable at all wearing this."

Father Zhou smiled and said, "Old man, you look much more energetic in this outfit today."

"You too!" The old man helped him straighten his collar.

Zhou Huaishan looked at them with a smile, "You guys are still foreigners, let's go shopping in the provincial capital!"

Zhou's mother said cheerfully, "We are also benefiting from Chunyan and her family. Please take good care of the chickens, ducks, and pigs at home. We will be back in a few days."

"Got it. Just have fun peacefully. Take more photos in the provincial capital and show them to us later." Zhao Huifang and the others who came to see them off responded with a smile.

"Thump thump thump..." A puff of black smoke came out of the tractor, and Zhou Huaishan walked towards the control panel holding the handle.

Yang Chunyan waved at Zhao Huifang and the others, "Sisters-in-law, I'm sorry to trouble you at home!"

Zhao Huifang and the others also waved at them, "It's okay, just go and have fun, and come back when you're happy."

"Okay!" Everyone waved, and the tractor quickly drove out of the village.

Mother Zhou pulled the small blanket covering Xiao Jiuer and asked, "Can we reach the provincial capital in the afternoon?"

"The 8:15 train is said to take nearly sixteen hours and may not arrive until midnight," Yang Chunyan said after some calculation.

"So far!" Zhou's mother smacked her lips. "Wang Zhen's family is too far away. Luckily, you will all live in Ning'an in the future. Otherwise, when they get married, you won't even be able to see them once."

Yang Chunyan thought about the current traffic and felt that what she said was absolutely right.

It was already past seven when we arrived in Ning'an, and the train at 8:15 only left 30 to 40 minutes. (End of this chapter)