Chapter 347: Leisure in the Mountain Village

Gao Mingcheng refused firmly, and the village party secretary had no choice but to leave in embarrassment.

What Gao Mingcheng didn't expect was that the village party secretary had just left him and turned around to find his elder brother Gao Mingpeng.

Gao Mingpeng also has a junior high school education and has now formed a construction team to take on jobs such as building pig pens, cattle pens, and kitchens in nearby villages.

With his personal abilities, he is also capable of being a good accountant, so when the village party secretary asked him to work as an accountant in the village committee, Gao Mingpeng agreed without much thought.

Gao Mingpeng agreed to be an accountant because, firstly, he believed he had the ability to do so, and secondly, it would help him improve his prestige in the village. Then, when he received a big order in the future, he would be able to form a construction team faster and better.

By the time Gao Mingcheng found out, everything had already been decided, so Gao Mingcheng didn't say much. After all, there were still eleven years until 1999. He could let Gao Mingpeng work for a few years first, and then ask Gao Mingpeng to step down when the situation went wrong.

Gao Mingpeng was quite happy. He specially invited Gao Mingcheng to his house for dinner. He bought two kilograms of meat and fried a plate of loaches. Together with the vegetables grown in the fields, the dishes on the table were quite rich.

Gao Yuanjian was also very happy, and he took out his treasured wine. The father and his two sons drank to their heart's content.

During the meal, Gao Yuanjian was holding his one-year-old grandson and was clamoring to use chopsticks to dip in wine to feed him.

How could a one-year-old child like such a pungent taste? His facial features wrinkled up immediately, and he struggled to get off the ground and ran to his grandmother Luo Xiaohua.

Luo Xiaohua comforted him with a smile, saying that he would give him some sweet wine during the New Year, which was sweet and delicious.

The child didn’t know what sweet wine was, he only knew the word “sweet”, so he shouted for food.

Gao Mingcheng glanced at his eldest nephew. The little guy looked good and was a handsome boy until puberty. Unfortunately, he became a heavy smoker and had yellow teeth at a young age. His face also looked several years older.

Just as he was thinking this, Gao Mingcheng smelled cigarettes. It turned out that they were already eight-tenths full. Gao Yuanjian and Gao Mingpeng both took out cigarettes and lit them up.

In the smoke, the vision became blurred, but Luo Xiaohua was still sitting next to him, holding the little guy and playing with him.

At this moment, Gao Mingcheng was glad that Xuanyuemei did not come to eat because she was called away by her second sister.

After eating and drinking, Gao Mingcheng did not stay long and planned to go to Xuanyu's house to pick up Xuanmei.

When walking in the alley of the old village, he ran into Gao Liang who was carrying a bucket. When Gao Liang saw him, he immediately called out, "Ming Cheng, do you want to go to the reservoir to take a bath?"

Gao Mingcheng glanced at his bucket, which contained a set of clean clothes and a bar of soap.

Suddenly, Gao Mingcheng also wanted to go swimming in the water.

The longer I live in the county, the more suffocated I feel, and I haven’t gone swimming in the reservoir this year.

So he agreed immediately.

"You go first, I'll go back and get a change of clothes."

"Okay, then I'll wait for you!" Gao Liang said with a smile and went to the reservoir first.

When Gao Mingcheng came over with his change of clothes, he found that there were already quite a few people bathing in the reservoir. Some were swimming in the water, while others were bathing not far from the shore.

There are basically only men here, because women bathe in another small reservoir.

It was a little dark, but it didn't prevent everyone from recognizing each other.

Gao Mingcheng put his clean clothes on the bushes by the water, then quickly took off all his clothes and dived into the water.

He swam a few meters before emerging from the water.

"Ming Cheng, do you want to compete?" Gao Liang also swam to his side.

"Okay." Gao Mingcheng agreed immediately. Not only Gao Liang, but several other young people also came over and said they wanted to compete in swimming together.

He also said that the loser would have to buy a pack of cigarettes for everyone to smoke.

As they were talking, everyone was already ready, and it was agreed that whoever swam to the other side first would be the winner.

The reservoir in Gaojia Village is not big. It is relatively long and narrow. It is located between two mountains and is formed around the mountains. The longest distance is about 300 meters.

Even though they live in a small mountain village, these boys grow up in the reservoir every summer and are all good at swimming.

With a shout of "start", everyone swam hard towards the other side.

Gao Mingcheng also swam hard and didn't even think about letting go of the water, because he hadn't swum for nearly a year. At the beginning, he didn't swim as fast as Gao Liang and the others.

Fortunately, he had a good physique and strong endurance, and as he chased closely, he was almost catching up.

One hundred meters, two hundred meters, three hundred meters!

Swimming requires skills as well as physical strength. When swimming 200 meters, some people gradually became exhausted and slowed down, but Gao Mingcheng's speed was not affected and he continued to move forward.

Finally, in the last ten meters, Gao Mingcheng surpassed the others one by one and won the championship!

Gao Mingcheng stood on the opposite bank and laughed loudly, "I won! Haha!"

As he laughed heartily, Gao Mingcheng felt that his body and mind were filled with joy, as if his soul was that of a real twenty-year-old boy, and therefore he felt very happy for a little win or loss.

"Hey, you're awesome!"

"Mingcheng, did you go swimming in the county?"

Gao Liang and the others all lost, and they were all a little discouraged, but not angry, so someone asked Gao Mingcheng a question.

Gao Mingcheng naturally said that he had never been swimming. He said: "There is a Foling Reservoir in the county, but it is far from where I live, so I have never been there. There is also the Houxi Reservoir, which is the largest in the county, but it is even farther away."

Gao Liang said, "We've been soaking in the water since May, and we're still no match for you!"

Gao Mingcheng laughed and remembered the bet at the beginning, so he said: "How about this, I will buy cigarettes for everyone to smoke, so that everyone can share my good luck!"

As soon as he said this, everyone became happy.

A few people had just swam 300 meters and were a little tired, so they sat on the shore and talked.

"Mingcheng, you have been to other places and have a broad horizon. Where do you think we should go if we go out to work?" The person who asked this question was Gao Liang, but others also looked at Gao Mingcheng, waiting for his answer.

Gao Liang was also caught in the previous tree stealing. Although Gao Guobing came forward to rescue them both afterwards, they were also warned not to steal trees and sell them again.

After losing the income from selling trees, the young people in the village became restless.

There were certainly reasons behind the emergence of a million migrant workers in 1988.

In Gao Mingcheng's impression, the young people in Gaojia Village went out to work relatively late, and had to wait until the 1990s.

But now, looking at the expectant eyes of Gao Liang and others, he realized that everyone had already started looking forward to going out to make money at this time.

This may be related to the fact that he built a house and opened a clothing store in the county, or it may be related to Gao Mingwan. Every time Gao Mingwan came back, he would brag to the villagers about what he saw and heard while driving the sports car, describing the outside world as colorful.

After hearing this many times, one will unconsciously develop curiosity and yearning for the outside world.

Gao Mingcheng pondered for a moment and decided to tell everyone what he saw and heard in Yangcheng truthfully, and said: "I'm not trying to persuade everyone to stay in the village, but the situation outside is not very good now. If you have someone to lead you, a clear place to go, and a clear thing to do, then you can go, but if not, you may not be able to find a job if you rashly go to a big city."

This year, a large number of migrant workers in Yangcheng and other places cannot find work and can only wander the streets. Next year, due to triangular debts, a large number of enterprises will go bankrupt or fail to pay wages. At that time, the workers in the factories will have a hard time.

The prospects for going out to work at this time are naturally not good.

"The price of rice has been rising every year in recent years. If you can grow more rice, you will definitely make money. You can also raise more pigs and chickens."

"If you really want to go out and make money, I have two suggestions. One is to go to the county to do food business, set up a stall in front of the school or factory, and sell fried noodles, tofu brain, jelly and other food. Another is to go to the county to pick up waste and sell it."

“But these two also need to solve the problem of food and accommodation in the county.”

Gao Mingcheng gave his advice sincerely, but whether they listened to it or not was up to them.

Gao Liang and the others indeed fell into deep thought, and no one spoke for a while.

But after a while, someone suddenly said, "Mingcheng, my family wants to raise bees. Do you think you can separate the queen bee from your beehive?"

Gao Mingcheng looked at the person who was speaking. He was two years older than him and was also from the eldest wife's family.

He said, "I have to go to the mountain tomorrow to see if I can separate the queen bee. If I can, I will give it to you."

"Oh, thank you." The man immediately thanked happily.

The price of honey is quite high. When the villagers saw Gao Mingcheng raising bees, it didn't seem to be that troublesome, so some people started to be interested.

But when it comes to beekeeping, it seems that it doesn't require much management and it's easy to get honey and sell it for money, but there are many tricks involved.

In addition to the technical aspects, the most important thing is that you have to overcome your psychological fear. When you open the beehive to get honey, there will be densely packed bees inside. They will fly around you, and once they realize that you are harmful to them, they will sting you immediately.

Being stung by a bee is an unforgettable pain.

Therefore, when collecting honey, you must wear long sleeves and long pants, a hood, and gloves to prevent bee stings. Then use a brush to gently brush away the bees, and then go to the side to shake the honey.

Gao Mingcheng did not wear the hood anymore because he found that the bees were very friendly to him and did not attack him actively. Even if the bees landed on him, they did not sting him.

Therefore, he was too lazy to wear a hood and gloves and just went ahead like this, which would be faster.

He didn't know if this was related to his meditation, but in his previous life, he had indeed seen on the Internet a beekeeper with his naked body wrapped by bees in layers, but without hurting the beekeeper.

In addition to the beekeeper, he also saw a snake keeper. Although the snakes were obviously poisonous, they crawled all over the snake keeper's body but did not hurt the snake keeper.

Maybe it's some unique skill, or maybe it's just a coincidence that he was born into that species.

The night deepens and the stars shine brightly.

The older people had already taken a bath and went home. Gao Mingcheng and his group of young people also put on clean clothes and took their dirty clothes home while chatting and laughing.

Everyone goes back to their own homes and finds their own...wife!

Because he went to the reservoir to swim, Gao Mingcheng returned home late. When he got home, Xuanyuemei was already at home, listening to music on the radio. She listened and sang along.

The courtyard was filled with her singing.

Gao Mingcheng stood at the gate of the courtyard and listened for a while. After the song ended, he walked in.

"You sing so beautifully." Gao Mingcheng praised his wife generously.

Manyue blinked and smiled embarrassedly.

Gao Mingcheng saw that she had already changed into her pajamas, and couldn't help but ask, "You went to fetch water by yourself? Why didn't you wait for me to come back?"

Xuanyu Mei said disapprovingly: "It's just a few buckets of water. It's not tiring. Besides, the water level in the well is high in the first half of the year. I can bring it up in no time."

From her pregnancy till now, except for some suffering in the early stages of pregnancy, she felt that her body was in good condition. Besides, which woman in this village would not work hard until the day she gave birth after getting pregnant?

If the birth happens during the slack season, it's fine. But if it happens during the busy season, the child will be born in the field.

"I know you care about me, but I'm not that squeamish." Xuanyimei said.

Gao Mingcheng looked at his wife's healthy face and said nothing. This is the situation now, unlike in later times, when women in later times were pregnant, they would be worshipped.

"By the way, some of the cucumbers we planted are getting old. My brother is an honest man. I asked him to help take care of the vegetable garden, but he didn't pick the vegetables even when they were old. Today, I walked around the vegetable garden and picked all the old cucumbers for him to take back to feed the pigs." Xuanyuemei said.

"Okay, just make the arrangements as you see fit."

The couple chatted for a few words at night and then went to bed.

…

The next morning, Gao Mingcheng got up very early.

Breathing in the fresh air, Gao Mingcheng ran all the way into the mountains. After practicing boxing as usual, he sweated all over and felt relaxed all over.

He went down the mountain and returned home. It was only six o'clock. After the porridge and rice were cooked, he put a big piece of wood in the stove and burned it, and then he didn't have to worry about anything else.

"Black Tiger, Elf, let's go to the market!" Gao Mingcheng whispered, leading the two dogs all the way to Junling.

Today is the market day in Junling, and he plans to go there to buy some fresh meat and other food.

When we arrived at the market, it was already bustling with people. People from a dozen nearby villages had come here to attend the market.

There is never a shortage of customers in front of the meat stall, and many people gather there to buy meat. Now, when buying meat, the butcher decides how to cut it, and customers are not allowed to make comments.

When Gao Mingcheng saw that they were cutting the front leg meat, he immediately asked for two pounds of it, as well as the leg bones and flat bones. After weighing them, he didn't put them in bags but put them directly in the basket.

Ever since he got a dog, he has loved buying bones. The bones are delicious when stewed into soup, and after eating the meat, he can throw the bones to the dog.

"Mingcheng, you are here to the market too. Take some tomatoes and eggplants from my family's garden to eat!" A middle-aged woman's voice sounded. Gao Mingcheng looked in the direction of the voice and saw Huang Dazhi's mother.

She was bending down to take something from her own basket, and as she spoke, she was about to put it into Gao Mingcheng's basket.

Gao Mingcheng dodged by moving sideways. He smiled and said, "No need. My family also grows vegetables, so we have no shortage of vegetables to eat. You should just sell them for money."

Aunt Huang was very enthusiastic. She had a good impression of Gao Mingcheng, so she was willing to give him some food. Finally, with her insistence, the tomatoes and eggplants were put into the basket.

Gao Mingcheng no longer refused and asked about Xiaoguai's situation again.

When talking about Xiaoguai, Huang's mother was still a little dissatisfied, because she felt that if she wanted to adopt a child, she could just adopt an unwanted girl from a nearby family, who would be healthy.

But after all, she had raised him for a while, and Xiaoguai was indeed well-behaved and easy to take care of, so she smiled and praised Xiaoguai.

"The child is doing well. Xiao An also cares about her and takes good care of her. He even said that he wanted to modify the wheelchair he used to sit in to one that can accommodate children."

"It's pretty good. He can sit up and crawl up, and now he can sit steadily. It's less troublesome to push him around in the stroller." Gao Mingcheng agreed.

He decided that after his son was born, he would build a stroller for the child so that he could push it around. How much less hassle would that be!

(End of this chapter)