"Comrades, fellow villagers, please be quiet, everyone please be quiet, we are about to have a meeting."

After a short while, Wang Dabao exchanged a glance with Wang Tianxiao in the crowd, nodded imperceptibly, and waited for Wang Tianxiao's same reply before turning on the microphone and shouting.

Because the village doesn't have electricity yet, both the microphones and loudspeakers are powered by dry cell batteries. The microphones are fine, but the loudspeakers are too powerful and don't last long.

Wang Dabao turned off the loudspeaker, which had clearly begun to slow down, and coughed at everyone, adopting a somewhat respectable demeanor before starting to speak.

"Comrades, fellow villagers, there is definitely a reason why we have gathered here today. So what is it about..."

Wang Dabao wasn't very learned to begin with, and he usually just said what he meant. But he insisted on imitating the town mayor's opening remarks at meetings, just like a comedian would start a comedy routine.

As a result, everyone got tired of hearing the same old things over and over again.

Today is no exception.

Before he could say more than a few words, someone shouted from below, "Uncle Bao, if you have something to say, just say it. What are you muttering about?"

"日把歘" is a dialect word that roughly means "not good," "nonsense," or "terrible." It's quite complex and has different meanings depending on the context.

In short, it's not a nice thing to say.

Wang Tianxiao glanced at the man and saw that it was a man named Cao Yuan.

The Cao family may not be many in Wangjia Village, but in the third natural team, they are definitely not a small household.

Their first generation came to Wangjia Village in the 1920s and 30s, and it is said that their ancestors were from the south.

After settling down here, they quickly multiplied. The old man had six sons, the second generation had more than twenty men, and the third generation had grown to more than thirty households.

Now the third generation all have children.

Previously, Cao Hong and Cao Shuang had been stealing things from Wang Jiaxiao's family. In fact, they were the fourth generation of the Cao family.

The Cao family member who just spoke is a third-generation descendant.

Because Wangjia Village was originally all Wang family land, the Cao family originally just worked as long-term laborers for the Wang family. For some reason, the generational ranking passed down to them became very low.

For the same age, they are generally twice as young.

Wang Tianxiao and Wang Dabao are of the same generation, and Cao Yuan calls both Wang Tianxiao and Wang Dabao "Grandpa".

The three teams comprise a total of 209 households, with the Cao family accounting for more than 20 of them. Although this is much less than the Wang family, it is still a considerable force.

They're always like this, wanting to get involved in everything, big or small, leaving them with a mountain of problems.

Anyway, they're a family full of troublemakers.

The man speaking now, Cao Yuan, doesn't have a proper job. I heard he works as a middleman in the livestock market, earning a fee to make a living.

They are what people in ancient times often referred to as "tooth people".

With this kind of identity, one would naturally know all sorts of shady characters on the street, which would sometimes lead to trouble, and the police station would be called in several times.

But in the village, Cao Yuan dared not make any waves.

After all, this village is called Wangjia Village.

If anything goes wrong, one person could easily trample the Cao family into the ground.

Cao Yuan's shouts made the team members burst into laughter.

It wasn't all out of malice; I just found it amusing.

Because everyone knows that Wang Dabao does have this problem, and they all say that it's lucky he's just a village chief. If he were a high-ranking leader, he would be so arrogant.

"You son of a bitch, what's the rush?"

Wang Dabao wasn't angry; he knew that was just Cao Yuan's nature.

"Actually, it's like this. Recently, we received a request from higher authorities to cooperate in promoting the 'electricity to the countryside' campaign. Specifically, it means bringing this new technology of electricity to every household. In the leaders' words, it's about promoting modernization..."

"What is electricity?" someone asked from below.

“Electricity…” Wang Dabao was about to explain when he suddenly paused, realizing he didn’t actually know what electricity was. In his haste, he remembered the example Wang Tianxiao had given him earlier, and pointed to the microphone in his hand, saying:

"The battery we use has electricity inside, but the electricity in the battery is dead electricity, while the electricity we use is live electricity. Dead electricity is gone once it's used up, but live electricity is always available, whenever you want to use it."

"puff!"

When Wang Tianxiao heard Wang Dabao's explanation of electricity, he couldn't help but laugh out loud.

Although Wang Dabao's explanation is not entirely correct, and even has significant problems, it is just right for these farmers who know nothing about the world, and is easy to understand.

Sure enough, after Wang Dabao's explanation, most of the people below understood.

But then came the next question, which was also raised by Cao Yuan.

"Grandpa Bao, why do we need to pull the power cord? What's the use of that thing? Will it conjure up a big fat wife for me or a big white steamed bun?"

"Of course electricity is useful. It has many uses. For us now, the biggest use is that we can use electric lights. You've all been to town, right? You can see all those colorful lights flashing in town. They use electricity. If we could all use electricity, we wouldn't need to continue using kerosene lamps. We could use electric lights."

It's no wonder the villagers don't know about electricity. In fact, even in town, not all shops can afford electricity, and even if the villagers go to town, they will go home early and never get to see the few electric lights that are on.

Only a very few people have ever seen the town's dazzling nighttime lights.

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