Chapter 71
Hearing Chu Jiujiu's voice, Wen Xiuwei looked at her in surprise. Then, she looked at Guo Youtian who was standing above. She didn't ask immediately, but waited a few hundred meters to make sure that the people above couldn't hear her before asking Chu Jiujiu, "Don't you like him?"
Chu Jiujiu nodded without even thinking, "Yes, I don't like it!"
I didn’t feel anything before, but now, I don’t like it, I absolutely don’t like it!
Wen Xiuwei rarely saw Chu Jiujiu express her dislike for someone so bluntly. After all, Guo Youtian hadn't done anything wrong, and she had never heard of him from Chu Jiujiu before. But come to think of it, children don't necessarily need reasons to like or dislike someone. Sometimes, if they dislike you, they can justifiably dislike you.
Wen Xiuwei didn't dwell on this issue anymore, and Chu Shao glanced at Chu Jiujiu, pursed his lips, and turned his gaze back to the front.
Chu Shao had a hunch that when no one was around, Chu Jiujiu would definitely tell him about Guo Youtian, and it turned out that he was right.
Chu Jiujiu felt a strong sense of crisis, but Chu Shao didn't feel anything. Ever since Wen Xiuwei arrived in Qingzhu Village, the team leader had assigned her to the educated youth team. Chu Shao had always worked with them, so he often saw other men being attentive to Wen Xiuwei. Wen Xiuwei was obviously used to this kind of life. She had her own clever way of rejecting advances. Whether the other party wanted to show her attention or just chat with her, she would either implicitly or explicitly reject them.
There are no perverts in Qingzhu Village, nor are there any men who want to eat swan flesh like a toad. Seeing Wen Xiuwei's attitude, they knew they had no chance, so they stopped coming. The most persistent person only persisted five or six times, and there was no such thing as a relentless pestering.
Therefore, Chu Shao was used to seeing other men treating Wen Xiuwei differently. As long as he didn't need to take action, he would just watch from the side. It could be said that he was not worried at all.
But when Chu Jiujiu saw his mentality, her eyes widened immediately.
Your wife is about to be kidnapped, and you're not worried?!
Chu Jiujiu is like this, always exaggerating things. What happened? She kidnapped someone. Guo Youtian just looked at Wen Xiuwei twice more, and there was no sign of anything happening. But she could already imagine the scene of Guo Youtian and Wen Xiuwei getting married, and Chu Shao secretly shedding tears in the corner of the wedding.
Chu Shao: “…”
Very good. After listening to Chu Jiujiu’s description, this picture could not be erased from his mind.
Wen Xiuwei didn't know what the two Chus were discussing. She put the mushrooms in a basin and soaked them in clean water, preparing to come back and wash them later. After leaving the courtyard, Wen Xiuwei came to the Han family and asked Grandma Han how to make mushroom sauce.
Grandma Han also makes mushroom sauce, which tastes great. Chu Shao likes it, at least. However, she also has a flaw: she doesn't put meat in it, and she doesn't dare to add too much oil. Wen Xiuwei got her recipe from Grandma Han, and then compared it with her own recipe. One is the northern way, with a lot of salt, a lot of salt, and the other is the southern way, with a lot of sugar, pounds and pounds of sugar.
Wen Xiuwei simply used these two methods to make a small pot of each, and then put it on the dining table for everyone to taste.
Chu Jiujiu refused to eat mushrooms, so the only reviewers left were Chu Shao and Han Shengyi.
They both took their chopsticks and tasted a little.
Chu Shao swallowed it and said, "I think salty ones taste better, but we still prefer sweet things here."
Han Shengyi: "Both are delicious, but Chu Shao is right, this is the south, and people are not used to northern pickles."
Wen Xiuwei is a chef herself, and she couldn't tell which one was better. Frowning her delicate eyebrows, she said distressedly, "Then we should let someone from the south taste it."
Before he finished speaking, Chu Shao and Han Shengyi simultaneously looked at Chu Jiujiu who was sitting aside swinging her legs.
Meeting their gazes, Chu Jiujiu said, "...I refuse."
Wen Xiuwei always thought that Chu Jiujiu and Chu Shao were both from the north, after all, they were brother and sister. But after seeing their reactions, she realized that Chu Jiujiu was actually from the south. It was so strange, how could this be?
Noticing Wen Xiuwei's puzzled expression, Han Shengyi explained to her, "She grew up in the South, she's not a Southerner."
Wen Xiuwei suddenly understood, but she still had some questions in her mind: how could they, as siblings, grow up in different places, one in the south and the other in the north?
The longer she lived in the Chu family, the more Wen Xiuwei felt that there were many mysteries about Chu Jiujiu. Her life experience was one of them, and her occasional behavior also seemed strange. It wasn't weird in the sense of being outlandish, but rather, like the differences between the north and the south, it was a strangeness in another dimension.
On the other side, Chu Shao tried to get Chu Jiujiu to taste the mushroom sauce. He tried to persuade her to do something nice, but Chu Jiujiu refused. His patience was exhausted, so he frowned and asked Chu Jiujiu whether she wanted to eat it or not. Hearing his tone, Chu Jiujiu immediately backed down. With a bitter face, she raised her chopsticks.
They each tasted a little bit, and Chu Jiujiu swallowed it with difficulty. Then, between the two unpalatable ones, she chose the less unpalatable one and said, "The one with sugar tastes better."
After hearing her answer, the three of them showed an expression of "as expected". See, this is the difference in taste. It seems that Wen Xiuwei's recipe is more popular among the locals.
Having decided to make mushroom sauce, the group took action. They first bought tin cans from the supply and marketing cooperative. The cans were supposedly made of iron, but the material wasn't quite the same; they looked a bit like aluminum. Because they were buying so many, Wen Xiuwei even bargained with the cooperative. It was the first time Chu Jiujiu knew you could bargain here. She watched Wen Xiuwei buy fifty cans for four cents apiece. She said that if this batch sold out, she could still use the next batch. Even if they couldn't sell all of them, the cans would still sell for money.
Wen Xiuwei is not like Chu Jiujiu, whose mind works at high speed when talking about money. She only knows little wisdom in life and can create some small benefits for herself.
The girls bought the cans, while the boys bought the meat. You could use a lower-quality oil; in fact, most local families used the cheapest cottonseed oil for cooking, and only the better-off used rapeseed oil. But the meat couldn't be compromised, because in Wen Xiuwei's recipe, the meat was more important than the mushrooms. Only if the meat was fragrant would the resulting mushroom sauce be fragrant.
Chu Shao and his friends used up all their meat coupons and only then bought two pounds. Because of this incident, the Chu family couldn't eat pork for the next month.
Now that everything is bought, it's time to see how Chef Wen displays his cooking skills. In the previous tasting, Wen Xiuwei didn't add meat, so she still couldn't make the taste of her grandmother's. Now that meat has been added, Chu Jiujiu was halfway through reading the newspaper when she was attracted by the aroma and ran out. She looked at the big pot full of mushroom sauce with longing, but in the end she couldn't stand the mushrooms in it and had to leave in disappointment.
In the evening, when they went to the Han family for dinner again, Wen Xiuwei brought a plate of freshly cooked mushroom sauce. No one ate the dishes cooked by Grandma Han. Everyone took their own multi-grain steamed buns and dipped them in the sauce. Only Chu Jiujiu took a sip of the meaty aroma from the mushroom sauce with satisfaction, and then went to eat the dishes on the table.
Wen Xiuwei felt a sense of accomplishment when her mushroom sauce proved so popular. She estimated they'd picked seven or eight kilograms of mushrooms, but they actually brought back over a dozen, which was more than enough mushrooms to go with all the meat. In the end, they made a total of forty-eight jars, significantly more than they'd anticipated. Four were given to Chai Yaozu, four to Chu Liqiang, and the remaining forty were to be sold, leaving no room for their family.
Anyway, Chef Wen is always there, so they can eat whenever they want.
The four of them went to the town together. Chu Jiujiu and Chu Shao went to deliver something to Feng Ruyi, while Han Shengyi and Wen Xiuwei went to the supply and marketing cooperative to check the market conditions first.
If they could sell it directly, they wouldn't have to rely on Chai Yaozu's help. After all, it's not nice to sell things under someone else's name in this era.
Chu Jiujiu was used to seeing celebrities endorsing products, so she thought that good things must have a well-known spokesperson, but she didn't think that this was an era where free trade was prohibited, and having anything to do with businessmen was not a good thing at this time.
Chu Jiujiu was holding mushroom sauce, and Chu Shao was carrying two bags of snacks. These things together cost only a few dollars, not expensive, just a token of their thoughtfulness.
When they arrived at the post office and asked around, they found out that Feng Ruyi had taken a leave of absence because her second sister's daughter was getting married and she had to go back to help. After hearing this, Chu Jiujiu was a little worried that Chai Yaozu was not there either. When they found the Water Conservancy Bureau, they discovered that Chai Yaozu was in his office.
He was deep in thought over the blueprints. Chu Jiujiu and the other person had come in with his permission, and were brought in by his assistant. But when they entered his room, Chai Yaozu looked up at them blankly, "Who are you?"
Chu Shao: “…”
Chu Jiujiu: “…”
This is really like turning a deaf ear to what's happening outside and only focusing on the big picture.
She laughed, "Chief Engineer Chai, you don't remember me. I'm Chu Jiujiu. Section Chief Feng introduced me to you that day in the bookstore."
Chai Yaozu tried hard to recall and finally remembered. He put down the blueprint and stood up. "Yes, Xiao Deng just told me that you two were coming over. What's going on? I heard that Xu Jie hasn't been discharged from the hospital yet. What's going on? Is Xu Changhe causing trouble for you again?"
"No, no," Chu Jiujiu shook her head repeatedly. "We're here to give you a thank you gift. If you hadn't helped us find Director Yang, Xu Changhe would have taken me away long ago. These are our homemade mushroom sauces. They're all freshly picked mushrooms from the mountains, fried with fresh diced meat. Take them home and try them. And here's some too."
She took the snack from Chu Shao and placed it on Chai Yaozu's table. "This is Lijiazhuang's sesame cake. Section Chief Feng likes it. Please bring it to her."
The iron can was not as tightly sealed as the glass jar. He could already smell the fragrance inside through the can and wanted to accept it, but remembering Feng Ruyi's instructions to him, he shook his head and said, "No, I can't accept it."
Chu Jiujiu was stunned. "Why? We're not looking for you to do anything for us, nor are we asking you to recommend a job. Besides, Section Chief Feng often gives us gifts and often accepts our gifts."
This was just the beginning, she had a lot more to say, but when Chai Yaozu heard that Feng Ruyi had already accepted it, and remembered the various vegetables and snacks he ate that were not available in the city, Chai Yaozu immediately dispelled his doubts. He smiled and said, "Okay, I'll accept it."
Chu Jiujiu: “…”
That’s really fast.
Since he accepted it and he had expressed his gratitude, Chu Shao wanted to take Chu Jiujiu away. Chai Yaozu was still working, so they shouldn't disturb him any longer.
After saying goodbye to Chai Yaozu, Chu Shaogang turned around when the door was pushed open from the outside.
A gray-haired man came in and said, "Chai Gong, we still have to talk about the project. Tu--"
After seeing Chu Shao and Chu Jiujiu, his voice stopped abruptly. Looking at the two unfamiliar children, he was stunned for a moment, then put on a kind expression, "Who are you two? You don't look like the children of Chai Gong's family. Are you his relatives?"
Chai Yaozu hurried over and explained on behalf of the two children, "They are my wife's younger generations. You also know, Director Yang, this little girl is the Chu Jiujiu I told you about last time."
This is Chujiujiu.
Director Yang immediately took another look at her. He was not a pervert like Xu Jie. He was just surprised that Chu Jiujiu was really so small.
They wanted to discuss business, so Chu Shao only nodded to Director Yang, then left with Chu Jiujiu. After watching them leave and closing the door, Director Yang turned around and said with a smile, "She's truly a beauty. Who knows how beautiful she'll be when she grows up."
Chai Yaozu wasn't interested in what Chu Jiujiu looked like. He brought the topic back to where they were before, "What did you just say? You wanted to talk to me about the blueprints?"
Director Yang frowned when talking about this. "Yes, you said it could be closed in April, but April is almost over now. I asked Xu Changhe, and he said it's too late. The progress on the dam is too slow. We have to wait at least another month."
Chai Yaozu asked, "What about Director Guo? Xu Changhe is only leading the villagers in the work. The actual progress of the project is still the responsibility of Director Guo, right?"
Director Yang's mood darkened when Guo Heizi was mentioned. "He said he only cared about his own workers, and the villagers of Xujiawan were still led by Xu Changhe."
There were problems with this dam from the beginning. Chai Yaozu was the chief engineer, he drew the blueprints and conducted on-site surveys, but when construction started, no one knew how it would operate. Chen Dazhui took over the matter entirely and asked Guo Heizi to be in charge of the progress of the project. Apart from visiting the dam every day and working hard with the workers, Chai Yaozu had no other responsibility.
He also knew that he was being sidelined, but he didn't know what these people wanted to do by sidelining him.
Chai Yaozu didn't say anything, and Director Yang was also silent. After a moment's silence, he looked at Chai Yaozu and said, "The higher-ups have approved more construction funds for our town, and they've urged us to finish the project, saying that the progress is too slow and we must complete it as soon as possible."
He looked at Chai Yaozu quietly, hoping that he could sense the hidden meaning in his words. However, Chai Yaozu was a blockhead and didn't understand at all. "Is that so? Then I'll go ask Xu Changhe. Don't worry, I'll definitely go and urge him every day."
Director Yang: “…”
It seems that Chai Yaozu is really capable, otherwise, with his emotional intelligence, how could he become the chief engineer.
…
People here are worried about the dam, and people far away in the capital are also worried about the dam.
Chu Yue was sitting at the desk. Others thought she was doing her homework, but she was actually doodling on her notebook. There was a radio next to her, which was a reward her father had just given her because she got first place in the class and easily defeated other students in a competition on behalf of the school. I heard that a leader was going to give her an award.
Her father was very happy that there was a little genius in the family. He gritted his teeth and took out money to buy a radio for his family. He also specifically told the family that if Chu Yue wanted to use it, he should give it to her first.
The radio was tuned to the central station. The announcer was speaking in a clear voice, broadcasting today's date and weather, followed by the morning news. As Chu Yue listened, she suddenly stopped scratching on the paper.
The radio announced the arrival of the rainy season in southern China, with abundant rainfall. She remembered that the rainy season in southern China had been plentiful in 1970 until September, when it gradually subsided. Everyone thought the rainy season was over, but then, in October, torrential downpours descended for several days, causing frequent floods across the country. Flooding was normal in the Yangtze River Basin, and soldiers were needed to combat it almost every year.
The reason she singled out this year in particular was because a corruption scandal erupted in a certain city. Leaders in Qingshi Town had embezzled funds for a dam, leading to shoddy construction. Torrential rains followed, and the dam, which was supposed to protect nearby residents, became a deadly threat. The dam collapsed, killing nearly two thousand people in Xiaxi Village, a low-lying village downstream. Another three hundred perished in a village called Xu. The incident shocked the nation and was covered in the news for a long time.
Chu Yue was in school at the time, and she'd heard about the incident, which shows how much of a sensation it caused. Because it became a negative example, she clearly remembers the fate of those involved: the chief engineer responsible for the dam committed suicide out of fear of punishment, the directly responsible superiors were all executed, and the others who were jointly responsible were stripped of their positions and sent to labor camps for reform. All told, over a hundred people were killed.
The tip of the pencil touched the paper, and Chu Yue seemed to be lost in thought.
October...
It's only April now. If she asks her father to report it, it should be in time for her family to take the credit for it, right?
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