Chapter 139
Xia Juhua smiled at him and said, "No one has ever seen a truck before. We gathered around out of curiosity. I hope you are not scared."
The driver felt that those members clearly did not mean that, but he did not say it out loud, and just chatted with Xia Juhua. Hearing his confusion about Liu Zhiquan's family moving to the provincial capital, Xia Juhua knew that Liu Zhiquan was a little offended, and said casually:
"Thanks to the care of the leaders, they don't have to live apart. Zhiquan is still young and has just arrived at the supply and marketing cooperative. If he doesn't understand something in the future, he can't always bother the leaders. I'll have to ask you to remind him more."
The driver was a smart man. He understood what Xia Juhua meant, which was that Liu Zhiquan was someone who was taken care of by a senior leader. He also saw that Xia Juhua did not look down on others because of the leader's care, and spoke in a gentle and polite manner. His impression of her became better, and he was very polite to her along the way.
When they stopped for lunch at noon, Xia Juhua ordered four hearty dishes lavishly. The driver felt that this family was no ordinary one. When he and Liu Zhiquan returned to Ping'an Village, Liu Zhiquan's order for lunch had already made the driver smack his lips. He didn't expect that his mother was different from other rural women who were reluctant to spend money on food and drink. She ordered more dishes than Liu Zhiquan.
If you don't have money, who would dare to order like this?
They talked happily all the way, but the closer they got to the provincial capital, the more silent Xia Juhua became, and finally she stopped talking. The driver thought she was carsick, so he shut up and let her rest, but Xia Juhua was wondering why Deputy Director Gu asked her to go to the provincial capital.
I couldn't think of anything to do. It was already dark when Xia Juhua drove to the tube-shaped building where Liu Zhiquan was assigned. When she got off the car, she saw that there were five or six buildings that formed the dormitory complex of the supply and marketing system, which showed the strength of this unit. The car stopped in front of a four-story building. Like all buildings of this era, except for a layer of cement on the front wall, the remaining three sides were all red bricks.
Judging from the age of the bricks, the building was built not too long ago. The corridor was vaguely filled with things, so people must have moved in. At this time, all the residents had returned home. The orange lights shone through the windows, giving the whole building a gorgeous coat, causing Baoguo and Lele to exclaim a little.
"Grandma, we're going to live here from now on?" Baoguo was a little bit unconvinced. Lele pulled Xia Juhua and was eager to climb the stairs. Liu Zhiquan pointed to the dark window on the fourth floor close to the west end and said, "Mom, that's the house I was assigned."
Xia Juhua thought it was understandable that Liu Baoguo was given a house in such a small location: the provincial supply and marketing system was such a large organization that it certainly had a lot of. If the location was not bad, it would not have been vacant until Liu Zhiquan started working and the house was not allocated yet.
"Okay, let's go up and take a look." Xia Juhua let go of Lele's hand and said to her, "Lele, walk up slowly by yourself until there are no more stairs, okay?"
Hearing that they could climb stairs, Lele nodded happily: "Okay." Then he started climbing with his short legs.
Liu Zhiquan had already started unloading the truck with the help of the driver and handed a hot pot and a washbasin to Xia Juhua: "Mom, just take these."
Xia Juhua handed the two things to Liu Baoguo, and asked him to walk faster and keep an eye on Lele. She just picked up the big bag containing quilts, threw it behind her back, and turned to walk upstairs. Liu Zhiquan called out to her twice but failed to stop her.
At this time, several people came down the stairs, greeted Liu Zhiquan and started to help unload the truck. Xia Juhua nodded in her heart, thinking that the people in the city were not as cold as she imagined.
Wang Caifeng followed closely behind her mother-in-law, also carrying a large bag. She was a little out of breath after going up two floors, and she advised Xia Juhua: "Mom, if you are tired, put your things down and take a rest."
Xia Juhua thought that climbing the stairs was a matter of one-shot, so she shook her head and refused. Fortunately, both of them were in good health, and even though they were panting heavily when they reached the fourth floor, they still managed to carry the things into the house.
At this time, the door was already open, the lights were on, Baoguo and Lele were answering questions from a female comrade with short hair. The female comrade saw Xia Juhua and her partner coming in with something, and smiled before saying anything: "Auntie and sister-in-law, right? Brother Liu left a key at my house before he left, and I heard the children went upstairs, so I opened the door for them."
Xia Juhua smiled at her and looked at Wang Caifeng again - it was Wang Caifeng who would be living here for a long time in the future, so Wang Caifeng should be the one to talk to others first.
Liu Zhiquan probably told Wang Caifeng about entrusting the key to a neighbor. When Wang Caifeng saw her mother-in-law looking at her, she understood the intention. Although she was worried, she smiled and thanked the person: "It's Comrade Li, right? Zhiquan told me that he has been bothering you two these days. You have to take care of the house for us when he comes home."
Comrade Li originally thought that Liu Zhiquan was recruited from the countryside, and his family must be genuine farmers. Wang Caifeng was also a rural woman, so she should be shy when she went out to meet people. Unexpectedly, although she looked a little nervous, her words were very polite and appropriate. He couldn't help but look at her with some respect: "Sister-in-law, don't be polite. We will be neighbors from now on. You just arrived, just tell me where you want to go, I know everything."
"Stop talking nonsense." Someone else came up from the door carrying some things and said to Comrade Li in dissatisfaction, "Why don't you take the two children to our house if you have the time? Otherwise, they will be bumped into while you're carrying things."
The man who came in was a big and strong man, half a head taller than Liu Zhiquan, but what he said made Xia Juhua frown - if a man from the Ping'anzhuang production team dared to talk to his wife like this, Zhao Xianzhi would bring a group of women from the mat weaving team to his house and scold him one by one. I didn't expect that an employee of the provincial supply and marketing system would embarrass his wife in front of her new neighbors.
Wang Caifeng also glanced at the man. Comrade Li thought they were just embarrassed to see a stranger, and introduced them to the two of them with a smile: "This is our husband, the driver of the small car team." There was a hint of pride in the last part when he mentioned the man's position.
Xia Juhua and Wang Caifeng both smiled at the people as a greeting, told Baoguo and Lele to listen carefully to Comrade Li's words, and turned around to go downstairs to move things.
Comrade Li hurriedly held them back and said, "Auntie, sister-in-law, let the men move in. I heard that Brother Liu had already ordered all the furniture before he left. All they're moving in this time are some clothes and quilts. There's no need for you to go down again. Come on, let's all sit in our house for a while, so they don't have to come up and complain about us getting in the way."
Wang Caifeng thought that she was young and it was no big deal to go downstairs once more, but her mother-in-law was too old, so it was better for her to go to their house with Comrade Li. Xia Juhua raised her hand and looked at her watch and said, "If you want to go downstairs, go downstairs. I'll clean up first."
Comrade Li saw Xia Juhua's watch and thought to himself: Isn't it said that this family is from the countryside, why is the old lady wearing a watch? Even if the family can afford a watch, it is not given to the son who already works in the provincial capital, but worn on the old lady's hand. It looks like a powerful one.
In addition, Xia Juhua and Wang Caifeng were used to talking casually at home. Comrade Li felt that the mother-in-law was ordering her daughter-in-law around and didn't take it seriously. He secretly sympathized with Wang Caifeng. He thought that after getting familiar with Wang Caifeng, he would persuade her. future.
What is a powerful mother-in-law in the countryside? She is nowhere to be found in the provincial capital. After Wang Caifeng lived in the city for half a year, she saw more of the world and had the family's money in her hands. The mother-in-law wanted to ask her son for money but couldn't get it, and wanted to enjoy the life in the provincial capital but couldn't either. Let's see if she dares to show disrespect to her daughter-in-law.
Xia Juhua, who had no idea that she had been labeled as an evil mother-in-law as soon as she met him, was looking at the layout of the room: when Liu Zhiquan came home, he said that the house was only more than 30 square meters, and Xia Juhua had no idea what it meant. Now, looking at the house that she could see the end of, she felt a headache.
There was a large straight room, with two 1.5-meter beds placed at the north end, each with a brown mattress, which completely occupied one wall. Curtains were hung on the front and back windows, but the color was still Liu Zhiquan's favorite khaki color. If Xia Juhua planned to live here permanently, she would definitely tear them down for him.
Is this the new home that Liu Zhiquan said he had prepared? Xia Juhua resigned herself to putting her bag on the bed, opened it, and first found the quilt she had prepared at home and spread it out, then covered it with the Songhe Peony bed sheet. The room finally felt a little lively.
Seeing a desk and several chairs in the room, with a lot of wire and nails piled underneath, Xia Juhua began to measure the length of the two beds with her feet without hesitation, picked up a pair of pliers and cut the wire, then pulled over a chair and stood on it, and began to nail the nails into the wall.
"Mom, what are you doing? Put it down and let me do it." Liu Zhiquan, who was carrying things up, was startled and stepped forward to support his mother. Comrade Li was just shocked by Xia Juhua's efficiency, and now seeing Liu Zhiquan so worried about his mother, he felt that Wang Caifeng must be bullied at home - the husband was too concerned about his mother-in-law, and the daughter-in-law must be the one who was wronged.
Xia Juhua pointed to the spacious room and said, "I thought you had a partition in the room. Since there is no partition, just use a curtain to block it first. We'll have to find something to partition it later. Otherwise, it will be inconvenient for Baoguo and Lele to live together."
Liu Zhiquan smiled and helped his mother off the chair and said, "I have ordered a partition, but it will take a few days to arrive."
"We have to buy a closet, otherwise where will you put your clothes?" Xia Juhua looked at the empty house and couldn't understand where Liu Zhiquan got the courage to say that he had cleaned up the house.
"We've ordered a wardrobe and a round table, and they'll all be delivered with the partition." Liu Zhiquan saw that his mother was unhappy with him, and his smile became more sincere. In Comrade Li's eyes, the mother and daughter were of one mind, and they didn't care about the feelings of their daughter-in-law who was still moving things.
So Wang Caifeng was greeted by Comrade Li's sympathetic eyes when she went upstairs again. Wang Caifeng went upstairs twice and was very tired. She didn't notice the sympathy in Comrade Li's eyes at all. She put the things on the ground and said to Liu Zhiquan: "Zhiquan, go down and move the things quickly. I can't walk anymore."
The tone of her words was a matter of course, which was a little unbelievable to Comrade Li: Can a person who is angry talk to a man so casually? He turned his head to see if Liu Zhiquan would be angry with Wang Caifeng, and saw Liu Zhiquan looking at his wife with a smile and said:
"Okay, there's nothing left. You and mom can take a rest. I'll take you to dinner after we finish moving."
Comrade Li's gaze turned to Xia Juhua again: If the mother-in-law always controls her daughter-in-law, she would definitely scold her daughter-in-law at this time, asking why she doesn't feel sorry for the man who goes to work to earn money - Comrade Li has not seen many daughters-in-law who dare to order their husbands to do work in front of their mother-in-law.
Unexpectedly, Xia Juhua said to Wang Caifeng: "You sit on the chair and rest for a while. I see a lot of people have just gone down. You don't need to go down again." The tone was still not nice, but no one could deny that the content of the words showed that she cared about her daughter-in-law.
Comrade Li was a little unsure whether there was any quarrel between the two. However, Lele, who was beside her, saw that Xia Juhua had already made the bed, so she ran over with her legs clacking, grabbed the bed sheet and tried to climb onto the bed.
Comrade Li remembered what her husband had just said to her, and went forward to hug Lele: "Grandma just made the bed, let's not go up. How about going to Auntie's house to play?"
In fact, Comrade Li herself felt awkward saying the word "Auntie", but in order to show the difference between herself as a city dweller and a rural dweller, she pronounced the word clearly. She didn't know why she did this, but she subconsciously wanted to show her superiority in front of Xia Juhua, the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law.
Lele shook her head and said, "No, I want to stay with grandma and help her with work."
The smile on Comrade Li's face was a little stiff. Children don't pretend. They are willing to stay with whoever is nice to them. It seems that the evil mother-in-law in her mind is actually very nice to her granddaughter.
Xia Juhua's hands were busy all the time. She had already started to put a quilt cover on the quilt, which stunned Comrade Li again: Nowadays, every family still has the habit of sewing a wide white edge on the quilt to make it easier to take it apart and wash, and not many people use quilt covers.
This rural family actually has a quilt cover for each quilt. They are quite particular. I just don't know where they got the cloth coupons.
Just as I was thinking about it, I heard the sound of several people walking together in the corridor. No one in the house took it seriously - there were several people coming downstairs just now, they must have carried all the things up at once.
"Mom, Deputy Director Gu is here to see you." Liu Zhiquan's voice rang out at this moment. Xia Juhua hurriedly put down the work in her hands, Wang Caifeng also stood up from her chair, but Comrade Li was stunned.
Deputy Director Gu is a big leader of the supply and marketing system. Although Comrade Li's husband is a small car driver, he only drives for general section chiefs and is not a full-time driver for any leader. It is not easy to meet Deputy Director Gu. In addition, Deputy Director Gu does not live in a tube building. He is assigned a unit in the front building, which is two or three buildings away. How did he know that Xia Juhua had arrived and come to see a rural woman in person?
Before Comrade Li could figure it out, Deputy Director Gu had already entered the room and extended his hand to Xia Juhua from afar: "Comrade Xia Juhua, we meet again. You are in good health now, are you feeling well?"
Xia Juhua shook his hand gently and said with a smile, "Thank you for your concern, Deputy Director Gu. I have recovered a long time ago."
"That's good." Deputy Director Gu looked around the room with a smile and said apologetically, "Zhiquan was here for a short time, so the room is not cleaned up. You must feel bad for him, right?"
Xia Juhua was indeed dissatisfied with some things, but that was Liu Zhiquan's own fault for not doing his job well, and she couldn't blame Deputy Director Gu. She shook her head and said, "He was given a house as soon as he arrived at the unit, and his family didn't have to live apart. This is already a sign that the leader is taking care of him. If I'm still dissatisfied, I'm not content."
Several people who went upstairs with Deputy Director Gu were putting their things away while listening carefully to the conversation between Xia Juhua and Deputy Director Gu, and were evaluating the relationship between Xia Juhua and Deputy Director Gu in their hearts.
Although they are ordinary employees, they have been working for a long time and have some general judgment. Listening to the conversation between Deputy Director Gu and Xia Juhua, we can know that the relationship between the two is more than just Deputy Director Gu caring about the family of his subordinates.
After hearing Xia Juhua's answer, Deputy Director Gu apologized: "It stands to reason that their family is so large that one room is not enough. But the supply and marketing system has not built a house recently, so we can only make do with it for the time being."
Helping the crowd: Leader, when you said this, have you forgotten that the children of the families behind you are no less than those in Liu Zhiquan's family, and some of their children are even older than those in Liu Zhiquan's family?
The tube-shaped building at the back has each room of only a dozen square meters. Is it right that it should be divided among those who have just started working?
Because everyone could see that Deputy Director Gu and Xia Juhua had a special relationship, no one asked them directly. Everyone quietly put their things away and left the room. Comrade Li, who was stunned by what she heard, was also pulled out by her husband.
Wang Caifeng did send them out, thanked everyone, and said that she would treat everyone to a meal after they were settled, and then she went back to the room to boil some water to entertain Deputy Director Gu. Unfortunately, she searched the room and couldn't find the stove, so she had to look to Liu Zhiquan for help.
Deputy Director Gu came to see Liu Zhiquan's family after hearing the driver's report. Seeing that Wang Caifeng wanted to pour him some water, he stopped her and asked to take Xia Juhua and her family out for dinner, under the pretext of welcoming Xia Juhua.
Seeing that she couldn't refuse, and wanting to know why Deputy Director Gu insisted on asking her to come to the provincial capital, Xia Juhua finally agreed to Deputy Director Gu's proposal. She locked the door with Liu Zhiquan and his family, and followed Deputy Director Gu downstairs.
Comrade Li, who had been paying attention to what was happening next door, turned around and asked her husband: "How did Liu Zhiquan get recruited into the system? He was hired into the purchasing department right after he arrived, and Deputy Director Gu even came to see his mother in person?" Maybe he is a relative of Deputy Director Gu, but when he heard the two of them greeting each other just now, it didn't seem like that.
Her husband glared at her and said, "Why do you care about that? How does he know Deputy Director Gu have anything to do with you?" Comrade Li was speechless.
Besides, Xia Juhua and others who were walking with Deputy Director Gu arrived at the internal guesthouse of the supply and marketing system not long after they walked. Deputy Director Gu's secretary was already waiting there. When he saw Xia Juhua, he greeted her with a smile and welcomed them into a room.
There was a large round table in the room, on which four cold dishes had been placed. It seemed that Deputy Director Gu had said that they had been prepared long ago, and it was not just a formality. Xia Juhua said, "Thank you so much, Deputy Director Gu."
Deputy Director Gu let the secretary arrange for everyone to be seated, and he concentrated on talking to Xia Juhua: "It's not a big deal. Since you are coming to our provincial supply and marketing system, we naturally have to entertain you well."
Xia Juhua felt a little uneasy after hearing his serious words: "Now that you mention it, I'm a little afraid to eat." Maybe this is the Hongmen Banquet.
Deputy Director Gu laughed a few times at her, then said, "Don't worry, eat. Even if I have something to talk to you about, I don't mind eating this meal."
It's better for you to say it directly, otherwise we won't be able to have a good meal. Xia Juhua thought so in her heart, and her eyes kept looking at Deputy Director Gu. Deputy Director Gu had no choice but to explain why he had to call Xia Juhua: "You still remember Roberts, he will come to the provincial capital soon."
"Roberts is coming?" Xia Juhua felt strange: "He just returned to China not long ago, why is he suddenly coming to the provincial capital?"
Deputy Director Gu tapped the table and said, "Didn't we order two tons of cashews from him at the Expo? He called and said he would personally deliver the goods to our door. He's so sincere, how could I not let him come?"
Compared with 10,000 tons of rubber, two tons of cashews are really not worth mentioning, but Roberts insisted on sending cashews, so there must be something else behind it. Xia Juhua asked Deputy Director Gu: "Is he coming alone or with others? Is he coming directly to the provincial capital or to Guangzhou first?"
"He traveled with the G country delegation, first to Beijing and then to the provincial capital." Deputy Director Gu explained what he knew, which was that after the G country delegation returned home, they found that the Chinese market was huge and were not satisfied with the orders from the expo. After consulting with relevant national departments, they sent a delegation to visit China again, hoping to promote their products more.
Xia Juhua understood why: China was short of all kinds of supplies, and the most important thing was food to fill people's stomachs. Country G had a geographical advantage, and it could grow food just by sowing some seeds on the ground. Their products were exactly what China needed.
Therefore, the arrival of this delegation met the common needs of the two countries. It was a win-win situation, as Xia Juhua had heard all her life. However, Roberts was also able to come with the delegation, and he specifically wanted to go to Province L, which still puzzled Xia Juhua: "Since Roberts is a member of the delegation, why doesn't he follow the delegation?"
Deputy Director Gu said, "I heard that their delegation will visit various provinces, and because of the tight schedule, they will move separately."
Xia Juhua remembered that Roberts told her at the expo that he would come to visit her. Xia Juhua thought he was being polite, but she didn't expect him to be so proactive.
"Deputy Director Gu, you can just tell me about this over the phone. You know we are busy building the vermicelli factory now, and I can't be away for too long."
Deputy Director Gu shook his head at her and said, "Do you think that since Roberts and his team went their separate ways, he would be the only one to come? Director Yang from Beijing must have someone to accompany him. Plus the translators, there must be at least five or six people."
"Whether we take it seriously or not will be judged by our superiors, who will decide whether we have enough time to prepare and whether all the necessary personnel are present. This is also the first time that the provincial supply and marketing system is receiving foreign guests, so you may have to accompany them throughout the whole process."
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