Chapter 169 Agen Returns to Xiaoyanggou
Early in the morning, people from Xiaoyanggou Brigade walked towards the threshing ground one after another. Yesterday evening when they were off work, the brigade radio announced that a members' meeting would be held today.
In the threshing floor, on the makeshift podium made of a few worn-out wooden boards, Secretary Fugen was greeting everyone at the top of his voice.
The members were wrapped up tightly, with cotton jackets, cotton pants, scarves, and cotton hats, but even so, they were still shivering from the cold, and the white breath they exhaled instantly dissipated in the cold air.
Most of the men were smoking dry tobacco, with sparks flickering in the cold wind, and discussing this year's harvest. The women were holding needles and threads for shoe soles, and after doing a few stitches, they would exhale to warm their hands.
"Touch my hands, they're not cold at all." Lu Chunmei extended her hand to the person next to her.
“It’s so warm!”
Lu Chunmei took out the hem of her ski jacket and showed it to everyone: "I heard from Agen that this is a piece of clothing made for the Japanese in a big factory in Gangcheng. I don't know what kind of cotton is sandwiched in the middle. There's also wool inside! It's very warm..."
Several women were looking at Lu Chunmei's clothes. They were envious, but they couldn't express their envy!
Tian Zaohua rolled her eyes at the sidelines and said, "Show off!"
Lu Chunmei smiled and said, "Just to show you, Ningning asked Agen to come back and take our family to Pengcheng to enjoy life. He gave us two old people 50 yuan each as wages. Are you jealous?"
Just this one sentence angered Tian Zaohua. She suddenly shouted in a sharp voice: "Why should I be jealous of you? You have nothing to make me jealous."
Everyone looked over here following the sound, only to see the two old rivals, Lu Chunmei and Tian Zaohua quarreling again. The two were glaring at each other, like two old hens with red eyes fighting each other.
Tian Zaohua put her hands on her hips, her chest heaving violently, and the wrinkles on her face twisted into a ball because of anger: "You are the one with red eyes. Seeing my Da Kui working as an accountant, your eyes were so red that they were about to bleed. You told tales and caused my Da Kui to lose his job as an accountant. You are a black-hearted person, and nothing good will happen to you in the future."
When Lu Chunmei heard her cursing, she also became furious. She took a step forward, stretched her neck, and cursed back in a shrill voice: "Thank goodness God has eyes. Only a black-hearted person would give birth to a fool. Only a person who thinks about hurting others all day would cause a man to lose his job as an accountant."
Tian Zaohua was so angry that she threw away her shoe sole and rushed over, her eyes as big as bells: "If you dare to say that again, I will tear your mouth apart!"
As she spoke, she went over to pull at Lu Chunmei's clothes, and Lu Chunmei also pulled at Tian Zaohua's clothes. Lu Chunmei's clothes were brand new ski jackets, and the outer layer was made of slippery nylon, which was very sturdy! Tian Zaohua's cotton jacket had been worn for several years, and the cotton cloth was already thin, so it couldn't withstand Lu Chunmei's strength. With a tearing sound, a hole was torn, revealing the yellow and hardened old cotton wool.
Secretary Fugen shouted into a loud speaker: "Are we still going to have the meeting?"
Several young and strong men rushed forward and took great effort to pull the two men apart.
The two women were still yelling and cursing. Even as they were being pulled away, they did not forget to point at each other, as if they wanted to eat each other alive.
"Everyone, be quiet, be quiet!" Secretary Fugen stood on the podium, holding a tin loudspeaker in his hand, and shouted at the top of his voice, "The meeting is about to begin."
Everyone gradually quieted down, their eyes all turned to the rostrum. Next to Secretary Fugen stood a man, his name was Six-Fingered Agen, their brigade's former veterinarian.
The villagers below looked at the six-fingered Agen, who used to wear a blue khaki coat like them and always had messy hair. His hair was combed so neatly that flies would slip on it. He was wearing a black woolen coat, a scarf around his neck, a pair of leather shoes on his feet, and a thermos cup in his hand. He had only been out for a few months! He was dressed like a landlord. If it weren't for the six fingers on his hand holding the thermos cup, people might not recognize him.
"Comrade Yue Ning of our brigade, after going to the port city, did not forget the care of the elders and villagers of Xiaoyanggou. In order to repay the elders and villagers of Xiaoyanggou, he gave us the following subsidies. Everyone should listen carefully." Secretary Yang Fugen looked at his younger brother Liuzhi Agen, "Now, please allow Comrade Yang Yonggen to announce Comrade Yue Ning's donation to our brigade."
Agen put down the thermos cup and picked up the tin horn: "Fellow villagers, I came back this time! I was asked by Yue Ning, the owner of Gangcheng Baohualou Catering Management Company, to thank the Xiaoyanggou villagers for their care."
"Yue Ning is now the boss? Isn't her grandfather the boss? How did she become the boss?"
Agen has been working with the master craftsman from Hong Kong these days, and he finally understands how big a boss Yue Ning is.
He laughed and said, "Her grandfather opened a restaurant. After Yue Ning went there, he opened another restaurant. This restaurant is now the best restaurant in Hong Kong."
"Is it as big as the Weimin Restaurant in the county?"
"How much does a table at Weimin Restaurant cost?" Agen asked.
The farthest place most people have ever been to in their lives is the commune. The Weimin Restaurant in the county is only visible from the door. How many people can actually go in and have a bite?
"Twenty-thirty?"
"I had dinner with my leaders this time. It cost 40 yuan for a large platter with 10 hot dishes, a dessert and a soup," said Agen.
"Forty dollars? My whole year's work was for nothing?" An old man shook his head.
Agen nodded: "Yuening's restaurant, a meal like this costs four thousand."
"How much?" The people below took a deep breath and started coughing suddenly.
"Four thousand. It's not even the most expensive one, it may be more than ten thousand!" Agen said.
"Is this steamed bun made of gold? It's more than ten thousand. How many days can it feed our whole village?"
"The life of the wealthy capitalists in Gangcheng is not something we ordinary people can understand." Agen sighed, "Don't let your imagination run wild. Just think about Ningning going to Gangcheng and getting rich, and think about our fellow villagers in Xiaoyanggou, that's all."
Agen took out a piece of paper and began to read, "1. 50,000 yuan will be used to support the reconstruction of the brigade's primary school. 2. Ning Yan will pay for all the teachers' salaries in the future. 3. Every year, every elderly person over 60 in Xiaoyanggou Village will receive a 50 yuan red envelope, and every elderly person over 80 will receive a 100 yuan red envelope, with the exception of Xu Dagui's family."
"What?" Tian Zaohua, who was feeling sad about the big hole in her cotton-padded jacket, screamed when she heard the news.
"Tian Zaohua, what's your name? How did you treat Ningning? Don't you know what you did?" Lu Chunmei stood up, gloating, "Your son is disabled, and your parents-in-law are still alive, so you'll lose two hundred dollars a year!"
Two hundred yuan! It was already very good for a strong laborer to earn over a hundred yuan a year. Women comrades could earn about thirty or fifty yuan, and the elderly, the weak, the sick and the disabled could earn even less. For a family, two hundred yuan was equivalent to doubling their income.
Yue Ning left, leaving a thank-you letter, praising Yang Fugen, but also removing Xu Dagui's position as the brigade accountant. Xu Dagui became an ordinary member, and his family members blamed Tian Zaohua.
Tian Zaohua was not convinced. Who could have known that the dead girl would have a grandfather who was a capitalist in Hong Kong City?
Now she was told that so much money was missing? She was no longer in the mood to feel bad about her cotton-padded jacket, because this was real money!
"Your intestines are broken, right?" Lu Chunmei was still rubbing salt into Tian Zaohua's heart.
Tian Zaohua stood up again, and Agen shouted with the loudspeaker: "Do you want to listen to the rest? If you don't want to listen and feel it has nothing to do with you, you can leave. Don't let everyone blow in the cold wind with you."
Tian Zaohua walked out with tears in her eyes. Agen continued to read: "Girls from Xiaoyanggou Village who go to junior high school will receive a subsidy of 50 yuan a year. Girls who go to technical secondary school or high school will receive a subsidy of 100 yuan a year. Girls who go to college will receive a subsidy of 150 yuan a year. Xu Dagui's family also has this subsidy."
Tian Zaohua hadn't walked far when she heard this and turned around.
The people at the scene were unhappy. One of the men asked, "Why give it to the girl but not to the boy?"
"That's right, it's useless for a girl to study. Even if she passes the college entrance examination, she will still be an outsider. Only a boy can bring honor to the family if he passes the college entrance examination."
"Is there anyone who favors girls over boys so much?"
"If you want to give it, give it to the boy, not the girl."
Everyone was arguing, and Agen said, "This is the money that Yue Ning took out of his pocket. Give it to whoever you want. If you don't give it to the girl, the boy won't get any either."
"Agen, you are from our Yang family, didn't you tell Yue Ning that it was inappropriate for her to do this?"
"No. She said that she had seen too many girls from Xiaoyanggou who went to primary school for two years, learned a few words, and then stopped studying. Boys, unless they really have no talent for studying, you should still support them if you can. Don't you want the girls to earn work points? Then she paid the work points for the girls." Agen walked among the members, "As long as the girls study, they will earn money for the family."
"Reading more is good. My wife is a technical secondary school student, well-educated. When she arrived in Pengcheng, she was spotted by a foreign investor in a feed factory, who offered her a monthly salary of 350 yuan and asked her to research which places had the right livestock, and then sell the feed to those places. As for me, I only studied until the fifth grade, knew only a few words, and worked as a repairman in a factory, earning about 100 yuan a month."
"Three hundred and fifty! Normal women have to work for seven or eight years."
"Agen, your wife is so pretty, could it be that the big boss has taken a fancy to her and is cheating on you?"
As soon as these words came out, the whole audience burst into laughter. Agen lowered his head and said, "Yang Changxing, you can go now. What happens next has nothing to do with you."
"Why do you want me to leave?" The man stood up, "Xiaoyanggou is not your territory."
Agen sneered: "But I can decide who can enter Ningning's friend's factory and who can't."
"What?"
"Ningning has several good friends who have opened factories in Beijing, Shanghai, Yuecheng, Shancheng and Pengcheng and are looking for workers. You know, there are many educated youth returning to the city now, not to mention us farmers. She was thinking about our Xiaoyanggou, so in advance, she asked me to come back and select people to work in these factories." Agen lowered his head and said to Yang Changxing, "I still have to look at others, but you definitely can't get in."
Yang Changxing looked up at him. Agen walked over to Yang Changxing's younger brother, Yang Changfa, who had a good relationship with Yue Ning. "Changfa, Ningning asked you to go, didn't you know? She has arranged everything for you."
"The recruitment list has been posted on the brigade's blackboard. The requirements and salary are all written on it! For those who sign up and are selected, Ningning will cover all the travel expenses."
Agen returned the loudspeaker to Yang Fugen, who said, "That's it. Anyone who wants to go out to work can go to the brigade office and sign up with Li Qiaomei."
"I have a question." A young wife came over and asked, "I am a wife from another village. If I pass the entrance exam to a technical secondary school, will you give me money?"
"Ningning said that as long as you are a woman, no matter what age you are, you should follow this standard," Agen told her.
After the meeting, some people surrounded Agen and asked him questions, while others ran quickly to the brigade office.
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