Chapter 82 82

years ago, because of the Chinese New Year, a large number of workers left the construction site, and there were fewer people left. However, the construction site cannot be without people. Whether it is building materials or other things, someone needs to watch over them. Seeing that Wu Gongan and his team chose not to go home for the Chinese New Year, but to get the extra two yuan in wages, they wanted to wait until the fifteenth day of the first lunar month to go back. The person in charge kept some people and asked them to watch over Wu Gongan and his team, and then went home for the Chinese New Year.

The people who stayed did not know that the person in charge and his team had killed people, and thought that they were asked to watch over these people and not steal things on the construction site, so they agreed readily.

Once these people left, there were fewer people on the construction site.

On the New Year's Eve, no matter how vigilant they were, seeing that these people worked honestly, they gave Wu Gongan and his men a day off, bought wine and meat, and wanted to have a good and lively New Year's Eve.

Especially on the night of New Year's Eve, it was snowing, and there were no beds on the construction site. The beds they slept on were all made temporarily with leaky building materials, covered with snakeskin bags, cardboard boxes, and straw, and covered with their own bedding.

The weather was cold, and it was New Year's Eve, so these people couldn't help but drink a little too much, especially seeing that Wu Gongan and his men were not good at drinking. After drinking a few glasses, their faces turned red and they went back to sleep. The people who were left behind couldn't help but laugh, laughing at their poor alcohol tolerance, and then their own people continued to drink.

Public Security Wu waited until all of them were drunk and asleep before he started digging under a ginkgo tree as written in Jiang Gui's book. They had searched for a long time before and roughly determined it.

As they dug, they felt a little ridiculous: "What if we can't dig it up?"

"If we can't dig it up, we'll wait until the fifteenth day of the first lunar month to go back." Public Security Wu said calmly.

Public Security Xiao Chang couldn't help but look up at the heavy snow falling from the sky. Thinking that today was New Year's Eve, and everyone else was at home having a reunion dinner, they were digging corpses in the snow in such a cold winter, and couldn't help but sigh. Public

Security Wu and the others knew what he was thinking. They had been undercover for so many days and hadn't been home. In fact, the people they felt most sorry for were their families, especially today was New Year's Eve.

"Let's dig." Wu Gongan said, "If we can dig it, we will be worthy of the dead and the clothes we are wearing. If we can't dig it, we have tried our best."

Because of the snow, the ground was not frozen. On the contrary, the snow moistened the soil, making it easier to dig.

The back of Xiao Chang Gongan's hands were red from the freezing, his face and head were covered with snow, and his body was sweating from digging.

Several people dug for two hours before they dug open the ginkgo tree and exposed the body underneath.

When they saw the bodies, they all looked at each other in bewilderment, shook off the white snow on their heads, and blew a breath of warm air into their palms: "Let's go, call someone."

The people from the Criminal Investigation Brigade of the Provincial Public Security Department were sleeping in bed on New Year's Eve, and were woken up by phone calls and called to go out on the night.

Jiang Xi and Grandpa Jiang both planned to go back to school on the third day of the New Year.

Jiang Xi didn't want to stay in his hometown for too long, but Grandpa Jiang was worried that the storefront was rented and he had to open it for business.

Jiang's mother went back to her parents' home on the second day of the New Year, and she had to stay there for at least one night.

Jiang Bai and Jiang Xi got up early on the third day of the New Year to open the rice warehouse, carrying rice to the village where there was a rice pounding machine to pound rice.

The main point of pounding rice is that you can have enough food and clothing by yourself. You pick the rice, weigh it, pour it into the machine, press the switch to pound the rice, and pay yourself after pounding the rice. It costs

fifty cents to pound 100 kilograms of rice. Two people pounded 500 kilograms of rice, and then used a wooden bran separator to pour the rice that was not completely separated from the bran into the bran separator. Jiang Bai was responsible for pouring the rice, and Jiang Qi was responsible for manually shaking the wooden handle of the rice bran separator and using the fan inside to shake the bran out of the rice.

The bran that was shaken out also had to be taken back, as pigs love to eat it.

Last year, the Jiang family raised two pigs. This year, Jiang Xi didn't know if Jiang's mother would raise more pigs. If she didn't want to, the rice bran could be given to Jiang's uncle's family.

Jiang's uncle's mother had never worked outside her home, and she raised two or three pigs every year.

After finishing all this, Jiang Bai and Jiang Xi went to the neighbor's house to borrow a cart, said hello to Jiang's uncle's mother, and the three of them carried their backpacks and pulled a cart of food and pickles to the ferry.

When Jiang's father and mother came back, where would anyone be at home?

The road on the embankment was narrow, with only a two-foot-wide dirt road in the middle. The yellow mud was exposed by the pedestrians walking back and forth. At this time, it was covered with snow that had not yet melted, and it was very slippery.

Jiang Xi and Jiang Bai were afraid that Grandpa Jiang might slip and fall, so they asked him to sit on the cart. But the old man always thought he could do it and refused to sit on it. "I have walked this road so many times. I know how to walk with my eyes closed. How could I fall? The road is difficult to walk on, and Baizi is dragging a cart of food. If I sit on it, I'm afraid

both I and the cart will overturn. In this weather, if I fall into the river, I can't even climb out!" Grandpa Jiang was not just threatening. There was a river on both sides of the embankment, and the surface of the river was covered with wet white snow and there was no ice.

Both sides of the river bank are trapezoidal. If they fall or flip over, they will really roll into the river. They are wearing thick cotton clothes. If they are soaked in water, they will not be able to climb up, let alone freeze.

Jiang Xi couldn't help but look up at the long river bank.

It takes at least 40 minutes to walk from their home to the ferry. After crossing the ferry, there is still a long embankment to walk to the other side of the river.

In the previous life, the people of the Linhe Brigade looked forward to building a bridge every year to connect the two sides of Tanshan and the river. Until Jiang Xi was reborn, there was no bridge here.

In fact, after she entered the system, she realized that this bridge could not be built. The project was too huge. The manpower, material resources and money required were not a small amount at all. It would not promote the economy much. The government did not have that much money, and there was no need to spend so much money to build a bridge here.

Later, they bypassed Tanshan and opened a road from the back mountain to the next township, and then bypassed two townships, and finally reached their Shuibu Town.

Later, with the development of the economy, more and more young people went to big cities, bought houses in neighboring cities, or bought houses in other cities, and the village was basically empty, with only a few elderly people and children left behind. When they returned to the village on weekdays, not only the Linhe Brigade, but all the brigades on the river bank were empty, with no one to be seen. Only during the New Year when they came back to worship their ancestors, the village would once again return to the lively scene they saw when they were young.

Grandpa Jiang didn't ride the cart, so Jiang Xi let Grandpa Jiang follow Jiang Bai, holding the handle of the cart, Jiang Bai pulled the cart in front, and Jiang Xi held the cart and pushed the cart at the back, so that it would be easier for Jiang Bai to pull the cart in front.

In winter, as the water from Shahe River falls into the Yangtze River, the water level drops and the ferry is transformed from the original boat to a bamboo bridge built by the ferrymen using bamboo rafts.

Mother Jiang grew up in the mountains, and she was always afraid to walk on the bamboo raft bridge at the ferry. She had to be led by Father Jiang before she dared to cross the bridge carefully.

Grandpa Jiang was used to walking on such a simple bamboo bridge. On such a narrow bamboo bridge, he walked slowly with his hands behind his back. There was snow on the bridge, and Jiang Xiao was afraid to see him slip and fall into the river.

Although the river was not deep at this season, if he fell into the river, he would be frozen.

She wanted to help Grandpa Jiang, but Grandpa Jiang thought she was in the way because only one side of the bamboo bridge could be crossed at a time, and it was impossible for two people to walk side by side. Jiang Xiao stood behind him, holding out her hand, and did not feel relieved until Grandpa Jiang crossed the bridge safely.

Grandpa Jiang said to her: "You are such a worrier, I don't know who you inherited this from."

Grandpa Jiang himself is a very carefree person, Jiang's father and Jiang Song are also not very carefree people, only Jiang Bai and Jiang Xi probably inherited this from Jiang's mother.

In fact, Jiang Xi is also a carefree person, it was her later work that forced her to worry carefully, and years of occupational diseases have made her develop this habit.

If she was not carefree and loved to nitpick like Jiang Bai, she would probably have died a long time ago and jumped off the building to end it all. She

has always loved this world, loved life, and loved everything beautiful in this world.

She just smiled at Grandpa Jiang's words and waited for the people on the other side of the river to cross the bridge.

Jiang Bai couldn't cross the bridge with his cart, so he asked the man sitting at the ferry to collect money if he could borrow his boat.

The ferry was not far from the wooden bridge. The ferryman sat at the ferry and collected money one by one. During the New Year, even the ferry fee was increased by 10 cents.

He waved his hand and said, "You can use it yourself, and just row it for me." He asked Jiang Bai again, "Do you know how to row a boat?"

Among the people born in their area, Jiang Xi, Jiang Gangqin and Jiang Hehua were probably the only three people who didn't know how to row a boat because they were always studying and had their brother around.

When Jiang Xi was a child, it was not her turn to row a boat.

Jiang Song was full of energy. In the summer, he would take Jiang Bai, Jiang Xiao, and a group of his good brothers to the river beach to pick water caltrops, water chestnuts, and water caltrops. He would carry the water chestnut basins and boats on his head and run faster than a rabbit. Jiang Bai and Jiang Xiao could not catch up with him. When he got to the river, he would dive into the riverbed, cast a net to catch fish, and swim back and forth. When

the eldest brother was not on the boat, the second brother would be responsible for rowing the boat and picking water caltrops.

Jiang Xi and Jiang Bai were always quiet, watching Jiang Song swam back and forth in the river. In Jiang Song's own words, "I can swim back and forth on this river bank twice without taking a breath!"

Later, he went to Hangzhou to visit friends, and the two of them jumped into the Qiantang River and swam back and forth.

Jiang Xi sometimes thought that if Jiang Song could become an athlete, he might be more useful than him doing business.

Jiang Bai carried the cart and bags of food onto the boat, pushed the boat to the other side of the river, unloaded the cart and bags of food, loaded them back onto the cart, tied them up with ropes, and pushed the boat back to the ferry on the other side, helped people tie up the boat, and then stepped on the bamboo raft bridge to cross the bridge.

When they got to the other side of the river, climbing the river bank was another hassle.

In order to prevent floods, the river bank was built very high. It was fine on sunny days, but the path to the river bank was very slippery when the snow had not melted.

Jiang Xi and Jiang Bai each held one of Grandpa Jiang's arms, one was pulling in front, and the other was holding from behind. They had to free one hand to pull the wild wormwood growing on the river bank. With the help of the wild wormwood, they finally got Grandpa Jiang onto the river bank.

In fact, Grandpa Jiang felt that he didn't need his grandson and granddaughter to support him like this. He could pull the wild wormwood up the river bank by himself. Facing his grandson and granddaughter's excessive worry about him, he felt sweet and worried.

Alas, he missed his old friends just after leaving the village. If he

didn't brag about his troubles to the old friends in the village, he would feel lonely as snow.

He looked up and looked at Jiangjia Village on the other side of the river, which was already very far away.

Jiang Xi and Jiang Bai went down again, one pulling in front and the other pushing hard in the back, pushing the cart and grain onto the embankment. When everything was pushed up, both of them were a little exhausted, and fine beads of sweat appeared on their foreheads.

Jiang Xi couldn't help but look back and look at this section of the road to his hometown.

In fact, the agricultural resources in my hometown are very rich. Behind me are endless mountains. The top of the highest mountain is densely planted with tea leaves. There are so many wild persimmons, chestnuts, mulberries, wolfberries, and kudzu roots on the mountain. The persimmons hanging on the branches in front of every household, no one picks them even if they rot.

Grandpa Jiang feeds pigs with persimmons and watermelons.

In the years when Jiang Bai went out to learn a craft and Jiang Xi went to college, the Jiang family had a much better life. Jiang's father and mother worked hard outside to build a building for the family, leaving only Grandpa Jiang as the only elderly person left at home.

Jiang Xi was worried about Grandpa Jiang, so he raised a dog for him to patrol the mountains and guard with him. Grandpa Jiang usually didn't like to cook, and always ate something casually. After raising the dog, he didn't eat himself, but the dog still had to eat. Every time he called, he complained to Jiang Xi. Every day for the dog's food, he specially cooked a meal and took him to eat with it.

Jiang Xi didn't like to go back to his hometown, so Grandpa Jiang planted a lot of watermelons to feed his grandchildren.

There was no one in his hometown, and the watermelons couldn't be sold, so they were all pulled to Aunt Jiang's place by boat and let her sell them. Anyone in the village who was hungry or thirsty could go to the foot of the mountain to pick watermelons for free.

Other people in the village don't like to eat the watermelons grown by Grandpa Jiang, because they are facing the same situation as Grandpa Jiang. They grow too much and can't sell or eat it all, so they feed it all to pigs. Tomatoes can't be eaten, so they feed it to pigs. Watermelons can't be eaten, so they feed it to pigs. Persimmons

ca n't be eaten, so they feed it to pigs. Chinese cabbage can't be eaten, so they feed it to pigs . There are also wild chrysanthemums, honeysuckle, azaleas, bracken, etc. all over the mountain. This is just the production of the mountain, not counting the river. Jiang Xi personally dislikes the hot summer, but the summer in Linhe Brigade is the most beautiful scenery. On the shallow beaches on both sides of the river bank, there are endless swaying lotus flowers. The summer breeze blows, and the lotus fragrance is everywhere. Lotus buds, lotus seeds, lotus hearts, and lotus roots are all good things. Among the wild wormwood on both sides of the river bank, wild wolfberries are extremely vigorous. Local people do not know wolfberries, and call them small peppers, and strictly prohibit children from eating them. When Jiang Xi was a child, he did not know that this thing was wild wolfberry. Girls all liked the bright red color of wolfberries, picked them with branches and strings, and played with them in their hands.

There are so many wild wolfberries, which shows that the soil and climate here are suitable for large-scale wolfberry cultivation. There are

also wild water chestnuts and water caltrops, which are so delicious that locals don't even want to look at them. In fact, they are very expensive when sold online.

There are many agricultural resources, but no one comes back to do business.

Everyone is focused on running to the city.

Jiang Xi knows that her hometown has very rich agricultural resources, but she is unwilling to come back.

She looked back at the land, and several plans to lead the villagers to get rich instantly emerged in her mind.

But she smiled again.

If she didn't go out and sit in a high enough position, no one in this land would be able to hear her voice, and no one would believe that a girl could lead them to prosperity.

It was only after she sat in a high enough position and her words had enough weight, and Jiang's father also passed the village election and became the village brigade secretary, that they listened to her and began to lead the villagers to build their hometown. Jiang

Bai was still bent over in front, pulling the cart with his head down, and Jiang Xi followed behind to support and push the cart. The three of them slowly walked out of the river bank and climbed up the charcoal mountain.

The whole way was uphill, and there was no wild wormwood to use as leverage. It was all bumpy stone roads with snow on the road surface. If you walked, you might slide down.

Now even Grandpa Jiang joined the team pushing the cart. When pedestrians saw them on the road, they would come over to help until they pushed the cart onto the main road above the charcoal mountain.

Jiang Xi herself was used to walking to and from school like this every day. She never felt tired and didn't realize that this journey was so difficult. At that time, if she had books to study, she would have to study with all her strength. How could she have the energy to pay attention to the external environment and physical fatigue?

It can be seen that after experiencing the smooth roads and convenient transportation in the 21st century, she now looks back and walks the road of her youth again, and she realizes that it was really not easy for her to walk out of here. It was

not easy to get there. When she stood at the top of the charcoal mountain, she didn't even want to look back.

No wonder so many people left and didn't want to come back.

Tanshan is a very big mountain, or a group of mountains, which is also the general name of this place. There are many villages here. Because of the rich mineral resources here, it has formed a prosperous scene that is far better than ordinary towns, although not a town. The only bad thing is that this place is full of dust all year round, and the roads are full of dust. Every day, trucks of coal and cement are taken away from here.

Because every car has to pass the scale on the ground, this place is named after the scale. There are all kinds of stalls and shops on both sides of the street.

When there is no boat, they have to pass through Tanshan, pass this place, take a tricycle, and then go all the way to Shuibu Town.

Only in Shuibu Town can there be minibuses to neighboring cities and Wucheng.

The clothes that Tong Jingang and Jiang Bai brought were almost sold out, but he was still selling. He could hear the sound coming from the loud speaker he brought from a distance. There was no business on the third day of the New Year, and he was not busy at this time. He saw them pulling the cart from a distance, and quickly put down the clothes in his hands, ran over to take the cart rope from Jiang Bai's shoulders, put it on himself, and pulled the cart to Aunt Jiang's house.

Aunt Jiang's parents-in-law had seen better business in their store because of the traffic brought by Jiang Bai and Tong Jingang in the past two days. When they saw Grandpa Jiang and his family, they smiled and shouted, "The in-laws are here? Haven't you eaten yet? Ask Xiaofeng to buy some snacks and eat quickly!" They also called Uncle Jiang, "Dawei! Dawei! Your father-in-law is here!" Uncle Jiang

was watching TV upstairs because it was Chinese New Year and he rarely went out to build houses for others.

Yes, Uncle Jiang is also a bricklayer. When he has nothing to do, he follows his eldest brother-in-law, Uncle Jiang's family, to build houses for others. When he heard that his father-in-law was coming, he hurried downstairs with a smile on his face and greeted him warmly: "Dad, you are here? Haven't you eaten? I'll buy you something to eat!"

Uncle Jiang is not tall and very thin. Because he has been building houses for others outside for many years, his face is a little dark from the sun and he has a little social anxiety.

Although Grandpa Jiang is from the countryside, he was a forest ranger with a fixed salary. After Aunt Jiang married Uncle Jiang, he never asked Aunt Jiang for money. In the years when life was hard, he even sent food and vegetables to Aunt Jiang. A few years ago, his family also ran a chicken farm. So even though they are from the countryside, Uncle Jiang's family is from the town, so Aunt Jiang is very confident when facing her mother-in-law's family.

Aunt Jiang's parents-in-law are also very polite to the Jiang family.

Aunt Jiang's parents-in-law have no other hobbies. The couple likes to play mahjong, and Aunt Jiang also likes to play mahjong when she has nothing to do.

Uncle Jiang especially liked to go to his father-in-law's house, because when he was at home, Aunt Jiang would not let him play mahjong. When she was not busy, she would ask Aunt Jiang to play mahjong whenever there was an opportunity, and he could not play. But when he went to his father-in-law's house, he was the guest, and Grandma Jiang would let him play mahjong and ask Aunt Jiang to do the work.

Grandpa Jiang hated to bother others the most. Hearing this, he waved his hand and said, "I'm not hungry. I just had breakfast and came here. Baizi and Jin Gang have been selling clothes here for the past two days. I'm sorry to have troubled you and mother-in-law."

"No, no, no, no." Uncle Jiang scratched the back of his head embarrassedly, "On the contrary, they have brought good business to my family. Dad, you sit down. I'll go call Xiaofeng."

After saying that, he ran away in a hurry. When he came back, he brought a lot of breakfast. Even though Grandpa Jiang and the others said they were not hungry, he bought a lot and put them on the table. Then he sat there awkwardly, not knowing what to say. He felt like he didn't know what to do with his hands and feet. Sometimes he put them in his trouser pockets, sometimes in his jacket pockets, and sometimes he touched his pockets for a cigarette, anxiously waiting for Aunt Jiang to come back.

Grandpa Jiang was not hungry, but Jiang Xi and Jiang Bai were a little hungry. They had been pulling and pushing carts all the way, which consumed a lot of energy.

They were growing up, so they ate a lot and got hungry quickly. Jiang Xi was not polite and said, "Thank you, uncle." Then he went to eat first.

At that time, one yuan could buy ten pot stickers. The oil used was fragrant rapeseed oil. The pot stickers were fried golden and fragrant. Jiang Xi also asked uncle Jiang for vinegar and chili.

It was probably because Grandpa Jiang and Grandma Jiang were not good at cooking. Aunt Jiang, like Jiang's father, was also a good cook. Every year, she would pickle coriander, young ginger, chili sauce, and simmered intestines and send them to Jiang Xi.

In her previous life, Jiang Xi lived alone after her divorce. Aunt Jiang sent her many things, but she couldn't finish them, so she sent them to the leader's house. They

were all agricultural products produced by her family, not expensive things. The leader would not accept the farewell gifts. Every time she brought agricultural products, the leader liked them very much, especially the sausage made by Aunt Jiang.

Tong Jingang and Jiang Bai also said "thank you uncle", and walked to the table to eat snacks such as fried dough sticks, pot stickers, and glutinous rice cakes. Uncle Jiang waved his hands and said, "No need to thank me, no need to thank me, you guys eat more, if not enough, I will buy more."

He bought a large plate of snacks, and Jiang Xi ate ten pot stickers in a row. Tong Jingang and Jiang Bai were also big eaters.

Aunt Jiang came back soon. When Uncle Jiang saw Aunt Jiang, he felt like he had seen a savior. He took the things from her hands and put them on the shelf one by one.

Aunt Jiang came back after washing her hands and saw the cart at the door. She was surprised and said, "You are going back to school so soon?"

Jiang Bai nodded, "I will go to school tomorrow."

Jiang Bai and Tong Jingang are both senior high school students and will go to school in the fourth year of junior high school. Aunt Jiang also knew this. She asked Jiang Xiao in surprise, "Xing Xiao, why are you back to school so early? I remember you are only in the first year of high school?"

Jiang Xiao put down his chopsticks, smiled and said, "Go early, you can sell clothes and see if you can make some more money."

Aunt Jiang sighed and went to the kitchen to get two jars of pickled coriander and dried radish, and a string of sausage for Jiang Xiao and Jiang Bai.

When they left, Aunt Jiang secretly stuffed a hundred yuan into Grandpa Jiang's hand. Grandpa Jiang refused to take it, so Aunt Jiang stuffed it into his pocket and ran away with the empty cart.

During the years when the Jiang family was in the most difficult period of debt, Aunt Jiang also secretly gave money to Jiang's mother.

Grandpa Jiang stood under the minibus, holding the hundred yuan, watching Aunt Jiang running away, and put it back into his pocket.

He really didn't need money now.

Last year, Jiang Xi's shop sold more than ten pieces of clothing every day. Although Jiang Xi deposited all the money in the bank, Jiang Xi knew that money is a person's courage. She also paid Jiang Yeye a salary on time, 100 yuan a month, just like she did to Jiang Bai. So after Jiang Yeye quit his job as a forest ranger, his salary actually increased.

Jiang Yeye said no every time, but Jiang Xi gave it to him every time. Later, when Jiang Xi gave it to him again, he still wanted it, because he was saving it for his granddaughter anyway.

With the 100 yuan salary from his granddaughter every month, the old man was very satisfied and happy all day long. Even if he didn't spend the money, he paid Jiang Xi and Jiang Bai's tuition. He had this salary, and he was confident.

Seeing that Grandpa Jiang was still under the bus and refused to get on, Tong Jingang took a seat and quickly shouted, "Grandpa Jiang, hurry up and get on the bus, there will be no seats left!"

It was the Spring Festival travel period at that time, and the fare was several times higher than usual. As soon as Tong Jingang got on the bus, he quickly took two seats and shouted to Jiang Xiao, "Come here, sister, sit inside, it's more comfortable near the window, hurry up!"

He shouted to Grandpa Jiang again, "Grandpa Jiang, sit here!" After using his bag to take the seat for him and Jiang Bai, he reminded Jiang Xiao, "Sister, keep an eye on my and your brother's seats, don't let anyone else sit there."

He had been traveling back and forth to Shuibu Town these days, and he had deeply experienced how crowded the bus was during the Spring Festival travel period. Without a seat, he could be squeezed into a meat pancake.

He got off the cart and quickly helped Jiang Bai load several bags of food onto the top of the cart. After securing them with ropes, he quickly got off and found a seat.

The cart was left at Aunt Jiang's house. When a boat came to Shuibu Town, it would be sent to the boat of the Huilinhe Brigade and the boat owner would be asked to take the food home. Usually, when

villagers came to the town and had any inconvenience, they would leave their things with her.

Jiang Xi and his friends got on the bus and soon all the seats were occupied. The conductor pulled out a long bench from somewhere and placed it in the middle of the bus. He got off the bus and shouted, "The bus to Wucheng is leaving!"

There weren't many people at that time. After the bus left, people kept waving to stop the bus and getting on the bus all the way to Wucheng. Soon, the bus was full of people.

Various smells mixed together.

Until the conductor had packed every inch of space in the carriage with people, she couldn't get on the bus herself, so she closed the door, covered her head and face with a scarf, and hung herself outside the door, holding the handle with her hands. There were still people waving to stop the bus on the road, and the conductor kept shouting: "No more room, no more room! Wait for the next bus!"

Overloading was very common in that era. Because there were so many people and few cars, even passengers would help the driver and hide the number of passengers. When they saw the overloading check from a distance, the driver and the conductor would let everyone get off the bus in advance, walk through this section, and then get on the bus. If

they didn't squeeze in, they had to walk back on their own.

And there were no seat belts.

Whether it was the driver or the passengers, no one wore a seat belt, and there were no seat belts in the parking spaces of the minibus.

Jiang Xi was terrified when he saw the packed car.

The road was bumpy and the smell in the car was chaotic. Some people couldn't stand it and shouted, "I want to vomit, I want to vomit, driver, stop, I want to go out and vomit."

The driver would stop temporarily and wait for the passengers to vomit before continuing. The conductor got tired of hanging outside the door and sat on the roof of the car for a while. Jiang Bai and his friends had brought rice with them. She sat on their rice, which shielded her from the cold winter wind. When they

arrived in Wucheng, not to mention Jiang Xi, even Tong Jingang and Jiang Bai were pale-faced. They got off the car in a daze and their hands and feet were weak. As soon as they got off the car, some people ran to the side of the road and vomited non-stop.

Jiang Bai wanted to carry the rice back to school by himself, but Jiang Xi called a tricycle and loaded 500 kilograms of food, pickled vegetables, pickled coriander given by Aunt Jiang, dried radish, unsold clothes, etc. on the tricycle.

The tricycle could originally seat four people, but because it was stuffed with too many things, it could only barely fit Grandpa Jiang and Jiang Xi. Jiang Bai and Tong Jingang had to walk to No. 1 Middle School.

After not coming to the store for several days, Grandpa Jiang opened the shutter door. The store was still the same as before, with a bed inside and a store outside. There were not many clothes in the store, all of which were taken to Shuibu Town by Jiang Bai and Tong Jingang to sell, so the store looked a little empty.

In order to save space, Grandpa Jiang simply pushed the bed to the back and placed it against the wall. All the small items he originally brought were stuffed under the bed.

Jiang Xi dragged all the things into the store with great effort. After a short rest, Jiang Bai and Tong Jingang came back.

Jiang Bai was a person who could not sit still. The first thing he did when he returned to the store was to clean the place, wipe and wash everything. Jiang Xi sat there and watched Jiang Bai clean.

Tong Jingang looked at Jiang Xi who was sitting there calmly, and asked him in surprise: "Why don't you help me sweep?"

Jiang Xi followed through on Jiang's mother's comment that she was "lazy" and looked back at Tong Jingang blankly: "Where are you sweeping? Haven't you finished sweeping?"

It was indeed finished!

Tong Jingang looked at Jiang Xi's serious face, looked around, and it seemed that there was nothing else to do, so he stood up and said: "I'll go borrow a cart."

After Jiang Bai was busy in the store, he finally cleaned the floor and it was spotless. He felt relieved, and he and Tong Jingang, who had borrowed a cart, laboriously pulled the food to the school cafeteria.

The first and second year high school students had not returned to school yet, and the campus of No. 1 Middle School looked very empty. They exchanged their food for food coupons and locked the pickled vegetables and chili sauce they brought with them in the drawers of the cafeteria tables. Jiang Xi carried Grandpa Jiang's kettle to get hot water.

The water room was next to the canteen. She fetched some hot water, went back to the stairs of the girls' dormitory, and shouted, "Dormitory manager! Dormitory manager!"

The aunt in the canteen said, "School hasn't started yet, and your dormitory manager hasn't come back yet. She won't be back until before school starts."

Jiang Xi asked the aunt in the canteen, "Auntie, do you have a key to open the door?"

The aunt in the canteen said, "I'm not in charge of the dormitory, where would I have a key?"

The canteen was on the first floor of the dormitory building. One could enter the dormitory directly through the canteen's door, or through the door outside. But the canteen door leading to the dormitory stairs was locked tightly.

Jiang Xi knew that the aunt in the canteen must have the key, but she didn't make it difficult for her. She just wanted to ask if she could live in the dormitory. If not, she could just rent a room outside, which would be convenient.

She didn't go to other places to ask, but went straight through No. 1 Middle School and went to the faculty and staff family area behind No. 1 Middle School to ask if there were any houses for rent.

Because there are two schools, No. 1 Middle School and Wu Middle School, and there is also No. 2 Middle School next door, there are many people renting houses nearby. In order to make more money, some families of faculty and staff simply moved to the countryside below and rented out all the houses. Some families also live in their own homes, but leave a room for students to live in. Parents also like to let their children live in the teachers' homes. They feel more at ease because the teachers are taking care of them on a regular basis.

But most of the time, there are five or six people, or even seven or eight people living in one room. It is really hard to find a room for someone like Jiang Xi who wants a room all by herself.

Fortunately, it is the beginning of the school year, and there are not many people here yet. Someone asked Jiang Xi how long she would rent the room, and Jiang Xi said that she would live there until the beginning of the school year, and then she rented a room, otherwise their room would be reserved for the students who rented a room there last year.

Because it was only for ten days, the rent was only ten yuan, but she had to prepare the quilt and bedding herself.

After finishing all these, Jiang Xi returned to the store, sat on the small chair, and looked at the mud on her outstretched trouser legs. In addition, she was sweating all the way in the car, and she couldn't stand the stickiness anymore. She decided to take Grandpa Jiang to the bathhouse and asked Jiang Bo if he wanted to go.

"Yes, yes, yes, of course!" Tong Jingang was the first to jump up.

Jiang Bai and Tong Jingang had been running back and forth between Shuibu Town and Wucheng these days, and they were very tired, especially Jiang Bai, who pulled 500 kilograms of food today. When they returned to school, they ran back.

Tong Jingang originally had a physique that was prone to sweating, and was originally planning to go home and take a good bath at night. When he heard Jiang Xi say that he wanted to go to the bathhouse, he couldn't help it. He packed his clothes, towels, soap, etc., and went to the bathhouse together.

The bathhouse is not far from the school. Students from several nearby schools would make appointments to come to the bathhouse to take a bath on weekends when it is inconvenient to take a bath at school in winter.

The bathhouse is open all day and is divided into two parts: shower and pool bath. Jiang Xi told them a lot about the infectious diseases that are easily transmitted in the pool bath. Tong Jingang, who also likes the pool bath, was almost in a shadow of the pool bath. He put his hands together and begged Jiang Xi: "Sister, good sister, brother begs you to stop talking, okay? Let's take a shower, and promise not to take our grandfather to the pool bath, okay?"

Jiang Bai originally had some obsession with cleanliness, and after hearing this, he never took a pool bath again.

Jiang Bai and Grandpa Jiang were both in the bathhouse for the first time, and they were very fresh and looked here and there.

Jiang Xi wanted to buy a bath ticket. Tong Jingang, who had more than 300 yuan in cash, stopped Jiang Xi in a very generous manner and raised his chin: "How can I let you spend money when you come out to take a bath with my brothers?"

The person selling the bath ticket looked at the short, thin, beautiful and white Jiang Xi, and then looked at the tall and burly Tong Jingang who looked like a chimpanzee.

Tong Jingang realized belatedly that there seemed to be something wrong with what he said, but he couldn't tell what was wrong.