"Ahem, Lin Mo."
Plates of potato strips were snatched away by the villagers in a noisy rush. Since they were outside and everyone could see each other, they tried to eat the potato strips as politely as possible.
The villagers were enjoying their meal and hadn't even had a chance to utter a few words of praise for how delicious it was prepared this way.
Chen Gang was then dragged along by Xu Zhenting and forced to walk ahead, shouting as loudly as he could towards Lin Mo.
The villagers smacked their lips and turned their heads.
Seeing that Chen Gang had brought more than a dozen educated youths with him, it was clear that he was there to make things difficult for Lin Mo.
Old Zhu had just brought his wife over in a wooden cart, and she was still feeling excited about it for only a few minutes, having barely eaten a few potato strips.
He worried that if Chen Gang brought Lin Mo back to the team, Lin Mo would have to take the TV home too, so he spoke to Chen Gang:
"Let's talk about it tomorrow. It's the middle of the night, everyone should be resting. No matter what the legitimate reason is, we shouldn't be causing trouble at night."
"That's right, that's right, stop making a fuss here, it's annoying. Lin Mo doesn't have time to deal with you. Can't you see he's busy dealing with us?" Lin Gangtie chimed in.
Two or three hundred villagers gathered here, where they could watch TV and stuff their mouths with free fried potato strips.
This is such a good thing! In previous years, everyone was united in the production team, contributing both labor and money, and we never received anything like this.
Now who would be envious of Lin Mo's wealth?
Xu Zhenting was furious. That bastard not only took "my" money to buy a sidecar motorcycle, but also a television! A color television at that!
Chen Gang remained silent, and Xu Zhenting was about to open his mouth and start cursing when...
But then a broadcast from the television came on, startling everyone:
"Chairman Mao has given important instructions that the domestic commodity economy is still a blank slate, and we must encourage everyone to vigorously develop the commodity economy."
"Huh? A commodity economy? Is this encouraging us to buy and sell more goods? Isn't that considered profiteering and subject to criticism?"
So, should we encourage it or ban it?
"We thought it was meant to be encouragement, so we stopped shooting targets."
"What if we really do that, and the county drags us out to be shot at again?"
The news suddenly became relevant to them; almost every household in the village was secretly processing pine nuts, so everyone had to start talking about it.
"General Mao is always right. How could a county be more powerful than General Mao?"
"Yes! We must listen to General Mao! This is General Mao's instruction!"
Old Wang, who was almost always there to earn money for Lin Mo through odd jobs, stared at Chen Gang with gleaming eyes:
"Captain, you heard that too, right? The higher-ups are encouraging a market economy!"
"Yeah, yeah, from now on, stop telling us what we can and can't do! You're clearly in the wrong! But you insist on making us be wrong along with you!"
"Captain, since General Manager Mao has said so, shouldn't you go to the county and get our fish back? They have no reason to confiscate our fish!"
Lin Mo didn't even need to take care of them on his own; the color TV was a godsend.
A hundred words from yourself are not as useful as one sentence broadcast on the capital's television station.
Now that the villagers had access to information and had received the latest news, they mustered up the courage to argue with Chen Gang.
Chen Gang was already wavering, unsure which side to take, and now that he had come over, he was unable to deal with Lin Mo immediately.
Instead, he ended up being dealt with by the villagers.
Xu Zhenting saw that this guy was starting to mess up again, and he got so angry that he kept tugging at his tattered coat from the side.
Lin Mo leisurely ate his fries, his eyes darting around for a while at the noisy scene before finally turning to Xu Zhenting.
He opened his mouth and launched a deadly attack:
"Xu Zhenting, the county notified you a long time ago that you could return to school, why aren't you leaving yet?"
"???"
Xu Zhenting was caught off guard when he heard this.
Meanwhile, Liang Zhenguo and Wang Jian, who followed Xu Zhenting like lackeys, suddenly felt a surge of suspicion.
When Chen Xin made this statement earlier, Xu Zhenting vehemently denied it, saying that Chen Xin was lying to them in order to avoid being beaten.
Now, upon hearing these words again, the educated youth, even if they didn't completely believe them, immediately began to have some doubts.
"How do you know the county issued a notice? We didn't receive one." Liang Zhenguo was so eager to go back to the county that he almost jumped out of his skin, and he subconsciously asked back.
At this critical moment, the village chief, who had long been eager for these educated youths to get out of the village, had actually been hiding among the crowd, keeping a low profile as if he were invisible.
He immediately stood up from the crowd and said to them:
"Didn't the notice to resume the college entrance examination be issued a long time ago? That was a notice, a notice that you could go back to school."
"How could we possibly notify each and every one of you? Who are you, some kind of high-ranking official or nobleman?"
"You could have left a long time ago, you should all go back now!"
These words immediately caused an uproar among the educated youth.
The blame was immediately shifted to Xu Zhenting.
"Brother Xu? Can you explain this? What did the village chief mean by that?"
"The notice about the resumption of the college entrance examination is the same as the notice about returning to the city? That's not what you told us."
Xu Zhenting was extremely annoyed by the barrage of questions.
He wasn't flustered at all, because he already had a plan.
Even if the other educated youth found out, it wouldn't matter! He could still...
"Oh, if you don't believe me, I'll take you to the county to ask right away!"
Before Xu Zhenting could react, the even more impatient village chief immediately ran out and spoke to Lin Mo:
"Lin Mo, lend me your sidecar motorcycle. I need to take a few of them to the county to confirm the news."
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