Stop staring, hurry up and pick some pine cones!
Aunt Miao, who was squatting by the TV watching TV, saw her husband come back after picking pine cones, and her eyes were so drawn to the TV that she couldn't move.
She immediately launched into a tirade of abuse.
The other villagers were much the same; they all wanted to stay and watch TV, even though it was often just replays of news that had already been broadcast several times.
It's all so novel, I'd still want to watch it even if it were replayed a hundred times, especially since they're replaying "Taking Tiger Mountain by Strategy" right now, which I didn't finish watching yesterday.
"Well, why don't we just bring the pine cones over here and peel them? It'll be the same thing." Old Miao came up with this good, but unusually sensitive, little idea.
Aunt Miao immediately glared at Old Miao with her round eyes.
Right now, everyone is doing it secretly. You're really bold to actually think about taking it outside to peel.
Turning around, I saw Chen Gang watching TV there too.
His withdrawal from this matter does not mean that the county is indifferent. Everyone knows the situation perfectly well. It will take a long time for policies from the capital to reach the villages, perhaps even ten or eight years.
Otherwise, why would the county act like it's split in two, with one side encouraging us to do this and the other cracking down on it?
"Nonsense, hurry up and pick it up."
Aunt Miao was ultimately a person who lived by the mundane details of life. No matter how entertaining the television was, it couldn't compare to the importance of her own life. So, she resisted the temptation of the television, stood up, and took her husband to pick pine cones.
People came and went, one after another.
"Damn it, that son of a bitch Xu Zhenting, he doesn't do anything right!"
"That's right. You can tell from his behavior in the countryside over the years that he's no good. He always acts like he's rich, doesn't do this or that, and points fingers everywhere."
The village chief returned, and he and Old Zhu had been cursing Xu Zhenting the whole way.
When they went to the village road and found the sidecar motorcycle with a flat tire, they saw it sitting there all alone, with no one in sight.
Fortunately, the sidecar motorcycle was still there and hadn't been moved.
They were exhausted from the journey. Even with two donkeys, they couldn't pull the military satchels that were only used in the army back then.
Just this one vehicle weighs six or seven hundred pounds.
It took several people a long time to work together to lift the sidecar onto the wooden cart, being careful not to bump or knock it over.
Then they harnessed the two donkeys to a cart, and several people walked behind them, making their way to the county step by step.
The only way to get the car repaired is in the county.
The village chief told a few helpers to go back to the village first, so he took Lin Gangtie and Lao Zhu with him and headed back to the village, so they could ride their sidecar back.
Old Zhu was also exhausted, but he wasn't actually that upset. He just saw that the village chief was quite angry, so he chimed in with a few words.
After all, the reason he used to deal with the village chief was always the same: to take advantage of the famine.
It's a rare occasion for me to come out and help the village chief, plus I've made quite a bit of money peeling pine nuts during this time.
My wife can't do heavy work, so she stays at home every day feeling depressed. When she gets really depressed, she says that she's just a burden and a useless person.
But now, even a wife can peel pine nuts for the village chief while sitting on the kang (a heated brick bed).
The couple would carry pine cones home while the other peeled them at home; they could collect more than 30 jin (15 kg) a day.
In the past twenty-odd days, the two of them have saved up six hundred yuan, quietly making a fortune.
He still had a few days left to pay, and he was thinking that after those days were settled, he would scrape together about a hundred yuan from his family to pay off the debt he owed the village chief.
But that good thing didn't happen again. He didn't know when the pine cones would come down next year.
Once he lost his job, he panicked, so he barely spent any of the money he had saved, except for buying medicine for his wife.
Lin Mo saw the village chief return cursing and had even fixed the third wheel, and a sly smile crept into his heart.
A car with a flat wheel can be incredibly stubborn; anyone who pushes it knows how exhausting it can be.
He had overheard what Lao Miao was saying to his wife.
After finishing the task of frying free French fries for the villagers, there was no need to distribute them.
The villagers knew that this stuff could be eaten for free, so they didn't need him to serve them. They all crowded around and grabbed a handful, not caring that their hands were covered in oil.
Chen Gang sat upright in front of the television, his posture as if he were being lectured in the army, his back straight and his eyes bright and piercing.
Lin Mo's mind raced for a moment, and he walked over to Chen Gang and said:
"Captain, watching TV like this is a waste of time."
"Why don't you peel pine cones while you watch? That way you can earn some money at the same time."
Upon hearing this, Chen Gang looked at him with complicated emotions.
Lin Mo was too lazy to reiterate the news about the capital encouraging the market economy; this news had been replayed on television dozens of times.
In fact, at this moment, Chen Gang's inner turmoil was slowly dissipating.
Which is bigger, the county or the capital? The capital is definitely bigger.
No wonder we always thought the county's crackdown was in conflict with our basic survival; it turns out the county is so out of touch with the capital.
Since this has been said in the capital, we should definitely listen to the capital.
With the thoughts flowing smoothly in my mind, the sharp contradictions in my stomach gradually melted away.
Looking around, the villagers were simply there to watch TV and eat free potato strips.
He wasn't stupid; he immediately understood Lin Mo's ulterior motives behind the suggestion.
As the team leader, if I do the same thing, the villagers will immediately put aside their concerns and follow suit.
Anyway, he'll hold the sky up if it falls.
Every household was struggling, and with early winter approaching, the winter was even more unbearable.
"Hmm." This was the first time Chen Gang had given in, and it was willingly at that.
Chen Gang's wife, Liu Danshuang, also works very hard, taking care of her five-year-old son while going into the mountains to collect pine cones.
This time, she carried ten sacks of pine cones on her thin shoulders to the wooden shed, and Chen Gang began peeling them without saying a word.
This change made the already quiet wooden shed even quieter, and the villagers gradually understood what it meant.
Oh my, the dignified production team leader, has changed his mind like this?
They've openly started seeking personal gain?
But the capital city has already made its stance clear! What's the point of seeking personal gain now?
This is called a commodity economy!
"Cough cough, Qingsong, hurry home and bring over a few bags of pine cones, we'll peel them here." Aunt Miao looked at her son and urged him in a low voice.
Before they knew it, the sounds of the television and the sounds of labor mingled together, and the wooden shed gradually became a scene of bustling activity.
Every now and then, a cheerful laugh could be heard.
At this moment, Wang Yanli, who always made things difficult for Lin Mo, also came over. She stood outside the wooden shed, craning her neck to look inside.
She wanted to watch TV, but she was also worried...
I also saw villagers peeling pine cones while watching TV.
The emotions surging within me were indescribable—a mixture of jealousy, envy, and resentment.
But Lin Mo is still here...
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