The next day, before six o'clock in the morning, Li Weidong was awakened by the crowing of chickens in the yard.
With sleepy eyes, I grabbed my toothbrush cup and towel and left the room.
My mother had been awake for a while and was using a shovel to chase away the hens and clean up the chicken droppings all over the yard.
Li Weidong went to the hand pump well, washed up, and chatted with his mother.
"Mom, I'll go to the market tomorrow and get a few meters of netting to pen these chickens up, so you won't have to get up every morning to shovel chicken droppings."
"No need, no need. If we keep these chickens in a coop, they won't lay eggs anymore. By the way, have you dealt with the mushroom issue? If it's really not working, I'll swallow my pride and go ask your aunt again."
While brushing his teeth, Li Weidong gulped down the water in his mouth and spat it out.
"Mom... don't worry about it, I have a solution, I'll solve it today."
...
After breakfast, Li Weidong went to the village store to use the public phone to contact his classmate Zhang Bin.
In 1992, Taohuayu Village only had two telephones.
One phone belonged to the village committee, and the other was a public phone belonging to Zhao Qianjin, who ran the village store.
The brigade headquarters is not open to the public, while the convenience store often has long queues.
Like this time, around eight or nine in the morning, is the busiest time.
Li Weidong waited in line for almost half an hour before it was his turn.
He dialed Zhang Bin's office phone.
"Dongzi, what's up?" Zhang Bin's panting voice came from the other end of the phone.
Zhang Bin was Li Weidong's best classmate during high school.
After graduating from university, I was assigned to work at the seed station in Yinan County.
"Brother Bin, have you found a market for this batch of mushrooms yet?"
"No, do you have a sales channel?"
"Yes, I've found a sales channel, all I need are mushrooms."
"How much difference?"
"Three sheds, about 10,000 jin."
What Li Weidong lacks is the yield from the three greenhouses on his aunt's side.
"Huh? What do you need so many mushrooms for?" Zhang Bin was startled.
"Well... here's what happened."
Li Weidong recounted in detail how his aunt had made things difficult for him.
After hearing this, Zhang Bin was so angry that he cursed loudly: "Your aunt is such a scoundrel! You were so kind to help her, how could she treat you like this? Isn't she an ingrate?"
Don't worry, Dongzi, I'll definitely help you with this.
I have a few sheds of mushrooms here, they're almost ripe. Come pick them up when they're ready, but it'll be about four or five days. Is that alright?
“No problem.” Li Weidong beamed with joy: “Brother Bin, thank you so much.”
“Why are you being so polite, we’re like brothers? You’re helping me sell mushrooms, which is also helping me share the burden. It’s a win-win situation. By the way, did you spray the medicine I gave you to prevent yellow spot disease? This time, yellow spot disease is really rampant. Many growers in the neighboring county have been affected and suffered heavy losses.”
"It sprayed. I sprayed it the night I got it from you."
"That's good, that's good. It'll be three minutes soon, I have to go now."
Zhang Bin glanced at the time and hung up the phone at 2 minutes and 58 seconds.
These days, both answering and making phone calls cost money.
...
After finishing the call, Li Weidong let out a long sigh of relief.
With Zhang Bin backing him up, this crisis has been averted.
However, the mushrooms on Zhang Bin's side will not be ripe for another four or five days.
It was two days later than the time I had agreed with the restaurant, and I needed to explain it to them to avoid any unnecessary trouble.
He went into the yard, started the farm tricycle, and prepared to go into the city.
At this moment, Li Xiaoli suddenly rushed out of the house.
"Brother, where are you going?"
"I'm going into town to take care of some business."
As he spoke, Li Weidong put the tricycle crank handle into the box under the seat.
"Brother, take me with you, I want to go to the city too," Li Xiaoli said with pleading eyes.
"No, it's the weekend, you should stay home and study. The high school entrance exam is in just over ten days, don't run around like a madman." Li Weidong said sternly.
"Brother, just take me with you. I'm the top student in my grade, so getting into high school is no problem for me. Besides, our teacher said that we should relax a little for small exams and relax a lot for big exams. The more important the exam, the more relaxed we should be."
"Brother, please, please take me with you, please take me with you!" Li Xiaoli tugged at Li Weidong's arm, pleading incessantly.
Li Weidong really fell for it; he had absolutely no resistance to his sister's coquettishness.
"Okay, just this once!"
"no problem."
Li Xiaoli darted onto the tricycle and sat down next to Li Weidong.
"Sit tight," Li Weidong instructed, before driving the tricycle out of his house.
...
For the entire morning, Li Weidong drove his car through the streets and alleys of the county town.
Things went very smoothly. The restaurant owners, upon learning that it would only be a couple of days late, didn't take it seriously and readily agreed.
They had worked with Li Weidong for a long time and trusted him completely.
After finishing his work, Li Weidong took his sister to a restaurant for a meal and then took her shopping at a department store.
After buying a bunch of stationery items that weren't available in the countryside, they finally went home satisfied.
In Li Weidong's eyes, the pile of stationery his sister bought was actually quite ordinary, nothing more than some stickers of Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck on it.
But my younger sister really liked it and kept playing with it after we got home.
Li Weidong, meanwhile, sat at the table, sketching on paper and planning his future fortune.
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