The person who came was Xia, Liu Donglai's secretary.
Liu Donglai was attending a provincial party committee meeting and, fearing that Director Yan and Li Xiangdong might not know the way, had his secretary come to the train station to pick them up.
Xia drove them directly to Liu Donglai's house.
Xia opened the door with the key, helped put the luggage inside, and then went to the kitchen to boil a kettle of water to make tea for the two of them.
"Director Yan, Comrade Xiao Li, I'm going back to work now. Secretary Liu will be back after his meeting. By the way, it's not far from the municipal party committee compound. If you need anything, you can just go to the gatekeeper and have him call me."
"Okay, okay, thank you for your trouble, Comrade Xia!"
After seeing Xia off, the two of them felt like they were home. They washed their faces, drank water, and took a breather to relax their bodies, which were feeling like they were about to fall apart from being squeezed on the train.
After he calmed down, Li Xiangdong had time to take a closer look at the furnishings in the room.
The living room features two trendy blue single fabric sofas and a three-seater sofa. In front of them is a wooden coffee table with a red tea tray containing a teapot and four matching teacups.
Simple.
concise.
It's like a bachelor's dormitory.
"Uncle, isn't Uncle Liu's wife staying here?"
There's absolutely no indication that a woman was ever here.
When Liu Donglai was the county party secretary of Huichuan County, he lived alone. It was said that Liu Donglai's wife could not accept life in a small county town.
Now, Liu Donglai is the deputy secretary of a province. Although the living conditions in the provincial capital are not as prosperous as those in Beijing, they are certainly not bad.
Uncle Yan frowned, but he didn't know why. "Although Xiao Du lives a comfortable life, he..."
"Squeak~"
The door opened, and a tall, strong figure appeared in the doorway.
It's Liu Donglai.
Li Xiangdong quickly stood up and greeted, "Uncle Liu!"
Uncle Yan also said, "Weren't you in a meeting? Why are you back so soon?"
Liu Donglai strode in, first patting Li Xiangdong on the shoulder affectionately, then looking him up and down with admiration in his eyes, "You're acting like a grown man now! Good, good, well done!"
He knew very well the various deeds of Li Xiangdong in leading Lijiapo and even five or six other villages out of poverty and into prosperity.
Li Xiangdong chuckled, "Uncle Liu, you're getting better and better at judging people."
Liu Donglai laughed at him, "You're so glib!"
He then sat down with Uncle Yan and asked if the journey had been smooth.
After talking for a while, Uncle Yan couldn't help but ask, "Donglai, why didn't Xiao Du come? You've always lived alone?"
Liu Donglai seemed about to say something but then shut his mouth.
Seeing his hesitation, Li Xiangdong said casually, "Uncle Liu, I'm covering my ears, so I can't hear your secret. Just tell me!"
"You brat!"
Liu Donglai chuckled and cursed, then sighed softly, "Brother, when I was sent to Yibai Mountain, I divorced Xiao Du, and she took care of the child."
"What?!"
When Uncle Yan heard this, he nearly exploded like a firecracker!
"This Xiao Du, this Xiao Du, she was never good enough for you back then. I thought she was someone who would never leave you, but I never expected this..."
Seeing that Uncle Yan's face had turned pale with anger, and he was clutching his chest and panting heavily, Li Xiangdong quickly ran over, gently patted his back, and handed him a glass of water. "Calm down, calm down!"
Liu Donglai hadn't expected Factory Director Yan to react so strongly. He frantically searched for medicine on the coffee table, finally finding a small yellow porcelain gourd. He poured out two or three small pills, saying, "Brother, these are quick-acting heart pills. Press them under your tongue!"
Uncle Yan took a sip of water, which made his breathing easier. His face was pale, and he looked at Liu Donglai with eyes full of pity and heartache. "Donglai, you have really suffered."
Liu Donglai said with relief, "It's better to be at peace than to share a bed but dream different dreams."
Uncle Yan muttered to himself in disappointment, "You should have married Xiao Meng back then. Xiao Meng was so much better!"
Liu Donglai's face went blank for a moment, but he quickly recovered. "Brother, it's all in the past, let's not talk about it anymore."
"Enough! Enough! You're the deputy secretary of the provincial party committee now, and you're in your prime. What kind of wife can't you marry? Let's not hang ourselves on that crooked tree of Xiao Du!"
Uncle Yan slammed the water glass he was holding onto the coffee table.
"Hmph! Wasn't she a snob? I'll see what kind of future she has when I get back!"
Liu Donglai was both amused and exasperated, but he knew that Director Yan was standing up for him, so he didn't say anything. He simply advised, "You've been divorced for so many years, you all have your own lives now, let it go!"
Uncle Yan was very firm, "No way!"
Li Xiangdong nodded, "I'll inquire for you!"
Liu Donglai didn't want to continue the conversation, so he tried to change the subject, "By the way, Xiangdong, you said on the phone that you had a big treasure, where is it?"
"Oh! Here it is!"
Li Xiangdong went to the corner and placed his jar on the coffee table, then carefully took out four wild ginseng roots.
Then, he placed the snow-white, oily snow frog oil and the bright red deer antlers on the coffee table.
Wild ginseng?
Liu Donglai's gaze was immediately drawn to the largest old ginseng. He picked it up and examined it closely. "It's really impressive! Judging by its appearance, it must be a hundred years old?"
Li Xiangdong shook his head. "I'm not sure either, but Doctor Gu said it's about right, it's been around for at least a hundred or two hundred years."
As she spoke, she recounted how she discovered the wild ginseng king and how the weasel paid homage to it, adding another layer of mystery to the wild ginseng before her.
Of course, Liu Donglai was not a superstitious person, but as an official, he was always exposed to a lot of information that ordinary people did not know.
Therefore, for him, many things in this world cannot be simply defined by feudal superstition.
“Xiang Dong, you are a lucky man. First, you found a rare human-shaped He Shou Wu and five Lingzhi mushrooms, and now you have encountered a hundred-year-old ginseng.”
Liu Donglai sighed, then asked, "How much are you planning to sell it for this time?"
Li Xiangdong solemnly pushed the ginseng root, deer antler, and snow frog oil in front of Liu Donglai, saying, "This is for you!"
Then, pointing to three other slightly smaller wild ginseng roots, he said, "I want to sell these. Uncle Liu, if you don't want them, I'll sell them to someone else. If you want them, I'll give them to you first."
Liu Donglai asked in surprise, "You gave it to me?"
"Yeah, right!"
"Why are you being so generous?"
Li Xiangdong was speechless. "Uncle Liu, do you think I'm that petty?"
"Hahaha, that's right! You're rich now, you don't care about this little bit of money."
Li Xiangdong, "..."
Liu Donglai laughed for a while, then put the old ginseng back with satisfaction. "I'll take these three too. Name your price!"
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