Chapter 255: Domineering Uncle Nine [6000 words]

Eight o'clock in the evening.

Nearly a hundred villagers gathered at the door of Deng Shirong's house. Some were standing, some were sitting. While chatting, they would occasionally look up at the light bulb hanging on the beam, which was brighter than a hundred kerosene lamps combined, with envy in their eyes.

In later generations, it was normal to visit neighbors at seven or eight o'clock in the evening. Even in rural areas, no one would go to bed so early.

But in this era, except for those who gather to gamble, normal people will basically not visit their neighbors after eight o'clock if they have nothing to do, because most people in rural areas are taking a bath and preparing to go to bed at this time.

After all, the village has no electricity yet, and everyone uses kerosene lamps at night. Kerosene is not cheap for many families, so they try to save money at ordinary times and only light kerosene lamps when necessary. They would not be so extravagant as to sit there and talk nonsense with a kerosene lamp lit.

Therefore, going to bed early is the choice of most people.

Tonight is the first time that Deng Shirong's family has used batteries to light up the lamp. The light is as dazzling as the sun in the dark night sky and can be seen by almost the entire village. For many people in the village, it is the first time to see the lights on, so they naturally rush over to watch the fun.

"This electric light is different. It looks hundreds of times brighter than a kerosene lamp. It can illuminate the night like the day. It's amazing!"

"The little light from a kerosene lamp requires a lot of oil. How much electricity does this electric lamp use to be so bright?"

"If we light the lamp like this, I wonder how long the battery that Jiugong bought can last?"

"Something that expensive should last a long time, right?"

“…”

While the villagers were discussing the lights, Deng Yungui, who was sitting opposite Deng Shirong, asked while smoking a cigarette, "Uncle Jiu, now that you have installed the wires and lights, when will you start the TV?"

When the villagers heard Deng Yungui's question, they all fell silent and looked at Deng Shirong.

The villagers present were all looking forward to watching TV.

This TV may not be as good as a movie, but watching movies costs money, and there are only a few opportunities to watch one in a year. But this TV was bought by Uncle Jiu (father-in-law), and not only can everyone watch it for free, but they can even come to watch it every day. Who wouldn’t be looking forward to it?

Deng Shirong said, "There's no rush. Let's wait until I finish building this wooden shed."

Deng Yungui asked in confusion: "Uncle Jiu, what does watching TV have to do with whether this wooden shed is fixed or not?"

Deng Shirong smiled and said, "Of course it does matter. To make it convenient for everyone to watch TV, I plan to put this TV in the wooden shed outside for a long time. Of course, I have to wait until the shed is finished. Otherwise, if it happens to rain, the TV will be useless after being soaked by the rain!"

Deng Yungui was stunned when he heard this, and said in disbelief: "Uncle Jiu, are you kidding me? Are you going to keep this TV in this wooden shed for a long time?"

The other villagers were also incredulous. If they had such a valuable TV, they would have locked it in a cabinet and hidden it. How could they leave it outside for a long time? What if it disappeared? Deng Shirong explained: "There is no way. If it is placed in the house, how many people can sit in my house? If everyone comes to watch TV, if they come late, I am afraid they can't even squeeze in. That would be a disappointment!

So, it is better to put it outside, where the space is wider, so when people come to watch TV, they don’t have to keep squeezing into the house. Whether they come early or late, there will always be a seat to watch.”

"Uncle Jiu, you are really thoughtful."

Deng Yungui praised him first, and then said, "But Uncle Jiu, there's no need to leave it outside for a long time. Just move it back inside every day after the TV is over, and then move it out the next day, right?"

Deng Shirong waved his hand and said, "It's too troublesome to move it back and forth. I don't want to go through all this trouble just to watch TV."

Deng Yungui handed the chimney to other villagers who wanted to burn cigarettes and said, "Although it's a bit troublesome to do this, we have to move it anyway. Otherwise, what if it's left outside and someone steals it?"

Deng Yunjun continued, "Yes, Uncle Jiu, although there are no such people in our village, it is hard to say about other villages. If you put the TV outside, those bastards in other villages may be tempted."

Other villagers also spoke out to persuade them, saying that Uncle Jiu put the TV outside so that they could watch TV conveniently. They certainly couldn't let someone steal Uncle Jiu's TV for this reason, otherwise they would be too sorry to Uncle Jiu.

Hearing everyone's advice, Deng Shirong smiled faintly, and then responded domineeringly: "Don't worry, let alone far away, in our Bangjie Brigade, which bastard dares to touch my things? Besides, these dogs I raise are not for decoration. If they dare to take my TV, they must be asking for trouble."

When Deng Shirong said these domineering words, all the villagers were convinced.

Because they all felt that what Uncle Jiu said made sense. Originally, few people in the Bangjie Brigade dared to touch Uncle Jiu's things. With the protection of these dogs, they really didn't have to worry about anyone stealing the TV at night.

Don't underestimate the warning function of dogs. In the middle of the night, even if someone just passes by the road outside the door, the dog will bark a few times. If someone dares to come towards the house, the barking will be even more fierce. If other families in the village also have dogs, it will lead all the dogs in the village to bark as well.

In this day and age, people keep dogs for guarding the house, so they naturally don't tie them up. Once there is any noise that alarms all the dogs in the village, these dogs will gather together and bark fiercely at people who sneak into the village. This step is both a warning to the newcomers and a reminder to the sleeping villagers.

At this time, the villagers who were awakened would generally pick up their weapons and come out to see the situation.

Therefore, in this era, as long as there are many dogs in the village, no one from other villages would dare to go to the village in the middle of the night to steal things.

Because if there is a dog to sound the alarm, the chance of being discovered is too high.

As for the daytime, that goes without saying.

After putting aside their worries, the villagers who were anxiously watching TV looked at the three generations of the Zhang family who were responsible for building the wooden shed for Uncle Jiu (Grandpa), and all expressed their willingness to help.

"Dear relative, I know how to use a planer, I wonder if I can help you?"

"Dear relative, I am quite strong, it is no problem for me to help you move things."

"Relatives, I can make any farm tools. Please tell me if there is anything I can help with."

"relative……"

Seeing the villagers who were eager to help, the Zhang family's grandparents and grandchildren were surprised but also felt that it was understandable. After all, the main purpose of Uncle Jiu building this wooden shed was to show them TV, so it was normal for them to want to help with the work.

Grandpa Zhang immediately made the decision: "Okay, with everyone's help, I will be responsible for building this wooden shed within a week."

"Okay, I'll come over early tomorrow morning to help!"

"If everyone lends a hand, we'll have TV to watch in a week!"

“…”

Deng Shirong knew that the villagers of this era had a passion for watching TV that was unimaginable to later generations, so he didn't find it strange at all that the villagers took the initiative to ask for help. He simply said, "Since everyone wants to watch TV early, let's build a TV cabinet tomorrow. Put the TV on the top and the battery in the middle. If the TV cabinet is completed during the day, we can start watching TV tomorrow night."

As soon as these words were spoken, the villagers were immediately excited and shouted, saying that they would come to help early tomorrow morning and make sure that the TV cabinet would be built by tomorrow.

After discussing this, it was getting late, so everyone went their separate ways.

…

The next morning.

After eating the white porridge, the villagers came over with great enthusiasm, and then, under the command of the three generations of the Zhang family, they began to work in an orderly manner.

It has to be said that work gets done faster when there are more people. With the spontaneous help of dozens of villagers, whether it is building a TV cabinet according to Deng Shirong's requirements or building a wooden shed that is both beautiful and rainproof, the speed is very fast.

Today is Saturday. Deng Yunzhu, Deng Yunsong and Deng Yunhua, three siblings, have returned from Shuangwang Junior High School. When they saw that their father had bought a TV, they were very surprised. In this era, no one can resist the temptation of TV.

By the afternoon, a beautiful TV cabinet was successfully built by the villagers.

Deng Shirong didn't keep people waiting. He just took out the TV and placed it on the TV cabinet. He then took a battery and placed it in the middle of the TV cabinet. Then he connected the battery and antenna.

The antenna rack had been erected previously. The long, straight bamboo was attached to the trunk of the longan tree, and the middle part was fixed on a branch above. The fixing force was just right, allowing the bamboo to rotate without swaying.

When everything was ready, Deng Shirong turned on the TV in front of the villagers.

While Deng Shirong was operating, the villagers held their breath and stared at the TV without blinking.

At this time, the Zhang family's grandparents and grandchildren stopped working and stared at the TV curiously.

Deng Shirong's niece, nephew-in-law, and his four children were also standing in front of the TV, watching with curiosity.

The screen lit up, and the first thing that caught everyone's eyes was the twinkling snowflakes.

When the villagers saw the snowflakes, they were shocked and thought the TV was broken.

Deng Shirong, who had experienced this in his previous life, calmly came to the electric wire rack, held the bamboo pole with both hands, and began to turn it slowly. After turning it for about a few seconds, the TV that had been flashing with snow dots suddenly had a blurry picture, and then a sound was heard.

Hearing the familiar Cantonese, Deng Shirong knew without even looking at the screen that the TV station in Guangdong was being received.

And the moment the sound came out, the villagers all breathed a sigh of relief, because the TV was not broken.

Deng Shirong continued to slowly turn the wire rack, and the picture on the TV became clearer and clearer, and it turned out to be the Guangdong TV station.

Next, Deng Shirong slowly turned the wire rack around and found that he could receive signals from four TV stations in total, namely Guangdong TV, Guangxi TV, Hunan TV and CCTV. He could also faintly receive signals from a few other TV stations, but he could only hear the sound but not see the actual signals. The pictures were so blurry that they were completely unwatchable.

Even for these four TV stations, the pictures are not very clear.

Of course, this is for Deng Shirong who is used to watching high-definition TV. For the villagers of Naye Village, this picture quality is already good enough.

Now is not the time to watch TV. After testing the TV station, Deng Shirong turned off the TV and said to the villagers: "Let's not watch it now. Everyone has to work now, and there are not many programs to watch during the day. Let's watch it after 6:30 in the afternoon. Everyone remember to come at the right time."

The short test left the villagers feeling a little unsatisfied, but they also understood that now was not the time to watch TV, so they all agreed.

Ou Guofang, Ou Guohua and Guan Yongying were all present. They all brought their children with them and witnessed the testing process of the first TV in Naye Village.

After Deng Shirong set the time to watch TV, many villagers continued to stay to help build the wooden shed. Those villagers who could not help left one by one. They had to go back and take care of their family affairs so that they could watch TV in the evening without any worries.

Ou Guofang and the other two said hello to Jiu Gong and went back with their children. They had the same idea as the villagers, which was to go back and finish the housework as soon as possible, have dinner early tonight, and then the whole family could come early to grab a seat and watch TV.

…

Although the speed of transmitting information in this era cannot be compared with that in later generations, the news broadcast on TV is no less than that shown in the movies. After 5:30 in the afternoon, people started to come with small stools to reserve seats, especially the people from Naye Village. Both the old and the young came out. The scene was even more lively than showing a movie.

Before six o'clock, hundreds of people had gathered in front of Deng Shirong's house, and more people continued to arrive from other villages.

Deng Shirong didn't know what to say when he saw this.

The latest novel is published first on Liu9shuba!

If it was a movie, then it wouldn't be a big deal if so many people came to watch it, after all, the movie screen is relatively large, even if thousands of people gathered together to watch it, they could still see it clearly. But this black and white TV is only 12 inches, so with such a small screen, it's impossible to see clearly from a distance.

Deng Shirong estimated that he couldn't see clearly at least half of these hundreds of people.

Deng Shirong had no choice but to accept this.

Of course, as the host, Deng Shirong had already asked his children to place two rows of small stools in front of the TV, which were reserved for his family and people of more status in the village to sit on.

By half past six, the number of villagers who came to Deng Shirong's house, even if there were not a thousand, would definitely be no less than eight hundred.

When the time came, Deng Shirong turned on the TV and began his first TV-watching trip in Naye Village.

Television programs of this era are actually really not worth watching.

Unlike television in later generations, there are countless TV series and movies from all ages, and there are also many TV series currently being broadcast. In addition, there are various animations, variety shows, food, sports, news, documentaries and various short videos, etc., which are so diverse that people can't get out once they dive in.

In this era, there was only one TV series, "Eighteen Years in the Enemy Camp", last year, and the rest were single-episode TV series whose quality was hard to describe.

However, Deng Shirong was not interested in these TV dramas of questionable quality, but the villagers watched them with gusto.

Even though the villagers at the back couldn't see the TV screen clearly, they were already very satisfied as long as they could vaguely see a figure and hear the conversation coming from the TV. They had no intention of leaving at all.

That night, the TV at Deng Shirong's house played from 6:30 to 10:00 in the evening.

Throughout the entire process, except for a few elderly people who could not bear it and left early, the vast majority of villagers persevered to the end.

If the child falls asleep, just hold him/her and let him/her sleep so as not to disturb the villagers watching TV.

When the show was over, the villagers who were going home kept talking about the TV program they had just seen. Thinking that they could come to Uncle Jiu's (Uncle's) house to watch TV every night in the future, they all felt that their lives were getting better and better.

After all the villagers left, Deng Shirong looked at his children who were also addicted to TV and could not help but admonish them: "Xiaosong, you can just watch TV occasionally when you come back on Saturdays, but don't get addicted to it and neglect your studies, understand?"

Seeing that his father only mentioned his name, Deng Yunsong knew that his father had high hopes for him, so he immediately calmed down and said, "Dad, I understand. I won't delay my studies."

Deng Shirong nodded. He indeed had high hopes for his third son. In his previous life, they had the same family and the same education, but in the end, only the third son among several brothers and sisters was admitted to a technical secondary school and successfully entered the system after graduation. In this life, with his intervention, he completely changed the academic destiny of his second son and successfully got admitted to Peking University.

As for his third son, who was more promising in his studies in his previous life, he naturally had high expectations for him.

Deng Yunzhu and Deng Yunhua looked at each other and didn't dare to say anything. Regardless of whether they were addicted to TV or not, their academic performance was mediocre. When their parents talked about study problems, the best way for such poor students was to remain silent.

Deng Yunheng, the youngest, may not be as good as his second and third brothers in academic performance, but he is much better than his second sister and fourth brother. He also assured: "Dad, watching TV will not affect my studies."

Deng Shirong nodded and said, "Alright, just keep this in mind. It's getting late, so go back to bed!"

The children responded and went back to their own rooms to sleep.

…

In the following time, the villagers went out to work during the day, and came to Deng Shirong's house to reserve a seat after eating early in the afternoon. Every night, hundreds of people gathered to watch TV, including people from the village and from two or three villages above and below.

With the help of the villagers, the wooden shed, which was originally planned to be built in about a month, was completed in just over a week.

The wooden shed extends outwards with the longan tree as its centre. Because of the longan tree, the centre of the shed naturally cannot be completely closed. When it rains, a small amount of rainwater will inevitably leak from the top of the shed.

However, the Zhang family's grandparents used a little trick on the top of the wooden shed, so that the small amount of rainwater would only leak down along the trunk of the longan tree and would not flow to other places.

Deng Shirong also pulled an electric wire on the wooden beam above the wooden shed and installed a light bulb there.

The whole wooden shed was perfectly integrated with the longan tree and looked quite beautiful. Deng Shirong was very satisfied and took out ten big unity notes and handed them to Grandpa Zhang, saying with a smile: "Relatives, you have worked hard these days. Take this money."

Grandpa Zhang waved his hands and said, "Uncle Jiu, this is too much money. We have only worked for a few days. Half of it will be enough."

Deng Shirong smiled and stuffed the money in his pocket, saying, "Dear relative, please don't be polite to me. This is not a job that can be done in a few days. You rely on your skills to make a living. Without you, no matter how many people there are, we can't manage this wooden shed."

After a few pushes from each other, Grandpa Zhang finally accepted the money.

After that, the two sides exchanged a few polite words before the Zhang family’s grandparents and grandchildren packed up their things and went home contentedly.

Of course, before going home, you must say hello to your in-laws. There is no need to say more about this.

…

The ninth month of the lunar calendar.

A major event that shocked the entire village occurred in Baoshan Village. That was when Bu Erzhu's second son, Bu Zhongshi, bought a car. And it was not a bicycle, but a big one with four wheels, a truck with a load capacity of up to 4 tons.

Baoshan Village is a small village that is even poorer than Naye Village. There are no more than three bicycles in the whole village. Now that Bu Zhongshi has directly brought such a big one back to the village, you can imagine what a sensation it will cause.

You know, in this era, being able to become a driver is already a profession that the whole village envies. And now Bu Zhongshi has not only become a driver, but also owns his own truck, which has directly confused the villagers of Baoshan Village.

We are all from the same village and have the same ancestor. Who doesn’t know each other?

In the past two years, the conditions of Bu Erzhu's family were similar to those of other families in the village. It was only in the past two years, with the support of his brother-in-law Deng Shirong, that the family has made great progress.

Mr. and Mrs. Bu Dafang help their uncle manage the orchard, and are said to earn several dozen yuan a month.

Bu Dashi works as a chef in his uncle's restaurant in the county town, and is said to earn several dozen yuan a month.

Now Bu Erzhu has contracted out the mountain slopes in the village and is said to be planning to reclaim them to grow sugarcane.

This family's life is indeed better than that of most families in the village, but no matter how better off they are, it is not so good that they can just buy a big truck!

So, the villagers who came to watch couldn't help but ask.

"Zhongshi, when will you be able to drive a big car?"

"I went to the county town to study in July."

"Zhongshi, are you buying this car to help people haul goods and make money?"

"Yes, I bought this car to help people transport goods and make money. Uncles and brothers, please tell me what you want to transport in the future."

"Zhongshi, this car must cost at least tens of thousands, where did you get so much money to buy it?"

"The car is indeed not cheap. I won't tell you the exact price. Anyway, I'm in debt to the credit union now. If I can't make money, I'll be starving!"

"Zhongshi..."

“…”

Faced with the questions from these uncles and brothers in the village, Bu Zhongshi naturally answered them one by one.

(End of this chapter)