The door was not closed, so Shen Anning couldn't go in directly, so she could only stand at the door and shout.
"Hello, is the village chief at home?"
"Who is it?"
A very young girl came out. She looked about the same age as me, but not as tall as me.
"Hello, is this the village chief's house? I'm looking for the village chief."
The girl shouted into the house: "Grandpa, someone is looking for you."
The house built by the village chief is a typical quadrangle courtyard, with a north house, east and west wing rooms, and a kitchen corridor in the middle of the front gate for storing firewood, farm tools and sundries.
A woman in her forties came out. She looked very friendly. Shen Anning smiled at her and called her aunt.
"Hey, whose family does the girl belong to? My father-in-law is in the room. Let's go in and talk. Xiaoyue, go get a glass of water."
Entering the inner room, Shen Anning saw the village chief sitting cross-legged on the kang. He remembered that he had seen him once in 1988 or 1990 in his previous life. He was already old at that time, and his grandfather had passed away for many years. The grandson of the village chief was admitted to a university in Beijing. They came to visit according to the address of the courtyard given by his grandfather. At that time, they were received by Shen Anning and his second cousin Peng Zhe.
"Girl, what do you want from me?" Geng Conglin looked at the girl with two children in front of him and confirmed several times that he really didn't know her.
“Grandpa Village Chief, my last name is Shen.”
One sentence brought Geng Conglin back to his senses. His surname was Shen! "So why are you here..."
"Grandpa Village Chief, my grandfather wrote back to thank you for taking care of us two elders. I came here today to express my gratitude to you, and secondly, I really do have something to trouble you with."
Shen Anning paused and said, "I want to ask you about Wangshan Village." Shen Anning explained her purpose and said frankly that she would go to Wangshan Village as an educated youth in ten days.
"Village head, I took the initiative to go to the countryside. To be honest, my grandparents are old, and I am really worried about them being here. I asked around before I came here. Because Wangtu Village and Gengjiatun are two relatively remote villages in different communes, there has never been a barefoot doctor. I have studied medicine with my aunt since I was a child, and I know a little about Western medicine and Chinese medicine. I want to take the exam to become a barefoot doctor as an educated youth. In the future, it will be more convenient for people in the two villages to have a headache or fever." After Shen Anning said this, he stopped talking.
After hearing this, Geng Conglin thought to himself that she was indeed a girl raised in a big family in a big city, and her knowledge and strategy were no worse than those of older people like them.
Of course he knew the purpose of Shen An Ning's doing this, but he was indeed tempted. You must know that Gengjiatun belongs to Dahu Commune and Wangshan Village belongs to Fangshan Commune. The two villages are located in remote areas, close to the mountains, with no barefoot doctors and no schools. Children in the village have to go to other places to go to school. A few years ago, a villager who went up the mountain was injured and fell down. Because he did not stop the bleeding in time, he was already dead when he was sent to the commune.
"Girl, I understand what you mean. I'll explain to you that Wang Liqiu, the Party Secretary of Wangshan Village, is my relative. We're far away, so troublemakers rarely come here. If you can really do what you say, I, this old man, will be your guarantor."
Now that an agreement had been reached, Geng Conglin called his grandchildren and asked them to go to Wangtu Village to invite their in-laws.
After Geng Conglin told Wang Liqiu everything he could, Shen Anning said that because she came with her younger brother and sister, she hoped to live alone, and said that she wanted to live closer to the river.
Wang Liqiu leaned on his pipe, thought for a moment and said, "Girl, it's not that I don't want to help you, but there are really not many empty houses in the village. At most, there are one or two families who have a room or two vacant because their daughters are getting married."
Of course, Shen Anning knew all this, so he said, "Well, Secretary, do you think I can build a house myself? I won't build too much, just like the layout of Grandpa Geng's house. I'll keep the north room and the east wing, and build smaller ones. The north room can be divided into two bedrooms and a dining area. I'll build two east wing rooms connected to the kitchen, and build two rooms in front of the courtyard as a place for everyone to see a doctor and get medicine in the future."
Looking at the two old men's eyebrow lawsuit, Shen Anning added fuel to the fire. "To be honest with you, Grandpa, although I am not very well versed in medicine, I can take the exam and get a barefoot doctor's certificate. I can guarantee it."
"I'll pay for the house construction, and I'll find workers in our two villages. I only have one request, which is that it must be done quickly. I'll buy the adobe in the village, and I'll find a way to have the bricks and tiles shipped over from the commune."
"I built this house in a hurry, and it had to be good, so I calculated the wages based on the city workers' wages, which is fifty cents a day, not including meals, and there are three kangs in total." As he spoke, Shen An Ning took out paper and pen from his backpack and drew a rough layout of the house.
Regardless of anything, Shen An Ning just launched a barrage of attacks, shocking the two elderly people and their twin brothers and sisters.
I have never seen anyone speak so fast, he talks a lot as if he has arranged everything.
Wang Liqiu calculated carefully, "Girl, you have to pay for the foundation of this house yourself, otherwise it will be difficult to explain to the villagers. The adobe bricks are not worth much, but the big wood for the beams, windows, doors, etc. plus the processing fee will cost more than a hundred yuan, and you have to pay for the bricks and tiles yourself."
Shen Anning calculated that the price was not too expensive, "Okay, then I'll trouble you with the construction of the house."
He removed the cloth covering the backpack and took out the things that were full of it one by one: four pounds of sugar, four pounds of egg cakes, four portions of fruit candies, one and a half pounds, four bottles of Erguotou liquor, and a small cloth bag. Shen An Ning opened it directly and counted out twenty big unity notes and stuffed them into Wang Liqiu's hands.
"Secretary, I'll give you two hundred first, and we'll settle the bill when the house is built." The things were divided into four parts, one for each of the village heads and the secretary of the two villages.
Geng Conglin and Wang Liqiu refused to accept it no matter what, but Shen Anning said that they would have to trouble them with other things in the future, and they would have to speak to the other two village heads and the party secretary. If they didn't accept it, they would not dare to trouble them in the future.
The two of them then accepted the things. Geng Conglin took a copy and prepared to go to the home of the branch secretary Geng Jinghao to discuss the matter.
The two old men walked to the door carrying their things, and finally came back to their senses. This...
That's all.
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