Chapter 120

black gold

The last time the two brothers Xiao Nie fought was four years ago.

Once the farm was in turmoil, they established their status as brothers in the underworld. Don't be fooled by his timid and skinny appearance, he almost never caused trouble. But once he entered the farm, he was the undisputed big brother.

"Xiao Chen, send Edward back to the guesthouse first, and then we'll drive home." Nie Gong said as he got in the car.

"No, no, no, Mr. Nie, I must go home with you." Edward insisted and refused to leave.

He Lanshan was outside the car and said in a strong voice, "Mr. Edward, we have to ensure your safety. Can you go back to the guesthouse?"

Edward held the handrail of the SUV and said, "I will stay at the Nie family for one day in the mining area. Madam, you should stop trying to persuade me."

The foreigner ran all day and was sweating all over. His body odor was overwhelming.

Moreover, the crook of his arm was pointing directly at He Lanshan, who was stunned in a second.

Chen Lina said, "Okay, Sister He, He Min sent this foreigner a lot of food, and I haven't cooked it for him yet. Let him stay at my house for one night. When he wants to leave, I will send him back to the mining area for you. Is that okay?"

"Lina, I'll give you the nomination for the March 8th Red Flag Bearer this year, but you have to whitewash the kidnapping incident in our mining area as much as possible. Da Baili should be punished, but you have to think of a way. You can't let foreign reporters publicize the fact that Section Chief Feng fired the gun in the newspapers. Do you understand?"

District Chief Gao is about to be promoted, so there can't be any scandals in the mining area.

Therefore, from Section Chief Feng to Dabaili, the issue of trafficking in women, girls and children must be suppressed as much as possible.

"Sister He, from the perspective of the long-term stability and prosperity of the mining area, I think it would be much better for you to publicly shoot Dabaili and hunt down Section Chief Feng than to suppress the child trafficking of the couple.

As for reporter Edward, I have read his report before, and I think he will write a fair and impartial report. You don't have to worry about it, okay?"

Chen Lina is standing on the level of fairness and justice, but He Lanshan, District Chief Gao, and Secretary A have to consider the stability of the entire mining area and the people's hearts. Since they have different philosophies, they can only accommodate each other a little.

"Okay, I'll think about it. Take the child home quickly. Look how Weimin got beaten by Dabaili." He Lanshan rubbed Nie Weimin's head and said, "Hey, I feel sorry for you when I see you like this."

The car started moving. Chen Lina glanced at Nie Weimin in the rearview mirror. His hair was messy from being pulled out and his eyes were black. This guy always kept saying that losing hair was the same as losing his head, so Chen Lina didn't dare to give him a buzz cut like Erdan. Now, his hair has become a weapon for the enemy to attack him. Just looking at his red and swollen scalp, you can tell how painful it was for him when Lu Baili pulled his hair out.

"Tell me, Nian Gong, what happened? You were with the two sons. They went to look for Lu Baili, so where were you?"

"Comrade Xiao Chen, I have to apologize to you because I couldn't wait for you to come. I found two books in the school library and was reading them. I was so engrossed in reading that when I came to my senses, your son had already run away. You can't blame me for this," said Nie Gong.

"Oh, when he made a mistake, it was my son. When he did something good, it was your son. You are so quick to shirk responsibility, you laborer."

Well, the worker didn’t dare to say anything because he didn’t take good care of his son.

Chen Lina looked back and smiled, then asked, "Ni Weimin, what's going on with Section Chief Feng? He and Lu Baili have a bad relationship, so why would he come and rob someone in the street?"

Nie Weimin didn't say a word, and Nie Gong and Edward also looked like strangers.

Only Erdan was happy. He started talking with his hands and feet. "At that time, I knocked Lu Baili unconscious and knocked down the polio. We were preparing to drive the buggy to take us to the Public Security Bureau, but then Chief Feng showed up and shook my brother's hand in a very righteous manner. He said that he was grateful for helping their security team to arrest the bad guys and asked us to get off the car. He would bring Lu Baili to justice."

"Well, then?"

"Mom, you still remember that Section Chief Feng told everyone that he and Dabaili were not getting along and he hadn't been home for several years, right?"

"Yes, this is known to everyone in the mining area."

Xiao Nie stuck out his tongue and wanted to cover Erdan's mouth, but how could Erdan let him cover it? He just started talking like a bamboo tube pouring beans.

The situation at that time was that Section Chief Feng kept explaining to the Public Security Bureau Chief how bad his marriage life was and how bad Lu Baili was, and then declared that he would arrest Da Baili and Polio and send them to the security team. In his words, he finally discovered that Lu Baili was a disaster, and he would bring her to justice in the security team.

After all, the public security agency has been abandoned for more than ten years and is currently seriously understaffed. The director almost believed Dabaili because of his bad reputation and let Chief Feng take Dabaili away.

But at this moment, Nie Weimin shouted directly, "Section Chief Feng is talking nonsense. He and Lu Baili have a disagreement, but this does not prevent them from getting rich together and making money together."

The police chief was stunned at the time. "Guardians of the people, what do you mean by making money together, getting rich together?"

Nie Weimin then laughed. There were so many people around. He walked over to Chief Feng and said, "Don't look at your muscles. You are a coward. Even if Da Baili is cuckolded, you will only help her and will not bring her to justice because you are not a man. You are impotent and have premature ejaculation. She can brazenly kidnap and harm women in the mining area because you have been giving her the green light."

Section Chief Feng was so angry that he drew his gun immediately. If the Public Security Bureau Chief had not put his head against the gun barrel in time and protected Nie Weimin behind him, Section Chief Feng would have probably shot at that time.

After going to the security team several times, Nie Weimin found books on how to treat impotence and premature ejaculation in Section Chief Feng's drawer, so he had already guessed the reason for the discord between Section Chief Feng and his wife.

What follows is the process of the police chief trying Section Chief Feng in public, and Section Chief Feng being gradually exposed, firing blanks into the air, and then running away.

Little Nie was a low-key person, probably because when Nie Gong came out, he snorted and said, "Impotence and premature ejaculation, Nie Weimin, you know enough."

When I got home, two people were fighting over chopping firewood, and two more were fighting over making a fire by the stove.

Sister Wang was also chopping wood next door. When she saw Chen Lina washing rice at the tap, she smiled and said, "I thought the foreigner couldn't do anything, but I didn't expect he could chop wood. By the way, this foreigner has been staying at your house for several days. He's not planning to take root in our base, is he?"

"Your base is really a great place." Edward grinned and raised his thumb.

"Tell me why this is a good place?" Sister Wang asked with a smile.

Edward was chopping wood with an axe. He thought about it and couldn't say it, so he said, "Although it is poor, it always makes people feel hopeful."

Sister Wang shook her head and laughed, "I don't know what hope is. For me, life is the same everywhere."

"What is Mom going to cook today?" Edward went into the kitchen carrying firewood.

Two days ago he was pointing at Chen Lina and calling her a failed mother, but today he actually called her Mom.

"I'm not your mother, and you said that if the children have any problems, you will tell me even if they don't tell you. You said I was an irresponsible mother. What about you, Mr. Edward? Are you going to act like an American hero with your two children?"

"Wei Min is actually not a child anymore, Mom, am I right?" Edward did not answer this, but went to the stove with firewood. Hey, this man is better at making a fire than a laborer. With a whoosh, the fire in the stove started.

"He grew up in a complicated environment, and when adults quarreled or discussed things, they would tell him everything. So he is indeed precocious and thinks about many problems in an adult way. This is the case for most twelve-year-old children in our republic," said Chen Lina.

Edward didn't know how to describe it. "He was very, very calm. I originally suggested reporting the case to the police, but he told me a lot about the procedures after reporting the case. If both the buyer and the seller deny it, even if Sun Duoyu can be saved, justice will never be served. Then, he said that he would find a way to drive the car directly into the compound of the Public Security Bureau."

Capturing both the perpetrators and the stolen goods and sending them to the public security bureau at the crime scene is Comrade Xiao Nie's beautiful vision.

"So, Mr. Edward, do you think Nie Weimin is good or bad?"

"As a child, he has lost a lot of happiness, but when such a child enters society, his competitiveness is quite strong. In comparison, if the children in our country compete with him in society, they will lose miserably."

"You might think that without popcorn and endless episodes of Icky, they're missing out on the joy of childhood.

But I have to say that the happiness they get on the farms and at the bases is far greater than what you call the children in your country. This is a matter of difference in our concepts. I can't change you, and you can't change me either."

Therefore, the two of them still had nothing to say to each other.

"So, what are you going to do with the pork, Mom?" Edward stayed at Nie's house and refused to leave, mostly because of the food.

Chen Lina opened the basket of wheat straw noodles and took out half a bag of things. "This is pickled mustard greens. I plan to steam some cakes and make pork with preserved vegetables. Do you want some?"

“Is it delicious?”

"What do you think?" Chen Lina asked back.

"Let me light the fire for you." Edward boasted to himself, "My fireplace is always the most prosperous."

The small fragrant pig brought from the Tibetan area is small, but the pork belly is layered. It would be a pity not to make pork with preserved vegetables. But it is also troublesome. If you want to make a good pork with preserved vegetables, it will not taste good if you just steam it. You have to boil it first, fry the meat after boiling, drain all the oil, and then cut it into thin slices for steaming.

While the meat was steaming, Chen Lina took the dough that had been fermented in the morning off the kang and kneaded it to make steamed buns and pancakes. She also made two large plates of lotus leaf pancakes stuffed with meat.

Three people are sitting at a table, busy doing their homework.

Today, because the laborer went to the mining area to keep an eye on his son, his laboratory work was suspended for half a day, and he went back to work overtime.

Halfway through his work, the meal was ready, but Chen Lina asked Nie Weimin to call him back, so he ran back to eat, intending to go back to work overtime after finishing his meal.

"Hey, the quality of the food here has been rising rapidly recently. There's braised pork with preserved vegetables and a pot of boiled fish. No, I have to eat less today. Eating too much will slow down my digestion. I'm afraid I'll make mistakes when I calculate the data later." Nie Gong said this, but he couldn't help but break open a lotus leaf cake and put two large pieces of meat in it.

"Just eat one slice and eat more pickled vegetables. At your age, you should worry about cholesterol and blood lipids." Xiao Chen said.

Nie Gong felt very touched. If it weren't for the children at the table and the foreigner chopping candy, he would have wanted to show Miss Chen his eight-pack abs immediately. "Pulling the rope on the well every day, Xiao Chen, I would like to increase cholesterol, blood lipids and blood pressure, but I think that is impossible."

Edward had already eaten three lotus leaf cakes and silently put down the one he was about to pick up. "My cholesterol is already as high as it can be, but my blood pressure should have dropped a lot recently, and I don't feel dizzy anymore."

"The corruption of capitalism, Mr. Edward, if you live in the mining area for a year, all these symptoms will disappear." Xiao Chen said sincerely.

After dinner, the three children ran out to play.

Just as the laborer was about to leave, Edward suggested that he go and see his laboratory.

"I am only here to visit, not to take photos. Mr. Nie Bozhao, I am just curious about how far your oil extraction and smelting technology has progressed now," said Edward.

The worker carried all the dishes to the kitchen and cleaned the table, but did not say anything.

Edward raised his hands and added, "Although you live in such a remote place and don't even have a phone at home, you are well aware of the international situation. You also know that modern wars are fought for black gold. What is black gold? It is oil. If your smelting technology can be globalized, then wars can be eliminated?"

"I am a fighter for international communism, but my heart is not so noble as to imagine that one day the world will be united. Mr. Edward, whether in the West or the East, there is a side of human nature that is evil and treacherous.

Although you appear humble on the surface, you still have the mentality of the Crusaders and the Eight-Nation Alliance to plunder other people's wealth. So, I have to tell you that it is impossible for you to visit my laboratory."

"I'm willing to take Miss Chen's gold bars for $90 an ounce, all of them. As an additional condition, can I visit your laboratory?"

Edward threw out a big bait.

Nie Gong smiled and said, "Xiao Chen, you were born after the liberation, so you haven't seen what a robber looks like. Look, this is it."

The international gold price is 200 US dollars, but he only gave 90, and he also added an additional condition, making people think that he was giving alms. This is really ridiculous.

The laborer was about to leave when he finished speaking. "Mr. Edward, we don't want idle people in our family. How about you wash the pots and dishes today?"

"Your people are always very hospitable to guests, and I have never washed dishes."

"Then let's have a

Not long after he left, the comrades from the Armed Forces, led by Xiao Zhu, went to visit Nie's house, under the pretext of coming to taste the food cooked by the master's wife.

But it was clear that they were monitoring Edward.

Edward entered the kitchen, looked at the messy pots and pans for a long time, and sang a song: "Cherries are delicious but the trees are difficult to grow. Without hard work, the flowers will not bloom..."

Chen Lina stood at the kitchen door with her arms folded, just smiling and not saying a word.

"Chinese food is delicious, but washing dishes is also a headache, Mom, am I right?"

"So, are you going to continue writing reports about Oriental mothers and the children they educate?" Chen Lina said, crossing her arms.

Edward shook his head. "I have to say that children raised by an oriental mother like you are the most competitive children in the world. No, they are more competitive than adults."

"There are many mothers like me in the mining area and even in the entire republic. The children we educate, if nothing else, are hardworking. And I also believe that in the future, China will surpass you, the United States, and become the world's largest country."

"That's impossible." Edward laughed contemptuously. "America has colonies, manufacturing plants, and a large amount of original wealth, but you don't."

"We have hard-working people, and the development of this society is beyond the imagination of people of your age, Edward."

Chen Lina lived until the millennium, when the rise of the Republic had already attracted worldwide attention.

Can you imagine that the Chinese can complete infrastructure in just 30 or 40 years, which takes other countries decades or even hundreds of years?

Can you imagine that by the millennium, China's infrastructure will leave the whole world behind?

In another ten or twenty years, perhaps China will be the world's largest country, but today's Americans are used to being superior and are too slow to imagine it.

Chen Lina only knows one thing: in China, there are good people, bad people, and all kinds of people.

But there are no lazy people. Even those with bad character, like He Min and Leng Qi, are busy and never take a break.

Diligence is a virtue of the Chinese nation from ancient times to the present.

"So, if I buy your gold, in five years, what can you do to develop this mining area that can only produce black gold and where the people still live below the saturation line?" Edward asked.

Chen Lina was really tired of watching him wash the dishes, so she took over and washed them herself. "I can't guarantee anything, but I can say that when you come back in five years, this place will definitely be much better than you imagined."

"If you can have five well-run factories by then, and the tax revenue of the factories can exceed that of a county, I will write a report for you and publish it in Contemporary Weekly, affirming your actions and value over the years. So, now, I want five large yellow croakers for $85 an ounce. How about that?"

This cut another five dollars.

But Chen Lina thought about it and decided to make the deal. "Okay, a yellow croaker weighs 21 ounces, which is $1,785. One dollar is equal to 1.9 yuan, so a yellow croaker is 3,391 yuan. I'll sell five for 5,000 yuan, and you can give me the rest in dollars. Can we make a deal?"

In fact, although the international gold price is currently at $200, it will drop sharply by 1976 and stabilize at around $100. If we want to be friends, we can't take advantage of others' misfortune, right?

Edward didn't have that much RMB, but he had a lot of US dollars smuggled in. You see him opening one professional Zeiss lens after another and taking out rolls of US$100 bills to show Chen Lina.

I guess he would also use these lenses to smuggle the gold out.

Edward doubled his money on this deal.

As for Chen Lina, she received more than 10,000 US dollars, and the remaining RMB could only be given to her after Edward exchanged it.

So, it was a win-win situation for both parties, and both the guests and hosts had a great time.

When it was time to go to bed at night, Edward didn't want to sleep on the big kang. After taking a shower, he wanted to go and sleep with Sandaner.

As usual, Chen Lina went to sleep in the small study.

Chen Lina woke up early the next morning and wanted to go to the mining area to find Sun Duoyu and see the progress of Lu Baili's matter.

As a result, when she woke up early in the morning, Sandan kept sticking to her side and even followed her into the kitchen to make breakfast.

"Your two brothers have gone out to pick locust buds for us, why don't you go? Uncle Edward is leaving, pick some locust buds for him to taste, go quickly." Chen Lina said.

Sandaner licked his lips and said, "Mom, I don't want to leave you."

"Mom will always be with you. Sometimes I worry that you will become a mommy's boy one day. Tell me, what's wrong with you?"

Children are annoying when they are young, so we just hope they grow up quickly.

But when they really grow up and can no longer be held, people start to feel regretful.

She has been carrying him on her back since he was two years old and hanging him around her neck wherever she goes. Now Sandan is too big for Chen Lina to hold him.

"Mom, Uncle Edward wants me to go with him, but I don't want to go." Sandan was so coquettish, and even now his smile looks childish.

Chen Lina's brows furrowed. This relationship was really like the Eight-Nation Alliance.

You come to someone's house as a guest, eat and drink, and when you leave you carry away a few big gold bars. What's going on? Now you have set your eyes on that person's child and want to trick him away?

Breakfast was cornmeal porridge, and there was some braised pork with preserved vegetables from yesterday. We cooked it back in the pot and each person had a piece. After a night, it tasted even better than yesterday.

Edward sat upright and looked at the worker. He did not even pick up his chopsticks when he saw the rice. Chen Lina guessed correctly that this man was probably going to formally discuss adoption.