Chapter 52 Chapter 52 Part 2
The caracal was so angry that Lin Xinghuo almost couldn't hug it.
Seeing a small thundercloud chasing the wobbling bus, Lin Xinghuo hurriedly took a few steps and slapped it away. Even when the cat was furious, its small arc wouldn't harm anyone in the family. But a sleeve made of ordinary material couldn't withstand the torment of a man and a cat. Unnoticed, it got a burnt patch, and the hard material crumbled at the slightest touch.
After comforting it all the way, the caracal's furry face still smelled bad when we arrived at the coal mine.
Huang Dazhuang and Xiao Chen arrived not much earlier than Lin Xinghuo, but the team leader was clearly squeezed in; his bulk seemed to sway unsteadily as he walked. The person who came to meet them from the coal mine immediately understood the reason for their sallow expression and smiled as he offered them a drink of water in the reception room at the gatehouse.
This coal mine is really impressive. Xiao Chen mentioned the visit to the reading room and said, "The literacy work in our mine has always been carried out by the district. The production team wants to learn from our advanced experience by organizing night school..." He gave a thumbs up and praised the good work done in the coal mine. He pointed at Lin Xinghuo and introduced that he was an educated youth who had been sent to the countryside in Beijing, and the team specially sent him here to visit and learn.
These days, it's generally easy to talk to someone else. Xiao Chen wore an official hat, and the Buxianshan pine wine was indeed good. Taking advantage of their coal needs, the mine leader wanted to exchange the coal coupons for another batch of pine wine. The person in charge was very enthusiastic and specifically asked someone to take Lin Xinghuo for a tour. "The literacy building is in the living area. I'll have someone take Lin the educated youth there. It'll take a while for us to load and unload the truck."
Lin Xinghuo nodded to Huang Dazhuang and others, then followed a young woman in her twenties to the living area on the other side. The propaganda officer was very talkative. Pointing to a neat group of buildings, he said, "This is the living area converted from the original Coal Mining College. The conditions in our mine are better than those in the staff quarters of ordinary government agencies." She enthusiastically asked how old Lin Xinghuo was, acting like a matchmaker.
The caracal suddenly became even more angry. It popped out from under Lin Xinghuo's scarf and meowed loudly, startling the female officer. Lin Xinghuo had no choice but to explain, "This is my mountain cat."
"She's amazing! She follows you all the way and protects you." As she said this, she happened to walk to a small building with a sign that said "Workers' Cultural Palace." She heard a gruff voice inside boasting, "...Jingshi is so different from our little place! The girls there wear long scarves and look at people with their chins raised, while the boys have to ride on 28-inch bicycles, chase after the girls, talk to them, and pat them to be their 'wife'... Xiaoxia, you're so pretty! If you were in Jingshi, you'd get lots of people patting you too!"
The female staff member next to Lin Xinghuo looked unhappy and shouted, "Xiaoxia, what are you doing? There are comrades visiting our Cultural Palace. Come over and help!"
As the thick army green curtain was lifted, a young woman who looked a bit like the female secretary ran out, her face still flushed: "Second sister."
The female officer glared at her and introduced her to Lin Xinghuo: "This is my fourth sister, Fang Aixia. This is Lin, the educated youth who came from 'Jingshi' to work in the countryside in Buxiantun." The word "Jingshi" was emphasized, obviously for the people inside to hear.
The door curtain was raised again, and a man who was not young but had a decent figure held up the curtain: "It's Second Sister, I'm holding the curtain for you, please come in."
Sister Fang rolled her eyes and asked coldly, "Niu Shengcai, what are you doing here at the Cultural Palace? Go back to your driver's class!"
The man named Niu Shengcai was grinning and about to say something, but when he saw Lin Xinghuo holding the caracal, his bloodstained right hand suddenly retracted, and the thick curtain almost hit Fang Erjie's face. Fang Simei was so angry that her voice became shrill: "Niu Shengcai, what are you doing!"
It turned out to be this little beast that had clawed him. Niu Shengcai suspected that the creature she was holding was a lynx that had changed in appearance. Lynxes are so aggressive that they would even kill wolves. The way the caracal squinted at people made him feel terrified. Niu Shengcai's right wrist began to throb again. He knew the pale girl outside. He had originally wanted to take advantage of her by taking a peek, but he had been caught off guard. Such a tough guy was really not to be trifled with.
Shaking his still powerless right hand, Niu Shengcai let the three women in and said with a smile, "Second Sister Fang reminded me, I'm going back to work. Xiaoxia, next time I go out, I'll bring you a flat-topped hat. Girls in the city really like that!"
After saying that, he waved open the curtain and ran out.
Sister Fang's face darkened as she interrogated her younger sister: "Did you accept his things? Xiaoxia, don't be foolish!"
"Don't you know who Niu Shengcai is?" Second Sister Fang spoke like a machine gun, seeming to have forgotten that Lin Xinghuo was still behind her. "I'm embarrassed to tell a virgin like you about his affairs outside! He's the worst of the drivers!"
Being a driver these days was a tough job. Not only were the snowy roads difficult, but the worst of it was human mishaps. People from remote areas targeted passing trucks, and most drivers would rather have some coal spilled than stop or even open the door. But Niu Shengcai was different. He relied on his brother-in-law, a high-ranking official who had successfully seized power in the district, and was a powerful figure in the area. He specialized in short-distance driving, and once he opened the door and got out to yell and curse, assuming no one would dare to do anything to him.
As a result, they locked him up in a room with a village widow. Half the production team came to "catch them in adultery," stripping his pants and keeping them as evidence. But they didn't dare take his money or coal, apparently believing both parties had made the wrong move, fearing Niu Shengcai's retaliation. But Niu Shengcai was a jerk. After being released, he sneaked back to the widow's house, paid her five yuan, and slept with her for one night... After that, Niu Shengcai got his way, settling into several "houses" in surrounding villages, and rumors of his affairs spread like wildfire. With such a lifestyle, anyone else would have been fired from the mine's transport team, but Niu Shengcai, for his brother-in-law's sake, was willing to spend the money. No one from his wife's in-laws filed a complaint, and the situation finally settled.
But Niu Shengcai was so happy with his playboy life that he was thirty, which made his sister unhappy. She wanted him to get married and have a child, which would be a good thing for others. Niu Shengcai then fell in love with Fang Aixia, the most beautiful girl in the factory, and would flirt with her whenever he had the chance.
This was exactly what had Second Sister Fang angry about. If Niu Shengcai had truly changed, and had his sister and brother-in-law come to the Fang family to propose marriage, the Fang family wouldn't have been unwilling to consider the marriage. But Niu Shengcai hadn't cleaned up his own shit, and he hadn't changed his ways. He dared to approach his sister with bloody scratches on his hands. How could Xiaoxia's reputation be maintained if this continued?
"...Why don't you send lightning down from the sky and strike him to death!" Second Sister Fang gritted her teeth. Originally, everyone said Niu Shengcai was a bit of a scoundrel, but he didn't eat the grass in his own yard. He had never been seen to seduce his coworkers' wives. He must be sincere in his feelings for Xiaoxia. And now, which wife had he hit a wall with? He was caught like that, and he still had the nerve to show up in public!
"No! I have to go find his leader!"
"Ah! Help!"
“Ouch!”
Before Second Sister Fang could finish her words, Niu Shengcai's screams could be heard from outside. Lifting the curtain, Fang Second Sister could even see the small tongue in her throat. After a long pause, Fang Aixia grabbed her sister's hand and stammered, "Second Sister! Sister! Was that thunder?" Thunder in the middle of winter? And thunder was chasing Niu Shengcai?
The lightning bolt was thin and thin, without a rumbling sound, but a flash of lightning in the air, and a long thunderbolt struck Niu Shengcai. His flamboyant, seamless, chrysanthemum-shaped head was blasted upright by the lightning, and his nearly new military coat was charred here and there. Niu Shengcai thrashed around the yard like a headless fly, screaming for help from the lightning.
"Ouch! I peed myself!" Niu Shengcai took off his military coat with small flames coming out of it, and saw that his cotton wool was soaked.
Lin Xinghuo frowned in disgust, and the caracal's furry claws moved, and the thunder began to strike Niu Shengcai's heels, and drove him out of the living area.
"Good! God finally has some eyes!" Fang Erjie didn't care whether it was strange or not, she clapped her hands happily.
Fang Aixia was so frightened that she only recovered after the cotton curtain hit her hand. She caught sight of Lin Xinghuo and blushed with embarrassment. Second Sister Fang, only then realizing the presence of a stranger like Lin Xinghuo, was reminded by her younger sister. She immediately became uncomfortable. Seeing the mountain cat she was holding reminded of what she had said before, and she dryly praised it, "You've got a really good cat! Its head is so big and flat! Even flatter than the ones we make when we force a baby to sleep on using books..."
"Sister! What are you talking about?" Fang Simei quickly pulled her aside and laughed dryly: "My second sister is giving my nephew a flat head..." She felt something was wrong midway through her words and had to change the subject abruptly: "Comrade, please feel free to visit."
After rubbing the caracal's head, which looked flatter because his ears were pressed down, Lin Xinghuo hurriedly carried the caracal inside.
The reading room occupied a large room, and the shelves along the wall were filled with books, but most of them were about pornography. Lin Xinghuo released his spiritual sense and circled the small building, finding his target in the warehouse behind the reading room.
Apparently, this warehouse was originally a library. Rows of bookshelves were stacked close together, and there were hundreds of cardboard boxes against the wall, filled with unopened sample books.
In fact, before the rise of the movement, there were several consecutive peaks in book publishing in the 1950s and 1960s. There were not only many popular literary works, but also a large number of books on new scientific knowledge. However, the circulation of these books was generally small.
Lin Xinghuo not only found a book in her collection detailing the spinning and weaving practices of the military and civilians during the Great Red Production Movement, complete with detailed diagrams and reconstruction plans for spinning wheels and looms, but also discovered a brand new set of seventeen books from the "Mathematics, Physics, and Chemistry Self-Study Series" among the sample books. The books were still tied up, and Lin Xinghuo stroked them. She couldn't remember the exact date of the resumption of the college entrance examination in 1977, but these were the books that the old high school principal had always remembered as the ones that changed his life...
"Lin Zhiqing! Lin Zhiqing?"
After finally finishing her private conversation with her sister, Second Sister Fang came over and saw Lin Xinghuo carrying a lot of books and flipping through them.
"He really is an educated educated youth," thought Fang Erjie. "That look of him never leaving his book is so appealing. How wonderful it would be if I could tell my brothers at home. We finally managed to send that brat to high school, but he didn't even pass the exam to get a job at the mine!" If he doesn't pass the exam for a civilian position, he'll have to work in the mines. The Fang family, with its many salaried employees, can't bear to let him go, so they want to find an educated educated youth to marry and take care of him and give him some extra lessons.
Sister Fang, wanting to be nice, said, "If Lin Zhiqing wants to read a book, he can come see my little sister. She's in charge of that. If he wants to borrow a book to read at home, that's fine. As long as he returns it within two weeks, it's fine."
Lin Xinghuo wanted to borrow quite a few books. Fang Aixia felt a little embarrassed looking at the pile. Of course, workers in the mine didn't need to provide collateral when borrowing books, but since this was an outsider, he had to pay a deposit. With so many books, she couldn't afford the collateral even if she wanted to.
It was a pleasant surprise to find so many useful books. Besides, Lin Xinghuo was not short of money at the moment, so he pretended to take out a large group of money from his pocket. Fang Erjie's eyes lit up again. It seemed that this girl's family was not bad, and she must come from a family that loved her daughter.
With the help of Second Sister Fang, and the books being taken out from the warehouse, where no one would normally check the accounts, Little Sister Fang took a bold step, copied the titles of the books, took a 20-yuan deposit from Lin Xinghuo, and found a sack for her to put all the books away.
"Auntie, give it to me!" The captain saw Lin Xinghuo waiting on the roadside with such a big sack on his shoulder. Without even asking what was in the sack, he reached out from the car pocket to take it.
Lin Xinghuo thanked Fang Erjie who had been accompanying her all the time. She held onto the iron railing of the truck with one hand, and with the other hand, she held the caracal that had tucked under her scarf again, and easily climbed into the truck bed that was as tall as she and a half.
Fang Erjie was first shocked by the loud "Gu", and then frightened by the girl's agile skills. It was not until the truck behind honked its horn to remind her to pull over that Fang Erjie patted her chest and said, "My goodness! The aunt of the captain of that village? With this generation and this skill... well, there's no hope!" No wonder a girl with such a good family background did not join the military corps, but went to the countryside to work in the fields. It turned out that she was taken care of by a relative who was an official in the brigade.
The coal truck made a big turn and first delivered half of the coal to a factory in the area before heading to the agricultural school. It was already dark when it arrived at the agricultural school.
The agricultural school orchard was deserted, but the large iron gate was ajar, a sign that someone had left it open. The fruit trees inside were mostly small, evidently planted as an experiment. They lay scattered about the ground in a mess, some of the saplings broken.
Xiao Chen cursed inwardly and called out to the two drivers and Huang Dazhuang who came to help: "Hurry up, don't make any noise, and move all these up."
The orchard was very close to the agricultural school dormitory. Lin Xinghuo could clearly feel that there were people in the house, but no one dared to turn on the lights and every household had their doors closed.
"I'll be back soon," he whispered to the captain. Lin Xing turned to the back alley like a cat. Sure enough, these old courtyards had the same structure as rural houses, with a small back door in the back wall.
Lin Xinghuo took out a calf-high, big-bellied jar from his storage bag and placed it at the door of each house one by one.
When she put the jar down, she deliberately made a little noise. Before leaving, she gently knocked on the door of a house at the head of the alley. She could hear the tense and weak breathing behind the door.
When they turned back, the move was almost finished. Huang Dazhuang carried a tree as thick as his calf and asked Lin Xinghuo to look at the paper tied to the branch. Xiao Chen lit a match next to her so that she could see the words written on the paper clearly. It simply wrote the varieties of fruit trees and basic cultivation techniques.
Xiao Chen sighed and looked at the agricultural school dormitory that was as silent as death. He felt sad for the old professors who were reluctant to give up their research despite the misfortune.
Not until the sound of the truck faded away did the back door of the house at the entrance of the alley quietly open a crack. A middle-aged man with a crutch leaned half of his body out and looked around vigilantly, then half-knelt to open the lid of the ceramic jar, carefully shielded the flashlight with his hand, and shone it inside.
The middle-aged man's eyes widened. He turned around and threw his crutch back home. He carefully picked up the pottery jar with both hands and placed it behind the door. Then he picked up the flashlight on the ground and quickly closed the back door.
Immediately, three subtle knocks echoed from the neighbor's wall, and then the back door opened... House after house, the long alley seemed to be performing a pantomime. People joyfully and gratefully carried the pottery jars home, reverently reaching into the mouth to grasp the golden corn grits, only to discover that only the top layer was broken corn grits, while beneath was white, rosy rice! Countless people buried their faces among the glistening rice grains to inhale the subtle fragrance. For the first time in a while, the tears they shed weren't of pain and indignation.
The November night wind felt like a knife cutting his face. Xiao Chen bent his neck as far as he could and raised the collar of his military coat to protect his ears. Huang Dazhuang fished out a small wooden jar, scooped out a piece of ointment, and smeared it on his face, motioning Xiao Chen to do the same.
Xiao Chen thought that this was the ointment for treating bruises and injuries produced by Buxiantuncheng Pharmacy. He picked out a piece and found that it was not it. It was much thicker than that ointment. It felt like a shell on his face as soon as he applied it. Not only did the wind no longer hurt, but it even felt a little warm.
Xiao Chen quickly gave a thumbs up, and Huang Dazhuang pointed at Lin Xinghuo who was sitting with his eyes closed in the corner, meaning that he was referring to the frostbite ointment that the fairy had just prepared.
The two of them talked back and forth without saying a word, but Lin Xinghuo could see everything clearly. She couldn't explain her feelings, but she always felt that she should pay more attention to the labor camp that was about to be relocated.
This feeling reached its peak when they returned to Buxiantun. Lin Xinghuo meditated among the fruit seedlings temporarily piled in her yard, and two tiny golden dots of merit drifted from the horizon. She had actually done very little, but these people who had endured so much hardship still had the kindness to repay her...
As the sky gradually brightened in the east, the courtyard on the southern slope was lush and green, and full of the fragrance of fruit.
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