“Our wheat is growing well. How about we talk to the township government and see if we can use our wheat as seed? Would that way we can pay less tax?”
"Okay, let Hongxi give it a try. You should go too."
"And the driver said he'd give me 80 cents a pound of wheat."
"Okay, 80 cents is quite a lot. They've come all this way, if they asked for it, we'd have to give them something in return, let alone the fact that they offered to pay us."
"I understand. I'll go there and try to build a good relationship with the leaders. Maybe we can sell fertilizer to them again in the fall."
Zhang Hongmei returned to the canteen, and Wang Ying came back. Zhang Hongmei said to Wang Ying apologetically, "You'll have to make another trip to find my third uncle."
"OK."
Liu Changlin came over with a large bag of money. There was a bundle of ten-yuan notes, and some five-yuan notes, two-yuan notes, and one-yuan notes.
"Comrade, please count. I'm really sorry, I really don't have any cash left."
"Hehe, it's nothing." Liu Maocai came over while the driver was counting the money.
Zhang Hongmei called him aside and said, "Uncle, weigh out 400 jin of wheat in a moment, sell 200 jin to the driver, and give 200 jin to the leaders of the fertilizer plant."
"Okay, I'll go right away."
"Third Uncle, I'll go with you." Wang Ying felt that she couldn't be of any help here, so she might as well go help Liu Maocai.
"Comrade, the amount of money is just right."
"That's fine then." Liu Changlin was about to leave when Zhang Hongmei stopped him.
"Comrade, we agree to sell you two hundred catties of wheat, at the price of eight mao per catty as you said."
"Thank you so much." After saying that, he counted out 160 yuan and handed it to Liu Changlin.
At this moment, Wang Ying came in and said, "The wheat has been weighed and can be loaded onto the truck. Uncle San said we should let someone check the scale."
"Comrade, take these steamed buns. We don't have anything good to offer, so we'll just keep them for the road." Liu Changlin handed the driver a cloth bag, and Zhang Hongmei estimated that there were about five or six steamed buns inside.
"Thank you so much, fellow villager. Then I won't stand on ceremony."
"No need to be polite, I won't go over there. Take care and don't see me off." Liu Changlin handed the money to Zhang Hongmei and went straight to work in the field.
When Zhang Hongmei and her companion arrived at the brigade headquarters, they saw the pump scale next to the car, and four bags of wheat on the side.
"Comrade, come and look at the scale. Each bag weighs 101 jin, and after peeling, it's enough to weigh 100 jin."
After checking the scale, the driver loaded the wheat onto the truck. "Thank you, comrade," he said, and drove away.
The old method still applies: oxen pull the plow, but there are still many people in the village, so the strong laborers use large hoes to dig furrows. In this way, they can plant eighty acres of land in a day.
After five consecutive days of this, the planting of corn on 600 acres was finally completed. Because the seeds were plump, they were sown with only one or two seeds at most. So there were still seeds to spare.
Who was Wang Hongxi? Seeing that there were still forty or fifty kilograms of seeds left, he gave each family one kilogram and told them to find a place to plant them themselves. Of course, there was no fertilizer.
Actually, Wang Hongxi told Zhang Hongmei that she was unsure of the outcome. She had never used chemical fertilizers before, and although people said they wouldn't harm the seeds, she hadn't experienced it firsthand and was afraid that the seedlings wouldn't sprout. So she came up with this idea, and in the end, if it didn't work, she would transplant the missing seedlings.
Now that all the important work in the fields is done, I can walk with peace of mind.
All the corn seedlings planted on the first day have sprouted, and there are no missing seedlings, which puts everyone's minds at ease.
On the morning of the seventh day, Zhang Hongmei got up to say goodbye to the old lady, as it was time for her to go back home; her nearly twenty-day vacation was coming to an end.
"The weather is bad today, it might rain. If you're going to leave, hurry up, or the roads will be muddy and you won't be able to walk."
Take all the meat I prepared for you back with you, and I also ground two bags of flour for you. I won't say much more. Like I said before, I don't wish for you to be successful or achieve great things; I just hope you'll be safe and sound.
"Okay, I'm off then. If time allows, I'll definitely come back before I go abroad. Also, there's still soybean oil in the city. I forgot about it last time. I'll leave a message for Sister Erya to bring it back."
"Keep the good stuff for yourself."
"It doesn't taste as good when you're eating alone."
When Hu Aifen heard that Zhang Hongmei was leaving, she said, "Hongmei, you're going to the cafeteria later. I'll go and get ready."
"I understand." Zhang Hongmei really didn't want any meat; she could take less meat, but she had to take all the flour back with her—it was a token of everyone's goodwill.
The old lady saw through Zhang Hongmei's thoughts and said, "Take it with you. Although we don't need to do this for outsiders, we still have to be careful. Taking it back is a matter of face for our village."
"Okay, take whatever you give me." Zhang Hongmei really hadn't thought of that.
"And this is for you, I don't have any money to spend either." After saying that, the old lady handed Zhang Hongmei a cloth bag the size of a lunchbox.
"What is this?" Zhang Hongmei took it and opened it. It was all M gold!
"Grandma, how do you have so much money?"
"No need to ask. Since you're going, here you go. I thought this thing should be burned for me after I die."
"That's too much! It must be at least fifty thousand!"
"You talk too much. Take it and go now." After saying that, the old lady went into the house and ignored Zhang Hongmei.
Zhang Hongmei carried the large, hot bag of money back home and put it into her suitcase. By then, Wang Ying and Wang Xinyi had already packed all their luggage and loaded it into the car, and put away everything that needed to be put away at home.
"Wang Ying, you drive, let's go to the cafeteria to get the meat."
"Hongmei, do you really want it?"
"Take it, it's a token of everyone's goodwill."
Wang Ying drove to the canteen, where Liu Maocai and Wang Hongxi were also there. The canteen ladies brought over all the smoked meat, which weighed two hundred jin (approximately 100 kg) and consisted entirely of smoked ribs.
There's also 100 jin (50 kg) of sausage, which is pure meat with no starch at all.
There were also three bags of flour, which Li Cuihua had packed in three layers of bags, making it almost impossible for any to leak out.
Everyone helped load the truck. "Hongmei, this bag contains mountain produce: wood ear mushrooms and pine mushrooms," Li Cuihua explained to Zhang Hongmei.
"Third Uncle, Third Aunt, Uncle, Aunts and Grandmas, I'm leaving now. I'll come back when I have the chance."
After Zhang Hongmei finished speaking, she bent down and got into the car. Wang Ying noticed that Zhang Hongmei's eyes were red.
Zhang Hongmei only felt better after they arrived in the village. The other two people in the car also remained silent. Everyone had experienced the sorrow of parting and knew that this was the most painful time, so no one disturbed Zhang Hongmei.
"Sigh! I really regret going to university. It would have been so much better at home. I don't know how I ended up like this."
“Hongmei, you’ll get beaten up if you say things like that outside.”
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