Chapter 122

After Gu Xiaoxia and the others returned from the exam, Li Long took Tao Daqiang to catch fish for two more days and went to Shicheng to sell them once, then he didn't plan to catch fish anymore. For one thing, the ice was already very thin, and there were fewer fish to catch in the ice holes; for another, there were more people selling fish in Shicheng, and the price couldn't go up. Li Long felt it was better to slow down for a while.

With nothing to do here, Li Long didn't want to go into the mountains for the time being, so he just checked the rabbit snares every day and went around hunting at Red Willow Beach with his small-caliber rifle.

He sold that fox pelt for twenty-eight yuan at the acquisition station last time, which made Li Long feel that hunting foxes wasn't bad either.

Unfortunately, he didn't run into any more foxes in the following days. He did run into two rabbits, but his marksmanship wasn't great; he hit one and one ran away.

This day, Li Long was reading in the east room. He had already finished the previous book, "The Knight-Errant of the Great Tang," and now he had switched to "Seven Swords Descending from Tianshan." He was very yearning for Ling Weifeng of the Tianshan Sect and the Tianshan Divine Light in his hands, and then he heard Xu Chengjun's voice on the loudspeaker.

"Attention, attention! Pfft, attention, attention! Now announcing two things. One is about the people from our team who participated in the county exam. I will now announce who passed..."

As soon as this announcement came out, eighty percent of the families in the team opened their doors. Men and women came out of their rooms, looked up at the loudspeaker from different directions, and listened carefully to the voice inside.

"...Gu Xiaoxia..."

Hearing that Gu Xiaoxia passed, Li Long let out a long breath. Sure enough, she didn't let him down!

"There are only two people who passed the county exam: Gu Xiaoxia to the commune middle school, and Zhao Chengyang to the central primary school; next, announcing the people who passed the township exam... Wu Shufen... those who passed the commune exam will teach first and second grade in the team..."

Wu Shufen's general destiny hadn't changed; she was still teaching the first and second grades.

According to what Li Long knew, those teaching the first and second grades now would still have a chance to enter the central primary school to teach after the team was disbanded in a year, but they would still need to take exams and interviews.

Wu Shufen didn't seize this opportunity at the time.

This wasn't something Li Long needed to consider.

"Attention, attention! Next, announcing the second thing: all member representatives, come to the team headquarters now for a meeting. There are important matters to study!"

Li Long knew that the history of the production team was about to come to an end.

Gu Xiaoxia stood blankly in the courtyard. Although there was no sound from the loudspeaker anymore, she didn't want to enter the house.

Although she didn't make any moves, Gu Xiaoxia's heart was extremely excited at this moment!

Now, she was already a middle school teacher!

That is to say, she was about to get rid of her status as a farmer and eat commercial grain!

This was simply like a dream—in just over a month, from barely having enough to eat to being about to eat commercial grain and receive a salary, this was a earth-shaking change!

"Go inside, it's cold outside," Gu Bowuan reminded her at the door. "Take some time to thank the Li family. If it weren't for their Little Long, you might not have passed."

"Yeah." Gu Xiaoxia nodded vigorously and returned to the house.

Gu Bowuan looked toward the team leader's house again. He had a premonition that something big was about to happen. Member representatives hadn't held a meeting for a long time. There was still some time before spring, so it wasn't time to work. In previous years, even if they worked in spring, it was just a few cadres from the team getting together to decide.

Now that a meeting was being held, it shouldn't be a small matter.

At the Li house, after Li Jianguo finished listening to the notice, he entered the house, hurriedly put on a coat, and went out. Seeing Li Long still outside, he said:

"I'm going to the meeting, you stay at home."

"Okay." Li Long responded.

He knew that the meeting was probably to discuss dividing the land and contracting it to households. He didn't know if there would be any changes to the two mu of land per person, but that had nothing to do with him. Ten mu of land for a family wasn't enough for his big brother and sister-in-law to worry about.

Li Long was lost in thought in the courtyard, while Gu Xiaoxia was a bit flustered at this moment.

After hearing that she had passed the teacher exam, many women in the team came to her house to visit.

"I just said Xiaoxia didn't look like a rural girl; even when she works, she has the air of a city person! Look, she passed, and from now on she'll be eating commercial grain!"

"Exactly, middle school will be so leisurely in the future, staying in the room every day without having to work, with two vacations a year, and still getting a salary. How comfortable that will be!"

"Does Xiaoxia have a partner? My Dagang has always wanted to talk to you about a partner. Do you think it's suitable?"

"What is your Dagang? In the future, Xiaoxia will be eating commercial grain. Would she look at your Dagang? Xiaoxia, my nephew is an apprentice at the county leather factory and will become a regular worker in the summer. Do you want me to introduce you two..."

Because of some reasons that were hard to talk about back then, the Gu family usually didn't have many visitors, and the father and daughter were used to a cold life. Except for a few families like the Li family who had a good relationship with the Gu family, other relationships in the team could only be described as very average.

Gu Xiaoxia, let alone Gu Bowuan, had a headache with today's lively scene. After all, they were all women, and as a man, he couldn't interrupt. It wasn't until the loudspeaker came on, asking Gu Xiaoxia to get the introduction letter, that their family was freed from the busy embarrassment.

Li Jianguo returned home excitedly and asked Li Qiang to call Li Long to the west room.

!.

"Big Brother, are we dividing the land?"

"Yeah," Li Jianguo said with a smile. "We're dividing the land. Not only that, but a lot of things were said at the meeting. One is that our commune has been changed to a township, the production team has become a village, the brigade has been abolished, and there will be no more brigades in the future."

This was a big change. The brigade had always been a buffer and bridge between the commune and the production team. Now that the brigade was gone, the production team, or rather, the village, would directly face the township in the future, which would give many village cadres a considerable adaptation process.

But this had nothing to do with Li Long, and he didn't plan to be a village cadre.

"When will the land be divided?" Although Liang Yuemei had heard Li Long mention it before, she was still very excited now that they were really going to have their own land. She asked.

"As soon as the snow melts, it won't affect planting."

"Which piece will be divided?" Liang Yuemei asked immediately.

"The big piece in front of the residential area. Draw lots for the order, two mu per person." Li Jianguo rolled a cigarette and said to Li Long with a smile:

"The team leader said that since you can get sheep, when the land is divided, get a sheep first, and the team will pay for it. Then we'll have boiled mutton and divide the land!"

"Okay, tell me the time in advance, and I'll go into the mountains to pull a sheep," Li Long said with a smile.

This matter was definitely a great thing, and he thought the members, or rather, the villagers, wouldn't have any thoughts.

Although only two mu of land per person was divided this time, it was enough to give everyone a very bright hope. He thought that from now on, picking up manure would definitely become the top priority in everyone's mind.

Li Long calculated whether he should borrow the team's horse-drawn carriage and pull two more carts of manure when he went to pull the sheep?

(End of chapter)