Chapter 234: Nervous Li Xiangqian, confident Li Xiangqian

When Li Long arrived at Xu Chengjun's house, the phone hadn't hung up yet.

Li Xiangqian would ask if Li Long had come over every one or two minutes.

Xu Chengjun could only say quickly, quickly...

"Hello, Section Chief? This is Li Long." Li Long's voice carried a smile, and even joked: "Why, missed me?"

Xu Chengjun's eyes widened, was this guy spoon-brained? Could this kind of words be said?

As soon as Li Xiangqian heard it was Li Long's voice, he immediately wasn't that nervous anymore, laughed and scolded:

"I'm burning my butt over here, and you still have the heart to joke? What's the state of your task completion?"

"Almost ready. Now there are more than two thousand large brooms, right?"

"There are that many?" Li Xiangqian listened and felt a bit surprised, more of it was surprise, "Really?"

"Of course it's true. If you don't believe it, you can send a car over to pull them now." Li Long said, "Section Chief, I gave you a guarantee, right? I also said, the common people in our team pay the most attention to credibility, these few days are all working overtime!"

"What about the quality?"

"You can rest assured about the quality! It absolutely won't shed reeds while sweeping; at most, they'll just snap. To ensure it's sturdy and durable, our villagers specifically added a layer of red willow branches to the outside of the broom when binding it, and then tied another layer with rope. It's definitely very sturdy!"

"Since you say so, then I'll send a car over to pull them this afternoon, if it's not like what you said, then I'll have to reconsider this price!"

"Section Chief, don't worry, just send someone over to pull, come over to inspect, I can stand the test here!"

Hanging up the phone, Li Long said to Xu Chengjun:

"Director, you also heard it, now notify everyone to pull the large brooms to your house, find people, it's best if you inspect the pass rate yourself. First pull out the unqualified ones, either keep them for your own use, or redo them—"

"Good, good, good!" Xu Chengjun knew this key link was about to arrive, he immediately turned on the big loudspeaker and began to notify.

"Pu pu! Tong tong! Pu pu! Notify, notify! Now villager representatives all come to my courtyard, all villager representatives, all come to my courtyard! Twenty minutes later, each household brings the large brooms they tied to my courtyard, in the order of the first to the fourth villager group, don't be messy! Don't bring out those unqualified brooms to

"Puff-puff, puff-puff! Repeating once, notifying everyone..."

Li Long walked out of the Xu family's courtyard, thought for a moment, and headed toward Gu Xiaoxia's house.

During this period, everyone had been busy with the pole-cutting business. Gu Bo Yuan had only asked Gu Xiaoxia about it; earlier, Xu Chengjun said he had given Gu Bo Yuan the job of distributing wire, but it was unclear how that was going.

Halfway there, as Li Long passed the preschool, he heard the children there playing a game and shouting something.

After walking closer, Li Long saw the boys and girls of the preschool mixed together in two rows, standing about ten meters apart on the open ground in front of the classroom.

"Chicken Feather Ridge!"

"Open Horse Charge!"

"Horse Charge Open!"

"Kill the devils to deliver the letter!"

"Which one do you want!"

"Want Gang Dan!"

These words were shouted one line at a time. Then, the team that finished shouting last held hands tightly, and Gang Dan from the opposite side stepped out, preparing to charge.

Li Long smiled.

He had also played this game when he first arrived; it simulated a wartime messenger breaking through a blockade. Gang Dan was the messenger at this moment; he had to pinpoint the weakest area of the opposing team's linked hands. If he could break through in one go, his team would win and take one person from either side of the broken link back to their own team.

If he failed to break through and was intercepted, he would remain with the team he had tried to break, becoming one of their members.

Then the two sides would switch roles.

The final outcome was for one side to be left with only one person, and even then, they still couldn't break through the opponent's line of defense.

Gang Dan failed to break through the opponent's line and was left in the team, and then they switched. Li Long didn't walk through there; he was thinking about things in his memory.

Then he heard Li Qiang shouting over there:

"Why don't you pick me? Why? Pick me! You used to pick me!"

Then he heard a girl's crisp voice:

"Pick you for what? You're so strong, you'd break through in one go... We aren't spoons..."

Alright, Li Qiang had indeed grown much stronger during this time.

Li Long, on the other hand, thought of a song he had heard on his phone in his previous life that had a similar game, though the chant was changed to "Machine Spirit, Chop Vegetable Knife, you pick the one on my side..."

The nature of the game was the same, just the chant was different. Privately, Li Long felt that the way they played here fit a complete story better—just like the meaning spread on the internet about "Malan Blossoms Twenty-One." Malan Base!

With these thoughts swirling in his mind, Li Long arrived at the Gu family's home.

Gu Bo Yuan was in the courtyard binding a large broom.

Beside him were neatly stacked reeds, broom handles, wire, a stake, and a wooden mallet.

Neatly placed against the wall were cut lengths of wire, and beside them was a small notebook recording some names.

A wire loop was already stuffed with enough reeds, and Gu Bo Yuan was driving the stake into the reeds at the center of the wire loop. After driving it in, Gu Bo Yuan would pull apart the long ends of the reeds, revealing the tip of the stake, then take a small handful of prepared reeds and push them onto the tip of the stake. While stepping on the wire loop, he would use the wooden mallet to strike backward to withdraw the stake, while simultaneously pushing the small handful of reeds to follow the stake backward. When the stake was withdrawn from the wire loop, this small handful of reeds was bound into the wire loop.

This was repeated over and over until no more reeds could be planted into the wire loop; then the large broom was bound. The rest was just nailing in the broom handle, tying the rope, burning the tips, and other finishing work.

"Gu Shu, you're binding brooms too?"

"Why wouldn't I? Binding one earns one yuan and fifty cents; this money is easy to earn." Gu Bo Yuan didn't treat Li Long as an outsider now, and said while working, "The poles you all cut are really good; some are even a waste to use as broom handles."

"That's because we were in a hurry," Li Long said with a smile. "Besides, there are plenty of poles in the mountains; we don't lack these."

"That's true."

"Gu Shu, is this wire distributed when people come to collect it?"

"Yes, every day after people collect it, I keep a record here. In the evening, I go to each house to check if they've bound that many brooms. This wire is provided by the team, so it can't be wasted," Gu Bo Yuan said. "Some people want to collect more to keep for their own use, but I can't indulge them, otherwise no amount of wire would be enough."

That was true. Actually, Li Long was also worried about this, but it seemed Gu Bo Yuan had anticipated this problem long ago and had ways to deal with it.

"How long are your parents staying?" Gu Bo Yuan suddenly changed the subject.

"I don't know, maybe until the end of the year? Actually, I want them to stay longer; they have a place to live anyway, and it doesn't make much difference whether those few fen of land at home are planted or not..."

"That's what you think, but your parents might not. It's hard to leave one's homeland, and besides, they are getting on in years... But staying until the end of the year is fine..."

Gu Bo Yuan stopped talking after saying this. Li Long chatted a bit more and then left.

On the way, Li Long suddenly realized that Gu Bo Yuan asking when his parents were leaving probably had another layer of meaning.

That was his relationship with Gu Xiaoxia!

In his own mind, both of them were not very old, just in their early twenties, with the best of times still ahead.

But in this era, young men and women of this age were mostly already married, or if not married, at least engaged.

Gu Bo Yuan was probably thinking about this, right?

Li Long suddenly felt that his previous thinking had been a bit selfish.

Dating is a matter for two people, but marriage is a matter for two families. If it were just dating, that would be fine, but since the relationship had been confirmed, the necessary procedures still had to be followed.

He thought about it and felt that after this broom business was finished, he should go and discuss it with Gu Xiaoxia.

After all, his parents were here now, and this was an opportunity.

After figuring this out, Li Long hurried back home.

In the supply and marketing cooperative office, Li Xiangqian hung up the phone and said with a smile to the person sitting in the chair:

!.

"Old Qin, look, since you feel the person I assigned to complete the task is unreliable, then you go with the truck this afternoon to participate in the inspection. If there are any unqualified ones, feel free to throw the brooms out; I will punish them, how about that?"

Before the other person could answer, Li Xiangqian waved his hand again:

"Forget it, I'll go with you this afternoon. If that kid is double-dealing, then I won't be polite to him!"

"Old Li, can you stop being so disgusting? Your words mean one thing, but why does your expression look like you're showing off to me? Did you recruit a capable assistant and are now gloating at me?

Let me tell you, I came to urge you because the Corps has recruited another batch of immigrants. The housing isn't a problem, as it was arranged long ago, but production and living tools must be guaranteed to be in place. This is an order from superiors; I came to find you to convey the instructions from above, not to put pressure on you—though you can understand it that way if you want.

Don't worry, I will definitely go for the inspection this afternoon. Otherwise, if we hand over unqualified large brooms to those immigrants who have come from thousands of miles away, and they find the brooms useless after two days, and then they curse us, where will your face and mine be? Where will the face of the supply and marketing cooperative be?"

"Didn't I tell you, we can just go over and inspect them directly!" Li Xiangqian said with a grin, "I trust my people. Since Li Long guaranteed that the items are qualified, then I believe they are qualified!"

"Old Li, it's not that I don't trust you. You've taken on this task every year in the past; look at which village can finish three thousand brooms in less than twenty days? The reeds are fine, they're all over the beach, but what about those broom handles? You can't gather enough of those in any village in a short time..."

"Stop with the nonsense! It's mealtime, let's go eat now. After eating, I'll send a vehicle to find the leader to sign, and then you can come with me to inspect."

"Fine, whether it's a mule or a horse, we'll know once we take it out for a walk. I really don't believe..."

The two were arguing, and then they walked toward the canteen with their arms around each other's shoulders.

Li Long returned home, saw that the work on the threshing floor wasn't finished yet, so he went to shovel it, and carried the iron shovel home at lunchtime.

Li Jianguo had also returned.

Li Long asked while washing his hands:

"Big Brother, is the inspection finished?"

"Our group's inspection is finished; I was just watching other groups being inspected," Li Jianguo said, shaking his head. "Some people are just too outrageous! Can you mess around with that stuff? That's a task to be handed in! Doesn't anyone check them one by one? Our group is okay; five or six were pulled out that were a bit loose, and I made them take them back to re-bind. It's just a matter of nailing in a few more stakes, at worst re-binding a few. In the third group, over thirty were checked that were shedding reeds directly, which made Old Wang so angry he almost hit someone—"

"Whose family bound them?"

"The Gu family, the Deng family... Sigh, never mind, anyway Jun Wa Zi was so angry he was jumping up and down, cursing those families, saying if there's anything like this again, he'll directly deduct money and work points..."

"How many were collected in total?"

"Over two thousand four hundred; another five or six hundred and it'll be about right. Tomorrow at the latest," Li Jianguo said. "Jun Wa Zi said it's thanks to us cutting the poles in time, otherwise this task would be very hard to finish ahead of schedule."

"Then once the supply and marketing cooperative finishes the inspection, we can distribute the money."

Li Jianguo smiled and didn't speak.

"How much can we distribute?" Since they were all family, Li Qing Xia didn't stand on ceremony and asked from the side.

"This is my plan," Li Long said. "The poles total fifteen hundred yuan; I'll divide it into six shares. One share per person, and the two extra shares, one is my introduction fee, and one is for the horse cart. So it's two hundred and fifty yuan per share."

"That much..." Li Qing Xia was stunned for a moment, "Good heavens, a bicycle plus a radio, that's everything covered?"

"That's right!" Li Jianguo smiled, "The horse cart..."

"It should be shared," Li Long knew what his big brother meant, "Using the team's horse cart also costs rent."

"That's fine." Li Jianguo didn't say anything more.

"Then Daqiang..."

"He won't have any objections; I've shared it fairly enough. If I really had selfish motives, I could have completely left him out," Li Long said the truth.

This topic was then set aside.

Du Chunfang, by the stove, was muttering to herself:

"This is like a dream, only a few days, and we can distribute so much money... what is this..."

"Mother, don't worry about so much," Liang Wenyu said with a smile, "Without Xiao Long is capable, he can earn money, and he can also bring work to the team and the family..."

"Hehe..." Du Chunfang smiled.

Praising her youngest son made Du Chunfang exceptionally happy.

In the afternoon, the sound of a car horn broke the village's tranquility. Li Long was already waiting in Xu Chengjun's courtyard.

The villager representatives were all here. The large brooms from the four villager groups were stacked separately, and every hundred were divided into a small pile. This way, if there were any unqualified ones during the supply and marketing cooperative's inspection, they could find the person who bound the brooms as quickly as possible.

Li Xiangqian and Qin Huaimin got out of the driver's cab. Xu Chengjun nudged Li Long, then went up to greet them:

"Greetings, leaders!"

"I am Li Xiangqian, and this is Section Chief Qin from our supply and marketing cooperative's supply section," Li Xiangqian said. "You are Director Xu, right? Good, good, thank you very much for your cooperation this time!"

"It's only right, only right!" Xu Chengjun responded with a smile.

"Without Xiao Long, how many brooms are there?" Li Xiangqian had seen the broom piles before he even got out of the car, and at this moment his face was beaming with smiles, "It seems your efficiency is very high!"

"Two thousand four hundred, and another six hundred; we can finish tomorrow," Li Long's tone was also full of confidence, "Please inspect, leaders!"

"The speed is quite fast, but as for the quality... it's hard to say!" Qin Huaimin said from the side.

"Then you come and inspect." Li Xiangqian was truly not worried at all.

(End of chapter)