Chapter 318: A Brief, Ordinary Happy Life

Li Long remembered that before he passed away, the coal price here had been fluctuating, but it basically never exceeded five or six hundred yuan. Most of the time, it was cheap at around three hundred, and when expensive, it was over five hundred. Occasionally, there were a few times it exceeded six hundred, but then it would drop back down.

After all, there were at least three coal mines being mined in the mountains south of Maxian. If he didn't find digging coal himself troublesome, Li Long had even thought about taking a horse cart to the coal mine that Halimu had mentioned in the mountains to dig it himself.

Actually, it wasn't troublesome either; that coal could be considered surface-level. Get some detonators and explosives, tie them up, drill a hole, stuff them in, and you could directly blast down a large area.

It was just a bit troublesome. If there were people behind him and he could buy another tractor, it wouldn't be impossible.

The driver didn't drive directly to the Old Ma Hao; he slowed down and followed Li Long.

Later, seeing Li Long's speed was slow, he simply let Li Long put his bicycle on the roof of the truck, tied it down with a rope, and let Li Long sit in the passenger seat, pulling him along to the team.

When they arrived at Old Ma Hao, the roar of the truck startled Li Jianguo and the others, and they ran out to look.

The driver was surprised; just now when passing the preschool class, those children actually didn't come over to chase the truck. This was a time that made him both have a headache and feel proud. Usually, in other villages, he would often encounter such situations.

After all, trucks were truly rare items at this time.

Of course, he didn't know that, in fact, too many trucks had come to the team during this period, and the children were no longer curious.

"Second Brother, Brother-in-law, all of you come over, let's unload half a truck of coal here, and the rest will be pulled to my eldest brother's courtyard to unload. Let's be busy today."

"Fine, fine." This was all work for themselves, so Li Jianguo and the others naturally had nothing to say. They asked Uncle Lao Luo for iron shovels. After the truck adjusted its position and the driver opened the rear tailgate, two people shoveled from above, and those below shoveled into the coal room.

Uncle Lao Luo also wanted to help, but Li Long pushed him back.

"Uncle Lao Luo, there are so many young people here. If we let you work again, that would really be a slap in our faces." Li Long said with a smile, "You just need to cook for us."

He didn't get his hands on it either, but said to Li Jianguo who was on the truck bed:

"Second Brother, I'll go to Big Brother's place to say a word, and clear out the things in the courtyard, otherwise it won't be easy to unload later."

"Okay, you go ahead, we're unloading half here, right?"

"Yes." Li Long nodded, rode his bike, and left again.

No one felt that Li Long was slacking off; this coal was bought by Li Long, and they were the biggest beneficiaries.

Actually, Li Long was indeed slacking off.

Seeing Li Long leave, the driver was still a bit worried, poked his head out from the cab, and asked:

"Who is paying for this coal?"

Li Jianguo and the others didn't speak; it wasn't easy for them to say.

"That young man just now." Uncle Lao Luo was holding a bundle of reeds and walking inside, saying with a smile, "Master, don't worry, that young man has earned several hundred yuan in the past two days, he won't be short of your money."

The driver was relieved.

Li Jianguo and the others felt a bit awkward.

Li Long arrived at the Li family courtyard and saw Li Jianguo looking at the pigs in front of the pigsty, so he put his bicycle away, walked over, and said casually:

"Big Brother, when are we slaughtering the pigs?"

"Let's make it another half a month. Daqiang is getting married, and his dad has spoken up—he wants half a pig."

"Only half?" Li Long felt it was a bit little.

"It's not little. This year our pig is not small, slaughtering a hundred kilograms of meat is no problem, half a pig is fifty kilograms, in these few years, whose family can use so much meat for a wedding?"

Li Long thought that was true too.

"Your Second Brother and the others are resting? They must have been exhausted these past few days?"

"That's for sure, but each one is strangely happy. They didn't say anything about the blisters on their hands or the cuts." "Today, after sending Technician Chen away, I gave them ten yuan each, calling it a bonus."

"Fine, you know how to handle people," Li Jianguo smiled.

"Brother, yours, one hundred." Li Long took out a stack of money and handed it to Li Jianguo, "You've been running around these days, so I'll just give it as change."

"You this..."

"Big Brother, take it, we are brothers, I won't give more, and don't think it's too little..."

"You." Li Jianguo smiled and took the money.

Yes, there was no need to be polite with Xiao Long. He felt that the way he had taken care of his younger brother like a son before was now being repaid one by one.

"I just called a coal truck from the township, a truck of coal, half unloaded at Old Ma Hao, and later Second Brother and the others will come over to unload half here."

"You got it all? I was still thinking about taking this one hundred yuan to pull a truck of coal back." Li Jianguo was a bit surprised, "You just pulled it over?"

"Big Brother, that money is for the family to spend, how can we go pull coal?" Li Long said with a smile, "The money earned this time is not as much as last time, but it's not little either, so I won't give more to the family. I'll definitely be the one to pull the coal."

"Fine, fine, you've grown up, is that okay?" Li Jianguo scolded with a smile, "Are you showing off to me?"

"How could that be."

Liang Wenyu came out of the room and saw the two brothers at the pigsty entrance, so she asked:

"Xiao Long is here, what are you saying that you're still laughing there?"

"Xiao Long pulled a truck of coal, now Anguo and the others are unloading it there, half is unloaded there, and the remaining half will be unloaded here."

"That's good. I was still saying I'd go dig saxaul wood these two days." "Don't dig it, that still needs to be chopped when burning." Li Long said with a smile, "This year we'll just take a rest."

"Then I have to let your brother give you the money..."

"Sister-in-law, saying that is like slapping my face." Li Long deliberately put on an angry look, "I haven't separated the family yet. I haven't given the money earned from making reed bundles to the family yet."

"Then you said it, the money you earned should be taken by you..." Liang Wenyu knew Li Long wasn't really angry, and said with a smile, "The family is better off this year, most of this money comes from you, so we can't just let you spend the money, right?"

"What I should spend, I naturally will spend." Li Long said with a smile, "Sister-in-law, don't worry, I'm not a spendthrift, I have a count in my heart."

"Let's leave it at that." Li Jianguo made the final decision, "First tidy up the courtyard, clear out the space, otherwise when the truck comes later, there will be no place to park."

The three of them started to get busy.

"Big Brother, later let's just build a coal room at the courtyard entrance, so in the future when coal is pulled over, we can just unload it here."

"That works too." Li Jianguo thought about it and said.

The Li family's current coal room was in the middle of the courtyard, leaning a bit to the east, a bit far from the west gate. Fortunately, the truck should be able to drive into the courtyard, it's just that there was a shed above, so it wasn't very easy to unload when unloading the truck.

Of course, this was also relative, it wouldn't stump Li Anguo and the others.

!.

Half an hour later, the truck drove over. After the driver backed the truck in, Li Long simply paid the coal money.

After receiving the one hundred yuan, the driver was relieved—this was much more satisfying than selling coal in bits and pieces.

He was thinking that tomorrow he could pull another truck of coal to the township, maybe someone would still want it.

Just as they were talking, Lu Yingming walked out from across the street. Seeing the Li family unloading coal, he came over to the courtyard and first asked Li Long:

"Xiao Long, how much did your family buy?"

"A truck. Half unloaded at the horse station, half unloaded here."

"How much for a ton?"

"This master said he doesn't sell in bits..." Li Long put the master's original words here.

"Then can I find a few families to buy together?" Lu Yingming had earned a lot of money this year thanks to Li Long, so his family naturally wanted to buy more coal to put down. The coal issued by the team was definitely not enough. There were many people digging saxaul wood these days, but there were also many who wanted to buy coal directly.

"Master, is that okay?" Li Long looked at the driver.

"Of course no problem, eight tons a truck, one hundred yuan." The driver was very happy, this was business delivered to his door.

He didn't expect that this trip could have an extra truck of business, not bad, not bad. If it continued like this, he could earn a lot these few days.

Lu Yingming immediately went to connect and find people.

By the time the coal at the Li family's side was finished unloading, Lu Yingming and the others had already come over.

Once the gathered people calculated, they needed at least two more trucks of coal!

It was said that some people still wanted it, but the quantity was not much, and they hadn't gathered enough for a truck yet, so they were still pulling people.

The driver was overjoyed. Li Long kept him to eat at home, but he refused, saying he had to go to the coal mine to pull coal now, striving to pull another truck of coal over before dark.

Watching the truck roar out of the courtyard and drive outside, Li Long sighed. Now everyone was striving for a good life, and they were truly not afraid of hardship.

The next day, Li Jianguo harnessed the horse cart and took Li Anguo and the others to the county.

The four of them first went to the post office. At this time, it was still called the Post and Telecommunications Bureau, with post and telecommunications combined into one family. It managed sending money, making phone calls, and sending telegrams.

Chen Xingbang and Li Anguo each sent twenty yuan home. Li Junfeng sent twenty-five yuan home, and Li Junshan sent thirty yuan home.

Among the four, Li Junshan earned the most money. Not counting the bonus given by Li Long, he himself earned more than forty.

Li Long had quietly given Li Anguo twenty yuan this morning. After all, he was his own brother, so what should be given still had to be given. As for Chen Xingbang, there was a layer of separation. If he brought his sister over later, Li Long would give money to his sister privately, but giving it to his brother-in-law, he felt a bit reluctant.

Li Long didn't follow them. After arriving at the county, he went directly to the big courtyard.

When making reed bundles, Xiaoxia came back once, and Li Long and she met in a hurry, without much chance to talk. Li Long also knew that Xiaoxia was busy as the end of the year approached, so he thought about bringing some pickles and such over, cooking a meal for her, and considering it taking care of her.

Arriving at the big courtyard, Li Long saw that there was still cornmeal porridge left from the morning in the kitchen, which had already congealed into a lump, and half a bowl of pickles was placed on the cutting board. He thought to himself that this girl didn't know how to take care of herself.

No wonder she looked thin when they met last time.

He started to get busy in the kitchen, cutting meat, cutting vegetables, steaming rice, watching the time to stir-fry vegetables. When the table was full of dishes, Gu Xiaoxia pushed the cart into the door.

"I saw the door wasn't locked, and knew you were here." Gu Xiaoxia had a face full of smiles, "Then I smelled the scent—you cook really well!"

"Heh, look at that flattery. Are you planning to use this kind of praise to get me to cook well from now on?" Li Long joked. "Don't even think about it—go wash your hands."

The smile on Gu Xiaoxia's face couldn't stop; the time when she came home and had ready-made food to eat had returned.

"Is the work in the team finished?"

"Yes." Li Long served the rice and put it on the table. Finally, the egg drop soup was also boiling. He removed the fire and came to the table with chopsticks.

"Don't look, eat. Eating pickles every day, you don't know how to take care of yourself at all..."

Li Long's complaints were all sweet love words in Gu Xiaoxia's ears; the feeling of being cared for by someone was really not bad.

Therefore, when eating, her words also increased, from which school she inspected, how long-winded and bureaucratic the leaders there were, to how some parents didn't want their students to go to school, how feudal their thinking was, and so on.

Li Long became a very qualified listener, listening to her talk about trivial matters, big and small, and a feeling called happiness surged up. (End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 319 =====