Chapter 419: Carelessly losing the left hand

Li Long chatted with Tao Daqiang and Yang Yongqiang for a while, then went to Uncle Uncle Lao Luo Shu's room to pay a New Year's call. Uncle Uncle Lao Luo Shu's room already had melon seeds, candy, peanuts, and other things on the small table. This year, there were also more dried fruits, red dates, raisins, etc., all bought by Li Long from Wucheng, and some were also placed here.

Uncle Uncle Lao Luo Shu's place was actually very lively every first day of the Lunar New Year. When Li Long and the others left, a group of children had already run over to pay New Year's calls to Uncle Uncle Lao Luo Shu.

For such veterans in the team, if there were children in the family, usually the children's parents would let the children go to pay New Year's calls to the elderly. This was a very good habit. The elderly would also be very happy, letting the children pick the things they liked to eat on the table, and then pack them up to take away.

Young people like Li Long who weren't married would usually go in groups of three or five to pay New Year's calls to the elders in the village, chat, and drink tea. Most of the time, on the morning of the first day, they would finish visiting the elders in the village who were relatively familiar and had good relationships. Next was the more solid New Year's call to visit relatives.

Generally speaking, for such occasions, Tao Daqiang wouldn't participate after getting married. This was something for unmarried young people. However, he hadn't separated his family to live alone, so following along wasn't a big problem.

When Li Long and the three finished visiting the three villages and dispersed, and Li Long went to Li Jianguo's place, he found that there were already many people sitting in the main room. Lu Yingming from across the street, and the Wang brothers, who were pig killers and tractor drivers, were already drinking at the main table and playing finger-guessing games.

And the color TV on the chest of drawers was now covered with a piece of cloth—Li Long carefully discovered that this cloth was originally placed on the sewing machine, and it should have been brought over by his sister-in-law temporarily.

"Xiao Long is back, come, come, come, sit down and have two drinks!" Lu Yingming was flushed from drinking. Seeing Li Long enter the room, he immediately greeted him.

After Li Long sat down beside him, Lu Yingming sighed and said:

"Xiao Long, you are becoming more and more capable! Look at this TV, there isn't one in the whole team—yesterday your sister-in-law said that you set up an antenna at home, and I was thinking what is this antenna for, there's no radio station. I was even thinking if your eldest brother was bringing in enemy agents. As a result, when I saw it today, good guy, a big color TV!"

"Hehe, after this year, your family can also get one." Li Long said with a smile.

Over there, Wang Cai Mi and Li Jianguo were playing finger-guessing games. As a result, he lost, and after drinking a glass, he also said to Li Long:

"Xiao Long is amazing. I heard you plan to buy a tractor this year? Have you thought about what model? Do you plan to buy a 'grasshopper leg'? Let me tell you, that's easy to drive! It's just that it can only pull some goods..."

In terms of machinery, Wang Cai Mi was an expert. When it came to his field, he immediately talked endlessly.

Li Long found an opportunity and ran out quickly. Liang Wenyu had left food for him in the kitchen. After Li Long finished eating in a hurry, he went back to the horse corral.

Li Long didn't plan to go out in the afternoon. He was thinking about going to see Old Master Liang with his eldest brother's family tomorrow, but he didn't expect something to happen in the village in the afternoon.

Yang Yongqiang came to tell Li Long:

"Old Zheng's son in our team used a detonator and blew his fingers off..."

"What?" Li Long was originally half-lying on the bed reading a book. Hearing Yang Yongqiang's words, he sat up all at once:

"Where is the person now?"

"Sent to the hospital by bike." Yang Yongqiang sighed, "Left hand, the thumb is broken by one section, the index finger is broken by two sections, the middle finger is broken by one section, and the palm is blown to pieces..."

"Why did he think of using a detonator?" Li Long was a bit puzzled. It seemed that this happened in his previous life too, but he didn't seem to be in the village at that time, and he forgot what he was doing.

Old Zheng's son was named Zheng Haifeng, about sixteen or seventeen years old, and could be considered a naughty child. This was the time when his curiosity was strong.

"They said they were playing with firecrackers. The firecrackers at home were finished, so he rummaged through boxes and cabinets and took out the detonators and explosives at home. I don't know how he messed with them, but he made the detonator explode, and then half of his hand was blown off..."

"It's fortunate that it was the left hand." Li Long sighed. Now, the detonators and explosives in the village were basically those copper detonators, which needed to be stuffed with fuses to explode, and the explosives were basically ammonium nitrate explosives, a cylinder like a corn cob. This also needed a detonator with a fuse to detonate.

Although the production team was located in the plains and there were no mines here, there were quite a few families who had this stuff. Li Jianguo's room had detonators, explosives, and a large circle of fuses.

A copper detonator was said to have an explosive power of 50 kilograms, and blowing off a hand was easy—Li Long was just listening to legends, and didn't know if it was true or false.

It seemed that more than ten years later, there were children in the team who didn't know where they picked up a few such copper detonators, and even held them in their mouths to play—they had big lives.

"Daqiang's house is close, so he rode a bike and took him to the county hospital. His father also brought the broken fingers. That child was crying..."

Li Long shook his head slightly. With the current hospital conditions, it definitely couldn't be reattached, so he could only manage the wound well.

It was just the left hand. If the right thumb was gone, then this person in this era couldn't work, and it was really hard to say.

This matter cast a shadow over the festive New Year. The next day, when Li Long went to his eldest brother's place, Li Jianguo was saying to Li Juan and Li Jun:

"Did you see these things at home? I'll put them away, don't touch them. Don't touch them if you see them elsewhere. That Zheng Haifeng blew his hand off. If you touch them, you'll be disabled in the future!"

At this time, there was no taboo about anything. Disabled was called crippled, which was changed many years later.

Li Long watched Li Jianguo lock the wrapped detonators, explosives, etc., into the chest of drawers. He said:

"Eldest brother, a month ago when I was in the mountains, I was thinking about coming back to find you to get some of this and take it to the mountains to blow up wolves. Now thinking about it, forget it. We aren't professionals in this, it's too easy to be dangerous."

"Yeah." Li Jianguo also sighed, looking a bit scared, "When I brought this back from the mine, I actually thought about blowing up fish or scaring wolves. Every year it was just left at home and I didn't care much. Now that this happened, it seems we were still lucky... When the weather gets hot, I'll bury all these things."

Li Long felt it was a pity, but thinking about it, he didn't say anything more. Pity is pity, it's better than regretting after something happens.

The things for the Liang family were prepared by Li Jianguo early on: meat, fish, pastries bought from the county, wine, canned food, etc.

It was still a horse-drawn carriage going over. Li Long thought the horse-drawn carriage was slow, so he rode a bike and carried some things to go first.

The Liang family's courtyard was cleaned up cleanly, and the gate was open—Li Long was thinking, why did every household here have a big gate, even if it was tied with wood, it had to have a gate, but the team didn't have that habit. Every household just had a courtyard wall, and the one in the middle for people to walk through was considered the gate. No one would set up a gate to open and close.

Is this a matter of habit?

Liang Wenyu was in the courtyard. Seeing Li Long riding a bike, he smiled and greeted him:

"Xiao Long, Happy New Year! Are my sister and the others behind?"

"Hmm, by horse-drawn carriage. I thought it was slow, so I rode a bike over. Are the second brother-in-law and the others not here yet?"

"Not yet. Anyway, they are close, and they come quickly." Liang Wenyu said with a smile.

The courtyard soon became lively. Children were playing and fighting, adults were chatting in the room, and Li Long was watching the courtyard from outside. Occasionally, he could hear Liang Wenyu, Liang Xingmei, and his mother cooking and chatting, as well as the children playing and fighting, and comparing their New Year's money.

This year, Li Long gave Li Juan and Li Jun five yuan of New Year's money each, all new one-yuan notes. He specifically went to the bank to exchange them. Li Long told Li Juan and Li Jun that they should keep this money themselves. When they go to school in the future, if they are greedy, they can buy some snacks. It's best not to tell others, otherwise, they will be envied.

Li Jun was still asking what envy was, and Li Juan told him:

"It means others will be jealous, and maybe they will even rob you!"

This explanation was the most straightforward. Li Jun understood immediately. At that time, he held the money tightly and said he guaranteed not to tell.

Okay, Li Long looked at the five new notes that were crumpled by being squeezed, knowing that this was wasted.

It was still Li Juan who was more careful, directly finding a book to clip the five notes in, and then hiding the book well.

Several children together, Li Juan and Li Jun really didn't reveal the true amount of their New Year's money, but even so, it was the most, making other children show envious expressions. At the dinner table, Liang Wenyu's second brother-in-law, Du Haihua, suddenly asked Li Jianguo:

"Eldest brother-in-law, did your family buy a TV?"

"Hmm." Li Jianguo nodded. He immediately guessed that it was either the children or Liang Wenyu who let it slip.

"It's still your family that's strong." Although Du Haihua was unconvinced, he had to admit it. After all, families with TVs now weren't to say one in a million, but it was about the same. If you work hard on a bike, you might be able to buy one this year, but this TV, for the time being, one didn't dare to think about it.

This meal was a bit awkward. Du Haihua, who drank too much, would sourly say something from time to time. Later, it was Liang Donglou who couldn't stand it and said two sentences to him, which made him shut his mouth.

On the second day of the Lunar New Year, they visited relatives, and the days after the New Year were relatively casual. Because the main relatives weren't here, the Li family's New Year was relatively relaxed. It was just the way of inviting each other among those with good relationships in the village. In this production team, the situation of most families was like this. The relationships were good, they often moved around, and usually when children were hungry and the family wasn't there, they could just find a familiar family and have a meal, the kind that sat at the table.

This kind of habitual relationship was maintained in the team twenty or thirty years later, which was quite good.

In the countryside, especially in the northern countryside in winter, the New Year wasn't considered over until after the fifteenth day of the first lunar month. Although because of Zheng Haifeng's matter, the firecrackers were much fewer, there were still sporadic ones.

Later, Li Long also knew that Zheng Haifeng's fingers naturally weren't reattached. The county hospital did debridement, and the broken fingers that were picked up and brought over were thrown away. It was said that there were a few families in the team who had explosives, and they directly took these things to the snow outside, and the veterans tied them together and blew them up.

Li Long even watched it from afar once. He even saw two hand grenades in it!

Then Li Long understood. It turned out that he was still a bit puzzled. Like Li Jianguo who had stayed in the mine, he could get detonators and explosives, but how did others get them?

!.

Now it seemed that he could understand. The original militia training wasn't just shooting; it was about tying explosive packages and conducting blasting operations! Hand grenades were also highly likely to be hidden during the militia's live-fire training. Others were highly likely the same.

This could be considered clearing safety hazards for the team.

During this period, Li Jianguo's house was indeed very lively at night. Many people came to watch TV, mostly aunts, sisters-in-law, and children. The people who came were very polite, bringing their own stools, and some brought melon seeds and peanuts. They really watched very seriously. Even if it was news and advertisements, they watched without saying a word. Even if they spoke, they were quiet. When they left at the end, they would sweep away the melon seed shells on the ground with Liang Wenyu.

Very good.

Li Long would watch TV series for a period of time each time, and leave after watching. Later, he simply didn't watch at night.

Buying a TV seemed to be an obsession. Once bought, after completing this obsession, it felt like it was just like that.

On the eleventh day of the first lunar month, Li Jianguo received a telegram from home. His father and mother, Li Anguo's family of four, Chen Xingbang, and Li Junshan, a group of eight people, came by train.

Eight people...

Li Long had wired 200 yuan to his father before the New Year, which was for travel expenses. Although he didn't know how much money his father had left, Li Long guessed it shouldn't be much.

Picking up people was a troublesome matter, so Li Long said to Li Jianguo:

"At that time, harness the horse-drawn carriage. I'll let Daqiang harness his family's donkey cart. Two carriages will be enough no matter what. We don't need to go to Wucheng. Second brother, brother-in-law, and Junshan have all been here, and father and mother have also been here. We'll just pick them up at the bus station."

There was a standard for when the train would arrive, probably in those one or two days. Anyway, there was a big courtyard in the county. If they didn't pick them up that day, they would just wait for the next day.

Li Jianguo had the same idea. He originally wanted to find Tao Jian She, but Li Long took over this matter.

Although he said he would find Tao Daqiang, Li Long still brought things to the Tao family. He could distinguish clearly that this matter still had to be told directly to Tao Jian She. This was etiquette.

During the New Year, Li Long had already brought things over once. This time, bringing things again, Tao Jian She was a bit unhappy, saying Li Long was too polite. Li Long came to find him for something, saying that when the time came, he would borrow the donkey cart, and it was best for Tao Daqiang to follow. Tao Jian She kept saying it was no problem.

Now Tao Jian She's thinking had also turned around. His son followed Li Long, and the money he earned in a year topped what he earned in many years, and he was learning well. There were quite a few in the team who didn't learn well. This winter, many young people in the team followed to play cards and drink, but his son and the others were running around earning money, earning more money in a year than other families. Although he was a bit biased, he wasn't stupid.

This matter was settled like this.

Calculating the time to the fourteenth day of the first lunar month, Li Jianguo, Tao Daqiang, and Li Long hitched up two carts and hurried toward the county seat.

Actually, two days ago, Tao Daqiang and Yang Yongqiang had come to find Li Long, mainly asking about catching fish. It was late February. If they didn't catch fish, the ice would melt soon.

Li Long's meaning was to wait until his father and mother came over before talking. At that time, he would see whether to catch fish or do other things. He was a bit lazy at this time, feeling that he could wait a bit longer. A year had passed, money had been earned, things that should be bought seemed to have been bought, and the house had been set up. The next two big goals were building a house and buying a tractor. Both of these couldn't be done for the time being, so he became lazy.

The temperature was rising, and the sun shining on people was quite warm. Li Long sat on Tao Daqiang's donkey cart, chatting with him one sentence at a time.

According to Tao Daqiang, his wife was already pregnant, and now he was worried that the baby would be born in the summer when it was busiest, and he was afraid he wouldn't be able to handle it.

"What's that? Anyway, this year your family mainly plants wheat and corn, and some rapeseed. Just find some people to help when the time comes. Isn't the threshing ground in our team all together? Everyone knows your family's situation, it's impossible not to help."

Li Long didn't care much about this, feeling that Tao Daqiang thought a bit too much. Of course, this was also a normal phenomenon—after all, it was the first time preparing to be a father, and this nervousness was inevitable.

Li Long was thinking that when he and Tao Daqiang were catching fish together, at that time neither of them had a partner. If talking about a partner, it was he who had one first. Now Tao Daqiang was about to have a child, and he also had to work harder.

Hmm, since the family was all coming, it was just right. When spring started, everyone would work hard together to build the house, and then they could discuss the marriage.

He should also be getting out of being single.

Arriving at the county, Li Long said he wanted to go to the big courtyard. Li Jianguo and Tao Daqiang said no need, the time was about right, just go directly to the bus station and wait.

Li Long didn't refuse either. Anyway, going to the big courtyard now, Gu Xiaoxia wasn't there, and it was highly likely that Gu Xiaoxia wouldn't come back at noon, so it was better to go directly to the bus station and wait.

The three people and two carriages arrived outside the bus station. Li Long looked at the time and said:

"There's no need for the three of us to keep guarding here. Take turns going inside to wait. One person stays outside to watch the carriages. It's still cold outside."

"Then I'll watch the carriages first." Tao Daqiang said with a silly smile.

"No, no, you've worked hard enough following us to pick up people. I'll be outside." Li Long waved his hand, "You guys go in first. It's almost noon now. The three of us, one person waiting for more than half an hour is about enough to pick up people. You guys go in quickly."

After he said this, Li Jianguo and Tao Daqiang didn't say anything more. They tied the livestock to the side, and the two went inside.

The horse-drawn carriage and the donkey cart were both covered with sacks, and old mattresses were also put on top, so that the elderly and children wouldn't freeze when sitting in the carriage. After all, this wasn't like the hometown, and Li Anguo's wife and children hadn't been here before, so they definitely had to pay attention.

Li Long put grass for No. 76 and that donkey to eat slowly. He himself circled around the horse-drawn carriage, while also thinking about whether there were any omitted things at home.

They were waiting here, and at home, Liang Wenyu had already tidied up the east room, and the stove had been set up. The father-in-law and mother-in-law had lived in the east room for several months and should be used to it. At this time, she was preparing to cook. This first meal after arriving home definitely had to be good—meat, meat bones, rice, all using good materials.

Over at the old horse corral, Uncle Uncle Lao Luo Shu was timing it, adding coal to the stove every once in a while to ensure the room was always warm. Li Anguo had lived here and had an impression. This time the whole family was coming to live, and there would be two children here. Uncle Uncle Lao Luo Tou was very happy. This place was slowly becoming like a big family.

And Li Long and the others didn't wait long before Li Qing Xia brought the whole family and arrived.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 420 =====