Chapter 429: The art of communication and gift-giving

The former Kuitun was a military city, and its location was five kilometers north of the Wuyi Highway. And right at this corner, there was a relatively large military station, which was also a relatively busy military station. Vehicles, materials, or the transfer of new and old soldiers of the military coming from Wucheng usually stopped here to rest.

And there were once several troops stationed in Kuitun City, but later, in several major troop reorganizations, they were either disbanded or reorganized and moved away, and finally, not many were left.

When Li Long drove the tractor and saw the military station, he breathed a sigh of relief.

Driving the tractor out from home, although there were rests along the way, the constant vibration of the tractor still made him feel that his body, including his internal organs, had been shaking all the time, and it would take an hour or so to recover.

It was about to reach the destination, so he was naturally a bit happy. He had to have a good rest tonight!

The tractor turned right and entered the road leading to Kuitun City. Li Long relied on his memory and drove directly to the north of the city. The Kuitun First Construction Installation Company was right here.

Of course, this place was close to the suburbs now. Further north was farmland. But in a few decades, this place would actually be in the middle of the city. To the north, first, many units and residential buildings of the Nong 7 Shi were developed, and later, some parks and scenic spots were created.

And the vegetable farmers who were planting vegetables in the suburban-rural junction north of the construction installation company were all rich after their greenhouses were demolished. Those who planted land here were looked down upon, most of them were outsiders, and later they became objects of envy by everyone.

So, the world is very wonderful.

Li Long parked the tractor at the gate of the Construction Installation Company, saw that it seemed to be off work here, so he parked the tractor on the side.

"Arrived?" Li Anguo asked first. He was a bit excited and a bit nervous, nervous about his future.

"Arrived, but you guys don't get off first. I'll go explore the way first." Li Long said, "Let's find that Section Chief Ma first."

Ma Aihong was the section chief of the Construction Installation Company. Li Xiangqian didn't say specifically what he was in charge of, and Li Long didn't ask. He planned to ask when he got there.

"Good, then you go ask first." Li Anguo and the others admired Li Long's social ability very much. They couldn't do it themselves, so let the one who could do it go.

Li Long took a black bag from the tractor and walked to the gate.

The gate of the Construction Installation Company was in a small alley. There was no special gate guard here. An old man was sweeping the courtyard. Seeing the situation, he should be finishing sweeping and preparing to close the large iron gate. Li Long stepped forward and handed a cigarette to the old man. The old man looked at Li Long and shook his head, indicating that he didn't smoke.

"Grandpa, I am from the Manas County Supply and Marketing Cooperative. Our section chief is a friend of Section Chief Ma here, and asked me to help deliver some things. May I ask if he is inside now?"

"Section Chief Ma?"

"Yes, Section Chief Ma Aihong." Li Long explained.

"You mean Aihong? They are off work." The old man stopped the action of sweeping the courtyard. Li Long looked at the large broom made of reed grass, and always felt it was so familiar.

"Off work?" Li Long looked embarrassed, "This is off work, what should I do? This is my first time here, and I don't know where their home is..."

"Aihong's home is not far. Look," the old man gave Li Long directions quite enthusiastically, "Go out of our company's main gate, walk forward for fifty or sixty meters, turn right and walk into a road, walk out for less than one hundred meters, turn right again and there is an alley, the second alley on the left, the third house is Ma Aihong's courtyard. Now his family should be eating."

"Hey, thank you, Grandpa." Li Long repeated the road the old man said, and after getting the old man's confirmation, he took out a piece of air-dried meat from the black bag and handed it over:

"Grandpa, this is air-dried wild boar meat from our side, you taste it, I'm leaving."

The old man hadn't had time to say anything, and Li Long had already turned around and hurried out of the main gate.

"Hey, this young man is quite generous." Smelling the smell of meat, the old man smiled. Although he also had a salary here, it wasn't easy to want to eat meat. Just this piece of air-dried meat weighing more than one kilogram was something that needed two days of work to buy.

Li Long arrived at the tractor, shook the tractor to start it, and said while preparing to drive:

"Section Chief Ma is off work and went home to eat. Go, let's go to his home, deliver the things, and then ask about the situation."

"Then tonight?" Li Anguo thought further, "Do we need to find a place to stay first and then go?"

"Don't." Li Long said while driving, "Ask clearly. If we can enter, the company can arrange a place to live, then find an inn to stay tonight. If the company can't arrange a place, then rent a courtyard."

Li Anguo and Li Junshan both nodded. It seemed that Li Long had already thought clearly about the matter.

Quite good.

According to the road the old man pointed out, Li Long and the others drove the tractor to the entrance of the alley where Ma Aihong lived. The tractor couldn't drive in here, so he parked it on the side of the road, turned off the engine, and Li Long carried the bag. Li Anguo, Li Junshan, and Yang Yongqiang all got off, and then Li Junshan got on the tractor again and said:

"You guys go, I'll wait here first. Our luggage is all here, it won't work if it's lost."

"Then good, you watch first, I'll go ask about the situation, and when talking about people, I'll say there are three people."

Li Junshan nodded and sat in the cart.

Li Long took Li Anguo and Yang Yongqiang to Ma Aihong's courtyard gate.

There were rows of courtyards here—the area of the courtyard was not large. Looking at the exterior wall, one family was seven or eight meters, and the depth was ten meters or so, which was the depth of the courtyard and the house together. Although they hadn't entered yet, Li Long guessed that vegetables couldn't be planted in this courtyard, and at most, some things could be placed.

He could hear the sound of radios and TVs in people's homes, the crying of children and the reprimands of adults in some homes, and occasionally the sound of chickens, which made Li Long a bit surprised.

Can still raise chickens?

The iron gate was closed, and Li Long knocked on it.

There was talking inside. Li Long heard the footsteps walking out, and a woman was asking:

"Who is it?"

"Hello, we are from the Manas County Supply and Marketing Cooperative, looking for Section Chief Ma."

Li Long believed that Li Xiangqian should have contacted Ma Aihong by phone. He explained his origin, and the other party should know their intention.

The iron gate opened. A middle-aged woman looked at them and was a bit surprised:

"You are from Manas County? Looking for our Old Ma?"

The woman's hair was permed and dyed, and she felt a bit fashionable. Her appearance was ordinary, and she spoke Mandarin, which surprised Li Long quite a bit.

"Yes, our Section Chief Li is a friend of Section Chief Ma." Li Long said with a smile, "Asked us to bring some things over to Section Chief Ma."

The woman immediately looked at the black bag in Li Long's hand. The black bag was quite large, looked quite heavy, and should contain quite a few things, right?

"Let them in." A man inside spoke.

"Enter, enter, come in." The woman's face showed a smile.

Li Long walked in sideways, and Li Anguo and Yang Yongqiang followed.

The aisle was a bit narrow. A small house was added on the left, and inside was a small courtyard, and further inside was the main room. Li Long just swept a glance, and seemed to see a single room smaller than a toilet built with cement in the corner against the wall, with a curtain hanging at the door, and a black-painted oil drum sitting on the single room. He immediately understood that this was a homemade solar bath.

Not bad, not bad, quite smart.

Once entering the room, it was a combination of a living room and a dining room. A man in his thirties was sitting at the table eating, and a seven or eight-year-old girl next to him was looking at them curiously. At this time, whether men or women, their hair volume was large, and it was rare to see a bald head—really rare.

"Section Chief Ma, hello, my name is Li Long, a staff member of the Manas County Supply and Marketing Cooperative," Li Long introduced himself, "This is my brother Li Anguo, this is my friend Yang Yongqiang, and there is my nephew Li Junshan outside, who is watching the tractor..."

"You drove a tractor over?" Ma Aihong's face was originally calm, but when he heard that Li Long drove a tractor over, his eyes lit up and he asked, "Your own tractor? What kind? Hand-held or small four-wheel?"

"It's my own, small four-wheel, twelve horsepower." Li Long smiled.

"Not bad, not bad!" Ma Aihong's expression suddenly became vivid, "Young man has quite a lot of ability. When Xiangqian told me, I didn't believe it, but now it seems that I can't underestimate young people."

"Section Chief Li asked me to bring you some things." Li Long took out a wolf skin from the black bag and said:

"This is a wolf skin. Section Chief Li said that he hadn't seen you for a long time. Since I came over, he asked me to bring it to you. There is a bag of air-dried meat here, which is wild boar meat I hunted in the mountains in winter, and the taste is okay. This is a bag of salted dried fish, which we caught in the village reservoir, all wild, let the children have it as a snack."

"Haha, Xiangqian wouldn't send me this, this is your idea, right? Your name is Li Long, right? Young man, you are quite giving your section chief face." Ma Aihong saw through Li Long's little trick at a glance, "Not bad, not bad."

Ma Aihong's wife was watching on the side before. At this time, seeing the air-dried meat and dried fish, her eyes were shining. Looking at these two large bags, one bag was five or six kilograms, which was not small! These dried meats could be steamed, cut into small pieces, and stir-fried with vegetables, which could be eaten for a long time!

"You guys sit, sit." The woman greeted them to sit down, "Haven't eaten dinner yet, I'll get you some food."

In fact, the room itself wasn't large. If they wanted to sit, they could only squeeze and sit on the sofa. The Ma family had an old-fashioned cloth sofa. Li Long and the others didn't dare to sit, afraid that the three big young men would break the sofa.

"Don't sit, don't sit," Li Long put away the empty bag and said with a smile:

!.

"Sister-in-law, you busy yourself, we will leave in a while." He didn't dare to let the woman really cook for them. Three big men, if they really ate until they were full, they could eat up the Ma family's three-day amount.

Hearing Li Long say this, Ma Aihong smiled and said:

"Also, you guys have many people, I won't keep you much. This time the company is recruiting temporary workers, and it needs many people. I heard Xiangqian say that some of you have worked as master builders, right?"

"Yes," Li Long nodded hurriedly.

"That's good, master builders are our urgently needed talent. This year, the construction and installation project volume here is very large, and the company will expand in the future, so you came at the right time... Xiao Li, you have a tractor, right? Are you interested in following us to pull work?"

"I... I am a staff member of the Supply and Marketing Cooperative." Li Long said with a bitter smile, "I definitely have to go back to that side."

"Look at this, how about this." Ma Aihong said with a smile, "I can't force you to stay here. However, you help me with some work for a few days. We have fewer vehicles to pull sand and stone materials here, and a large part is animal-drawn carts, so you help me pull sand and stone materials for a few days.

Look, you work here, and I won't let you work for nothing. Ten yuan per cart, how about it? And you only need to pull materials, you don't need to worry about loading and unloading. You pull materials like this, and it's easy for me to arrange work for your relatives and friends, and I have words to say to the leaders, how about it?"

He had already said it to this point, what else could Li Long say?

But the key thing he still had to ask, so he said:

"Then Section Chief Ma, does your company arrange dormitories for my second brother and the others, or do they rent a house outside to live in?"

"Come over to work tomorrow, I will take people to recruit workers at the gate, and arrange a place for you to live first. You have a tractor, and the treatment will be better than theirs. I can arrange for you to stay in the guest house, pay a symbolic amount of money, and they will stay in the dormitory, in a large room, how about it?"

"That's great." Li Long smiled, "Thank you, Section Chief Ma, then we won't delay your dinner, see you tomorrow! Little friend, see you tomorrow! By the way, little friend, this is a wolf ankle bone, to ward off evil spirits, take it to play." Saying that, Li Long took out a wolf ankle bone and placed it on the table, and then left with Li Anguo and the others.

"The young man is quite good." The woman sent Li Long and the others away, closed the iron gate, and came back happily looking at the air-dried meat and dried fish.

"It's quite good." Section Chief Ma looked at the wolf skin, and then looked at the wolf ankle bone on the table, and sighed:

"Who would have thought that Li Xiangqian, that guy, could have such a useful person under his hand? If this person were placed with me, my work would be much easier!"

"Then why don't you keep him?" The woman said casually, "Can he not be willing to work in the city? As long as he is willing, you tell that Li Xiangqian, wouldn't it be over?"

"No, no." Ma Aihong shook his head and said, "It won't work. Li Xiangqian said that this young man doesn't want to be a worker, nor does he want to receive a salary and eat commodity grain. He hunts in winter and sells fish in summer, and the money he earns is more than ours—you also heard it just now, he drives a tractor, and that's not a unit's, it's bought by himself! I can at most let him stay and work for a few days... Alas, a good seedling."

Ma Aihong was the section chief of the engineering section. Because it was a state-owned unit, their projects were arranged from above, and they didn't need to run projects everywhere.

This person's way of speaking and doing things gave people a very comfortable feeling. What was that phrase? "Like a spring breeze," that's exactly what it meant.

Ma Aihong was thinking about keeping Li Long to work for a few days, offering a higher rate to see if he could keep the man, though the odds were probably low, as the wages he could offer here weren't exactly high. But since this Li Long had relatives and friends working here, he might come by often in the future—who could say for sure?

After Li Long and the others left, both Li Anguo and Yang Yongqiang had excited, thrilled expressions on their faces; this first step could be considered firmly taken!

Li Junshan watched the three of them walk over with smiles and asked:

"How was it? Can it be done?"

"It can be done. Just wait at the company gate tomorrow morning," Li Long said with a smile. "Not only will you be there, but I'll have to stay for a few days too, to haul some loads."

Earning this money was fine; anyway, since they were in Maxian now, there wasn't much work to do, so they could be a bit more leisurely.

Of course, it couldn't be for long; he still had to arrange furniture in the house and prepare for the wedding—everything was lined up in order.

"Let's go, let's find a place to stay," Li Long waved his hand. "Then find a place to eat; I'm starving."

"I'm hungry too!" Li Anguo said with a smile. "I didn't feel it before, but now that there's some progress, I suddenly feel famished."

There was an inn nearby. Li Long and the others found a four-person room. Originally, an introduction letter was required, but Li Long took out his own certificate for registration, and the other party didn't say anything more, even proactively mentioning that there was hot water available in the evening for washing feet.

After Li Long and the others put their luggage and the tractor crank inside, they went to the front desk to ask where there was a place to eat nearby. The person enthusiastically pointed them toward the 131 Party School, saying there was a state-run canteen there that was serving food right now.

Li Long and the others hurried over.

The food was average—or rather, about the same as the food in the canteens in Shicheng and Maxian.

Actually, compared to many restaurants in later generations, it was already much better; the ingredients were natural, there were no harsh additives, the taste was decent, and the portions were sufficient. Except for Li Long, everyone else was quite satisfied with the meal.

After eating, they strolled back to the inn—Li Anguo had paid for this meal with his money and grain coupons; he had insisted on treating, and Li Long didn't persist, as it was only a matter of a few yuan.

The sky had already darkened. At this time, the city didn't have the various night views of later generations; the only lights visible were those shining through the windows of every household. Although they weren't very bright, the glow of incandescent bulbs slowly filtered out, occasionally one by one, which was quite cozy.

Back at the inn, the group chatted for a while, then drew water to soak their feet. The first to fall asleep was Li Long—after driving all day, he was truly exhausted. It was mainly the vibration that was uncomfortable—but this was something he had to adapt to, as when it came to threshing wheat in the summer, he would have to drive for at least an hour or more at a time.

Under the scorching sun at that time, it would be an even greater test.

Li Anguo and the others fell asleep one after another, but Yang Yongqiang stayed awake for a long time.

Did he really want to stay here to work?

Being a worker had once been a dream of Yang Yongqiang's, but now that the opportunity was right in front of him, he hesitated.

Perhaps staying in the village, catching fish and trapping rabbits with Li Long, and going into the mountains to hunt might be better. He could earn plenty of money and live freely.

Which one to choose? (End of chapter)