Chapter 68: Li Long's

"Why?" Li Jianguo asked.

Liang Yuemei was also looking at Li Long, wanting to hear his thoughts.

"Think about it, if Dad receives the money, what will he do?"

"What else could he do? Go to the market to buy a few kilograms of meat, buy some rice and flour, and then buy some oil to prepare for the New Year."

"And the rest?" Li Long continued to ask.

"The rest... he'll probably go to the card table to play cards, and might even brag about how filial his son here is." Li Jianguo laughed as he said this; he could imagine what his father would do.

"Then will the relatives know?" Li Long asked.

"That's for sure. Once the money is sent, the loudspeaker in the brigade will shout, and the whole team will know." Li Jianguo had lived in his hometown for more than ten years, so he naturally knew.

In fact, they would send things back to their hometown every year at the end of the year, but they sent little money, because there wasn't much money left after it was divided. This year, because of Li Long, there was more money in his hands, so he wanted to send more money.

And his father didn't spend much money usually, but when he had money, he liked to go out and show off, and would even play those one-cent or two-cent games at the card table.

"Then what do you think will happen when spring comes?"

When Li Long asked this, Li Jianguo was stunned. What would happen?

"If you send fifty back, when spring comes, a group of relatives from your hometown will come here to stay, saying Dad agreed, asking you to find them work, asking you to help them find a way out."

Li Long's words were very plain, but they fell on Li Jianguo and Liang Yuemei's ears like a thunderbolt.

Li Jianguo felt that his father could really do this!

Don't look at Li Jianguo's father, Li Qingxia, saying that as long as Li Jianguo took good care of Li Long, he didn't need to worry about anything else, but if someone really begged him, asked him to tell Li Jianguo, and asked Li Jianguo to help them find a way out, he would definitely not refuse.

By then, a group of people would come...

Li Jianguo couldn't even imagine the situation that would follow.

But in fact, this was exactly what happened in his previous life. In his previous life, Li Jianguo would send things back during the New Year, making the family feel that life here was good, and then people would come one after another to find Li Jianguo.

The village in his hometown was called Lijiazhuang, and most of the people in the village were surnamed Li, and most of them had relative relationships. Young people with close relationships who came out to find a way out would rely on those who came out first.

But in ten years, more than a dozen people came to rely on Li Jianguo. Li Jianguo racked his brains to find ways for them, and half of them settled down here, some became workers, some went to the production and construction corps to settle down, and most lived better than Li Jianguo.

But after Li Jianguo passed away, none of these people came to see Liang Yuemei, a group of ungrateful wretches! Of course, he himself counted as one in his previous life—this life was just paying back the debt.

"Then we can't send that much." Li Jianguo sighed, "Then... send twenty."

"Yeah, anyway, there's a long time ahead, and Dad and Mom are in good health, so filial piety is still to come."

Li Long remembered that his parents both lived to be over ninety, so it wasn't a matter of this moment.

After this was decided, Li Jianguo gave Li Long another task:

"I'll cut five kilograms of meat, you take it with red paper to the Gu family, and ask Brother Gu to write two pairs of couplets."

"Alright." There were still ten days until the New Year, this was something that had to be prepared, and Li Long didn't think much about it.

When he arrived at the Gu family, Gu Xiaoxia opened the door, and was a bit surprised to see Li Long carrying things.

"My brother asked your dad to write two pairs of couplets for our family, this is the payment for the writing." Li Long raised the meat in his hand.

"Little Long is here, right? Come in quickly." Gu Bowuan's voice came from the inner room.

Li Long handed the meat to Gu Xiaoxia, took the red paper, brush, and ink, and went into the inner room.

"Little Long is not bad, he even knows about payment for writing." Gu Bowuan said with a smile, "It seems the trip to Wucheng wasn't in vain."

"I heard it from my brother." Li Long smiled and placed the cut red paper on the table, "Brother Gu, is your health better?"

Gu Bowuan was a top student who graduated from Southwest University of Political Science and Law. As for why he came here, Li Long didn't know, but it was nothing more than those few reasons. "Much better, thanks to your fish and meat." Gu Bowuan smiled very freely, "You've been very capable this winter, and I've benefited from it too."

Li Jianguo sent fish and meat twice, making the Gu family's life much better.

"Then my brother also said, if it weren't for you, he probably wouldn't have been able to stay here."

Li Long clearly remembered that Li Jianguo had said it several times. One was the steamed bun Gu Bowuan gave him, and the second was when Li Jianguo was preparing to leave here to try his luck elsewhere, Gu Bowuan's words made him stay:

"I've been to many places in the country, and I don't want to leave here. Why? This place is big, can grow rice, and there are fish in the water pools. With rice and fish, and a vast land with few people, other places might not be better than here, so stay."

Li Jianguo stayed. Not to mention anything else, at least he didn't go hungry during those hard days.

"It's hard to believe he still remembers those old, rotten things." Gu Bowuan spread out the red paper and asked Li Long:

"What kind do you want to write?"

In this day and age, there wasn't much attention paid to couplets, so Li Long said with a smile:

"Popular and easy to understand, clear at a glance."

"Then that's too easy."

Gu Bowuan thought for a moment, waved his brush, and started writing, and it was indeed popular and easy to understand:

!.

"Smooth sailing every year; everything goes as you wish, stepping higher and higher. Horizontal scroll: Lucky star shines high."

"Intensive farming for a bumper year; diligent and thrifty family for a surplus year; horizontal scroll: A strong country and a rich people."

It didn't pay attention to parallelism, it was just easy to understand.

And this calligraphy was truly good. Li Long felt it was better than the calligraphy of many famous calligraphers in later generations.

After the ink dried, he took the couplets and left. Gu Xiaoxia sent Li Long to the courtyard gate and suddenly whispered:

"Li Long, I... can I learn to do business with you?"

"Do business?" Li Long was a bit surprised, "How did you think of doing business?"

"My family has no money left." When Gu Xiaoxia said the first sentence, the original restraint and timidity disappeared, and her voice and tone became fluent, "My dad is in poor health, and we can't even afford medicine, I..."

"I know." Li Long nodded, "Actually, I have inside information that after spring, our commune and brigade will expand the school, and by then... I think you can take an exam."

Li Long clearly remembered that Gu Xiaoxia took the exam for the brigade's primary school, and in fact, with her high school level, it would be no problem for her to teach at the commune's junior high school.

After all, people with knowledge were scarce here in this day and age, and Li Juan's math teacher taught even though they hadn't graduated from primary school.

With Li Jianguo's level, he could also go to teach, but Li Jianguo knew that the salary from teaching wasn't enough to support the whole family, and he felt that farming was more suitable for him, so he stayed in the team to farm.

Gu Xiaoxia asked incredulously:

"Is it true?"

"Yeah, I'm sure." Li Long nodded and said, "I think you'd better start reviewing now. If you can teach at junior high school by then, the monthly salary will be at least a few dozen yuan, isn't that better than farming?"

Gu Xiaoxia hesitated.

"But my family now..."

Li Long thought for a moment and said:

"I'll lend you twenty yuan first, and you can pay me back when you pass the exam and get your salary, how about that?"

Twenty yuan could do a lot of things in this day and age.

Li Long wasn't a saint, but based on the relationship between the two families, plus what Li Jianguo had done, Li Long vaguely felt that this was actually quite good.

At least better than Wu Shufen, right?

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 69 =====