Chapter 859: Wang Cai Mi: Are you here for me?

When Li Long drove back to Maxian, the sun had already set.

At this time, there were more cars from Wucheng to Shicheng and Maxian, and because the Wuyi Highway runs through Maxian, even though the direct bus to Maxian stopped selling tickets at six in the afternoon, Li Jianguo and the others bought tickets to Kushi—getting off halfway is fine, and they bought the Maxian ticket price, which is quite good.

After Li Long dropped Gu Xiaoxia and the others at the big courtyard, he drove the jeep to the bus station to wait. After waiting for more than half an hour, he waited for Li Jianguo and the others.

It seems that the driver of the afternoon bus also drove quite fast. It is mainly because there are few cars on the road now, and passengers don't have high requirements for the riding experience. Generally speaking, people sitting in the back are very bumpy, but they basically admit their bad luck.

The 80s and 90s should be considered the era when drivers were treated the best. Later, well, downhill.

Li Long drove Li Jianguo and the others back to the big courtyard. Sister Yang had already prepared the meal—and it was a super large amount. She knew that this big family would definitely be hungry when they came back, so she made preparations in advance.

"Sister Yang, you are really capable." Liang Yuemei said sincerely, "I see that this family of Without Xiao Long and Xiaoxia can't do without you."

"Hehe, that's nothing, what am I? Without Xiao Long has the ability to make money, and Xiaoxia is a national cadre, and the money given to me is a lot, so doing this little work is nothing..." Sister Yang was praised, pulled her apron, and was a little embarrassed.

Actually, she knew very well that in this big family, looking at Du Chunfang, she is Gu Xiaoxia's mother-in-law, but she doesn't manage things, and her contribution is almost invisible. Her eyes are completely on her son and grandson. Liang Yuemei is more like a substantial "mother-in-law". Getting her affirmation, Sister Yang is also quite proud.

After the meal, the sky was already dark. Li Jianguo started the tractor and wanted to take the family back. Li Long wanted to drive the jeep to send them, but was stopped by Li Qing Xia:

"You have been driving for a day, don't move for this little distance! It's cool for us to sit on the tractor and blow the wind! You don't move!"

Although they don't drive, they know that driving must be tiring. Li Long has been busy all day, taking care of others, can he not be tired?

They are all family, everyone is not blind, it is impossible not to see it, so after Li Qing Xia said this, even Gu Bo Yuan said:

"Without Xiao Long, you just stay honestly in the courtyard. Don't you trust your eldest brother driving the tractor? When he was driving the tractor, you were still peeing and playing with mud?"

This made Li Long blush, but he couldn't refute it.

On the contrary, Li Qiang said loudly and seriously:

"My little uncle wouldn't do that! My little uncle is powerful..."

Fine, Li Long has an extra little fan, which can be considered to have saved some face—in Li Qiang's mind, Li Long wouldn't do such low things. Look at the things his little uncle did when he came back from Wucheng that year, they were all big things, things he wanted to do but couldn't do because of his age.

As soon as Li Qiang said this, everyone laughed, and Li Long didn't insist anymore. To be honest, he was really a little tired.

The two children were also tired today and are now asleep in bed.

Watching Li Jianguo drive the tractor away, Gu Bo Yuan sat on the fender and happened to be taken by Li Jianguo to his small courtyard. Passing by the purchasing station, looking at the lights inside, Sun Jia Qiang should be there.

"Without Xiao Long said he wants to buy a crawler tractor?" Gu Bo Yuan asked.

"Hmm, he said he bought it for me to drive. Our team has a lot of land, so the money for plowing, etc., can't let Wang Cai Mi earn it alone." Li Jianguo laughed.

"You have a good brother, enjoy the blessings in the future." Gu Bo Yuan sighed.

"Isn't that half a son to you? You are still taking advantage!" Li Jianguo retorted, "Look at how much you are enjoying now! How many people in the team envy you! That Sun Xiu's mother is so regretful now..."

"Don't talk nonsense!" Gu Bo Yuan turned his head to look at the few people behind, his expression a little flustered, "I have nothing to do with her..."

"I know you have nothing to do with her. If you did, she would have come to the county to find you long ago. Those few in the team are just regretful. They felt that you were a burden with Xiaoxia, but now... go regret it!"

"Hehe." Gu Bo Yuan knew it was like this, so he was relieved. Seeing the small courtyard arrived, Li Jianguo slowed down, and Gu Bo Yuan said:

"To tell you the truth, it's like a dream... Alright, work hard, there are long good days ahead!"

"Right, there are long good days ahead!" At this moment, Li Jianguo was full of fighting spirit. His brother is capable, is he just eating for free? Isn't it just driving a tractor? What's so difficult about it? It's not like he hasn't driven one.

After returning to the Fourth Team, the whole family was exhausted, so they washed up and rested. Li Juan and Li Qiang still have to go to school tomorrow.

In the big courtyard of the county, after Gu Xiaoxia and Sister Yang finished cleaning up, they went to the room and took out two things.

"Sister Yang, this is a pair of sandals we bought at Tianbai, a gift for you. Let Xiao Fang, this is a new school bag, your Uncle Li bought it for you, and there are pencil cases, fountain pens, and a set of colored pencils for drawing."

"Ah, auntie, uncle, how can you spend so much money?" Sister Yang said hurriedly, "I have shoes, and Let Xiao Fang has a school bag..."

"Buy it and use it. Now is not the era when you don't buy new ones if the old ones aren't broken." Gu Xiaoxia said with a smile, "You heard the eldest sister-in-law's words just now, she praised you, you did a good job, so you can't just say it. We are like a family. We went out this trip, you didn't go out, so we have to bring you some things back, right?"

Sister Yang didn't refuse anymore. To tell the truth, she had long regarded Li Long, Gu Xiaoxia, Mingming, and Haohao as her own family.

Han Fang watched her mother accept the shoes, then took the school bag and said thank you to Li Long and Gu Xiaoxia.

That full joy could be seen from the smile on her face.

Can children not like new school bags and new pencil cases? But she knew that some things could not be accepted casually.

Wang Cai Mi didn't recover for a long time after hearing the news from Li Jianguo that Li Long wanted to buy a new tractor.

The next day, Li Jianguo didn't go to work in the fields. After breakfast, he went to Wang Cai Mi's house. Wang Cai Mi and his younger brother had also finished eating and were cleaning up the parts in front of that old Dongfanghong 75 tractor.

Now there is still more than a month before it is used heavily. After the last sowing, Wang Cai Mi put the tractor here and repaired it from time to time. This tractor has big problems, and small problems are constant.

It can barely be maintained when working, and sometimes it breaks in the field, so it can only be repaired temporarily.

In the past two years, Wang Cai Mi has earned a lot of money, but most of it has been invested in repairs. He has also scavenged many spare parts from all over the neighborhood. It is these parts that allow Wang Cai Mi to ensure the operation of this tractor through repairs.

Actually, the Dongfanghong 70 crawler tractor has played a big role on this large piece of land in Northern Xinjiang in the past two or three decades. When Li Jianguo and the others developed the Fourth Team, there were only a few dozen acres of land and three or four households here.

When they first came, they used the primitive plow of two oxen carrying a plow, and later they had horses and used horses to pull the plow—there were relatively few oxen at that time.

The speed of reclaiming wasteland by manpower and animal power was extremely slow, and the efficiency was very low. There was no way to do this.

Later, there was the Dongfanghong 75 tractor improved from the Dongfanghong 54 tractor, and the speed of reclaiming wasteland increased. Many of the lands near here were originally swamps or shallow swamps, and wheeled tractors were inconvenient, while the Dongfanghong 75 tractor is crawler-type, which is just right for this muddy terrain.

So those lands of the Fourth Team were reclaimed, the farmland increased year by year, and finally only some saline-alkali beaches were left.

This Dongfanghong 70 tractor can be considered the meritorious tractor of the Fourth Team.

It's just that after these decades of hard work and tossing, it is full of injuries and illnesses, and it should be retired.

It's just that it has only been a few years since the household contract responsibility system, and currently, apart from Li Long, no one in the team has the financial resources to buy a new one.

Not to mention now, even in the previous life, this tractor continued to work for nearly ten years before it completely withdrew from the historical stage and became scrap iron.

Sturdy, absolutely sturdy.

"Hmm," Li Jianguo stood by the tractor, looking at the stunned expression on Wang Cai Mi's face, still a little confused and resentful, nodded and said, "In the future, there will be more and more land in our team. The saline-alkali land improved by Without Xiao Long near the old horse number has been improved. Without Xiao Long said that he will reclaim more saline-alkali land in the future. This tractor is mainly for our own family to use, but if others in the team want to plow, sow, etc., then I will definitely go to do it."

Actually, Li Jianguo didn't have to make this trip. There is no rule that the Fourth Team can only have one tractor, and no one stipulates that after the Li family buys a tractor, they cannot plow other people's land.

"Old Brother Li, are you saying that your family bought a tractor mainly for your own use?" Wang Cai Mi's younger brother Wang Dagui put down a crawler block he was holding and asked.

"Mainly for own use." Li Jianguo said, "But if others ask my family to plow, you say I won't plow? That's pushing money out, and I'm not stupid."

The two families have a friendship, which is why Li Jianguo came to tell Wang Cai Mi. But this friendship is not enough to make him give up the benefits at hand. If there is money to be earned, and it is bright and upright, why not earn it?

Most of the land in the countryside is collectively owned. The rule here at the Fourth Team is that the reclamation of more than fifty mu of wasteland is decided by the township, while under fifty mu is decided by the village itself.

Therefore, Li Jianguo and Li Long had discussed it long ago; they would reclaim those small patches of saline-alkali land along the main canal and convert them into their own contracted land. Anyway, there is no agricultural tax on reclaimed wasteland for three years, which means no public grain needs to be paid, and even after three years, it's not the full amount.

Once these lands are reclaimed and improved, they will be mature fields in three to five years.

According to what Li Long knows, in his previous life, five years later, the Fourth Team had already started growing cotton—and even in his previous life, the first family in the Fourth Team to grow cotton, although the yield per mu was only a little over one hundred kilograms, the price of seed cotton was two yuan, so it was more profitable than growing grain from the start.

Wang Cai Mi wouldn't be completely devastated, but there was definitely regret.

Come to think of it, since the household contract responsibility system started in '82, when the tractor debt fell on him, up until now in '85, the gross profit earned over these few years was at least several tens of thousands.

But the bulk of this money had been spent one after another on repairing the tractor.

If he had been ruthless and gritted his teeth, saved some money, and replaced it with a new tractor, could he have gone head-to-head with the Li family?

However, right now, the money he had on hand was only a little over ten thousand, and it was in a fixed-term deposit—even if he withdrew it now and borrowed some more from the bank to buy a new one, he couldn't bear to lose that interest.

In '85, the interest on bank deposits was quite high; Wang Cai Mi really couldn't bear it!

This interest money was significantly higher than the income a family of several people could make from farming in a year, so if he withdrew it early, it would be gone.

While he was hesitating, Li Jianguo had already started chatting with Wang Dagui, mainly about the use and repair of the tractor.

In just a few words, Li Jianguo already understood that Wang Cai Mi's tractor was truly profitable, but it was also truly expensive to maintain.

Over these few years, not only had Wang Cai Mi's family added several large items, but even though the outside still looked like a dilapidated earth house, the inside had changed completely.

Even Wang Dagui's family had undergone new changes. "My brother gives me one thousand a year!" Wang Dagui said proudly—previously his brother gave him less money, and he was dissatisfied, but in the last two years, Wang Dagui had become skilled at driving the tractor and could work alongside Wang Cai Mi, so the wages his brother gave him increased.

One thousand in net income is much better than most people in the team who farm.

Therefore, Wang Dagui was very content.

"Then... that tractor you bought, can't it just work on your own family's land? Your family has earned quite a bit of money these past two years, right?" Although Wang Cai Mi felt a bit embarrassed, he still had to say this. Originally, when his family plowed and sowed for the team, everyone had to beg him.

After all, there was only one tractor in the team; whose land was plowed first and whose was sown later was all up to his word.

Spring planting cannot be done just anytime, "If a person delays the land for a day, the land will delay the person for a year." The time for sowing is really critical; not to mention a day, even a half-day difference can lead to different situations when the seedlings emerge, and there might be a difference at harvest time.

His broken tractor might just be left in the field halfway through sowing for someone, and then he'd spend half the night repairing it.

Others could only wait. However, Wang Cai Mi wasn't in a hurry at all; anyway, everyone in the team had to beg him—even if Xu Chengjun came, he still had to wait in line.

Now that the Li family suddenly wanted to buy a tractor, he knew very well that his good days were about to end.

So, could he not struggle a bit?

"Look at what you're saying, if others beg at my door to let me plow their land, you say should I not plow? Wouldn't that be pushing money away? Besides, we are all fellow villagers, and I am also sharing your burden—every year during spring and autumn sowing, how many people are cursing you behind your back for being slow? Now that our family is going to buy a tractor, with two families plowing and sowing, won't it be much faster?"

Li Jianguo came to inform Wang Cai Mi, not to ask for his opinion, and after saying this, he went back.

After Li Jianguo walked away, Wang Cai Mi glared at his younger brother: "Why did you say so much just now? He's going to steal our plowing money in the future, and you were still so polite to him?"

"Even if I didn't say anything, they would still buy it, right?" Wang Dagui felt aggrieved, "Brother, why don't you buy a new one too? Our old machine can't compare to theirs." Wang Dagui isn't stupid; he knows that once the Li family buys a new machine, there will naturally be fewer people looking for their family to plow.

He was worried that once his eldest brother earned less money, the money shared with him would also decrease.

"Buy a new machine? That's easy to say! Doesn't that take money? Several tens of thousands, where am I going to find that? Are you going to give it to me?" Wang Cai Mi sprayed him again, leaving his brother speechless.

Sigh.

Returning home, he saw Liang Yuemei washing clothes. That single-tub Weili washing machine was rumbling in the courtyard, with two large washbasins placed on the side.

A single-tub washing machine can only wash or rinse, it cannot spin-dry, so every time it finishes washing, after the machine stops, the clothes have to be taken out and manually wrung dry, and then the water has to be replaced to repeat the process.

Even so, it is much more convenient than hand-scrubbing. The washbasin is so big, and washing bed sheets, quilt covers, and winter clothes is so tiring!

Now it's better; pour water into the washing machine, add detergent, put in the clothes, plug it in, turn the knob, and just wait.

Liang Yuemei always had a smile on her face; she had thoroughly felt the benefits of the washing machine—her hands were more than half liberated.

"How was it? Did Wang Cai Mi say anything?" Liang Yuemei asked when she saw Li Jianguo come in.

"What could he say? He wanted me not to plow for others, is that possible?" Li Jianguo smiled, helped Liang Yuemei wring out the bed sheet that had just been fished out, and then pointed to the front courtyard and said:

"You keep washing, I'll go to the front courtyard to tidy up. When the tractor is bought back, it will have to be parked there. Xiao Long's courtyard is big enough to park it."

"Okay, you go ahead." Liang Yuemei nodded, "I can manage here by myself."

Li Jianguo went to tidy up the front courtyard; there wasn't much clutter there, but he had to plan how to park the tractor and its accompanying equipment.

Li Jianguo thought that after the wheat is harvested, the main task is plowing, so the five-furrow plow and the tractor will definitely be placed outside, while the land leveling and harrowing equipment needs to be placed inside; these won't be needed until October when winter wheat is planted.

He also needs to buy a few barrels of diesel and bring them back. The Dongfanghong 75 tractor has great power; not only can it act as a tractor, but it can also carry a bulldozer.

But it also consumes fuel; diesel burns like water, so it must be prepared in advance.

Li Jianguo knows how to drive a tractor, but after bringing it back, he will inevitably need to familiarize himself with it. He thought there is a large area of saline-alkali flats southeast of the residential area, where he could drive the tractor to familiarize himself with it.

In the afternoon, Lu Yingming heard the news and knew that the Li family was going to buy a tractor, so he immediately came to find Li Jianguo.

"Old Li, is your family really going to buy a big tractor?" Lu Yingming was obviously a bit excited, "Are you just buying the tractor or the whole set?"

"That's definitely buying the whole set." Li Jianguo said with a smile, "We can't just have the tractor head and go borrow the rest from Wang Cai Mi, right?"

"That's true. That's not cheap!" Lu Yingming sighed, "Xiao Long is buying it?"

"Yeah, Xiao Long earned some money from that acquisition station this year and felt that we need a new tractor, otherwise farming is delayed every year, which won't do."

"Yeah, Xiao Long is right." Lu Yingming nodded, sighing with emotion, "You say Xiao Long is truly amazing. In just a few years, look at your family, you have a small four-wheeler, Xiao Long has a jeep, and now you're getting a big tractor, hey!"

"Don't you have a small four-wheeler too." Li Jianguo smiled, "With this household contract responsibility system, everyone's life is getting better."

"Then when your tractor comes, you drive it, and I'll press the plow for you!"

"Okay." Li Jianguo actually had thought about it long ago; if Lu Yingming hadn't come, he would have gone to find him.

Li Long's partners are people like Tao Daqiang, while Li Jianguo's partners are people like Gu Bo Yuan and Lu Yingming.

In the seventies and eighties, plowing and sowing could not be completed just by driving the tractor. When plowing, there is a person sitting on the five-furrow plow behind, with a steering wheel in front of them; turning the steering wheel is used to adjust the plowing depth.

And on the seeder, it also requires a person to stand there; this person is there to adjust the seed dropping or stop it. A seeder has five seed hoppers, and each hopper can also stop dropping seeds individually; all of this requires the person behind to adjust.

It's quite complicated.

By the next day, the whole team knew that the Li family was going to buy a big tractor, and they were directly boiling over.

One after another, they ran to the Li family to confirm the news—this news was even more explosive than Li Long driving a jeep! (End of chapter)