Chapter 689

After the group reached an agreement, Wu Dong and Wang Shuai began using the phone at Wu Dong's house to contact the side in Bingcheng.

In fact, at this time, having a telephone at home was itself a symbol of status and position, because apart from those in high positions, this gadget could not be installed just by having money at this time.

After Wu Dong finished his call, Wang An learned that a walking tractor with a trailer, plus a full set of plows to be hung on the walking tractor, cost 2,960 yuan.

Including the shipping cost from Bingcheng, it came to exactly 3,000 yuan.

To be honest, at this price, calculated against the wages of this time, it was truly not low; even just the shipping cost was more than a regular employee's monthly salary.

For transport, they would use a train car, and it was estimated that the walking tractor would arrive the day after tomorrow, or at the latest, the day after that.

However, it must be known that this was out of respect for Wu Dong; otherwise, in this spring plowing season, where would there be extra walking tractors to sell to you?

Even if there were, you would have to figure out how to drive it back from Bingcheng yourself.

You have to know that from DJ County to Bingcheng, it is a distance of about 500 kilometers, and calculating at the walking tractor's fastest speed of 15 kilometers per hour, it would take over 30 hours to arrive.

Of course, as far as Wang An knew, since the start of the household contract responsibility system, all the wealthy people in the entire Xing'an Township had begun to buy walking tractors one after another.

Some bought them individually, but more often, two or three families bought them in partnership.

However, it wasn't until 1983 that the DJ County Agricultural Machinery Company had surplus tractors for sale.

So before 1983, if you wanted to buy a walking tractor, you could only go to Bingcheng, and then several people would take turns driving it back.

To tell the truth, driving a walking tractor for a long time, and on a gravel road at that, that feeling is really not something an average person can endure.

After Wu Dong's walking tractor was settled, Wang Shuai started making calls again.

A new crawler tractor cost over 40,000, but there was no stock; or rather, it couldn't be said there was no stock, but accurately speaking, it wasn't sold to individuals, and an old one still cost 17,500 yuan.

Fortunately, this time, the other party said it would be brought over directly on a coal train, so the shipping cost wouldn't need to be paid.

After these two finished their calls, Zhang Shuya didn't make a call; she probably wanted to wait until she got home in the evening to talk to Zhang Siyuan about this matter.

The group chatted for a while longer, agreed on the time and place to enter the mountains tomorrow, and only then did Wang An leave on horseback.

Passing by the supply and marketing cooperative, Wang An checked his watch, thought for a moment, then tied his horse in front of the cooperative, paid a dime for horse-watching, and walked into the cooperative.

The reason for doing this was that Wang An wanted to buy a bicycle for Wang Li, but a bicycle was not something that could be carried on horseback, so he could only rely on pedaling it back.

And Wang An checking his watch was to estimate what time he would get home if he rode the bicycle back.

It was now 3:30 in the afternoon; if he pedaled fast, he could get home before 6:30, but he had to hurry to buy the bicycle.

So, as soon as Wang An entered the supply and marketing cooperative, he walked toward the hardware section.

Buying things in this era, generally speaking, meant there was no room for choice; that is to say, whichever one the salesperson took was the one you got.

Of course, although the salesperson had a bad attitude and a face like they were constipated, they wouldn't target anyone specifically; they just took them in order, and whichever one you happened to get was your luck.

However, things like this always seem to have accidents or something.

When Wang An finished paying the money and the voucher and wanted to push the bicycle away, he saw the salesperson clearly push out a bicycle from the side of the pile. The bicycle looked very new, so new it was shining, but on the bicycle's main frame and slanted frame—that is, the entire tripod—including the handlebars, the protective rags were all gone.

Of course, Wang An didn't care about these, because although other bicycles had rags, once you bought the bicycle, these rags would have to be torn off anyway.

But when Wang An lowered his head, he discovered that the rear tire of this bicycle was actually damn flat!

It could be said this was normal, because for a bicycle, if the valve core wasn't installed properly, the situation of slow air leakage was understandable.

Subconsciously, Wang An looked at the other new bicycles again, only to find that the tires of the other bicycles were all in a normal, fully inflated state.

It had to be said, if there hadn't been other bicycles for comparison, or if there had been other bicycles that were also flat, Wang An would have accepted this bicycle.

But with other new bicycles for comparison, then damn it, whoever was buying a bicycle would absolutely not want this one.

This should be a consensus! So, after discovering this problem, Wang An frowned, but with a relatively good attitude, he said to the salesperson: "Comrade, please change one for me; this bike's rear tire is flat, and I'm in a hurry to leave, I have nowhere to pump it up."

Wang An's words were reasonable and well-founded, neither hurried nor slow, and mainly, there was nothing wrong with them.

But what Wang An didn't expect was that this salesperson with the constipated expression actually started lecturing Wang An with a cold face.

He saw him staring with big eyes and said somewhat angrily:

"Can't change it. Turn right out the door and there's a repair shop; figure it out yourself. Besides, it's all about whichever one you get; others don't pick, so why are you picking?"

Wang An got angry as soon as he heard this and shouted loudly: "Others not picking is their business; you damn well can't give me a broken one. Can't you see the tire is flat? I'm buying a new bike, and you're telling me to go fix it?"

With Wang An's temper, he would normally have taken action long ago, but Wang An was in a hurry to get home and really didn't want to cause any more trouble over such a small matter.

Besides, there is a good old saying: "If you have a grievance, you must shout it out loud; if you don't shout it out, then damn it, who would know what's going on?"

So, Wang An's shouting was just to let more people know that it wasn't him being unreasonable, but that the other party was too damn outrageous and too overbearing.

After Wang An shouted, he indeed attracted a large crowd of onlookers.

Whether they were customers buying things or salespeople from other sections, almost everyone gathered around.

It must be said, in China, there is never a shortage of people who love to watch the excitement and don't mind the trouble! As the crowd gathered, the people standing on Wang An's side and the salesperson's side gradually began to divide and started hurling insults.

"F*** your mother, selling broken things, your heart is damn rotten! Be careful your children are born without an anus."

"What a damn drama queen, just pump it up a bit!"

"Pump your mother's, spending over 100 yuan to buy a broken bike, would you damn buy it if it were you?"

"It might not be broken, just pump it up and try!"

"Standing there talking doesn't hurt your back; it's not your money, so stop your damn yapping."

It must be admitted, one by one, they all seemed like they were the parties involved, and they were seriously quite excited.

(End of chapter)