Chapter 787

When Wang An rode that beat-up bicycle, carrying a large pile of flour bags, back to the processing plant, all the machines in the plant were already running.

And those few workers were all busy moving grain and pouring it into the inlets on top of the machines.

It had to be said, money is truly not spent in vain; the speed at which these large machines processed grain was truly fast.

A 200-jin bag of corn was put in, and it came out in three to five minutes.

And the grain that came out was corn kernels with the skin removed.

Locally, such corn kernels were also called "dazhazi," and the porridge made from this stuff was called "dazha porridge."

As for the corn skins that were ground off, they were blown directly to another outlet.

To be honest, Wang An was still very surprised to see such an advanced skinning machine in this era.

The corn kernels with the skin removed were put directly into the pulverizer by a worker using a scoop, and the cornmeal that came out of the pulverizer wasn't very fine and required secondary processing.

Although the people in the entire processing plant were very busy, they were all doing their own tasks; simply put, they were busy but not chaotic.

After Wang An observed for a round, he hugged a pile of bags and walked toward the outlet of the final pulverizer.

Of course, Wang An wasn't idle either; he joined the workers in filling the bags with cornmeal and tying the bag mouths.

Just like that, Wang An and the group of workers were busy for a full 2 hours, and it wasn't until 3:30 in the afternoon that all the work was finished.

When Wang An handed the 10 yuan processing fee to the owner, the owner's face was full of joy.

Excluding electricity costs, machine wear and tear, and personnel expenses, the owner could earn a full three or four yuan in this batch, so he had to be happy.

And when Wang An settled the bill and left the processing plant, his whole body was already covered in flour; he looked as if he had crawled out of a flour bag, and one that he had crawled in and out of several times at that.

Except for his eyes, which were bright, his whole body was the color of corn flour.

It had to be said, this job at the processing plant was truly not something an ordinary person could do; just the dust alone was something most people couldn't handle.

Fortunately, with a full 6,200 jin of grain, there was no need to go back to the millstone to work.

Wiping his watch, Wang An glanced at the time and drove the four-wheeled vehicle toward the supply and marketing cooperative again.

This time, Wang An went specifically to buy cigarettes.

Arriving at the cooperative again, Wang An went straight to the cigarette counter. He bought quite a lot of the cheapest cigarettes, such as Grape, Great Production, and Steel Flower, totaling more than 200 cartons.

The reason he bought so many varieties was that the cheap cigarettes currently available at the cooperative had basically been bought out by Wang An.

If he wanted to buy only one or two types, the quantity wouldn't be enough, and although there were plenty of cigarettes in the cooperative's warehouse, it was impossible to move them over directly.

Because if one wanted to take cigarettes or other items from the warehouse, it had to go through a series of procedures like warehouse exit and inventory.

The most critical thing was that he didn't even know if the warehouse keeper was at work in the afternoon, and even if they were, the cooperative's efficiency was painfully slow.

Therefore, how could Wang An afford to wait for these "ancestors"? It was better to just buy a bit of everything and make up the quantity.

Anyway, the prices of these cheap cigarettes were about the same. In the rural areas of this era, compared to the dry tobacco grown at home, they could all be called good cigarettes; smoking anything was the same.

After buying the cigarettes, Wang An's trip to the county town was completely over.

Tying the sack of cigarettes to the four-wheeled vehicle, Wang An cranked the engine and drove toward home.

Driving fast all the way, Wang An finally arrived back at Kaoshan Tun near dusk.

It had to be said, the four-wheeled vehicle itself wasn't fast, and with three and a half tons of grain loaded, the speed was even slower.

On this journey, Wang An was almost bored to death on the vehicle; it was truly uncomfortable! Fortunately, he was driving a four-wheeled vehicle and not a walking tractor; it would have been even more uncomfortable if he were driving a walking tractor. To tell the truth, the profession of a tractor driver looked infinitely glorious and impressive, but in reality, it was nothing.

Anyway, whoever suffers knows it in their heart.

As soon as Wang An entered the courtyard, he was surrounded by a group of women, and the sound of them talking all at once rose up.

"Little An, what happened to you? How did you get into such a state? You look like a little ghost."

"Little An, what's wrong with you? Did you fall into a flour bag?"

"I don't think so, this is clearly falling into a flour bin. Little An, you must have a whole bag of flour on you, hahahaha."

When this person laughed, almost everyone else followed suit.

One had to admit, Wang An looked truly ridiculous at this moment.

Upon hearing this, Wang An wiped his face with both hands, and his whole face had a few more streaks, just like makeup for an opera that hadn't been applied correctly.

And the laughter of the crowd grew even louder.

(Version without errors)

Wang An wiped his face again, and then explained with a chuckle:

"I went to process the grain after buying it, and there was flour dust everywhere in that processing plant, so that's how I ended up like this."

Someone who was curious immediately asked:

"How much does it cost to process per jin now? I'm thinking about when to go to the county town to grind some dazhazi to eat."

Wang An smiled upon hearing this:

"One dime for 100 jin processing fee. You can just go to the township; is it worth running all the way to the county town?"

This person replied: "It's two dimes for 100 jin in the township; it's a bit expensive."

Wang An smiled when he heard this, but didn't respond.

Wang An didn't dare to risk universal condemnation by saying something like "Isn't it just a difference of one dime?"

One had to know that for the thirty or forty li to the county town, many people chose to walk on their own two legs just to save the two-cent bus fare.

Wouldn't that one-dime difference in processing fee break their hearts?

Of course, the reason everyone was like this couldn't really be blamed on them being stingy; it was mainly because as ordinary farmers in this era, making money was truly too difficult.

Saying that a penny was split in two to be spent might sound a bit exaggerated, but the fact was indeed like that! At this time, Mu Xueqing took a broom out of the room and started patting and brushing Wang An's body.

As the broom bristles patted Wang An's body, it was as if a smoke bomb had been set off around Wang An and Mu Xueqing; it was truly filled with dust and smoke.

After all the flour on Wang An's body was patted off, the group of helpers also finished their work and clocked out. Since there were so many people, Wang An greeted everyone to help unload the vehicle.

To tell the truth, although having many people meant eating more, it was truly refreshing to work with them.

Basically, each person only moved two bags, and the whole vehicle of grain was unloaded, and in terms of time, it only took a few minutes.

After unloading the vehicle, everyone went to wash their hands and faces and eat, while Wang An hurriedly went to feed those four eagle chicks.

These were four precious treasures!

(End of chapter)