Chapter 8

After comforting and persuading his parents, the three of them cleaned up the things on the kang together; looking at so many valuable good things, Wang Dazhu and Liu Guilan didn't have a trace of a smile!

Until Wang An opened the two wooden boxes, Wang Dazhu and Liu Guilan showed very surprised expressions!

In the Northeast, although ginseng is precious, it can still be seen, but one as big and as perfect as this, one might not see it in a lifetime!

Wang Dazhu and Liu Guilan were at a loss with the wooden boxes, holding them tightly, as if they were very afraid of breaking them by accident!

Although they were just ordinary farmers, they also understood the value of the things in these two wooden boxes! Each one was more valuable than that gold nugget!

Wang An thought for a while and asked: "Dad, Mom, this thing doesn't seem easy to keep, it's easy to break! Should we sell it now or later?"

After Wang An asked, he saw his parents looking at him in surprise, which made Wang An confused and scratched his head.

At this time, Liu Guilan spoke: "Your great-grandfather was a ginseng digger who dug tribute ginseng! Hey! What ginseng digger, actually a slave! I think Chairman Mao is good! Otherwise, our family would still be slaves now."

Liu Guilan said a lot, roughly meaning that although Wang An's great-grandfather was not the head of the ginseng gang, he was also a member of the ginseng gang, and he also knew how to find ginseng, dig ginseng, and preserve ginseng!

But the secret of finding and digging was passed on to men and not to women, only the miscellaneous work of preserving ginseng, anyone could do it.

"That works, Mom, these two boxes are handed over to you, let's not sell them, you figure it out." Actually, like this kind of life-saving thing that can be met but not sought, Wang An didn't want to sell it either.

Finally decided, except for the two ginsengs not to be sold, the guns, fur, bear gall bladders, all to be sold, plus the live roe deer and the bigger dead roe deer and a pheasant.

Finally, the three of them worked together to peel the roe deer, jumping cat, and fox, and cut the roe deer meat into pieces of about the same size, each piece weighing 2 jin.

The fifty-plus jin roe deer produced nearly twenty-six or seven jin of meat!

Scraped off the grease on the skin and supported it with a wooden frame, so that after it was air-dried, he could get another income!

In the evening, Liu Guilan stewed the jumping cat and a pheasant, and the family had another beautiful meal! The two little girls were even more beautiful and smiling!

The next day, because there were too many things and live animals, the forest farm's small train was not allowed to be taken, because the forest farm's small train was originally a commuter train for forest farm workers, belonging to internal use!

It's just that this small train passes through Kaoshan Village, and the villagers don't go out often, so it's no problem to take it occasionally! And the ticket price is only 2 cents per person, but even for these 2 cents, many villagers are reluctant, choosing to walk these 30-plus li with their legs!

Wang An spent one dime and seven cents to buy 3 boxes of cigarettes, two boxes of Changbai Mountain for one dime and four, and one box of Grape for 3 cents! Arrived at the brigade headquarters (called village committee after dividing fields to households), just happened to be brigade secretary Niu Qun at the brigade headquarters.

The brigade headquarters is two earthen houses much larger than normal houses, one kitchen, one large office, a coal stove in the office, and a circle of tables around the stove.

Niu Qun is a demobilized soldier, with an upright personality, but his way of doing things is not pedantic. He has great prestige in the village and is the head of Kaoshan Village.

"Hello Uncle Niu! What are you busy with, Uncle Niu?" Wang An asked with a smile as soon as he entered the door.

Niu Qun raised his head and rolled his eyes at Wang An, ignoring him! Continued writing something!

Wang An smiled and approached, opened a box of cigarettes, pulled one out and stuffed it into Niu Qun's mouth, and threw the opened box of cigarettes next to Niu Qun's arm!

And took out a match, struck it, and lit the cigarette for Niu Qun, saying very flatteringly: "Come, Uncle, smoke, let's chat after smoking! Hehehe."

Niu Qun put down his pen, took a deep puff of the cigarette, took the cigarette from his mouth, and exhaled smoke! Then he said with a straight face: "What kind of monster are you little brat trying to make again?"

Wang An answered with a smile: "Caught two roe deer yesterday, thinking of going to the county today to exchange for some oil, salt, sauce, and vinegar, and cut a few feet of cloth for the three little ones to make cotton-padded jackets and trousers!"

Niu Qun was stunned when he heard this; these are all serious matters! Carefully looked at Wang An again and thought: "Why did this kid change his nature? Did he change for the better?"

Wang An was watched by Niu Qun as he grew up; Niu Qun knew the temperament of every child in the village too well, who was good and who was bad, he knew it in his heart!

And Wang An is the model of being naughty, mischievous, and not doing his proper job!

He doesn't want to do farm work, and he was driven back by the school after studying! Anyway, in Niu Qun's heart, Wang An belongs to the kind of bad kid!

Wang An also has self-knowledge and rarely gets close to these village cadres; if it weren't for borrowing the mule cart this time, he really wouldn't have come!

Niu Qun asked, "Then what do you mean by telling me this?"

"It's just that I don't have a cart! Thinking of discussing with you, Uncle, to borrow the brigade's mule cart for a day!" Wang An still said with a smile.

"Ah! That works, go to the animal shed to harness the cart, tell Wu the Lame, just say I said so." Niu Yimin agreed very readily when he heard it was a serious matter.

"Alright, thank you Uncle, then you're busy, I'll go first." Wang An turned to leave.

Niu Qun shouted loudly: "You dropped your cigarettes."

Wang An didn't even look back: "That's for Uncle."

"This stinky kid, he even learned this set!" Niu Qun grinned and shook his head, continuing to write something.

Wu the Lame is an old widower, one leg is lame, 50-plus years old, no one in the village has discussed what happened or what the situation is! Everyone only knows that he is a person who raises big animals (horses, cattle, mules, donkeys), no one cares about the rest, and there is no sense of existence, just like a transparent person!

Wang An came to the animal shed, saw Wu the Lame cleaning up forage, and shouted with a smile: "Uncle Wu, busy? I'm here to see you!"

Wu the Lame put down the work in his hand and also answered with a smile.

Wang An took out Grape cigarettes from his pocket to light for Uncle Wu, explained his intention, chatted a few more words, and stuffed all the newly opened Grape cigarettes to Uncle Wu!

Uncle Wu was quite happy, personally picked a mule and helped Wang An harness the cart, and said to Wang An: "This mule is honest, has strength, runs fast, and can walk dark roads (night roads)!"

Wang An thanked him with a smile: "Then thank you very much, Uncle Wu, I might come back late, Uncle Wu, you have to bear with me!"

Uncle Wu laughed and said it was okay! Seeing Wang An was about to leave, he took half a bag of forage and threw it on the cart, telling Wang An to feed it when he didn't use the mule!

Wang An thought to himself that this box of cigarettes was really not bought in vain, otherwise he would have to prepare forage himself! Animals on long trips or doing heavy work must be fed forage, just like people who do physical labor must eat more!

Driving the mule cart home, he started loading goods; after loading what he wanted to sell, Wang An used a sack to wrap the Type 56 semi-auto full of bullets and brought it along; yesterday's experience made Wang An have to be careful and cautious!

Leaving home, Wang An drove the mule cart (mules are the product of horses and donkeys, good endurance, sufficient strength, the only disadvantage is they can't reproduce) and trotted all the way, blowing the cold wind all the way to the county town.

There is a small market in the corner of the county town; although the wind of individual households hasn't blown here yet, the buying and selling of agricultural and sideline products has long been turned a blind eye by the county in recent years!

(End of chapter)