Chapter 346

"He found Steel Egg?!" Wei Ming was pleasantly surprised.

Branch Secretary Secretary Wang Cai laughed: "As soon as Jiefang came back, he asked us if we had seen that panda cub."

An aunt said: "I saw it, just when the big flood happened!"

The aunt's son said: "At that time, there was a shortage of food and drink, and we almost..."

The aunt's husband glared at his son. You are really daring, daring to say anything in front of the leader!

At this time, the aunt came out and said: "Yesterday, Jiefang went into the mountains to look for it. It was also miraculous; he really found it. Today, he took good food and drink to the back mountain again."

"It's almost dark, it should be back too," Wei Ming muttered, "Uncle, you help me entertain Officer Chen well, I'll go to the back mountain to take a look."

The eldest brother-in-law immediately said: "Little Ming, let your brother go with you; he knows where it is."

Branch Secretary Secretary Wang Cai hurriedly said: "Little Wei, come back earlier. There are many movies playing in the village today."

Long Xiaoyang added with a smile: "Playing *Happy Reunion*."

This biggest hit of the first half of the year finally started to exert its power in the rural areas of Sichuan. Because Sister Lin was in it, Wei Ming never got tired of watching it. This had to be supported.

Xu Shufen was also anxious to see her daughter-in-law. She hadn't seen her many times on weekdays and could only watch the movie to satisfy her craving. She said to her son: "If you can't make it back, we won't wait."

Secretary Wang Cai hurriedly said: "Wait, wait, wait, watch together when you come back."

Coming to the back mountain, Long Xiaoyang asked: "Brother, are you going to be in the newspaper again?"

Wei Ming: "Can also be on TV, Sichuan TV."

Long Xiaoyang: "Oh my, that's a pity, there's no TV in the village."

Yeah, there was no electricity in the village, and playing movies had to use diesel generators.

"Brother, try this." On the way, they encountered a wild fruit vine. Long Xiaoyang picked a soft one for Wei Ming.

Wei Ming held the mini version of the kiwi, tore off the skin, and bit off more than half. It was slightly sour and sweet, and the taste was indeed not as good as those improved varieties from New Zealand.

Long Xiaoyang asked how it was, Wei Ming said: "Give me two more."

In the two-plus years since his rebirth, he had only encountered kiwi once at the Friendship Store last year. It was packaged very exquisitely and claimed to be the national treasure-level fruit "kiwi fruit" imported from New Zealand. One cost nearly two yuan.

Wei Ming was also craving it at the time, so he bought ten yuan's worth and shared it with his family and lover.

At that time, Lao Lao Lao Wei and Little Hong both felt that this thing was too delicious, just too expensive. Only his mother recognized at a glance: "It looks a bit like the hairy pears from our hometown."

Long Xiaoyang said: "This is called hairy pear, and the supply and marketing cooperative still collects it. It can be eaten and can also be used as medicine. Five cents a catty. These are all pears that slipped through the net."

Five cents a catty, two yuan each. Wei Ming felt sour and astringent when he heard it, and then he told his cousin a story.

"At the beginning of this century, when it was still the Qing Dynasty, a foreign woman from New Zealand took away a batch of seeds from Hubei. These were the seeds of this hairy pear. In some places, it's called kiwi fruit, and it's recorded in ancient books."

"Macaque? Hey, it really looks quite like one!" Long Xiaoyang played the straight man.

Wei Ming: "Later, New Zealanders cultivated better varieties on their country's land. They were large and tasted sweeter, and were named kiwi fruit after a bird in New Zealand. Later, this fruit sold well globally and was a rare fruit with a high price. If you stay in Yanjing for two more days, you'll probably be able to see this fruit at the Friendship Store. One costs nearly two yuan."

"How much!" Long Xiaoyang was shocked.

"You didn't hear wrong, two yuan. I can't bear to buy more." Wei Ming said. Moreover, in the future, the main thing planted in Long Xiaoyang's orchard was kiwi fruit, and he just earned some hard-earned money.

Because New Zealand monopolized many patents for kiwi fruit, Chinese fruit farmers had to buy seeds from them at high prices. And many kiwi fruit varieties cultivated by China itself would suffer the iron fist of patents once they had similarities with their varieties, which was very disgusting.

Seeing Long Xiaoyang's eyeballs rolling around, Wei Ming patted him on the shoulder: "Don't think about it, using it as feed also has a great future. In the future, there will be more and more farmers engaged in breeding, but for planting, how many mu of land do you have?"

Long Xiaoyang thought it was the same, and the two continued on their way.

Soon, in a bamboo forest, Wei Ming saw Lao Lao Lao Wei and Steel Egg lying together.

After a year and a half, Steel Egg was already a half-grown panda. Was this in the developmental period? Why did it grow tall?

It had quite high vigilance. Discovering someone coming, it immediately climbed up and hid in the bamboo forest. Lao Lao Lao Wei also hurriedly stood up, and one could see bones left over from the panda's eating on the ground.

"Steel Egg, don't be afraid, it's our own people."

Under Lao Lao Lao Wei's comfort, this giant panda walked out from behind, still holding a lamb rib with not much meat left in its hand.

"Why is it so thin?" Seeing Steel Egg standing in front of him, Wei Ming was a bit surprised. It didn't even have the look of a panda.

Lao Lao Lao Wei touched the panda's head and sighed: "It's not just people who suffered from the flood; animals also suffered, especially this kind of little bear with lacking life skills. When I found it, it was like this, looking malnourished and not close to people. It took a day for it to remember me."

Long Xiaoyang asked: "Where's its mother?"

Lao Lao Lao Wei said: "I guess it's either dead or abandoned it and didn't care. Animals' maternal nature has a time limit."

Lao Lao Lao Wei really understood animals. Wild panda mothers usually let their cubs leave them to live independently when they are one and a half years old. He hoped it just abandoned its son, not kicked the bucket.

Now Steel Egg was at least two years old, considered a kind of adolescent bear. It would probably take until it was five or six years old to be considered fully adult and able to reproduce offspring.

Under Lao Lao Lao Wei's coaxing and deceiving, Wei Ming touched the giant panda again. Its fur was harder and rougher than when it was little.

"Grow fat quickly," Wei Ming said to it, "If a panda isn't round and rolling, what else is it called a panda?"

Lao Lao Lao Wei narrowed his eyes and said to Long Xiaoyang: "Little Yang, you go back first and tell your second aunt, just say we'll be there immediately."

"Ah? Oh."

Long Xiaoyang left first. Lao Lao Lao Wei said to his son: "That Director Qi didn't say he wanted to send a giant panda to Hong Kong? What do you think about letting Steel Egg go?"

"Ah?"

Lao Lao Lao Wei: "Right, going to Hong Kong to eat delicious food and drink spicy drinks should be better than being hungry one meal and full the next here, right? Maybe it just won't be as free."

However, pandas weren't a species that longed for freedom that much. They preferred to have a comfortable place to lie flat for a lifetime.

Wei Ming lowered his head and pondered. Staying in this mountain really wasn't a good choice because two years later, the wild giant pandas in Sichuan would have another disaster. At that time, the bamboo would bloom and wither, wild food would sharply decrease, and quite a few giant pandas would starve to death.

In his past life, Wei Ming also got anxious when he saw the news, but it was a pity he was short of money and didn't participate in the donation.

Moreover, Hong Kong really attached great importance to giant pandas, and the treatment was also very good. The lifespan of an average wild giant panda was only 18-20 years, while those in captivity could live to be over 30.

Jia Jia, the giant panda sent to Hong Kong, lived to be 38 years old, the longest-lived among giant pandas in captivity, and was even allowed euthanasia when she was finally plagued by illness.

Wei Ming thought for a while: "Dad, you want to go to Hong Kong with it, right?"

Lao Lao Lao Wei laughed: "Killing two birds with one stone, what do you think?"

For a giant panda to go to Hong Kong, there must be a team of keepers accompanying it. Lao Lao Lao Wei was a good hand at raising animals and was close to Steel Egg. It wouldn't be difficult to mix in a spot through Wei Ming's recommendation.

"Then if you go to Hong Kong, what if you can't come back in a short time? What about Mom?"

Lao Lao Lao Wei was also reluctant to part with his wife: "Can't she go with us? She cooks so deliciously; Steel Egg will definitely like bamboo shoot fried meat."

Wei Ming: "..."

He thought for a while: "Let's go back first. If we don't go back, Mom is going to make bamboo shoot fried meat for me."

Lao Lao Lao Wei was reluctant to part with Steel Egg and urged it to hide well: "Daddy will come to see you tomorrow."

Steel Egg howled twice.

"Know, know, bring you delicious food."

It really had to hide well. In this day and age, if wild giant pandas didn't encounter special situations like bamboo blooming and big floods, the possibility of being poached in accidental death events was also very high.

After all, the law wasn't perfect, and wealth moved people's hearts.

After going back, it was just time for dinner. Officer Chen was also tired from driving to pick them up. Today, have a meal, the branch secretary would accompany them, and the brigade headquarters also prepared a place for him to sleep. He could watch a movie in a while.

Speaking of *Happy Reunion*, he was quite excited: "The fellow villagers probably haven't seen it yet, right? I've seen it more than once in Yanjing. It's filmed too well, and the heroine, Comrade Zhu Lin, is too beautiful. Whoever can marry such a wife, the ancestral grave is really smoking blue smoke!"

Wei Ming, Lao Lao Lao Wei, Xu Shufen, and Long Xiaoyang lowered their heads to eat, thinking that the blue smoke from the ancestral grave wasn't little.

Hearing him say this, Branch Secretary Secretary Wang Cai and the uncles were quite expectant. When they came to that open space of the brigade headquarters, villagers, and even quite a few people from surrounding villages, had come. There were hundreds of them.

But relying on Wei Ming's identity and Branch Secretary Secretary Wang Cai's authority, they still occupied the best viewing area.

The projectionist was also surnamed Xu. Before the screening, he shook hands with Wei Ming: "If we had known you were coming, we would have played *Heroes Born of Youth*!"

*Heroes Born of Youth* and *Happy Reunion*—these two movies could probably compete for the box office champion of this year.

Wei Ming asked Master Xu: "Has this been played in the village before?"

"No, this commune hasn't played it yet, but the copy is already in hand."

Wei Ming said: "Then can we play it once tomorrow? I'll pay for it."

Playing movies in rural areas also cost money, but most of the time it was paid by the village collective or the commune. There were also those that charged, circling out the best viewing area, setting up seats, and charging five or ten cents, while other positions were casual.

Originally, they were going to other villages in this commune to play movies tomorrow, but Teacher Wei had spoken, and it was a work he wrote. The projectionist had no second words and agreed immediately, and Branch Secretary Secretary Wang Cai announced this good news to the villagers.

Thus, before the movie even started, the villagers already felt happy and applauded enthusiastically. When the movie started, there was even more laughter.

Even if they weren't very familiar with Mandarin, even if many people couldn't understand the subtitles, this kind of story about rural life and family trivialities wasn't unfamiliar. Everyone understood.

When there was time to act out some plots of unfilial children and grandchildren, the villagers would look in a certain direction in unison, making the other party blush with shame.