Chapter 66

After getting closer, Wei Ming and Wei Hong could already see the fire.

At this time, an old man wearing a liberation cap and a blue jacket ran over carrying a bucket.

"Old Secretary!"

"Xiao Ming, Xiao Hong!" Old Secretary Zhou Xingbang scanned the motorcycle with surprise and hurriedly said, "Hurry up, your house is on fire!"

When they arrived, the fire was still burning, and the courtyard was full of villagers who had come to help, but everyone had already given up.

First, the fire was burning very vigorously, and it was difficult to extinguish with one or two buckets of water. There was a severe drought in Hengzhou this year, so let's save some water.

Second, the place where the fire started wasn't very critical, and there were no other houses or flammable materials around. As long as a firebreak was made, it would be fine to let it burn out.

Wei Ming recalled that it seemed to be a shed built with reed mats, right next to the chicken coop.

Because Lao Lao Lao Wei sometimes brought those donkeys and mules home to spend the night and take care of them, he had built such a shed, which didn't even count as a house.

At this time, Wei Jiefang was looking at the burning shed with a dirty face. When he saw Wei Ming pushing the motorcycle into the courtyard, he immediately revealed two rows of white teeth set off by his dirty face.

"Xiao Ming, you're back! Oh my, Old Secretary, you're here too."

The villagers who came to help heard this and all turned their heads to look.

"Hmm, Dad, Mom." Wei Ming called out affectionately, especially to his mother.

Although they had only been separated for a month in name, they had actually been separated for five years. He hadn't seen Xu Shufen, who was not yet forty, for decades.

Lao Lao Lao Wei was just about to stage a scene of fatherly kindness and filial piety when Old Secretary Zhou Xingbang asked seriously: "Jiefang, what exactly is going on? You've alarmed half the village."

Wei Jiefang sighed and picked up a drooping reed chicken from the ground: "Shufen and I were cooking when we heard the chicken squawking. I immediately pulled out a fire poker, and just saw a weasel carrying the chicken into the shed. I scared it, the weasel ran away, and the chicken was snatched back. It's just that the fire poker fell into the shed, and there were sparks on the poker, and then it started burning, sigh!"

So that's how it was. Wei Ming had thought Lao Lao Lao Wei was going to play the "lighting beacon fires to tease the feudal lords" trick.

The Old Secretary said: "As long as people are fine, everyone disperse."

Of course, he had heard the recent rumors, and he wanted to ask Wei Ming a few questions alone after the people dispersed.

But everyone didn't want to leave. Wei Ming had been too famous recently, and today he even came back riding a motorcycle, making them almost not recognize this kid they had watched grow up. Today, they all wanted to get to know him again.

Wei Jiefang didn't want to let everyone leave just like that either. He winked at Wei Ming, meaning: Where is my radio!

Wei Ming smiled and said to Zhou Xingbang: "Old Secretary, the fire is still burning. Why don't we wait until it's completely burned out before everyone leaves? That would be safer."

"That's right, that's right."

Everyone echoed and responded.

The Old Secretary nodded, and Wei Ming added: "And to all the uncles, aunts, uncles, and aunts, as the saying goes, true feelings are seen in times of trouble, and distant relatives are not as good as close neighbors. Thank you all for coming to help put out the fire. I don't have anything to express, everyone wait a moment."

Saying this, Wei Ming opened his luggage bag, first taking out the stylish desk lamp and handing it to Wei Hong.

Wei Hong's eyes lit up, and she fell in love with it at first sight.

Then Wei Ming took out the radio and let Lao Lao Lao Wei take it. Everyone's eyes immediately gathered on the small and exquisite radio.

"Oh my, where did I put it? Wait a moment," Wei Ming took out a wine bottle box, which was the Cangu Yangrong wine that everyone wasn't familiar with.

Then there was another wine box, this time it was Maotai. Many people hadn't seen the two characters but had heard of them. Maotai and Wuliangye—that was the Tsinghua and Peking University of the liquor world!

Not to mention the villagers, even Lao Lao Lao Wei couldn't close his mouth when he saw it. He didn't expect an unexpected harvest!

Then there were some mooncake boxes and canned goods handed to his mother. They were all high-end goods that couldn't be seen in the village usually. The packaging was different. Good heavens, they actually used iron boxes to hold mooncakes!

Then there were some magazines and newspapers, "Xiao Hong, take these, don't burn them for me."

"Brother, are these all articles you published? Are these all?" She exclaimed repeatedly. There were too many!

Wei Ming smiled and continued to feel around in the bag: "Oh, found it!"

Wei Ming took out a bag, opened it, and started distributing candy.

"This is the local specialty White Rabbit creamy candy I bought when I went to Shanghai on a business trip. Thank you all for your hard work. It's not much, one for each person, everyone gets a share."

Originally, Wei Ming bought it for Xiao Hong, but there was a fire today. He had to accept the favor of the villagers who came to help, so naturally, he couldn't be stingy. It was most appropriate to share the candy.

White Rabbit creamy candy was a hot-selling item in the city and even rarer in the countryside. Many people had only seen it at the county supply and marketing cooperative, but few were willing to buy it.

Ordinary candy cost one or two cents, but a White Rabbit candy cost ten cents.

Most people didn't eat it immediately. Some wanted to savor it slowly later, and others wanted to save it to take back to their children.

His mother and Xiao Hong also got a share. Seeing her mother put it in her pocket, Xiao Hong immediately opened her own and let her eat it.

Xu Shufen smiled with stars in her eyes, "Sweet!"

She also stuffed the one she originally wanted to treasure to her daughter. Immediately, a rich milky fragrance spread in Wei Hong's mouth.

This was too delicious!

She looked at her big brother's bag; there were only a few left, so she hurriedly put them away. One taste of this candy told her it wasn't cheap.

Before long, others came in—Qi Kexiu, Accountant Jia, and the others. They didn't run as fast as the motorcycle. "Why did it catch fire?" several people asked hurriedly.

Wei Jiefang pointed to the fire pile: "Look at how vigorous this fire is, just like the days of our Dog Village, it will definitely be prosperous and get more and more vigorous!"

Wei Ming felt embarrassed. Why are you blindly adding value? Do you want to be the brigade leader or what?

Unexpectedly, the Old Secretary was quite supportive and took the lead in applauding: "Jiefang's optimistic spirit is worth affirming. Everyone, am I right!"

"Right!" There were many responders.

Wei Ming was also preparing to distribute cigarettes to Uncle Qi and the others. Looking down, the candy bag was gone, so he took out a box of cigarettes from his pocket and handed it to Lao Lao Lao Wei, letting him distribute the cigarettes.

Hey, Da Qianmen!

Lao Lao Lao Wei felt it was a waste to give such good cigarettes to them, but who made today a good day.

"Come, come, come, Xiuzi, Saner, have one, have one."

Qi Kexiu and Accountant Jia took the good cigarettes handed over by Wei Jiefang in surprise, while Wei Jiefang leaned directly toward the fire to light them. Under the reflection of the roaring fire, he was the first to puff out clouds and mist, quite like an overlord.

The villagers who arrived first had already started popularizing the famous scene just now for the latecomers.

!

"Cigarettes and wine, this little Wei Ming is really promising!"

"You ask what wine? Have you heard of Maotai!"

"And there's a recorder, it looks very high-end. We don't see much of that around here."

"I think that iron box just now was mooncakes, mooncakes in an iron box!"

"And there are so many canned goods!"

"The Wei family is really going to be prosperous from now on!"

Lao Lao Lao Wei didn't even need to open his mouth. He just stood there, shaking off the cigarette ash, and the scene was already full of arrogance.

"Those are worth a few cents. The really valuable thing has to be this motorcycle!" someone else said.

Wei Jiefang hurriedly said: "The motorcycle belongs to Xiao Ming's friend. We can't afford it for the time being."

Listen to this word, "for the time being," which means sooner or later they will be able to afford it!

Seeing Wei Jiefang's face, Qi Kexiu felt very uncomfortable, thinking why isn't Wei Ming my son? Why did my son only score thirty points in Chinese!

It's killing me. Qi Kexiu wanted to go back and beat him up right now.

An empty shed only had that much stuff. The fire gradually weakened until it went out. Some neighbors even went home to get iron shovels, and everyone worked together to cover all the ruins after burning with soil to prevent the fire from rekindling.

At this time, Wei Ming's stomach was already growling. He winked at his father.

Lao Lao Lao Wei smiled: "Oh my, thank you all for your hard work. Why don't you stay and eat something."

Once this was said, it was time for the scene to disperse.

Everyone was a bit reluctant. There were good cigarettes, good candy, and good stories here. They were all waiting to hear Wei Ming's stories, but Wei Ming didn't tell them, leaving them for Lao Lao Lao Wei to play out himself tomorrow.

Everyone else dispersed, only the Old Secretary and Qi Kexiu remained.

"Xiao Ming, others can't understand your novel, only I can. But there's only one newspaper. Do you have a complete one for me to see?"

Although this Uncle Qi of Wei Ming was also unreliable and liked to compete with Lao Lao Lao Wei, he hadn't skimmed fewer novels from him when he was a child.

So Wei Ming took out those three copies of "Wen Hui Bao" for him. Lao Lao Lao Wei hurriedly said: "Don't take them away, read them here. I still have to read them later."

Qi Kexiu: "Can you understand it?"

"If I can't understand it, I'll let the author explain it to me personally," Lao Lao Lao Wei said, hands on his hips.

Xu Shufen was busy setting the food on the table. The desk lamp was placed on the table, and the kerosene lamp was left for Qi Kexiu.

The Old Secretary had already eaten, but Wei Jiefang still invited him to the table for two drinks. Qi Kexiu didn't have this treatment.

Old Wei couldn't bear to open that bottle of Maotai, so he casually picked up the Ginseng Nourishing wine.

Qi Kexiu asked in surprise: "Xiao Ming, is this the kind of especially expensive medicinal wine in your novel?"

"Hmm."

Wei Jiefang was stunned: "Especially expensive? How expensive?"

Wei Ming: "Fifteen yuan a bottle."

Wei Jiefang said "Oh," and then smoothly put the bottle of wine back and picked up the loose white liquor in the corner...

(End of chapter)