Chapter 531: If You Kick Me, I

The Hengyue City research team had five people. Me, Gan Lu, Xiao Qiu from the Provincial Agriculture Department, Lao Ma from the Forestry Department, and a heavyweight figure, Professor Luo from the Provincial Academy of Social Sciences.

Sending away all the research teams going to the countryside, I took my group and prepared to set off.

Duanmu and Mei Hua would set off in a few days. They would conduct a comprehensive evaluation of the thirteen research teams within three months.

Five people needed two cars.

I drove one myself, and Gan Lu drove one.

Xiao Qiu and Lao Ma were in my car, and Professor Luo from the Academy of Social Sciences was in Gan Lu's car.

Setting off from the provincial capital, it took more than three hours to reach Hengyue City.

The reason why my group had so many people was that Hengyue City was not only the second-largest region in Central Province, but the whole region had mountains, water, and fields.

Where there are mountains, there are forests, and they weren't ordinary forests. For example, where Gude Village was located, some forests had some years on them. It was said that some of the oldest plants could still be found in the Gude Village forest.

The Gude Village forest could be completely described by the concept of a primeval forest. During the War of Resistance, the Japanese army suffered a big loss in the forest, and dozens of people were cleaned up by the guerrillas.

In recent years, reform and opening up had taken place, and many big trees that several people could hug had been cut down. Pan Shurong had once come to me, saying that if this continued, the foundation left by the ancestors would be lost in a few years. The foundation left by the ancestors of Gude Village was just a large forest, and more than a dozen mountain peaks added up to several hundred *mu*.

There were no roads in the forest, and many rare birds and animals were hidden. As for ordinary goods like pheasants and wild boars, they were countless. At Pan Shurong's request, I had arranged for the forest police to conduct several major sweeps and caught several tree thieves. Only after sentencing a few did the situation improve.

However, Gude Village was too remote, and transportation basically relied on walking. The economic benefits were too tempting, and the phenomenon of illegal logging could never be prohibited, so that to this day, the situation was still not optimistic.

Lao Ma, who was in the same car as me, knew the situation of the Gude Village forest clearly. When the educated youth were sent down, Lao Ma was sent to Gude Village.

When Lao Ma talked to me about the past, he still relished the romantic affair of peeking at a young daughter-in-law bathing in Gude Village.

Lao Ma was less than eighteen when he was sent down, and as soon as he arrived in Gude Village, he was scared to tears. He determined at first sight that this place was still a primitive society, and how could he, a modern person, live?

There were three others sent down with Lao Ma, all older than him.

They didn't cry, following the village secretary to settle down honestly. Four young people, none of them knew how to cook, and even if they knew, it was hard for a clever woman to cook without rice.

No rice, no flour, not even a corn cob. People couldn't starve to death; at this juncture, hunger was more important than face. The four of them rubbed up to the secretary's house, didn't speak, and sat side by side on the threshold of the secretary's house, staring straight at the secretary's family drinking porridge.

The secretary didn't want to pay attention to them at first. In the secretary's view, the city sending these stinky brats who didn't understand anything to the countryside was just a joke like playing house. People came, but no food was sent; did he think he could conjure food out of thin air?

But eight eyes stared pitifully at the bowl in his hand, listening to the sound of him slurping the edge of the bowl, accompanied by their pitiful appearance of swallowing saliva, the secretary's heart softened, and he took out the seeds he had kept and gave them to them.

Lao Ma sighed for a long time when he said this, saying he didn't know what Gude Village was like now!

I told him, "Lao Ma, apart from not lacking food now, everything else is still the same as when you were sent down."

Lao Ma looked depressed, saying that he had indeed done many shameful things in the village when he was sent down, but the simple Gude Village people not only didn't blame him but instead gave him warmth he had never tasted in his life.

For example, he stole someone else's chicken, twisted its head off as soon as he caught it, and then secretly ran to the mountain to dig a dirt pit, wrapped the chicken in lotus leaves, and coated the outside with a layer of wet mud, putting it in the dirt pit to burn. When the mud on the outside cracked, the chicken wrapped in lotus leaves inside was also cooked. That fragrance made him think of it to this day, and his teeth still felt fragrant.

Lao Ma also understood that other people's chickens were banks. A family's oil and salt all had to be deducted from the chicken's butt. Eating someone else's chicken was cutting off someone else's bank.

But Lao Ma didn't see meat all year round, and the fragrance of chicken was a fatal temptation to him. He would rather risk being beaten to death than satisfy his appetite.

Apart from chickens, the only things in the mountain village were some cattle for plowing fields. No matter how hungry or greedy Lao Ma was, he didn't dare to steal a cow and slaughter it to eat.

Lao Ma's chicken-stealing incident was forgiven by the villagers. Later, when he returned to the city to visit relatives, to express his apology, he tried every possible way to get fifty *jin* of salt, carried it to the village, and gave it to the family whose chicken he had stolen.

As for Lao Ma peeking at the young daughter-in-law bathing, he still blushed when he talked about it to this day.

The winter Lao Ma and the others went, someone in the village got married. In the morning, they rubbed a meal, drank a few bowls of corn wine, and when they saw the bride, they felt she was as beautiful as a fairy.

When they returned to the dirt house where the four of them lived that night, they talked about the bride's beauty, and all four were extremely excited. Lao Ma not only heard about the beauty between men and women for the first time but also felt the magnificence of himself as a man for the first time.

Later, he kept it in mind, and finally, in the summer of the following year, he discovered a big secret.

Lao Ma was still Little Ma at that time, a young man who had just passed his eighteenth birthday.

Little Ma, after observation, discovered that the young daughter-in-law bathed behind the house every night, and when she bathed, she chose the dead of night.

Little Ma was extremely excited about this discovery; he observed several times and finally found a place to hide, and could clearly see every move of her bathing.

On a moonlit night, Little Ma quietly hid in a bundle of firewood where the young daughter-in-law bathed.

There were many mosquitoes in the mountain village at night, and they were all evil spotted mosquitoes, one bite one bump.

The firewood pile was originally the habitat of mosquitoes; Little Ma hid in it, which was equivalent to a sheep entering a tiger's mouth. The spotted mosquitoes took turns like bombers, biting Little Ma all over, covered in wounds.

But Little Ma didn't dare to shout, nor did he dare to call out. He didn't even have the courage to curse. Because less than three meters in front of him, the young daughter-in-law had already stripped herself naked and was scooping up water to pour over her body.

The young daughter-in-law was snow-white all over, with a delicate and exquisite figure, just like a piece of land that had already been reclaimed, gestating new life.

Just when Little Ma was so excited he couldn't control himself, a spotted mosquito landed on his eyelid; the eyelid was such a fragile place! As soon as the mosquito bit down, Little Ma subconsciously waved his palm to slap, and the *pipa* sound startled the young daughter-in-law.

Little Ma was scared to death. Thinking that a beating was inevitable. Looking at the young daughter-in-law again, he found that she didn't make a fuss at all, still washing her body slowly.

After she put on her clothes, she walked to the firewood pile and said, "Don't be like this. Mosquitoes will bite you to death. If you really want to see, I'll let you see another day."

After saying that, the young daughter-in-law smiled lightly, took her things, and went home to close the door.

It turned out that Little Ma was seen by the young daughter-in-law when he was scouting the location; she just deliberately pretended not to know.

However, from then on, Little Ma never peeked again. Later, when he saw the young daughter-in-law, he also stayed far away.

"She must be an octogenarian now," Lao Ma sighed.

Lao Ma's story along the way made Xiao Qiu from the Agriculture Department anxious. He asked impatiently, "Lao Ma, you really didn't make a move?"

Lao Ma scolded angrily, "Little brat, do you think our generation is like you now, without a bit of shame?"

Xiao Qiu laughed, "Lao Ma, you went to peek at someone else's daughter-in-law bathing, and you still have the nerve to talk about shame."

Lao Ma was so angry his face turned blue, and unable to find a reason to get angry, he had to pat the seat and say, "I was young and ignorant then."

Xiao Qiu didn't let him go, continuing to tease him, "Lao Ma, tell me, the young daughter-in-law said she would let you see, did you really not see later? Why do I feel I don't believe it at all."

Lao Ma said with a dark face, "If I want to see, I'll go see your mother."

Xiao Qiu was rebuked by him, and he wasn't happy in his heart, muttering, "Lao Ma, how can you curse people."

Lao Ma laughed loudly, "Kid, does this count as cursing you? If you heard the women in the mountain village cursing people, that would be real cursing."

The two of them, one sentence after another, swept away the fatigue of the journey.

I drove the car quietly, occasionally looking in the rearview mirror to see if Gan Lu's car was keeping up.

"Class Monitor Chen, are we going to the village where Lao Ma was sent down this time?" Xiao Qiu asked me.

"Of course we are going," I said, "Lao Ma came mainly for that place."

"Is that so?" Xiao Qiu asked with interest, "To see the young daughter-in-law from back then?"

Lao Ma got angry again when he heard this, scolding, "Kid, stop talking nonsense, okay? If you talk too much, I'll sew your mouth shut."

Xiao Qiu stuck out his tongue and said, "I didn't say anything."

Lao Ma and Xiao Qiu were people from different eras. From the age, Lao Ma was old enough to be his father.

Xiao Qiu was a doctoral student who had just graduated from university and arrived at the Agriculture Department.

Seeing a highway rest area ahead, Xiao Qiu said he needed to pee and wanted to go to the bathroom.

I had no choice but to turn the steering wheel and turn onto the ramp.

As soon as my car stopped, Gan Lu's car followed.

As soon as she got out of the car, she asked suspiciously, "Why did you come to the rest area?"

I pointed to Xiao Qiu, who was running to the bathroom in a hurry, and said, "People have three urgencies."

Lao Ma followed, and Professor Luo from Gan Lu's car also got out, stretching his arms and legs and saying, "Little Chen, how much further?"

I told him with ease, "Professor Luo, walk for another few dozen minutes, and we should be there."

Professor Luo also went to the bathroom, saying that since there were still a few dozen minutes, it was good to wash his hands and relax.

Gan Lu asked me in a low voice, "Why don't you go?"

I also said in a low voice, "My kidneys are good, unlike them, kidney deficiency."

Gan Lu blushed and scolded in a low voice, "Shameless."

I laughed with a thick face, "You said it yourself, you can be ambiguous, but you are not allowed to fool around. I didn't fool around!"

Gan Lu's face turned even redder, and she made a gesture to kick me.

I jumped away and said, "If you kick me, I'll fool around."

Gan Lu was scared by me and hurriedly hid in the car.

I took out a cigarette and smoked a few puffs hard.

Among the five people, I was the only one who smoked. It seemed that there was a reason for smoking; the higher the position, the fewer the bad habits of smoking. I was thinking, when I enter a certain department in the province, should I still smoke?

After smoking a cigarette, they still hadn't come over, so I took out my phone and dialed the contact number given to us by the Party School.

The call went through, I explained the situation, and the other party asked where we were now?

I told him we would be there in over an hour. He told me to go directly to the Xinlinyin Hotel and said he would wait for us there.

Hanging up the phone, I saw Xiao Qiu and the others come out, Lao Ma in front, Xiao Qiu in the middle, and Old Luo walking at the end.

I walked to Gan Lu's car and knocked on her car window glass.

Gan Lu rolled down the window and asked me, "Something?"

I smiled and said, "I'll take you to a place tonight."

Gan Lu blushed and said, "I won't go!" ===== CHAPTER 532 =====