Chapter 1301: I like eating sweet potatoes

Wei Pengfei's words gave his family a fright: "He is a town head? Then he is an honored guest. Sit, sit quickly."

Wei Pengfei's mother took out a rag and wiped a long bench over and over again, then let Su Xinghui sit down. She wiped another long bench and let Cheng Hongli sit down.

At this time, Wei Pengfei's younger brother and sister also came out. His younger brother was in his early twenties, and his younger sister was about seventeen or eighteen. They called out timidly, "Second Brother is back."

Wei Pengfei responded, then handed the pork and fresh fish he had bought in the township to his mother, letting her go cook, and then sat down with his grandfather, grandmother, and father to accompany Su Xinghui.

Su Xinghui asked, "Pengfei, are your younger brother and sister not studying now?"

Wei Pengfei sighed, "The family has already incurred quite a bit of debt to support a university student like me, and it hasn't been paid off yet. They both only finished junior high school and came home to do farm work. I have failed them."

Speaking of this, Wei Pengfei's expression was dim. Wei's father laughed, "Pengfei, among the children in our family, you have the best academic performance. If we don't support you, who would we support?"

Wei Pengfei's younger brother and sister also said, "Brother, we don't blame you. Even if we went to take the exams, we wouldn't pass. Don't feel like you've failed us."

Wei Pengfei's grandfather said, "In our Changshanchong Village, you are the only university student who has come out in so many years. Being able to go to university is the glory of our whole family!"

Wei Pengfei shook his head. He had indeed gotten into university, but now what promise did he have? What qualification did he have to become the glory of the whole family? He hadn't even paid off the debt the family had incurred to support his schooling.

Su Xinghui asked Wei Pengfei's father, "Uncle Wei, how much income does your family have in a year now?"

Wei's father said, "My family now farms more than ten mu of land a year. However, the land in the mountains is thin and poor, so we can only plant things like corn and sweet potatoes, which can't be sold for much money. Sometimes we hunt some wild animals on the mountain or pick up some mountain goods, which can be sold for some money. We have an income of a few hundred yuan a year."

Wei Pengfei's grandfather sighed, "Our family of six, just the retention and pooling fees alone cost hundreds of yuan. Where can any money be left?"

Su Xinghui said, "Then how does your family live?"

Wei's father said, "Our family is still considered okay. Doesn't Pengfei have a job? He sends back at least half of his salary a year, about one or two thousand yuan a year. Besides paying off debts, we can still get by. For others in the village, life is truly difficult. It's considered good if they can rely on corn and sweet potatoes to fill their bellies. Fortunately, there are many mountain goods in the mountains, so we don't go hungry."

Hearing this, Su Xinghui's mood was very heavy. The lives of the common people here were even more difficult than those of the common people in Meng Hu Ling a few years ago. He thought again of the welcome banquet he had eaten at the County Party Committee guesthouse yesterday noon; that one banquet was equivalent to the annual income of several mountain households.

Thinking of this, Su Xinghui had a deep sense of guilt. Actually, he knew that this was a common phenomenon in every place. No matter how poor a place was, it could never be poor for the leaders' stomachs. But to eat so much money in one meal, he still couldn't get past that hurdle in his heart.

He decided that in the future, in the place where he worked, he would absolutely never use public funds to eat and drink like this again. He would also do his best to correct such a trend.

Just as they were talking, a few people came in from outside. Wei Pengfei's Twelfth Uncle, Wei Bingsheng, was also among them. He said with a smile, "Pengfei, the branch secretary and the director heard you were back, and that you brought a partner and a classmate. They all said they wanted to come see you."

The whole Wei family stood up, and Su Xinghui also stood up along with them.

Among the few people who came, besides the branch secretary and the director, there were a few older people, all elders in the village. Each of them was carrying things; some had a slab of cured meat, some had a piece of smoked fish, some had mountain goods like black fungus, shiitake mushrooms, and bracken, and some were carrying a jar of wine.

Wei's father said, "Fang Zhishu, Director, you say you came, so you came, why bring things?"

The branch secretary was an old man in his fifties. He laughed, "Fei-wazi is back, and he brought an honored guest. Of course we have to come add some wine and dishes to entertain the honored guest."

Wei's father took these things and said, "Then let's drink wine at home at noon."

After saying this, he carried all these things to the kitchen. These things came just in time; otherwise, the family really wouldn't have anything good to entertain the guests.

Although mountain people are poor, they are the most hospitable. When guests come, they wish they could take out the best things in the house to entertain the guests well. The problem is, every family here is poor, and it is too difficult for one family to entertain guests well. Therefore, this custom has also formed here: when an honored guest comes to a family, the neighbors must take out the best things in their own homes to entertain the honored guest together.

Fortunately, honored guests don't come every day; coming once a year is about enough, otherwise they really couldn't afford to entertain them.

Wei Pengfei and his younger brother and sister moved all the stools and chairs in the house out and let them sit down, and they all accompanied the guests to talk.

In chatting with them, Su Xinghui also understood the general situation here. The agricultural crops here are mainly corn and sweet potatoes. On this barren land, they can only plant such crops.

Due to the barren land and lack of chemical fertilizer, the yields of these crops are not very high. It's considered good if corn can yield three or four hundred jin per mu. The yield of sweet potatoes is still okay, with each mu yielding over a thousand jin. Sweet potato leaves and vines can also be eaten. Added to the mountain goods and fruits in the mountains, filling their bellies is no problem.

But the cash income here is extremely limited. Every year, after paying the retention and pooling fees, there is very little left, and some families even have to incur debt. So basically, this is still a typical small-scale peasant economy of self-sufficiency.

Wei Pengfei's family is now the best-off family in the village. With the support of Wei Pengfei's salary, at least everyone in their family has clothes to wear. Many people in the village are barely clothed; whoever goes out wears the best clothes in the family.

Actually, everyone didn't intend to tell Su Xinghui these situations specifically; they all said them casually during the chat. They themselves didn't feel there was anything wrong with such a life; they were already used to it, and even felt that this was a matter of course. It was considered good enough to be able to fill their bellies.

Many families didn't even have electric lights, let alone other household appliances. They had never read newspapers, and their information was blocked. There was an eighty-year-old man who had never left the mountains in his life and even thought that Chairman Mao was still in power. He said he wanted to thank Chairman Mao for letting them be able to fill their bellies.

This was the place that made Su Xinghui's mood the heaviest. If poverty was taken for granted, then what hope did such common people have?

The desire in Su Xinghui's chest to change this was becoming stronger and stronger. He must change this situation and let these people's lives be better, at least let them live like human beings.

Su Xinghui was now a bit glad that he had agreed to come to work in Changshan County. If he hadn't come here, how could he have seen all this?

The common people in Shangjun County a few years ago were considered poor, but compared to here, the common people in Shangjun County were living quite well. At least they were not so blocked, and they didn't have such a lack of hope.

Wei Pengfei's mother had finished cooking the meal. The eight-immortal table was full of dishes. Wei Pengfei's grandfather, father, as well as the branch secretary, director, and several elders sat by the table, accompanying Su Xinghui and Cheng Hongli to eat and drink.

The wine was sweet potato wine brewed by themselves, very strong, and the dishes were also very fragrant. If it were at ordinary times, Su Xinghui would definitely eat very fragrantly, but today he felt that he had no appetite. He just frequently raised his glass to toast these elders, but didn't move his chopsticks much. ===== CHAPTER 1303 =====