Chapter 295

Xia Lan said, "Xia Zhu even brought a bamboo-woven 'Apricot Forest' painting."

Xia Zhu blushed and said, "Isn't that what I should have done?"

Su Xinghui said, "Silly girl, then didn't your more than a month of hard work go to waste?"

Xia Zhu said, "You saved my whole family; what is a month of hard work? Besides, this can't be called a waste. I'm happier giving it to you than anything else."

Su Xinghui said, "Alright, I'll let it slide this time, but don't send any more in the future. Your family still relies on this to make a living."

Xia Zhu nodded shyly.

In Ye Zhugou Village, Chen Hongfu was quite satisfied. Leaving Ye Zhugou, he and Su Xinghui visited several other villages. These villages were mainly engaged in fruit tree planting. They had already purchased seedlings and were carrying out planting work.

In short, the special breeding and special planting industries in the entire Ye Zhugou Village were flourishing, and the situation was excellent. This made Chen Hongfu feel very satisfied. He believed that when the county and provincial leaders came, there would be plenty to see. In particular, the idea of the reading room made Chen Hongfu extremely satisfied. This represented that the rural people were not only pursuing material civilization but also spiritual civilization.

Returning to the township government, Chen Hongfu found township leaders like Dong Jianshu to discuss it. He mentioned the visit of Ji Tao and Zhang Kaishan to Meng Hu Ling Township in two days and the fact that Ye Zhugou Village had built a reading room. He said he wanted to promote this reading room in all the villages in the township. The township leaders nodded and agreed, saying it was a good thing.

Chen Hongfu handed this matter over to Deputy Secretary Hu Qunli, who was in charge of party building and spiritual civilization construction. This matter was just right for him. He also mentioned that the Ye Zhugou Village bamboo weaving factory would provide a batch of bamboo bookshelves for the reading rooms in each village for free, which made Hu Qunli very happy, as this saved a significant expense.

Su Xinghui went to the post and telecommunications bureau to call Zhang Kaishan. He told Zhang Kaishan about Ye Zhugou Village setting up a reading room and said that if this reading room could be promoted throughout Meng Hu Ling Township, Lu Zhenghong would be very happy when he came to Meng Hu Ling.

Zhang Kaishan also thought it made a lot of sense and asked Su Xinghui if there was anything he needed help with.

Su Xinghui said, "Uncle Zhang, I have seen an old book warehouse at the Xinhua Bookstore, which is where books that haven't been sold for a long time are kept. I have bought books there. No matter what book it is, it's only a few cents a copy. In fact, many of the books inside are very good. I think it would be great to transfer a batch of those books to enrich the reading rooms here. For the Xinhua Bookstore, it's turning waste into treasure, but for our township, it's a precious spiritual wealth."

Zhang Kaishan pondered for a moment. He also knew about the old books at the Xinhua Bookstore. They were books that were unsalable for various reasons, and some were even banned books from more than a decade ago. These so-called banned books were actually very good books, but because they had been there for too long and were in poor condition, no one bought them, so they were all kept in the old book warehouse.

These books could only be sold at a discount. If they couldn't be sold, their fate would be to go to the paper mill and be pulped. What a pity! But if they were put in rural reading rooms, they would be too precious for the farmers.

Thinking about the appearance of these rural reading rooms after Lu Zhenghong came, Zhang Kaishan felt that this matter was very feasible.

He said to Su Xinghui, "Xinghui, I will immediately propose this suggestion to Secretary Ji. I estimate that Secretary Ji is very likely to agree. After he agrees, we will handle this matter as soon as possible. Your township government should prepare for receiving and distributing them."

After hanging up the phone, Su Xinghui immediately returned to the township government and told Chen Hongfu about this. Chen Hongfu was naturally overjoyed. He immediately called Ye Zhugou Village and asked them to speed up the weaving of bookshelves. Fang Youcai answered the phone and naturally agreed readily.

Soon, Zhang Kaishan called back, saying that Secretary Ji had agreed to this matter and had arranged for the Xinhua Bookstore to use a truck to transport those old books to Meng Hu Ling, asking the Meng Hu Ling Township government to receive and distribute them.

This news made the township leaders of Meng Hu Ling feel energized. What kind of luck has Meng Hu Ling had in the past six months? It's really one good thing after another.

On the morning of the ninth day of the first lunar month, staff from the county Xinhua Bookstore escorted a truck to the Meng Hu Ling Township government. They transported several thousand books this time, all of which were old stock from the Xinhua Bookstore's old book warehouse. They let the Meng Hu Ling Township government count the numbers, signed a receipt, and left for the county seat without even eating.

These old stocks were in poor condition, some books had bookworms, and some had traces of being gnawed by mice. However, most of the books were still intact, just looking a bit old because they had been placed for a long time. Of course, the content of these books was still good.

Among these books were world classics, contemporary Chinese novels, books on history, humanities, and geography, books on sports, music, and photography, and many books on agricultural technology. However, there were also outdated things like old almanacs. Of course, the vast majority of the books were very valuable.

Chen Hongfu flipped through these books and said happily, "Little Su, you really came up with a good idea. These books are all too good. Now our rural reading rooms can be set up."

These books were all put in the conference room. Chen Hongfu asked everyone in the township government to come and clean them up. According to the number of more than a dozen villages in the township, they divided these books into more than a dozen equal parts. The duplicate books went without saying, and the non-duplicate books were also divided as evenly as possible according to categories.

Then, Chen Hongfu first called the Ye Zhugou Village committee and asked them to come to the township government to collect the books. As soon as Fang Youcai received the call and heard that he could go to the township government to collect hundreds of books, he was overjoyed. He immediately called seven or eight people, each riding a bicycle, and came to the township government.

Chen Hongfu and Su Xinghui led Fang Youcai and the others into the conference room. Chen Hongfu pointed to the room full of books and said to Fang Youcai, "Youcai, because of the bookshelves you provided to the township government for free, you can choose a portion of these books first."

Fang Youcai looked at so many books and said to Chen Hongfu with a laugh, "Secretary Chen, can all these books be given to our Ye Zhugou?"

Chen Hongfu smiled and shook his head, "That's impossible. We have more than a dozen villages in our township, and they also need to set up reading rooms. It's already good enough to let you choose a portion first."

Fang Youcai was just joking. Of course, he wouldn't be so greedy as to take all these books back. He squatted down to flip through the books. However, the people he brought today were all strong villagers. In terms of strength, they had plenty, but in terms of culture, none of them had read books for a few days, and his own culture was not very high. He really didn't know which books were better.

Fang Youcai asked Su Xinghui for help, "Director Su, you'd better help me choose. Which pile of books is better?"

Su Xinghui was dumbfounded. He squatted down to look at the books, found a pile of books with better condition and higher quality, and pointed to them, "Just this pile."

Fang Youcai nodded happily, "Alright, I'll listen to you."

Fang Youcai and the strong laborers he brought tied the books into bundles with ropes, tied a long wooden board on the back seat of the bicycle, and tied these books to the long wooden board. Each person brought a few bundles and took all these hundreds of books. They greeted Chen Hongfu and Su Xinghui and rode away on their bicycles.