Chapter 21 Xiaoxia who came to buy meat
After drinking haggis soup in the house, we chatted for a while and listened to the eldest brother Li Jianguo asking some questions to his niece and nephew under the kerosene lamp, such as a chicken and a rabbit in the same cage. Li Long thinks this is happiness.
Although poor, it is peaceful.
Seeing that the time was running out, Li Long stood up and spoke to Li Jianguo before returning to the east room.
The stove in the east room was previously burning with coal. He poked the fire with a stove hook, and bursts of fireworks burst out. When the bursts of fireworks burst away, Li Long opened the stove lid and went inside. Put a few pieces of coal in, cover the stove lid, start taking stock of today's harvest, and plan for tomorrow.
The income from the deer antlers and water rat skin, excluding the sesame cakes, tea and gloves bought for Tao Daqiang, and the ten yuan given to the sister-in-law, now I have less than ten yuan in hand plus my original money.
But with the pack of bullets given by his elder brother, Li Long is sure that he can get one or two frozen sheep back tomorrow.
He plans to buy some tea, salt and the like tomorrow. Even if Harimu has enough at home, he can leave it at his place and then exchange it with other herdsmen for other things.
Although the herdsmen’s winter dens are not far from the foot of the mountain, they have more worries and have no money left in their hands, so they rarely go down the mountain to buy things.
But they have things in their hands, and Li Long can exchange them for them and sell them at the purchasing station for money.
Looking at the time, it was only ten o'clock, and he was still not sleepy, thinking about how to spend the rest of the time.
These days, there are no radios and televisions, let alone mobile phones, so it is really difficult to pass the time.
Li Long was thinking about whether he should go to someone's house to play poker. He vaguely remembered that Landlord Landlord had not yet become popular these days, and there were only two players who could compete for the upper hand.
There were very few entertainment activities in the 1980s, otherwise it would be impossible for Gu Ermao to ask Li Long to watch other people's TV sets.
So far, the entire production team does not have a TV set - not even a Changming TV.
Just as I was thinking about it, there were dogs barking and footsteps outside.
Li Long put on his clothes and walked out.
There was a person standing outside the courtyard gate, and she looked like a girl.
Li Long shouted:
“Who?”
"Li Long, it's me, Gu Xiaoxia." The girl responded.
Gu Xiaoxia?
Li Long quickly realized that this was the daughter of Gu Boyuan, the only college student in the production team. According to the eldest brother Li Jianguo, Gu Boyuan came to the production team with his daughter more than ten years ago. When the captain heard that this was a college student, he was shocked.
In those days, not to mention college students, even junior high school students were already intellectuals.
Not many people in the production team knew why Gu Boyuan came to this place where the bird didn't poop much at first. But if a great talent comes to the team and wants to stay, he must be welcomed.
When Gu Boyuan came, his daughter was only three or four years old. Now I think she should be less than twenty.
Due to special reasons, Gu Xiaoxia returned to the team after graduating from high school. In Li Long’s memory, Gu Xiaoxia in the previous life seemed to have married Gu Ermao because of his entanglement, and then divorced because of domestic violence. Since then, he has been missing.
"Xiaoxia is here, is your dad okay?" Li Jianguo also opened the door and walked out. Seeing it was Gu Xiaoxia, he asked with a smile, "Come in."
"No...no. Uncle Jianguo, I...I want to buy some mutton from your house. My dad is sick, and I want to supplement it for him." Gu Xiaoxia's voice was very low, and you could hear what she said. When I spoke, I felt quite embarrassed.
"Is your dad sick? Have you taken any medicine? What is the disease?" Li Jianguo asked with concern.
He graduated from junior high school. Although he was not as highly educated as Gu Boyuan, he was still considered one of the few "intellectuals" in the production team. The two families had a good relationship.
"Drink, my dad said it's okay, I caught a cold."
"Wait there, I'll cut a piece of mutton for you." Li Jianguo hurried back to the house, took a piece of mutton and He came out, but he did not hand it to Gu Xiaoxia, but handed it to Li Long:
"Xiaolong, you send Xiaoxia back. It's not safe to do this in vain!" Gu Xiaoxia did not refuse.
Li Long went back to the house, put on his hat, carried the mutton and walked out.
Gu Xiaoxia followed him silently, the distance between the two of them was 1.5 meters.
These days, people’s words are scary.
"When did your dad get sick?" Li Long asked.
"Yesterday. Yesterday, my family ran out of firewood. My dad was chopping firewood in the yard and sweated and caught a cold."
"It's not too heavy, just sweat it out." Li Long nodded, "Do you still have medicine at home?"
"Yes." Li Long asked and Gu Xiaoxia replied. She kept her head half-bowed.
Li Long thought it was boring, so he stopped talking.
Big brother Li Jianguo means it’s not safe outside. It’s really not safe. Although this place is more than 20 kilometers away from the mountains, a wolf was seen in the reeds outside the production team just a few months ago. The dogs raised in the team were not easy to deal with. At this time, the local dogs were relatively tall and fierce.
What is even more dangerous are those second-rate people who do not have a good rest at night and cannot vent their energy.
Otherwise, it would be impossible to carry out severe crackdowns in two years.
The Li family is almost three hundred meters away from the Gu family. The moon has not risen at night, but there is snow reflecting the light in the sky, and I can barely see the road. Li Long brought a flashlight. Although he didn't turn it on, he was always prepared.
Just when he was about to turn halfway, Li Long heard footsteps not far from the opposite side. Gu Xiaoxia behind him leaned back. He immediately reacted and shouted:
“Who?”
While shouting, the flashlight was already on and shining towards the corner.
A dark figure ran quickly into the distance, and soon ran into the back of someone's yard and disappeared.
A dog barked over there.
"It's okay, someone may be passing by." Li Long turned to Gu Xiaoxia and said, "Let's go."
Gu Xiaoxia was still frightened. She most likely knew what the black shadow wanted to do, but I didn't expect that Li Long, who I heard was quite timid before, would be so "fierce" now?
Li Long didn't say anything until he walked to the door of Gu's house. After entering the yard, Gu Xiaoxia took two quick steps and opened the door.
Li Long carried the meat into the house and saw Gu Boyuan lying on the bed.
He was sleeping and didn't hear anything.
Seeing that the room was still warm, Li Long said:
"Prepare warm water for your dad. Drink more water and it will be better soon." After saying that, he put down the meat and turned around and went out.
"Give you money!" Gu Xiaoxia chased after him and shouted.
"This is what my elder brother said. It's free to treat your father's illness." Li Long waved his hand and went back.
It seems that Li Jianguo mentioned that the Gu family earned less work points at the end of the year than his own family, and even the little money they received was paid back.
Fortunately, Li Long remembered that in the spring of next year, the production team would be reorganized into the village, and the village primary school would be opened. Only the first and second grades would be taught in the village, and the third grade would go to the brigade. Then Gu Xiaoxia seems to be working as a teacher in the village primary school, and his family's life will get better.
As he walked back, he thought about the dark figure from before.
Who could that be?
Looking at the figure, why does it look so familiar?
(End of this chapter)