Chapter 418 Lost his left hand accidentally
Li Long chatted with Tao Daqiang and Yang Yongqiang for a while, and then went to old Uncle Luo's house to pay New Year's greetings. The small table in Old Uncle Luo's room has been put with melon seeds, sugar, peanuts and other things. This year there are also some more dried fruits, dates, raisins and the like, which Li Long bought from Wucheng. They are also placed here. Some.
Uncle Luo's place is actually very lively every New Year's Day. When Li Long and the others left, a group of children had already come over to pay Uncle Luo New Year greetings.
For veterans like us in the team who have children at home, their parents usually let their children go to pay New Year greetings to the elderly. This is a very good habit. The old people will also be very happy, letting the children pick what they like to eat on the table, and then pretend to take it away.
Unmarried young people like Li Long usually go to the homes of elders in the village in small groups to pay New Year greetings, chat, and drink tea. Most of the time on the morning of the first day of the new year, they have to talk to people they are familiar with and have good relationships with in the village. After visiting the elders’ homes, the next step is a more solid New Year greeting and visiting relatives.
Generally speaking, Tao Daqiang would not participate in such occasions after getting married. This is what young people who are not married do. However, he has not separated and lived alone, so there is no big problem in staying together.
When Li Long and the others finished walking around the three villages and dispersed, when Li Long went to Li Jianguo, he found that many people were already sitting in the main room. The two brothers Lu Yingming and Wang Caimi, the pig butcher and tractor driver who were sitting across from each other, were already drinking and punching at the main table.
The color TV on the chest of drawers was now covered with a piece of cloth - Li Long carefully discovered that this piece of cloth was originally placed on the sewing machine, and his sister-in-law should have brought it over temporarily.
"Xiaolong is back, come on, come on, sit down and have a drink!" Lu Yingming blushed after drinking, and immediately greeted Li Long when he saw him entering the room.
After Li Long sat next to him, Lu Yingming sighed and said:
"Xiaolong, you are getting more and more capable! Look at this TV, no one in the team has it - yesterday your sister-in-law said that you have set up an antenna at home, so I was thinking about what the antenna is for, and There is no radio station, and I was still wondering if your elder brother had sent enemy agents to come. But today I saw it, my dear, let’s get a big color TV set!”
“Hey, once this year is over, you can also get one at your house.” Li Long said with a smile.
Over there, Wang Caimi and Li Jianguo were boxing, but they lost. After having a drink, they also said to Li Long:
"Xiaolong is awesome. I heard that you plan to buy a tractor this year. ? Have you decided on a model? Are you planning to buy a grasshopper leg? Let me tell you, that one is easy to drive! But I can only buy it..."
Wang Cai Fan is a master at this. His field immediately started to talk endlessly.
Li Long found an opportunity and ran out quickly. Liang Yuemei left food for him in the kitchen. After Li Long ate it in a hurry, he returned to the horse.
Li Long didn't plan to go out in the afternoon. He thought about going to see Mr. Liang with his eldest brother and his family tomorrow, but he didn't expect that something would happen in the village in the afternoon.
Yang Yongqiang came over and told Li Long:
"The son of the old Zheng family in our team blew up his fingers with a detonator..."
"What?" Li Long was still half lying on the bed reading a book. When he heard Yang Yongqiang's words, he sat up:
"Where is the person now?"
"The cyclist was sent to the hospital." Yang Yongqiang sighed, "On the left hand, one section of the thumb is broken, two sections of the second thumb (index finger) are broken, and one section of the middle finger is broken "My palms were blown to pieces..."
"Why did he think of using a detonator?" Li Long couldn't figure it out. This seemed to have happened in his last life, but he didn't seem to be in the village at that time, so he forgot what he was doing. .
Old Zheng’s son is called Zheng Haifeng. He is sixteen or seventeen years old and can be considered a naughty kid. This is the time when curiosity is strong.
“I said I was playing with cannons. After the cannons at home were fired, I rummaged through the boxes and took out the detonators and explosives at home. I didn’t know how to fiddle with them, so I blew up the detonators and then blew half of my hands off. …”
"Fortunately, it's the left hand." Li Long sighed. Nowadays, the detonators in the village are basically copper detonators, which need to be inserted into the fuse to explode. The explosives are basically ammonium nitrate explosives, which are a cylinder like a corn cob. This also requires a detonator belt. The fuse can be detonated.
Although the production team is located in a plain area and there are no mines here, there are not many people who have this thing at home. There were detonators, explosives and a large circle of fuses in Li Jianguo's house.
A copper detonator is said to have an explosive power of fifty kilograms, and it is easy to blow up a hand - Li Long only heard the legend, and did not know whether it was true or false.
It seems that more than ten years later, a child in the team picked up a few of these copper detonators from somewhere, and was still playing with them in his mouth - he was very lucky.
"Daqiang's family is very close, so he took him to the county hospital on a bicycle. His father also took the broken finger with him. The child was crying..."
Li Long shook his head slightly. With the current hospital conditions, it would definitely not be possible to connect him. He could only manage the wound well.
That is, the left hand. If the right thumb is missing, it is really hard to say that this person will not be able to work in this era.
This incident cast a shadow over the festive New Year. The next day Li Long went to his eldest brother's house. Li Jianguo was telling Li Juan and Li Qiang:
"These things at home , did you see this? I put this away. Don't move. Don't move even if you see him in other places. If you move, you will be disabled! Speaking of being disabled, it took many years to change.
Li Long watched Li Jianguo put the wrapped detonators, explosives, etc. into the chest of drawers and locked them up. He said:
"Brother, when I was in the mountains a month ago, I was thinking about getting some of this from you when I came back and then using it to fry wolves in the mountains. Now that I think about it, I forgot about it. We are not doing this specifically. "It's too easy to be in danger."
"Yes." Li Jianguo also sighed, looking a little scared. , "When I got this back from the mine, I actually thought it was just for frying fish and scaring wolves, so I kept it at home every year and didn't care. As soon as this happened, it seems that we are still lucky. ...When the weather gets hot, I will bury all these things."
Li Long felt it was a pity, but he didn't say anything after thinking about it. It's a pity, it's better than regretting it after something happens.
Li Jianguo had already prepared things for the Liang family, including meat, fish, cakes bought from the county, wine, canned food, etc.
It was still a horse-drawn carriage ride. Li Long thought it was slow, so he rode a bicycle and carried some things first.
The Liang family’s yard is neatly tidied and the gate is open - Li Long was thinking about why every household here has a gate, even if it is tied with wood, there must be a gate, but the team We don't have that habit here. Every household has a courtyard wall, and the door in the middle is considered a gate. No one will leave the gate open and closed.
Is this a matter of habit?
Liang Wenyu saw Li Long riding a bicycle in the yard and greeted him with a smile:
"Xiaolong, happy New Year! Where are my sister and the others behind?"
"Well, it was too slow for me to take the carriage, so I rode over here. The second brother-in-law and the others haven't arrived yet?"
"Not yet. Anyway, they are close and they come quickly." Liang Wenyu said with a smile. .
The yard soon became lively, children were playing and the adults were chatting in the house. Li Long was outside looking at the yard. Occasionally, he could hear Liang Yuemei, Liang Xingmei and their mother having sex. Chatting over meals, playing with the children, and comparing New Year's money.
This year, Li Long gave each of Li Juan and Li Qiang five new year's bills, which were new one-yuan bills. He went to the bank to exchange them. Li Long told both Li Juan and Li Qiang that he could just keep the money himself and buy some snacks when he gets hungry when he goes to school. It was best not to tell others, otherwise he would be jealous.
Li Qiang was still asking what jealousy was, so Li Juan told him:
"Others will be jealous, and they might even rob you!"
This is the most straightforward explanation, and Li Qiang understood it immediately. He held the money tightly and said that he promised not to tell. .
Okay, Li Long looked at the five crumpled new tickets and knew that this was all in vain.
Li Juan was more attentive and simply put the five pieces of money into a book and hid the book.
With several children together, Li Juan and Li Qiang did not reveal their true amount of New Year's money, but even so, it was the most, making the other children look envious. At the dinner table, Liang Wenyu’s second brother-in-law Du Haihua suddenly asked Li Jianguo:
"Brother-in-law, did you buy a TV at home?"
"Yes." Li Jianguo nodded. He immediately guessed that it was either the child or Liang Yuemei who had spilled the beans.
“Your family is still stronger.” Although Du Haihua was not convinced, he could only admit that after all, the number of people with TV nowadays was almost the same. If you work hard, you might be able to buy a bicycle this year, but I don’t dare to think about this TV for the time being.
This meal was a bit embarrassing. Du Haihua, who had drunk too much, made sour remarks from time to time. Later, Liang Donglou couldn't stand it anymore and told him a few words before he shut up.
I left my relatives on the second day of the Lunar New Year, and the days after the Chinese New Year became more casual. Since none of the main relatives are here, the Li family will have an easier time celebrating the New Year, just like if you have good relations in the village, you will treat me to others and I will treat you to others. In this production team, most of the families are like this. They have good relationships and move around a lot. Usually when the children are hungry and the family is away, they can just find an acquaintance to have a meal and put it on the table.
It’s good that this kind of accustomed relationship is still maintained in the team twenty or thirty years later.
In rural areas, especially in rural areas in the north during the winter, the New Year is not celebrated until the fifteenth day of the first lunar month. Although due to Zheng Haifeng’s incident, there have been a lot less firecrackers, but there are still sporadic ones. of.
Later, Li Long also found out that Zheng Haifeng's finger was naturally not reattached. The county hospital performed debridement, so he picked up the broken finger and threw it away. It is said that there were several people in the team who had explosives at home, so they took them outside into the snow and had the veterans bundle them together and blow them up.
Li Long also looked at it from a distance once, and he even saw two grenades inside!
Then Li Long understood. It turned out that he was still a little confused. If Li Jianguo had been in a mine, he could get detonators and explosives. How did others get them?
Now it seems clear that the original militia training was not just about shooting, it was about tying explosive bags and carrying out blasting operations! The grenades were most likely hidden by the militiamen during live ammunition training. The same is likely to be true for other situations.
This can be regarded as clearing up potential safety hazards for the team.
During this period, Li Jianguo’s house was indeed very lively at night. There were many people watching TV, mostly aunts, sisters-in-law and children. The people who came were very polite and brought their own stools and melon seeds and peanuts. of. They really read the news and advertisements very seriously, and they watched them without saying a word, and even when they spoke, they did so quietly. When he finally left, he and Liang Yuemei would sweep the melon seed peels off the ground.
Very good.
Li Long would watch TV series for a period of time every time, and then leave after watching them. Later, he simply stopped watching them at night.
Buying a TV seems to be an obsession. Once you buy it and complete this obsession, it feels like that.
On the eleventh day of the first lunar month, Li Jianguo received a telegram from home. His father, his mother, Li Anguo's family of four, Chen Xingbang and Li Junshan, and a group of eight people came by train.
Eight people...
Li Long wired two hundred yuan to his father years ago, which was used as travel expenses. Although he didn't know how much money his father had left, Li Long guessed that there wasn't much left.
Picking people up was a troublesome thing, so Li Long said to Li Jianguo:
"Hitch the carriage when the time comes. I'll ask Daqiang to hitch his donkey cart. Two carts are enough. Let's There is no need to go to Wucheng. My second brother, brother-in-law, and Junshan have all been here. My parents have also been here, so we picked her up at the bus station. "
There is a certain time for the train to arrive. It only takes a day or two. Anyway, there is a big yard in the county, so it will not be available that day. Once you receive it, just go and wait the next day.
Li Jianguo had the same idea. He originally wanted to talk to Tao Jianshe, but Li Long took over the matter.
Although he said he was talking to Tao Daqiang, Li Long still carried the things to Tao's house. He knew clearly that he still had to tell Tao Jianshe directly about this matter. This was etiquette.
During the Chinese New Year, Li Long had already come here with something. Tao Jianshe was a little unhappy when he brought something again this time, saying that Li Long was too unconventional. Li Long came to see him for something, and when he asked to borrow a donkey cart, it would be best for Tao Daqiang to go with him. Tao Jianlian said that it would be no problem.
Now Tao Jianshe's thinking has changed. His son follows Li Long and earns as much money in one year as he did in several years. Moreover, he is learning from good things, and there are many others in the team who are not good at it. This winter, many young men in the team played cards and drank. My son and the others also made money, which was more than other families made in a year. Although he was a little biased, he was not stupid.
The matter was settled like this.
Calculating the time to the fourteenth day of the first lunar month, Li Jianguo, Tao Daqiang and Li Long rushed to the county in two cars.
In fact, Tao Daqiang and Yang Yongqiang came to see Li Long in the first two days, mainly to ask about catching fish. It’s late February, and if we don’t catch fish, the ice will melt.
What Li Long meant was to wait until his father and mother came over to see if they would catch fish or do other things. He was a little lazy at the moment and thought he could wait a little longer. It’s been a year, I’ve made money, I seem to have bought what I should buy, and I’ve bought a house. The next two big goals are to build a house and buy a tractor. I can't do these two for the time being, so I'm lazy.
The temperature was rising, and the sun was quite warm on people. Li Long sat on Tao Daqiang's donkey cart, chatting with him wordlessly.
From what Tao Daqiang said, his wife is pregnant and is worried now. Giving birth happens to be the busiest time in the summer, and she is afraid that she will be too busy by then.
"What's the point? Anyway, this year your family mainly grows wheat, corn, and some rapeseed. Then you can just find some people to help. Don't we all play together in our team? I also know your family’s situation, so it’s impossible not to help.”
Li Long didn’t care much about this. He felt that Tao Daqiang was thinking too much. Of course, this is normal - after all, when you are preparing to be a father for the first time, you are bound to feel nervous.
Li Long was thinking that when he and Tao Daqiang went fishing together, neither of them had a partner at that time. If he wanted to find a partner, he would have it first. Now that Tao Daqiang is about to have a child, he has to work harder.
Well, since everyone in the family is here, it’s just right. Everyone will work hard to build the house in the spring, and then we can discuss the marriage.
It’s time for me to get out of singleness.
When they arrived at the county, Li Long said he wanted to go to the big yard. Li Jianguo and Tao Daqiang said no, it was almost time, so just go to the bus station and wait.
Li Long didn't refuse. Anyway, when he went to the big yard now, Gu Xiaoxia was not there either, and there was a high probability that Gu Xiaoxia would not come back at noon, so it was better to go directly to the bus station and wait.
Three people and two cars arrived outside the bus station. Li Long looked at the time and said:
"There is no need for the three of us to stay here all the time. We can take turns waiting inside while one person watches outside. The car is fine, it’s still cold outside.”
“Then I’ll look at the car first,” Tao Daqiang said with a smile.
"No, no, no, it's hard enough for you to follow us here to pick up people. I'm outside." Li Long waved his hand, "You go first, it's almost noon now, the three of us have to wait for more than half an hour. We've just received someone, please go in quickly."
After he said this, Li Jianguo and Tao Daqiang didn't say anything, tied the animals to the edge, and the two of them went inside.
The carriages and donkey carts were covered with sacks, and old mattresses were placed on top, so that the elderly and children would not freeze when riding in the carts. After all, this place is no better than his hometown. Li Anguo's wife and children have not been here before, so they must be careful.
Li Long put grass for No. 76 and the donkey to eat slowly. He walked around the carriage while thinking about whether there was anything missing at home. .
They are waiting here. Liang Yuemei has already packed up the east room and set up the stove. My father-in-law and mother-in-law have lived in the east room for several months, so they should be used to it. At this time, she was preparing to cook. For this first meal at home, she must eat good food. Meat, meat bones, and rice are all made of good ingredients.
At Lao Ma's house, Uncle Luo would add coal to the stove every once in a while to ensure that the room was always warm. Li Anguo has lived here before, and he has the impression that this time the whole family will live here, and there will be two children here. Old Luo Tou is very happy, and this place is slowly becoming like a big family.
Li Long and the others didn't wait long before Li Qingxia arrived with his entire family.
(End of this chapter)