Chapter 19 Chapter Thirteen

After taking care of Gu Rong's house all morning, Xiaoli came out after lunch. Where are you going on this hot day at noon?Except for writing novels, she has never been able to sit still in her room, and her heart has been particularly restless these two days, and she always has an urge to go somewhere to find someone.She didn't know who she was looking for.When passing through the compound of the county party committee, she saw that the two rooms of the county party secretary's office were locked.There was no one in the courtyard, very deserted.When she got to the street, she walked in a trance, raised her hands and grabbed the willow leaves, and thought of Li Xiangnan's embarrassment in front of her uncle's bed in the morning, and she couldn't help laughing.A strongman is a bit of a wimp and embarrassed, but cute.When she looked up, she realized that she had inadvertently walked through the gate of the city gate.

A straight narrow street in front is the free market where people shout and shout. Today is the top ten episodes.The crowd was noisy and crowded.Dust, sweat, and shouting all mixed together.In front of the shops on both sides are all kinds of stalls with baskets and baskets, one next to the other.There are vendors squatting behind the stalls, soliciting and soliciting.This section of the street is full of vegetables, melons and fruits; the next section is soybeans, wheat, millet, and whole grains;At the end of the street are oil pots, soup pots, and ovens, some with cloth sheds, and some under the sun, selling meatball soup, powder soup, fried oil cakes, baked pancakes, fried buns, sliced ​​noodles... rolling pins There was a crackling sound on the chopping board, the oily dough was flipping over and over on the chopping board, and the sliced ​​noodles flew into the boiling water pot one by one.

Xiaoli's eyes suddenly brightened, and she saw Li Xiangnan in the crowd.She wanted to squeeze over to say hello to him, but she thought of something.Decided to hide in the crowd and see how the young secretary of the county party committee visited the market. Li Xiangnan was walking slowly in the crowd with his hands behind his back, looking at stalls on the left and right.Stop from time to time, ask about the price, and inquire about a few things about the village.This is a stall selling kitchen knives. A piece of canvas is spread on the ground, and dozens of kitchen knives are placed on the ground. A black, lean, middle-aged farmer is squatting.

Li Xiangnan stood still with his hands behind his back: "Is your kitchen knife good enough for Guling Knife?" "See for yourself." "Dare to cut iron?" "Why don't you dare?" The middle-aged farmer picked up a kitchen knife and used the blade to sharpen the back of another kitchen knife, and strips of slender iron filings curled up and came down. "Good knife. Are you in charge of selling knives?" "Yes. I sell knives for the commune ironwork factory." "Prayer?" "how do you know?" "My ears are longer." Li Xiangnan smiled, "How much can I earn by selling one?"

"Fifty cents." "On that day, if you sold twenty of them, you'd earn ten yuan?" "No, it can't be sold in our ancient tomb." "It's because there are too many kitchen knives. You won't go to other counties or provinces?" "Sometimes I go out too. But it's expensive to go out, and it's not worth it if you don't do it well." "Is the iron factory contracted?" "They're planning a contract." Li Xiangnan nodded and walked forward, Xiaoli followed in the crowd.It is very interesting to think that I am "monitoring" and "following" the secretary of the county party committee.This is an old man selling jelly with his eyes half-closed, wearing a blue cloth around his waist, sitting on a small bench, always raising his head and struggling to open his eyes when he sees people.

"How much jelly can you sell a day?" Li Xiangnan stopped and asked. The old man was slipperyly grabbing the jelly that had been twisted into thin strips into each bowl, and sprinkled some cucumber shreds on it. He looked at Li Xiangnan: "Ten catties of noodles." He lowered his head and continued while answering. On the low square table lay out his work. "How much is a bowl for you?" "Eighteen cents." "Then you can earn twenty yuan a day, and you're rich." "I can't earn less." The old man said unhappily. "I'll leave it to you. You can produce at least ten catties of jelly for this catty of noodles, right?"

"Can't get out." "I did it, but you still lie to me?" Li Xiangnan smiled. "It's ten catties at most." "Your bowl is half a catty of jelly." "It's more than that." "My eyes are right," Li Xiangnan smiled humorously, "Why don't you weigh me with a scale next to me? If you can't keep half a catty, it's half a tael!" "It seems that you know how to do it." "You sell ten catties of noodle jelly for this catty of noodles, and if you sell twenty bowls, it costs 3.6 yuan. If you sell ten catties of noodle jelly, it costs 36 yuan."

"I bought high-priced noodles, authentic sorghum noodles." "Is it one piece per catty?" "Ah... yes." "Ten catties and ten yuan is capital." "And these cucumber seasonings!" said the old man, pointing to the jars of garlic salt water, mustard, vinegar, and chili on the square table. "These cucumber seasonings, together with the alum for making jelly, and coal fire money, let's say it's too much, and six yuan a day can't be stopped, right?" "Stop it." "Thirty-six yuan is ten yuan for ten catties of noodles, and the six yuan is taken away, isn't it earning twenty yuan a day?"

"You really know how to settle accounts, are you an accountant?" "The accountant is not, but he can do the calculations. You don't catch up with Daji every day; there are also times when you usually sell five catties of noodles or three catties of noodles; when it's cloudy and rainy, there's nothing to buy, so You can’t earn like this every day, right?” "Yes, yes." The old man nodded quickly. "If you earn money, you are afraid of having little, but when you talk about it, you are afraid of having too much." Li Xiangnan looked at the old man with a smile.

The old man smiled embarrassedly: "Yes." After a pause, he suddenly remembered something, looked around and asked in a low voice, "Are you... are you Secretary Li of the county party committee?" "Why did you suddenly remember?" The old man smiled: "According to others, you look like one." "What do people say?" "It's said that you'll get the deal at a glance." "Is there a secretary of the county party committee who will settle accounts for you?" The old man was very happy. Li Xiangnan sat down on the small stool beside the square table, took out a cigarette and handed him a cigarette, and took one himself.The two lit cigarettes. "Can you tell me the truth, how much money have you saved now?"

"I……" "I don't ask for your name. If I do know your name, I will keep it secret for you. I keep my word." "More than four thousand and nine hundred yuan." "How much do you want to earn?" "I want to earn enough for six thousand." "Give your son a wife?" "I have no children, my wife and I." "Build a house?" "The house is already built." "Furniture?" "I don't place anything." "Save in the bank, get interest?" "If you don't deposit in a bank, you won't be used to depositing." "When you deposit it in the bank, a lot of bills are turned into a small card. It's like being cheated away. It's better to hide it in the cracks of the bricks or in the rice vat. Isn't it?" Li Xiangnan teased. The old man was embarrassed: "Yes." "Is money enough to prevent old age?" "You have to spend some money to accumulate virtue and earn popularity." "How to accumulate virtue and earn popularity?" The old man smiled embarrassedly, but said nothing. "It's hard to say? Let's make friends. You have something to discuss with me, and I have something to discuss with you. Maybe I can give it to the staff." "I live with relatives in the county seat. My home is in the mountains. The village is dry. It doesn't rain. The crops are dry, and there is no water for people to drink. The whole village only depends on a small spring. If there is no water, there will be no water." "Are you from Nannao Village?" "How do you know?" "This is all the territory managed by my county party secretary, how can I not know?" Li Xiangnan said, "You want to pay the village to drill boreholes?" "No, the wells in our village have been drilled for more than ten lifetimes, but no water has been drawn. I want...to build a Dragon King Temple." "Build a Dragon King Temple?" Li Xiangnan was shocked. "For rain." Li Xiangnan lowered his eyes, smoking a cigarette with a gloomy expression. "Is this against the law?" The old man looked at Li Xiangnan and asked cautiously, "I built a small temple with a room size on the mountain to worship the Dragon King. Is it against the law?" "Breaking the law. It's not you who broke the law, but I who broke the law." Li Xiangnan said. "What law are you breaking?" "There are more than four hundred people in a village, is there more than four hundred people?" "yes." "If I can't even solve the problem of drinking water, I, the secretary of the county party committee, have broken the law of the country." The old man was stunned for a moment: "Then... what should I do?" "Uncle, do you really believe in gods and ghosts?" Li Xiangnan asked. "Sometimes I don't believe..." "There is no way but you have to believe it, right?" "There is a way for everything, who still believes in superstition?" "Uncle, let me discuss with you. Is it okay to do this? I'll hire an expert in digging wells to find water for your village. You can drink well water and water it. Do you think it's okay?" "That's a good thing. There used to be a young man in Dongling County who was capable. He knew where there was water at a glance, but he couldn't invite him. Now I heard that he was transferred to the province." "I'm inviting him, and he will come to the ancient tomb as soon as he speaks." "But when will we take the turn to go to Nannao? It's a remote place in a poor mountain." "Aren't we friends? Let him be the first to go to your village as a friend. Do you think it's okay?" "That's a good thing." The old man said excitedly. "Then let me discuss something with you. Let's not repair this Dragon King Temple." "Row." "Look, you have made friends with the secretary of the county party committee, invited water experts to the village, dug wells and obtained water, and accumulated this virtue, can you earn popularity?" "yes." "Then you can keep the money you earn for your own retirement, okay?" "Then I'll go back to the village to dig wells. My grandpa and grandpa both vomited blood and died from drilling wells." Li Xiangnan raised his head and glanced at the old man, his face was covered with furrows and wrinkles: "Uncle, are you Boss Shi?" "How do you know?" The old man was startled. Li Xiangnan looked at the old man: "Your ancestors have been digging wells for Nannao for generations, and have been digging wells for a whole hundred years. If I, the secretary of the county party committee, don't know, what kind of parents are you?" The old man was trembling all over. He was stunned for a while, then turned his head and blew his nose. "Uncle, let me discuss something with you again." While bowing his head, the old man tidied up the bowls, chopsticks, pots and jars on the small square table. "You can continue to earn and save money." "I won't earn anymore." The old man continued to pack his things in a trance. "You still have to earn money, save it for your own retirement. But why do you still think of earning popularity? You can't support your old age with money alone, right? What if you don't know how to make jelly and earn money? This pension depends on Who? Let me discuss with you a way to manage the pensions of the elderly, especially those without children." "Then you have accumulated great virtue." The old man had already packed all the pots and pans into the pick. "What's wrong with you?" "I won't sell jelly anymore." The old man straightened the strings and stood up hunched. "Why?" "I'm going back to the village." "Back to the village?" "I'm waiting at the entrance of the village every day for you to invite a well-drilling expert to come." After saying that, the old man took up the burden, holding the small square table in his hand, and was about to leave without looking at Li Xiangnan. "That's why you trust me?" Li Xiangnan asked. "I believe, I believe." The old man nodded, tears streaming down his face.He wiped it vigorously with his hands, and without looking back, he picked up the pick and squeezed away from the crowd. Li Xiangnan stared at the old man staggering away in the crowd, and couldn't help his nose sore. He turned around and saw Xiaoli standing behind her, her eyes filled with tears as she stared at Li Xiangnan.Li Xiangnan looked at her silently for a while, and asked, "Are you here too?" Xiaoli wiped her eyes and smiled embarrassingly like a child. She is very cute. Li Xiangnan walked forward, Xiaoli followed side by side. "You should write about Boss Shi." Li Xiangnan said. Xiaoli nodded obediently like a child, "I still want to write about you." "Write me?" "OK?" "no." "why?" "No reason." Li Xiangnan said gloomily. Xiaoli looked at Li Xiangnan and fell silent.She has never been so afraid of others being angry like she is now. "Where are you going?" Xiao Li asked Li Xiangnan after walking out of the market. "I'll go to the electricity bureau to have a look." "May I go with you?" Xiaoli asked carefully. "What are you going to do?" Li Xiangnan said impatiently.He found that there was suddenly a little relationship with Xiao Li that he didn't have before, which enabled him to reprimand her so severely. "Go and see." "The secretary of the county party committee is going to work, what are you watching?" Xiaoli walked two steps with her head down, and suddenly smiled mischievously: "I am the deputy director of the county party committee's propaganda department. I have no right to care about the work of the county party committee secretary?" Li Xiangnan was stunned for a moment, he seemed to have discovered that Xiaoli was still a deputy minister, and only then realized that the sudden strange relationship just now had to be restrained in time. "Hmph, you're the nominal deputy head of the Propaganda Department." He teased.