The door of the courtyard house has been welded dead

Chapter 32 Red Star Commune collects eggs

"Is everything okay? Don't let it slip by then." Li Feng looked at Jia Haijie knowingly.

"It's a big deal. We drive big cars, and many of the people who hitchhike are people who come out of the countryside to sell eggs on the black market. Just find a few people who hitchhiked before. If they want more, they may have to find ways to get less. It’s about taking a train.”

Li Feng opened his palm to show the two yuan he had just received. Jia Haijie looked at it indifferently.

"Let's see if they've finished unloading the car. We'll send him a bus this afternoon."

The two walked back to the dispatch room, took the pickup order for the afternoon and went straight to the construction site of the family building.

"Do you often meet people who need to buy something?" Li Feng pretended to continue digging for inside information.

"It's not that often. Everyone has friends, so it's helpful to help with easy things. After all, who makes us run outside all the time." Jia Haijie said with some helplessness.

The two got in the car, left the steel rolling mill and ran towards the countryside.

This time Jia Haijie did not drive directly to the destination. Li Feng felt that he was driving south of Sijiu City based on the direction.

From the cement road to the gravel road, we finally ran on the country road and became more and more remote, until we stopped at a dead end at the end.

"Let's go. Let's buy eggs today. If you need to eat at home, buy less. Anyway, we are on the road every day. It's just a side trip. Bringing too many home will be too eye-catching."

Jia Haijie opened the tool box under the carriage, took out a sack, and took the lead to walk forward.

Li Feng looked around and saw that there were only a few households, so he was skeptical about how many eggs he could harvest.

"Where is this? Why can't anyone who lives at home see it?" Li Feng asked cautiously.

"It's safer when there are fewer people. You'll know when you get there. It's a lot cheaper to buy it yourself than to go to the black market. It's five cents a piece. The key is that it's bigger."

"Not far from here is the Red Star People's Commune."

Jia Haijie pointed at the route while leading the way. He walked for about ten minutes before he saw a house.

The two houses built of adobe are approximately forty to fifty square meters in area. The main beams of wood extend out of the eaves covered with black tiles.There is a small yard surrounded by a fence along the house, and there is a semi-open-air earth-brick stove near the main house.

It is very consistent with the look of self-built houses in rural residential areas in the 50s and 60s. It still looks very contemporary when viewed up close. Li Feng remembers that his grandma’s house also looked like this.

On the flat land in the yard, three or four children were kneeling on the ground playing a game of catching stones. They saw an adult approaching and quickly went into the house and called the adult out.

An old woman on crutches staggered out of the house and saw Jia Haijie.The wrinkled face cracked into a smile.

"Here, kid, sit down, haven't you seen the young man who came with you here?"

"Auntie, there is a new comrade in the factory. I brought him here to buy it today." Jia Haijie moved a small stool at the door and sat watching the wind, and handed the sack in his hand to Li Feng.

"Young man, come with me." The aunt walked tremblingly ahead on crutches and brought Li Feng into the house.

The furnishings in the home are relatively simple. There are portraits of great figures hanging on the wall at the entrance. There is a broken wooden table and two long wooden benches in the middle of the room.

Grandma pointed to a bamboo basket hanging on the beam and asked Li Feng to stand on the table and take it out.

"Mom, I'll take 30 today. If you need more later, I'll come over."

"Young man, has your wife given birth?" Li Fengqian's hand paused for a moment.Li Fengxin said that I also want to give red eggs, but I don’t know where the key child is.

"No, auntie, my friend's child needs some health care, so I brought it to him." He counted out one dollar and sixty-five cents and handed it to the auntie.

The aunt also patiently counted it twice, and then asked Li Feng to hang the basket on the beam again.

After Li Feng finished the transaction, they walked back.

Li Feng held the egg carefully, as if he were a spy.At this time, it was illegal and criminal for private individuals to do business with each other, and speculation was a serious crime. If caught, one would have to squat on the fence.

It was also the first time for Li Feng to do it, so he felt a little guilty and was still thinking about where to hide the eggs.

Unlike Jia Haijie, he would do this kind of thing a lot when he saw it. He asked Li Feng to show his balls openly and put them in a bright place as if it was nothing.

After Li Feng got in the car, he gave the remaining [-] cents directly to Jia Haijie. He still had to be a good man.

Jia Haijie had lost a lot of money by taking him on a short trip in the past few days. He was also taking himself on the road just now, so he couldn't be greedy for the trivial things.

Jia Haijie didn't say much and collected the money.Friends are friends, interests are interests.If Li Feng is sensible, the road will become wider and wider.

After igniting the engine, the car backed up a short distance and at a T-junction, turned around and headed towards its afternoon destination.

"My aunt is also a poor person. Her son died of illness two years ago, and her daughter-in-law ran away with someone else, leaving behind several children. The village is pitiful and lets her children collect 'wild eggs' in the mountains behind."

"'Wild eggs'?" This place is just sparsely populated. It's not deep in the mountains. There are so many wild eggs. Li Feng took thirty of them in the basket and still had quite a few left.

"The principal at home doesn't raise more animals. They just keep them in the back mountain. If nothing happens, a few children go to pick them up and make up for some work points. Those who are checked can be said to have been picked up in the back mountain. Is it really possible? People starve to death.”

"Won't this be lost?" Li Feng said with a slight doubt.

"The Qin family is considered a common surname in Hongxing Commune, and they are somewhat related to the captain there. To irrigate the crops in the village, we have to rely on water from Red Star. For orphans and widowers, if something goes wrong, both sides will have to fight. Fighting."

"The money she earns from selling eggs is also given to the brigade to calculate work points, and then divided into rations during the autumn harvest. Otherwise, where can we buy food without food stamps in rural areas? The brigade will receive extra money, and the team members will also get points. Isn't it happy? Selling Give us a few extra cents she can make.”

Li Feng knew this water.

It seems that this village relies on people, and the people upstream are pinching their necks, so they have acquiesced in this situation. Besides, we are all in a village. If we bully such people, we will force them to die.

This family's surname is Qin, this is Qin Huairu, wasn't it the place where Qin Jingru lived in Hongxing Commune before she married into the courtyard.Could it be that this family is also a branch of the Qin family over there? Li Feng thought for a moment.

"But it's not much. We can't just collect it from this family. Her family also has to sell part of it to the supply and marketing cooperative, and then we can take you to other homes later." Jia Haijie smoked a cigarette and turned the steering wheel. Said to Li Feng.

"There are so many ways in here. Without you, I might not be able to understand them right away when I drive by myself."

Li Feng is indeed very grateful to Jia Haijie. The two of them are not close friends, and he can lose profits and help him understand the inside story and rules of the industry bit by bit.In this way, in the rest of my working life in the steel rolling mill, I don't have to explore on my own.

"Hey, we are all brothers. Don't talk about it. You can come to my class because of my father's face. If I don't teach you these things after I ask you to come here, you will figure it out on your own in the future. Don't you blame me?"

Jia Haijie waved his hand and said nonchalantly.

(End of this chapter)