Return to 1983 Hunting Xing'an Mountains

Chapter 491 I'm Too Hard to Work in the Market to Go Purchasing

Meng Ziyan brought the tea tray to the edge of the kang, picked up the teapot and poured tea. After handing the teacups to Meng Quezi, Zhang Jinbao, Li Fuqiang and others, she went to the west room with Sun Lianfang and Guan Hua. Before leaving, she winked at Xu Ning, who received the signal and smiled at her.

Li Fuqiang, Guan Lei and others were eating melon seeds, Xu Ning was chatting with Meng Quezi and Zhang Jinbao, and the three people who were packing up their tools outside also hurried into the house. As soon as Zhang Jinbao raised his hand, his two apprentices greeted everyone and then went back to Guan Lei's house to heat the kang.

Meng Yinhe sat next to Xu Ning, his face was sallow and his figure looked a little haggard. He had been working with Meng Quezi and Zhang Jinbao these days and only then did he know what hard work was.

When he didn't do his job properly, Meng Quezi picked up the broom handle and hit him hard on the butt.

At first, Zhang Jinbao didn't want to stop him because he had experience and knew that Meng Quezi would stop after two or three hits at most. But this was his own son, and he was so cruel that even Zhang Jinbao couldn't stand it.

Seeing that Meng Quezi was about to hit him for the third time, Zhang Jinbao stepped forward to stop him. This way of beating Meng Yinhe twice with a sweet reward made Meng Yinhe remember it clearly. He worked more steadily and did not waste time like he did at the beginning.

Xu Ning patted Meng Yinhe on the back and said a few words to comfort her, but he didn't expect that these two words would make Meng Yinhe burst into tears. She hugged Xu Ning and cried bitterly, saying that if she had known this situation would happen, she would have studied hard and got into high school.

Meng Quezi snorted twice and said, "If you are a good student, would I let you learn carpentry?"

Liu Fenfang pushed him and said, "He is at an age where he needs to save face. Speak softly."

"What's the matter? Ask my four disciples, which one of them was not trained by me? Would they become useful if I didn't beat them?"

Zhang Jinbao bared his teeth and said, "Dad, you didn't kill us when you taught us, so be gentler when you teach Yinhe in the future."

"You hit me too lightly!"

"Hahaha……"

Xu Ning patted Meng Yinhe on the shoulder and said, "I beat you so that you will remember. When you learn your lesson, you will understand your father's good intentions when you think of the mistakes you made."

"Brother, I am suffering so much..."

Meng Yinhe cried with tears and snot, and his voice was so loud that it could be heard in the street. Although the three sisters-in-law who were chatting in the west room heard it, they did not come to the east room to join in. If the three of them came in and saw him crying, Meng Yinhe would have to find a crack in the ground to crawl into.

Zhang Jinbao said: "Yinhe is very intelligent, but he is too careless in his work. He only cares about the present and not the future. If he loses focus when cutting the material, the consequences will be very serious."

Xu Ning turned his head and said, "Listen, be careful when you work next time. The saw blade on the cutting machine is not a joke. If you are not careful, your hand will be cut off."

"remember."

Hearing Meng Yinhe's response, the others all smiled. Meng Quezi, who was standing aside, remembered something. He pushed Zhang Jinbao and muttered a few words. Then Zhang Jinbao took out the blueprint from his pocket and spread it out on the kang mat.

"Erning, you said before that you wanted to make a bed. Are the head and the bed body integrated?"

Xu Ning glanced at the drawings and said, "It's not integrated. The bed frame and headboard can be disassembled. The dimensions on these drawings may not be accurate. You have to study them yourself."

Meng Quezi nodded: "It's true that it's not very accurate, but your brother Bao has already made a sample, and the size and other things are standardized. Why don't you take a look at the sample? Three pairs of windows and two doors have been made in the past few days."

"Okay, where do I put it?"

"It's in the east room of Leizi's house. Let's go."

Then everyone stood up and walked towards the door. Meng Ziyan and the other two heard the noise and walked out of the house. After knowing where they were going, they did not follow them and just chatted with Liu Fenfang in the east room.

There were a lot of wood piled up in Guan Lei's front yard. The cut wood blocks and boards were piled under the shed. There were a lot of shavings and sawdust on the ground outside the house. When they walked into the east room, they saw more than a dozen large items on the counter, including combination cabinets, beds, desks, round tables, elm doors, etc.

As soon as he entered the room, Xu Ning was attracted by the window panels standing on the kang. The window panels were made of very solid materials and had four plum blossom-shaped glass corner guards. The four windows formed a large window with a length of two meters and six meters. The south windows of each room were to be installed with double layers.

The outer room and four rooms on the north side of Xu Ning's house were all installed with double-glazed windows, for a total of twenty large windows.

"This window is very well made. It suits my taste."

Zhang Jinbao smiled and said, "How can it not be to your liking if it is made according to your drawings? Take a look at this combination cabinet, what do you think?"

Xu Ning looked at the large sample on the counter and said, "Very good! Hey, Brother Bao, this is where the TV is, right? Can you make this space bigger?"

"This space can only accommodate a 14-inch TV, and it needs to be bigger?"

"Well, now we can fit a 14-inch TV, but what about ten years from now? We'll have to have a 24-inch or 34-inch TV! Isn't this for the future?"

Zhang Jinbao suddenly realized, Meng Quezi nodded silently, and everyone present felt that Xu Ning was right. The wood used to make the combination cabinet was yellow pineapple. If this kind of wood is not soaked in water and is not eaten by insects or bitten by mice, it can be used for at least fifty or sixty years.

"Okay! Then I'll make some changes. When I renovate the furniture workshop in the future, I have to tell the boss, right?"

"That's for sure."

Everyone in the house chatted around Da Yanger for more than ten minutes. As it was almost half past eight, Xu Ning started to get ready to go home.

Before leaving, Xu Ning turned around and said with a smile: "Brother Bao, if you live here, you will know what is not working well..."

"I'll take care of the small things when I have time, don't worry."

"No, my brother is getting married this year, and he wants to tidy up this room. For example, he wants to replace the cabinets, dressing table, doors and windows if necessary."

Zhang Jinbao looked at Guan Lei and said, "This cabinet and dressing table are both made of walnut wood. It would be a shame to replace them. We should renovate them. The door should be replaced. A rat has eaten away a corner of it."

Guan Lei nodded: "Okay, there's no rush now. I have a long way to go before I get married. I'd better let my brother and the others come first."

After walking out of the courtyard, Meng Quezi said, "The roof of Leizi's house should be repaired, otherwise it will drip when it rains."

"OK……"

They stood at the gate of the old Meng family's courtyard without entering the house. After Sun Lianfang, Guan Hua, Meng Ziyan, and Liu Fenfang came out, they greeted each other and went home.

When they got home, Xu Laonian and the others had finished drinking and were sitting on the edge of the kang smoking. Xu Ning cut more than ten pounds of bear meat in the outer room and carried it to the low wall on the east side. He stood at the foot of the wall and greeted Uncle Wei twice.

Old Wei ran out upon hearing the noise and said with a smile, "Why are you back so late?"

"We'll be let go after lunch. Uncle Wei, this is bear meat. You can give the six or seven jin piece to your brother tomorrow, and let my aunt fry the remaining two or three jin piece for the children."

"Okay, I won't be polite with you anymore."

"Don't be polite. You should go to the north to help out tomorrow. Why don't you stay at home and rest for a day?"

Lao Wei waved his hand and said, "Don't delay. I'll go deliver the meat in the morning and be back at noon. I can still have a meal."

"Haha, OK! Hey, how about you ride the donkey backwards? That would be much faster."

Old Wei took the two pieces of meat, his eyes lit up and he said, "That's fine, it's a lot easier to get up and down on a donkey..." "Then come over tomorrow morning and have dinner before leaving, that's settled, I'm going back to my room to sleep."

"Eh."

The next day, at around five o'clock, Yang Shuhua, Han Fengjiao, Wu Qiuxia and others started kneading the dough. They were going to make bear meat soup noodles this morning. This kind of noodles required more time to prepare, and the old ladies worked for more than an hour before putting the noodles into the pot.

Yu Kaihe, Li Feng, Lao Jiang, Li Ye and Da Laba came in one after another and saw Xu Laonian and Xu Ning being very friendly. They sat there chatting while waiting for the noodles to come out of the pot.

With so many people eating together, Old Xu's rice jar and flour jar are already empty. Xu Ning will have to go to the street to buy some supplies tomorrow. It's a good time to send the three chainsaws to the agricultural machinery station and ask Old Jin to help repair them.

"Liu'er has never done any work before. His bricklaying speed is a bit slow, but he works carefully. He has just become proficient in the past two days, so his speed has increased."

"Well, this job requires some skills. I had already thought about it at the beginning. If I can't learn it, I will push the cart to the mountainside to fetch stones to make a yard."

Yu Kaihe grinned and said, "Why would we need a cart when we have four wheels?"

"No problem! Liu'er, you have to push twenty wheelbarrows of dirt to catch up with the amount of one four-wheeled cart. Wouldn't you be exhausted to death?"

"You were paralyzed on the kang, and your wife came up and slapped you twice, but you didn't even have the strength to fight back."

"Hahaha……"

Now, this group of people have become familiar with each other and can not only take jokes but also withstand criticism.

Sometimes they would chat about both normal and trivial things while drinking water, for example, which man in Taiping Village was having an affair, which widow in which village opened a business, and who frequented the shop. They would get quite excited. Some people would even gesture while telling stories. When talking about the good figure of the old woman, they would draw an arc with their hands in front of their chests and shout "Zabib's head is too big".

After everyone finished their noodles, they drank up the bear meat soup in their bowls, and then got in their cars and went to the Beitou construction site.

The new houses of Lao Wang's family and Lao Xu's family are not far apart. You can see with a glance that the wall of Lao Wang's house is shorter than that of Lao Xu's house. This 72-meter-thick wall cannot be made entirely of bricks. The four corners and load-bearing walls must be filled with cement, and the rest of the walls must be rammed earth.

Xu Long asked Yan He, Xiao Du and others in the city, and they all said that exterior wall insulation boards were not available. This kind of insulation board can only be used in large landmark buildings or municipal institute projects, because the shipment volume of insulation boards cannot keep up with the civilian market. In addition, the price is expensive and ordinary people cannot afford it.

Therefore, Xu Ning gave up the idea of ​​adding exterior wall insulation panels. He thought about living there for a few years first, and then doing something else after his financial conditions improved and technology was updated.

At around 9 o'clock, Lao Wei came back riding his donkey. The old man from the well-drilling team was very happy to receive the bear meat and said frankly that Xu Ning was very particular about his work. But Lao Wei said, "When I walked in, he was almost drunk. Fortunately, the children went to school, otherwise he would have beaten them again. His wife was sitting on a stone at the gate of the yard. Oh my god, she looked so pitiful."

"It's OK for such people to just be respectable. You know how to dig wells, so save some money to buy some tools and then form a well-drilling team to take on the job."

"That would cost several hundred. My family would have to save for six or seven years."

"It's okay. I'll open a field in the winter. Can you help me find some woodcutters and farmers? You can make some money by being a team leader."

Lao Wei smiled and said, "I know you are kind and righteous. Okay! Leave this to me. How many people do you need?"

"There must be at least 80 people, and there are two of them."

"Ah, then I'll drag Brother Yu along to study together."

Yu Kaihe is a well-known good guy in Qing'an and Taiping. As long as someone asks him for help, Yu Kaihe rarely refuses, and he has a lot of good relationships with people.

Xu Ning remembered the day when he was killed by a black bear in his previous life. People from five or six villages came over, none of them empty-handed. Those who had vegetables took vegetables, those who had meat took meat, and those who were too poor to take anything out just offered their labor...

This is also the reason why Lao Wei wants to drag Yu Kaihe to study the recruitment of workers in Lengchang. Yu Kaihe knows too many people, and if he says a word, someone will come to him...

June 1984, 6, the second day of the sixth lunar month, Saturday.

The end of every month is a busy time for Xu Laonian. He has been working overtime in the forest farm for two days and one night. Wang Erli said last night that his elder brother has dark circles under his eyes. There is no way to deal with this. The whole forest farm is waiting for the salary payment. Xu Laonian dare not be careless.

Wang Erli was at home today, so in the morning Xu Ning and Li Fuqiang put down their dishes, took the car keys and three chainsaws, went out, got in the car and drove towards the street.

I arrived at the street supply and marketing cooperative at around 9 o'clock. As soon as I got off the car, I saw Lao Qian and Hu Zhibin standing under the eaves, smoking and chatting.

"Old Qian! Brother Bin!"

They turned around and saw that it was Xu Ning. They smiled and said, "Hey, Brother Bin and I were just talking about you."

"What are you talking about?"

"Didn't you find a good job for the three of us? There were some problems with the job a few days ago, but luckily Brother Bin and Brother Liu helped to smooth it out."

Xu Ning frowned and said, "Someone is stealing our business?"

Hu Zhibin clapped his hands and said, "Look, what did I say? He understood it as soon as I mentioned it. Someone did steal my job, but Brother Liu and I went to find that person. Now we are still one family in the street and the city."

Hu Zhibin did not elaborate on the details of how he resolved the matter, and Xu Ning did not ask any further questions. He only said, "It's fine as long as it's resolved. When will Brother Bin be transferred to the city?"

"Soon, just in the next few days."

In fact, his transfer order had already come down, but it was just being publicized, so he was much more low-key in his dealings with others. After all, he had just offended someone, so it is better to be safe than sorry.

"Hey, Qiangzi's brother-in-law cooked a meal for me a few days ago. It was quite good! The old lady was very happy, especially when the braised bear paw was served on the table. Everyone in the house could smell the fragrance..."

The subtext of what Hu Zhibin said was that he had established some connections in the city.

Xu Ning smiled and said, "When you are transferred to the city, come and play with my brother more often. You are alone anyway."

"Well, I can't prepare to come back once a week. Hey, it just so happens that you are here, and the procedures for the 28th floor have been completed. I took a look yesterday and found that your two 28th floors are next to 2th floor. They are numbered 28-3 and 28-28. Because they are in the same area and your two 28th floors are relatively small, they are both called 1th floor. The original th floor has been changed to -."

Let’s not talk about whether this numbering is compliant, because the four newly approved small felling sites themselves are not compliant. Logically, the felling area of ​​the existing felling sites should be expanded instead of adding new felling sites. So the name is not important. What is important is that Xu Ning got two felling sites.

Hu Zhibin said with a smile: "My small field is not far from the 28 field. When the time comes, we can just follow our agreement, okay?"

"Okay! I've been so busy these past two days that I don't know how Brother Yong is doing."

"It's almost done. I chopped some firewood at home the day before yesterday. Now I can work and nothing will be delayed."

"That's fine. The main thing is how he feels. Is he not giving up on himself?"

Hu Zhibin shook his head: "No, didn't you talk to him last time? He is quite cheerful now. He has to do it for his child. How can he die just because of a little injury?"

"Not good."

(End of this chapter)