Rebirth of Bayi Fishing and Hunting in the Northwest

Chapter 1163 Gu Xiaoxia Learns to Drive

Li Long didn't go back until after dinner. Li Junfeng and the young men ate in the front yard, while Li Jianguo and the others ate in the back yard. The food was the same, but they split it up because there weren't enough seats at the table.

After Li Long finished eating, he asked his mother if she wanted to go to the county to see his father. His mother pouted and said, "I'm not going! Let's see when he has time to come back. It's so comfortable staying in this team. There are too many people in the county, and I get dizzy."

Li Long stopped trying to persuade him and drove back to the county.

After returning home, Gu Xiaoxia told him that Li Xiangqian had called the purchasing station that afternoon and asked Gu Boyuan to tell him that the supply and marketing cooperative would be going to the livestock team for assistance activities the day after tomorrow morning.

Li Xiangqian meant for Li Long to contact the pastoral team tomorrow to make some preparations in advance and see which yards needed cleaning. Also, the supply and marketing cooperative planned to buy books tomorrow, and Li Long should contact the school to discuss whether a simple ceremony or something similar should be held for the book donation.

Li Long complained to Gu Xiaoxia that Li Xiangqian would always find him odd jobs. Gu Xiaoxia smiled and said, "Isn't this exactly what you like to do? You find staying at the company monotonous, so you don't want a formal job. Now that you're nominally employed, you have to do something."

Li Long naturally knew his wife was right, but he was a little embarrassed and was about to argue when Gu Xiaoxia said again:

"I think you're right, I do need to learn how to drive. You see, these past few days I've had some time after get off work in the afternoon, so could you teach me then?"

“Sure,” Li Long laughed. “That Lada is perfect for a woman to drive; it’s not big and it’s not conspicuous.”

"Why would I drive a Lada? Don't we have enough cars already? How many are parked in this yard?" Gu Xiaoxia waved her hand. "Your Volga is fine. Anyway, I'm just learning; I don't even know if I'll drive it in the future."

Li Long didn't care. He hadn't really driven the Volga much; he mainly drove the 212 or 69 for most of his trips. Although the Volga was comfortable, the road conditions were bad, so he felt more at ease driving the Jeep.

The next morning, after breakfast, Li Long drove to the herding team. When he arrived, he learned that Adil, the former deputy leader of the herding team, was now the leader.

Adil was very welcoming to Li Long, inviting him into the team headquarters to sit down. After learning that Li Long was there to discuss assistance matters with the supply and marketing cooperative, he immediately said:

“At our pastoral team’s outpost, apart from the two houses you repaired, almost all the other houses have problems.”

“Then it would be similar to Halim’s family, except that the elderly are taking care of the children, and life is inconvenient for them,” Li Long said. “If the children in the family are old enough to do chores, then it’s fine.”

“There are several families,” Adil said after thinking for a moment. “The one behind Halim’s house is the one. Oh, right, the last family in the village. It’s an old lady with three children. They have to go to Halim’s house to get water.”

The old lady is too old to carry water herself, but she has a horse at home, and she drives it to Halim's well every day to fetch water.

“Then let’s go with their family,” Li Long said. “I’ll see if we can find someone to dig a hand pump well for them, so that it will be more convenient for them to use water.”

There is a small river next to the pastoral team, but the river flows from southeast to northwest. The area closest to the river is the southwest corner of the pastoral team. There was a school there first, and then a few households.

The family Adil mentioned was far from the river, and also far from Halim and Yushanjiang's homes.

I've probably always lived like this, so I've never really paid much attention to it.

Adil took Li Long to that house and they saw the old lady leading her horse back and pouring water into the water vat inside the house.

The old lady was in her sixties, wearing a headscarf, and moved slowly. Li Long and Adil hurriedly went over to help her.

After helping the old lady pour out the water, Li Long looked at the yard again and saw that it was indeed quite dilapidated.

The yard is actually quite large, but because there are few people, the vegetable garden in front is overgrown and it's clear that nothing was planted last year.

The courtyard wall is made of rammed earth in sections, and because it has been around for a while, there are gaps in it. The gable wall of the house looks okay, but large chunks of mud have fallen off the front and east walls, and in some places the adobe bricks inside have broken off, forming holes.

There's a lot of withered grass on the roof, probably grown before last year and never cleaned up. It also looks uneven, so it'll probably leak when it rains.

Li Long quickly came up with a plan to repair the house.

If it were just the people from the supply and marketing cooperative, it would probably be a bit difficult for them to do this job; he would have to bring some of the able-bodied men from his family.

Otherwise, this work can't be finished in a day.

After leaving the old lady's house, the two went to the school. Students were in class. Adil went to the school office, and Li Long discovered that there were only three rooms in the office. The principal was grading homework, clearly holding multiple positions.

After Adil and Li Long explained their purpose, the principal's eyes lit up immediately. She smiled and said to Li Long:
"That's great! Although our school has a library, there are too few books. Students can't find many books to read in their spare time."

The principal was a woman in her forties, of Kazakh ethnicity. Adil introduced her as Bahati, who used to teach at the county's Kazakh school before being transferred here as principal, where she also taught mathematics.

Bahati knew Li Long, not only because Li Long had delivered things to Harim and Yushanjiang's homes many times, but also because of Nassen and Sasken, as well as Ghana and Yerjiang.

“Could we buy more children’s books?” Bahati said. “The children are still young, and they may not understand some of the books we buy.”

By the way, although the textbooks have been revised, some children only know a little Uyghur and Kazakh, and don't understand much Chinese. Could you bring some books about traditional Uyghur and Kazakh stories?

Bahati spoke very cautiously, and Li Long said with a smile:

"There's definitely no problem. I'll tell them when I get back today."

Then both parties finalized the book donation ceremony. Since the conditions here were relatively simple, the event was held directly in front of the office with two tables, representatives from both sides, and students watching during breaks.

After discussing it, Li Long declined Adil's invitation to stay for dinner, saying that he needed to drive back and quickly tell the supply and marketing cooperative about the books so as to avoid trouble after purchasing them.

Actually, by the time Li Long returned, Li Xiangqian and the others had already bought the books, but Li Long didn't mind. After having lunch at home, he drove to Xinhua Bookstore and, as Principal Baheti had requested, bought more than a hundred yuan worth of books.

Books these days cost a few yuan each, and children's books are even cheaper, some costing a little over a yuan or even just a few cents.

Li Long bought children's books, folk tales, several dictionaries, and popular reading materials for bilingual learning.

In his view, these were all things that could be used.

He took the books to the supply and marketing cooperative and told Li Xiangqian that these were the new ones he had added, asking him to pack them together.

“You don’t need to pay for things at the supply and marketing cooperative yourself. Go to the finance department for reimbursement,” Li Xiangqian said to Li Long. “By the way, you’ve already communicated everything on your end, so be on time for the morning meeting tomorrow.”

"It's all been discussed." Li Long then explained the process, including his plan to bring young and strong men to work for the old lady.

"Then you lead the people to do the work, what are my people doing?" Li Xiangqian asked.

“Weeding the yard? I’ll have the team leader get a tractor and haul a few loads of sand and gravel from the river to pave the uneven spots in the old lady’s yard. That’s all we can do,” Li Long said. “There are plenty of jobs we can do.”

"Okay, I'll listen to you." Li Xiangqian was also aware of this. These people in his unit were good at pulling weeds and shoveling dirt, but if you asked them to climb onto the roof and plaster the courtyard walls, they really couldn't do it.

And that was the end of it. When Li Long came out, he saw the head of the oil transportation section leading people to clean the cars in the yard. They were not only cleaning the Ladas, but also Li Xiangqian's Volga.

Li Long smiled, said hello, and drove back.

He felt that everyone, whether from the supply and marketing cooperative or the team, cherished the cars after receiving them, while he was an exception, using them purely as tools.

They do cherish it, but not as much as some people do.

Back in the courtyard, Li Long called his older brother and told him about taking able-bodied men to help with the mortar work on roofs the next day.

The eldest brother naturally had no objections and simply called Li Junfeng over to make the arrangements.

Li Junfeng naturally agreed without hesitation. These people were basically bored at home with nothing to do, so giving them some work to do would prevent them from causing trouble.

After Gu Xiaoxia returned from get off work and had dinner, Li Long asked Han Fang to take Mingming and Haohao out to play. He drove his Volga and took Gu Xiaoxia away from the courtyard to the road north of the county town.

There aren't many people on this road in the afternoon. The road surface is quite wide, and the ditches on both sides are relatively shallow, making it suitable for beginners to learn to drive.

Li Long parked the car on the side of the road. Seeing that there were no cars coming from far away on either side, he got out of the car, let Gu Xiaoxia get in, and said:
“Look, it’s like driving a tractor: steering wheel, brakes, clutch, gear shift. Let’s not drive yet, let’s learn the steps of driving first, and then start practicing.” “Okay.” Gu Xiaoxia readily agreed, “When I was a teacher, I taught students the same way, first doing a virtual exercise, and then doing it in practice.”

Gu Xiaoxia got in, and Li Long didn't go to the passenger seat. He just opened the car door and told her what to do, and did what she said.

At first, Gu Xiaoxia found it quite novel and quickly mastered the procedure.

Li Long felt that the best way to learn this was to first learn how to drive a small four-wheeled tractor. Those things are durable and hard to break, no matter how you drive them. Once you get the hang of it, driving a car will be much easier.

However, since the small four-wheeled vehicle has already been delivered to my older brother's house and we feel it's no longer needed, I can only practice driving the car now.

Gu Xiaoxia simulated the operation about ten times without actually starting it, and then she felt she had it almost done. She said to Li Long:
"Shall I try it now?"

“Okay,” Li Long said. “Wait for me to get into the passenger seat. I can help deal with any issues that may arise.”

After Li Long got into the passenger seat, he asked Gu Xiaoxia to start the car.

Gu Xiaoxia was quite excited to start the car herself for the first time. As soon as she heard the engine start, her smile didn't stop.

"Hmm, clutch, shift gears, give it some gas, good, not bad." Li Long watched as Gu Xiaoxia did everything perfectly, and his heart gradually calmed down.

"Don't look down when shifting gears. If you do, the steering wheel will turn," Li Long reminded Gu Xiaoxia, who was not satisfied with the speed in second gear and wanted to shift again. "Don't look down, use manual shifting. Hmm, not bad, you're quick to understand."

"Alright, stop shifting up." Seeing that Gu Xiaoxia was driving quite fast and wanted to continue shifting up, Li Long hurriedly advised, "Slow down slowly, downshift, shift to second gear, shift to second gear!"

Li Long's voice suddenly rose: "Look ahead, there's a huge crater! Shift to second gear! Don't even think about shifting up!"

Gu Xiaoxia was startled by Li Long's shout. She had been driving quite smoothly at first and was being too carefree. When she looked down to find the gear, she didn't see the pothole in front of her. The car dipped and bounced, which bounced her up a bit, and her head hit the roof.

What angered Li Long was that she hit her head with her hand after the collision and then immediately touched the spot where she hit her head, and actually let go of the steering wheel!

Back then, the roads weren't as smooth as they are in later times. Letting go of the steering wheel meant entrusting your life and the car's to the road conditions. If the road conditions were good, you were safe; otherwise, you were doomed.

Li Long didn't have time to shout anymore. He turned sideways, reached for the steering wheel, and began to control the car. At the same time, he said to Gu Xiaoxia:
"Stop covering your head, step on the brakes."

If he hadn't been reincarnated twice, he would have already started cursing by now.

Having returned to old age, his anger subsided quickly. To be honest, Gu Xiaoxia's driving was quite good for her first time.

As for the mishandling of the situation, there are problems with that part.

Gu Xiaoxia knew she had caused trouble, so she mumbled "uh-huh" while stomping her foot down hard!

Instead of stopping, the car accelerated with the roar of its engine!
Li Long was both amused and exasperated; he had accidentally stepped on the accelerator instead of the brake!

When the joke became reality, Li Long was genuinely not angry anymore. Even if you revved the engine, it wasn't an automatic transmission, so it wouldn't go very fast.

So Li Long slowed down his speech and said:
"Lift your foot, um, lift your foot. You're pressing the accelerator, not the brake. You've pressed the wrong one. Now press the brake again, gently, don't press it too hard."

As soon as she finished speaking, Gu Xiaoxia blushed and released the accelerator, then slammed on the brakes. The car jerked violently and then stalled.

Gu Xiaoxia blushed and turned to look at Li Long, her face covered in sweat.

Li Long's anger subsided, and he smiled and said:
"It's okay, it's okay. Everything was fine at first, but I got anxious at the end. I'm also partly to blame for not telling you more. You should have just slowed down and stopped without shifting gears at the beginning."

"Are you treating me like a child?" Gu Xiaoxia clearly knew how big a mistake she had made, and said, "Sigh, actually I was already prepared to get a scolding from you, and then I wasn't planning to drive anymore."

Now that you've said that, I have some confidence in myself again.

"To be honest," Li Long thought to himself, "how did you figure that out?" But he couldn't say it out loud, "You started off pretty well, but you were definitely too eager to succeed later on."

Driving requires a lot of familiarity. The basic movements may seem simple at first, but they must become muscle memory so that you can perform them subconsciously.

Your current weakness is that you're still in a state of mental memorization. It's good that it's the first day; you're making progress and learning from your mistakes. Okay, get down now, it's getting dark, we'll practice again tomorrow.

After Li Long's suggestion, Gu Xiaoxia was a little reluctant to get off the bus. However, looking outside, the pale red glow in the west was slowly fading, and it was indeed getting dark.

As the car drove back, Li Long didn't talk about driving anymore, but instead talked about going to work the next day.

Gu Xiaoxia responded intermittently, but was mostly thinking about driving.

She genuinely felt that if Li Long had scolded her earlier, she wouldn't have driven at all. She understood the seriousness of her mistake; in a different road condition or situation, she might have driven straight into a ditch and caused a fatal accident.

Back home, no one mentioned driving again. They helped Mingming and Haohao wash up, while Li Long planned for tomorrow.

The next day, after breakfast, Li Long drove his GAZ truck directly to Team Four, picked up Li Junfeng and the others who were already prepared, and went to the pastoral team.

Because we need to apply mud to the roof, we need to remove the soil used for mixing the mud beforehand and soak it in water.

The mud used for plastering roofs must be soaked thoroughly in water before being mixed with wheat bran. This mixture is suitable for both roofing and wall plastering.

When Li Xiangqian and the others arrived, there were already two piles of mud in the yard.

Li Xiangqian and his group stopped, letting some people work in the yard while the rest went to the school to hold a book donation ceremony.

The person staying behind to lead the work was the head of the security section. Looking at the mud that Li Junfeng and the others were soaking in, he nodded and said:
"Indeed, an expert."

Li Long went to the school with Li Xiangqian and the others, and Adil followed. Adil quietly told Li Long that the sheep had already been slaughtered. He also said that the sheep belonged to him, not the team.

Li Longchong gave Adil a thumbs-up, indicating that he was doing a good job as captain.

The school was well-prepared. When the car arrived, the students were already lined up. As Li Xiangqian and his group got off, the students, led by their teachers, began chanting "Welcome, welcome! Warmest welcome!"

Hey, it actually does have a bit of that feel to it.

Li Xiangqian and Zhou Yuan carried the two large bags of books and placed them on two old desks that had been set up. Ma Xiaoyan was already taking pictures.

She had just chatted briefly with Li Long, and after donating the books, she planned to have a proper talk with him.

By this time the sun was already quite high in the sky, so the ceremony was kept simple. Li Xiangqian didn't say much before waving his hand and saying that was all, and that they should hurry up and finish giving out the books so as not to delay the children's classes.

Nobody cares if the children get sunburned; the intensity of the sunlight is really nothing.

After donating the books, Li Xiangqian and his team toured the school and then went to work. After Ma Xiaoyan had taken enough footage, she approached Li Long and shared her thoughts:

"Next time you go to the mountains to repair roads, be sure to take me with you."

"It's too far, it's inconvenient," Li Long said. "Didn't you see that Director Li and the others aren't going anymore?"

“Then I want to go too,” Ma Xiaoyan said. “My report should have a beginning and an end, right? I want to write a complete article after the road is repaired. What would it be if I didn’t go in the middle?”

Okay, that's quite principled, seeing things through to the end.

P.S.: On the first day of the creators conference, I encountered the characters for "rice" and "tontontontonton".

(End of this chapter)