Back to 1978

Chapter 145: One person's success brings prosperity to the whole family
Xie Hushan was awakened by thirst. He sat up from the kang and pinched his forehead, which was slightly heavy because the effect of the alcohol had not yet completely disappeared.

As soon as he sat up, he saw a bowl of warm water on the table next to him. He picked it up and gulped down the water. After relieving the dryness in his throat, he got up from the bed and walked out of the house.

As soon as I arrived at the main room, I saw Song Tiesheng helping his grandmother to tidy up the small vegetable garden with a hoe in the setting sun in the yard.

The old man and the young were talking and laughing, and they seemed to be having a very happy chat.

"Third brother, are you awake? You have such a good physique. I estimated that you would not wake up until dark." When Song Tiesheng heard the footsteps, he straightened up and looked at Xie Hushan who came out, waving a small hoe to greet him.

"Don't drink so much next time. Tiesheng took the trouble to carry you back from the commune." Grandma looked at her grandson with a reproachful look and warned him:

"No matter how happy it is, you should be happy in moderation. How can you drink like this?"

Xie Hushan sat on a small bench in the yard and said with a smile:

"Grandma, didn't you ask Tiesheng why he carried me back and why he followed you to work? There are reasons for all this."

In the morning, the Zhongping Production Brigade appointed Xie Hushan as the director of public security. Although the position of director of public security was ranked very low in the brigade cadre sequence and had little presence in normal times, no matter how little presence he had, he was still a full-fledged production brigade cadre, and was more valuable than the title of production team leader like Ma Laowu.

People like Ma Laowu did not have any salary. The Zhongping Production Brigade had 19 production team leaders, but only one director of public security.

And there was also a salary. Xie Hushan was not sure whether the extra bonus was 300 or 500 work points a year, but anyway, as a cadre in the Zhongping Brigade, his work for a year was not in vain. He could probably get one month more work points than ordinary members and enjoy the thirteenth salary.

Lao Feng, Zhang Cheng and Ge Baosheng used their own money and meal tickets to buy him some stir-fried dishes in the commune cafeteria to celebrate.

Then Han Laoer, Chen Daxixi and other young militiamen from the third team, Song Tiesheng and his brothers on the railway also followed.

These guys were cheering and celebrating that Xie Hushan was getting more and more powerful, from being Commander Xie to being Chief Xie, and it seemed that his title and position were only a few steps away from being a traitor.

On the way to the cafeteria, Xie Hushan had already given instructions to these guys. Since they were all young people, they should face the outside world with one voice. Once they got to the cafeteria and sat at the table, they had to stick together and focus on taking down the three old guys, Lao Feng, Lao Zhang and Ge Baosheng.

These bastards all promised very well, and Song Tiesheng even patted his chest and promised Xie Hushan:
"Third brother, it's up to you whether I feed them or not."

As a result, as soon as the food was served and two bowls of wine were drunk, these young fools with unstable stances were instigated by the three old perverts.

Lao Zhang, Lao Feng and Ge Baosheng are such bad guys. They always sit together and drink whenever they have nothing to do. They are very experienced in drinking. With just a few words, they made the railway workers brought by Song Tiesheng and the Zhongping militiamen brought by Han Laoer, two groups of fools, stare at each other and start drinking.

Feng Chunlai was even more cunning. No one knew how he got to the point where he became a distant relative of Song Tiesheng. Anyway, it was said that since the year when the emperor came to power, Song Tiesheng had to call Old Feng his cousin.

Old Feng saw that Song Tiesheng had a good alcohol tolerance, so he tried to trick Song Tiesheng into getting Xie Hushan drunk.

Before the meal, Song Tiesheng promised: "Third brother, it's up to you whether I force them to drink or not."

At the wine table, Xie Hushan said something that hurt his heart: "Third brother, you're done for if I force you to drink."

The last scene before Xie Hushan lost his memory was that Han Laoer and Song Tiesheng, two groups of fools, had been brought together by Lao Zhang and the other three. Under the banner of the workers-peasants alliance, they took turns getting drunk with the newly appointed headman Xie.

Even the production team didn't feed the animals this way...

So before the drinking party was over, Xie Hushan completely blacked out.

"I was careless. How could I have known that your master and his people were such bad people. They would have evil intentions even after drinking with their own apprentice." Song Tiesheng smiled embarrassedly.

Then he put down his hoe, walked over to Xie Hushan and said:

"Third brother, I feel relieved to see you awake. I will leave if everything is fine. My brothers are sobering up in the militia duty room of your brigade. They must be getting anxious waiting for me." As he was about to take out his pocket, Xie Hushan frowned slightly when he saw Song Tiesheng's action.

"Don't take it out. Keep it. Buy something for our mom and our sister. Bring it with you. Tell them that when I'm done with my work these few days, I'll go to our house for dinner and let them taste our mom's cooking."

"Uncle Zhang and you worked together to help my mother squeeze two thousand yuan out of the pipe factory last night. This money..." Song Tiesheng said to Xie Hushan.

He didn't spend a penny of the 500 yuan that Xie Hushan asked him to give last night. Zhang Ming, who was in charge of the railway freight yard, was half a comrade-in-arms of his father in the railway troops. Although they didn't interact much on weekdays, when they saw outsiders bullying their comrade's children, how could they accept money from the children of their comrades and help them vent their anger?

As for the uniforms worn by those guys, they were just put on casually to scare outsiders. They were not railway police, they were all his brothers. He didn't spend any money at all, he just said a word.

However, after Xie Hushan and Zhang Ming met and exchanged a few words, the two of them extorted a large sum of money from the steel pipe factory. Zhang Ming received 5,000 yuan on behalf of the freight yard, and also received a huge sum of 2,000 yuan for Song Tiesheng's mother, allowing the Song family to step directly into a well-off life.

So Song Tiesheng wanted to return the five hundred yuan to Xie Hushan.

"Keep it, stand still." Xie Hushan stood up and went back into the house. He soon came out with another 4,500 yuan in his hand and handed it to Song Tiesheng:
"You should keep this money too. Don't refuse it. It's not for you. I told you and your friends about it at the dinner table. Do you remember?"

"Remember, ask that old man Liu Changhai to help you find people and connections in various steel factories in the county to see if there are any usable steel rolling machines that your factory can use and transfer them to you," said Song Tiesheng.

Before starting to drink, Xie Hushan was afraid that he would lose his memory due to drinking, so he told Song Tiesheng in advance that Liu Changhai would hand over Song Tiesheng and several of his brothers to him for the next period of time, and let the old man take them to the steel plant to hang out and collect some money.

The old guy Liu Changhai is a skilled worker. He did not become the workshop director casually. He really has the skills and has worked in the steel industry for most of his life. He has connections and skills. He used his son to keep him company and asked him to find a way to help the Zhongping Brigade's steel rolling mill collect some scrap and recruit some talents.

"Keep five hundred for you and your brothers to eat, and the remaining four thousand for scrap collection. Don't think you don't have to spend money. Ask Liu what the steel mill will do if it doesn't have money to buy a gantry crane. The original earth cranes of the major iron mills in Bingyang County are made and what parts are needed. The old man must know. Don't you need money to buy those parts? You are really waiting to be shot if you bring people to extort money?" Xie Hushan said to Song Tiesheng in a calm tone:
"Don't be afraid to spend money. Tell me when you run out of flowers and I'll get you more."

"How much can the junk be worth? I think what you gave me is a bit too much. I understand. I'll take it." When Song Tiesheng heard that the money was for them to bring Lao Bangzi to collect junk, he stopped refusing and turned to his grandmother and said:
"Sixth Aunt, I'm leaving."

"It's getting dark, why go back? Stay here and share a room with Hu San." Grandma had been busy tidying up the vegetable garden and didn't hear what her grandson and Song Tiesheng said. When she heard that Song Tiesheng was about to leave, she shouted to try to keep him.

"Grandma, I have a car. I drove here from the pipe factory. Don't worry. I will stay here again next time. I have to go back to see my mother." After Song Tiesheng said this to his grandmother, he smiled at Xie Hushan and walked out the door.

"Grandma, let me take you there..." Xie Hushan was about to take Song Tiesheng to the militia duty room, but Song Tiesheng stopped Xie Hushan and said honestly:

"Don't send me off, Third Brother. Our friendship doesn't stop at these few steps. I see that my grandmother's legs and feet are not in good condition. Please take care of her. I'm leaving now. Please take good care of my sister-in-law whom I haven't met yet."

After Song Tiesheng disappeared from his sight, Xie Hushan returned to the courtyard and sat down. His grandmother was picking freshly cut spring chives. Xie Hushan helped her pick the chives. His grandmother glanced at her grandson and muttered:

"The brigade used a loudspeaker to announce in the morning that the brigade had held a general meeting of cadres. Chief Qiu had resigned because he was old, and the brigade cadres unanimously agreed to let you be the director of public security. Your aunt was so happy that she ran back from her work in the glass factory cafeteria and walked around the village twice. She was just short of parading through the streets holding a sign that said 'Director of Public Security Xie Hushan is my nephew.'"

"If you ask me, anyone can be a village chief. Before liberation, one had to be a smooth-talking person. With your personality, would you be able to be so servile and smiley in front of the Japanese?"

"Now the head of the village doesn't have to put on a smiling face to the Japs. He just needs to listen to his leader, just like what Dahei does every day in the third team. He has to guard the Zhongping Battalion well. I will bite anyone who messes with our battalion." Xie Hushan said with a smile.

Grandma was also amused:
"Listen to yourself, are you talking like a brigade cadre? How can you compare yourself to a dog? The whole county knows that we have an old dog named Han in our brigade, and now we have to add another little dog like you?"

Xie Hushan fetched a basin of water and soaked the leeks that grandma had picked clean in the basin to wash them, so that grandma would not have to touch the cold water again. He said to her:
"By the way, let me take Taozi over. You are old now, and there still needs to be someone at home to take care of you for me."

"You say so, so we can take her in? Taozi's household registration is still at Yakou. If she comes here now, we won't have her work points and food rations. We have to wait until you reach the age next year and get the certificate." Grandma smiled when she heard Xie Hushan mention Taozi.

"I'm helping the brigade to open a factory as a sideline business. I'm the factory director. Does it matter whether Taozi has work points and food rations? She must be a worker under me. I pay Taozi a monthly salary. I can't deduct anyone else's salary." Xie Hushan said to his grandmother confidently:

"When one person succeeds, everyone around him will benefit. This old saying makes sense. Anyway, since I'm the factory director, Dahei will at least be treated like the head of the factory security department."

(End of this chapter)