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Chapter 30 Silent Beast

Han Hongzhen rode her mother-in-law on a bicycle slowly and carefully on the country road, turning her head from time to time to look at Xie Hushan who was pulling a cart towards Zhongping Village.

He took off his shirt and tied it around his waist. His strong upper body was bare and covered with sweat. He held the handlebars with both hands, and a pulling strap was tied diagonally across his chest. He walked forward step by step in silence.

If I were to go to the market and pull the cart for such a long time on a normal day, even if my mother-in-law was helping to push the cart from behind when encountering bumps and ditches, I would have stopped to rest two or three times, wipe the sweat off my face, and catch my breath.

But Xie Hushan pulled the cart from Yuanmenqiao market all the way to Zhongping Village, which is now in sight. He never stopped for a step or said a word during the fourteen miles, just like a quiet, docile and tireless animal.

Although Ma Laowu did not provide himself with a donkey cart, the newly assigned team leader had the aura of an animal. It felt great to have a man like an animal pulling the cart without having to work so hard himself.

However, even though Xie Hushan performed well, Han Hongzhen still felt that there was something wrong with his brain.

He pulled the cart in a very experienced posture, with his body leaning forward and his eyes looking at the ground a few steps ahead. One could tell at a glance that he had done a lot of heavy work in the production team. But in fact, Han Hongzhen discovered that his eyes were not looking at the road conditions at all. It was more like he was staring at the ground while walking.

Every time there were bumps and grooves on the road ahead, even though he could clearly avoid them, he would pull the cart straight past them like a blind horse with its eyes covered. Only when the pots and pans on the cart made noises due to the bumps would he turn his head as if he had just woken up, and then give his mother-in-law an apologetic smile, and then continue to pull the cart forward with his eyes dull.

It’s a blind horse, so what? It’s better than pulling the cart yourself.

But what on earth is this guy thinking about? He has been thinking for fourteen miles and still hasn’t finished it.

On the way he was carrying himself to the market, he was still angry about what he had said wrong and argued with himself.

When they arrived at the market, he did not actively help to clean up the tables, chairs and benches. Instead, he asked her to get off the car from a distance, pretended not to know him, and walked back to the wonton stall by himself.

He rode his bicycle to the market where everyone was busy packing up their stalls, wandered around, greeted and chatted with many vendors in a friendly manner, and finally, as if tired, he sat on an open space a few meters opposite the bun stall, smoking a cigarette quietly. Like a greedy worm, he stretched his neck to watch the people at the bun stall packing up and loading the buns into the truck.

Seeing that the other person's brake rope was not tightened, he dropped his cigarette and ran over to help. The other person just said thank you to him casually, and he looked flattered.

Han Hongzhen was furious at his behavior. She and her mother-in-law were sweating from turning off the engine, transferring tables and loading the truck, but he didn't even look at them.

He didn't come over until all the food vendors in the market had left. He didn't feel ashamed of being lazy and trying to please others. He just let his mother-in-law carry him on his bicycle while he closed the stall and went back to Zhongping Village.

This guy is out of his mind. Han Hongzhen pondered for a long time and could only come up with this answer.

When her mother-in-law reminded her quietly again, Han Hongzhen called out, "Hey, Team Leader Xie, how about I pull the car over so you can take a break on your bike?"

She said it twice before Xie Hushan turned around and looked at her blankly: "What did you say just now?"

"Let Hongzhen pull the cart. Hushan, drink some water and take a breath. Otherwise, your grandma will pick a fight with me when she knows that her eldest grandson has been pulling the cart all the way and there is no one to take your place to rest. " Han Hongzhen's mother-in-law also spoke with an apologetic look on her face and persuaded him to take a rest.

"No, this job is not tiring. It is much easier than working in the fields with the production team. There is only a small amount on this cart. The production team will use this thing to fill it with farm manure. Two people share a cart, one pulling and the other pushing, loading and unloading, and applying fertilizer to the fields. It is much more tiring than it is now." Xie Hushan smiled at the two men and rejected the suggestion of taking a break.

"Hey, you're not really planning to pull the cart back by yourself and then ask your fifth uncle to transfer me and my mother to the tofu workshop, right?" Han Hongzhen suddenly thought of the angry words the man had said before and asked.

Xie Hushan said honestly: "No, I can't cook. Besides, I only have two team members. If they are both gone, who will replace me?"

"You can't cook, so why did you insist on telling Uncle Wu that you want to be the leader of the sideline group? Aren't you afraid that others will think you're lazy and embarrassed when you join a sideline group?"

"I can't cook, but I can make money." Xie Hushan turned his head to look at Han Hongzhen and grinned. The sunlight shining on his face made his teeth look even whiter and brighter, making his smile a little creepy.

Han Hongzhen did not question it again after her mother-in-law reminded her. She drove the cart to Zhongping Village. When she passed the commune supply and marketing cooperative, Xie Hushan stopped the car and went in. When he came out, his trouser pockets were bulging, and he had obviously bought something. Going further, the elementary school was just letting out. Daxiu, who stood out among the students, saw Xie Hushan passing by with a cart on the road. She threw the scraps of cloth schoolbag her mother had sewn at a classmate next to her and ordered without even looking at him:

"Send it home to me!"

Then he ran towards Xie Hushan: "Brother!"

After she called out "brother", the cart shook violently, and Daxiu had already jumped onto the edge of the cart, causing the marks on Xie Hushan's shoulders left by the strap to deepen.

Xie Hushan laughed: "You think your brother's car is not heavy enough, so you come to help hold down the car? You really love me."

"That's right, I did it on purpose... Wait a minute!" Daxiu said halfway when she suddenly realized what was happening. She jumped off the car again, ran to the boy she had forced to carry her schoolbag for, and snatched his schoolbag back.
"Give it to me! Why didn't you call me when I forgot something? You're twelve and still acting like an idiot!"

Then he caught up with Xie Hushan with his schoolbag, sat on the eaves of the car again, and took out a handful of hand-rolled cigarettes made from textbooks from his schoolbag to show off to Xie Hushan:

"Look, I rolled it for you and my grandfather at school!"

"Well, you are worthy of being my sister. You are as promising as your brother. I work and have a side job, and you go to school and have a side job. Where do you get the tobacco?" Xie Hushan asked with a smile.

Daxiu said proudly, "It belongs to old man Ding in the office. I took it from his tobacco box. Don't worry, he can't tell. I only took more than half, not all."

"You can't even tell that you stole more than half of the tobacco. What's the matter? Did your teacher blind you before you stole it?" Xie Hushan raised his own question after hearing Daxiu's words.

"No, I've been eyeing his box for a long time. I rolled one for my grandfather once before, and he said it had a nice smell and was gray and white with bright flames. So I saved the tea foam that my father drank every day for more than half a month in advance, dried it, and rubbed some dry gourd leaves, took out the tobacco, and spread the broken tea leaves and gourd leaves at the bottom of his box. There were still tobacco leaves on top. As long as he smoked sparingly, he would definitely not be able to tell before the holiday."

"Go stay with your grandma these few nights and tell her what I said. Your mom will definitely agree. I bought you some delicious food as a reward tonight."

"Really? I've been wanting to sleep with my grandma for a long time. My mom always pinches me!"

When he saw the end of Team 3's territory, Xie Hushan stopped, took off his sling, rubbed the marks on his shoulders, and said to Han Hongzhen, "Take the car away. Where is the market tomorrow? How far is it?"

"Liushenzhuang is nine miles away from here." Han Hongzhen first helped her mother-in-law get off the bicycle, then walked over, took out a towel from the cart bed and put it under her shoulders, and then tied the strap of the cart diagonally on her shoulders.

"Auntie, I will arrange someone else to accompany your daughter-in-law to the stall. You can take a rest first. We may need you to do some dirty and tiring work in a few days." Xie Hushan pushed the bicycle and said to Han Hongzhen's mother-in-law.

Han Hongzhen's mother-in-law said with some embarrassment: "It's okay to be a little tired, but... Hushan, our wonton stand is already unprofitable with only three people. If we add more people, how many wontons do we have to sell to earn back the work points given by the team? We can't let the team suffer. Besides, Lao Wu has the final say on this matter..."

"It's okay. I know what to do. You can take a rest first." Xie Hushan said, looking at Han Hongzhen who was pulling the cart. "At two o'clock in the night, bring the cart to my door. We can go together then. I will find someone to pull the cart."

"Two o'clock? There's no need to get up so early in Jiuli. We can still make it in time after three o'clock to go with the guys selling fried fruits from Team Five. We usually go with others so we can have someone to look after us." Han Hongzhen was shocked to hear the time. It was too early to leave.

"If I say two o'clock, then it's two o'clock. By the way, if you meet Accountant Zhao when you go to the team headquarters to talk to Ermianfei, please tell him for me that the bicycle needs to be borrowed for another day." Xie Hushan didn't say much. He got on his bicycle, carrying Xie Yuxiu on his back and walked towards his home.

Han Hongzhen pulled the cart, glanced at her mother-in-law who was helping her push the cart, and walked decisively towards the team headquarters. She did want to report to Ma Laowu about Xie Hushan's temporary replacement of personnel. After all, the work points in the team were not decided by Xie Hushan, and Ma Laowu's approval was needed in the end.

When they were almost at the door of his house, Xie Hushan said to Xie Yuxiu who was sitting in the back seat, "Go and see if your brother, my deputy commander Lao Meng, is home. If he is, tell him that Commander Xie asked him to come to our house for dinner tonight."

(End of this chapter)