Back to 1978

Chapter 40 Xie Qimao's Strength
In the morning, Chen Chunxiang got up early as usual. She first lit a fire in the stove to heat up yesterday's leftovers. Then she went to the yard to pump water. She filled the water tank first, then carried the bucket to water the vegetable beds in the yard. Then she went back to the house, rubbing her waist, and prepared to call her husband Xie Qimao to get up for dinner.

As a result, as soon as she entered the house, she found that her husband was missing. Chen Chunxiang searched the house and the yard for two rounds, and even opened the urine bucket in the toilet to take a look, but she still couldn't find her husband.

"Da Mao? Damao!"

"What are you doing?" Xie Qimao's voice came from the roof.

Chen Chunxiang looked up and saw that her husband had climbed onto the roof at some point. He was now lying on the roof with half of his upper body leaning down along the eaves, and was carefully sprinkling something into the swallow's nest under the eaves with his hands.

"What are you doing?" Chen Chunxiang looked up at her husband and said with disgust:

"Your daughter knocks on the eaves with a stick twice a day, either to wake up the swallows or to wake them up. Daxiu is not at home these days. Are you going to take her place? I beg you two on behalf of the whole family, please let them go! It's not easy for the little swallows to survive in our house."

"I went to the toilet just now and saw a small hole on the ground. I opened it and found quite a few small pupae. These are good things. They can feed the little swallows so that they can fly away in the autumn and have the strength to come back next year." After Xie Qimao put all the pupae in his hand into the hole, he stepped back a long way before telling his wife that he was feeding the swallows, for fear that the noise would be too loud and disturb the birds.

"When my father wanted to marry me to the son of the big cart shop, I should have agreed. Why do I have to live with you? Living with you is not as good as the life of Yan Zi. I cook for you in the morning, but you don't forget to find food for Yan Zi when you get up in the morning." Chen Chunxiang complained and grumbled, but still walked over and supported her husband to slowly climb down from the wall:

"Wash your face, change clothes and eat. After dinner, go to your unit to help Hu Saner with his affairs."

At Chen Chunxiang's urging, Xie Qimao washed, shaved, had breakfast, changed into a white Dacron shirt, a pair of blue overalls, and a pair of clean cloth shoes with thousand-layer soles, and went to the Zhongping Village long-distance bus station to wait for the bus.

In 1972, Zhongping Village had a long-distance bus station. Every day, a bus would depart from the starting point, Bingyang County Long-distance Bus Station, and the terminal, Qinglongqiao Long-distance Bus Station, at : in the morning, and come again in the afternoon, making it convenient for rural people to go to the city and return to the village.

The ticket price from Zhongping Village to the county town has not changed in six years, it is 35 cents, and a round trip is 70 cents. This price is a bit expensive for rural people. After all, in a slightly worse production team, a laborer's work point is only worth 70 or 80 cents a day, and a day's hard work is enough to buy two tickets.

If you can't bear to spend the ticket money, there are other ways, that is, to wait for a rickshaw driver from your village or nearby who is also going to the county town, pass by there, and take a ride with him. It is much cheaper than the ticket, usually only a box of Labor cigarettes for nine cents, or you can go back and buy the other person half a pound of the cheapest "roadside" loose liquor, or you can even be simple and give the other person ten cents.

Therefore, the rickshaw drivers are basically the local rich men of each team. They are generous when they have the opportunity to earn some extra money.

Xie Qimao was the director of the veterinary station. The drivers in the nearby villages had to know him even if they didn't know their own team leaders. So after a while, he took a mule cart to the county town, which took more than two hours to get to the county town.

Just as I was standing in the duty room at the entrance of the Animal Husbandry Bureau of Bingyang County preparing to register, the window of an office on the second floor of the compound office building was pushed open and someone shouted, "Old Wei!"

The security guard, Lao Wei, was startled. He looked in the direction of the voice and saw Deputy Director Jiao Peng sticking his head out and looking at him: "Hold him down! Don't let him get away!"

"Who is it?" Xie Qimao just took the pen from the guard, but the guard pressed his hand on the table. Xie Qimao looked confused and said, "Stop it."

Soon, Jiao Peng rushed out of the building, grabbed Xie Qimao from the guard, and dragged him into the courtyard:
"Old man, you have made great progress! Who else would go back to their own unit and register like you? You can make the guards not recognize you. You are the only one in our bureau."

He dragged Xie Qimao back to his office, pressed him down on the sofa, and made tea himself. Then Jiao Peng leaned against his desk and looked at Xie Qimao:
"You are amazing! Every time there is a meeting in the county, you always send someone else to come. It is harder to see you than Tang Seng to see Tathagata Buddha!"

"I'm deaf. When I sit in a meeting, I can't hear what is said at all. I can't take good notes. I can't convey the spirit of the meeting clearly when I go back, which delays things." Xie Qimao looked at his former deputy station chief with a smile.

"Then why don't you come to the county to sit with me for a while? It is only during the Chinese New Year every year that I find an opportunity to go to the countryside to visit you at the veterinary station, so that we can meet. What's the matter? You don't take me seriously. Wait for me to make things difficult for you. How about this, you go back to the unit and be responsible for burning the boiler in the summer, and be the deputy team leader of the office's heatstroke prevention and cooling team in the winter, and preside over the team's daily work." Deputy Director Jiao joked with a smile.

Xie Qimao sat on the sofa, rubbing his hands and smiling:

"You are not trying to make things difficult for me. You are just not letting me do any work. You are treating me like a pig."

"People like you feel the most uncomfortable when you are not allowed to do any work. If you are allowed to feel comfortable, that's considered making things difficult for you. Tell the truth, what did you do sneaking back here?" Jiao Peng saw that Xie Qimao was uncomfortable on the sofa, so he simply pulled out the chair behind his desk, let him sit on the chair, and sat on the sofa himself, talking face to face.

"I came back to discuss work with the director." Xie Qimao took a sip of tea and explained his purpose. "The director has gone to the countryside, and the secretary has gone to the county committee for a meeting. I am now temporarily in charge of the work. Tell me, what big thing happened? It must be something big to make you willing to move back to the unit." Jiao Peng pushed the frame of his glasses on his nose and asked.

He knew Xie Qimao too well and knew that the other party must have something to do, and it was not official business, otherwise this old guy would not have come to the company on his own and would have sent someone else away.

When Jiao Peng first started working, he was assigned to the Zhongping Veterinary Station. During the years he worked with Xie Qimao, his grassroots business capabilities grew a lot.

And because Xie Qimao had poor hearing, he was always given the job of going to the county town, giving him the opportunity to become familiar to the leaders of the unit. Later, Xie Qimao was transferred from the Zhongping Veterinary Station back to the bureau to be responsible for the animal epidemic prevention and control work in several suburban farms. Not only was he promoted in his position, but he was also able to be transferred back to the city.

Xie Qimao recommended Jiao Peng without any hesitation. As Jiao Peng had always been arranged by Xie Qimao to go to the county town to make himself familiar to the public, the bureau actually agreed to this and Jiao Peng was transferred back to the county town to work.

Later, during special times, someone said that they wanted to help Jiao Peng tighten his belt, and it was Xie Qimao who took his family to Zhongping. They lived and ate at Xie Qimao's house for more than half a year.

Not to mention that he believed that Xie Qimao would never do anything to abuse his power for personal gain, for Jiao Peng, given Xie Qimao's affection for him, even if Xie Qimao really wanted to abuse his power for personal gain and proposed something difficult, he was ready to agree.

Xie Qimao was a little embarrassed: "Why don't I wait for the director to come back before I come. I'll ask you to help me with my personal matters, but I still need to talk to the leader about official matters."

"I don't know you yet. Are you willing to handle official business by yourself? Tell me clearly." Jiao Peng said incisively.

Xie Qimao moved closer to Jiao Peng awkwardly and lowered his voice: "I want to talk to the director about adding a cafeteria to the Zhongping Veterinary Station and see if the unit can approve this application."

"To be honest, it's definitely not official business. No matter which station is adding more, your station won't add more, unless there is another reason. Just tell me the real reason for adding more canteens."

Seeing Jiao Peng staring at him, Xie Qimao lowered his head and sighed: "Before, I asked my subordinates to come to the bureau for a meeting and asked him to mention my nephew to you..."

"Xie Hushan, you are waiting to save money to marry a wife, right? I remember that. Don't worry, I will take care of that matter. Even if there is only one spot, it will be his." Jiao Peng almost immediately said his nephew's name.

"This kid is a good person. You know your sister-in-law. She is very caring. She got married because his father didn't care about her and she didn't have much dowry. She just wanted to save more for Daxiu..." Xie Qimao naggled on and on about the family affairs that happened in his family not long ago, and finally said:
"He is now the leader of the sideline group of the third production team of Zhongping Brigade. His group sells wontons. The team doesn't kill pigs, so there is no meat. Not many people eat vegetarian wontons, so he... Anyway, when will the director come back?"

At the end, Xie Qimao's face turned red and he asked when the director would be back.

Jiao Peng took out a cigarette and lit it for Xie Qimao, then he lit one for himself:
"Your station will add a canteen, and you can sign a contract with the meat processing plant of the Bingyang State-owned Food Company to supply meat to your canteen. Then their sideline group will coordinate some meat from you to sell. Is that right?"

"...You think that if we do this, the country and the unit will suffer losses?" Xie Qimao raised his head and asked awkwardly.

"What's the point of losing money? The production team is not not paying you for the meat. They just asked your veterinary station to help. At least 60% of the veterinary stations in the communes in our county have small canteens. How many of them really eat for themselves?" Jiao Peng understood the purpose of his old friend's visit, stood up and walked out the door:

"Drink some water and wait for me. I'll go and help you with this."

"Isn't the director not here?" Xie Qimao asked puzzledly.

Jiao Peng opened the door and walked out: "You don't need to ask the director for this matter. I'll ask the logistics department to do it. I'll tell the director when he comes back and it'll be over."

After walking a few steps, he returned to the door and said to Xie Qimao inside: "But Old Xie, you have to promise me that you will not leave tonight. Come home with me and stay at my place. Let my wife cook a few dishes and have a few drinks. If you dare to run away, I will make sure that your canteen will never be able to open again in your lifetime, and your nephew will be a bachelor for the rest of his life."

Soon, Jiao Peng came back and said, "It's done. I asked the logistics department to send some meat to your station. Let your nephew use it tomorrow to save you the trouble. Come home with me tonight to reminisce about the past."

(End of this chapter)