Back to 1978

Chapter 81 A sudden visit
When Xie Hushan and Han Hongbing arrived at the riverbed that their brigade was responsible for, there were already thirty or forty people from the brigade gathered nearby, and a few militiamen in the middle were smashing something with shovels.

Xie Hushan had already learned from Han Hongbing that they had dug up a skeleton when they were digging soil and loading it onto the truck.

The general command of the reservoir project has obviously encountered this problem many times, so it has set up relevant regulations long ago. Once coffins, bones, etc. are dug out during the earthwork project, the relevant brigade will be responsible for taking them to the wasteland near the reservoir for secondary burial.

In other words, whoever digs someone out is responsible for burying him again.

But who would be willing to go out of their way to dig a hole to bury these bones after a day's work? So when a skeleton was occasionally dug out, a few militiamen would just hit it with shovels, smash the already rotten bones into pieces, load them on a truck and send them to the dam to add bricks and tiles to the reservoir.

But the situation is a little different today. Just now, the militiamen from the Zhongping Brigade dug out a skeleton with a few shovels, but didn't take it seriously. Soon, they dug out four or five more skeletons and two coffins.

With so many skeletons lying around and it being nearly dark, everyone was feeling unlucky and worried, wondering what to do with them.

If we go to a wasteland to dig a hole and bury the body, who will do it so late at night? Who wouldn't want to go back home to eat early and watch various shows after eating?

So they all made excuses and didn't want to go, so Han Hongbing called Xie Hushan and asked him, the team leader, to solve the problem.

Xie Hushan pushed through the crowd and what came into view was the ground covered with smashed bones and porcelain pieces. There were also a large number of copper coins scattered near two coffins that had been rotten beyond recognition and broken into pieces of wood of varying sizes.

"Who told you to smash all the bottles and jars!" Xie Hushan looked at the edges of the porcelain pieces. They were all new. Obviously, these pieces were intact when they were dug out, and were later smashed by these guys.

Seeing this scene, his heart was bleeding. If it hadn't been smashed, the headquarters would have asked the brigade to deal with it, and he would have packed it up himself and run away to Hong Kong Island to sell it as an antique. If there was something valuable among them, he would have made his first pot of gold!
"What's the point of keeping them? They're all olds! Just smash them! The people from the command center just came to take a look and said that you can just smash them, take them away and bury them. Don't load them in trucks and send them to the dam. They may get people stabbed." The militiamen who had just participated in smashing the bone rack and five or six porcelain jars looked puzzled.

In their opinion, there is no use in keeping this thing used by the dead, and it is even unlucky to take it home and use it as a pickle jar.

Xie Hushan looked at them, knowing that even if he told them the truth, that these things might be worth a lot of money, they wouldn't believe him, so he simply changed his tone to an impatient one:
"Fuck! Can I put them at the door of my shack at night as urinals? Our shack is so far from the toilet that my Der freezes inside when I go to the toilet in the middle of the night! If I have these jars, I can avoid freezing a few times! You guys don't know how to live!"

"Yes, Commander Xie is right. If we don't smash it, it will be too cold to go to the toilet at night!" Several militiamen suddenly realized and looked at the broken pottery jar with some regret:
"We should have waited for Commander Xie to arrive before we took action! It was too hasty!"

"Where did you dig it out? Are there any more?" Xie Hushan asked as he squatted on the ground and looked at the copper coins all over the floor.

Chen Daxi said beside him:
"No, they're all here. I looked around nearby, but there's nothing valuable. But there are a lot of worthless, rusty coins."

"Have our team transported enough earth for today?" Xie Hushan stood up and asked Han Hongbing.

Han Hongbing nodded: "That's enough."

"Be careful next time. When you dig up bottles and jars, don't smash them to make noises. Tell me first. Daxi, take everyone back to disperse and have a rest. Take a break. Pack up the tools. Han Laoer, you stay and carry on the tradition. Come with me to bury these things in the wasteland." After Xie Hushan finished speaking to everyone, he finally chose to deal with the mess himself and Han Hongbing.

A group of young men cheered and loudly praised Xie Hushan for his loyalty, but they pushed their carts faster and faster towards the shack, fearing that he would go back on his word.

Han Hongbing sighed, "If I had known that you would let me stay and do this unlucky job with you, I would not have informed you and would have directly passed on the false imperial decree to let Daxi and the others do it."

Seeing that he was standing there without any hurry to move, Xie Hushan waved his hand: "It's getting dark soon, hurry up and pick up these copper coins on the ground for me." "What do you want these for?" Han Hongbing didn't understand what Xie Hushan wanted these copper coins for. He squatted down, reached out to pick up a few and observed them in his hand. They were covered with dirt and rust, and some were so rusted that they could not recognize their original appearance.

Xie Hushan picked up the copper coins and said, "Go back and clean them up. I'll use them to cover the bottom of the box when I give them to the girl."

"Then you just need to pick out eight or ten that are not rusted. Why pick so many? Otherwise, you can come to my house and take them. I think I have a string of copper coins. Although they are also rusty, they are better than these dead people's money. Besides, you must use dead people's money to give to the girl. Don't you think it's unlucky?" Han Hongbing complained as he picked up the copper coins.

Every family in the countryside can probably find some old money, which is useless and cannot be spent. The biggest use of this thing is to put it in a baggage bag or at the bottom of a cabinet. When someone's son gets married, the parents will visit the neighbors and ask for a dozen of them.

Xie Hushan said, "Pick it up if I tell you to. I've cleaned it up. If you don't tell me, who would know it's the money of a dead person?"

After picking up the hundreds of copper coins on the ground, Xie Hushan put them in a saddlebag made from the vest tied around his waist and carried them on his shoulders. The two of them pushed a pile of broken porcelain pieces, wood and bones towards the wasteland in the distance. Xie Hushan started digging a hole, while Han Hongbing watched from the side smoking. Suddenly he asked in confusion:

"Oh, no! I just realized, Commander Xie, you don't like the girl, so why do you want to make a big appointment? If you don't want to, can you keep this in your heart?"

Xie Hushan straightened up and took a breath, then looked at Han Hongbing while holding the shovel:
"My grandma likes her. What can I do if I don't want to? I'll just go along with her and make her happy. It's still early to get married anyway."

"That's right. Sixth Grandma is really good to you. She has spoiled you since you were little. I remember it very clearly. When you were little, you had a fight with Ma San. You won and beat him so hard that his head was covered with bruises. You ran away crying, but Ma San's nails scratched your face. When you got home, Sixth Grandma saw it. She dragged you directly to Ma San's house, pointed at Ma San and asked you to beat him up. Ma San's parents, who didn't know the truth, followed you and beat Ma San up again." Han Hongbing said with emotion:
"At that time, I didn't understand why my mother always took me to apologize to people after I got into a fight. Why couldn't she be like Sixth Grandma and dare to scratch my grandson's face? She would immediately take her grandson to beat up the other person."

"My grandma is so unreasonable. I don't know why she dotes on me so much. She has been doting on me since I was born. She is even more excessive than my own grandmother." Xie Hushan also laughed:
"Fighting doesn't count. My grandma is so partial to me. Her kang cabinet is like a magician. When Xiaobao and his friends are hungry, they go to the cabinet and find nothing. I don't have to look for anything. My grandma can conjure up something to eat. Anyway, only I can eat it. Otherwise, my second uncle would be so angry that he doesn't want to talk to me. He thinks I have stolen grandma's favor and made Xiaobao unpopular."

From childhood to adulthood, his own grandmother had never doted on him as much as his aunt. Even with the memories of two lives, Xie Hushan felt that apart from helping him find a blind date, his grandmother was impeccable in the rest of the time. Her doting and partiality towards him had reached the point of being insane.

"Commander Xie, Chief of Staff Han! It's time to eat! Hurry up!" Ma Saner shouted to the two men digging a pit from a distance.

"Here we go!" Xie Hushan dug the pit with the shovel several times in a row, poured the bone fragments in, and then added a few shovels of soil to bury the ancient man who had lived there for who knows how many years.

In the shack at night, only a gas lamp at the door was still on. Snoring could be heard all around. Han Hongbing lay on his blanket and asked Xie Hushan, who was soaking his feet in hot water, "What's the good of that?"
"Thank you, Commander. We have done something. In the past month, except for the brigades around the reservoir, our external support brigades have basically won the red flag. Last week, Li Hu and his men fought until ten o'clock at night and won the red flag. If we don't do it again, we won't be able to brag to others. We still need to boost morale."

He was really impressed by Xie Hushan's courage. Although he had not won the mobile red flag once, it did not affect his going to the commune headquarters every day before going to bed to borrow half a pot of hot water to wash his face and soak his feet. The leaders of the commune's logistics group all said and did not say that they hoped he could lead the team to win the red flag, but he did not give them a definite answer.

"Hiss... they are all empty names, floating clouds. The more work points you earn here, the fewer work points your parents will get as bonuses at the end of the year. Do you understand?" Xie Hushan soaked his feet in the water, breathing comfortably, closing his eyes and enjoying the rare relaxation of the day:
"I've already said that we are here to provide support. The local communes and brigades are the main force, and we are friendly troops standing by to cheer them on. We just need to not hold them back, and don't overestimate our own capabilities and try to steal credit from their main force."

Han Hongbing hesitated: "But everyone... is holding back their energy, waiting for you to speak up. They all think you must do it, but they are still choosing a day. If they know you don't want to do it, they will definitely get angry and report it to the brigade and the commune, and withdraw you to reflect on yourself for two days, right?"

"I thank them. They treated me as if I was willing to come here. My side business was doing well and I was about to have a good year, but I was thrown here to do hard labor." Xie Hushan said.

"I knew you couldn't control your mouth!" The straw curtain of the shack was opened from the outside, and a figure holding a flashlight walked in.

(End of this chapter)