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Chapter 92 Three Express Trains (4K)

When Xie Hushan rode Yang Limin's bicycle back to his home, Daxiu had already returned to the yard. Not afraid of the cold, he was chewing frozen persimmon cakes made from his own persimmon tree. He was in the yard teaching Taozi to whistle. Seeing that Taozi couldn't whistle, Daxiu said:

"Sister-in-law, why are you so stupid? It's 嗎~~~ not 嗎~"

Just then, Xie Hushan came in pushing his bicycle. He looked speechlessly at Daxiu who thought others were stupid, and frowned:

"You know what? I, your brother, like to listen to this kind of whistle! I have a bad prostate and it makes me feel good! What are you whistling? It's like stepping on a pig's tail. It makes people's heads hurt!"

The more he looked at Taozi, the more he liked her. What a nice girl, nothing wrong with her except that she was a little thin. Why did he look at her like a yellow-haired girl before, and even said she was a stray cat that had been hungry for several days?
Look, this girl has practiced her whistle so well. Whistling is very practical and can be used in the future to coax children to go to the toilet.

Daxiu's whistle is useless except for scaring all the cats and dogs in the village.

After hearing what her brother said, Daxiu felt that the persimmon cake in her hand suddenly lost its fragrance. It turned out that her brother had always praised her for learning to whistle quickly and blowing loudly.

Taozi burst out laughing and turned around to comfort Daxiu, who was as angry as a frog. She saw that Xie Hushan came back pushing the bicycle with both hands. She was stunned for a moment. She recognized it. It was Yang Liming's bicycle. Xie Hushan must have gone to see Yang Liming.

This made Taozi's heart rise to her throat. Although Yang Liming had previously told them to keep the matter to themselves and pretend that nothing had happened, who knew if Xie Hushan had discovered anything wrong?
However, she observed that Xie Hushan seemed to be unaware of this and was as cheerful as when he left. She breathed a sigh of relief and put her heart at ease. She walked towards the main hall with Xie Hushan, saying:

"Uncle and aunt are here. Uncle said he found a job for you before. Now he has confirmed the news. You should go and listen."

As he spoke, he quickly scooped out half a bowl of warm water from the pot on the kang and handed it to Xie Hushan: "Hold it and let it cool for a while before drinking it. Warm your hands first."

"Hey." Xie Hushan walked into the east room holding hot water. His aunt was sitting on the kang, altering some work clothes that Xie Hushan brought back with his grandmother. His uncle Xie Qimao was sitting beside the kang, just smiling as he watched his mother and daughter-in-law busying themselves.

"Uncle, Auntie." After saying hello, Xie Hushan prepared to sit on the stool.

The grandmother who was working over there had already reached out and pulled away the pillow on the kang, pointing to the spot where she had been covering her head for a long time: "You just came back from outside, come sit here."

"Uncle, Minister Zhang of the commune's armed forces department specifically told me that the notice had been sent to the commune and that you were the one who handled it. He didn't know exactly, so he asked me to come back and ask you?" Xie Hushan sat obediently on the warm kang and asked the uncle curiously.

Xie Qimao had a smile on his face, looking at his nephew with a smug look on his face: "I have already told your aunt and your grandma once, let your aunt do the talking, I am not good at talking."

"You are too lazy to talk, what else can I expect you to do?" The old lady looked up and glared at her husband, then said to Xie Hushan while working:
"Your uncle is like a secret agent. No one knows what he is up to..."

He laughed after saying this and looked at Xie Hushan: "Do you still remember, Hu Saner, the time when you asked him to open a small canteen?"

"Remember, didn't my uncle get it done the next day?" Xie Hushan thought about it and realized that his uncle was very proactive. He agreed to it the night before and the meat was delivered to the team at noon the next day. Ma Laowu was so scared that he asked Han Hongbing to call him back immediately.

The old lady bit off a thin thread with her teeth with a "crack" sound and continued:

"Yes, that time, at the dinner table, I complained that he didn't want to open a small canteen and didn't know you were going to build a house and get married. He said that he was thinking about you building a house and getting married, and was planning it for you. Wasn't that the sentence? Why don't I remember it? He insisted that he said it during the dinner that day."

"Let me think, it seems that nothing was said. I just remember that the uncle finally agreed to open a small..." Xie Hushan also had no recollection, mainly because the uncle had little say in the family and his presence at the dinner table was not strong.

Seeing that his eldest nephew didn't remember, Xie Qimao couldn't help but start to defend himself, trying to make everyone remember what he said:

"Why didn't I tell you? Your aunt said that you are old enough to build a house and get married, and asked me to be more careful! I said that I was thinking about Hu San building a house and getting married, and I was planning it. But before I even told you how I was going to do it, your aunt scolded me, saying that I was planning something..."

"I remember now, yes! My uncle said so!" Xie Hushan actually didn't remember it, but seeing how his uncle was trying hard to defend himself, he decided to stand up and give false testimony for him.

Xie Qimao immediately became more confident and said to his wife, "Look, Hu Saner has remembered what I said at the time!"

"Just say it, I didn't remember it. What's the matter? Looking at your attitude, are you going to beat me up?" The aunt glared at the uncle.

The old man immediately leaned against the wall and laughed, and stopped talking.

"Let's talk business. If you want to fight, go home and do it so that I don't have to feel bad when I see you." Grandma said with a smile while working.

The aunt then looked at Xie Hushan and continued, "Ah, yes, your uncle didn't have time to tell you at the time. But even though he didn't tell you, he really put a lot of thought into this matter and really planned it for you."

"What's the matter?" Xie Hushan looked at the old man who was leaning against the wall, looking at the beams and smiling without saying a word. He suddenly felt that he was unfathomable. How powerful did his uncle have to be able to arrange a trip to Hong Kong Island for him with just one sentence?

The old lady said three times, but she couldn’t remember clearly. She looked at her husband and said, “What’s three… three… three… three… three…”

Xie Qimao said speechlessly: "What are the three links? They are called three express trains."

The old lady nodded repeatedly and said to Xie Hushan, "Yes, the three trains your uncle mentioned are to support the people of Hong Kong Island. They use trains to deliver pork, beef, mutton, chicken, duck, fish, meat and various vegetables to them. Your uncle said that the place called Hong Kong Island is very miserable. They started to deliver them a few years after the founding of the People's Republic of China. They have been delivering them for many years. Our country sells some of them at a low price, but the people there can't afford vegetables. I don't know why. Maybe they don't grow crops on the land."

Seeing that the auntie was not clear, the uncle could not help but explain the three express trains to Xie Hushan. (I won’t waste the words, if you are interested, you can search Baidu by yourself)
Although Xie Hushan was born in Hong Kong Island in his previous life, he had never heard of the term "three express trains".

But it's normal. It would be strange if the British would publicize such things to the second-class citizens of Hong Kong Island. They must focus on publicizing the serious disasters in the country and the fact that everyone is not getting enough food, so that life in the colony can appear happy.

We certainly cannot mention domestic issues. No matter how serious the problems or how severe the disasters, the motherland has never stopped the three express trains that run to Hong Kong Island a day, insisting on ensuring that Hong Kong residents can eat cheap meals every day.

The old lady curled her lips and said, "There was a rumor from our county's Animal Husbandry Bureau this summer that among the beef cattle that can be slaughtered in the spring after the New Year, there are estimated to be 70 or 80 cows that meet certain indicators and are eligible to be sent to Hong Kong Island. I don't know why people over there are so pretentious. They still care about indicators when eating beef..."

"They are just pretentious, they are used to it. Once the sluice gates are closed and the three trains are stopped, they will starve for three months. All their pretentious habits will disappear." Xie Hushan said with a smile.

The aunt also laughed: "It takes people to escort the cows. It takes nearly a month to go back and forth. The cows need to be fed and watered at all times on the road, and they must not lose weight. It is quite tiring, and it requires a young man with good physical fitness and the ability to endure hardships to do this job. There have been such people in previous years, but because your second uncle's family was before liberation... Forget it, anyway, your uncle thinks that you are grown up and it's time to build a house and get married, so he wants you to go with the truck to deliver the cows. It's not for free, there is a subsidy for following the truck, this amount..." When the aunt talked about giving money, she quickly lowered her voice, fearing that others would hear it. She stretched out four fingers to Xie Hushan and told him silently: "Four hundred."

After talking about money, he immediately returned to his normal tone and voice:

"When your uncle had his men go to the County Animal Husbandry Bureau to do some work, he asked them to tell Xiao Jiao, the former deputy director of our veterinary station, that he wanted to get you a ride-along quota so that you could earn some money to build a house and get married. Xiao Jiao agreed right away and said that if Old Xie asked, he would give it to him, even if there was only one person in the whole county."

"Don't be so anxious, he's already the deputy director." The uncle reminded the aunt speechlessly.

The old lady ignored the old man and said with a beaming face, "At the end of the year, the unit has decided that we can deliver 80 cows in the spring, with one escort for every 10 cows. Xiao Jiao had reserved an escort quota for your uncle early on, but guess what happened? I didn't expect that because of your good performance as a river worker, your name was also on the list of militia escort recommendations requested by the Animal Husbandry Bureau and the County Armed Forces Department!"

"Xiao Jiao is really good at doing things. He reserved a quota for you in the county armed forces department. Then he can ask your uncle to give him a name to fill in. That means there are two escort quotas."

Xie Hushan understood that his uncle had quietly found a job for his nephew that could earn him a subsidy, delivering beef cattle to Hong Kong Island, and paying him 400 yuan for a round trip.

I thought that after I earned some money from this job, I could save up enough to build him a house.

Unexpectedly, the county animal husbandry bureau and the armed forces department wanted to recommend candidates for militiamen who had excellent academic performance, were able to endure hardships and had strong consciousness. Because he had just made a contribution and his name was on the recommendation list, the old colleague of the old man immediately finalized his name on the list of recommendations. In this way, he still had an escort quota in his hand, allowing the old man to find someone else.

Hey, I just decided not to go to Hong Kong Island, and now I get this assignment?
Or two people?
After listening to the old man's story about the history of the three express trains, I felt that even God couldn't stand it anymore and had to send me to Hong Kong Island to fleece the capitalists?
"Your grandpa and aunt discussed with me who should go. I thought it would be better if you take advantage of the New Year's visit to your uncle to ask if your eldest brother can go with you. He is a real relative, older than you and more stable than you. Your uncle's family is always thinking about you. After we discuss it, we can leave one hundred for your brother. This way, you will have seven hundred as a subsidy. Together with the little money saved by grandma, it should be barely enough to help you build a house first." Grandma looked at Xie Hushan.

Grandma wanted her eldest uncle Kou Donghan's son Kou Yong to go with her. There was nothing wrong with this suggestion, after all, her mother's uncle was the eldest.

After my parents passed away, although my uncle didn't come often every year because he had a lot of work to do at the agricultural machinery station and my grandmother's house was a bit far from Zhongping, making transportation inconvenient, he would still come to see me at least two or three times and bring some things, for he was afraid that his nephew would have a miserable life without his parents.

When I was a child, I lived with my grandmother every year, and it was my uncle’s eldest brother Kou Yong who took me out to play.

Not to mention leaving a hundred, when I heard that my uncle's family wanted nothing more than to build a house for themselves, they refused to take a single cent.

But if I go there just to deliver a cow? Isn't that a big loss? Damn it, they bought the cows from our county at a low price. If I don't bring back something, I will be ashamed to face the people of Zhongping!

"Peach?" Xie Hushan looked at his grandmother.

Grandma was stunned, and the aunt next to her glared at her: "Didn't I tell you that women can't do this job? You have to be able to endure hardships, and you have to be an excellent male militiaman!"

Then the aunt leaned her head close to grandma's ear and whispered, "Mom, you have to take good care of Taozi, otherwise it will make a fool of yourself. You can't let Hu Saner do that to other girls..."

Without listening carefully, Xie Hushan knew that the aunt was going astray. Was he going to do something shameful with the girl? He was thinking of taking the girl to see Hong Kong Island.

"Then it's Han Lao Er." Xie Hushan said to the old man:
"Han Laoer is also in a miserable situation. The eldest is in the army, the third is in school, and he, the second child, can't get anything. His family doesn't care much about his marriage. Besides, we grew up together, and he listens to me in everything. He understands what I mean with just a glance, and we can take care of each other on the road."

"That's ~~~~~four hundred yuan." When the aunt heard that Xie Hushan was going to take Han Hongbing, a outsider, with him, she gritted her teeth. She said the first two words loudly and lowered the number at the end.

Let the child from his uncle's family go, and give the money to Xie Hushan after earning it. If Han Hongbing goes with him, will the Xie family have the nerve to ask for the money?

Xie Hushan looked at his grandmother. He knew that his aunt’s words were not effective. In this case, he still needed his grandmother’s approval:
"Grandma, please believe me for once. I'll take Han Laoer with me. Han Laoer heard from the militiamen who went there that there are foreign goods for sale there. We can buy some and sell them to everyone in the team. We can definitely earn more than 400. To be honest, my eldest uncle's eldest brother is too honest, and he is not as familiar with me as Han Laoer, and we don't have a tacit understanding."

Grandma looked up at Xie Hushan, then lowered her head and began to busy herself with cutting fabrics, saying:

"This is a job I found for you. Just do it if you are willing. You can't blame others if the house is not built this year. Also, you and the second son of the Han family must return quickly with the receipt after delivering the cows. This job depends on guarantees. If you don't come back and don't return the receipt, you won't get paid. Your uncle, Xiao Jiao, and even Minister Zhang may all be punished."

Xie Hushan looked at his grandmother, uncle, and aunt, then looked at Daxiu and Taozi outside through the window, and laughed:

"I will definitely come back on time. My home is here. Why would I be staying over there?"

"Mom, you don't have to tell me anything. Hu Saner is not the kind of person who doesn't care about his family." The old man said from the side.

Grandma laughed: "He? He's very wild."

Xie Hushan asked Xie Qimao, "When are you going, sir?"

"It should be March or April. If you decide to have the second boy from the Han family go with you, I will tell them." The old man asked Xie Hushan.

Xie Hushan nodded, "It's him. He dares to follow me wherever I go. I can rest assured in whatever I do."

"Okay, then I'll send the message to you in the next two days." Xie Qimao didn't waste time. As long as his nephew was willing, it would be fine.

Xie Hushan asked again: "By the way, sir, can I ask, since there are only two of us, can we bring an extra dog?"

"Get out of the way! You are here to travel, and the dog might scare the cows again! Escorting the car is a political task! You will be punished if there is any problem!" Xie Qimao said to Xie Hushan dissatisfiedly.

The daughter's show must have been spread by Xie Hushan. An eighteen-year-old boy wanted to bring a dog with him when he went out to escort a truck... What kind of brain could come up with this?
Xie Hushan smacked his lips regretfully. It seemed that Dahei would never have the chance to go with him to see Hong Kong Island.

Forget it, let’s see if I can find a way to steal a dog from the capitalist society from Hong Kong Island and bring it back for Dahei to be his wife.

(End of this chapter)