Starting with vegetable greenhouses in 1988

Chapter 35 Distinguished Guest
Before we knew it, it was mid-October. The corn harvest in Daying Village was almost complete, and the villagers had some free time. The consignment store once again became a gathering place for gossip among the villagers.

These people love to gossip about family matters, weddings, and funerals. They can judge anyone who passes by this road. Even those who don't like to talk about these things are happy to listen for their amusement.

The quick-talking wife was the best of them all. She had a blue headscarf wrapped around her head, and her small eyes darted around as if she were looking for prey.

"Oh, the second son of the Li family is here. I bet he's using a loudspeaker to recruit people again. They've changed several times already. They really treat people like donkeys."

Aunt Pang slapped her thigh and chimed in, "Who says otherwise? I heard the foundation was dug deeper than the old river ditch. My husband built a rammed earth wall for the Li family, and when he came back, he kept complaining of back pain. He had to lie on the kang (a heated brick bed) for two or three days to recover."

The quick-witted wife grinned, "You can't blame him for that. Maybe your husband's back pain is from all the work he did in bed?"

"Nonsense, how old am I? Why are you still thinking about those things? If you keep dragging me into this, I'll tear your mouth apart."

Li Zhe didn't go to the village committee; instead, he went to the general store.

The quick-tongued wife wondered, "That's strange, isn't the Li family hiring anyone today?"

A young, fresh-faced woman said, "My husband said that the foundation for the two acres of greenhouses in the Li family is almost finished, and they probably won't be hiring anymore."

The talkative wife smacked her lips and whispered, "I heard that the Li family spent no less than ten thousand yuan to build these three greenhouses. The Li family is so poor, they're not even as well off as my family. Where did they get so much money?"

The young wife replied, "My husband asked, but the Li family wouldn't tell."

The quick-tongued wife scoffed, "If she won't tell, then it must be from an illegitimate source."

Inside the consignment store.

Zhang Yuzhen greeted him warmly, "Zhezi's here, what would you like to order?"

Li Zhe walked up to the meat stall and asked, "How much are these big bones?"

"Seven cents a pound, but if you want it, I'll give it to you for six cents."

"I'll take them all." These days, it's not easy for villagers to eat meat. They lack oil and fat, so they generally prefer fatty meat. Pork bones are cheaper, but the Li family has been eating a lot of oil and fat lately, so they've lost their appetite for fatty meat.

"Five jin and two liang, I'll charge you five jin, just give me three yuan."

Li Zhe also bought four catties of loose liquor, one catty of peanuts, six preserved eggs, and a piece of braised pig liver.

"Wow, you bought so much stuff, are you having a party at home?" Zhang Yuzhen quickly packed the things up.

"Have a get-together with friends."

"Yuzhen, Yuzhen, a letter has arrived from the capital!" Lin Dingyuan strode into the consignment shop, his face beaming with joy.

"What did my daughter say?" Zhang Yuzhen wiped her hands on her apron before taking the letter. Her eldest daughter, Lin Qiaomei, had married into the capital, which was her proudest achievement and the pride of the whole family.

Lin Dingyuan joked, "Look how happy you are, you even held the letter upside down. The girl said she's coming home to see us in a few days."

"That's great! It's been so long since we last saw each other since we came back from the Lunar New Year. Is Yinyin coming back with us too?"

"Come back, the whole family of three is coming back..."

Li Zhe didn't want to spoil their good mood, so he carried the things out of the store.

These days, a rural girl marrying into a family in Beijing is considered a very high-status marriage. When Wang Xiuying heard about this, she was so angry that she didn't eat for two days. The way Li Zhe and his two siblings looked at each other was strange; they were finding fault with everything. Old Li was so frightened that he didn't dare breathe.

Li Zhe carried his things back to the north of the village. These days he has been eating and sleeping in the greenhouse. Now it's not him going home to freeload meals, but his mother, sister, and sister-in-law coming to his place from time to time to help out (and freeload meals).

"Woof woof..." Just as Li Zhe walked near the greenhouse, a big black dog darted out of the field, wagging its tail and lunging at Li Zhe's legs.

"Don't make a fuss, Da Mao! I'll give you a big bone to eat tonight." This big dog belongs to Li Zhe's uncle. Li Zhe's family has never kept a dog before. Every time Li Zhe visits his uncle's house, he is very fond of it. His family is worried about him living in the fields by himself, so his uncle brings Da Mao over to keep him company.

When Da Mao first arrived, he was a little unsettled and sullen. But after a few days, he was so happy to be back home that he didn't want to leave. The dog food here was much better than at home.

The foundations for greenhouses No. 2 and No. 3 have been dug, and the two large pits are quite impressive. The workers have already dispersed, and Old Li is leading Li Weidong and Li Zhiqiang to inspect the rammed earth walls. Li Jiugang, who was squatting by the earthen wall basking in the sun, sniffed, stood up abruptly, and took the wine barrel from Li Zhe's hand, "What did you buy? So much."

"I bought some cold dishes and pork bones. Tonight, I'll pull some hand-pulled noodles and have bone broth noodles."

Just hearing about it made Li Jiugang's mouth water. After finishing his wine, he would have a bowl of bone broth noodles. That would be so delicious. "Alright, you go ahead and get busy. I'll take care of the cooking."

Li Jiugang's greatest hobby is drinking a little wine. Unfortunately, his family is poor, so he can only mooch wine from others. He loves to attend weddings and funerals, helping the host family with chores and cooking. Over time, he has developed a skill in cooking large pot meals.

He was in charge of cooking for the past ten days or so, and he received unanimous praise from everyone.

The foundation of the greenhouse is complete. Once greenhouse number 2 is built, we'll be closing up soon, and he's really reluctant to part ways.

"Clatter, clatter..." The sputtering sound of a tractor interrupted their conversation.

The men and women working in the fields were all alerted.

Zhao Tiezhu stopped the tractor, jumped out of the driver's seat with a triumphant air, kicking up a cloud of dust, and hurried to help Wang Tietou, who was standing beside him, saying, "Uncle Wang, please slow down."

"Get out of the way! I'm not old enough to need someone to help me!" Wang Tietou slapped Zhao Tiezhu's hand away and quickly got off the tractor.

"Uncle Wang, we've been waiting for you!" Li Zhe jogged up to greet him; this was the distinguished guest he had invited today.

"Zhu Zi said you're treating, but I reckon you're up to no good. Speak up if you have something to say."

"Uncle Wang, I invited you here to inspect our work, to check on the progress of the greenhouse vegetables, and to offer your valuable suggestions so that I can improve our work."

"Where did you learn all this from?" Wang Tietou was a man of principle and knew that he was obliged to others, so he rarely accepted invitations to meals. But he was genuinely interested in Li Zhe's vegetable greenhouse and would come over to check on it every few days.

"Uncle Wang, is Zhuzi alright learning to drive a tractor?"

"not bad."

Wang Tietou was initially hesitant about Zhao Tiezhu wanting to learn how to drive a tractor, but he couldn't resist the boy's persistent pleading and frequent visits to the village committee to help with village work. After observing him for a while, Wang Tietou felt that he was a reliable and hardworking kid, and considering his connection to Zhao Tiezhu's deceased father, he agreed.

"The foundations for these two greenhouses have been dug. When are you going to start setting them up?"

"The No. 2 greenhouse will be set up tomorrow, and the No. 3 greenhouse will probably not be ready until November."

"Why not build them all together? Plant the vegetables sooner. It will be colder in November, and nothing will be easy to do then."

"You think I don't want to? The key is I don't have the money. Why don't you help me talk to the credit union and ask them to increase the loan amount?" Li Zhe took out a Lotus Flower cigarette and handed it over.

“If you had borrowed less, I could have put in a good word for you, but you borrowed over 10,000 yuan, the first in our village. Let’s just leave it at that for now.” Wang Tietou was still a little worried about the vegetable greenhouse. The temperature was still above zero, not too cold; but if the temperature really dropped to minus ten degrees Celsius, no one could say how well the greenhouse would keep the temperature.

"I'm not smoking anymore, let's go take a look inside the greenhouse first." Wang Tietou didn't need Li Zhe to lead him; he walked into the greenhouse on his own. As soon as he entered, he was enveloped in warm, humid air. "How hot is it in this greenhouse?"

"Twenty-six degrees."

"Heh, I haven't been here for a few days, and the second batch of cucumber seedlings has already grown. The broccoli has also been transplanted, and these big leaves look really robust." Wang Tietou continued walking in and stopped beside the dense cucumber vines. He bent down and looked at the palm-sized tender green cucumbers. "These cucumbers are growing really fast. They should be ready to eat in ten days or half a month."

"They're ripe now. I'll bring you some so you can try some winter cucumbers."

"That's great! I've never eaten cucumbers in winter before, it's really refreshing." Wang Tietou walked around the cucumber trellis, clapped his hands, and said, "Alright, I've checked the greenhouse vegetables, I'll be going now if there's nothing else."

"Uncle Wang, the food is ready. Where are you going? My uncle is coming over in a bit. He wants to have a few drinks with you. If he comes and can't find you, don't blame me if he comes looking for you."

"Alright, then I'm not leaving today. So, what's the matter that you brought Rong Sheng here?" Wang Tietou snorted and asked with a stern face.

Most people with the same surname in the village are related by blood. Wang Rongsheng and Wang Tietou are from the same family, but they are from different degrees of kinship. One is from the South Courtyard and the other is from the North Courtyard. Their ancestral graves are no longer in the same place, but they will still attend each other's weddings and funerals.

"This is a good thing, a good thing for you, for me, and for the village. Please rest for a while, and we can talk in detail during dinner."

(End of this chapter)