The Fiery Era: Becoming an Industrial Giant

Chapter 252 Master, From Now On, Listen to Me

Two years ago, Hongqi Village was among the first to try growing mushrooms, and the whole village trusted Zhou Zhiqiang completely.

In their village's production brigade alone, fifteen cellars were dug up, and they were quite large.

Among all the mushroom-growing production brigades in Sanhe Commune, Hongqi Village Production Brigade was the boldest, most efficient, and also the most successful.

The first year's harvest almost lifted us out of hunger. Although eating too many mushrooms made us feel a little uncomfortable, it was still better than starving.

The following year, the Hongqi Village production brigade came up with the idea of ​​exchanging surplus mushrooms for some supplies. Tian Wenguo approached them, and they have been exchanging supplies with Jiuzhou Machine Tool Factory ever since.

It's unrealistic for the village production brigade to exchange for supplies, as they can't get in touch with anyone after going to the city; and Sanhe Commune doesn't have many supplies, plus it has to manage more than a dozen other village production teams.

Therefore, out of respect for Zhou Zhiqiang, Tian Wenguo directly acted as a go-between for the Hongqi Village production team, enabling them to exchange surplus grain and supplies with the Jiuzhou Machine Tool Factory every year.

Whether it's agricultural tools or industrial products, it's much more convenient for the Jiuzhou Machine Tool Factory to coordinate than for their village production team.

This has made Hongqi Village increasingly wealthy. Although it is still not comparable to the working-class families in the city, it is much better than it was a few years ago.

Each able-bodied adult in Hongqi Village should receive 590 jin of grain this year, which is a combination of coarse and fine grains, plus an additional 200 jin of mushrooms.

Other women and children received more grain per capita than in 1958; the village production team also used the surplus grain to exchange for a lot of towels, soap and other items.

Moreover, this year is a bumper harvest year. With such a good harvest, the Hongqi Village production team plans to hold a celebration and slaughter a pig to celebrate getting rid of the natural disasters of the previous few years.

Then some production team members suggested calling Zhou Zhiqiang back, since Hongqi Village was able to live a good life thanks to Zhou Zhiqiang's ideas and the expenses of growing mushrooms.

In addition, Zhou Zhiqiang was a resident of Hongqi Village before. Although the Zhou family had committed heinous crimes, no one else in Hongqi Village had ever said anything bad about Zhou Zhiqiang.

After being persuaded by others, Old Village Chief Zhao came to Beijing. He wasn't too keen on coming at first, but after being persuaded so much, he brought a bag of mushrooms and a bag of chili peppers with him.

Hongqi Village rarely wants to celebrate, so they even slaughtered a pig. Now the production team naturally wants to invite a heavyweight, but among the people they know, none are more important than Zhou Zhiqiang.

However, before Zhou Zhiqiang could speak, Zhao Tiandong spoke up for him first.

"Old village chief, it's hard to say what will happen at the end of the year, but I'll definitely be in Beijing for the Spring Festival this year, since Yuting's father and older brother are both coming back."

Zhou Zhiqiang explained to Village Chief Zhao that the other party had also invited him to come back and join in the festivities, but he simply couldn't find the time.

"Zhiqiang, it's not during the Lunar New Year. There are other celebrations during the Lunar New Year, specifically around the 27th or 28th."

Village Chief Zhao explained, then added, "But Zhiqiang, if you really don't have time, I'll go back and talk to Danian and the others."

"The 27th and 28th are the factory's holiday days."

After thinking about it for a while, Zhou Zhiqiang was unsure whether to go or not, as his father-in-law and brother-in-law would arrive on New Year's Eve and they hadn't been able to buy train tickets.

Guo Kaizhong's brother-in-law rarely comes back. It is said that he has been in the Northwest for almost ten years. This year he finally had a long holiday to come home, but it was only ten days.

The round trip takes six days, leaving only three or four days at home.

"dad.."

Just as Zhou Zhiqiang was pondering, Zhou Bo peeked out from the side room next door, his eyes wide, and asked, "Take me with you when you go out to play, I want to go too!"

"This isn't exactly going out to play, but you could call it that. What made you want to go out and play?"

Zhou Zhiqiang beckoned to his son and said, "Come over here, get to know me, and say hello."

Upon hearing this, Zhou Bocai jogged over to Zhou Zhiqiang, greeted Zhao Tiandong and the old village chief, and then grabbed Zhou Zhiqiang, saying, "It's been so long since you said you'd take me out to play."

"Oh, you're saying that's true."

Zhou Zhiqiang quickly remembered that he used to often promise his son that he would take him out to play when he had time.

However, he was often too busy to do so, so he asked his wife, Guo Yuting, to take the two children to the movies or to the nearby park.

"Okay, if you want to go, then we'll go back and take a look. We'll show you what the countryside is like then."

Zhou Zhiqiang stroked his son's head and said, then looked up at Old Village Chief Zhao and said, "Old Village Chief, we'll go back then, but we might have to come back that night. Our family doesn't have a place to stay in Hongqi Village."

After hearing this, Village Chief Zhao thought for a moment and then asked, "Zhiqiang, what about the Zhou family's house before?"

"Forget it, I don't want to live there. I have nothing to do with their family."

Zhou Zhiqiang shook his head. In the Zhou family of Hongqi Village, apart from those who went to prison, the rest were all sent to do manual labor.

Their house was also confiscated by the commune. The money to build the house was stolen, so naturally they would not be allowed to live there anymore.

The house was originally intended as compensation for Zhou Zhiqiang, but since Zhou Zhiqiang had no use for it, it was given to the Hongqi Village Production Brigade instead.

"Alright then, if you get tired at noon, come to our house to rest."

Although he couldn't get Zhou Zhiqiang to stay overnight, Old Village Chief Zhao felt he had accomplished his mission by getting him back. Zhao Tiandong, standing nearby, quietly tugged at his grandfather, signaling that they should go home now that everything was settled.

Village Chief Zhao also spoke up, saying, "Zhiqiang, you guys rest first. Tian Dong and I will head back now."

Zhao Tiandong also spoke up, "Yes, Brother Zhiqiang, you must be very tired at the factory. You should rest first. Grandpa and I won't bother you any longer."

"Wait, there's something I need to give you."

Zhou Zhiqiang called out to the two of them, and then whispered a few words to his wife.

Guo Yuting nodded and quickly went back inside. Not long after, she came out with ten ten-yuan bills and handed them to Zhou Zhiqiang.

Zhou Zhiqiang handed the money to Old Village Chief Zhao and said, "Old Village Chief, take this hundred yuan back to the production brigade. When Hongqi Village celebrates at the end of the year, buy more things at the market. Consider it my sponsorship."

"Zhiqiang, we can't accept this."

"Take it. If you don't, I'll feel bad about freeloading. That's all."

Zhou Zhiqiang stuffed the money into the pocket of Old Village Chief Zhao's clothes, and then continued, "Get some rest. If you need any help, just let me know."

Seeing Zhou Zhiqiang's attitude, Village Chief Zhao knew he had no choice but to accept the money, so he at least took it and thanked Zhou Zhiqiang on behalf of everyone in Hongqi Village.

One hundred yuan isn't a lot, but it can at least buy twenty or thirty chickens in the countryside. If all of it is spent, the whole village can eat better.

After leaving Zhou Zhiqiang's house, Zhao Tiandong couldn't help but say, "Grandpa, if I had known you came to see Brother Zhiqiang because of this, I definitely would have tried to dissuade you."

Village Chief Zhao asked, puzzled, "What's wrong? Didn't Zhiqiang agree?"

"If it weren't for Zhiqiang's son, I definitely would have rejected you."

Zhao Tiandong explained, "Brother Zhiqiang is now in charge of several factories. He's so busy that sometimes he comes home later than I do. And if we were to sincerely invite Brother Zhiqiang back for dinner, that would be fine, but our village would definitely want to invite him back to show off."
"Brother Zhiqiang has already contributed 100, which will take up a whole day. Sir, next time you need to talk to me before asking."

Zhao Tiandong is currently at Jiuzhou Machine Tool Factory and knows a lot about things. Although he is not very busy at the end of the year, Zhou Zhiqiang was so busy in the first half of the year that he was never seen.

At the end of the year, most people want to rest with their families, especially since his father-in-law and brother-in-law have come back.

His grandfather even let Zhiqiang stay at the Zhao family's old house, but they never got along after he arrived.

"Then should I tell Zhiqiang that we shouldn't go?"

Old Village Chief Zhao believes in his grandson, but now he wonders if he dares not speak out.

He absolutely believed his grandson's words, after all, he had lived in the city for so many years and sent money home every month.

The Zhao family lived the best life in Hongqi Village because they had a grandson who worked as a factory worker in the city.

Zhao Tiandong said, "Forget it, I've already said it, how can I not let Zhiqiang go? But sir, you have to tell me about anything concerning Zhiqiang in the future, so that I can give you some advice if you do anything inappropriate."

"Okay, I'll listen to you from now on."

the other side.

After letting her son Zhou Bocai play with Guo Chenghua in the yard, Guo Yuting went back into the house and asked Zhou Zhiqiang, "Zhiqiang, are you planning to take our son back to Hongqi Village?"

"Well, I had nothing to do that day anyway. I had promised to take my son out to play almost a year ago, so I should keep my promise before the end of the year."

In the past few years, I was either on business trips or in other places, or I was busy in the factory until 11 or 12 o'clock at night, and sometimes I didn't go home for half a year.

Now that I have some rare time to relax, I should spend some time with my family.

Zhou Zhiqiang said, "Yuting, Dad and your brother-in-law won't be back by then. Ask Mom if she's going."

"She probably won't go. She never went to the movies with me before, let alone to the countryside."

Guo Yuting shook her head and said, "Let Mom stay at home. She can help look after Caiwen. Besides, she won't stay overnight. Let's take Bocai and Chenghua with us."

Since we're going to the countryside, we definitely can't just bring one child.

Besides, there must have been big markets in the countryside around the 27th and 28th. Guo Yuting had only heard of them before, but had never actually seen one.

"Zhiqiang, will you take us to the market later?"

"Sure, I'll take a look when I pass by on my way."

Zhou Zhiqiang searched his memory for a moment, then said, "Actually, it's just that there are more people, and they've brought out all the things they've been saving to sell."

If we're going shopping, we need to call Tian Dong to come along; it'll be dangerous if we get separated if there aren't enough people.

(End of this chapter)