In 1959, what's wrong with me pedaling a tricycle?

Director Liang quickly led everyone into the car, and they soon arrived at the county's guesthouse.

Although Wang Xingguo is just a junior section chief, he is a special commissioner when carrying out special missions.

So the leaders here all came to meet them and even arranged a welcome banquet for them.

It wasn't anything particularly extravagant; it was just a bowl of chicken, a bowl of steamed river fish and shrimp, a bowl of muntjac meat, and a plate of stir-fried cured pork, sausage, and duck.

"鈂子" is the name used in Beijing; here it's called "黄猄".

This thing looks a bit like a deer, but it's not a real deer; it's a muntjac.

Wang Xingguo took a bite and exclaimed in surprise, "This is the first time I've ever had muntjac meat. It's quite delicious! I wonder if you have a lot of it here? Could I bring a few back to the capital?"

"No problem. There are hunters in the mountains around here who can trap these. If Commissioner Wang likes them, we'll arrange for someone to buy some for you to take back."

Wang Xingguo thought the meat was quite delicious, but he wasn't the type to ask for money or bribes, so he inquired about the price. Upon learning that a muntjac only cost fifteen or sixteen yuan, he immediately took out one hundred yuan to pay for tonight's meal and the muntjac.

The leaders here didn't want to accept the money, but Wang Xingguo told them, "We have regulations. If we take your things, we'll be investigated. Don't overthink it. Just help us complete the acquisition."

There are always opportunities to take bribes and kickbacks; it's not a matter of time.

However, Wang Xingguo is not that kind of person. He has that kind of money, so there's no need for him to do it.

After eating and drinking to their hearts' content, the only downside was that the wine here was rather weak. Wang Xingguo was used to drinking 65-proof Erguotou, so drinking this rice wine felt like drinking water.

The next day, Wang Xingguo and his group, guided by the locals, went to purchase live pigs.

This is a great place!

Because of the abundant water resources here, even though it's already the end of October, the temperature is still quite nice, around 27 or 28 degrees Celsius during the day and around 20 degrees Celsius at night.

Moreover, every household here raises chickens and ducks, and you can even see pigs rooting around in the yard.

However, everyone was still pale and thin because although they had plenty of whole grains, they lacked refined grains.

This year, in particular, the rice paddies along the river have suffered a significant reduction in yield due to flooding, thanks to the sweet potatoes and the relatively tall corn planted.

So their breakfast consisted of corn porridge with sweet potatoes and taro.

It's not bad to eat, because it contains sweet potatoes and taro, and actually has a unique flavor.

However, if you keep eating this, it will lead to severe malnutrition.

If it weren't for three consecutive years of disasters, this county would definitely be a land of plenty, instead of living in such a state.

They have a lenient attitude towards purchasing supplies from villagers that are not part of their assigned tasks.

Wang Xingguo followed the staff who were acting as translators to visit each household and found that the price of pigs usually needed to be increased to 70 cents per pound. He had no choice but to buy the pigs at that price.

A pig weighing over 100 jin (50 kg) costs 70 yuan, so 80 pigs would cost over 5,600 yuan.

Wang Xingguo took two thousand yuan out of his bag and gave it to the accountant to cover the shortfall in the pig-buying expenses. He said to the accountant, "Accountant Yu, this money can be reimbursed, right?"

Accountant Yu shook her head repeatedly and said, "Section Chief Wang, this money cannot be reimbursed. I didn't force you to pay this. If you want me to go back and reimburse such a large sum of money, you might as well kill me."

Wang Xingguo gasped. Could there really be someone even more shameless than himself?

He could only lament, "When the tiger is away, the monkey becomes king."

Ever since he stepped down as Director Wang, anyone has dared to act like a scoundrel in front of him.

Looking back, it was always him who acted like a scoundrel...

Furthermore, Accountant Yu continued, "Section Chief Wang, you've used all the money to buy pigs, and we don't even have money for food. You're responsible for that, as well as the cost of purchasing feed for transportation. I don't know if two thousand yuan is enough."

"Get lost, you guys take care of collecting the pigs, I'm going for a stroll."

Wang Xingguo covered his ears and ran away...

He didn't go anywhere, but ran to the riverbank alone. After seeing that there was no one around, he began to frantically draw water from the river.

There are many kinds of fish in this river, including mud carp, common carp, crucian carp, yellow catfish, and many other fish that Wang Xingguo does not recognize.

Moreover, there were plenty of river shrimp. After harvesting them, Wang Xingguo had a bountiful harvest. The fishpond in the space was not only replenished with water, but the weight of the fish probably reached more than a thousand catties.

No one was worried about him running around alone, since he was carrying a Type 56 assault rifle and no one would bother him.

Wang Xingguo deliberately ran off alone; he wanted to buy some extra pigs himself.

So he went to a village far from their purchasing team and spent a long time gesturing to a group of men who stopped him at the village entrance, because the people there didn't speak Mandarin and they couldn't communicate at all...

Then a boy who looked about twelve or thirteen years old timidly asked in a thick Cantonese accent, "Brother, do you...do you have any entertainment in our village?"

Finally, there was someone to talk to. Wang Xingguo smiled and said, "Young comrade, I'm here to buy pigs. Could you ask around if anyone is selling pigs? I'll buy them for 80 cents a pound."

Upon hearing Wang Xingguo's words, the child's eyes lit up, and he immediately went to tell the villagers.

They weren't speaking Cantonese, so Wang Xingguo couldn't understand a word of it, and he had no idea what dialect it was.

After the child finished speaking, he took off running. Wang Xingguo hurriedly called out, "Little comrade, don't run away! Why are you running away...?"

"Wait for me... I'll bring you a pig..."

The child didn't even turn his head, just said those words, and then ran back to the village.

Hearing this, Wang Xingguo felt relieved. If his only translator had run away, he would have been in serious trouble.

The people who had been surrounding Wang Xingguo all ran away, and the village entrance suddenly became deserted.

Wang Xingguo scratched his head, lit a cigarette, and squatted down to wait.

After he finished smoking a cigarette, some people carried pigs in cages, some carried cages of chickens, and others tied several geese, ducks, and chickens with straw. They ran out and surrounded Wang Xingguo, speaking in a language he couldn't understand.

Fortunately, the little boy who could speak Cantonese also arrived, and he quickly led his parents, who were carrying the pig, out.

Then he asked Wang Xingguo, "Brother, you're not lying to me about it being 80 cents a pound, are you?"

Wang Xingguo breathed a sigh of relief and said, "Young comrade, come here and translate for me. Didn't I say we were collecting pigs? Why are chickens, ducks, and geese all here?"

The child said to Wang Xingguo, "The pig collectors also collect these things."

Communication was too difficult, so Wang Xingguo directly asked about the price.

Chickens are four yuan each, ducks are three yuan and fifty cents each, and geese are four yuan and fifty cents each.

Wang Xingguo was a little surprised. Ducks were cheaper than chickens?

But when he thought about how abundant the water resources were here, and how many wild grasses there were to raise geese, he didn't find it strange at all.

They immediately agreed to buy the chickens, ducks, and geese, but said they would have to provide him with bamboo cages.

Bamboo is everywhere here, so no one cares about giving him a cage.

But someone also brought over piglets weighing several dozen kilograms...