Chapter 75

"First, take the bicycle to Uncle Guofu."

Yesterday’s delay made Li Dong feel quite embarrassed, so he quickly washed the bicycle and pushed it to Han Guofu’s house.

"Uncle Guofu, Auntie, I’ve brought the bicycle."

The newly cleaned bicycle, shining under the midday sun, attracted Han Guofu, Li Chunhua, Han Weiguo, and Han Weijiang, the two brothers, as well as Zhang Qiuju, the two sisters-in-law, who all came out to greet it.

"Uncle, the bicycle."

Han Guofu’s hands trembled a bit as he took it, now it belonged to their family.

"Good, good, good."

"Uncle Guofu, here’s the key to the lock."

"The battery for the bike light is here. When it runs out, let Weihé change it himself," Li Dong said with a smile. "I’ve also brought a pump and two small wrenches."

"Good, good, good. The factory really does provide good things."

"Indeed, they even give a pump."

Who would buy a bicycle and get a pump for free? It was really a great deal, 260 yuan, and everyone except Han Weijiang and his wife was satisfied, including the little grandchildren.

"Go away, don’t touch it."

Li Chunhua was beaming with joy. With a bicycle at home, she could visit her parents. Zhang Qiuju was equally excited, as she had just bought new clothes and soap. She could ride the bicycle to visit her parents, and when her sister-in-law saw her, she would surely be envious. Zhang Qiuju felt even more that buying the bicycle was a wise decision.

As for Han Weijiang and his wife, they were not pleased. How could 200 yuan buy a bicycle for the third son?

"Quickly, push it inside. Qiuju, tell the kids not to touch it." Han Guofu said, circling the bicycle. He couldn’t ride it, but it looked so good. The lights, the brakes, everything looked better the more he looked. The handlebars were so smooth, and the bell sounded so crisp.

By noon, the whole village knew that Li Dong had sold the bicycle to the third son of the team leader.

Li Dong returned home and started packing, planning to go back to 2018 in the evening.

"260 yuan, I only spent less than 50 yuan, leaving about 200 yuan. Should I go to the city? No, I’ll first take the tiger bone wine and tiger penis wine back, otherwise, the old men in the village will cause trouble."

During the day, while working, everyone gathered to talk about Li Dong’s achievements from the previous night. Li Dong was speechless, growling, "What a shameless bunch."

In the afternoon, Li Dong joined everyone in pushing a wheelbarrow to transport the reservoir mud, which was excellent for making fertilizer.

"Uncle, we’ve sent so many pigs, why did we only get 10,000 pounds of manure tickets?"

"That’s not bad. Our village doesn’t raise many pigs, and each family doesn’t even have one. By the way, your family will need to provide 200 pounds of pig manure to the village next year, and you’ll get more grain when it’s time to distribute it." Han Guofu puffed on his pipe, and everyone chatted during the break.

Li Dong took out a pack of cigarettes and passed them around, then took out a lighter. Han Weiguo and the other young men stared at the lighter in Li Dong’s hand with bright eyes.

"Take it and play with it."

Han Weiguo immediately took it, a good thing. The young men played with it for a while before returning it to Li Dong.

Han Guofu glared and continued talking about raising pigs. In those days, almost every family raised pigs, which had to be sent to the food station and sold to the state, but the benefits were significant.

Without going into details, sending 100 pounds of pig manure to the production team could earn 2 to 3 pounds of rice, known as fertilizer rice. These rice grains were a significant part of the diet for families that raised pigs.

Additionally, for each pig sent to the food station, the state would provide 40 pounds of feed tickets and 3 feet of cloth tickets. Farmers didn’t have cloth tickets and could only exchange them for grain or buy them, but who had extra grain or money? Raising pigs was the only way out.

Almost every family in the village collected pig grass and piled up pig manure. Raising a 150-pound pig could earn at least 60 to 70 yuan, and the state strongly supported pig farming. For farmers, it was often the only side business encouraged by the state.

"Alright, Uncle Guofu, I’ll pile up more pig manure."

A piglet seemed a bit small, so he would bring another one, fatten it up, and sell one to the state while keeping one for the family to eat. Li Dong thought, "Too many, it would be too tiring, I won’t do it."

"Uncle Guofu, by the way, I’m going to the city tomorrow. What do you need me to bring back?" Li Feng said. "Cloth, clothes, shoes, anything."

Going to the city to sell things was too risky, so Li Dong planned to find a new way to boost the village’s internal demand. He had already hooked the young men with shirts, soap, and other goods, and he had collected a lot of mountain goods and wild animals without spending much money.

"Can you get cloth?"

This was a good thing, usually only exchangeable with grain, but this year the commune issued a document, maintaining the public grain and unified purchase grain, and increasing the purchase of overpriced grain. With the severe drought, there would be a definite reduction in production, and there would be no extra grain to exchange.

"Do you need cloth tickets?"

"Probably not."

Li Dong whispered, "Uncle Guofu, ask the families if they need anything, and I’ll help ask around."

"Sure, without cloth tickets, we definitely need it."

It was almost autumn, and the families needed to make clothes for the children, at least for the older ones, as the younger ones could wear the older ones' hand-me-downs, but the older ones needed new clothes.

"Alright, I’ll ask."

Others also had things they needed, and Li Dong’s question revealed quite a few. Han Weiguo even came over to try to buy a pair of labor protection shoes on credit, but he still owed money for the shirt.

"Sure."

"Brother Li, how much is that lighter?"

Li Dong almost kicked him. "Five yuan, want one?"

"Never mind."

Too expensive, the young men shrank back. Five yuan, a box of matches only cost two cents, they couldn’t afford it.

Li Dong noted down everyone’s requests, went home, cooked dinner, and started thinking about what to bring back this time: cloth, shoes, daily necessities. He had been focusing on the city, but now he realized the rural market was even larger.

"Hehe, how smart am I."

There was no way around it; Li Dong found himself younger, with a more impulsive personality but a more flexible mind.

"Ah, we need a proper way to make money, can’t keep lying about getting it from Uncle Er. The officials’ salaries aren’t high either."

"First, I’ll pack, and think of a way later."

"Oh."

I almost forgot, I have a few sheets of stamps to bring. Li Dong bought some stamps in the morning when he sent Xiaojuan to school, choosing the more expensive ones as suggested by Li Jingyi, spending several dozen yuan. He had written articles and sent them to magazines and publishers, but they only paid so much.

These stamps, as Li Jingyi said, could be worth 30,000 to 50,000 yuan, but the commune didn’t have the small sheet of horse stamps, which cost 5 yuan each. Even the county might not have them, as they were issued specifically for collectors, and it was uncertain if the region had them.

Unless he went to the provincial capital, Li Dong thought, but he needed a proper reason.

"Stamps, magazines, publishers, I’m really stupid. I’m a high school Chinese teacher, I can still write articles. Combining modern articles, I can surely write a few that will catch the editors' eyes."

"Great."

An opportunity to go out. Li Dong was delighted. Writing a few articles, once published, would bring in some money. Others wouldn’t know how much, and he could exaggerate. If he wrote a few award-winning articles, getting a letter of introduction would be easier.

"How smart am I."

Li Dong thought he should write an article quickly. Writing articles was a good time, speculation was strictly controlled, but writing was more relaxed under the current educational and scientific policies.

There was a lot of room for creativity in writing. Li Dong decided to avoid political topics and focus on light, lyrical, and science fiction pieces. This was perfect, much more comfortable than manual labor, a farmer-writer.

Li Dong felt elated, having a legitimate reason to be lazy. "Ha ha ha, so comfortable. This time, I’ll think about what to write and see the cultural development of 1978. Maybe I can even make a name for myself."

However, these were just thoughts. The main goal was to find a proper way to make money. Li Dong wasn’t particularly interested in being a writer.

The countryside was great, with vast land and no worries about food and drink, and less farm work would be even better.

The mountains had good things that the city didn’t have. In 1978, the countryside was more developed than 2018. Staying in the countryside was a wise choice.

After packing, he thought about what to write. Xiaojuan and her friends returned, and Li Dong had taken a day off from school to sell the bicycle, as he couldn’t pick her up anymore.

"Dad."

"Cut so much pig grass."

Li Dong took the pig grass and piled it in the yard.

"Later, Dad will go to the city and buy another piglet. We’ll raise two piglets."

"Okay."

Great, Xiaojuan was happy but worried about not having enough pig grass.

"Don’t just stand there, hurry up and eat."

Li Dong had packed everything, and Xiaojuan knew he was going to the city.

"Dad, did you sell the bicycle?"

"Yes."

Li Dong smiled and patted Xiaojuan’s head. "Don’t worry, Dad will buy you a small lady’s bicycle when he goes to the city."

"I don’t want it."

"Alright, Dad will buy a bigger bicycle to pick you up."

"Quickly eat, or it will get dark."

"Really, when will we have electricity?"

The kerosene lamp was too dim. If they had electricity, it would be much better. Li Dong thought about bringing a manual generator.

"Never mind, this time I’ll bring cloth, shoes, and soap. The generator is too heavy, several dozen to a hundred pounds, and the carrying capacity is limited."

Around 8 PM, Li Dong told Xiaojuan and carried a chair and a large bag to set off.

The village was very quiet at night, with only a few bird calls from the nearby forest. The whole village was silent, as people had worked all day and went to bed early. The elderly saved kerosene by going to bed before it got completely dark.

The young people had nothing to do but sleep, and those with wives did a bit of exercise, but after half an hour, they went to bed.

Around 8 PM was like 11 or 12 PM in the future. Li Dong had everything ready and was holding a bottle of tiger penis wine, ready to start.

"Start."

Just as he was about to start, a black shadow came at him. Li Dong was startled and threw the bottle out of instinct.

"You damn bird." Li Dong was terrified, and the thing turned out to be a red-crowned crane.

"My tiger penis wine."