In 1992, a small village owner became the richest man in the village by owning a car.

Chapter 85 News
"Yeah, Brother Axe often says that too, he's just afraid that the loader driver will get annoyed and complain when we're working." Huang Man gave Brother Axe half of the remaining chicken leg to each of them.

"Just ignore him and let them wait." Yao Jinfu put his right elbow on Huang Man's thick shoulder. "Brother, Supervisor Chang is taking a couple of days off to go back to his hometown. He asked me to pass on a message to you: please keep an eye on Section 9."

"Understood." Yu Dawei still didn't understand what Supervisor Chang meant. He was just worried that a broken car would affect their work.

When I came here a few days ago, I heard Supervisor Chang say that he had some things to take care of at home. I didn't expect that he would actually leave the construction site and go back home.

No wonder Xiaobai stayed here; it seems he's here to keep an eye on things.

"Alright, you guys get busy, I'm leaving." Before leaving, Yu Dawei didn't forget to tell Huang Man, "You should learn from your brother Axe. If you've really learned enough, I'll get you a small excavator to operate."

"Really? That's great!" Huang Man suddenly felt that the chicken leg in her hand didn't taste so good anymore.

Ever since he touched an excavator, he has been completely fascinated by it, especially the feeling of controlling it, as if it were another giant arm growing out of his own body. Unfortunately, his skills are still very immature.

Therefore, he greatly admired Brother Axe, for that feeling of being one with the vehicle, as if it were his own arm.

He had dreamed of owning his own excavator, and he never expected it to come true so soon.

As expected of Brother Dawei! He understands himself so well.

"Brother, what's going on? Are you planning to get one of these again?" Yao Jinfu asked in surprise as he approached Yu Dawei, pointing his thumb at the old Hitachi excavator behind him.

“Where would I get the money to build something that big? This is a bargain. Finding one is like winning the lottery.” Yu Dawei lowered his voice. “There’s a project to bring electricity to every village recently, and I’m planning to get my hands on the rotary excavator we saw last time.”

"The engine is broken? That's good news! Why don't you go over there right away?" Yao Jinfu asked in surprise. His tall and thin figure stood next to Yu Dawei, blocking half of the sunlight.

"Do you think I don't want to? By the time I get there, that wheeled excavator will have long since disappeared." Yu Dawei sighed. "I don't even know where to look for it now. If all else fails, I'm planning to drive my four-wheeler to other villages and see if I can find it."

Yao Jinfu looked like he'd swallowed a fly, staring at the man without knowing what to say.

If we had let him take that excavator earlier, we might have gotten a good deal. But now, when we really needed it, he's just disappeared.

It's like looking for a needle in a haystack, where are we supposed to find it?

"Alright, stop looking at me like that. I'm not a god. Even if I'm a time traveler, there are some things I won't remember. Who knew I'd get involved in the village's electrification project?" Yu Dawei had never heard of his second uncle contracting the village electrification project in his previous life. At that time, he was working in the oil city and knew nothing about his family's affairs.

All I know is that when I got back, I found that there was electricity in the house, so I went to the supply and marketing cooperative and bought a lamp holder and lamp base to replace the light bulbs in the house. I was quite extravagant.

Yu Dawei greeted his two brothers and returned to the dormitory, where Xiao Bai was already waiting impatiently at the dormitory entrance.

"Tsk tsk, look at her, so delicate and lovely, with snow-white skin, this is the real Xiaobai." Yu Dawei noticed that the other person was getting impatient, so he quickly praised her without any flattery.

"Screw you, hurry up and get going. I still need to check the whole section of the road again this morning." Xiao Bai tossed a yellow helmet to Yu Dawei, then put on his own white helmet.

"Fine, fine, Director Bai, you're playing games like this, aren't you? I'll call my uncle over in a bit and have him crash in front of your car. He won't be leaving until he pays ten or twenty thousand."

"Stop joking, I'm really busy today."

"Okay, okay, I'll stop playing now and fully cooperate with you, sir."

The two drove their black Volkswagen straight to sections 3 and 7, where two Ackermann trucks were working hard.

If it weren't for the fact that the excavator operator we found at the last minute wasn't very skilled, we would have already left Yao Jinfu's project in section nine far behind.

These two Ackerman 11 operators are far less skilled than Axe. Axe, even with an old and broken excavator, could outperform them by leaps and bounds.

This is why, even after so long, Supervisor Chang still allows Yu Dawei's old Hitachi machine to dominate the market in Section 9.

Others might think this is definitely a case of connections, but the main reason is that they have the technology and capability, and their progress is completely on par with the other sections that require several excavators.

Yu Dawei performed a routine inspection on the Ackermann engine and found that everything was fine except for a low oil level. He also did not find any signs of oil burning.

Before leaving, Yu Dawei gave the two excavator operators who were driving the Ackerman a special instruction. Of course, he didn't dare to criticize them openly, but he just gave them a slight reminder that when operating the Ackerman excavator, they needed to pay attention to the linkage between the boom and the forearm, and not to retract the boom too quickly, since it was an old machine after all.

If you don't pay attention to the things that need attention, you may have to do major repairs again.

After finishing Ackerman's inspection, Xiaobai was about to leave Yu Dawei behind and go to inspect other sections himself.

Yu Dawei hurriedly stopped Xiaobai, took him to a secluded spot, and rubbed his hands together, looking at him with a lewd expression.

"What exactly are you trying to do? You look disgusting, you know?" Xiaobai frowned.

"Xiao Bai, aren't we good friends in private?" Yu Dawei's eyes were filled with sincerity.

"Put away that sleazy look on your face; he's actually a pretty good friend."

"Ahem, you have to help me out, my friend." Yu Dawei started to complain about being broke. "I recently took on a job that requires a rotary excavator, but I'm out of money. How about you help me tell the higher-ups to prepay some of the Ackerman's maintenance costs?"

Seeing the other person frown, Yu Dawei quickly added, "I really don't have any money on hand. I just spent a lot of money to redeem my old belongings from my hometown."

Xiao Bai noticed Yu Dawei's brows furrowing even more: "You don't know the consequences of speaking up to the boss about this, do you?"

"I know, how could I not know?" Yu Dawei sighed.

Even before redeeming the white jade Guanyin, Yu Dawei had thought about this issue. Sometimes, a leader's impression of you can directly determine whether they will continue to cooperate with you in the future.

"How much do you need?" Xiaobai asked curiously.

"Thirty thousand? Twenty thousand is fine too." Yu Dawei looked at Xiaobai hopefully.

Xiao Bai tilted his head, looking somewhat puzzled: "Why do you need to ask your boss for just 30,000 yuan? Give me your bank account number. I'm busy today, but I'll transfer it to you tomorrow when I have time."

"Uh..." Yu Dawei couldn't help but sense the air of a tycoon from Xiaobai's tone and attitude.

"Don't just stand there, hurry up!" Xiaobai took out paper and pen from the car and handed them to Yu Dawei. "You don't need to rush to pay me back my money. Just pay me back whenever you have it. I don't need your little bit of money." "Brother is so generous!" Yu Dawei gave Xiaobai a thumbs up.

Yu Dawei quickly wrote down his bank account number, then joked with Xiaobai a few times before leaving.

The four-wheeled vehicle arrived at Brother Duan's scrap metal recycling station, but there was still no news about the wheeled excavator. Helpless, Yu Dawei helped Brother Duan sort the garbage for a while, and then in the afternoon, he drove the four-wheeled vehicle to visit the nearby villages.

It wasn't until four or five o'clock that they returned to Yujiatun from Xianfengtun, heading north, but so far they have found nothing.

There are already few farm machinery repair shops in the village, let alone excavator owners.

Yu Dawei was now in a bit of a predicament. He couldn't find a rotary excavator these past two days, and he was too embarrassed to ask his third uncle for help. After thinking it over, he decided that he might have to go to the county or the city to see if he could find a suitable rotary excavator.

However, the selling price will definitely not be cheap. Market prices and rules in big cities are very well-established, and it is rare to find a bargain.

"Let's keep looking. If we still can't find it in the next couple of days, we'll have to go to the city to check." Yu Dawei frowned slightly.

After returning home, Yu Dawei sorted out his bad mood from work, tried his best to control it, and didn't bring his negative emotions home before opening the door and entering the house.

Seeing Han Jingfan cooking and Er Yan comforting the child in the inner room, Yu Dawei volunteered to help.

"Wang Erge's family next door moved out this morning," Han Jingfan told Yu Dawei while cooking corn porridge.

"So fast?" Yu Dawei put the firewood in his hand into the stove pit, looking at Han Jingfan with some surprise. "I thought it would take at least a few days."

“Brother Wang Er had long wanted to leave the village. I reckon he had already found a house in the city and used this opportunity to leave.” Han Jingfan ladled the corn porridge into a bowl. “The house next door is empty now. The chickens, ducks, geese and dogs were all sold cheaply to the Gao family in the east.”

This Gao family is the same family of the Gao brothers who were caught stealing cars by Yu Dawei. Now, only the old lady Gao, her daughter-in-law, and their six-year-old son live together.

Every time Yu Dawei passed by the Gao family's house from the east, when he encountered Old Madam Gao in the yard, the old lady would always stare intently at him without saying a word, making him feel extremely uncomfortable.

Yu Dawei wanted to ask her several times, "What are you looking at!"

After thinking about it, he decided to let it go. It was best if the other party didn't mess with him. If they were still so blind, then Yu Dawei would send his whole family away.

Grandpa Yu Quan's behavior the day before yesterday served as a reminder to Yu Dawei that some people really shouldn't be indulged.

"Has the yard next door been sold?" Yu Dawei asked curiously.

“It wasn’t sold. I heard that Brother Wang rented the house to a distant relative of his, a young man, about our age.” Han Jingfan turned around and took out a mustard tuber from the pickle jar, slicing it into strips. “I saw both the man and the woman today. They were carrying lots of bags and wearing patched clothes. The man was making noises, like he was mute. The woman was heavily pregnant and kept smiling at me when she saw me.”

Yu Dawei remained silent, not caring who lived in the neighboring courtyard. He was thinking about visiting several villages to the north tomorrow, trying to see all the nearby villages. If that didn't work, he would hurry to the city.

"Let's eat quickly." Han Jingfan carried a bowl of pickled vegetables and corn grits into the inner room.

Yu Dawei kicked the firewood next to the stove pit a few times into the pile of firewood behind him, and then swept it clean with the broom next to the stove pit to prevent it from getting caught in the flames. Only then did he quickly walk into the house, pick up the kang table from the corner and put it on the kang.

"Big brother, is there canned food today?" Er Yan stretched out her little hand.

"Your older brother is practically broke these past few days. Have some corn porridge to tide you over." Yu Dawei glanced at his second sister and placed the bowl of corn porridge in front of Er Yan on the table.

Yu Dawei and his grandfather's family don't eat big meals of fish and meat every day; it's very rare.

This was especially true when Yu Dawei wasn't making money.

The families don't eat rice very often; they usually eat corn porridge with some kidney beans in it.

Occasionally, in August or September when ducks lay more eggs, we'll make some salted duck eggs to eat. There aren't many noodles either; it's not that we can't afford them—each household can manage to eat rice and noodles—but the older generation is used to hardship and is a little reluctant to give them up.

In a few years, when production capacity increases, whole grains will become highly sought-after.

The next day, Yu Dawei set off in his four-wheeled vehicle, starting from Liushouying Village in the north to inquire. Sure enough, this time he met a farm machinery repairman who finally knew some information.

According to him, the village chief's brother-in-law owns a vehicle business and just acquired a wheeled excavator at the beginning of this year.

Upon hearing about the rotary excavator, Yu Dawei's eyes lit up, and he immediately felt that there was hope. He hurriedly asked his master where the village chief's brother-in-law lived.

The farm machinery operator was also very helpful, pointing in a direction and explaining how to drive the four-wheeled vehicle faster.

Yu Dawei expressed his gratitude and then drove towards the farthest village, following the directions given by the farm machinery operator.

After driving for more than twenty minutes, Yu Dawei finally saw the wheeled excavator outside the yard at the east end.

It looked exactly like the wheeled excavator he had seen a few days ago. He breathed a sigh of relief: "Finally found it."

Yu Dawei parked the four-wheeled vehicle in the open space in front of the yard. He jumped off the vehicle, walked quickly to the small excavator, examined it carefully, and confirmed that it was definitely the same excavator he had seen at the excavator rental market that day.

"Huh? What's wrong with this car..." Just as Yu Dawei was overjoyed, he suddenly realized that there seemed to be something wrong with the car.

He poked his head out, just about to take a closer look inside the car, when a man's shout came from the yard next door.

"Who are you! What are you doing here!" A slightly overweight man, around thirty years old, walked out of the brick house, staring at Yu Dawei with a pair of inverted triangular eyes.

Knowing he was in the wrong, Yu Dawei took two steps back and smiled sheepishly: "Brother, I'm a repairman who repairs excavators. I just happened to be passing by and saw that you had a broken excavator, so I couldn't help but stop and take a look."

"A mechanic who can repair excavators?" Upon hearing Yu Dawei say that he could repair excavators, the slightly chubby man immediately suppressed his unfriendly expression and even put on a respectful smile. "That is quite a coincidence. My excavator just finished a job and was brought back from town only two days ago."

"I see." Yu Dawei nodded with a smile, but couldn't help but mutter to himself.

What a load of nonsense! Just a few days ago, it was parked in the rental market, looking exactly the same pitiful state it is now.

However, now that Yu Dawei has found this wheeled excavator, we should try to buy it at a low price.

(End of this chapter)