1988: Back to the human world for a few years

Chapter 10 Loss of

When Yang Mo saw the person in front of him clearly, his first reaction was to hide the huge wrench behind his back awkwardly.

This is a little girl who looks only twelve or thirteen years old.

She was thin and small, with messy hair, and wore a loose "ant blue" suit, which was the kind of clothes that ordinary people most commonly wore in the 1960s and 1970s that were modified from military uniforms. However, this ant blue suit was obviously a bit old. Not only had the color become a little gray, but it also looked loose on the little girl. I don't know how many hands it had passed through.

His legs were also covered with a pair of grey trousers that were obviously the wrong size. The trouser legs were rolled up high, revealing a pair of calves that were not even half as thick as Yang Mo's forearms. They were covered in mud, and if you looked closely, you could see countless tiny scars on the calves, some of which had just scabbed over - it was obvious that these were a pair of legs that had been walking in fields all year round.

Looking down, this little bean sprout, who was less than 1.3 meters tall, was wearing a pair of Liberation shoes whose original color could no longer be seen. The shoes were ridiculously stuffed with wheat stalks - all thanks to these wheat stalks, the little feet did not slip out of the shoes that were at least two or three sizes too big.

Leaning his head to look at the huge earth pit behind the little girl and the dirt road in the distance, Yang Mo, who had worn shoes like this when he was a child, suddenly understood why the girl climbed up from this side - although stuffing straw into large shoes can solve some problems, it will become very easy to slip after a few steps. From this point of view, instead of walking on the relatively flat but farther dirt road, it is better to spend more time and energy to climb over the huge pit with a steep slope in front of her.

………………

Contrary to Yang Mo and Tu Lili's expectations, although the little girl's face turned pale with fear because of the two people who suddenly appeared in front of her and the huge wrench, she did not scream and run away on the spot.

After staring at Yang Mo for a while in shock, the little girl pulled up a fertilizer bag from behind with some difficulty, and then asked weakly: "...Do you want to buy pears?"

Seeing the little girl's reaction that was totally beyond his expectations, Yang Mo looked at her in surprise: "Under pressure?"

Considering the big wrench, the little girl was obviously a little afraid of him. After shivering for a while, she finally gritted her teeth and neatly rolled up the fertilizer bag: "Duck pears, grown by myself, sweet, cheap... 2 cents a pound."

Whenever there is an outdoor construction site, there are bound to be local villagers coming to sell various items and food. Although in Qi and Lu in 1988, due to various reasons, this behavior was not common, and even rarer in places like Yucheng, but when it really happened, it was not a strange thing.

Listening to the girl's almost stuttering tremor, Yang Mo touched his chin with amusement: "Two cents a pound, that's not expensive, after all, Yucheng's duck pears are famous - but aren't you afraid that we are bad people?"

When the little girl heard the word "bad guy", her body trembled noticeably and she took two steps back.

"No, no, I know you are the people who come here to dig wells... My grandfather said that if you meet people who come here to dig wells, those who are wearing red clothes with black words or orange clothes with green words are generally not bad." As if she remembered something, the little girl stopped and spoke courageously.

Red clothes?
Orange clothes?

As we all know, as one of the most important oil producing areas in China in the 1970s and 1980s, there were countless exploration teams and oil production teams in Qilu. The oil production teams belonging to different units naturally had their own uniforms.

Looking at his orange work clothes and the small yellow-green words "Southwest Drilling Company No. 1" embroidered on his right chest, and hearing this answer that was once again beyond his expectations, Yang Mo suddenly became silent.

Aren’t those wearing orange clothes with green letters bad guys?

The other uniforms...

While Yang Mo was still thinking about something, Tu Lili was looking at the half bag of yellow-green pears with a frown on her face: "You are so naughty at such a young age, and you actually learned to steal things!? Tell me, which village are you from?"

The little girl was startled and waved her hands anxiously: "No, I didn't steal anything, these pears are really grown by my family."

Tu Lili snorted coldly, "I don't know about other things, but the black dates, watermelons and duck pears in Yucheng are very famous. In the nearby villages, every one of them, no matter whether they are from their own yards or not, needs to be uniformly allocated and counted by the production team, and sold to all parts of the country through the supply and marketing system. They are definitely collective assets... It would be fine if you just kept a few of the poor quality ones for yourself to taste, but the size and quality of these duck pears have reached the standard of commercial pears... Tell me the truth, where did you steal these pears from! You dared to embezzle collective assets at such a young age, you are rebelling!"

Although reform and opening up has entered its tenth year, those who know this history know that this journey has not only been difficult and rugged, but also has the characteristics of "a minor adjustment every year and a leap every three years" in the macro aspects.

Therefore, although Tu Lili's words may sound like a fairy tale to people in later generations, they are actually very normal in that era.

You should know that the nominal production brigades were cancelled after 1984, but there were still many actual production brigades even after the millennium, they just changed their names: "village collective enterprises" - of course, with the changes in the social environment, there were considerable differences between the two, but in Qilu, for a long time, there was no difference between the two, and even the names did not change.

Seeing the little girl almost collapse on the ground out of fright, Yang Mo laughed and took out a dime from his pocket and handed it to her.

Seeing that the girl was staring at him stupidly and didn't dare to take the money, Yang Mo didn't say anything. He just put the money next to the fertilizer bag. Then he took out a fist-sized pear from it, wiped it on his body, and bit into it without feeling disgusted.

"Well~ Not bad! Not bad! Although the juice is not full enough, the flesh is crisp, with moderate sweetness and sourness, and the flavor is extremely rich... The duck pears in your Yucheng are really amazing!" Yang Mo held the duck pear and took a few bites with a look of enjoyment, and gave the little girl a big thumbs up without hesitation.

This compliment was sincere. Real gourmets know that fruit is all about flavor. Compared with the new grafted pears that are popular in later generations and are advertised as "juicy" and "purely sweet", the old variety of duck pears from Yucheng, which are nine sweet and one sour, are much better. "Well, there is less rain this year, so it doesn't taste as dry as in previous years." Seeing that her own pears were praised by others for the first time, the fear in the girl's heart was diluted a little. She explained lingeringly, but her eyes could not help but stare at the small brown bill on the ground.

Seeing this, Yang Mo laughed and pulled the plastic bag to his side. He looked inside and found that there were more than twenty pears of different sizes. After thinking for a while, he took out another fifty cents and said, "Well, I'll take all the pears in your bag. I'll just consider it as a way to improve my food. Take this fifty cents, and I'll refund you if you have more or pay you less... By the way, do you have a scale? Weigh these pears and we'll make a deal. As an adult, I don't want to be taken advantage of, but I don't have the nerve to take advantage of a child like you."

The little girl, who was hesitating whether to reach out to take the purple bill, was stunned when she heard this. Then she remembered that she didn't bring a scale at all... or rather, there was no such thing as a scale in her house.

Standing there at a loss, not knowing what to do, Yang Mo said with a smile, "How about this, let me take advantage of you now, sell these pears to me by the number, and give you 2 cents for each one... Anyway, although there are many small ones here, there are more that are over one kilogram. I saw two pears that are almost one and a half kilograms in size."

When the little girl heard this, her face turned red and she didn't say anything for a long time.

The duck pears of that time were not like those of later generations. They were much smaller in size. Although there were some top-quality ones weighing more than two kilograms, they were exceptions among exceptions... Generally speaking, a duck pear weighing six or seven taels was already very good.

In order to make some money, the inexperienced pear girl picked the best fruits on the tree. However, except for the two largest ones, the rest of the pears weighed only 60 to 70 grams at most, and some even weighed less than 40 grams.

And now Yang Mo was actually paying her at a price of 2 cents each... This was clearly buying her pears at a price of one kilogram!

Although she was still young and really wanted to make money, she just couldn't hold on when faced with this sucker who offered his head to be slaughtered.

Before the little girl could say anything, Tu Lili beside her couldn't stand it anymore. She grabbed Yang Mo's arm and said sternly, "Yang Mo, what's wrong with you? Do you know that you are condoning crime? If everyone gets the benefits and starts to embezzle collective assets, how can our country realize the four modernizations and how can the 800 million people run towards a well-off society? "

Although these words, which were very characteristic of the times, were openly referring to the little girl, every word was secretly warning Yang Mo - it's very simple, if you still buy these pears of unknown origin after I have already warned you, then you are an accomplice and your stance is problematic!
Those who have not experienced that era of reversal will not understand the weight of this warning.

Hearing Tu Lili's serious words, the little girl burst into tears: "I didn't embezzle the collective assets. These pears are from my grandfather's yard, not the production team's..."

After all, she was young, and the girl could only repeat these two sentences over and over again. As for why the ownership and distribution rights of these pears did not belong to the production team, she could not explain it clearly.

Seeing this, Yang Mo just glared at Tu Lili unhappily, then, regardless of the difference between men and women, he ruffled the girl's dirty hair: "Okay, okay, this auntie is scaring you, uncle testifies that you did not embezzle collective assets... Don't worry, uncle is a college student, with uncle's testimony, even if the public security bureau comes, they can't arrest you!"

"Come on, put the money away quickly. This is called a payment in cash... Your pears are so delicious, I've been thinking about them. If you don't take the money, I won't be able to buy pears from you next time!"

"That's right... Come on, tell uncle, what's your name?"

Although Tu Lili on the side was very uncomfortable with Yang Mo's constant making mistakes, and was even more unhappy that she became an "Auntie" in this guy's mouth, the look Yang Mo gave her just now had an indescribable pressure on her. Feeling guilty, she didn't dare to say anything.

The little girl finally stopped sobbing after Yang Mo coaxed her into giving her some comfort.

When Yang Mo asked her name, the little girl looked at the sixty cents in her hand and was silent for a while. Then she said reluctantly with a nasal tone: "My last name is Lu..."

Hearing that the girl finally stopped crying, Yang Mo couldn't help but let out a long sigh of relief. But when he heard that the girl only said a last name and didn't continue, he couldn't help but asked in surprise: "What's your name?"

The little girl lowered her messy head: "I only have a surname, no name... People in the village call me [Lost Five Hundred]"

"Kuaibai?... This name for a little girl like you... well... it's very impressive!"

Due to the accent, Yang Mo heard it as "Kuai Ba". After struggling for a while with a toothache, he gave a compliment against his will.

Hearing this, the little girl burst out laughing: "It's a loss of five hundred, not Kuiwu Bai... People in the village say that I made my father lose a full five hundred yuan, and I'm a bad luck guy... My father originally called me San Ya, and later he followed suit..."

As she spoke, the little girl's mood gradually became depressed.

Yang Mo noticed the sadness in the pair of black pearl-like eyes under the messy hair and smiled bitterly.

A loss of five hundred...huh?

What a nickname that is representative of the times!
(End of this chapter)