60s: I have a store

Chapter 590 Never seen the world

The mist covered Lijia Village like a veil, and the mountains in the distance were looming in the mist, like an ink painting that had not yet dried.

The dewdrops on the grass leaves hung heavily, refracting tiny rays of light in the morning light. Occasionally one or two drops fell to the ground, causing a slight sound.

Li Anguo stood in the yard of Village Chief Li's house. The legs of his work pants had long been soaked with dew. The cool moisture climbed up his trouser legs, and the chill was intertwined with the heat in his heart.

Under the eaves, strings of golden corn glowed softly in the mist, swaying gently in the wind, making slight collision sounds.

In the chicken coop, the hen flapped its wings and its tiny cries echoed in the quiet yard.

Village chief Li held the pipe in his hand, the sparks in the pipe flickered, but he did not take a puff for a long time. The white smoke blended into the morning mist and quickly dissipated.

"An Guo, are you leaving so early? Have some hot food to fill your stomach." Village chief Li's voice seemed a little vague in the mist. He looked up and down at the young man in front of him, his cloudy eyes full of concern.

As he spoke, he stretched out his trembling hand, wanting to pat Li Anguo's shoulder, but paused in mid-air, and then gently let it fall, startling the dewdrops on the grass at his feet.

"Village Chief Li, that's really not necessary." Li Anguo waved his hands quickly, his voice sounding a little anxious. His eyes swept across the chicken coop in the corner of the yard, from which came the soft cries of the reed chickens, as if urging him to set off.

"I have to go back to the factory and make arrangements to bring the car here as soon as possible. I can't let the folks wait anxiously." At this moment, a gust of wind blew, and the mist rolled, briefly covering the figures of the two people. The coolness penetrated into their bones, but it did not diminish the determination in his eyes at all.

Village chief Li was silent for a moment, then suddenly turned around and went into the house.

When he came out again, he had an oil-paper bag in his hand, which he forced into Li Anguo's hand: "Homemade pickled eggs, eat them when you're hungry on the road."

Seeing that Li Anguo was about to refuse, the old man glared at him and said, "Take it! This is a token of our appreciation!"

The oil paper bag still had body temperature. Li Anguo felt a lump in his throat and had to put it carefully into his backpack.

The old locust tree outside the yard gently swayed its branches in the mist, making a rustling sound, as if accompanying this farewell.

"Be careful on the road." The voice of Village Chief Li came.

Li Anguo nodded vigorously, his throat tight: "Don't worry! The convoy will arrive within three days!"

He turned and walked towards the bicycle parked outside the yard. The wheels rolled over the cobblestone road, making a crisp sound, which startled the sparrows in the treetops. The flapping sound of their wings broke the tranquility of the morning mist.

In order to purchase the chickens from Lijia Village back to the steel plant as soon as possible, Li Anguo knew that the longer the night, the more troubles he would face.

I didn't even dare to rest and had to travel through mountains and rivers all the way.

The steam pipes of the steel plant made a shrill hissing sound as Li Anguo ran against the flow of people changing shifts, his work trouser legs still stained with mud from Lijia Village.

When the iron door of the purchasing department was pushed open, the smell of ink mixed with engine oil hit him in the face. He saw the silhouette of Zhou Yimin, who was correcting documents at his desk, behind the frosted glass of his office. His Adam's apple rolled as he swallowed his rapid breath from running.

"Chief Zhou! Everything is settled in Lijia Village!" He held onto the door frame, his chest heaving violently, his face flushed from running, and the strands of hair on his forehead stuck to his skin with sweat.

In the office, the rustling sound of the pen tip scratching across the paper stopped abruptly. Zhou Yimin slowly raised his head, narrowed his eyes behind the lenses, and swept across the young man's red face and wrinkled shirt, and finally stopped at the oil paper package he was tightly holding - that was the pickled eggs stuffed by Village Chief Li, and there were still traces of oil on the edge of the oil paper.

The corners of his mouth moved slightly, as if he wanted to say something, but he swallowed his words back.

"Sit down." Zhou Yimin pushed over a cup of herbal tea, his eyes calm but with a hint of scrutiny.

He leaned back in his chair, crossed his arms over his chest, and watched Li Anguo sit down awkwardly.

The water droplets condensed on the wall of the cup left dark marks on the documents. Li Anguo stared at the horseshoe watch on the corner of the section chief's desk. The ticking sound of the second hand was particularly clear in the silence.

When he finished stammering about the transportation requirements, he glanced at Zhou Yimin and saw that the other party frowned slightly, suddenly stopped turning the pen, and his eyes became sharp.

Li Anguo's heart tightened and he subconsciously clenched his fists.

"Okay, let's hurry up." Zhou Yimin's voice was steady, and his brows gradually relaxed.

He picked up the pen, the tip of the pen hovering over the letter paper, thought for a moment, his eyes became firm, and he began to write quickly.

Li Anguo watched the familiar handwriting moving on the paper, with blue-black ink smudged out the three big words "Transportation Department".

It seemed as if I could see the jubilant crowd in the threshing ground of Lijia Village.

When the section chief tore off the note, a hint of anticipation and some nervousness flashed in his eyes.

"Go find Captain Li and tell him that I gave the order." Zhou Yimin slapped the note on the table, his eyes serious, his fingertips pressing on the edge of the paper.

"If anything goes wrong on the way, contact me immediately." As he spoke, his eyes were fixed on Li Anguo, as if he wanted to engrave this instruction into the other's heart.

When Li Anguo reached out to take it, he felt the warmth of the section chief's palm. He raised his head and saw the encouragement that flashed across Zhou Yimin's eyes.

As I left the office, the draft in the corridor blew up the corners of the note.

Li Anguo folded the note solemnly and stuffed it into his inner pocket. Amid the rustling sound of the work clothes fabric, he turned around to glance at the closed door of Zhou Yimin's office.

Without hesitation, he headed towards the Transportation Department.

This scene was seen by everyone else, who could only feel envy.

When Li Anguo arrived at the transport department's dispatch room and the iron door was pushed open, the work schedule with wet ink was hanging down from the wall, rustling in the draft.

Li Anguo wiped the sweat from his forehead. Dark sweat stains appeared on the back of his work shirt, like an irregular map.

Behind his desk, Captain Li was flipping through his notebook with a cigarette in his mouth, cigarette ash falling on his greasy armband.

"Captain Li, Section Chief Zhou asked me to..." Before he could finish his words, a crumpled note had already been handed to the table.

Captain Li squinted his eyes, trying to read the words in the smoke, his Adam's apple rolling up and down as he swallowed. He suddenly pressed the cigarette butt into the rusty ashtray, and the sparks splashed on the "Equipment Maintenance" column on the shift schedule.

"Temporary assignments are the most troublesome." Captain Li pulled over the work schedule covered with sticky notes, and his nails made a harsh sound as they scratched the paper.

If Zhou Yimin hadn't asked him to do so, he really didn't want to take the call. If he continued, it would easily disrupt the previously scheduled schedule.

Li Anguo stared at the oil stains on the other's index finger, watching his brows furrow more and more, and his heart was hanging in his throat. The roar of a truck starting outside the window shook the dust off the glass.

"Is it only possible between 7 and 10 tomorrow morning?" Captain Li's pen tip poked heavily into the "Maintenance and Repair" box, and the blue ink left a small stain on the back of the paper.

He looked up at the uneasy young man, his eyes swept across his trouser legs that were stained with grass debris, and suddenly snorted and laughed: "We have to give Chief Zhou face."

Li Anguo's heart began to beat violently, and his Adam's apple rolled up and down: "Of course, thank you Captain Li, I will notify Lijia Village immediately!"

When he reached out to take the note, his sleeve knocked over the teacup on the table. Fortunately, the tea only soaked the corners of the schedule.

Captain Li pulled his hand back, cursing. But when he saw the young man apologizing in a panic, his annoyed expression eased a little: "Go quickly, don't delay the work." At this time, Zhou Dafu came out: "Master, what are you talking about?"

Li Feng said: "Nothing."

The moment I rushed out of the dispatch room, the autumn sun was so bright that I couldn't open my eyes.

Li Anguo's palms were sweaty as he held the note, and the corners of the paper were wrinkled. When he got on his bicycle, he suddenly remembered the look of Village Chief Li waiting in the morning mist, and he pedaled harder. The wheels rolled over the gravel road in the factory area, making rapid clicking sounds, as if they were also urging this race against time.

When Li Anguo got on the bicycle, the note in his work pants pocket had become soft due to sweat.

He pedaled hard, and the bicycle bell rang continuously on the factory road, startling the workers who were carrying steel and making them look sideways.

When he turned out of the gate, the chain made a harsh friction sound. He didn't bother to check it. He just wanted to pass the message as quickly as possible.

They soon arrived at Lijia Village and informed the village chief Li of the matter.

When Village Chief Li learned about this, he was very happy that the village’s chickens could finally be sold.

Two people
The darkness before dawn is thickest, but Lijia Village is already in chaos.

The beam of the flashlight shuttled back and forth in the chicken coop. The startled chickens flapped their wings, and their fine feathers fluttered in the halo of light, and the smell of hay and poultry manure blew in the face.

Village Chief Li stood on the courtyard wall holding a rusty gong, his hoarse shouting piercing through the mist: "Listen up, chicken catchers! Catch the fat ones in the east first! Move gently, don't scare the chickens!"

Zhang Erzhu rolled up his sleeves and rushed in. The patches on the knees of his overalls flickered in the swaying light and shadow.

He spotted a plump fowl and pounced on it, but ended up with only a handful of falling feathers.

"You rascal!" He straightened up while cursing, the strands of hair on his forehead stuck to his face by sweat.

Li Laosan who was standing by was quick-witted and quick-handed. He crouched down to block the fleeing chicken. His rough palms suddenly grabbed the chicken's wings, but the frightened chicken pecked him hard. He grimaced in pain, but he did not loosen his grip at all.

In the chicken coop next to the threshing ground, a "women's army" consisting of several women are working in perfect harmony.

Mrs. Zhao held a bamboo broom and drove the chickens into the corner. The dust she raised made her squint her eyes.

Aunt Sun opened her arms to block the exit; her floral apron was blown up by the wind, revealing the washed-out blue shirt underneath.

When the frightened chickens huddled together, two men suddenly pounced forward, one holding the chicken's head and the other grabbing its claws, their movements as swift as those of well-trained hunters.

The sounds of roosters crowing, shouting, and laughter intertwined together, mixed with the sounds that came one after another.

"Caught!"

"There's more over here!"

When the first rays of morning light dyed the sky red, dozens of bamboo cages were neatly stacked on the threshing ground.

The chickens in the cages were still pacing restlessly. Village Chief Li checked the cage doors one by one and slammed his rough hands heavily on the bamboo strips: "Watch them carefully. Not a single bamboo thorn can be exposed! This is the hope of all our villagers!"

When the truck roared to life, Li Anguo felt his internal organs vibrate.

He held tightly onto the iron handlebars of the co-pilot seat, his legs unconsciously straightened under his overalls, as if he was afraid of being thrown out by this steel behemoth.

The roar of the diesel engine hurt his eardrums, but it couldn't cover up the exclamation that escaped from his throat: "This, this sound is ten times louder than the tractor in the village!"

Li Feng turned the steering wheel smoothly, and the gear lever made a crisp click in his hand.

Li Anguo stared at the densely packed indicator lights on the dashboard, as if he was studying some precision instrument. He even looked at the oil stains on the edge of the dashboard with particular care.

As the truck slowly drove out of the factory gate, he almost stuck to the window, with his nose almost touching the glass. He watched the trees on the roadside quickly recede and couldn't help muttering to himself, "This speed is much faster than a bicycle!"

Suddenly, Li Feng pressed the horn, and the long honking sound broke the silence of the early morning.

Li Anguo was so frightened that his back hit the back of the seat hard. He immediately sat up straight with an embarrassed smile on his face: "Can the sound of this horn be heard ten miles away?"

Li Feng smiled and didn't say much. He just concentrated on driving the truck to the destination.

Li Anguo stretched out his hand to touch the buttons on the center console, but pulled his hand back the moment his fingertips were about to touch them, as if those buttons were some kind of precious treasures.

Li Feng said: "Touch it if you want, the truck is not that fragile."

Then he added: "You can't touch the steering wheel and gear lever."

After getting permission, Li Anguo carefully touched the things on the truck.

The truck bumped along a dirt road, and Li Anguo's body rose and fell, but he smiled with his eyebrows curved.

While taking a break on the way, Li Anguo climbed down from the truck carefully. The moment his feet touched the ground, he was dazed, as if he had just woken up from a dream.

He circled around the car, reached out to touch the raised lines on the tires, then looked up at the railing of the car that was taller than him, and kept sighing.

It was not until Li Feng called him to get in that he reluctantly sat back in the passenger seat, still mumbling: "I must tell my friends later that I have ridden in a truck."

After hearing this, Li Feng just smiled and didn't say anything.

Then, under the guidance of Li Anguo, we finally arrived at Lijia Village.

Village Chief Li had been waiting at the entrance of the village.

In order not to waste time, the two did not reminisce about the past, and Village Chief Li arranged for people to start loading the truck.

With the mobilization of the entire village, the loading was completed in less than an hour.

When the truck loaded with egret chickens slowly drove into the steel plant, the windows of the fourth purchasing department were opened almost at the same time.

Xiao Lin stood on tiptoe on the windowsill, turning the ballpoint pen rapidly in his palm. Lao Zhang took off his reading glasses, his eyes behind the lenses widened. Even Sister Wang, who was the most calm, quietly moved the account book to the window.

Amid the roar of the truck, the figure of Li Anguo jumping out of the car made the air freeze instantly. The chicken feathers sticking out of his work clothes pockets were like a silent medal.

Soon, a truckload of chickens were pulled in and stored.

Li Anguo came to the finance office and after receiving the money, he planned to deliver the money to Lijia Village while it was still early.

(End of this chapter)