The Red Era: Starting from a Truck Driver

Chapter 282 Liu Hualian's Deadline

Zhou Lingying knew that Jiang Cheng was back, but she was too sleepy to wake up.

That is to say, Jiang Cheng is a male, and I can feel his hot body temperature after getting into bed.

If the roles are reversed, on a hot summer day, your wife comes home at night, and the temperature in the house drops after she comes back.

Every night, as long as your wife is there, the temperature in the house will drop. If some people have a cold body, they will feel very hot in the summer, but their belly and some parts will feel very cold to the touch.

This is completely in line with the routine of some Hong Kong female ghost movies, which can scare people to death.

The next morning after Jiang Cheng came back, Jiang Juan and her classmates came back with a bamboo basket of eels. Although school was still a week away, we still had to go to school two days in advance to register.

"Hello, uncle."

"Oh, there are quite a lot of yellow eels. I fried two of them for lunch today. You can stay and eat with us."

When Liu Li saw Jiang Cheng, she immediately came forward to greet him politely, calling him uncle just like Jiang Juan did. Jiang Cheng also planned to make some fried eels today. Although Liu Li had worked hard to catch them and her family was not well off, Jiang Cheng did not plan to pay for them.

This is just like inviting Liu Li to dinner at home, don't be so polite to each other. Liu Li can catch eels and sell them for money, but she should thank Jiang Cheng's family. If Jiang Cheng really wants to give her money, she will feel uncomfortable.

"Thank you, uncle." Liu Li was not so pretentious when facing Jiang Cheng now, because she knew that Jiang Cheng didn't like too many twists and turns.

"Uncle, where is aunt?" Jiang Juan asked.

"I just came back from washing clothes outside. I'm resting in the room with the fan on." Jiang Cheng replied.

The well water is warm in winter and cool in summer. If Zhou Lingying gets up early in the morning, she likes to wash clothes by the well. But if she gets up late or is delayed by something, she will directly use the tap water in the yard.

This is not a question of saving water or money, but a habit. Moreover, tap water is not expensive nowadays, less than 20 cents per ton.

It was hot outside. Jiang Cheng had just come back from outside. He slept until about seven o'clock. He had noodles with a poached egg for breakfast. After breakfast, he went to walk the dog.

If they hadn't gone to walk the dog, the daughters would have gone out with Jiang Cheng to have fun. The main reason was that the weather was hot, and Jiang Cheng didn't want to take his daughters out to bask in the sun. There were too many country girls in this era, and Jiang Cheng didn't want to see his daughters become country girls.

When Jiang Juan heard that Zhou Lingying was in the room, she dragged Liu Li to find her. In addition to eating the eels herself, Zhou Lingying had to take the rest to the backyard for Zhu Lan's family.

After they arrived at the room, they came out not long after. Jiang Juan came out holding a watermelon, and Liu Li followed and went to the side room to get the wooden bucket in a familiar manner.

Watermelons are cheap in the summer. Since late May, there has been a constant supply of watermelons under the bed in Jiang Cheng's room. Naturally, he also eats a lot of fried watermelon rinds, even if he gets tired of eating fried watermelon rinds. Watermelon rinds can also be used to feed chickens. Nothing is wasted at Jiang Cheng's place.

Last month, Jiang Cheng even placed some watermelon peels on the wall of the yard to attract some insects called "King Kong" in the local dialect. In fact, it is a scarab beetle. After catching it, he used sewing thread to make a seam between the wings and the head.

Tie it up with a rope and it becomes a toy for children of this era. It is much more interesting to hold the beetle in the air than to fly a kite or hold a balloon.

It's just that this thing can't be played with for long before it dies. But don't feel cruel when it dies. This is a pest that eats the roots, leaves and fruits of plants, and it is a kind of insect that affects the harvest.

But in later times, due to various pesticide issues, children can no longer play with such toys. Even if they find them, it is best not to play with them, because many common things in this era have become protected animals in later times.

Some longhorn beetles, horned insects that look like dung beetles, and even geckos were everywhere in this era, but in later times, catching them for fun was more serious than trafficking women and children.

Now Liu Li is going to get a bucket of water from the well outside, and then soak the watermelon in it. She can eat the cold watermelon at lunch time.

"Uncle, grandpa asked me to come back this time to tell you something. Grandma is sick and has been lying in bed for many days." Jiang Juan came out of the room, walked to Jiang Cheng and said.

Jiang Juan's great-grandmother was also the grandmother of the original owner of Jiang Cheng's body. Jiang Cheng's father specifically asked Jiang Juan to come and tell him something, which meant that it was not just a simple illness. It was very likely that the end was approaching, and if he went there, he could see him for the last time.

To be honest, Jiang Cheng avoided the original owner's grandparents for these years, but he didn't have any hatred. It was mainly because in the original owner's own memory, his grandparents favored the children of his eldest uncle, and Jiang Cheng didn't want to have so many relatives, so he always showed his dislike and didn't interact with them.

In the memory of the original owner of this body, it was actually because of favoritism that grandpa and grandma would give any delicious food to the son on the eldest uncle's side. As for the daughter, even if she was from the eldest uncle's side, she had to stand aside.

This kind of situation is actually not uncommon in rural areas, and it is not that vicious. To put it bluntly, Jiang Cheng, his brother and sister were not liked by their grandparents.

However, when Jiang Cheng was a child, no one had enough to eat, so the so-called preference was probably that the son of the eldest uncle could eat a few more bites of food. Wowotou was considered a good thing, at least it was dry, not a porridge that would not satisfy hunger after drinking.

Jiang Cheng hesitated for a while. If it was his grandmother, she would really die. The relationship between his uncle and aunt was because they forced his father to pay money. This was not just a simple favoritism of rural people, but a calculation.

Jiang Cheng would not repair his relationship with his uncle and aunt, so once his grandmother passed away, the relationship with them was basically severed. As for other cousins, there was no need to talk about them, because no one stood up to speak for his father back then.

You have to know that when Jiang Changhe divided the family property, Jiang Cheng's grandparents were only in their forties. How could they ask their children for pension money at that age?

Back then, uncle Jiang Dahai asked Jiang Changhe to take money in the name of providing for his parents. At that time, all the relatives on the Jiang family tacitly agreed to this proposal, which led to the fact that after the family split up, Jiang Cheng's family only had some relatives on Jiang Cheng's mother's side.

"Well, okay, I'll discuss it with your aunt later. Let's drive back before school starts. You take care of the house, and remember to take the wolfhound out for a walk when you have time." Jiang Cheng said with a sigh.

In this era, Jiang Cheng's grandmother Liu Hualian has lived to be 68 years old, and she is still a rural person, which is considered a long life. His grandfather Jiang Santian passed away in 1975 at the age of 66, which is still considered a long life in the countryside.

Jiang Santian passed away a few days before the Chinese New Year in winter. It was quite sudden. Jiang Cheng was still a driver of the Supply and Marketing Cooperative at that time. He was very busy during the Chinese New Year. He didn't see him for the last time, but when he heard the news, he still rushed back. All the grudges, people are gone, what is there to be resentful about, not to mention there is no real hatred.

Jiang Juan nodded. Her generation didn't know much about the grudges between the elders. She only knew that the people on her side didn't get along well with the relatives on her grandfather's side.

At noon, my family prepared four dishes and a soup: stir-fried eel with pepper and garlic leaves, shredded pork and eggplant, stewed wild duck with mushrooms, scrambled eggs, and a Chinese cabbage.

Liu Li is now more relaxed about eating at Jiang's house, but she is not to the extent of overindulging herself in a good meal. Three bowls of rice, not too much, not too little, and she is more casual about eating vegetables, taking whatever she likes.

After dinner, Zhou Lingying didn’t need to clean up. Jiang Cheng took her and her daughter back to the room first.

"Dad asked Juanzi to tell him that grandma is sick and has been lying in bed for many days." Jiang Cheng said, while holding the milk-scented fourth child Jiang Sisi.

"What are you going to do?" Zhou Lingying asked.

"Let's go back. Take our daughter and drive back tomorrow morning. We'll see what the situation is when we get there," Jiang Cheng said.

When Zhou Lingying heard that her grandmother had been lying in bed for many days, she immediately understood what was going on. In this situation, she could have just left without warning.

And once you go there, you can't just come back after seeing the doctor. It depends on the specific situation. If the case is serious, you have to stay there knowing that you may not survive for a few days.

But Jiang Zhaozhao would be back in school in a few days, so no matter what happened over there, Jiang Cheng would stay there at most. Zhou Lingying would at least come back to send her daughter to school, and then let Jiang Juan take care of her before going back to handle the funeral.

"Then I'll pack my clothes in the afternoon and go over there to put the electric fan in the car and take it with me." Zhou Lingying said.

Kaiyang Village now has electricity, but when Zhou Lingying first met Jiang Cheng, Jiang Cheng's home didn't have electricity. But when Zhou Lingying was in the educated youth team, even if there was electricity, the only electrical appliance was a light bulb.

Jiang Cheng's previous house was occupied by his two nephews, so he would definitely ask them to vacate the room when he returned this time. But now with four daughters and the two of them, one bed was very crowded.

But now that it's hot, I can bring a cool mat and sleep on the ground. I can just put some straw under the cool mat. The ground in my hometown is hard soil, not cement.

This time, Zhou Lingying was going back to Jinhe Commune. In addition to packing clothes, she mainly took some mosquito repellents. She only took some food and drinks with her. With Jiang Cheng around, if she really needed to take something, it would only take a few hours to drive back and forth.

After talking to Zhou Lingying, Jiang Cheng played with his daughter again. Before crossing over, Jiang Cheng didn't even have a wife, let alone a daughter. He himself didn't expect that he had the attribute of being a daughter slave.

In the past, he only wanted to be the boyfriend of someone else's daughter. Now, he is thinking that when his daughter grows up, some men who he thinks are sloppy dare to approach his daughter, he will teach them a lesson.

The next day, Jiang Cheng went out early in the morning while the weather was cool and drove back to Jinhe Commune.

When Jiang Cheng returned to the village this time, he had to thank Chen Ping who had returned from Hong Kong. He funded the construction of a gravel road from the village to the town. Although Chen Ping alone funded the road, the village also contributed.

A road from the village to the town, more than one kilometer long, cost more than 4,000 yuan. According to the current salary standard of ordinary workers, many people cannot earn this much in ten years.

Don’t think that building roads is cheap in this era. One kilometer may not seem long, it’s only a little over a thousand meters. But if you average it out to a meter, a few dollars is enough to buy the materials.

This is just a gravel road more than two meters wide, not a cement road. If a cement road is built, a village road can cost Chen Ping half of his money. If the village doesn't even pay for the labor, a one-kilometer road in this era can make Chen Ping poor.

Moreover, this road is only 2.2 meters wide and cars can only drive in one direction.

This is also the reason why many poor places in this era are eager to build roads, but it is impossible to achieve it. Finances simply do not allow it. If anyone can build roads for the people during his tenure, it is a great political achievement.

It was also during this era that overseas Chinese returned to their hometowns and funded the construction of roads and bridges, and monuments were erected. They could even be named, and the road leading to the town from Kaiyang Village was named after Chen Ping, Chen Ping Road.

But Jiang Cheng is a person who came from a later generation. He knows that some people return to China with good intentions, to contribute to everyone and leave their names in their hometown. But the idea is good, and the leaders of this era also respect and appreciate these people.

But you can't resist the shamelessness of some people in the future. Now Chen Ping paid for the construction of such a road, which is the political achievement of the township leaders. But with the future development, the townships and villages will all have roads leading to the county.

At that time, a cement road was built, and the road built by Chen Ping will be covered sooner or later. Then the road name will disappear, and it will become a very long road, with Xingfu South Road, North Road, etc.

Anyway, how many overseas Chinese who built roads and bridges back then can be left? Even those who build roads and bridges out of their own pockets in later generations are considered illegal construction, and will be fined at the least, and held accountable in serious cases.

Now, overseas Chinese are allowed to build bridges and roads because it costs a lot of money. In the future, people will not be allowed to build bridges and roads because it costs a lot of money. If you build cheaply and the quality is not worse than others, how will you explain to their superiors?

Besides, you repaired the bridge and the road with good intentions, and people want you to be kind.

Jiang Cheng would never do such a thankless task. It’s not that he is stingy, but even if he is a time traveler, there are many things he cannot change.

At around nine in the morning, Jiang Cheng drove directly to the village. Unfortunately, his home was not on the roadside, and he had to go in about a hundred meters. The car could only be parked on the dirt by the roadside so as not to affect other people's walking.

Jiang Cheng could spend money to repair the road from his home to the roadside, so that he could drive directly to his doorstep. But after a year, the production quotas were set, and Kaiyang Village was close to the town. Anyway, no matter whether the land was good or bad, he would have to live close to the town, and it didn't matter if he didn't have the land.

At that time, you could just build your own house and then construct a section of road close to the roadside.

As for the old house now, I will give it to my sister-in-law and two nephews.

(End of this chapter)