The Red Era: Starting from a Truck Driver

Chapter 40 Questioning and Arrival in Yancheng

The national food coupons Zhou Lingying had on her were issued to her by her boyfriend Jiang Cheng after he served in the army for four years and retired. She really was not willing to use them.

In the past, when Li Mingjun came to Zhou Lingying privately for help, she could at least negotiate or refuse when her own situation was not good. This time, Li Mingjun brought others to her directly to ask for help. She sympathized with the other male educated youth whose food was soaked by water.

If she really needed help, Zhou Lingying would also take out her food coupons. After all, the rice harvest was about to begin, and the commune would count the crops, deduct some public grain, planting grain, and other miscellaneous items. The rest would be distributed to everyone according to their work points.

Everyone shared the grain, and Zhou Lingying also felt that those who asked her to borrow grain coupons would return the grain to her. After all, people these days want to save face, and if you don't return something you owe someone, you will always be worried about it.

When Li Mingjun borrowed things from Zhou Lingying before, he actually returned them. But when he returned them, he always talked to her about who needed help or if someone was in trouble and he would pay for them.

Zhou Lingying was kindhearted and did not ask Li Mingjun to pay back for others. Now Zhou Lingying suddenly thought of a question. Li Mingjun was the one who lent the things to others. He always said that others were too embarrassed to ask her, so did Li Mingjun return the things she lent to those people?

Or maybe it was something that Zhou Lingying had given to Li Mingjun, whether she had given all of it to people in need. Even if it was lent out, she didn't ask Li Mingjun to pay it back for others, but whether they had returned it to Li Mingjun. Zhou Lingying didn't ask or think about all of this carefully.

"My food coupons were given to me by my partner. There's no problem in helping everyone out. Anyway, it won't be long before the grain is harvested and there will be new grain." Zhou Lingying said. After all, it's not free, it's just to help everyone through the transition.

After Zhou Lingying said this, the people Li Mingjun brought nodded in agreement. Li Mingjun was also very happy, after all, he had just asked Zhou Lingying to borrow food coupons and money a few days ago. It wasn't long before he asked Zhou Lingying to borrow money again in private, but he was a little embarrassed to ask.

Now Li Mingjun brought people to ask Zhou Lingying for help. As long as she was willing to lend it to everyone, Li Mingjun would ask the educated youths he brought with him for food when the food was distributed. Then how to pay Zhou Lingying back was his business, and no one else needed to know.

But just when everyone was happy to borrow the food coupons, Zhou Lingying spoke again and asked Li Mingjun, "By the way, did you go to the county to buy food with the five kilograms of national food coupons and one yuan I gave you a few days ago? Who did you say you were helping last time?"

Li Mingjun's face changed drastically after hearing this question. There were not many educated youth in a commune, and these educated youth, except for the new ones, had not done much farm work, and they could not adapt to the environment. It was normal for them to live poorly in half a year or a year. But if someone was willful in the educated youth camp, no one would indulge him.

So there are people who are short of food, but there are only a few every year. If an educated youth stays here for the second year, and does not save food and works hard to earn work points, then if there is not enough food, no one will help him.

If Li Mingjun hadn't brought a few people with him, Zhou Lingying could have said that he had helped them by borrowing food coupons last time. Now, in front of Zhou Lingying, if he said that he hadn't had time to go to the county to buy food, he would have to say that he helped someone. He was talking about the people around him, and they were still following him to ask Zhou Lingying to borrow food coupons.

It was not okay to borrow grain repeatedly. Li Mingjun was speechless for a while. Others also noticed his abnormality and learned that he had borrowed grain coupons and money from Zhou Lingying a few days ago, but he said that borrowing grain coupons and money was to help people. So who did he help?

Li Mingjun wanted to take Zhou Lingying aside to discuss the matter of borrowing grain coupons and money, but Zhou Lingying refused. In fact, if Li Mingjun could say who he was helping, even if he brought people to ask Zhou Lingying to borrow grain this time, although it would leave her with no way out, she would still be willing to help others if Li Mingjun asked her to help them in the future.

In the end, the matter became a big deal. At the beginning, many people spoke up for Li Mingjun. They said that Li Mingjun had indeed helped them. Not only the male educated youth, but also several female educated youth spoke up for him. But there was one thing, that is, the spiritual encouragement could not be repaid, but the things borrowed from Li Mingjun were all returned.

There were even other female educated youth who said that Li Mingjun privately asked her to borrow something and said he was helping others, but for some reason he didn’t let him return it. In other words, Li Mingjun helped a lot of people, but he was using other people’s things to help them, and in the end, basically everything that was borrowed from Li Mingjun was returned. But when he asked others to help others with things, many of them didn’t return them.

Anyway, things were getting lively, and someone went to inform the educated youth team leader.

That afternoon, Li Mingjun's position as the leader of the educated youth group was revoked. Some of the things in his box were also searched. The five kilograms of food coupons and one dollar Zhou Lingying gave him last time were returned in part, and he had already spent a lot of them. As for the other things that Li Mingjun embezzled, we have to slowly verify them.

At around 4pm, Jiang Cheng finally arrived in Yancheng. After driving about a thousand kilometers, if they took the highway in the future, even if they took a break, a car would take at most one day. A truck with two drivers taking turns driving would also take at most one day to arrive.

Once in Yancheng, Jiang Cheng could have seafood all he wanted. If kelp was considered seafood, he could get enough seafood to last him a lifetime.

When Jiang Cheng entered Yancheng, he put the medicinal materials to be delivered into the trunk of the car. Since it was still early, he drove to the pharmaceutical factory where the goods were to be delivered.

When we arrived at the pharmaceutical factory, it was almost time for them to get off work. But if the truck driver was willing to deliver the goods, we would make arrangements as long as we informed him in advance, even if it was delivered at night and we asked him to unload the goods.

"Master, where did these herbs come from?"

"It was sent from Ganzhou Changcheng. Here is the delivery note."

At the pharmaceutical factory, the guard saw the car coming and immediately stepped forward to inquire. After seeing the delivery note, he found that it was indeed the medicinal materials delivered to their factory, so he immediately arranged for someone to notify them.

"Master, you came here from Changcheng. It must not be easy to travel such a long distance." The guard at the pharmaceutical factory chatted with Jiang Cheng.

"It's thousands of kilometers, how can it be easy?" Jiang Cheng said with a smile, took out a cigarette from the box on the car seat and threw it to the other party.

The guard took the cigarette, took out a match from his pocket, lit the cigarette for Jiang Cheng first, and then for himself. Then he said, "It's really far. The master looks young. This is your nth time to come to our Yancheng."

"This is my first time, but I may have the opportunity to come here more often in the future." Jiang Cheng responded. He chose to drive the sports car to Su Province, but it does not necessarily mean to come to Yancheng. It is even possible that he will not even enter Su Province.

Hearing that it was Jiang Cheng's first time here, the guard was a warm-hearted person and told him that he could buy some local specialties when he came here.

(End of this chapter)