My 1978 Hotel

Chapter 29: Andy Lau is born at the intersection

"That's what we've said. We need to pack up and get back to work."

"You still have to go to work?"

"You're just playing around. If you don't work and don't complete your work points, how can you go back?"

Although the ordinary experience tour only requires learning one common farming skill, such as weeding, fertilizing, and transplanting rice, to complete the task, it is a mandatory requirement to work at least six days out of ten.

“I thought I didn’t have to go to work anymore.”

This experience tour is really a rip-off. Gao Cheng muttered that he was almost dying this morning.

In the afternoon, Li Feng and Han Anmin asked Han Fuguo to help reduce some of the work for the three of them, and then asked him to ask for leave and borrow an ox cart. The leave was approved, but the ox cart was not lent.

"Walk?"

Brothers Gao Cheng and Gao Jiu were dumbfounded. Li Feng said helplessly, "The production team has been busy applying soil and fertilizer to the late corn crop lately. There simply aren't enough ox carts available. It's unlikely we'll be able to borrow one for a day. Okay, let's eat, pack up, and go to bed."

"Where's the little brother?" Li Feng was a little surprised that he didn't see Li Muchen. If they hadn't gone to work together, why was he gone?

"Taking a shower."

Gao Cheng curled his lips and went to the river to take a bath. This guy was still shy, just like a grown-up girl.

"Then let's eat first."

A big pot of steamed corn bread was steamed. This time, some white flour was added to soften it. The three of them didn't care about the taste and ate the steamed corn bread with pickles and porridge like happy little piglets.

"Oh, but I'm starving."

"Of course I have. I haven't eaten so much in years."

The steamed bread was fist-sized, and one person could finish four or five of them, along with two bowls of porridge. "I used to disbelieve the idea of eating a whole bowl or a whole vat of bread in one meal; I thought it was nonsense. But now I believe it. With this level of work, it would be strange if you didn't eat some oily food," Gao said, wiping the steamed bread crumbs from his mouth.

"This is nothing to us."

Four or five steamed buns were nothing. Li Feng had seen Han Anmin eat. He could easily finish a dozen steamed buns. It was simply terrifying. "Clean up first. I'll go see if the young man has finished washing them."

Li Muchen's skin was almost rubbed off, and the smell of feces on his body could not be washed off no matter how hard he tried.

"Bro."

"Have you washed it yet?"

"Boss Li."

Li Muchen felt a little embarrassed. There was no shelter here, so it was completely normal to bathe naked. "Boss Li, do you have any soap?"

"There's really no soap."

Li Feng thought about it and said, "Why don't you dig some river mud and rub it to suppress the smell?" Li Feng had experienced the smell of manure before, and it was really unbearable, but fortunately, it didn't matter to him now.

"River mud?"

Li Muchen was a little hesitant. The river mud didn't smell very pleasant, but it was better than the smell of sewage.

After rubbing it with river mud several times, the sewage was finally suppressed, but of course there was a strong smell of river mud.

After washing and changing into clean clothes, Li Muchen finally came back to life. He was a bit of a germaphobe. "Let's eat first. We have to get up early tomorrow morning."

"Getting up early again?"

Gao Cheng grumbled, but he still underestimated Li Feng's early rising ability. Before four o'clock, Li Feng called the three of them. "Everyone, wash your faces quickly, let's go."

"So early?"

Gao glanced outside and saw that it was pitch black.

"There's nothing I can do. Without a car, I have to get up early."

It takes more than an hour to walk to the commune, and the county town is more than 20 kilometers away. If you can't find a car, it will take at least four hours to walk there, which means more than ten hours round trip. If you leave late, you may not get home until midnight.

"What about breakfast?"

Gao Cheng slept and still felt hungry.

"Let's go to the commune. I'll treat you."

Li Feng didn't worry about a few cents or a dollar, and still hoped that these two brothers would make money for him.

"That's great."

The steamed buns were not tasty, but there was no way they could go hungry. Even Li Muchen's eyes lit up and his movements became faster. The four of them packed up and set off.

It was pitch black outside and there were some strange noises from time to time. It was really a bit scary.

"What the hell is this?"

Gao Cheng was not as brave as his brother, and he trembled even when speaking.

"A weasel, a fox, or something like that."

Li Feng was calm. It was normal for some animals to run out on the dark road. What was there for a few grown men to be afraid of?

The four of them walked for almost an hour and a half to cover more than ten miles. It was unavoidable because it was getting dark and the road was not good, so they had to take one deep step and one shallow step.

It was almost six o'clock when he arrived at the commune. Li Feng, feeling a bit embarrassed, took out money and food coupons to buy more than ten steamed buns and some meat dumplings. With just over one yuan, he could buy more than ten pounds of food. "Let's go and see if there are any passing cars."

I found out that the commune has a bus to the county town every three days, and it's a mule cart, but unfortunately there was no bus today.

"Let's go."

"Really leave."

"what is it now?"

Li Feng looked at Brother Gao Cheng and said, "I don't have any solution. Why don't you think about it."

"Let's go."

Gao Ju gritted his teeth and thought, it's not like he had never walked before. It was only about forty miles. The four of them walked together. Fortunately, their luck was not bad. After walking more than ten miles, they met an ox cart, which took them to the county town for eight cents each.

"That's good."

Li Feng smiled bitterly. He hadn't earned the money yet, but the rice in his pocket was almost gone.

Arriving in the county town, they got to see what a small county town looked like back then. It was similar to a small town in later times, with four or five streets in total. "Let's go around separately and ask around."

"Wait a minute."

Li Feng paused for a moment, remembering something, and whispered, "We need to discuss something. It's best not to use real names. The driver who just picked us up mentioned a place—Lukou Commune, which is about 30 kilometers away from our Maya Commune. So, we can just say we're from Lukou Commune."

"Just as you said."

Several people nodded, and as for the name, they pondered for a while.

"How about a flower name?"

Li Feng said with a smile. "When I was young, I liked Andy Lau. So, I'll give my idol some face and just go with Andy Lau."

"Then I look like Daniel Wu. When I was young, people said that I looked like Daniel Wu." Gao Cheng said narcissistically.

Li Feng rolled his eyes and said, "What do you look like? And you are trying to scam Daniel Wu."

"Then I'll be Liming." Gao Jue said after thinking about it seriously.

As expected of brothers, they have no self-awareness at all. Even Li Muchen rolled his eyes at this guy.

"I...I'm Li Er."

Seeing that everyone was looking at him, Li Muchen felt a little nervous for a moment. He just said his name, and Li Feng almost spit in his face when he heard it.

"Okay, Li Er from the intersection." Awesome. Li Feng felt that it would be unjust for them not to get rich as they were such a shameless bunch.

"Okay, that's it."

Li Feng pulled out a piece of paper. "I just asked around. There are a lot of female comrades in the textile, pastry, and soda factories in the north. Second brother, you and your younger brother can go ask around and see if there's anything they need."

"To the south are the waterworks, the brewery, the steel mills, and the power plant."

"Boss Gao, please run for a while."

Li Feng was in charge of this area of the block. After assigning the tasks and agreeing on the gathering place - the department store, everyone set off.

Li Feng first went to the post office to mail the manuscript, then he went for a stroll. There were basically no people on the streets at this time.

Those who go to work go to work, those who buy groceries buy groceries, there are really not many people who are idle. The main reason is that you dare not be idle, because if you are idle you will starve.

After a round of searching, I found nothing but a few vendors selling vegetables.

I don’t think the big black market is in the county town. It’s most likely in the suburbs, which is safer. I need to find a reliable person to ask.

"Comrade, can you lend me a light?"

Li Feng smiled. "Sorry, I don't smoke."

"Comrade, I've been observing for a while."

The young man said with a smile, "What's up? What do you want to buy?"

"Oh, this comrade has connections." Li Feng took a look at him and saw that he didn't look like a government official, so he asked.

"There is a way."

He looked at Li Feng while speaking. "Good fellow, this guy is asking for benefits. How can there be such a person? He doesn't know that comrades should help each other. His ideological awareness is very bad." "Alas, comrade, it's not good for you to ask for this without revealing this little information, right?"

"Okay, follow me."

After looking around and seeing no one following him, Wu Gang said to Li Feng, "I wonder what to call you, comrade."

"Andy Lau at the intersection."

"It's at the intersection."

Wu Gang thought that the name Andy Lau was unfamiliar.

"How far is it?"

Li Feng wondered if he had been too impulsive and shouldn't have followed a stranger. "I'm almost there." He walked into a small alley. Hey, there was someone there. Li Feng looked over.

"Well, I didn't lie to you."

There were three or four baskets and five or six people. Li Feng looked and saw some dried sweet potatoes and a bag of what looked like cornmeal. "Hey, is this a rabbit?"

"There is also a pheasant." Wu Gang was quite proud, as he had just collected it.

"How about this? I'll give you one dollar and fifty cents for the rabbit, and you can take the pheasant for one dollar."

The price isn't high. The rabbit looks like it weighs two or three pounds, and the pheasant, though smaller, is still over a pound. The key is that they don't require a ticket, so I'm afraid it's only this price because it's hot in the summer. "I want the pheasant."

"Comrade, don't order anything else."

Seeing that Li Feng only wanted pheasants, a young man next to Wu Gang smiled and pointed to the goods in other baskets.

"Other families have some, such as rice and flour. I wonder if we have any here?" Li Feng said with a smile.

"No."

Wu Gang glanced at the young man next to him and joked that dealing in rice and flour was a big deal, but hare, pheasant and cornmeal were nothing.

"Okay, then. Don't forget to let me know if you find anything good later." As for who to tell, Li Feng wrapped the pheasant in lotus leaves and stuffed it into his backpack before leaving the alley. This was the county town's small black market, and the goods were really not very good. "Come to think of it, these days, you can get something out of speculation."

Li Feng took a stroll around the department store and found that almost everything required a ticket. Even teapots for drinking water required industrial coupons, and almost everything that didn't require a ticket was out of stock.

Li Feng only had half a pound of candy tickets left on him, so he simply weighed some candy.

Eating candy and waiting at the door, Gao Cheng, Gao Jue, and Li Muchen came back not long after. Gao Cheng didn't get any information from him. They were all at work at the time, so they definitely couldn't get into the factory. Unexpectedly, Gao Jue didn't get any useful information either, but the young man relied on his good looks and artistic aura to get some useful information.

"Silk stockings, Dacron?"

"Well, a few older sisters said so."

Li Muchen looks a bit like Zhou Yimin, a favorite of young girls and older women alike. "Silk stockings, I just saw them at a department store for 1.20 yuan a pair. They're not cheap. Dacron doesn't require a ticket, but department stores only sell samples. Shirts are around 10 yuan, skirts 15 or 16 yuan, and jackets are about the same price."

"If we bring some Dacron here, will it be easy to sell?"

Li Feng asked Li Muchen, who blushed slightly and nodded. "Just now, several of the older sisters-in-law said they wanted to buy something." These older sisters-in-law were a bit too enthusiastic. Knowing that he was a cultured person, many of them said they wanted to introduce him to someone. Some were even bold enough to touch his face and say his skin was smoother than that of older women.

My goodness, brothers Li Feng, Gao Cheng and Gao Ju looked at each other. Damn, nowadays people still look at appearances. They have Edward Hua, Daniel Wu and Leon Lai, but they can't beat him, Li Er.

(End of this chapter)