Reborn in 1981, the first to get rich start with dairy cows.

Fortunately, the team headquarters was located deep within the team compound, and the road into the village was quite far away. The two of them looked around carefully as they pushed the car in.

"To your house?" Li Hu asked.

"Okay, your grandpa's place is a bit dangerous, my place is safer."

Once home, the two men found a urea bag and placed it on the floor of the former cowshed before lifting the pig off the ground.

Li Hu chuckled as he looked at the pig on the ground. "The TV show is almost over. Call your dad and grandpa over later, I'll watch it from here."

Upon hearing Shen Dong's arrangement, Li Hu remembered that he had been watching TV earlier. He ran towards the team headquarters, but before he had gone two steps, he saw someone walking back.

"Is it over?" Li Hu stopped and asked.

"It's over, the generators have all stopped, Huo Yuanjia is about to have his duel with someone!"

The people walking continued chatting, while Li Hu looked dejected and could only helplessly walk home.

When I got home, I told my parents that I had bought a pig for the New Year, which surprised them quite a bit; it was a really unexpected surprise.

He urged Li Hu to hurry over to Shen Dong's place. Li Hu also wanted to call Li Shangen, but Shen Dong told them to go directly there.

After Li Shangen arrived, the pork distribution officially began.

The pig was laid flat on the ground, and with a dozen or so swift cuts, it was finally separated in two.

They chopped the two halves of pork into small pieces, strung them together with different hemp ropes, and hung them on the roof beam.

Offal is a favorite food of country folk, but Shen Dong didn't like it. He subconsciously thought of giving the offal to Li Hu, but Shen Weiguo stopped him.

"Your uncle and your grandfather both love to eat this. You little rascal, this is good stuff, and you don't appreciate it at all."

Li Youcai said with a smile, "Dongwa, even pig offal is valuable, let's share it, otherwise your uncle won't let me leave!"

Everyone knew it was a joke, and they all laughed.

Because the pig's blood had to be collected in a basin and brought back, which the two of them couldn't carry, they left it at the slaughterhouse and would retrieve it the next day when it was free.

That's how one pig is divided up.

Taking advantage of a break, Shen Dong brought up the idea of ​​running electrical wires.

"Grandpa, can our team apply to have an electric power line installed? Using diesel generators isn't a long-term solution, and the generator belongs to the county's agricultural machinery station, so we can't keep borrowing it."

Although diesel generators have low power, they cannot operate continuously for several hours without cooling down.

Moreover, just two hours of television tonight has burned almost 3 liters of diesel. At 85 cents a pound of diesel, that's almost 3 yuan. No team can afford that!

The group had just finished their work and were puffing on their cigarettes when they heard Shen Dong's words. Shen Weiguo immediately said, "I'm afraid that won't work. I remember our team's power lines have been running for several years, and they've been intermittently without power."

Li Shangen took the cigarette Shen Dong offered, lit it, took a puff, frowned, and shook his head.

"Dongwa, your intentions are good, but it's going to be difficult!"

Then, lowering his voice, he said, "Take this power line in our team, for example. Wei Guo just said it was laid five years ago. It's just a bare aluminum wire, as thin as a chopstick. How much electricity could that possibly hold?!"

"If you want more electricity, you'll need to replace the wires with thicker ones, and you'll also need to replace the transformer and reinstall the meters. If you want to provide electricity to everyone's homes, you'll need to install branch lines. This is no small matter."

Shen Changping chimed in, "I remember this. We went to the commune together. We were poor back then. It was Director Huang who took pity on us and gave us a new power line. Otherwise, the power supply station would have tried to get rid of us with an old one."

Shen Dong frowned and said, "It's okay if it's difficult. As long as it can be achieved, I'll give it a try."

Li Shangen and Shen Changping exchanged a glance and laughed.

Shen Dong has been very mature lately, and it's rare to see him showing such childlike side now.

"Kid, let me do the math for you. Electric wires, cement poles, transformers—these things all require ration coupons. You can't buy them even if you have money. You have good relationships with the county and the commune, but you can't rely on those relationships forever. Just these few things will cost you almost a thousand."

"And there are also key metrics!"

"If a rural area wants to install power lines, it has to submit a report to the commune first, then report to the county power supply station for approval, and it also needs to have a rural power grid renovation quota before it can be approved. Even if it has a quota, it will be prioritized for other pilot communes. There are 20 communes in our county, do you think it's going to be our Baotashan Commune?"

Shen Dong then fully understood his current predicament.

This isn't a question of whether it's possible to do something; it's simply a matter of having no other options.

First, you need to find tickets, then the quotas need to be issued, and then the commune needs to make arrangements. Every step of this requires connections, very strong connections.

"Okay, I get it. Looks like it's not going to work!"

Shen Dong said sullenly, "This is the first time I felt I could do it, but I didn't. I feel helpless and disappointed."

"It's okay. Maybe in a few years, when our country develops rapidly, every household will have electricity."

Shen Weimin came over, patted him on the shoulder, and offered words of comfort and encouragement.

"Yes! It will happen!"

Shen Dong also came to terms with it. He couldn't stay in the team forever. He had a lot to do. 82 was a crucial year for the dairy factory. He was preparing to take over the entire market in Changlin County within a year.

I'll help out with team matters if I can, but everyone has their own path to walk.

Li Shangen and the others had rested enough, so they picked up the meat, said goodbye, and left.

After Li Shangen and his grandson left, Shen Changping prepared to go home. The meat was already hung up, and he would figure out what to do with it tomorrow.

Once everyone had left, Shen Min jumped up happily.

"Brother, is all this meat from our family? There's way too much!"

Shen Dong picked up the urea bags from the ground, washed them, and hung them up to dry. Hearing Shen Min's words, he replied with a smile, "We need to share some with my eldest sister and my aunt, and we'll eat the rest together."

"Brother, you're right, we need to separate. Last time, my aunt and uncle were chatting in the kitchen, and it seemed like my older sister was being bullied there. But my aunt said that family members shouldn't visit their husband's family so often, and that it was just a normal argument, not bullying, so it was left unresolved!"

Shen Dong frowned and said, "Really? Then I'll have to find some time to take a look!"

"Alright, it's getting late, go to sleep! You have exams coming up soon, you need to get some rest!"

"Don't worry, the exam will be no problem."

The next morning, Shen Dong went straight to Yang Yujun's place. Although Li Shangen had mentioned the power lines the night before, since he was in the commune, he decided to go and ask him about it.

However, Yang Yujun still gave him the answer he expected.

The commune could provide support, but that support was only a small part of the whole affair. Moreover, Baotashan Commune only climbed up the rankings this year; in previous years, it was always at the bottom and had no influence in the county.

Shen Dong then completely gave up hope.

I also chatted with Yang Yujun about the progress of the New Year gift boxes. They are basically finished and we will start assembling them today. Yang Yujun was very happy. This was something he had convened with the factory managers to confirm, so he was quite concerned about it.

Shen Dong went to the livestock station to find Wang Yuan, borrowed a truck, called Li Hu, and headed towards the team to find Li Shangen to receive the gift box.