Spring Breeze Twenty Years

Chapter 483 Rotten Stone Ravine

Xiao Wei laughed and said, "There's no car. Let's walk. There's only one long-distance bus a day, so most people walk when they go out. It's not so bad now; many families have bicycles, which makes things much more convenient."

The car wound its way through the mountains, going up and down.

In the car behind, Chen Hui looked at the side of the road and said, "Wow, how did this area form? A river of stones?"

Xia Maosheng peered over and said, "It must have been a big river. Look at these stones, all of them are round, and the whole ravine is full of them. It must have been a big river, a really big one. You know what, it looks pretty spectacular."

This section of the road is halfway up the mountain. On one side are cliffs and slopes, and on the other side is a mountain stream that is dozens of meters deep. Looking into the stream, you can see all kinds of yellow and gray stones of various shapes and sizes. Some are as big as a house, and some are as big as a fist. They are layered and covered with the stream and the steep slopes on both sides.

Chen Hui honked the horn a few times. Xiao Wei, who was in the car in front, heard the horn and looked in the rearview mirror. He saw Chen Hui waving his hand and then stepping on the brakes to slowly pull the car to the side of the road.

After both cars came to a stop, everyone got out to stretch and loosen up. Chen Hui lit a cigarette, pulled Xiao Wei to the roadside, and pointed to the stream, asking, "Are these stones owned?"

Xiao Wei also took out a cigarette and said, "Yes, all land resources belong to the state, didn't you know?"

Chen Hui paused for a moment, then kicked Xiao Wei and said, "I asked if anyone here rents out rooms."

Xiao Wei said, "Are you crazy? Who would wrap this up for? What are we going to eat? It's filling, though, one meal will last a lifetime."

Chen Hui asked, "Are there many places like this around here?"

Xiao Wei pointed to the west and said, "Follow this ravine over there. It's been several dozen miles, and there are more over there on the other side of the mountain. There are quite a few of these rocky ravines. This area used to be a big river, even bigger than the Hun River."

Chen Hui asked, "What about the water?"

Xiao Wei said, "You're asking me? Who should I ask? Li Shimin was still alive when there was the river. His warships came here. It's all old folks' stories, who knows if it's true or not."

Chen Hui said, "It shouldn't be too far off. The Tang Dynasty fought Goguryeo for so many years, and there were indeed many warships operating in the Liaodong area. There are quite a few records. There are even records of large warships traveling from Beixi to Fengtian during the early Qing Dynasty. But let's not talk about that. My question is, where does this area belong? Can it be bought?"

Xiao Wei looked at Chen Hui like he was an idiot and asked, "What do you want to buy?"

Chen Hui pointed down and said, "Look at these stones, quite a few of them are so beautifully shaped. Take them to Fengtian. Your yard is so big, why don't you build some nice shapes by the pond?"

Xiao Wei thought for a moment and said, "That's true. Putting a few big rocks in the yard would look nice. If we want to, we can just get a truck to haul them away. There are plenty of them everywhere in this desolate place, why would we need to buy them?"

Chen Hui said, "Can't someone take charge?"

Xiao Wei shook his head and said, "Nobody cares. Why would anyone care? Picking up a few stones isn't illegal. The country has a forest law, but I've never heard of a stone law."

Chen Hui nodded and said, "Different places have different customs. In Fengtian, there aren't even mountains, let alone rocks. But here, there's such a large river of rocks. It's magnificent. Come on, let's take a picture. I want to remember this."

Xiao Wei called to Xiao Hong to get the camera, saying, "Back when we were first liberated, this ravine was full of bandits. It was difficult to attack them; once they went in, they disappeared without a trace. You didn't go down there to see; people could live down there, in natural stone houses. There used to be several villages in this area, but they were all moved away when we fought the bandits."

Xiao Wei pointed to the hillside not far away and said, "There's a village over there with about ten households. The foundations of the houses are still there."

Xiao Hong brought over her camera, and Chen Hui, Chen Xiaoxia, Maosheng, and Geng Hui lined up to take pictures. Xiao Wei and Xiao Hong didn't take any; they'd grown up in these mountains and were already tired of seeing the same things, so they didn't find anything particularly interesting about them. That's just how people are—they always think other people's things are better.

After resting for a while and enjoying the scenery, everyone set off again. This time, Xia Maosheng drove behind, while Chen Hui ran over to Xiao Wei and sat in the passenger seat, saying, "Xiao Wei, do you think anyone will buy these stones if we take them to Fengtian?"

Xiao Wei asked, "What are you going to do with it?"

Chen Hui said, "Just put them up there. Put one up in the neighborhood, engrave some words on it, put one up in front of the office building with the factory name engraved on it. Wouldn't that look better than those cement walls they put up?"

Xiao Wei thought for a moment and nodded, saying, "It looks better than that one, but that would require a huge piece, which would be a lot of work. Each piece would weigh several tons or even tens of tons, right? How would we do that? Use a crane? Just transporting it back would cost money. How much could we sell it for?"

Chen Hui stroked his sparse beard and said, "Go back and ask. I think it should be possible. A big rock should fetch tens of thousands of yuan. Now Fengtian is starting to build residential complexes, you know, commercial housing. In the future, it will probably be all these kinds of houses. Do you think the developers will buy them? And there are parks too. There are so many parks in Fengtian. How many rocks this big have you seen?"

Xiao Wei said, "Besides the Forbidden City and the TV Tower, I haven't been to any other places. How would I know if there are any big rocks there?"

Chen Hui said, "Once this is done, I'll go back and ask around. Anyway, it doesn't require any investment. If there are buyers, they can come and pick it up. If it works out, this business will be quite large. We can charge by the ton, 20,000 yuan per ton. Is that feasible? I'll go back and have someone calculate it."

Xiao Wei said, "I think it's unlikely. Why don't they come and pull it themselves?"

Chen Hui said, "It's so far away, are you stupid enough to tell him it's from here? Besides, you live here, would you dare to just pick it up anywhere? They're not from this area, would they dare to just come and pick it up anywhere? We'll find a few people from the village to watch over it and pay them wages."

Xiao Wei said, "Liaodong is a mountainous area with many rocky places, so it's impossible to guarantee that you'll buy from me."

Chen Hui said, "Not necessarily. I've never seen or heard of such a large stone slab before, at least not around Fengtian. The thing itself has no cost; the cost is all in the crane transportation fee, and also its size and shape. If it's far away, the cost will naturally be higher, right? They'll drive the price down to zero. This thing is just being dragged along; how can they reduce costs?"

Xiao Wei thought about it for a moment and realized that was indeed the case. Looking out the window, he said, "Okay, do it if you want. If anyone cares, I'll help you find someone. I doubt anyone will care. If you need help from people in the village, I'll call them for you."

Chen Hui said, "If we're going to do it, we'll definitely have to find a few people we know well from here, and they can't be too old. We'll also have to find out which village this area belongs to, and we'll have to show our appreciation to the village. We need to make sure they keep thinking about it in the long run."

Xiao Wei said, "I really don't know which village this area belongs to. I'll have to ask. There are no other houses for miles around here now. There's a stream like this in the mountains behind our village, but it's not as big as this one. That belongs to our village."

As the car rounded a bend in the mountain road, a large river came into view in the distance. Xiao Wei said, "That's the Taizi River. It originates from Xinbin in Fengtian and flows into the Hun River before emptying into the sea. It's the largest river around here. That rocky ravine we just passed is connected to the Taizi River. I suspect the river has changed its course."

(End of this chapter)