Siheyuan: Starting from 1958

Half an hour later, the family finally settled the eight lambs that Zhou Gui and his son had just bought, and fed them silage.

As the lambs in the sheepfold gradually calmed down from their initial restlessness, Zhou Guangcai's tense nerves finally relaxed.

On the way home, I was worried that something might happen to the lambs.

As long as they can eat normally in the sheepfold, there shouldn't be any more problems.

He then took out the remaining thirty yuan from his pocket and introduced her to his wife and mother, saying, "Mother...wife..."

"The five rams weighed a total of 320 jin, and at 5 mao per jin, they sold for a total of 160 yuan."

“We paid back the fifty yuan we owed the processing plant, and then spent forty yuan to buy eight lambs, leaving us with seventy yuan.”

"The lambs need to be fed cornmeal for a month or two after we bought them so they can grow up quickly. So my dad and I bought twenty yuan worth of cornmeal in town..."

"With the Mid-Autumn Festival just around the corner, and our family not having eaten white flour for a long time..."

"We sold five rams and five ewes at once. After working hard for half a year, we should celebrate properly, so I bought ten yuan worth of flour."

"It weighs about 30 jin in total, which should be enough for the family to make several meals of dumplings and several bowls of steamed buns."

"We also spent five yuan on pork. Tonight we'll have pork and sauerkraut dumplings..."

"I bought some oil, salt, soy sauce, vinegar, and the like for five yuan..."

"Here's the remaining thirty yuan. We'll keep it to buy New Year's goods..."

"The eight lambs we just bought will have grown up by the time our son and daughter start school next year. Selling a few will be enough to pay their tuition."

Seeing the three ten-yuan bills her husband handed her, and looking at the half-full bag of flour, a large piece of pork belly, and half a bag of oil, salt, soy sauce, and vinegar on the cart, the wife's face immediately lit up with joy.

After returning to the house, she hid the thirty yuan and ran to the kitchen to make dumplings with her mother-in-law.

Zhou Gui and his son took advantage of the fact that it was still dark to run to the back mountain to continue cutting grass.

As autumn approaches, the pasture on the mountain becomes increasingly scarce. They must seize the last moments before the pasture withers and turns yellow to stockpile more silage for the goats, ensuring they don't go hungry in the winter.

…………

The couple moved to the family compound of the Tangshan Town Government after Chen Jun, the wife, took on the additional role of a town official.

At nine o'clock in the morning, Wang Dong had just finished feeding the baby when the phone rang in the room.

"Hello... This is Wang Dong..." Wang Dong picked up the microphone.

No sooner had he finished speaking than a very anxious voice came through the receiver: "Boss..."

"Our truck delivering mutton to Beijing had an accident..."

"They were stuck on the road, unable to move forward or backward..."

"The weather is getting hotter and hotter. If we can't get the mutton to Beijing and put it in the restaurant's cold storage soon, it'll definitely rot."

The manager of the mutton processing plant on the other end of the microphone was almost in tears, but Wang Dong calmed down and shouted into the microphone, "What's the rush?"

"Calm down..."

"Tell me the specifics."

Perhaps it was Wang Dong's loud shout that had an effect, as the anxious factory manager finally calmed down and quickly explained the situation.

"Boss..." "The situation is like this..."

"Around 4 a.m., we set off as usual to deliver mutton to Beijing. There were 30 goats in total, with more than 1,000 kilograms of mutton..."

"The truck carrying mutton got stuck in a big pothole less than ten kilometers from the town..."

"Then a group of people rushed out from the roadside and cut off their retreat."

“There was only one driver and one escort on our truck, which made it impossible to pull the truck out of the ditch.”

"In the end, the security guard came up with a solution: he found more than 20 villagers from nearby villages, paid each of them 50 cents, and asked them to help pull the truck out of the ditch."

"As a result, after advancing less than five kilometers, the truck was blocked by another large pothole on the road, and it was truly stuck."

"The driver and the escort have to guard the truck and the mutton on it, so they can't come back to report..."

"The only thing we can do is find a local resident to come to the processing plant and report this to us..."

"The driver told the escort: 'Those big potholes on the road were man-made. The purpose was to prevent our truck from arriving in Beijing on time, and also to prevent us from returning to the processing plant. They wanted the more than 1,000 kilograms of mutton we had loaded in the truck to rot...'"

“Our processing plant has never encountered anything like this before. I didn’t know what to do for a moment, so I could only report to you, boss…”

Wang Dong's brows furrowed instantly.

If those potholes on the road were indeed man-made, then the real target of the mastermind behind them is the mutton processing plant.

But in Wang Dong's view, almost all the sheep farmers in Tangshan Town would benefit from his opening of the processing plant, so they would definitely not target the plant.

He frowned and thought for a full half minute but couldn't figure out who he had offended, or who would try to sabotage him and prevent the mutton from the processing plant from being delivered to Beijing.

If their scheme succeeds, the mutton processing plant will definitely be unable to continue operating in Tangshan Town...

Having analyzed the situation to this point, Wang Dong vaguely realized something and quickly asked the processing plant manager waiting for orders on the other end of the microphone, "Manager Wang..."

"Think about it carefully..."

"Have we offended anyone by opening a processing plant in Tangshan Town? Is there anyone who wants to drive our processing plant out of Tangshan Town?"

"Probably not..." Factory manager Wang thought for a moment before answering.

"Our purchase price for live sheep is a full 10 cents higher than that of sheep dealers, so farmers can earn five or six yuan more per sheep than in previous years..."

"This is such a good thing that you can't even find a pie falling from the sky. The people of Tangshan Town are too grateful to us to do anything to us. They certainly won't do anything to us."

"What if our processing plant can't continue operating in Tangshan Town and we have to leave..."

"The goats that ordinary people have worked so hard to raise have to be sold back to goat dealers, who then drive down the price..."

"Ordinary people are more shrewd than anyone else when it comes to calculating things, and they certainly wouldn't do something stupid like ruining their own livelihood."

The speaker has no intention, the listener has intention.

Wang Dong's eyes lit up as he replied, "I understand..."

"For ordinary people in Tangshan Town, they certainly hope that our processing plant can continue to operate in Tangshan Town and become stronger and stronger."

"But for those sheep dealers operating in Tangshan Town, they'd definitely love for our processing plant to go out of business and pack up and leave. Otherwise, they wouldn't be able to buy goats at low prices in Tangshan Town, or even do live sheep business there. After all, our purchase price is what it is; as long as the people aren't stupid, they'll sell their live sheep to us, not those sheep dealers who like to drive down prices." (End of Chapter)