Professor Gu's daily life in the countryside after his rebirth

The strong sun in late July turned the loess white, and the roof of Gu Zhan's new house was basically dry and ready for tiling.

Gao Yuan had already contacted the brick and tile factory on the other side of the commune, so when the workers saw Gu Zhan coming to pull the tiles, they were very enthusiastic.

When the deputy director of the brick and tile factory heard that it was Gu Zhan coming, he hurried out to greet him: "Hey, Comrade Gu Zhan, you could have just sent someone to pull it over, why did you come here in person?"

The news that the county commended Gu Zhan had spread throughout the Xiaohe Town Commune. In addition to their admiration for the young man Gu Zhan based on honor, they were also more curious about him.

The director of the brick and tile factory was also very curious about this young man named Gu Zhan. In addition, because of his friendship with Gao Yuan, he had to pay attention to the things that Gao Yuan personally instructed him to do.

Speaking of which, Gu Chenggui, the director of the brick and tile factory, is somewhat related to the Gu family, but after hearing too much gossip about the Gu family in recent years, Gu Chenggui deliberately avoided mentioning this relationship.

Therefore, when the staff below said that Gu Zhan, a member of the Shanghe Village Production Brigade, was coming to Lawa as Gao Yuan had instructed, Gu Chenggui just stood in front of the glass window of the office and looked at the young man who came outside with the ox cart.

Although the young man was thin and dressed simply, he looked calm and composed, with a peaceful expression on his face. The scorching sun shining on him seemed to add a lot of radiance to his whole appearance.

Gu Chenggui was shocked that there was such a young man with such outstanding temperament.

He ignored his previous concerns and followed the worker who was let out of the door. He strode up to Gu Zhan and said, "Comrade Gu Zhan, right?"

Gu Zhan saw the clothes of the person walking towards him and knew that he was the leader here, so he politely said, "Hello!"

"Comrade Gu Zhan, I'm Gu Chenggui, the director of our brick and tile factory."

"Hello, Director Gu!"

Gu Chenggui took Gu Zhan to look at every type of tile produced by the brick and tile factory, and finally Gu Zhan chose the standard green tiles.

After confirming the price and preparing to load the goods onto the ox cart, Gu Chenggui tried to ask Gu Zhan: "Comrade Gu Zhan, we have a tractor in our factory that can deliver the goods to your door. You only need to pay three yuan for the shipping fee."

Upon hearing such a convenient thing, Gu Zhan agreed immediately.

Not only is the ox cart slow, it also requires several trips back and forth. Now it can be pulled back in one trip, which is very convenient.

Liu Xiaoxi prepared lunch at home and thought that Gu Zhan would not be back until around two in the afternoon, but he came home before twelve o'clock.

"Why are you back so early? Is everything going well?"

Gu Zhan took off the straw hat that he had casually covered his head to block the sun, gulped down a few sips of cold boiled water, and said, "There's a tractor over at the brick and tile factory. They can send it back for three yuan."

Liu Xiaoxi nodded in understanding: "I see, that's a lot more convenient."

What Gu Zhan didn't know was that the door-to-door delivery was Gu Chenggui's last-minute idea. The factory only had one tractor, which was usually not enough to go up the mountain to collect soil, so there was no time to spare for delivery. Today's delivery was just an unexpected incident.

The tiles arrived quickly and were laid quickly. By dark in the afternoon, all the tiles on the new house had been laid.

Liu Xiaoxi looked at the new home that was almost complete, and her steps became much lighter. On the way back, she asked Gu Zhan, "When can we move in?"

Gu Zhan thought about it and based on his memories from his previous life, the weather at this time was close to drought. According to the current temperature, the house would be completely dry in about twenty days. It would be a good time to move at that time, and the house would not leak when it rained heavily later.

The house we live in now starts leaking everywhere when it rains, and it is very humid inside.

"Probably another twenty days or so."

After hearing that it would take more than 20 days, Liu Xiaoxi was very excited. She was finally going to move out of the Gu family's cannibalistic courtyard and no longer have to look at that family's faces.

Gu Zhan tilted his head, looked at the blush on Liu Xiaoxi's face due to the temperature, smiled gently and asked, "Are you happy?"

Liu Xiaoxi glanced sideways and saw the look Gu Zhan was giving her. She answered very seriously, "Happy, very happy. We finally have our own little family, and you, Gu Zhan, are finally going to escape the clutches of that family."

Gu Zhan laughed. In this life, the Gu family was nothing in his eyes. They were not on his schedule at all. At most, they were just a few passers-by he met often.

But in my previous life, they really did influence my whole life.

On their way back home, the two passed a cornfield. The corn had grown significantly better than the same time last year. The plants were taller, thicker, and had more developed root systems.

However, due to the recent hot and dry weather, the leaves have begun to curl.

Gu Zhan asked Liu Xiaoxi to wait for him by the roadside, while he himself went straight into the field.

In the blink of an eye, the person was gone.

Gu Zhan walked about twenty or thirty meters inside, squatted down, dug a handful of soil from the field with his bare hands, and looked at it. It was all dry soil. As he went deeper, he found that the soil was slightly moist.

Gu Zhan frowned. If the sun continued to dry like this, the corn harvest this year would probably drop sharply.

What should I do?

Gu Zhan began to think rapidly in his mind about feasible solutions to this problem.

When I came out of the field, I saw Zhao Baogen riding a bicycle hurriedly passing by on the road.

"Uncle Zhao!" Gu Zhan greeted him.

Zhao Baogen's bicycle had already gone some distance, but when he heard Gu Zhan's voice, he turned back.

"Uncle Zhao, what is this going to do?"

Zhao Baogen frowned. "It's very dry right now. Xiahe Village is clamoring to open the reservoir gates to release water. I'll go take a look."

Gu Zhan heard the words "open the reservoir and release water" and thought for a moment, "Uncle Zhao, it's not impossible to open the gate and release water. I took a look and the corn is already quite dry."

"Alas, you don't know. Our Shanghe Reservoir is the last source of drinking water for the surrounding villages. If the weather continues to be dry after we open the gates to release water, drinking water will probably become a problem."

"Besides, opening the sluice gates to release water requires the consent of the commune leaders. How can we just release water as we please?"

Gu Zhan frowned. Zhao Baogen's concerns were not without reason. After the drought in the past few years, Shanghe Reservoir did provide drinking water for the surrounding villages.

But the weather this year is different from previous years. There will be heavy rain for several days in mid-August.

If the reservoirs do not release water to combat drought now, not only will grain production be reduced due to the drought, but the reservoirs will also be under tremendous pressure when heavy rains come.

In my previous life, villagers from Shanghe and Xiahe villages had a fight over whether to release water to combat drought, and people died. Finally, in August, there was a torrential downpour, and the reservoir burst its banks...

Horrible memories filled my mind. Shanghe Village was the closest to the reservoir. When the reservoir burst, Shanghe Village was the worst hit. Houses were basically razed to the ground, farmland was destroyed, and many people died or went missing.

Including Liu Xiaoxi's brother Liu Zhong, who also disappeared in the disaster.

Later, Liu Zhong's wife, Wang Yuehong, returned to her parents' home and remarried. Liu Jinshui and Huang Guihua were deeply devastated. They had already exhausted all their energy raising their grandson, so how could they have the energy to care for their daughter? That's why, in despair and isolation, he let his wife commit suicide by jumping into the river.

Therefore, we must get the consent of the commune leaders to open the floodgates and release the water no matter what.