?Chapter 43: 43 rejected!! Chapter 43: 43 rejected!! As the Captain of the Shuangshan Brigade, Lin Fu had been here many times.
He led He Jun and others to find the Commune Leader, knowing the way well.
The Commune Leader, Yan Sui, was in his forties this year.
Dressed in a Zhongshan suit with a square face, he looked stable and reliable.
“Captain Lin is here, take a seat first!” It seemed that Yan Sui had anticipated Lin Fu’s visit and greeted him with a smile.
“All the comrades have arrived too!”
While speaking, he stood up and personally poured them tea.
Lin Fu and the others were pleasantly surprised.
“Secretary Yan, there’s no need to trouble yourself, we just have a few questions…” Sёarch* The NovelFire.net* website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.
Yan Sui’s expression remained unchanged as he gestured for Lin Fu and his group to sit and talk.
“I know why you’ve come here, but I’m afraid the commune might not be able to help you…”
“What?” He Jun, who was known for his impatience, immediately got anxious upon hearing this.
“Secretary Yan, you know we’re here for technological guidance?
Why can’t you help us? What will our brigade do then?”
Lin Fu’s face also changed slightly as he said, “We understand the commune’s difficulties, but we ask the leaders to understand us as well.
Even just a few days of someone’s guidance… Our brigade may be nestled in the mountains, and we don’t lack for pig feed.
But raising pigs isn’t just about keeping them fed. Everyone’s life is hard. If this fails…
Secretary Yan, all our brigade members are diligent and not afraid of hard work. What we fear is toiling for a year and ending up with nothing!”
To end up with nothing would be one thing.
The worst case would be ending up in debt.
Qian Hua was not a man of many words, and when he was nervous, he was especially tongue-tied,
especially in front of leaders, where he found it impossible to open his mouth.
His face turned red with urgency, and he kept nodding, looking like he agreed completely.
Yan Sui raised his hand and gently patted Lin Fu and the others’ shoulders, soothing them with a gentle expression,
“I understand the comrades’ difficulties and I appreciate your support for the commune’s work.
I would very much like to provide technical assistance to every brigade, only…”
He paused for a moment, sighed, and a worried look appeared on his face.
“Everywhere is struggling! Your brigade at least has a mountain to live off, and no one is starving to death.
Some areas outside are still suffering from disasters. As for technological guidance you mentioned?
Let alone in our commune, even in the entire province, there aren’t many who are well-versed in it!
If I truly had such experts, would I keep it a secret?
If we really had someone to provide technological guidance, the pig farming venture of Jianming Commune wouldn’t be in such dire straits.
We must explore on our own and carve out a way to prosperity through pig farming on our own.
I can’t help you, the commune can’t help you, all you can rely on is yourselves to figure it out.
The most I can promise is,
if you truly succeed, this year’s title of Advanced Brigade will be yours!”
Lin Fu forced a smile.
Secretary Yan was only offering them a pie in the sky.
Advanced Brigade?
Good as it sounded, it was still uncertain whether the pigs would even grow to maturity.
In order to raise the pigs well, the Jianming Brigade, fearing any nighttime troubles, even had some members spend the night next to the pigsty under makeshift shelters.
They wished they could spend the whole twenty-four hours cradling the pigs in their arms and raising them with care.
But what was the result?
A bout of illness swept through, and within a few days, more than half of the pigs were dead.
Lin Fu thought of the hard-working members and grew even more worried.
“Secretary Yan, if indeed there’s no technological guidance, we’re at a loss.
I just want to ask, if our brigade’s pig farming effort truly fails, can the members’ debt for the piglets be reduced?
Please show some leniency, Secretary. It’s tough for everyone!”
Li Jiancai, He Jun, and Qian Hua also pleaded along.
Yan Sui shook his head, his tone sounding somewhat helpless.
“I don’t make those decisions!”
“The price for piglets allocated by the province to each commune is uniform.
If the commune gives different prices to each brigade, we won’t be able to carry out our work, and we hope you can understand that.”
The commune’s purchase of piglets was also costly.
If prices were set arbitrarily, it would be the entire commune’s interests that would suffer.
Thus, that door could not be opened.
He too was aware of the hardship faced by the rural folk.
But in these times, who wasn’t having a tough time?
Lin Fu realized there was no room for negotiation.
He exchanged looks with the other officials, then bid Yan Sui farewell.
The group left the commune’s office.
Once outside, Qian Hua said agitatedly, “Captain, what do we do now? We can’t explain this to the members!”
Lin Fu turned back to look at the commune, then gritted his teeth and said, “… We’ll have to sort it out ourselves!”
“Sort it out ourselves? How?” Li Jiancai asked with wide eyes.
“Rely on our hands and feet to figure it out, to manage it ourselves!
Without technical support, and refusing to figure out a way to do it ourselves, what else can we do?
Let’s go to Jianming Brigade and ask around to see if we can learn any good practices.
They’ve raised pigs before; surely they have some experience.”
Li Jiancai approved, “I think the Captain is right. It’s better to ask around than to fumble blindly.”
He Jun and Qian Hua couldn’t think of any other solution, so they agreed to seek advice from the Jianming Brigade.
Having decided on their next steps, Lin Fu remembered the letter Tangtang had asked him to mail for her.
“I need to go to the Post Office to mail a letter first. Shall we meet at the commune in an hour, will that work?”
Fearing a long queue at the Post Office, he allotted himself more than half an hour extra.
Li Jiancai and the others naturally had no objections, “Okay!”
Lin Fu arrived at the Post Office to find a line of people mailing letters that extended outside the door.
It formed a straight line.
Seeing this, he hurriedly went forward to join the line at the back.
By the time he had mailed the letter, half an hour had passed.
Lin Fu clutched the few pennies left in his hand and shook his head helplessly.
This Tangtang!
Asking him, her great uncle, for help with mailing a letter, she even insisted on giving him money.
It would have been fine if it were just the money, but she had even tucked it into the paper wrapping.
If he hadn’t noticed, wouldn’t that money have been mailed along with the letter?
–
Lin Tang followed her family into the fields, working on farm chores for an entire afternoon.
Now was the time for spring plowing, so there was much work to be done in the fields.
Her body was strong, and she worked efficiently, earning six work points in just one afternoon.
When the time came, the brigade officials blew the whistle to signal the end of the workday.
A trace of relief and joy appeared on the faces of the members working in the fields.
“Tangtang, how are you feeling? Tired?” Li Xiuli came over to Lin Tang and reached out to take the hoe from her hands.
Lin Tang didn’t let go of her hoe but instead took the hoe from her mother’s hands.
“Not tired!” she said energetically.
Li Xiuli: “…” silently retracted the towel she had planned to use to wipe the sweat from her daughter’s brow.
“…You must be hungry after a busy afternoon.
Your sister-in-law boiled an egg for you; eat it when you get back to nourish your body.”
She didn’t want their daughter, who seldom did fieldwork, to ruin her health from the hard labor.
Lin Tang didn’t feel tired at all, nor did she care for boiled eggs.
But the deep love and concern from her mother were hard to refuse.
Besides, in those times, if she dared to say that she didn’t like eggs, she feared she would be scolded.
Lin Tang could only look at her mother with a grateful expression and say with a smile, “…Thank you, Mother!”
Zhou Mei, overhearing their conversation, approached like a lost soul,
and with a thick-skinned and sycophantic smile, she said to Li Xiuli, “Mother, what about me? I seem to be tired too. I need to replenish as well.”
Her mantra seemed to be to remember the food but not the scolding.