Chapter 24: Selling Grain to Repay Debt

  Chapter 24: Selling Grain to Repay Debts

  Lying in bed, Wang Haodong took out the rented DVD and thought to himself, "If I'm free tomorrow afternoon, I'll just stay home and watch a movie. Hmm, Zhang Shufang might not be available, so I'll ask Yu Fen to watch it with me."

  Thinking of Xiao Yufen next door, Wang Haodong's heart was a little hot. The two were still in an underground relationship and had not let others know. Except for the Zhang sisters, other villagers did not know about their relationship.

  "The time is ripe, I can make it public with Yu Fen and let others know that we're together."

  Wang Haodong muttered to himself, thinking secretly, can I give her one?

  Wang Haodong is a city dweller with a urban household registration, but he is at the bottom of society, without a stable career, no beautiful big house, and no car, his economic conditions are very average.

  "I must work hard to make money, whether in the city or countryside, if I want to live a good life, I need to have enough money to support myself and earn enough to give Yufen a visible happy future."

  Wang Haodong muttered to himself, thinking of ways to make money, but for the time being, he was at a loss.

  The next morning, Wang Haodong got up at 5:30 and ran a lap along the village road after washing up. When he returned, Zhang Shufang had already cooked breakfast, and she was doing laundry while Zhang Qian was eating.

  "Hao Dong ge ge, chi fan le."

  Translation: "Hao Dong brother, dinner is ready."

  "Uh-huh, you eat first, I'll wash my face and take a run around the block, then I'll rest for a bit."

  As he spoke, Wang Haodong scooped up some cold water to wash his face, and secretly took a glance at Zhang Shufang. Unexpectedly, she was also looking at him, and the two pairs of eyes met in mid-air. In that instant, Wang Haodong felt a spark of electricity.

  Zhang Shufang's face turned red, like a startled little wild rabbit, and she hastily avoided eye contact, lowering her head to wash clothes.

  Wang Haodong smiled and walked into the kitchen to grab a pancake, then started eating it with mushrooms and green vegetables.

  After dinner, Zhang Qian went to school, while Wang Haodong was at home reading news on his mobile phone. After Zhang Shufang finished eating, Wang Haodong asked: "Your family doesn't have a tractor, how did you transport the wheat to town?"

  "In the past, when selling wheat, I would push a handcart to town. If someone in the village was driving a tractor there, I'd ask them to help transport the wheat along the way. Today, it seems like no one is driving a tractor there, so..."

  Wang Haodong understood Zhang Shufang's meaning and said: "Then let's use a handcart."

  "That's too much trouble for you."

  "It's nothing, just a dozen miles or so, I can hold on."

  As he spoke, Wang Haodong thought to himself, oh dear, this time it's going to be exhausting. Walking over ten miles is tiring enough, let alone pulling several hundred kilograms of wheat? No choice, just have to bear with the exhaustion. He had already promised someone, and couldn't change his mind at the last minute.

  Wang Haodong and Zhang Shufang went to the granary to take a look, there were still fifteen bags of wheat in the warehouse, one bag was about 100 kilograms. There were less than twenty days before harvesting new wheat, they had to leave one bag of wheat as food, and the rest could be taken away for sale.

  Wang Haodong asked Zhang Shufang to bring the handcart, a tool known locally in rural areas as "jia chezi". Although it was not particularly sturdy, transporting fourteen sacks of wheat would still be no problem.

  Fortunately, Wang Haodong had been insisting on exercising for many years, and his physical strength was strong. He moved fourteen bags of wheat by himself, not panting or sweating a single drop, which made Zhang Shufang secretly admire him as a real man.

  Everything was ready, Wang Haodong wiped his hands and left home with Zhang Shufang, pushing the cart to the town.

  In May, the morning was quite cool.

  The wheat by the roadside has turned slightly yellow, and the fragrance of wheat is coming. It's time to harvest the wheat soon. These golden waves represent the season of harvest.

  "How do you harvest wheat here? With a combine harvester?"

  Zhang Shufang said: "The road on this side is not very good, sometimes the harvesting machine comes over, everyone uses the harvesting machine, and sometimes it doesn't come, so we can only use manpower."

  "The reaper is convenient, one mu of land can be finished in more than ten minutes. If you don't use a reaper, that's the real trouble."

  "We're poor here, and it's all because of this road. I don't know when the higher-ups will fix it."

  Wang Haodong shook his head and said: "To get rich, one must first build roads. This road is indeed in need of repair."

  The rugged mountain road was really hard to walk, and it was even more difficult with over a dozen bags of wheat. If Wang Haodong hadn't helped, Zhang Shufang wouldn't have arrived in town until noon. But with the help of this strong young man, they arrived in just two hours.

  Zhang Shufang was panting heavily, exhausted to the point of being out of breath, her whole body covered in sweat. Wang Haodong, on the other hand, had only broken a slight sweat. Seeing her like that, he went into the store and grabbed two bottles of drinks, handing one to her. She didn't put on any airs, immediately twisting off the cap and gulping it down.

  The market is held on the odd-numbered days of the lunar calendar, yesterday was an odd-numbered day and there was a market, but today is an even-numbered day so there isn't one. As a result, there are very few people on the streets, and the stalls that were set up for the market have all disappeared.

  After a short rest, the two of them pushed the cart to the grain purchasing place and sold the wheat. The price was 1 yuan and 1 jiao per kilogram. They had 1425 kilograms in total and got 1570 yuan from the buyer.

  After receiving the money, Zhang Shufang repeatedly checked three times to confirm that the amount was correct, took out five 100-yuan bills and handed them over to Wang Haodong.

  "What does it mean?" Wang Haodong asked in shock.

  Zhang Shufang wiped the sweat from her face and said: "The money Liu Erzhu gave me earlier was lent to me by you, I have to pay you back."

  "Didn't I say it's on the company?"

  "You've already given me the meal allowance, I shouldn't take it again." For Zhang Shufang, even if the family is poor, their integrity cannot be lost. Since it's borrowed money, it must be repaid.

  Wang Haodong said no, but she insisted on giving it to him. He had no choice but to accept it. However, he couldn't help but think about her persistence. At least her character was very good, and she was also beautiful, diligent, and able to endure hardship. Whoever marries her will definitely be blessed with good fortune from their past life.

  "Are you going to buy anything else?"

  "Let's buy some braised dishes, you've helped me so much and got tired, I should get something delicious to reward you." Zhang Shufang said with a smile, then let Wang Haodong wait here for a while, she walked eastward in big strides.

  After a few minutes, Zhang Shufang bought some braised dishes and said to Wang Haodong: "I want to go find Wang Xin, do you want to come together?"

  Wang Xin and she were classmates, also Wang Peng's cousin. Wang Haodong and Wang Peng were good brothers, so they weren't outsiders, and nodded in agreement. However, when the two arrived at the entrance of Wang Xin's barber shop, they were shocked to find that the store was closed.

  Frowning, Wang Haodong said: "She seems not to be at home."

  "Probably something came up and she had to go out and take care of it, let's head back."

  "Alright." Wang Hao Dong didn't know Wang Xin's phone number and had no way to contact her, so he could only go home with Zhang Shu Fang.

  Pushing the cart, the two of them headed west. A few minutes later, Wang Haodong heard the sound of a motorcycle and looked up to see a young man riding an old Jialing brand motorcycle eastward with an elderly man on the back. The motorcycle was very old and made a lot of noise, but it was moving very fast.

  As they got a bit closer, Wang Haodong saw that both of them were familiar. The old man was the village chief, seemingly named Liu Dahai. The young man had been beaten by him before, on the day Zhang Shufang fell ill, when he led people to her doorstep looking for trouble with Wang Haodong, only to be severely beaten instead.

  "Is that old man your village head?" Wang Haodong asked.

  "Ah, his name is Liu Dahai, a rather lecherous old man." Zhang Shufang finished her evaluation, but then remembered that saying such things in front of him was somewhat improper, and her face turned red.

  "Who was that young punk riding a motorcycle?"

  "He is his nephew, named Liu Lele."

  Wang Haodong nodded, muttering to himself in his heart. Perhaps that day, this little kid named Liu Lele and the other person who came to pick a fight were not just so simple. Perhaps there was some hidden truth inside, such as being instructed by someone...

  As he was lost in thought, the motorcycle appeared before him. Liu Lele and Liu Dahai exchanged a glance, but the vehicle didn't stop and left immediately. However, she saw a hint of resentment in Liu Lele's eyes.

  It doesn't matter if you're hostile towards me, but if you dare to take action, don't blame me for not being polite. Wang Haodong sneered and muttered to himself in his heart, but unexpectedly, a storm was about to arrive soon.

  The two of them continued to walk home along the west road of the town. On their way here, they were pulling a cart full of wheat and felt very heavy and tired. On their way back, the cart was empty, so it felt very easy.

  After walking for a while, Wang Haodong saw Zhang Shufang looking tired and said: "Sister Shufang, you sit in the car, I'll pull you home."

  Zhang Shufang hastily shook her head and said: "How can that be? You're exhausted today, I couldn't possibly let you get any more tired."

  "I've been exercising all day and I'm feeling great, don't be polite with me, come on up!"

  Wang Haodong repeatedly asked, Zhang Shufang showed a hesitant expression, and finally nodded and got on the car.

  After she sat down steadily, Wang Haodong said a word of opening the road and pulled the car to continue heading west.

  "Hao Dong, may I ask you a question?"

  On the road, Zhang Shufang spoke up.

  Wang Haodong turned his face and said, "Ask."

  Zhang Shufang asked: "Why did you come from the city to our poor place?"

  As for Wang Haodong's matter, Wang Peng knew it, his cousin Wang Xin knew it, Zhang Shufang wasn't very clear about it, she had been holding back and didn't ask, now that the topic was brought up, she couldn't hold it in anymore.

  "I had a conflict with someone..." Wang Haodong simply said a few words and explained what happened.

  "What? Liu Daitou's son?" Zhang Shufang was extremely surprised, that person was one of the richest and most influential people, with power in both the underworld and the legitimate world, his reputation spread far and wide, even she, a poor mountain village woman, knew his name.

  "Hehe, yeah, the other side is very powerful, I'm just a small fry, so I'll just come out and avoid the storm for now. You know about this, don't go spreading it around."

  "Uh-huh, I know." Zhang Shufang nodded, looking like she was going to keep a secret for Wang Haodong.

  Zhang Shufang didn't mention this matter, it's fine. Once she mentioned it, Wang Haodong felt annoyed. The other party has been silent until now, and he doesn't know how to deal with it. Is the other party just going to let it go? He doesn't know, but since he's living well now, he didn't think about it anymore.

  All the way west, footsteps don't stop.

  About ten minutes later, Wang Haodong walked halfway and felt a slight swelling in his lower abdomen. He had drunk a bottle of beverage and was eager to urinate, so he asked: "Shufang, I want to go to the toilet, where can I go?"

  "This..."

  Zhang Shufang's face turned red for a moment. When people of the opposite sex talk about this topic, they always feel a little shy. But thinking that it's not the old society anymore and the social atmosphere has long been open, she said: "In rural areas, there are no public toilets like in cities. If you want to relieve yourself, just find a secluded place."

  Wang Haodong nodded, special treatment for special conditions, looked carefully and saw no one passing by, then slipped into the wheat field to relieve himself.

  After finishing speaking, Wang Haodong returned on the road, but saw Zhang Shufang lowering her head, seemingly because of shyness and not daring to look at him, apparently with the intention of avoiding suspicion.

  "I'm fine, Sister Shufang, let's keep going. Hold on tight." Wang Haodong said loudly as he continued to pull the cart forward.

  Buzz buzz buzz......

  The sound of a motorcycle came from behind, Wang Haodong turned his face and looked at it, and suddenly felt that something was wrong.

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