Chapter 7 Should We Call the Police?

  The next morning, Fu Xin rushed to his neighbor Hu Shu's house and borrowed a Phoenix-brand bicycle. At this time, the sky was just brightening up, and Hu Shu had just gotten out of bed and was preparing to go to the fields to take a look.

  Rural life is like this, every household man likes to go to the fields early in the morning to take a look, see how the rice is growing, and whether the field lacks water. If it does lack water, they need to find water for irrigation. Maybe these crops are the foundation of a family's survival, so every farmer likes to treat them as treasures, afraid that something small will go wrong.

  The younger brothers and sisters at home have not gotten up yet, and Fu Xin did not go to disturb them. Although it is said that during this period, many rural children start helping with household chores at a young age, early in the morning, most adults will go to the fields to take a look or work, so children of a few years old need to get up early to cook, poor people's children grow up too soon.

  But Pei's new home didn't have to be like that, because Pei Zhenbang earned a salary and their family life was manageable. Plus, Li Fanghua, an extremely doting rural woman, would usually not go out early in the morning, and if she did, it would only be to pick some fresh vegetables from the garden.

  Fu Zhenbang, although earning a salary, was not enough to support his family's expenses. Therefore, the land allocated to Fu Xinjia was not rented out, and due to Fu Zhenbang being salaried, the allocated land was limited, only a few mu. As a result, there were not many farm chores in Fu Xinjia's household. Usually, when Fu Zhenbang was at home, he would go out early in the morning to take a look around. When Fu Zhenbang went to work, it was Li Fanghua who took care of things. These past few days, although Fu Zhenbang had been busy with technical issues at the factory and hadn't been home, without his presence for these few mornings, the crops in the fields wouldn't have changed much.

  Walking into the kitchen, Li Fanghua was coughing while burning firewood at the stove, and a wave of rice fragrance wafted from the pot. Actually, at this moment, the rice was still far from being cooked, it was just boiling in the pot, after cooking until half-cooked, it needed to be scooped out and put on the steamer to steam until done, the staple food for the whole family was right here.

  Zengzi, this thing, externally resembles a wooden bucket, but the bottom is made of bamboo woven into an inward and upward curved cone, so there are many small holes. It is placed on a steamer or pot to steam food. Its size varies with different needs. Over the years, the shape of Zengzi in various regions has been different, but the cylindrical shape is the most common.

  The steamer mainly consists of three parts: lid, body and bottom.

  The bottom of the steamer is made of breathable wooden boards, with gaps left between the boards to allow steam to pass through and cook the rice. The bottom of the steamer is usually at one-third or one-quarter of the height of the steamer, but it must not be aligned with the bottom of the steamer body, otherwise the rice will be soaked in water.

  The body of the steamer is a cylindrical shape similar to that of a wooden barrel. Due to frequent use in water for steaming, and changes in air temperature, the body of the steamer tends to loosen easily. Therefore, bamboo strips or iron wires are needed to tie it tightly around the middle section of the steamer. If the correct method is used but the rice still cannot be cooked thoroughly, it may be that the loosened body of the steamer allowed steam to escape during cooking.

  The lid is made of wood and is generally not easily damaged.

  Zhenzi, in the future world where technology is increasingly advanced, this thing, except for a few remote mountainous areas and some high-end restaurants or farmhouses, has become very rare to see. Basically every household uses electric rice cookers now.

  But people may not know that the rice cooked with a clay pot is far more fragrant than the one steamed by an electric cooker. This can be seen from some high-end restaurants using clay pots to cook rice. However, it cannot be denied that in order for the rice to be fragrant, you have to pay more, and cooking with a clay pot is indeed much more troublesome than steaming with an electric cooker.

  Seeing his mother still busy, it would take more than half an hour for the rice to be cooked, so Fu Xin decided not to go home for breakfast. After calling out, Fu Xin rode the bicycle at the door and headed straight to the Red Star Fertilizer Plant.

  The car was going very fast, and Pei Xun didn't know whether they would be late, the factory had already started work, and whether they could still get in to find his father. Although his father was the deputy director of the factory, and he also knew the security guard at the door, two years had passed, who knows if the security guard would have changed, let alone at this time when his father and others were busy with technical work, who knows if they could get in to disturb them. Despite the fact that management was very lax at this time, people's awareness of property rights was not high either.

  Rushing along the winding mountain road, watching the sun slowly rising, Pei Xin didn't have any intention of appreciating the scenery along the way. Hurriedly, he added more strength and focused on rushing to the Hongxing Fertilizer Plant on time.

  "Hey! Hey! Comrade in front, let me pass, I don't have brakes!"

  At this time, Fu Xin saw a girl with a ponytail riding an old bicycle slowly in front of him, and he was startled. The car's brakes were broken, the speed was so fast, and it was downhill, so he hurriedly shouted forward.

  "Ah!" In a critical moment, some people can make judgments immediately, while others become more flustered. Apparently, the girl in front was the latter. Upon hearing the sound from behind, she turned around and lost her composure, shouting loudly as the car swerved left and right.

  It's about to crash, the reaction speed honed on the battlefield made Pei Xin immediately make a judgment. The girl in front had obviously lost her sense of direction, and it was clear that she wouldn't let go.

  Fortunately, it wasn't a car. Fu Xin immediately jumped off the vehicle, supported his own car, and rushed to one side. "Bang!" Fu Xin's body collided with the mountain wall on the side, and the car fell on top of Fu Xin. Finally, everything was calm again.

  "Ouch!" Although the bicycle was of good quality at that time, it was quite heavy, but it didn't hurt Fu Xin, a retired soldier who had been tempered on the battlefield, too much. So, Fu Xin just touched his waist with his hand and stood up.

  "Sorry, really sorry..." The girl saw that the situation had stabilized and she was no longer in a hurry, so she easily stopped her car on the gentle slope of the mountain. She immediately ran to Fu Xin's side, bowed her head, pinched her ponytail, and kept saying "sorry", looking very flustered.

  "Never mind, it's nothing, this is my fault!" Fu Xin said as he patted the mud off his clothes and glanced at the girl who was still apologizing. At that moment, he was thinking about hurrying on his way, so he didn't care about the pain in his body. After speaking, he immediately got on his bike and rode forward.

  "Uh..." The girl was suddenly left speechless by Pei Xin's actions. Originally, she had been thinking about how to compensate the other party, but they didn't seem to care at all, took responsibility themselves, and ran off without looking back.

  "This person won't be a bad guy, right? Should I call the police or...?" The girl started to think wildly, her beautiful face furrowed with worry, clearly very conflicted, making one's heart ache upon seeing it.