Siheyuan: How the Little People Live

"Old Yuan, this is!"

A middle-aged man in his forties or fifties walked in, exhausted. Seeing Lao Yuan communicating with a strange young man, he asked in surprise.

"Lao Zhao, you just came back from the commune. What did the commune say about our village?"

When Old Yuan saw the village chief Zhao Xiu coming back, his eyes lit up and he quickly stood up with the help of his crutches and said expectantly.

Village Chief Zhao shook his head helplessly.

"I went to the commune and talked to the secretary of the commune, but the commune also had some difficulties. It seemed that several villages had already talked about this matter at the public toilet, but I asked around and found that no village had received support from the commune."

"Ugh!"

Old Yuan sighed. It had been almost two years since the natural disaster in 59. The yield of crops in the fields had been decreasing year by year, but he still had to ensure the payment of grain taxes every year.

"There are outsiders here, so let's not talk about this for now."

Village Chief Zhao interrupted what Lao Yuan was about to say and pointed at Ye Wenwu standing beside him.

Old Yuan only remembered to introduce Ye Wenwu at this time and pulled Ye Wenwu over:

"Old Zhao, this is Comrade Ye Wenwu, an officer of the Publicity Department of the Red Star Steel Rolling Mill. He came to see you today about something, so I won't get involved."

"Hello, Comrade Ye."

After hearing about Ye Wenwu's background, Village Chief Zhao's originally wary look relaxed.

"Hello, Village Chief Zhao, look..."

Ye Wenwu also greeted him and handed the letter of introduction to Village Chief Zhao.

Village Chief Zhao took a look at the letter of introduction and knew what Ye Wenwu was here for, so he pulled him into the office.

"Comrade Ye, I'm sorry to have kept you waiting for so long."

Village Chief Zhao poured a cup of tea in front of Ye Wenwu, then sat aside and said.

"You can't say that, Village Chief Zhao. After all, you are the head of the village and have to run around for the village's affairs every day. I am different. I only do my own things, so I can be so idle. It is reasonable for me to wait."

Ye Wenwu immediately said modestly that after all, he still needed the cooperation of Village Chief Zhao for the subsequent matters.

Everyone loves to ride in a fancy sedan chair, and when Village Chief Zhao heard Ye Wenwu's words, he immediately smiled so hard that his mouth almost broke.

Those people who came from big factories in the city were all looking down on others. They looked down on people from the countryside and those who made a living from the land.

But Ye Wenwu did not have such contemptuous eyes, and Ye Wenwu was also of similar age. Village Chief Zhao did not believe that Ye Wenwu was pretending, and even if he was pretending, he would admit it.

"I already know about Comrade Ye's visit, but you may not know that we don't have any extra land for you in our village."

"Village Chief Zhao, don't be so hasty to answer. Listen to my thoughts first."

Ye Wenwu quickly interrupted Village Chief Zhao and said, "From the conversation between Factory Chief Zhao and Senior Yuan just now, I roughly knew that it might be because of the food problem."

But the food problem is a national issue after all. No one can change it unless the country issues specific measures.

"Oh,"

Village chief Zhao was a little surprised. He thought Ye Wenwu was thinking about the collective land in their village.

"Village Chief Zhao, I know that everyone's harvest has been poor recently due to natural disasters, and many workers have been transferred to factories to do collective construction for the country, so I am not here to take these lands."

Ye Wenwu's words confused Village Chief Zhao.

After all, the person who called clearly stated that the call was because of this matter, but why did the person say that it was not because of this matter?

"That..."

"Village Chief Zhao, don't worry. I was wondering if there is a piece of abandoned farmland in the northernmost part of your village?"

Ye Wenwu talked about the wasteland he passed by on his way here.

Hearing Ye Wenwu's talk about wasteland, Village Chief Zhao nodded. In fact, their village had thought of ways to deal with such a large piece of wasteland. This time, the whole village was mobilized to fetch water and irrigate the land. Unfortunately, only a few scattered crops have grown on it in the past two or three months.

After that everyone gave up, and only those weeds with stronger vitality could survive on it.

Although Village Chief Zhao wanted to sell this wasteland, Ye Wenwu bought it to farm, and he didn't want to cheat others against his will.

"Comrade Ye, you may not know the origin of this wasteland. This wasteland was left over from the war. No one cultivated it in the next 10 years, and it gradually became deserted. Five years ago, everyone in our village carried water to irrigate it. Although it can grow thereafter, it is only sporadic. If you want to buy this land, I still suggest that you don't."

"Village Chief Zhao, aren't you afraid that I won't buy it if you say that?"

Ye Wenwu said jokingly.

Village Chief Zhao smiled and shook his head.

Only then did Ye Wenwu speak out what was in his mind.

"Village Chief Zhao, I would like to give this land a try, but I need to dig some first and see if there is any way to plant it. Of course, the conditions for planting it may be quite harsh. I only dared to try this because the Red Army was behind me smashing the steel plant."

Ye Wenwu did not say anything final. His father would say that the crop could be grown after trial, and the villagers would raise the price or even refuse to sell it to him.

Although Ye Wenwu knew that the products produced by the system must be of high quality, he still said hello to Village Chief Zhao and hurried to the second destination.

Sanmadi, a small village with a population of only 50 households, is located next to Xiaoyuanzhuang.

Ye Wenwu did not go directly to find the village chief. After all, he passed by these fields when passing through the village, but there was no wasteland like Xiaoyuanzhuang.

Ye Wenwu was too lazy to meet the village chief, so he rode his bike back to the wasteland near Xiaoyuanzhuang, then dug a large piece of land and put it in the bag borrowed from Village Chief Zhao.

Ye Wenwu was riding on the road, his whole mind focused on whether that piece of land could be integrated with his own system farm. As he was riding fast, a man suddenly jumped out at an intersection ahead.

Ye Wenwu and others discovered that it was already impossible to brake and could only barely control the handlebars of the bicycle to tilt to the side.

There was a "bang" sound.

"Ouch."

"hiss"

Two voices came from the alley.

Because I covered my arm and looked at the person I bumped into, I found that it was actually an acquaintance.

"What rain?"

He Yushui was also quite puzzled. He was walking in the alley and suddenly a bicycle came out and hit him.

By the time she saw it and heard the bell of Ye Wenwu's bicycle, she was too late to react and could only be knocked to the ground in shock.

He covered his calf and the pain made him cry out involuntarily.