Siheyuan: Grassroots Counterattack

Seeing that the captain had taken the money, Xiaoxue took her grandfather around the courtyard. When they came out of the house, Xiaoxue came to the captain and asked, "Captain, I want to ask, does our captain have any carpentry work? I want to exchange some furniture or something."

"Yes, there is a carpenter named Zhang in our brigade. If there are any shortcomings of the people in the brigade, we go to him. If there are no problems here, then I will take you to have a look."

"Thank you for your help, Captain." Xiaoxue hurriedly expressed her gratitude, and her grandfather also said a few words of thanks.

The captain quickly waved his hands, indicating that this was nothing. He knew from the moment he met Mr. Shen that this old man had an extraordinary identity. The aura on him was stronger than anyone he had ever met. It was a blessing for their team to have such a person living in their team, so he had special respect for Mr. Shen.

The team leader brought Xiaoxue and Mr. Shen to Carpenter Zhang's house. It happened that Carpenter Zhang was not at work today, so it was Carpenter Zhang who received the team leader and his friends.

Xiaoxue told Carpenter Zhang what she needed. Carpenter Zhang counted his inventory and found that almost everything was available. If there was anything missing, he could make it in a day or two. So Carpenter Zhang and Xiaoxue set a date and he would deliver the things to them the next morning.

Xiaoxue asked about the settlement method. Carpenter Zhang said money, cloth, or sugar would all be OK. Xiaoxue finally chose money. After all, her family had more money than could be spent in this day and age.

After saying goodbye to the team leader, Xiaoxue and Mr. Shen left the Advance Team. On the way, Xiaoxue asked Mr. Shen, "Grandpa, what do you think of this village?"

Elder Shen thought for a moment and said, "According to my observation, this village is not bad. Today, while you were talking to the captain, I went to the cowshed and found that although the people in the cowshed looked pale and thin, they had not been beaten or abused. This is already very good."

Xiaoxue nodded. It was indeed true. With the coming of the storm, people became more and more agitated. Many places often held meetings to criticize and denounce the people in the bullpen. Every time they were criticized, those people would suffer injuries.

Now that this kind of thing has not happened in this village, when my uncle comes, at least life will be a little better.

When they returned home, Doudou threw himself into Xiaoxue's arms and refused to come out. Doudou had been with his aunt this morning, and he was not familiar with Aunt Shen, so he was particularly well-behaved this morning. Now that he saw his mother come back, of course he had to act like a spoiled child.

Mr. Shen told my aunt about the situation in the village, and my aunt felt a little relieved. Then she started to discuss with Mr. Shen when they could move there.

Mr. Shen thought about it and realized that the house was now fully furnished, but there was still a lack of pots, pans, and utensils, and there was no food prepared, and these had to be bought in the city.

But looking at the old and young in the family, there is no way to get those things back, which makes Mr. Shen very worried.

Just when Mr. Shen was frowning, Xiaoxue came out of the house holding Doudou. Seeing her grandfather like this, Xiaoxue asked curiously, "Grandpa, what's wrong with you?"

Mr. Shen told Xiaoxue about his concerns, and she found that this was indeed a difficult problem. There was no car at home, so there was no way to get these things back, especially the iron pot. It was so heavy that no one in the family could move it back.

As for food and other things, they can get some from home first, and then go to the brigade headquarters to ask if there is any surplus food in the brigade so that they can buy it.

Xiaoxue expressed her idea. Mr. Shen thought it was okay, but what about the iron pot?

"Well, tomorrow my aunt and I will go to the city, and then tell the logistics department's car to take a detour to pick us up at the department store. As for the expenses, we can pay for it."

Mr. Shen had no other choice but to do this. When my aunt heard the fee, she hurried into the house, took out 100 yuan and stuffed it into Xiaoxue's hand.

"Xiaoxue, this is the money you will spend during this period. Take it first. If it's not enough, I'll give it to you."

Xiaoxue said she didn't want anything. "Aunt, what are you doing? How can I take your money?"

Mr. Shen also said, "Keep it. You are already married. You can't just focus on the Shen family. Besides, we are not without money. How can we spend your and Tianyi's money?"

But Xiaoxue still refused to accept it. Finally, Aunt Shen had no choice but to stuff the money into Doudou's small pocket. Doudou didn't know what money was yet. When he saw his aunt stuffing something into his pocket, he thought it was a toy and quickly covered his small pocket.

Xiaoxue wanted to pry Doudou's hand open to take out the money, but Doudou wouldn't let her. He twisted his body and refused to let Xiaoxue touch it. Seeing this, Mr. Shen was afraid that Doudou would fall, so he quickly took the money.

There was no other way, Xiaoxue had to ignore Doudou for the time being, and wait until Doudou fell asleep, thinking about getting the money later. Mr. Shen also saw what Xiaoxue was thinking, so he said, "Just keep it if I tell you to. This way your aunt will feel better."

Seeing her aunt’s red eyes, Xiaoxue sighed inwardly, went forward and hugged her, silently comforting her.

.....................

While Xiaoxue and the others were busy, arrangements had already been made in Sijiu City. The personnel who were to be transferred to the Northeast had gathered and were set to leave by train today.

On the train, this group of people were gathered in a carriage with guards on both sides. There were also soldiers patrolling in the carriage to prevent anyone from jumping out of the window to escape.

As for eating, drinking, defecating and urinating, all of these need to be reported, and these people cannot carry anything on them. Some of them have even been criticized several times and are now running a high fever, but no one cares whether these people live or die.

Although Uncle Shen was not criticized, he had some health problems due to not having enough food for a long time. He felt weak all over, and his vision went dark after standing for a long time. The reason why he was demoted so quickly this time was because of Li Tianyi. Otherwise, he would not have been able to leave the city without being criticized several times.

The train stopped and started frequently, and several waves of people got on and off. Some of these people were sent down to the countryside, some to farms, and some were even sent down to the Great Northern Wilderness.

The Great Northern Wilderness at that time was truly desolate. There were no people for dozens of miles and straw mats were everywhere. People who went there, whether they were educated youth or sent-down personnel, had to work every day, and the labor intensity was very high.

Later generations referred to the Great Northern Wilderness as the Northern Granary, describing that place as a granary, and all this was thanks to this group of people.

After several days of travel, Uncle Shen finally got off the bus in H City. There were more than a dozen people who got off with him. All of them were sent to various villages.

These dozen people were driven into an auditorium, which had been decorated as a meeting place by red armbands. They were to be criticized here. How many times would depend on their moods.

More than a dozen people lined up in a row, wearing pointed hats and signs around their necks, bowing and leaning over to face the audience. A man with a red armband read out the charges against these people, followed by all kinds of insults and beatings. The crowd in the audience was also very angry and wanted to get on stage to join in the beating.

Uncle Shen curled up into a ball, holding his head with both hands, trying his best to protect his important parts.