Siheyuan, Me and the Yu Sisters

After exchanging things, Zhang Renkang stayed for lunch at Du Minshan's invitation. At the dinner table, the three of them talked about everything under the sun. Du Minshan was a platoon leader in the Fourth Field Army and had fought from the north to Guangxi. After retiring, he became the secretary of Dujia Village. He was well-informed. Zhang Renkang talked about old times with him. When he talked about the Shiwandashan in Guangxi, he also praised the Fourth Field Army's achievements. Du Minshan was very happy. Seeing that Zhang Renkang was very eloquent and knowledgeable, he also wanted to make friends with him. He picked up the pottery bowl and said,

"Chief Zhang, you are really knowledgeable. We are all rough people. Please bear with us if we are not hospitable enough."

Zhang Renkang clinked his glasses with Du Minshan, drank a bowl of wine in one gulp and said proudly:

"Brother Du, you are too polite. You don't have to call me Section Chief Zhang. You are a few years older than me, so just call me Renkang."

Seeing that he was generous, Du Minshan drank it all and said

"Okay, brother Renkang, I'll be the biggest if I'm a few years older than you."

"Brother, I have something to say but I don't know whether I should say it or not."

Zhang Renkang smiled and said

"Brother Shan, just let me say it"

Du Minshan said seriously

"Brother, although we are in a new society now, it is not like the city. You have to be careful with so much money and don't show off your wealth easily."

"To be honest, only our village is fair. Otherwise, it's hard to explain what you just revealed."

Zhang Renkang knew that he was doing this for his own good, so he said gratefully

"Brother Shan, thank you for reminding me. I was negligent. I offer you a bowl of rice."

He clinked glasses with Du Minshan again. Du Minshan was also happy to see his generosity. The three of them drank the two-jin jar of loose wine back and forth. At this moment, the three of them were arm in arm and very affectionate. Zhang Renkang saw that Du Minshan and Du Mingang were dizzy, and blushed, thinking that the time was about right, and asked

"Brother Shan, Brother Gang, do you know where we can find piglets and cowboys for sale in our village?"

Du Minshan said drunkenly

"Brother, why do you want this? This thing is not easy to cure."

"Niu, don't even think about it. These are all valuable and are guarded by special personnel. If even a hair is missing, it will be a big deal."

"As for pigs, there's a place called Liujialing, about 30 miles to the north. It's basically in the mountains there, but they raise a lot of them secretly to sell. If you're not an acquaintance, they won't sell you, and they'll kill you if things go wrong."

Zhang Renkang smiled bitterly

"I'm not going to ask, I'm going to make a few to give benefits to the workers during the May Day celebration next year. You know that the meat processing factory now has a fixed amount of meat, and the average person only gets two or three yuan, which is not enough to eat."

Du Minshan waved his hand and said

"That's easy. I'll give you a letter of introduction and you can go. Their secretary is my old company commander. It won't be a problem for me to split the bill between you and them."

Zhang Renkang was also happy when he heard that there was a solution. He quickly took Du Minshan to write a letter of introduction. The three of them exchanged greetings for a while. Zhang Renkang said

"I will be back in the afternoon. Please help me get to the main road 20 miles away. I have agreed with the factory that if I don't go back in the afternoon, they will arrange a car to pick me up."

Du Mingang nodded and asked

"Brother, are you okay? Why don't you take a rest?"

Du Minshan and Zhang Renkang drank the most just now. Du Minshan drank less than half a catty and was still fine. Zhang Renkang smiled and said

"Brother Gang underestimated me, didn't he?"

As he waved his hand, Du Mingang saw a black shadow passing by. The old willow tree at the entrance of the village made a bang. A militiaman ran over and was shocked. He shouted,

"Captain, Captain, it's amazing, a piece of iron has been inserted into the tree"

Du Min came closer and opened her mouth in shock. Zhang Renkang smiled and said

"Without confidence, I wouldn't dare to run around on my own"

"Brother Gang, see you this afternoon."

Zhang Renkang rode his bike northward, leaving the four stunned militiamen and Du Mingang standing in a daze under the tree.

An hour later, a mountain appeared in front of him from afar. Zhang Renkang looked at the village at the foot of the mountain and thought, this should be Liujialing. When he rode his bike close to the village, he was stopped by two militiamen. Zhang Renkang quickly took out the letter and shouted:

"I am from Dujia Village, and I have a letter of introduction to your secretary."

A militiaman ran over and took the letter from Zhang Renkang, shouting

"Don't move here, or I'll kill you"

After saying that, he ran back to the village. Zhang Renkang didn't dare to move. He had sensed that there were four militiamen in the hiding place, aiming at his head. After a while, three people came out of the village, and the leader, an old man in his sixties, came forward and asked

"Were you introduced by Du Minshan?"

Zhang Renkang nodded and said

"Yes, I just finished drinking and came from Dujia Village."

The old man waved his hand and two militiamen stood up from the other side of the road. Two more men came out from a corner of the village. The old man said

"I'm the secretary of Liujialing, Liu Banshan. You can just call me Old Man Liu. What's your name?"

Zhang Renkang said quickly

"Hello, old secretary. I am the deputy director of the canteen of the steel mill in the city. I heard that we have pigs here, so I came to see if you can exchange some for us."

Liu Banshan looked at Zhang Renkang and said

"Let's go into the village and talk."

When we arrived at the village brigade, Liu Banshan said

"We have some in the village, but there aren't many left this year. How many do you want?"

Zhang Renkang said

"Secretary, can you give me four? Male or female is fine. Piglets are best."

Liu Banshan said suspiciously

"What do you want piglets for?"

"That thing doesn't have any meat?"

Zhang Renkang said

"In order to raise them for next year, as you know, meat is hard to come by at this time, we want to see if we can raise them in the factory."

Liu Banshan thought for a moment and said

"We have four female and two male piglets, five months old, what can you offer in exchange?"

Zhang Renkang laughed

"Old Secretary, what do you want?"

Liu Banshan said

"Food stamps and money"

Zhang Renkang said

"Okay, I have food stamps and money."

There was a shortage of food everywhere these days. Liu Banshan had to mobilize the villagers at the foot of the mountain to go to the mountains to cut grass for pigs and add some grains to raise more than 20 pigs to exchange for food. Liu Banshan thought

"We'll deduct the grain we'll spend on raising them next year, and we'll calculate that they'll be worth 300 kilograms when we trade them next year. You can give us 150 kilograms per head, okay?"

Zhang Renkang didn't care how many there were. As long as he was given piglets, he could breed dozens of times more pigs in less than a month. He nodded and said

"Okay, name your price."

Liu Banshan said with a smile

"A pig costs 100 yuan. If you have food coupons, you can get 50 yuan plus 20 kilograms of food coupons."

Zhang Renkang said with a smile

"Okay, you can take me to Dujia Village, and I'll pay you an extra ten dollars for the fare."

Liu Banshan nodded and said

"Okay, I'll have someone tie up the six little pigs and send them to you right away."

After saying that, he looked at Zhang Renkang, who took out four hundred yuan and fifty kilograms of food coupons from his pocket without hesitation and said

"I still have these, do you think they are enough?"

Liu Banshan took a look and touched it to see if it was real or fake and said

"That's enough. It's still a lot more. So I'll ask you for 380 yuan, plus the food coupons. We're taking advantage of you. I don't want the travel expenses."

Zhang Renkang nodded, thinking that Liu Banshan was a man of integrity and not the kind of person who would take advantage of others, and asked

"Did our village get any good things from hunting in the mountains? If so, let's exchange them next time I come."

Liu Banshan looked at Zhang Renkang and said

"Yes, there are wild ginseng, wild chestnuts, deer antlers and tiger bones from hunting. I also have a jar of tiger bone wine and tiger penis wine. Do you want some?"

Zhang Renkang nodded when he heard that this was a good thing. There was no maternity leave these days, and the tigers were all wild, so they were definitely strong enough.

"I want them all. You can check how much they are then. I'll come over later and we can trade."

Liu Banshan agreed, and soon the two donkey carts from Liujialing, carrying the six little pigs and Zhang Renkang, headed south. An hour and a half later, they arrived at Dujia Village and joined the fruit trees that Du Minggang and his men had dug up. They escorted them to the main road. Zhang Renkang took out two bags of Daqianmen and went around to thank everyone. He declined Du Minggang's offer to keep someone to help. He waited until everyone was far away before he put the six little pigs into the space, and threw the fruit trees into the mountain. He planted the seeds with his mind, and only after he had attracted spiritual springs to the little pigs did he feel at ease and rode towards the courtyard, facing the setting sun.