Chapter 68 Li Long's "Gossip" "Why?" Li Jianguo asked. Liang Yuemei was also looking at Li Long, wanting to hear his thoughts. "Think about it, what would Dad do if he received the money?" "What else can I do? I'll go to the market and buy some meat, some rice and flour, and some oil to prepare for the New Year." "What about the rest?" Li Long continued to ask. "As for the rest... I guess he'll have to go play cards at the card table, and maybe even brag about how filial his son is over here." Li Jianguo laughed as he spoke. He could imagine what his father would do. "Then do all the relatives know about this?" Li Long asked. "That's for sure. Once the money is sent and the loudspeaker at the brigade is announced, everyone in the team will know about it." Li Jianguo, who has stayed in his hometown for more than ten years, naturally knew it. In fact, I would send things back to my hometown at the end of every year, but the amount of money I sent was not much, after all, I didn’t get much money. This year, because of Li Long, I had more money, so I wanted to send more money.
My father doesn't spend much money normally, but when he has money he likes to show off, and he would even play one- or two-point cards at the card table. "So what do you think will happen in the spring?" When Li Long asked this, Li Jianguo was stunned. What was going on? "You need to send fifty back home. When spring comes, a group of relatives from your hometown will come and settle down here. They will say that Dad has agreed and will ask you to help them find a job." Li Long's words were plain, but to Li Jianguo and Liang Yuemei, they were like thunder. Li Jianguo felt that his father was really capable of doing such a thing! Even though Li Jianguo's father Li Qingxia said that as long as Li Jianguo took good care of Li Long, he didn't need to worry about anything else, but if someone really came to him for help, he would tell Li Jianguo and ask Li Jianguo to help find a way out, and he would definitely not refuse. A group of people will come then... Li Jianguo simply couldn't bear to think about what would happen next. But in fact, this is what happened in the previous life. In the previous life, Li Jianguo would send things back home during the Chinese New Year to make his family feel that life here was good, and then people would come to find Li Jianguo one after another. The name of my hometown village is Lijiazhuang. Most of the people in the village have the surname Li, and most of them are relatives. Young people who are closely related and want to find a job have to go to those who came out first. But in ten years, more than a dozen people came to Li Jianguo for help. Li Jianguo racked his brains to find a solution for them. Half of them settled down here. Some became workers, and some went to settle in the military corps. Most of them lived better than Li Jianguo. But after Li Jianguo passed away, none of these people came to see Liang Yuemei. What an ungrateful wretch! Of course, I was one of them in my previous life - I had to pay off my debt in this life. "You can't send so many." Li Jianguo sighed, "Then... send twenty." "Well, there's still a lot of room for growth, and my parents are in good health, so I'll be filial to them later." Li Long remembered that both his parents lived to be over 90 years old, so it was not a short moment. After this was confirmed, Li Jianguo gave Li Long another task: "I'll cut five kilograms of meat, and you carry the red paper to the Gu family and ask Brother Gu to write two pairs of couplets for you." "Okay." There are still about ten days before the New Year, so this is something that must be prepared, and Li Long didn't think much about it. When they arrived at Gu's house, Gu Xiaoxia opened the door and was a little surprised to see Li Long carrying something. "My brother asked your father to write two couplets for our family. This is a reward." Li Long raised the meat in his hand.
"Xiaolong is here, right? Come in quickly." Gu Boyuan's voice came from the inner room. Li Long handed the meat to Gu Xiaoxia, and went into the inner room with red paper, brush and ink. "Xiaolong is good, and he knows how to improve his writing skills." Gu Boyuan said with a smile, "It seems that the trip to Wucheng was not in vain." "I heard it from my brother." Li Long smiled and put the cut red paper on the table. "Brother Gu, are you feeling better?" Gu Boyuan is a top student who graduated from Southwest University of Political Science and Law. As for why he came here, Li Long didn't know the reasons, but they were just a few. "A lot better, thanks to your fish and meat." Gu Boyuan smiled freely, "You worked very hard this winter, and I benefited from it too." Li Jianguo sent fish and meat twice, which made the Gu family's life much better. "My brother also said that if it weren't for you, he probably wouldn't be able to stay here." Li Long clearly remembered that Li Jianguo had said this several times. One was the steamed bread that Gu Boyuan gave him, and the second was when Li Jianguo was about to leave here to try his luck somewhere else, but Gu Boyuan's words made him stay: "I've been to many places across the country, but I don't want to leave after coming here. Why? This place is big, rice can be grown, and there are fish in the puddles. There are rice and fish, and the land is vast and the population is sparse. Other places may not be better than here, so I'll stay." Li Jianguo stayed. If nothing else, at least he no longer had to go hungry during those difficult days. "It's hard for him to remember those trivial things." Gu Boyuan spread out the red paper and asked Li Long: "What do you want to write?" There are not so many requirements for couplets these days. Li Long said with a smile: "It's easy to understand and you can understand it at a glance." "That would be too easy." Gu Boyuan thought about it for a moment, then started writing. It was really easy to understand: "Every year is smooth sailing; everything goes well and every step is successful." "Intensive farming brings a good harvest; diligence and thrift bring a surplus of years; horizontal banner: a strong country and a prosperous people." It is easy to understand without the use of parallelism. Moreover, the handwriting is really good. Li Long feels that it is better than the handwriting of many later calligraphers. After the ink dried, Gu Xiaoxia took the couplet and left. She sent Li Long to the gate of the courtyard and suddenly whispered: "Li Long, can I...can I learn business from you?" "Doing business?" Li Long was a little surprised. "Why did you think of doing business?" "My family is out of money." When Gu Xiaoxia said the first sentence, her original restraint and timidity disappeared, and her voice and tone became fluent. "My father is in poor health and can hardly afford medicine. I..." "I see." Li Long nodded. "Actually, I have some inside information. After the spring, our commune and brigade will expand the school. Then... I think you can take the exam." Li Long clearly remembered that when Gu Xiaoxia passed the entrance exam for the brigade's primary school, in fact, with her high school level, she would have no problem teaching in the commune's junior high school. After all, there is a shortage of educated people here these days. Li Juan's math teacher started teaching before he even graduated from elementary school. With Li Jianguo's level, he could have become a teacher, but he knew that the salary from teaching was not enough to support his family. He felt that farming was more suitable for him, so he stayed in the team to farm. Gu Xiaoxia asked in disbelief: "it is true?" "Yes, I'm sure." Li Long nodded and said, "I think you'd better start reviewing now. If you can teach in a junior high school, you can earn at least several dozen yuan a month. Isn't it better than farming?" Gu Xiaoxia hesitated.
"But my family is now..." Li Long thought for a moment and said: "I'll lend you twenty dollars first. When you pass the exam and get your salary, you can pay me back. How about that?" Twenty dollars can do a lot these days. Li Long is not a saint. Based on the relationship between the two families and what Li Jianguo has done, Li Long vaguely feels that this is actually not a bad thing. At least better than Wu Shufen, right? (End of this chapter)
