Rebirth 05, starting from never dusting

After knowing that Zhang Yi's family had returned to the village, people from the same family came to show their faces one after another. One family sent some fried lotus root boxes, another family sent some cabbage, and some even sent some freshly-made rice cakes.

It doesn't matter how expensive or cheap the items are. The main thing is that Lao Liu's family is prosperous now, and all the relatives come to visit and maintain the relationship. You never know when they will come to ask for help.

At noon, after the family had finished their meal, my mother was muttering about going to the county town in the afternoon to buy some New Year's goods as return gifts, so as to avoid being blamed by those gossipy aunts and ladies in the family.

Zhang Yiquan agreed. Anyway, Lao Shen still had a lot of small cards that he wanted to "share", so he just bought it.

Just as I had discussed buying New Year’s goods with my mother, there was a knock on the door.

Dad ran over to open the door, cried out "Ouch!", and hurriedly said in a hoarse voice: "Son, Lao Hong is here, come over and help carry the things."

What is Hong Sihai here for?

With doubts, Zhang Yi came to the gate of the courtyard and saw his father and Hong Sihai carrying a woven bag out of the trunk.

"What is this?" Zhang Yi asked.

Hong Sihai grinned and said, "We killed a few pigs and sheep at the construction site. We couldn't eat them all, so I sent some to you."

"Well, there's no reason for us to be polite to each other!" Zhang Yi said, and went up to help his father carry things.

"Xiaojun, come and carry them too, there are two more bags!" Dad called out.

The eldest brother also came out to carry things.

Soon, three woven bags were placed in the kitchen, two of which contained pig heads and the other contained mutton.

Knowing that the old man likes to drink, Hong Sihai specially got two boxes of aged special brew from his hometown.

Seeing this, my mother exclaimed, "Brother, this is really expensive for you. We can't even eat all of this."

"It's okay. If you can't finish it, freeze it and eat it slowly." Hong Sihai smiled. Anyway, the food has been delivered, and it's your family's business how to deal with it.

Zhang Yi made tea and poured water for Lao Hong, and took out a cigarette.

"How's the construction site going? Is everything sorted out?"

Hong Sihai said: "As soon as your money arrived, I immediately sent everyone away. The risk of professional subcontracting is indeed a bit high. Last year, I didn't operate it well and didn't get back some money. Otherwise, I would have been able to make do."

Zhang Yi suggested: "I remember you have a lot of fellow villagers. If you really can't make the move, cooperate with them and transfer the risk away from them instead of putting the pressure on yourself."

"Ah." Hong Sihai sighed, took a sip of tea and said, "Actually, to be honest, I was tricked by my fellow villagers this time."

Well, when we meet, we’re from the same hometown, so I’ll stab you without any discussion, right?

Hong Sihai used to be just a small contractor. Over the past two years, with the help of Zhang Yi, Shen Ye and Ma Chaobin, he has gradually developed.

Naturally, the group of fellow villagers from before also came over to take advantage of the situation, but there were always one or two unreliable ones who did some meaningless things and made Lao Hong suffer a lot.

Lao Hong intervened promptly after discovering the situation, otherwise the reputation he had just accumulated in the industry would have been ruined sooner or later by these fellow villagers.

After listening to Lao Hong's complaints, Zhang Yi said, "Tell Lao Shen to put them on the blacklist. If they are found doing labor subcontracting in Quanshui, they will be punished to death."

"We are all from the same hometown, so let's not do it." Lao Hong is a very loyal person and doesn't want to do anything too extreme.

Zhang Yi chuckled and changed his mind, saying, "Even if we don't beat them to death, we have to teach them a lesson, at least recover your losses. Otherwise, they will still think that you, Old Hong, are easy to bully. What if others follow your example and continue to cheat you?"

Hong Sihai was silent for a moment and then nodded, agreeing to Zhang Yi's suggestion.

Dad also agreed, "Brother Hong, Xiaoyi is right. If there is no backer, we would have accepted it. But since there is a connection, we can't suffer this loss in silence!"

Hong Sihai said, "Okay, when I get back home, I'll call them all out and have a serious chat about this matter."

"That's right, don't think about those bad things, let's have a couple of drinks tonight!" said Dad.

Hong Sihai waved his hands hurriedly and said, "No, no, I'll leave in a minute. I have to go back to my hometown tonight. There's a wedding tomorrow and my car has been requisitioned."

Hearing this, Zhang Yi didn't want to force anything. He asked his father to drink tea with him while he rode his electric bike to the specialty shop at the entrance of the village.

In a short time, Zhang Yi got some local specialties, such as Longshan millet, Dongzhang green onions, royal barbecue, Mingshui fragrant rice, and even iron pots and Longshan black pottery. He also went to the store to buy two boxes of Qingzhao special brew.

There is no way. Dongzhang is a small place with very few things to show off.

Old Hong is a very honest man. He brought so many things here, we can't let him go back empty-handed.

No matter whether the return gift is good or bad, it at least represents a thought, and Lao Hong doesn't care about it anyway.

"Oh my, why did you bring me so many return gifts? They're so heavy and a waste of gasoline!"

"Don't you mind wasting fuel by pulling pigs and sheep?" Zhang Yi directly snatched his car keys and stuffed them all into the trunk.

"When are you and your sister-in-law getting married?" Hong Sihai asked in the car before leaving.

Zhang Yi said: "This year, it depends on what the two elders think."

Hong Sihai smiled and said, "That's great. Counting Jiaxin and Lao Shen, I can have three wedding banquets this year. I talked to Jiaxin on the phone yesterday. This guy is at his mother-in-law's house and plans to get married this year."

Zhang Yi said, "Is everything alright with Old Shen?"

Hong Sihai asked: "What could possibly happen to him? When I went to give him a gift, he was just being a good boy at home."

Zhang Yi laughed out loud. It seemed that Old Shen’s crisis had passed, otherwise he would have called to complain.

Hong Sihai said with emotion: "It's great that my brothers have reached the age to start a family and build a career!"

After Hong Sihai left, Zhang Yi returned home and saw his mother worrying about three woven bags.

"What do we do with this thing?" said my mother.

Dad thought about it and said, "Why don't we just go to the county town to buy New Year's goods? Share the meat."

Mom nodded. "Okay, if we just rely on ourselves, it will take at least three or four months, and putting it in the refrigerator will waste electricity!"

So Zhang Yi borrowed an electric tricycle from Zhang Teng, and his father and elder brother cut the pork and mutton at home.

They were busy until dark. Zhang Yi and his eldest brother rode an electric bike and an electric tricycle respectively, and went around the village delivering meat. Even the second brother of the same family, with whom he did not have a good relationship, got some meat.

When the neighbors saw this, they couldn't help but talk about it.

"Look at what Zhang Yi's family is doing. They bought a pig and a sheep to share!"

"Not really. It was delivered by an Audi. They say the sheep are from the northwest, so they don't smell like mutton at all."

"You haven't seen Zhang Teng, he's become more and more popular after following Zhang Yi. I saw him making a lot of fireworks at the New Year's market yesterday."

"If one person succeeds, the whole family will benefit."

"Let's go, let's go. I'd better think about where to hide from debt on New Year's Eve!"

When I got home, my dad had already set up a big pot to cook mutton soup, and the aroma of meat was everywhere.

We'll have lamb chops and lamb soup tonight.