Chapter 25 Oil and Rice
"We can't turn back now, right?" Su Luo still held on to a glimmer of hope.
"What do you think?" Zhou Chongwen stared at the group of victims who were suffering more than those affected by the drought, and slowly turned his head to look at Su Luo.
Su Luo's legs went weak and she reached out to cover his eyes, "Don't, don't look at me."
The number of victims was incalculable, and it was estimated that there were more than 800 people. Most of them were women and children. It should have been a chaotic scene, but it was surprisingly quiet. Everyone looked at Su Luo and her grain team eagerly. Su Luo simply covered her eyes and said, "Don't look at me."
Zhou Chongwen had already walked over there and inquired about the situation in a soft voice. At this time, a large group of people came out from the ruins of the valley. The team was very long, and most of them were young and middle-aged people. There were also old men with white beards. Of course, the white beards could not be seen now. They were all smoked black, with only their teeth white.
Some of them were holding buckets or basins in their hands, like ancient firefighters; some were holding burnt beddings ; they appeared to have been rescued from the fire. The expressions on their faces were obscured by the black oil; they walked silently into the crowd of women and children. After a while, countless howls of pain were heard from the crowd, and Su Luo sat down on the ground, completely collapsed.
She was moved by the tragic plight of the disaster-stricken people and even more by her own bad luck. Most importantly, she was afraid that she would not be able to withstand the powerful atmosphere of the disaster site filled with wailing and would make some abnormal and impulsive decision.
She is a businessman! She reassured herself over and over again that at least she is currently a businessman, and not a profiteer.
She didn't deserve to end up like this. She had already paid the tuition fees, what else did she want?
Su Luo jumped up and ran to Zhou Chongwen in two steps. "We can take them to Shen County for help and offer our car."
This was the only preemptive idea she could think of at the moment.
Zhou Chongwen nodded in agreement, but someone disagreed. A middle-aged man who had just come out of the fire still smelled of flames and looked sad and angry. "What are we going to do in Shen County? Are we going to wait for them to break us up and send us to different counties to become refugees?"
"So...what are you going to do?" Su Luo asked in embarrassment.
"Many families have lost their men and cannot be separated any further. Rather than being forced to separate by the government, it is better for us to escape the famine on our own."
Su Luo nodded. Very good. No matter where this large army of about 1,000 people escapes to, they will not only not get food, but will also be charged with illegal assembly and reactionary elements. When they are caught in the jail, they will be provided with food and accommodation. This is a good plan. The builders of the Ming Dynasty should be happy and expand the prison.
Zhou Chongwen said: "The spring famine has already begun. If you take so many old, weak, women and children with you, fleeing the famine will only lead to your own death."
Su Luo's heart immediately rose, and she hastened to introduce this man to the black-faced man as the son of the former Chief Censor of Henan Province, saying that he would definitely be willing to negotiate with the government on their behalf.
A glimmer of hope immediately appeared in the eyes of the black-faced man , and he ran back to the crowd and called a few people who seemed to be able to make decisions. When everyone heard this, they were of course happy, and immediately listed the conditions. They said that our demands are not high, and we ask the government to help solve the problem of food, and we will be responsible for rebuilding our homes ourselves.
Zhou Chongwen was pushed to the podium as the government spokesperson. He looked at Su Luo expressionlessly, which made her a little nervous. She quickly changed the subject and asked those people why a fire could cause such a serious burn.
The answer was that the oil was spilled. Everyone has oil at home, and once it starts burning, it cannot be put out.
Su Luo didn't know whether he should express sympathy for this answer. According to this theory, this fire should burn out the Ming Dynasty and burn all over the world. If aliens also eat oil, it might even cause a cosmic war.
Seeing Zhou Si's thoughtful look, Su Luo raised the white flag and begged him softly, "Let's ask the county government. What if we meet a good official who loves the people like his own children?"
At this time, the leader of the gold medal thugs rolled his eyes and said that there would be no good officials after Zhou Yushi, and Su Luo thought he was flattering Zhou Chongwen. Fatty Xue actually changed his face of a profiteer and stepped forward to incite that the government did not accept them according to convention, and they were all arranged to other counties. Other counties pushed them again, and after several rounds, the victims became individual investors and scattered all over the country, so they could not be seen, so they must not go to the county, and they would be forced to split up once they went.
Su Luo was about to sigh that even profiteers have human nature, when he saw Fatty Xue walk into the group of black people who were in charge, take out a stack of notes from his arms and distribute them, saying that he had a business somewhere in Shandong, and that he could come to him to buy building materials during the reconstruction. He turned around and told Su Luo that the government would allocate funds for post-disaster reconstruction, but it depends on whether you can wait. If people dispersed, the funds would naturally not be allocated. If the people in the disaster area stayed in their hometowns, they would have to allocate funds. They had to act quickly, otherwise the project would be taken over by the relatives of the county magistrate.
Su Luo secretly gave a thumbs up, this is a profiteer. After thinking about it, she felt that there was some future in it, but the payback period was a little slow. As for her batch of grain, if she kept it, she would have to wait until the reconstruction funds were approved. And Shandong had a disaster this year, so it was uncertain when he would take care of this area.
Fatty Xue saw Su Luo's hesitation and patted his chest and said, "I have experience in this matter. The most important thing is to have food so that these people can continue to stay here for three or two months. The government will have no choice but to ignore it before winter."
Su Luo was tempted. Judging from the current situation, this batch of grain could not be transported. Zhou Chongwen and the dozen gold medal thugs seemed to be sympathetic. Su Luo also had a little sympathy. In fact, it was not human to be indifferent to such a tragic situation. Didn't you see that Fatty Xue was moved? Although his movement should not be considered sympathy, at least he was moved. And three months later, it was just in time for another speculative business opportunity that Su Luo knew about. Anyway, he still had dozens of taels of silver in his hand, so he didn't have to worry about his life.
"If I lend them grain on credit and ask them to pay me back later, is that not too much?" Since you can't take the grain and leave for subjective and objective reasons, then try your best to avoid tragedy happening to yourself.
Zhou Chongwen was obviously very pleased. He excitedly took Su Luo's hand and said, "I will accompany you to collect the debt then."
It seems that the reason why they took into consideration that Su Luo had just been cheated and was still traumatized was that they did not let her donate grain directly.
Su Luo also overlooked one point. Zhou Si blushed after saying this because of the pair of hands clasped together.
Su Luo had no time to laugh at him. She was busy negotiating terms with the leaders of the disaster areas. Halfway through the conversation, when those leaders agreed in principle, some words of the talk were accidentally overheard. Before Su Luo could react, overwhelming shouts of "Thank you, kind-hearted people, for donating grain" arose. Su Luo sat on the ground, sweating profusely as he watched thousands of people showing off their white teeth to him with tears in their eyes and smiles.
It was so embarrassing. The representative of Taoyuan Town said quickly that we had not rehearsed it. It was not that they wanted to shirk their responsibility, but Su Luo was now in a dilemma. She didn't know who took the lead, but the townspeople all knelt down . Su Luo almost cried. Two old ladies held Su Luo on the left and right, looking back on the past and looking forward to the future, crying and saying that they had never met such a good person in their life. Su Luo said, "I haven't met anyone like him either. Can you introduce him to me?"
Finally, a seemingly smart representative from Taoyuan Town said, "How about this? We have no money now, but we have oil and huge reserves. If you are willing, we can exchange the oil for rice. This way you won't lose too much, and it can also ensure that the feelings of the people in the disaster area will not be hurt."
Su Luo thought that the oil was not bad, but it was a bit troublesome to transport it back and sell it. But who can blame us for wanting to do good deeds? We might as well consider it as a contribution to the reconstruction of the disaster area.
So the town representatives spoke to the townspeople one by one, saying that a kind-hearted man had donated rice, and they could not be ungrateful, so they would go into the mountains to extract oil tomorrow as a return gift to the kind-hearted man.
They were happy to agree to this without spending their own money, and they responded immediately. They organized an oil extraction team to go into the mountains the next morning. When the other disaster victims lined up to receive food, they would always ask with gratitude, "What is your name, sir?"
Su Luo smiled and said, "I am Lei Feng."
For decades thereafter, Comrade Lei Feng's immortal tablet remained here.
Two days later, the rice was all distributed, and the oil extraction team had not returned. The dozen gold medal fighters were a little anxious because of the holiday. The town representative promised to transport the oil back for Su Luo for free. The gang was relieved and resigned to Zhou Chongwen, leaving Fatty Xue to share the joys and sorrows with Su Luo, and promised to inform the local government when passing through Shen County to inform them that there were a group of disaster victims here and fulfill their humanitarian responsibilities.
Half a month later, just when Su Luo thought that he had to pay the second tuition for the business course, the oil extraction team came back, darker and shinier than when they left, with black oil all over their bodies. They smiled with a mouthful of white teeth, handed over a small jar, and said, "We have fulfilled our mission. We have as much oil as you want from the mountain. This is a sample."
Su Luo took the can of black oil. It was definitely not second-hand oil because it was too black. Then she looked at the appearance of the brothers in the town and understood. She sighed to the sky, "God, you should make the golden finger easier. Don't you think that a chemistry idiot like me is someone who knows how to refine oil?"
