Volume 1 Chapter 0014 Escape to Hong Kong
Nan Yi and Liu Zhen's lives were getting better and better, but life at the zhiqing point was still as difficult as ever.
July 23, the eighth day of the sixth lunar month, is the day of Great Heat.
At noon, the weather is too hot and we cannot go out to work in the fields. We can have more than two hours of rest at noon.
Nan Yi took the bucket, poured a bucket of water onto the floor, and then looked intently to see if the water had seeped into the ground.
The water fell on the floor, and was quiet for only a moment before flowing regularly to a corner.
Soon all the water in the room gathered in that corner.
Nan Yi took out a steel ball removed from a bicycle bearing from his pocket, stood at the end where there was no water, placed the steel ball on the ground, and gently threw it to the other side.
The steel ball rolled slowly for nearly two meters, then suddenly accelerated, rolled into the accumulated water and continued to roll forward until it hit the corner of the wall and bounced back about one centimeter.
“The horizontal drop is three millimeters.”
Nan Yi muttered something, lay down, and listened on the floor for a while. He heard crackling sounds coming from the ground.
I changed my place and continued listening, and there was still the sound.
He listened all the way until he came to the puddle. He stood up and cleared the water away before he lay down and listened again.
There was a sound too, but it was not a crackling sound, but a sound like water dripping from a great height.
I tapped my hands on the floor, but heard no echo from the hollow cavity below.
"The floor is more than twenty centimeters thick."
Nan Yi could basically judge that there was something strange about this underground area, but he couldn't say that there must be a secret room underneath.
There was a crackling sound under the floor, which was a chemical reaction between the water and the dry layer beneath the floor.
The chemical reaction occurs because the desiccant used under the floor is mostly quicklime, which makes crackling sounds when it comes into contact with water.
"Brother, did you find anything?"
At this time, Liu Zhen, who had already woken up from a nap, came over and asked.
"Yes, if there is a secret room, there must be an entrance here."
"Shall we dig it up?"
Liu Zhen's two little eyes lit up.
"No hurry, I'll talk about it when I have time. I don't have any hope of finding any rich treasure."
"Why? Isn't the Liu family a wealthy family?"
"Do the people in the brigade not know whether the Liu family has money or not? No matter what the situation was back then, if they didn't find a lot of money from the Liu family, they would definitely not give up. They would definitely turn the house upside down, and the secret room would definitely not be able to hide it.
But I checked the floors of every room, and there were no signs of prying. This can only mean that all the property that matched the Liu family’s wealth had been confiscated, and there was no need to look for it anymore.”
"Then the secret room won't be empty, right?"
"That's not the case. Even if we can't find gold bars, we can always find some Yuan Datou coins."
Nan Yi was not interested in finding the secret room because of his preconceived ideas.
As for the golden nanmu trees in the house, no matter which era it is from, it would cost a lot of money to buy them.
He is just a local rich man in the countryside, how much wealth can he have?
Most of the valuable things should be land deeds and house deeds. Nan Yi was really afraid that if he opened the secret room and found a box of house deeds inside, he would be in big trouble.
"Come on, you go study, I'll go sharpen the hoe."
"Um."
In the yard, Nan Yi sharpened the hoe until it was shiny, took his towel from the washstand and hung it around his neck , then took a sun hat from the iron nail on the wall and put it on, then went to the kitchen to get his teacup, and went out to the field.
As soon as I reached the pier by the river, Lin Guangwei came towards me.
"Nan Yi, do you have cigarettes?"
"have."
Nan Yi handed over a pack of unopened cigarettes.
Nan Yi usually carries two packs of cigarettes on him. One pack is already opened and is for himself to smoke, and the other pack is for use as a backup and for moments like this.
Lin Guangwei opened the cigarette box, pulled out a few cigarettes, and handed the box back.
"Just take the whole pack and smoke it. Are you out of food?"
"It's been cut off for a long time. I have five dollars a month, and I have so many things to buy. How can I have money to buy more cigarettes?"
"You can buy one for eight cents, and use it to satisfy your craving when you run out of food. Oh, by the way..." Nan Yi took out a stack of change from his pocket, and counted out about twenty bills to make up 10 yuan, "Please help me give this money to Qu Jing."
"Is this Liu Zhen's return?"
"Um."
"I'm so sorry for what happened last time. It's not that I didn't want to lend it to you, it's that I really didn't have it."
"I know that silly girl Liu Zhen secretly asked you to borrow money without telling me. I have already told her off. I actually have some money on hand. If you don't want to help, you can come and ask me for it."
"Forget it. You are starving yourself. I feel bad for not being able to help you. I can't even open my mouth to ask you to borrow money. I have nothing to worry about here. I have enough food and clothes, but I can't afford cigarettes. Haha, I just need to go to Xian Yaodong's place more often. I can always get a few cigarettes."
"Haha, let's not talk about it for now. I have to hurry to the fields."
"You're working too hard. I won't get out of bed before half past three."
After saying goodbye to Lin Guangwei, Nan Yi went straight to the paddy fields.
The rice seedlings were growing well these days and are looking lush and green. I'm sure we will have a good harvest by the end of September.
Without anyone's instructions, Nan Yi first weeded the ridges of the fields. When the ridges of the fields became bare, he went down to the fields to pull out the weeds.
The weeds moistened the rice seedlings and the weeds in the fields. After two or three days, the weeds grew again.
Bending over and pulling weeds, a girl with two braided pigtails came to the edge of the field and shouted to Nan Yi in the field, "Brother Nan Yi, are you thirsty? I'm here to bring you some water."
"Zilin, I'm not thirsty. It's so hot out here, let's go home."
Xian Zilin, a rare high school student in Wenchangwei, has just graduated from high school.
Their class, that is, the class of 1977, was considered relatively lucky. They were in their second year of high school, the time when their knowledge was most consolidated, and they could take the college entrance examination in a few months.
Well, Nan Yi was actually talking about himself. Didn’t he just graduate from high school and come to work in the countryside?
"Brother Nan Yi, the movie "Youth" will be shown at the commune the day after tomorrow. Will you accompany me to watch it?"
"Let's talk about it later. Let's see if the fields are busy these two days."
"Oh, then give me a letter the day after tomorrow."
"knew."
As soon as Xian Zilin left, Ge Cuizhu quickly arrived at the edge of Nan Yi in a hundred steps.
"Nan Yi, I think this girl is pretty good. You can try to date her. I tell you, our family likes you. If you really get together with Zilin, we will all like you."
Ge Cuizhu's husband is Xian Yaorong, Xian Zilin's father is Xian Yaogu, Xian Yaodong, Xian Yaohua, Xian Yaowei, Xian Yaoguo, Xian Yaorong and Xian Yaogu, these six are all uncles.
Either their grandfathers were brothers, or their fathers were brothers, so when it comes down to it, they are all family.
Alas, if we count all the members of Wenchangwei, there are only 62 families up to my great-grandfather’s generation, and seven or eight generations ago, they were all brothers.
Wenchangwei was originally established by a pair of brothers in the late Ming Dynasty, and the history of this branch is not long.
"Aunt, please stop trying to match people up with each other. I haven't figured out how to live my life yet. Let's talk about men and women a few years later."
"You, I'm not asking you to marry Zilin right now, so you two can be together if you get along, and no one is forcing you if you don't."
“Hehehe…”
When a scholar meets a matchmaker, there is nothing he can do except pretend to be stupid.
"Don't play dumb in front of me. Go to the movies with Zilin the day after tomorrow. If you go, I'll give you full work points."
"Okay, okay, I'll go."
"We agreed that you don't play tricks on me when the time comes."
"Don't worry, if I say I will go, I will definitely go."
After work, I went to the riverside pier to wash off the mud on my legs. Angju was sitting on the pier leisurely fishing.
"Weiqi, did you catch anything?"
“No, I can’t catch any.”
"Pick it up and have a look."
Ang Ju picked up the fishhook as he was told, and found it was bare, with no earthworm at all.
"How can fish bite without bait?"
"No bait, I'm learning from Jiang Taigong... as the opera says."
When Angju spoke, he always had a smile on his face, even though he looked a little silly.
Strangely enough, it seems that every brigade in the countryside has a person similar to Angju, and most of them have had their brains damaged when they were young.
What a mysterious coincidence.
"It's getting dark. Let's fish again tomorrow and go home for dinner."
"Fish a little longer."
"Then fish slowly and be careful not to fall into the river."
"Uh-huh."
After walking across the bridge over the river, Nan Yi would still look back.
Sometimes he envied people like Angju, who were carefree and unrestrained.
…
The next day, afternoon.
The Dragon King didn't know whether he was frightened by Wei Zheng or slapped by the Goddess of Lightning, but basins of foot washing water poured down like buckets - it was raining heavily.
The gate of Nan's house was knocked open, and Nan Yi saw it was Lin Guangwei.
"What's wrong? Why are you here in the rain? Come in and sit down?"
"I'm not going in, let's talk here." Lin Guangwei wiped his face and said, "Nan Yi, please do me a favor and get me a car inner tube."
"You're making it too difficult for me. I don't have the means to get this thing. Why do you want it out of the blue?"
Nan Yi had actually already guessed what else the car inner tube could be used for. It could be used as a lifebuoy.
It's obvious that Lin Guangwei wants to escape.
"Don't worry about it, can you lend me some money?"
"No!" Nan Yi refused flatly, and then suddenly changed the subject, "However, at nine o'clock tonight, you will definitely find money on the riverside pier."
Lin Guangwei's face turned black and then red, "Okay, if you don't want to lend it to me, then don't lend it to me... Nine o'clock?"
"Well, today is the ninth day of the lunar month, and the moonlight at nine o'clock is the best."
"gone."
Lin Guangwei left after saying this.
Nan Yi thought that one hundred yuan should be enough to buy a car inner tube and some food.
I don’t know if he was alone or with Qu Jing.
There is something ambiguous between Lin Guangwei and Qu Jing, but once they break through the paper, it becomes clear that they are in a relationship.
The rain stopped at two o'clock in the afternoon.
Nan Yi tucked his shirt into his trousers, tied the laces of his Liberation shoes tightly, put on a German water bottle, and ran towards the brigade's threshing ground.
"Report to the company commander, militia soldier Nan Yi is here to report."
When they arrived at the threshing ground, Nan Yi trotted to Xian Yaoguo's side, raised his right hand and saluted.
"Soldier Nan Yi, from today on, you are a soldier of the Wenchangwei Militia Company. This gun will be your closest comrade-in-arms. You must stay with it and protect it well. The gun is here, take it."
"Yes!" Nan Yi saluted again, holding his hands out, and shouted: "In the new era of enriching the country and strengthening the military, it is time for men to serve their country!"
"Can you shoot a gun?"
"Captain, I do. I participated in shooting training and anti-tank exercises in high school."
"You're just bragging. What kind of drill do students need?"
"Reporting to the company commander, everything is true, hehe, but we were dealing with a wooden tank."
"I told you, there's no way the school would allow you to conduct anti-tank drills. Join us."
"yes!"
As soon as Nan Yi stood at the end of the queue, Xian Yaoguo began to lecture him.
"stand at attention!"
"At ease. "
"Today, we are doing a five-kilometer cross-country run along the barbed wire. We are exercising and patrolling at the same time. If we encounter someone fleeing, we fire a warning shot. If the person refuses to listen and continues to flee, we aim for the thigh with the second shot. Is that clear?"
"clear!"
"Okay, turn left and run forward... The red flags are waving, the singing is deafening, get ready to sing."
"Red flags are flying, songs are resounding, the militia marches vigorously, holding their guns tightly, obeying the call of the Party, coming when called, fighting when coming, winning when fighting, marching forward without hesitation, the army and the people jointly defend, the iron front, the militia soldiers, red hearts and firm wills..."
