Uncle Xue thought for a while and recalled: "Maybe, I remember Lao Wang asked me once later where I could buy a pick shovel."
He thought for a moment and said, "Let's call it a day, junior brother. I'll go to Yongzhou with you tomorrow to find channels and get a few more sets of diving equipment."
....
"A sneeze!"
"A sneeze!"
Dou Sprout sat on the bed, covered himself with the quilt, and sneezed twice in succession.
The boss, Uncle Xue, and Li Tiecheng drove to Yongzhou early in the morning to look for channels to buy diving equipment. Lao Tian kept pacing back and forth around the stove.
"Hey, could you please stop spinning around? I'm so dizzy." Dou Sprout couldn't help but say.
Lao Tian stopped, turned around and asked me: "When will they come back?"
I said I don't know, we can just wait.
"Brother Xiang? Brother Xiang, are you in the house?"
At this time, Xiao Tang's shout suddenly came from the courtyard. I told her before that my surname was Xiang, and my name was Xiang Feng.
"What's wrong, Xiao Tang? Do you want to see me for anything?"
Xiao Tang stood in the courtyard and said with a smile: "Brother Xiang, grandma fried camellia for noon and asked me to ask you to eat the camellia. She also said that you must come over because the two of us can't finish it."
It was almost dinner time, so I said OK, Xiao Tang, I’ll go later.
Dou Yazai heard it in the room, and he said jealously: "Fengzi, I discovered a problem. You are not as handsome as me, and you are not as rich as me. Why are there women surrounding you wherever we go? I
Why don’t you have one? How am I worse than you?"
"Get out of here, don't talk nonsense. I'm not even 18 yet. You just asked me to have a meal out of politeness."
"Oh... Then come back and bring me some. I haven't had oil tea yet."
"I don't dare to eat the big pot of food cooked by Brother Yu. Good guy, I sprayed for an hour that day and my legs were numb."
I thought they wanted me to try local specialties out of politeness, but when I arrived at noon, I realized that they were asking me for help.
During the Lantern Festival, there is a folk activity in their village called "Lamp Walking", which involves filling lamps with oil and placing them on the ground, forming a road, and then letting people walk on them.
This kind of folk activity is held once a year. The village committee has little money and needs to raise money for kerosene every year. According to the head count in the household registration book, each person in each household contributes 8 cents, and everyone has to contribute.
The people who organize the collection of money every year are called "snakeheads". This year it happened to be Xiao Tang's turn to be the snakehead, but Xiao Tang's parents were working in other places and had not come back, so his grandma invited me to eat oil tea and wanted me to help Xiao Tang.
We made a smuggler together to collect money, and the money collected also included money for the fireworks and firecrackers to be set off during the Lantern Festival.
I had finished eating before they opened their mouths. Eaters have short hands, so they had no other choice, so they agreed.
I thought it wasn't that difficult, but it only costs eighty cents per person. Who can afford such eighty cents?
But who knows, that's not the case.
We went there at about one o'clock in the afternoon. Xiao Tang knocked on the door from door to door with a pen and notebook. Most of the villagers gave in, but there were always some who wanted to take advantage and were unwilling to pay.
People said: "I won't walk around with the lanterns or watch the fireworks, so I won't pay any bills this year."
Xiao Tang said: "Uncle, our village does this every year, so don't be special."
"I said! I won't pay it! Eight cents is not money. You can still buy three steamed buns. You should leave quickly!"
Seeing Xiao Tang's expression of embarrassment, I called the man aside and said, "Do you want to hand me over? If you don't, do you believe I'll do it to you?"
I collected money all afternoon, and it was already dark. I collected a total of one hundred yuan. I was exhausted. Almost every household paid it.
After returning home, candles were lit in the room. Dou Sprout looked me up and down and asked, "Why did you drink oil tea for so long? Could you be with that little girl..."
"Shut your mouth!"
"He hasn't come back yet? Where did that person go?" I saw that there were only three of us in the room.
"He must be in the West Room," Dou Sprout pointed to another room.
Later, Xiao Tang brought a large pot of oil tea and heated it up. I went to the West Room and asked him to come out and eat together.
"Brother Tian, Brother Tian?"
"Sleep?" I knocked on the door but there was no response.
When I pushed the door open and went in, I saw that the quilts on the pit were neatly laid out and no one was there.
I didn't pay attention at first, thinking I might have gone for a walk or something, but I waited until after 11 o'clock and still didn't see anyone.
It was Dou Sprout who discovered it first. He suddenly shouted:
"It's over Mineko!"
"The diving suit is gone! The remaining bottle of oxygen is gone!"
