Zhou Wenzhong took the putty knife and bent down to dig out a lump of lime putty from the iron bucket. Since alum was added to the lime, it became more difficult to stir than paint.
"Well…"
As soon as Zhang Xiuying stepped into the newly built toilet with her right foot, she immediately turned around and ran out, standing outside the toilet breathing in the fresh air.
"Brother Zhong, why don't you come out first and take it easy? This room is too choked and panicked."
Zhou Wenzhong tied a towel around his mouth and nose, pretending not to hear anything and remained unmoved. He was addicted to labor and couldn't extricate himself. The size of towels these days is about the same as a pillow towel.
11:31 am.
Zhou Wenzhong ran out of the toilet, took off the towel on his face and went straight to the faucet.
"Huh huh... huh... huh..."
"Ouch, it's really suffocating me."
Waving his hand to refuse the tissue paper handed over by Zhang Xiuying, Zhou Wenzhong blew his nose. He put the towel under the faucet, wring it out and wiped his face and hair vigorously. Cold water in winter is the best antidote.
"Hum ha... hum ha... my nose can actually smell it."
Mother Zhang pointed to the toilet and asked, "Does the toilet need to be dried today?"
"You still need to dry them, and wait until they are all solidified. You will know how strong these lime putties are. I'm going to go first, I still have something to do."
"Don't bother, let's go after dinner. Today I realized how difficult it is for you to do these jobs. I just passed by the door, and the smell made me panic, so I took a breath,
My throat still feels uncomfortable to this day.”
"If you don't want to eat it, don't eat it. If you have a chance next time, it will look much better if you paint the house with lime putty. It will be bright and insect-killing. After it is dried, you can disperse the smell before going in."
"Let's eat later and then leave."
Zhou Wenzhong pinched his Adam's apple with his left hand, and his upper respiratory tract also felt uncomfortable. He didn't want to speak, so he just waved his hands at a few people, raised his legs and walked towards the courtyard gate.
"Ahem... Bah! It's really hard to repay this debt."
Zhou Wenzhong didn't smoke a single cigarette this morning. He hurriedly finished whitening the three walls and then applied a layer of dust on the wall outside the toilet. He patted the cement spots and lime white on his body.
Click and walk to the street office.
Not long after, Zhou Wenzhong walked into the courtyard of the street office and saw Wang Jianping's figure through the flat glass. With a heavy hand, he took out a 5-pound bag of fine grains from the storage space and carried it into the service hall.
1 kilogram of flour can steam 1.4 kilograms of steamed buns. People in this era are doing manual labor, so ordinary large steamed buns weigh nearly 3 taels each. This is equivalent to Zhou Wenzhong giving him 25 steamed buns, and they are still large.
In the years of famine, this gift is very important.
"Thank you for your hard work. Mr. Wang, are you busy?"
Wang Jianping put down the newspaper in his hand and pointed to the chair in front of the table.
Zhou Wenzhong put the cloth bag on his desk and pushed it towards Wang Jianping.
"I asked you, where did you come back from? Why are your clothes like this?"
Zhou Wenzhong raised his arms and looked at it, then pulled out his chair and sat down.
"Nothing has changed. I patted it clean before I came here."
"Your back is all gray."
"Oh, I didn't see it."
Wang Jianping raised the cloth bag and asked, "What is this?"
"5 pounds of fine-grain flour, cornmeal and white flour mixed in face to face."
"I said you can do it. I haven't seen such serious food for several days. Where did you get it?"
Wang Jianping untied the cloth bag and checked it. After his pupils opened slightly, he quickly put the cloth bag in the drawer at his feet.
"I built a toilet for someone, and the host's wife gave me 10 kilograms of fine grain. I couldn't eat this much myself, so I brought it over and asked you to help dispose of it. You can also give it to the five-guarantee households, or donate it.
also."
Wang Jianping smiled and shook his head, having some suspicions about the bag of food given by Zhou Wenzhong. He opened the drawer, took out a pack of cigarettes and threw one to Zhou Wenzhong.
After Zhou Wenzhong caught it, he struck a match and lit it for Wang Jianping, flicked his wrist and threw away the matchstick.
"Tell me, what do you want to do with me?"
"I know that no matter what happens, nothing can be hidden from your wise eyes, Mr. Wang."
"Don't flatter me, I won't do that."
"Okay, let me tell you the truth. There is a family in our courtyard who owes me 144 yuan. This money has been owed to me for more than a year. At that time, we had a verbal agreement. If he exceeds
If he couldn't pay back the money within a year, he gave me his small house in Xishao. Because the relationship between the two of us was relatively good, I didn't let him write me an IOU. But there was someone named Yi Zhonghai in this matter.
The steward acts as an insider and witness."
"Haha~ You were only a little over 14 years old a year ago. Where did you get so much money?"
"I can borrow it from my friends and classmates. It only takes one person to lend me more than 1 yuan."
"You have quite a lot of friends."
"It's all a joke. If they each give me one meal, I won't starve to death for three months anyway."
Wang Jianping waved his hand and said: "Okay, okay, let's get down to business. Is it because he doesn't admit it?"
"No! Moreover, he took the initiative to come to my house yesterday and told me about this matter. He said that he was assigned a Khrushchev building in his factory, and he had to repair the house and buy furniture. So their family
He didn't have any money to return to me, so he thought of giving me the Xishao hut. He also said that if I come to you at noon today to handle the transfer of the house, it's just a donation!"
"Hmm. Isn't this nice?"
"The problem is that this matter was found out by the old lady in our backyard, the deaf old lady who lives in the five-guarantee household. Now there is a big fuss. You may not know it, but the deaf old lady likes me in our courtyard.
And Brother Zhuzi. She told me that it was a small house in the west, and she also scolded me for borrowing the money too much. I bought a small house of more than 20 square meters for 144 yuan. Isn't this a stupid boy?
She also said that when I get married and have children in the future, I will definitely not be able to live there, so she insists on transferring the ownership of the house she lives in now to me. She also said that she had donated so many houses in the past and could not favor one over the other. She said that my brother Zhuzi’s house
She already had two houses, and she would not be short of room even if she gave birth to eight children in the future. So she proposed to give me the last house.
I refused at the time, but when she heard that I dared to go against her wishes and not want her house! Yesterday, she started to argue endlessly, saying that I no longer respect the elderly! She also said that I am not as obedient as I was when I was a child! That noisy person
Son, Master Yi also knows about this, the old lady made a scene at around 9 o'clock last night!"
"call…"
Wang Jianping listened to Zhou Wenzhong's tirade, took a deep breath of cigarette and slowly exhaled it. He admired Zhou Wenzhong in his heart for being able to tell such shameless lies in a serious manner!
"Come on, keep on..."
Zhou Wenzhong was talking just now, and his hands were not idle. He took a cigarette and kept banging it on the table, shaking the shredded tobacco inside and making it more solid. He handed it over.
Wang Jianping took the cigarette, looked at it, and put the cigarette butt in his hand into the small half empty tube. After taking a few puffs, he noticed that the taste was not right, and then he looked at Zhou Wenzhong.
"Hehehehe...you are such a good leader who knows everything."
Zhou Wenzhong sat on the chair, bent down and took out the unpacked large front door from the space, put it on the desk and flicked it with his fingers. The whole pack of cigarettes slid towards Wang Jianping and landed on his crotch.
The whole set of movements is smooth and smooth.
"I just picked up this big front door bag under the table. I can consider it as my father-in-law. I really can't hide anything from you."
"Hehehe..."
Wang Jianping flicked the ash from his cigarette and rubbed the tip of his nose with his left hand.
"If it's what you say, where will the deaf old lady live in the future? Will she live with you?"
"No way! Am I the kind of person without a conscience? When Master Yi persuaded the deaf old lady yesterday, he proposed a plan to get the best of both worlds."
"you say."
"After all, my ethnicity has changed. If the deaf old lady lives with me, our eating habits, living habits, and national customs will be different. In order to avoid this situation, Master Yi suggested that the deaf old lady should still live with me.
Leaving it to their family to take care of him would not cause any trouble to the leaders of the street office no matter what. This was also his basic understanding as a liaison officer.
At the same time, in order to appease the old lady, I suggested that she transfer the house to me first, but she still lives in that room. I will wait until the old lady has passed a hundred years before I move in. Isn't this the best of both worlds?"
"Well, this is indeed a good idea. As long as it doesn't affect the unity of the residents in the courtyard."
"Okay, then I'll go to the door to greet them."
"good."
Zhou Wenzhong stood up, put the chair back and set it up, looked at the clock on the wall and saw that it was already 12:22, and hurriedly walked towards the door.
"Oh, I was looking for you in the courtyard just now. I searched for you for a long time and couldn't find you. I thought you didn't want the house. I didn't expect you to be waiting for me inside the street office."
"Brother Zheng, you didn't go to work?"
"I'm on a shitty shift! Our workshop director gave me 3 days off. He asked me to take care of my family. Didn't I tell you when I was drinking yesterday? At 9 o'clock this morning, my fellow workers were kicking
The tricycle came to my house and started moving things. You weren't in the yard at that time, were you?"
"I'm sorry. I had something to do in the morning, so I left early. Now I have a new situation that I need to explain to you."
Zheng Liugen asked doubtfully: "Is it because we don't have enough money? It doesn't matter. It's the same if you give it slowly."
"No, no, please listen to me first, Brother Zheng. I have just said hello. After we go in, the leaders of the street office may ask you a few questions. Just remember that you owe me 144 yuan. You still owe me 144 yuan."
You couldn’t afford the money, so you mortgaged your house to me. Besides, your family has no shortage of housing and will never sleep on the street."
Zhou Wenzhong took out 124 yuan from his trouser pocket and handed it over.
"Now! I will give you the remaining money now. You should believe me now, right?"
Zheng Liugen took the money, counted it, folded it twice and put it into his pocket. He smiled and put his arm around Zhou Wenzhong's shoulders and walked to the office hall.
He thought to himself: Zhou Wenzhong’s price is higher than Liu Haizhong’s. 4 yuan is more than two days’ salary! It doesn’t matter if he goes in and talks nonsense. Anyway, Zhou Wenzhong has already said hello to the leader.