Free Web NovelChapter 428: Chapter 426: We Want to Ride the Big Truck
Lin Lan and the others had just finished lunch when Yao Xiuyun and a colleague arrived at the pastry shop, carrying several large bags of old clothes and some old cotton batting.
Yao Xiuyun handed her an envelope. "This is a donation from my colleagues at the station. The clothes are old ones they brought in—some for kids, some for adults. We’d like you to take them to the victims in the mountains."
It turned out that Yao Xiuyun and Yang Xiaoman had learned about the disaster in Shishanling from a few of the children. The two of them had gathered all the old clothes from their own homes, then brought the matter up with their colleagues at the station when they got to work.
Everyone pitched in, some bringing clothes, others donating money. In just one morning, they collected several large bags of clothes and around two hundred yuan in cash.
Lin Lan looked at Yao Xiuyun with gratitude. "Thank you. Please thank everyone. On behalf of the villagers of Shishanling, thank you all." ’I feel like that’s the only thing I’ve been saying these past two days,’ she thought.
Qiaohui also bowed gratefully to Yao Xiuyun and the other police officer. "Thank you, ma’am. Thank you, Officer."
The young man quickly bowed back. "Thank you. You’re welcome, you’re welcome."
Yao Xiuyun laughed at the sight. "That’s Little Guo. He only started last month. He’s shy and blushes whenever he sees a girl." freewebnovel.cσ๓
Lin Lan smiled. "Well, he’s just a young man. You can’t expect him to be an old hand like you."
Yao Xiuyun shot her a glare. "You dare call me an old hand? Just you wait, I’ll get you back for that."
Lin Lan quickly surrendered. "I was wrong! You’re not an old hand..."
"Fine, I’ll spare you for now," Yao Xiuyun said. "We’re still on the clock, so we have to get back. We’ll leave these things in your care to deliver to the victims."
"We just made some peanut nougat this morning. Let me pack some for you. Take it back for everyone to try, and please thank them for us."
Lin Lan and Qiaohui gathered some peanut nougat candies and an assortment of other pastries, packing them into a basket. Yao Xiuyun and Little Guo took it and left.
Tong Xinglan grinned and nudged Qiaohui. "That officer just now was hilarious!"
Lin Lan found it amusing too. "Didn’t you hear Xiuyun? He’s new and shy."
Qiaohui looked at the children’s clothes and said happily, "Cousin, Xinglan, look! These old clothes are even better than what the kids in the production team wear."
Lin Lan said, "Most families at their work unit have two incomes and a steady source of money, so their children’s clothes and necessities are a bit better than those of kids in the countryside. Plus, with family planning policies getting stricter these last couple of years, there are more leftover old clothes."
Tong Xinglan nodded. "Exactly. In my family—my brother, my parents, my sister-in-law—each person’s work points for the whole year only add up to a few dozen yuan at the end-of-year settlement. That comes out to just a few yuan a month. Who could bear to spend that on fabric for clothes?"
Qiaohui said, "It’s even less in the mountains. We weave our own cloth to make clothes."
’They always say that if you work hard, you’ll have plenty to eat and wear,’ Lin Lan thought, ’but so many families work themselves to the bone all year and still can’t manage it.’
"Someone’s looking at the clothes," Tong Xinglan said, running toward the front of the cart. The women split up and got busy.
Before they closed the shop in the afternoon, all the clothes on the cart had been sold.
Before dark, Hou Bing and Li Wu delivered the goods Lin Lan and the others had purchased to Limin Road.
Hou Bing had helped buy some homespun and fine-woven cloth. They were all lower-grade materials with loose threads or uneven dye, but they had the advantage of being cheap.
The two of them didn’t make a single cent on the deal; Li Xiangyang had to force the delivery fee on them.
After the department store closed, Li Xiangyang drove the Dongfeng truck to the front of the East City Restaurant and loaded up the grain, salt, and kitchenware that had been piled there.
Then he took Lin Guoliang and his brother, along with Zhou Shitou and Zhou Dashu, over to Limin Road. They loaded the clothes, grain, cotton, and bolts of cloth onto the truck. He then drove it back to Yucai Road, ready to set out for Shilian first thing the next morning.
As he and Lin Lan entered the alley and pulled up to their gate, Little Douzi, Dandan, and Little Hai ran out of the courtyard and stood in front of the truck. "Whoa, a big truck!"
Li Xiangyang honked the horn. Lin Lan leaned out and smiled. "What are you doing standing in front of the truck?"
The kids ran to the truck door, shouting on their tiptoes, "We want to ride in the big truck! We want to ride in the big truck!"
Lin Lan got out and gave each of them a light pat. "You rascals. The truck is already at the gate, and you’re still clamoring for a ride."
The children climbed into the truck and squeezed into the cab. Li Xiangyang drove it into the courtyard, shut off the engine, and pulled out the key. "Alright, get out. Time for dinner."
Dandan and Little Hai crowded toward the steering wheel. "We already ate! Little Douzi hasn’t eaten yet."
"Even if you’ve eaten, you have to get out. The truck isn’t a playground." Li Xiangyang lifted them out one by one, then turned and carried Little Douzi down.
He looked at the three of them and said, "All this stuff in the truck is going to the mountains. If you want a ride, get up early tomorrow morning, come with me, and help carry the grain to Shishanling."
"Let me see if it’s heavy. If it is, we won’t be able to carry it." Dandan stood on his toes to peek, wanting to see what was in the truck bed to determine if Li Xiangyang was tricking them.
Little Douzi pulled on his arm. "Brother Dandan, I saw what Uncle Li Wu delivered. It’s all grain. We can’t carry it."
Dandan patted his head. "You’re little. I’m big. I can carry it."
Little Hai puffed out his chest. "Douzi, you need to eat more. Look how small you are."
Little Douzi frowned at them. "I’m supposed to be smaller than you."
"You little rascal! You just won’t be satisfied until you see for yourself, huh?" Li Xiangyang chuckled and ruffled Dandan’s hair. He untied the tarp, lifted the boy up, and let him look. "See? Think you can carry that?"
Seeing the sacks of grain piled high, Dandan shook his head repeatedly. "That’s a huge bag. I can’t carry that."
Li Xiangyang put him down and gave him a light smack on the bottom. "Go on, go play."
"Okay!" Dandan rubbed his bottom and looked at Little Douzi. "Hurry up and eat. When the kids from next door come out, we’re going to play guerilla warfare."
Little Hai nodded. "Yeah! We’ll coordinate and take them down."
School was out, so the kids had gotten to know the other children in the alley and often played together. One moment it was cops and robbers, the next it was the Eight Route Army fighting bandits and waging guerilla warfare. They didn’t seem to feel the heat of the blazing sun during the day.
"I’ll tell you our battle plan for later." Dandan pulled Little Douzi and Little Hai over to squat in a corner. The three of them huddled together and whispered for a moment. "Remember, as soon as you finish eating, come right out."
Little Douzi nodded. "Got it! I eat really fast. I’ll be done in a second." With that, he turned and ran into the house.
Li Xiangyang and Lin Lan watched the children, not knowing whether to laugh or cry. Just as they were about to go inside for dinner, the old woman and Yang Xiaoman walked into the courtyard.
The old woman said to Lin Lan, "So you’re delivering the supplies tomorrow? Can you get it to them in one day?"
Lin Lan shook her head. "I heard the road over there has been blocked ever since the landslide and still hasn’t been cleared. We’ll have to take everything to Shilian first, then use mules to haul it into the mountains."
"Ai!" The old woman sighed. "That’s the one bad thing about the mountains. It’s so inconvenient to get in and out."
Yang Xiaoman said, "Once the grain is delivered, as long as everyone has food to eat and clothes to wear, things will slowly get better."
"It’s all thanks to everyone’s help. Xiuyun even brought over the money and items you all donated."
Old Li came out of the house, beaming. He said to them, "Have you eaten yet? If not, come eat with us."
The old woman smiled. "We’ve already eaten. You go ahead and enjoy your meal."
