Chapter 6 “Great People”

Chen Maidong was staring at the man for a long time. It was an old widower who had coaxed Ma Zigu into the peach forest.

     He dragged the old widower out, but before he could even reach out to beat him, the old widower lay down, yelling out for him to stop beating him. He kept yelling it over and over again. Finally, Chen Maidong cast a hard sidelong glare and the yelling stopped. The widower didn’t make another sound after that.

     Zhuang Jie didn’t understand what was going on at first, but when she saw a foolish Ma Zigu standing to one side, eating a lollipop innocently, she instantly understood.

     Ma Zigu was fifteen or sixteen years old. When she was a child, her brain stopped functioning correctly and she became slow-witted. She didn’t know a word, never went to school, and just played around in the village all day. When she turned up pregnant the year before last, her grandma scolded her over the town radio. She didn’t know who else to scold, so she had to scold all the men in the town for what happened.

     The old widower was in his sixties or seventies, had been a bachelor most of his life, and walked around the streets as a bum all day long.

     Chen Maidong looked at the card hanging around Ma Zigu’s neck, it had her grandma’s phone number on it. He dialed the phone and looked at Zhuang Jie, “Hang on a sec.”

     “No rush, this is important.” Zhuang Jie tried to talk with Ma Zigu, but she didn’t understand anything and would only smile foolishly.

     They waited until her grandma came for her and then they left.

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     “My stump is a bit…” As she spoke, she noticed a girl in the room and turned to look at Zhuang Yan.

     Zhuang Yan introduced her: “This is my classmate, Wang Shuting.”

     “Hello, Sister.” Wang Shuting called out politely.

     “Hello.” Zhuang Jie looked at the big white goose in her arms.

     She gave the big white goose to Zhuang Yan, and left after only saying a few more words.

     Zhuang Jie sat down and took off her prosthetic and asked, “Is the big white goose a token of love?”

     “Oh no. It was because her mother wanted to eat it, so she secretly snuck it for me to raise.” Zhuang Yan lowered his head to tease the goose.

     The big white goose stretched its neck and howled dryly. Zhuang Jie couldn’t bear the sharp cry, “I also would like to stew it in a pot.”

     “It’s called Jishan Goose. It’s a pet goose, not for eating.”

     It was obviously just an ordinary domestic goose. Zhuang Jie continued, “If I named the chicken in the coop Jisan Chicken, would that also raise their status?”

     Zhuang Yan said that he didn’t understand anything she was saying, and carried the goose upstairs with him.

     The residual limb was slightly swollen, so Zhuang Jie went upstairs to the bedroom with crutches instead of the prosthetic limb. She was about to fetch hot water when Zhuang Yan put a bowl of water with a soothing solution in it on the low stool in front of the bed. She soaked her stump in it little by little, and splashed the water on her thighs with her hands.

     Zhuang Yan gave her a dry towel and nursing cream, and Zhuang Jie asked, “Are mom and Uncle He still at the factory?”

     “Well, I had to cook the chicken for them tonight, so.” Zhuang Yan said.

     “Oh, little NuanNuan, he’s so much better than me.” Zhuang Jie smiled and said, “By the way, where is NiaoNiao?”

     “She was riding an electric bike to…” Before the words were finished, the door creaked, and He Niao rushed into the courtyard with the bike. Then there was the sound of stomping up the stairs, she pushed open Zhuang Jie’s bedroom door, and looked at her angrily.

     Seeing her attire, Zhuang Jie understood that she had fallen into the ditch in Xi Village. She asked flatteringly, “Did you go to pick me up?”

     NiaoNiao was very angry. She hadn’t controlled the accelerator on the bike and it rushed down the ditch, and she had to climb out in embarrassment. She still asked an adult for help to push the bike out. Then she even searched the place several times, but she didn’t find Zhuang Jie.

     She turned around and went back to her room, lying on the bed angrily. Zhuang Jie wiped her legs and went to make amends, saying that she really didn’t know that He Niao was going to pick her up, and after she finished speaking, Zhuang Jie invited her to sleep with her tonight.

Niao Niao calmed down and went to take a bath with her clothes in her arms. Zhuang Jie found iodine to wipe the scratches on her hands. Zhuang Yan said that he also wanted to sleep with her tonight, but Zhuang Jie said that he could sleep in his own room. The bed in her room is too small.

     The two sisters lay down happily. Watching Zhuang Jie try on the spare prosthesis in the cabinet, Zhuang Yan asked her when she would return to Shanghai, and she replied, “I have a return ticket for the tenth.”

     He Niao asked: “Then, when you go back to Shanghai, will you not come back until the Spring Festival?”

     “Correct. So, you have to study hard. I will wait for you in Shanghai in the future.”

     “I don’t like Shanghai. I like Beijing. Beijing has Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City, the Great Wall, and Tsinghua University.” He Niao said.

     Zhuang Jie laughed at her, “What’s so great about Tiananmen Square?”

     “Having Tiananmen Square means that Beijing is bigger than Shanghai.” He Niao sat up and gestured, “What it means is that you all have to listen to me, since I will be in an older city. I am the biggest. If I want to go somewhere, I will go to the biggest place.”

     Zhuang Jie laughed loudly, her logic was somewhat correct.

     Zhuang Yan said: “Stupid, that’s not a good comparison. Shanghai is the window to the world…”

     “Then Beijing is the gate of the world!” He Niao refused to accept, and the two were at odds about it, “Beijing says: The gate of my house is always open, waiting for you with open arms… Beijing welcomes you and opens up the world for you.”

     “All right, all right.” Zhuang Yan conceded.

     “I was right in the first place.” He Niao stuck out her tongue.

     In the next few days, the roast chicken shop’s business boomed, and it could easily have sold up to 1,300 vacuum chickens a day. Not even including the roast chicken and fried chicken sold  in the store. Zhuang Jie knew an Internet celebrity, and she had her place soft planting during her live broadcast to advertise the restaurant, but Zhuang Jie didn’t think about the issue of making deliveries. She just factored in ones that were picked  up, but in the end, the whole family stayed up all night to finish the delivery orders. ‘Write until your face turns pale, your fingers twitch, and you collapse.’

     In the past, vacuum chickens were bought directly by tourists, and there were very few deliveries. The family had never seen such a big battle. Liao Tao, however, liked the sweetness of that success, and planned to go to a professional institution to learn how to run an online store, learn photography, and learn about live broadcasting.

   The day before the end of the holiday, Zhuang Jie received an invitation from the town government, and the mayor invited them to drink tea. The invitation was written very abruptly. She just received it at seven o’clock in the morning and had tea scheduled for two o’clock in that afternoon.

     Zhuang Jie thought this matter was very serious. After thinking about it, she didn’t do anything illegal, and she didn’t do anything to embarrass the town. Why would a mere grassroots person be invited to drink tea by the mayor?

     She chose the most formal clothes to go to the government building, and found the reception hall, where people were sitting around at their desks. She saw Chen Maidong at a glance, since she knew him best, she naturally sat next to him. She tilted her head and asked in a low voice, “What’s going on?” She had scanned around, and they were all young people in the town, either working outside or doing business, and they all had small successes in their careers.

     Chen Maidong didn’t answer her, but the person next to him answered, “I guess they want us to help the town. I’m Wang Xi’an, and you are the daughter of Uncle He’s family?”

     “Yes.” Zhuang Jie spoke with him for a while, and then everyone at the table started chatting. Each talked about their own work, and added WeChats.

     Chen Maidong watched helplessly that Zhuang Jie was like a butterfly, scanning everyone’s WeChat, and then said, “I’ll keep in touch with you when I have something to say.”

     He had never seen a person with such strong social skills. Before she came in, everyone was just talking nonchalantly, and no one took the initiative to add WeChat, because they were away all year round, their fields were different, and they were only partially familiar with each other.

     After Zhuang Jie came in, she was the first to take out her mobile phone and engaged everyone in conversation: “Come on let’s be friends, make connections, and having more friends means more success.” Then he said bluntly, “We are all in the same town. Yes, we can help each other later if we have any needs.”

     Zhuang Jie scanned around to look at him, “Where’s your WeChat?”

     “I forgot to bring my phone.” Chen Maidong came out in a hurry, and forgot his mobile phone to the funeral parlor.

     Zhuang Jie didn’t care, and asked casually: “Why did you come? Isn’t this meeting only for those working outside of…” As she spoke, the door was pushed open, and several people came in one after another, holding scented tea and various exquisite snacks in their hands .

     …

     The mayor came in after them, first smiled kindly, then introduced himself to everyone, and then said in a very homely way: “Everyone sit down, make yourself at ease. I am not the mayor today, but an elder here to sit and chat with everyone.”

     “I wanted to invite everyone to meet up for a while now. I originally planned to postpone the matter for the Spring Festival, but I didn’t expect everyone to come back during the National Day. I simply followed fate and had an impromptu gettogether today. I had a very important meeting today, but I decided to ship it and come here with everyone .” After speaking, he laughed twice.

  Then he started to talk about the situation in the town and the difficulties of individual villages around town. There was a plan to relocate the pharmaceutical factory to the city, and that there would be thousands of laid-off workers in the future. The tourism industry is also not going well and the gap between peak and off-peak seasons is too large. He mentioned the products of the planting industry being unsalable, and the list went on. Then he said that the town still wanted, however, to develop industries, and it would be a pity if the rows of factories in the industrial zone were not utilized. He said that if they had any resources or suggestions to help sell agricultural products, or provide new industries or good ideas to the town, let him know. They would meet and discuss and see if it was a feasible option.

     The mayor of the town was moved to understand the reason with emotion, and even quoted Mencius’s saying: “If you are poor, you will be alone, and if you are rich, you will benefit the world at the same time.” He even had a powerpoint that he presented about mid-meeting, which talked about Nanping Town’s history and feature points.

     Some people in the room were moved by this, and said that if the town needed it, they would give generously. The mayor shook his head and smiled, saying that there is no shortage of money in the town, only talents. This was also a common problem in the rural areas. The capable young people have all left and those who stay in the village are orphans, widows, old and young, who are powerless to develop and build. Then he said that there was no other purpose for this meeting. He did not want to persuade them to stay, but just hoped that everyone could not forget about their hometown.

     The mayor then clicked to stop the presentation, and did not continue the topic. Then he joked: “There is one more important thing today. All the single people here today, take a look around and connect your WeChat’s. If we can’t benefit from those outsiders, we can support each other from within for as long as we can.” After saying that, everyone laughed.

     The mayor flipped through the documents in his hand, called them by name, and said: “The female successes in our town are amazing, like Xixia, Zhuang Jie, Sheng Nan, He Yan, these high-achieving students also have outstanding personal abilities. On the other hand, the men are much more inferior. Too many of you, shameful, you can’t compete with them.” There was another burst of laughter.

     A man said: “Mayor, we are all good men. The women are just different.”

     “You can comfort yourselves. That is good to know, too,” the mayor answered.

     The people around couldn’t help laughing, and the mayor took the opportunity to name Chen Maidong, “Of the talented people in the town, one of five good young people rated at the top, coming back from Beijing to build their hometown.”

     “The elderly in every village are a big problem. Last year, a widowed and lonely old man was found to have passed away after four days. Our Comrade Chen, helped this man leave this earth i a special way. In the past, there was no professional plastic surgeon in our town. It was difficult for the dead to be decent, but now we have Xiao Chen. And some of the dead from the nursing homes, the dead who have been suffering from illness for many years, the dead who died in accidents, the rural people are not really aware enough, and they lack the understanding of considering a deceased person as special, but our little one Comrade Chen has been doing this great work.” After speaking, he took the lead in applauding.

     All the people below applauded.

     “Important point, all the available females here who are listening, our, Comrade Xiao Chen, is also single.”

     There was another burst of laughter.

     Zhuang Jie glanced at this ‘good, upright, outstanding, young man’, who was sitting in a suit and leather shoes. She kicked him under the table, but he didn’t budge.

     This tea meeting was from two o’clock in the afternoon until five o’clock. The whole process was relatively relaxed. The mayor was pretty down to earth and very friendly. Although he seemed to lack morality, he was not annoying. Before the end, everyone was sent a copy of the materials, posters and agricultural product catalogs of various industries in the town, and a movie ticket for “My Motherland and Me”.

     She came out to convey the spirit of the meeting to Wang Xixia, and brought her a document, saying that they would meet before returning to Shanghai. She heard something above her and she looked up. There was an aerial camera circling over the government building. The mayor just mentioned that the town is shooting promotional videos for each village.

     She was thinking about how to help her hometown in the conference room just now. But when she went downstairs and the wind gusted, making her seem to come to her senses. Forget it, first she had to take care of herself. ‘If you are poor, you will be alone.’ So, she would have to wait until she was flourishing to be of any help.

     She took off her windbreaker, and she realized that she was essentially the same kind of person as Ji Tong, very egoistic. She used to be a person with ideals and beliefs, but now her ideals and beliefs are simply to settle down in Shanghai.

     When she saw the ‘great, young man’ in front of her, she hurried to catch up, “Leave me your cell phone number, and I will contact you later.”