freenovelworld Chapter 859: Around
Chapter 859: Around
Before Shen Hong could answer, a man approached them.
The man's clothes were also tattered and patched, but they were clean.
His face was full of wrinkles, but his eyes were not dull like those of other villagers, but were filled with determination.
He walked up to Shen Hong in a dignified manner and said, "Comrade Shen, your commander promised to arrive today, so we are here today. Come to our brigade headquarters and rest for a while!"
When Su Yunyun heard the man talking about the brigade headquarters, she knew in her heart that he must be a member of the village committee.
But this village is so poor, why does it still have a brigade headquarters?
At this time, Shen Hong said to the man, "Village Chief, we promised you, so we must do it."
After saying this, Shen Hong was about to introduce Su Yunyun to the village chief and explain Su Yunyun's identity to him.
But Su Yunyun stopped him with her eyes.
Shen Hong didn't understand, but didn't ask any more questions. Instead, he followed the village chief to the brigade headquarters of their village.
Su Yunyun looked at the house in front of her, shook her head and smiled bitterly.
It turned out that the brigade headquarters was the same as other houses, even more dilapidated.
There are only three houses in total, and the back of each house is supported by wood.
There are several tables and stools outside the house.
Seeing the surprise on Su Yunyun's face, the village chief felt a little embarrassed. "Most of the houses in our village are like this. The better houses are for villagers to live in. It's already very good for us to use this house for office."
“It’s just that the house is not big, so sometimes when villagers come to do business, they just sit in this yard.”
"Comrade Shen, you all should sit down and take a break. This is very clean. We clean it every day."
Su Yunyun did not continue to talk about the house issue, but was just worried about the safety of the house.
But the village chief walked straight in, and then two or three people walked out.
Like the village chief, his clothes were shabby but very clean.
They held teapots and a pile of bowls in their hands. "Comrades, please don't mind. We don't have any cups here. They are too expensive. So we usually use these bowls to drink water."
"Village chief, don't be so polite. We are not here to enjoy ourselves. It's the same if we drink water from a bowl." Shen Hong invited the village chief to sit down as well.
The village chief asked others to help pour water, and then sat next to Shen Hong.
Su Yunyun picked up the bowl and took a sip of water before saying to the village chief, "Village chief, I am Comrade Shen's colleague. My last name is Su. I am here for the first time today and I have some questions I want to ask."
The village chief did not look down on Su Yunyun because she was a woman. Instead, he was very respectful and said, "Comrade Su, if you have any questions, just ask directly. I will tell you everything I know."
Su Yunyun then asked, "Has your village always been like this? Have you ever thought of ways to improve it?"
The village chief smiled bitterly, "Comrade Su, the village has been like this for a long time, and successive village cadres have done so. We have thought about it and made improving the living conditions of the villagers our top priority, such as encouraging them to raise chickens and ducks. But as you can see, we are very poor here, and we don't have much surplus food at home to raise these poultry."
"Then have you ever thought about looking outside?" Su Yunyun understood and thought about it before continuing to ask.
"We are all farmers, so the only solution we can think of is to start with the land, so we originally wanted to sell vegetables." The village chief continued to answer.
"But it takes a long time for us to go to the town, and the economy there is not so good. If we want to go to the city, I'm sure you know how long it takes. I went there a few times before, but the freshly picked vegetables were already wilted by the time we got to the city, and we couldn't sell them at a good price, so we gave up later."
"We are still thinking about what else we can do, because we can't let the villagers continue to be poor. It's enough for our generation to be poor, but the children can't live like this anymore."
After hearing this, Su Yunyun realized that the village chief was also a practical man. "Then have you ever thought about going out and working outside?"
"Why haven't you thought about it?" The village chief wiped his face, somewhat evasively, "I heard that people who went to the south to work could make a lot of money, so we selected a few people from our village and pooled some money for their travel expenses. However, they had no connections, had not seen much of the world, and many people were illiterate, so they didn't make any money and returned home in disgrace."
"No way?" Su Yunyun understood what the village chief meant. If you don't know anything and don't have a guide, it's not easy to make money if you just jump in. "Then have you ever thought about going with people from other villages around? With more people, there will be more ideas, and it will be easier to make money."
"Well!" The village chief looked into the distance and had to tell the truth, "The conditions in our village are similar to those in the surrounding villages. We went out together before, but we suffered from lack of education and were cheated by others. We went through untold hardships and even had to beg for food before we came back."
"Then village chief, can you read?" Su Yunyun thought for a while and asked this question.
"To be honest, I know some of them, but I don't know many," the village chief looked at Su Yunyun very sincerely, "I begged them to teach me these words when the educated youth came to our village."
"Taught by the educated youth?" Su Yunyun was very surprised.
"Yes, I was very envious of those educated youth who could read and write. I thought that as long as I could recognize a few words, I would not have to be blind," the village chief said honestly, "so I helped them with more work in exchange for this opportunity to study. I didn't expect that when our village committee was replaced, I became the village chief because I could recognize a few words."
Opportunities come to those who are prepared.
This sentence popped up in Su Yunyun's mind.
"Excuse me, how many children do you have in your family? Are they in school?" This was a sudden question.
"There are three in my family," the village chief didn't know what Su Yunyun meant by asking this, "the oldest is 12 years old this year, he came back after entering the third grade, the second is 10 years old, he just started the first grade, the third is 8 years old, he will wait for two years before going to school, otherwise I can't afford to send them all to school at the same time."
Su Yunyun looked at Hongbo and Wenhan, then looked at Shen Hong, "I've finished asking questions, you can arrange the work next!"
Shen Hong didn't understand what Su Yunyun just asked, but he knew that Su Yunyun would never speak without a purpose, so he didn't ask any more questions and nodded directly, "Okay."
Seeing that Shen Hong had arranged his colleagues to meet with the village chief in an orderly manner, Su Yunyun stood up and asked Hong Bo and Wen Han to go around the surrounding area with her.