Chapter 382: A Small Interlude on the Road

Zhou Zhiming followed the village party secretary’s advice and hurriedly went to the commune to find Director Huang.

He jogged to the commune, and after over an hour of running, he finally arrived, panting heavily.

He quickly entered, finding someone nearby and asked, “Comrade, I would like to know, is Director Huang in the commune?”

It’s common for Director Huang to be inspecting various villages.

“Director Huang is in his office. Just walk ahead and turn left,” the person replied.

“Thank you, Comrade,” Zhou Zhiming quickly expressed his gratitude.

After thanking the person, he followed their directions.

Soon, he arrived at Director Huang’s office. Just as he was about to knock on the door, the office door opened, and Lin Guohui came out.

Seeing Zhou Zhiming, he quickly greeted, “Comrade Zhou, what brings you here?”

“Comrade Lin Guohui, hello.”

“The village party secretary asked me to come and inform you that Yimin has brought back the feed,” Zhou Zhiming truthfully told Lin Guohui. Since he was also aware of the situation, it didn’t matter to tell him.

Lin Guohui, hearing about the feed, quickly pulled Zhou Zhiming into the office.

Just as Director Huang was about to reprimand Lin Guohui for not being more serious, he stopped upon seeing Zhou Zhiming and swallowed the words that were about to come out.

“Comrade Zhou, did you come here because the feed has been brought back?” Director Huang asked, unable to think of another reason for Zhou Zhiming’s visit.

“That’s right, Director Huang. Yimin has brought back the feed, and the village party secretary asked me to inform you,” Zhou Zhiming replied.

Director Huang was very excited when he heard the news: “Great.”

Unable to hold back his excitement, he immediately got up and, with Lin Guohui and Zhou Zhiming, headed toward Zhoujia Village.

The past few days had been agonizing for him. He felt like he had been waiting forever, and his wife even began suspecting that he had an affair. There was no way around it; he had to get Lin Guohui to explain the situation, or he might even face a crisis at home. Thinking of this, he both loved and hated the feed.

This was Zhou Zhiming’s first time riding a tractor, and he was as dazzled as Liu Laolao entering the Grand View Garden. He was curious about everything on the tractor, touching here and there.

Director Huang and Lin Guohui were used to this and didn’t find it strange.

They remembered their own first time on a tractor, which wasn’t much different from Zhou Zhiming’s.

Lin Guohui, always generous, began explaining the various parts of the tractor to Zhou Zhiming.

Zhou Zhiming listened attentively, and if he had paper and pen, he would have probably written down the notes. Although the village didn’t have paper, who knew what the future might bring?

Seeing Lin Guohui enjoying the attention, Director Huang didn’t say anything more. Young people liked to show off.

While explaining, Lin Guohui basked in the praise from Zhou Zhiming, nearly losing himself in the moment. If Director Huang hadn’t interrupted in time, something could have happened.

Lin Guohui, too caught up in explaining, wasn’t paying attention to the road and nearly crashed into a large tree ahead.

Startled, Lin Guohui slammed on the brakes. Director Huang was fine, but Zhou Zhiming, due to the momentum, almost flew off the tractor. Luckily, he reacted quickly and grabbed the metal bar on the vehicle, saving himself from flying out.

Seeing this, Director Huang immediately slapped Lin Guohui on the back of his head.

“You idiot, don’t drag us down with you!”

“Uncle, I’m sorry.”

“Comrade Zhou, are you okay?” Lin Guohui quickly asked.

Zhou Zhiming shook his numb arm. “I’m fine!”

Luckily, because of his physical strength from years of hard work, if it were someone weaker, they would have definitely been thrown out.

Upon hearing that Zhou Zhiming was fine, Lin Guohui let out a sigh of relief.

If anything had happened to Zhou Zhiming because of his mistake, he wouldn’t have been able to forgive himself.

For the rest of the journey, Lin Guohui drove carefully, not daring to talk too much, fearing another accident would happen.

Finally, they safely reached Zhoujia Village.

The three of them breathed a sigh of relief, no longer having to endure the tension.

The village party secretary had been waiting outside for quite some time.

When he saw Director Huang and them, he quickly went forward to greet them, “Director Huang and Comrade Lin Guohui, hello!”

Then he saw Zhou Zhiming still shaking his hand.

“Zhiming, what happened to your hand?”

“It’s nothing, just stretching it out,” Zhou Zhiming replied, not telling the full truth.

Lin Guohui was surprised that Zhou Zhiming kept quiet and didn’t tell the village party secretary what really happened.

The village party secretary didn’t pay much attention to it and turned to welcome Director Huang.

“Comrade Zhou, where’s the feed?” Director Huang asked eagerly.

“Okay, I’ll take you to it now,” the village party secretary replied.

He immediately led the way.

It didn’t take long before they arrived at the place where the feed was stored.

Director Huang looked at the simple location and wondered if anyone might come to steal it, or if there were enemies targeting the feed.

“Comrade Zhou, isn’t this place too shabby?” Director Huang asked.

“The feed processing workshop is still under construction. This is just a temporary storage place,” the village party secretary explained.

It turned out that the feed was more precious than he had imagined, or else Director Huang wouldn’t have remarked on the simplicity of the place.

After hearing that it was still under construction, Director Huang understood and didn’t press the issue.

He squatted down and, wanting to open a package to check the feed, found that the packaging was unfamiliar to him. He struggled to open it, instinctively reaching for matches, but then he remembered it was feed, so he put the matches away.

Zhou Zhiming, seeing this, was familiar with the situation. He also had trouble opening the packaging at first, but later, Zhou Yimin had pointed out the trick to him, which helped him open it.

“Director Huang, let me try,” Zhou Zhiming offered.

Director Huang stepped aside.

Zhou Zhiming took over. “There’s a trick to it. First, pull this string out, then pull both sides at once, and it will open.”

Under the watchful eyes of Director Huang and the village party secretary, the packaging string was neatly undone.

“Zhiming, I didn’t expect you to know this!” the village party secretary praised.

“Old Secretary, it’s Yimin who told me about it,” Zhou Zhiming said, feeling a bit embarrassed. It wasn’t his discovery.

Once the packaging was undone, Director Huang quickly reached in and grabbed a handful of feed.

He held it in his palm as if it were a treasure.

To anyone who didn’t know, they might have thought that Director Huang was holding some rare treasure, never suspecting it was just feed.

Though feed wasn’t anything special in later times, in this period, calling it a treasure wasn’t an exaggeration.

The feed lay in Director Huang’s palm, one piece after another.

Lin Guohui quickly went over to inspect it and confirmed that it was the same feed he had seen Zhou Zhiming feed before.

(End of Chapter)