Chapter 241: Delivering the Grain

That evening, Zhou Yimin called over Dapeng and Li Youde.

Dapeng found it a little odd, since they usually received instructions individually. Could it be that there was something they needed help with? Either way, he figured he’d better go take a look.

When he arrived at Zhou Yimin’s house, he saw two to three hundred jin of corn laid out on the floor.

Li Youde and the others were already used to scenes like this. After witnessing it so many times, they had become numb. Let alone coarse grains— even a hundred jin or more of meat wasn’t unheard of, so this wasn’t a big deal to them anymore.

Zhou Yimin said, “You two take this stuff over to No. 85, Dongjiaomin Lane—Xu Xiangbei’s place. Just tell him it’s grain from Zhou Yimin, and he’ll understand. Be polite.”

He was worried the two might come off as rude and accidentally cause a misunderstanding between him and Xu Xiangbei, which wouldn’t be good.

Anyone who could become an engineer wasn’t a simple character, and Xu Xiangbei, being so young, clearly had limitless potential. Unless absolutely necessary, Zhou Yimin didn’t want to fall out with him.

Li Youde and Dapeng quickly promised to handle it properly, and then Dapeng, puzzled, asked, “Yimin, you usually trust us to get things done. Why the special reminder this time? This guy must be someone important, right?”

After all, the number of people Zhou Yimin had ever specially instructed them about could be counted on one hand.

“He is indeed someone important—an engineer,” Zhou Yimin explained.

Dapeng was slightly surprised to hear Xu Xiangbei was an engineer.

He’d always heard engineers were amazing, had high incomes, and so on. But in all his years, he’d never actually seen one—at least not that he knew of. For instance, even Zhou Yimin’s own father.

Li Youde thought to himself, thank goodness the place wasn’t far. Otherwise, carrying all that corn would’ve been a real hassle.

To save himself some trouble, Dapeng spoke up, “Yimin, could we borrow your bicycle?”

With a bike, they could deliver everything in one trip. Without it, they’d have to carry it bag by bag.

He’d been eyeing that bike enviously. He had the money and even the ticket to buy one, but still couldn’t actually get one. It was frustrating.

Zhou Yimin replied, “Go ahead,” and handed him the key.

Clearly, he needed to think about getting each of them a bike. It just wasn’t convenient having only one to share—he needed his bike too. They could only borrow it when he wasn’t using it.

But getting a bicycle ticket wasn’t easy. That’s why they were so expensive on the black market.

Dapeng took the key and began loading the corn onto the rear rack of the bicycle.

Li Youde helped, and soon they had all the corn loaded. They secured it with a rope and set off.

Dapeng pedaled, while Li Youde rode in back to make sure the grain didn’t fall off.

It took them about ten minutes to reach No. 85 Dongjiaomin Lane. To be safe, they didn’t wheel the grain straight in.

Li Youde went to scout the situation first. The courtyard gate was already closed, so he knocked.

Soon, a young man opened the gate. He looked at Li Youde, clearly not recognizing him, and asked, “Who are you looking for?”

After all, he wasn’t the only resident in the courtyard—there were four or five households. The stranger could’ve been looking for someone else.

“I’m looking for Xu Xiangbei. Could you let him know?” Li Youde replied.

Xu Xiangbei was confused. He definitely didn’t know this man. But then he remembered what Zhou Yimin had said and asked, “I’m Xu Xiangbei. Did Yimin send you with grain?”

“That’s right. Yimin sent us to deliver grain,” Li Youde confirmed. He hadn’t expected the man they were looking for to be this young. No wonder Yimin had reminded them to be respectful.

Then he gave a whistle—the signal he and Dapeng used to say it was safe and clear to come in.

After all, when you spent time dealing in the black market, you had to be cautious. Getting caught or followed could lead to big trouble.

Dapeng heard the signal and pushed the bike over.

Seeing the bike loaded with grain, Xu Xiangbei realized that Zhou Yimin was even more capable than he’d thought—to be able to get his hands on that much grain so easily.

The three of them worked together to lift the bike. There was a threshold at the courtyard gate, and the bike wouldn’t pass unless it was carried.

Normally, if the bike were empty, it would be no problem for one person to lift it. But this time, it was loaded with two to three hundred jin of grain—no easy task.

Xu Xiangbei knew he didn’t have much strength, so he just helped guide from the front.

He lifted the front end while Li Youde and Dapeng hoisted the back.

Fortunately, they were used to carrying heavy stuff, or they wouldn’t have managed it.

They got the bike into the courtyard, and with Xu Xiangbei leading the way, they soon arrived at his house.

“Would you mind helping me move it inside?” Xu Xiangbei asked.

Just then, Grandma Xu and Xu Xiangbei’s wife, Gong Jingyun, came out.

Seeing such a scene, Grandma Xu was worried her son had gotten involved in something he shouldn’t have and asked, “Xiangbei, what’s going on?”

When he’d come home earlier, Xu Xiangbei had been too busy showing off the meat he’d bought and forgotten to mention the grain-selling arrangement. He quickly explained, “Mom, don’t worry. This grain is for Zong Feiying.”

Only after hearing this did Grandma Xu relax. As long as he wasn’t doing anything illegal, it was fine.

It took Li Youde and Dapeng less than five minutes to carry all 300 jin of grain inside.

They were getting ready to leave when Xu Xiangbei called out, “Comrades, thank you so much for delivering grain so late. Here—take this pack of cigarettes.”

He pulled out a pack of Da Qianmen from his pocket.

Li Youde was about to decline, but Dapeng accepted it directly and said, “Thanks, comrade. We’ve got other things to take care of, so we’ll head off now.”

With that, he tugged Li Youde along and left.

Watching Dapeng accept the cigarettes, Xu Xiangbei felt this guy was pretty sharp. He didn’t like being left owing anyone a favor for nothing.

Once they were outside No. 85 Dongjiaomin Lane, Li Youde couldn’t help asking, “Dapeng, why’d you take that pack of cigarettes? Yimin told us to be polite. Doesn’t this make it look like—”

“You’re too straightforward,” Dapeng cut in. “If we didn’t take it, Xu Xiangbei might’ve thought we were after something else. Then he’d think we were greedy and trying to look noble at the same time—which would’ve been worse.”

After hearing the explanation, Li Youde understood.

(End of Chapter)