Chapter 173 – Clear Accounts Between Blood Brothers

Of course Zhou Yimin could drive. Although the cars of this era were a little different from those of later times, they were actually simpler to operate.

“I learned it a bit from someone before. We used to have a driver at our courtyard. Mainly, I only plan to use this truck for a couple of days—I can’t expect the factory’s driver to stick with me that long, right?” Zhou Yimin explained.

He wasn’t lying. Granny Xu’s late son, from the courtyard, had been a truck driver for the factory.

For people Zhou Yimin’s age, who hadn’t ridden in Uncle Xu’s truck before?

Whether he’d actually learned from Uncle Xu or not—who could say?

So this explanation stood up to scrutiny.

When Section Chief Wang heard it, he relaxed and nodded. “Alright, I’ll go make the application for you. But you’ll need to come along and do a couple test runs for us to see.”

“No problem at all,” Zhou Yimin replied with a nod.

It was just a manual transmission, after all!

Since the logistics department already had vehicle privileges, and Wang Weimin was a section chief, applying for vehicle use wasn’t difficult—there wasn’t even a need for Director Ding to step in.

Besides, Zhou Yimin had a special status at the steel factory. Few would go out of their way to make things hard for him.

“This one’s good to go—fuel’s already topped up,” Wang Weimin said, pointing to a somewhat worn truck in front of them.

The implication was clear: Zhou Yimin was to take the wheel and show them a couple of laps.

They weren’t worried about the truck having issues—they were worried about Zhou Yimin having issues.

Zhou Yimin was practically a treasure at the steel factory these days. If anything happened to him, Factory Director Hu and the other leaders would probably skin Wang alive.

Zhou Yimin understood perfectly, opened the door, and climbed into the cab.

He gave the controls a quick once-over, got the layout, turned the key, and started the engine. His first attempt at pulling out was a little shaky—almost stalled—but he managed to drive a couple smooth laps under everyone’s gaze.

“Well? I told you it’d be fine.”

Wang Weimin, slightly surprised, finally relaxed and chuckled. “Alright, off you go then. Be careful and drive safe.”

Without wasting more words, Zhou Yimin drove the somewhat battered truck straight toward Zhoujiazhuang. As he neared the village, he pulled over and loaded the truck with grain—corn, all of it.

Corn was cheap!

Sweet potatoes and potatoes were even cheaper, but he couldn’t just throw those at people. After all, they were dealing with a polyethylene film factory—those folks likely wouldn’t look twice at sweet potatoes or spuds.

As he entered the village, someone stopped him.

When the villagers saw that the driver was Zhou Yimin, they were stunned, then quickly made way.

“Yimin can drive?”

“What’s so surprising about Sixteenth Uncle being able to drive?”

Someone suddenly countered with this question, leaving the others momentarily speechless.

Exactly! Yimin was so capable—of course he could drive.

The truck rolled to a stop in the school playground, and the old party secretary and others hurried over. They thought Zhou Yimin was delivering something to the village again. A cargo truck driving into the village? This was a first for Zhoujiazhuang—everyone came to gawk.

“Yimin, what’s in the truck?” the old party secretary asked.

Zhou Yimin didn’t hide anything. “Corn. Today, a shipment of polyethylene film will be delivered to our village. Secretary, please have the villagers keep an eye out and let them in when they arrive. This corn is for bartering with the polyethylene film.

With this film, we can grow crops even in the cold. I’ll teach everyone how to use it later.

Just tell outsiders that the polyethylene film was obtained by Zhoujiazhuang in an exchange with the polyethylene film factory.”

He took the opportunity to lay everything out.

How could the old secretary and the brigade leader not understand? They nodded repeatedly.

The brigade leader said, “In that case, I’ll be the one to liaise with the folks from the polyethylene film factory.”

“That’s best,” the old secretary agreed.

Zhou Yimin nodded. “Alright, let’s do it that way.”

From now on, he intended for Zhoujiazhuang to handle these matters directly.

The old secretary recorded the corn shipment in the ledger.

They knew very well that the polyethylene film was for the village’s use—it wouldn’t be right to let Zhou Yimin pay for all of it himself. He had already gone to great lengths, using his connections to acquire the film. Asking him to spend money too would be crossing the line.

Even between blood brothers, accounts should be settled clearly.

So, every time Zhou Yimin spent his own money to help the village, the old secretary kept a record.

Once the village had the means to repay him, they would start doing so.

“Come on, unload it,” the old secretary said to the surrounding villagers.

A truckload of corn kernels was no small amount.

Someone asked, “Sixteenth Brother, can polyethylene film really let us grow crops in winter?”

After all, in that kind of weather, even water would freeze, and pressure wells might not even work. Watering alone would be a problem. Plus, the ground would become rock-hard—how would that be solved?

They were experts at farming, but faced with these kinds of conditions, even they were helpless.

“It’s not that hard. As long as the main elements for plant growth—temperature, light, water, and soil—are addressed, plants can grow.

Winter’s cold, but there’s still sunlight, and we don’t lack soil. Pressure wells draw water from ten meters underground—that probably won’t freeze, so they’ll work.

The hardest part is temperature.

When it’s cold, how do we stay alive? We stay indoors, warm ourselves by the fire, right?

So we can build warm shelters for the crops too. Burn a little fire inside to raise the temperature,” Zhou Yimin explained in simple terms.

There were some other scientific details he didn’t bother with, knowing they wouldn’t understand.

Like how plants need photosynthesis to grow—using sunlight to convert carbon dioxide and water into energy-storing organic compounds, and releasing oxygen in the process.

Burning fires inside not only provides heat, but also increases the concentration of carbon dioxide.

More CO₂ can also help increase temperature. The famous greenhouse effect in later generations? That was caused by CO₂ emissions!

The villagers more or less understood.

Even if they didn’t fully get it, they could still sense it was something impressive.

Regardless of whether anyone truly understood, Zhou Yimin had no plans to explain a second time. He drove the truck to the side of the playground, pulled the key, and headed home.

He left the old party secretary and the brigade leader to organize the labor.

He hadn’t even made it home when he ran into Zhou Dachun. This guy only had neat hair during the days around his wedding—he’d quickly reverted to his usual bird’s nest hairstyle, which had basically become his signature.

He was carrying a log, and when he saw Zhou Yimin, he quickly set it down gently against a rock.

Then he called out, “Sixteenth Uncle!” and greeted Zhou Yimin.

Zhou Yimin took out a pack of Huazi cigarettes and offered him one. He knew this guy loved a good smoke.

Zhou Dachun had never smoked anything this high-end before. He lit up like he’d just found gold.

In all of Zhoujiazhuang, probably only Zhou Xuqiang and a few others had ever smoked this brand—and it was always from Zhou Yimin.

“Where’d you get that log?” Zhou Yimin asked, looking at the piece of wood—it looked like huanghuali rosewood! Where’d this guy come across such a thing?

Zhou Dachun grinned. “Didn’t we run out of wood at home? So I went into the mountains to scout some trees. Who would’ve thought I’d stumble across a cave with a stash of this timber inside.

Sixteenth Uncle, this is good stuff! My dad told me to carry it to your place.”

(End of Chapter)