80s Taoism

"I'll go, there is still such a backward guest house. In the evening, you have to take a hot water bottle to fill the hot water. Can you take a bath with such a plastic bucket of water?" Zhao Ruiping knocked on the door of Zhang Jiaohua's room and complained.

"I heard from the waiter that most of the people who come here to live here take a bath in the river next to it. When I came here, I saw that the river water is really clear. It's like well water." Zhang Jiaohua said.

"It's a pity that I didn't bring swimming trunks." Zhao Ruiping shook his head.

"It's late at night, what kind of swimming trunks should I wear to bathe in the river? Just wear shorts. I'll go later, are you going?" Zhang Jiaohua asked.

Zhao Ruiping hesitated for a moment, but agreed: "I'll just go, I've grown up, and I haven't bathed in the river yet. Zhang Jiaohua, what does your family do? My family originally arranged a job for me, and I wanted to experience life in the countryside. Besides, with this experience at the grassroots level, I will have such a fortune in my resume. I thought that relying on my family's connections, I could bring in some money and make some political achievements. When I was promoted, we would have such a brilliant fortune. What can you do if you are short of water?"

Zhang Jiaohua said with a smile: "Didn't you come to experience life? If you don't come to such a valley, what can you experience? Although it is poor here, the air here is good, and the food is clean. The meat we ate in that small restaurant today is different from what we eat in the city, right?"

"That's right. The food here is pure natural, green and organic food without additives." Zhao Ruiping nodded.

Zhang Jiaohua added: "Furthermore, the village is not actually short of water, but the lack of maintenance of water conservancy facilities. As long as there is water in the village, the farmers' water projects will be solved, the crops will be planted, and the food problem will be solved. In a village with more than 1,000 people, why is it that hundreds of people have food problems now? There must be a reason, right? When it comes out, it’s all a work. Others are scribbling on paper, and no matter how they draw, it’s all graffiti.”

Zhao Ruiping slapped his head as if waking up from a dream, and his mood improved a lot: "Yeah, why didn't I think so much? Let me tell you, my family has a little connection, and the main reason I came here this time is because I don't want to use my relationship because of a village official. When the time comes, I will go to raise funds for our two villages, and it will definitely be more impressive than those who go to better villages."

"Okay, thanks in advance." Zhang Jiaohua said.

"Thank you so much. There are so many college student village officials, just the two of us are divided into this poor mountain valley. We are brothers and sisters now, but we will be brothers in the future." Zhao Ruiping put Zhang Jiaohua's shoulders.

Although they were not familiar with the place, it was not difficult for the two of them to find a place to take a bath in Tianbaqiao Town when they walked to the river. There is a wharf under the Tianba Bridge, all of which are made of large strips of bluestone, because women used to wash clothes here, and the stones were polished off. Now I use the washing machine to wash clothes at home, and the pier has become a place for children to play in the water. In the evening, men also come here to take a bath.

"Are you really going to take a bath?" Zhao Ruiping was still a little embarrassed.

Not really, what are you doing all this way? Taking a bath here is better than carrying a bucket in the guest house and taking a bath in the bathhouse.

"That's right. The smell in that bathhouse is terrible. You can't go in at all." Zhao Ruiping felt scared after thinking about it.

"Then why are you thinking so much?" Zhang Jiaohua said while taking off her clothes, put the phone in the clothes, and put it in a conspicuous place.

Zhao Ruiping also followed Zhang Jiaohua's lead and jumped into the water after putting away his clothes.

"Oh, it's so cold!" Zhao Ruiping jumped into the water and exclaimed.

"The water here is spring water flowing from the mountains. Even if you come here during the day, the water is cool. Are you two from other places?" A middle-aged man asked.

"Yes. Come and play for a few days. The air here is really nice." Zhang Jiaohua said.

"There's only air left here. Well, you won't get used to it within a few days."

"That's not certain, we might stay here for a year or two." Zhang Jiaohua said.

"Are you here to work? Which unit? I'm from the seed station." The man said.

"We went to work in the village." Zhao Ruiping said.

"Oh, are you new college student village officials? I heard about this. I heard that you were divided into the two poorest villages. The people in the town government are really bad. They knew that you came down to be gilded, but they threw you into that mountain."

"Brother, what's your name?" Zhang Jiaohua asked.

"My name is Wu Jianjun. I used to be a seed station, but now I do it myself, and I still sell seeds. If you need seeds in the future, you can come to me. I will definitely give you the best seeds." Wu Jianjun laughed.

"Don't go to Wu Jianjun's house to buy seeds. His seeds are not good. His cousin has been married for many years, and he is still not happy." Someone shouted loudly.

Wu Jianjun was not angry either: "Zhu Yuanpeng, my seeds are not good, so why is your son exactly like me? Speaking of this, I feel sorry for you."

Wu Jianjun smiled, and said to Zhang Jiaohua and Zhao Ruiping: "That guy is my neighbor, Zhu Yuanpeng, he just likes to joke around, and he is a nice guy. But you must not take care of his business, he runs a pharmacy and specializes in selling counterfeit medicines."

"I'll go, if you can't cure your infertility, just accuse me of selling fake medicine." Zhu Yuanpeng swam over and smiled brightly.

"You are just swimming on the edge, the water is not that deep. Don't swim in the middle. Don't look at the smooth water, but in fact the water in the middle is very fast. It is very dangerous to accidentally get in the middle." Wu Jianjun said.

"It's okay, we're just here to take a shower." Zhang Jiaohua laughed.

After Wu Jianjun and Zhu Yuanpeng left, Zhao Ruiping said, "Hey, the people here are actually very simple."

Zhang Jiaohua smiled, "Simpleness is simplicity, but no matter how simple a person is, there will be a cunning side."

Zhao Ruiping nodded: "I know this. The water quality here is so good, there should be a lot of fish?"

"Should be. You can go fishing in the river when you have time. But it's not nice for people to tell. Others think we are not here for work, but for vacation." Zhang Jiaohua laughed.

"As long as the work is done well, I don't care so much. By the way, when are you going to the village?" Zhao Ruiping asked.

"Let's go down for the next two days. It's not okay to live in the town all the time." Zhang Jiaohua said.

"Well, I'm just worried that I won't even have a place to live in the village." Zhao Ruiping said very pessimistically.

Zhang Jiaohua knows that this kind of situation really happens, but he also lived in a poor mountain village when he was a child, even if he encounters this kind of situation, he can get used to it. But for people like Zhao Ruiping who lived in the city since childhood, it is very difficult.

Zhang Jiaohua and Zhao Ruiping went to the town the next day and proposed to go to the village to see where they would work next.

Zhu Qingdong was not surprised by the behavior of the two of them. When the young people first came here, they were enthusiastic and active, which was very normal. But after working in the harsh environment in the countryside for a period of time, their blood will gradually cool down when they hit a wall. Zhu Qingdong reckoned that the two young men would come back crying after staying there for less than a week.

"Okay, it's very good that you have such high enthusiasm for work. I hope you can make achievements in the village. Yingpan Village and Wanyaoshu Village have no security phones or mobile phone signals. Therefore, I have no way to notify the village to pick you up. I will take you there." Zhu Qingdong said.

After walking a relatively smooth road, we came to a rough road.

"This road is barely passable on sunny days, but when it rains, old jeeps like this can't get in. The roads in these two villages are so long, and the towns can't raise so much money to build roads. The people can't even eat enough to eat, let alone spend money to build roads. As the saying goes, if you want to get rich, you need to build roads first. The poorer Yingpan Village and Wanyaoshu Village are now, the less they can afford road repairs, and the poorer they can't afford road repairs. "Zhu Qingdong said.

Yingpan Village and Wanyaoshu Village are adjacent to each other, and they are two branches of the same road. It is three or four kilometers from the fork to Wanyaoshu Village, and three to four kilometers to Yingpan Village.

"Today, I will go to Yingpan Village first, have dinner in Yingpan Village, and then send Xiao Zhao to Wanyaoshu Village. I will go back to the town after I have arranged for both of you." Zhu Qingdong lit a cigarette in the car, and asked Zhao Ruiping and Zhang Jiaohua if they wanted to eat. Zhao Ruiping took the cigarette unceremoniously and smoked it too, but Zhang Jiaohua didn't take it and didn't care about the two of them smoking.

Gu Baishui, the secretary of the Yingpan Village Party Committee, came out when he heard the movement of the vehicle, and said to Zhu Qingdong with a smile: "When I woke up in the morning, I heard magpies screaming non-stop on the eaves, and I knew that a distinguished guest was coming. I happened to have a pheasant in the mountains today. You are really lucky."

"Secretary Gu, I didn't come here today for your pheasants. I came here to send talents to your village. These are college student village officials arranged for you by the city. They came to your village specially to lead your village to become rich." Zhu Qingdong introduced Zhang Jiaohua and Zhao Ruiping to Gu Baishui.

"Mayor Zhu, are you kidding me? As far as the situation in our village is concerned, if the higher-ups don't allocate funds, they won't even have enough to eat. It doesn't matter who you send here. Besides, in the situation in our village, who can live in our village?" Gu Baishui smiled. It was obvious from his attitude that he was not optimistic about Zhang Jiaohua, a new village official.

"Anyway, the higher-ups want to make such an arrangement, and I can only implement it. You can arrange Comrade Xiao Zhang to live in your village first. You can't lead your Yingpan Village to become rich, so maybe Xiao Zhang can do it?"

"What can I do. You sit down first. I'll help my mother-in-law get some dishes." Gu Baishui shook his head and walked into the kitchen.

Gu Baishui's house is a six-row brick house, which is considered a very bright house in the village. There are many wooden houses in the village. Some houses are covered with bark or thatch instead of tiles.

"Xiao Zhang, don't worry. Although Secretary Gu is not very supportive of the higher-ups sending down the village officials, he is still very kind and enthusiastic. If it weren't for him in Yingpan Village, a lot of work would have been impossible. He is the only one in the village now. Now that you are down, the first thing you need to do is to build a village committee team and try to build a village committee team. This will make it easier to carry out work. Of course, this is what the higher-ups said. Good relationship, try not to cause trouble to the village. You have also seen that we are so poor here, but we can’t afford to make a fuss. Lao Gu is also afraid of tossing. But if you have any connections, you can find funds, and you can do whatever you want. Do you understand what I mean?” Zhu Qingdong said very directly.

"What the mayor Zhu said was exactly what I wanted to say. It's not easy for you to come down. Our village can take care of what you eat. But don't mess around. Our family can't afford to mess around. If you can bring funds to our village, everyone in our village will thank you," Gu Baishui said.

Gu Baishui is actually a test, he wants to know how much money the village officials sent this time can bring to Yingpan Village. However, Zhu Qingdong was aware of the policy of the village officials above, and sent the university student village officials down, not simply to help the poor, but to strengthen the construction of grassroots organizations. The biggest task of the village officials is to establish the village committee. Then lead the villagers to get rich. There is no funding at all. Unless the college student village officials who have come down have the ability to get funds. However, those who have connections with others have already been sent to the villages with the best conditions. How could it be assigned to Tianbaqiao Town?

Although the life in the mountains is simple, the firewood meals are still delicious. Stir-fried Chaotian pepper with pheasant meat is fragrant and spicy, and everyone is sweating profusely after eating it. The medicinal wine prepared by the mountain people has a faint medicinal aroma, the wine is very soft, and it tastes special when you drink it.

Originally, Gu Baishui planned to arrange Zhang Jiaohua to live in his home, but Zhang Jiaohua wanted to be more free. In the end, he lived in a broken house in a small village. There are too few children in Yingpan Village. There are less than ten students in one grade, so there is no way to open classes. A few years ago, the primary school in Yingpan Village was closed. The children in the village had to go to Zhongba Township Central Primary School, which is more than ten kilometers away. A little kid who is a little older has to start boarding in elementary school. I only go home every Friday, and I have to go to school on Sunday afternoon. Or catch up early on Monday and walk twenty miles to school.

The small house in the village is vacant, but it has been abandoned for several years, and the condition is not very good. Gu Baishui said that after dinner, he would go to the village and ask some people to repair Zhang Jiaohua's house without leaks.

The situation in Wanyaoshu Village was similar to Zhang Jiaohua's. Zhu Qingdong had to get back to the town before dark, so he had dinner and didn't sit much, so he sent Zhao Ruiping to Wanyaoshu Village.

"Zhang Jiaohua, I'll go there first, and I'll come to find you another day. It's just that the road is too far away." Zhao Ruiping patted Zhang Jiaohua on the shoulder.