Behind the Mountain… The Reservoir!
As Li Yi approached, he spotted five or six preteens from a distance, fiddling with something by the reservoir!
Upon seeing Li Yi, two boys wearing only shorts immediately ran over!
“Brother Yi, what brings you here?”
Li Yi smiled and said, “Call everyone over—I need to talk to you guys!”
“Got it!”
Before long, everyone from the shore and the water had been called over to Li Yi!
Looking at these childhood friends who had grown up together, Li Yi felt a mix of emotions.
Dongzi, Shitou, Qiangzi, Gangzi, Datou, Xiaogouwa—in his previous life, most of these friends had led unremarkable lives. Even the most successful among them had only managed to open a grain and oil shop in the county seat; not a single one had amassed a fortune exceeding a million.
But even so, they were all deeply loyal to one another.
During the years when Li Yi couldn’t make it in the village and had to go out into the world to seek his fortune, they often came to his home to help out.
Especially after his father passed away from grief, leaving his elderly mother alone at home, it was these childhood friends who supported her through those most difficult times.
Although Li Yi had tried to repay them in various ways—both openly and discreetly—after he made his fortune, he felt that compared to the bond of brotherhood they shared, his material assistance was nothing.
In this life, he not only intends to rewrite Tang Xue’s destiny, but also to lead these younger brothers to great success!
“Bro Yi, didn’t we agree to come here this afternoon to cook some fish? Why haven’t you shown up yet?”
“Brother Yi, I heard you did that with Sister Xue. Is it true?”
“Bro Yi, are you going to marry Sister Xue? I thought you had your eye on Wang Erniu’s sister…”
Li Yi smiled and said, “Hold on, you guys are asking so many questions at once—how am I supposed to answer you?”
Dongzi hesitated for a moment, then asked, “Um… Yi, did you really… with Sister Xue…”
Li Yi didn’t hide anything; he nodded immediately and said, “Yeah!”
“Bro Yi, that’s not cool of you!” Dongzi said.
Li Yi wasn’t upset; he knew Tang Xue had done the Dong family a favor.
Last year, Dongzi’s ten-year-old sister had gone to play by the river when a floodgate at the upstream reservoir suddenly opened. The little girl didn’t have time to get to shore before she was swept away by the rushing water. Tang Xue happened to be passing by; driven by a strong sense of justice, she risked her own life by jumping into the river and pulling the girl to safety.
Ever since then, Dongzi’s family had treated Tang Xue like a living saint!
He was speaking this way because of Tang Xue!
Besides, he was indeed partly to blame for this situation—it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say he’d acted out of line!
“I’ll take responsibility, but I need your help!” Li Yi said.
Dongzi immediately replied, “Brother Yi, what do you want to do? What can we do to help you?”
Li Yi replied, “I plan to marry Tang Xue, and I want to throw a grand wedding—that’s going to cost a lot of money!”
Dongzi thought for a moment and asked, “How much is ‘a lot’?”
“Between the dowry and other expenses, at least a thousand yuan!”
When Li Yi said this, he had included the costs of building a house and marrying a wife; if it were just a matter of bringing Tang Xue into the family, it naturally wouldn’t cost that much.
“One… one thousand yuan?”
Everyone was stunned by Li Yi’s words. A thousand yuan was no small sum; many families could only save a little over a hundred yuan after a year of hard work, and a thousand yuan was equivalent to the total annual income of quite a few households over ten years!
“Brother Yi, I only have two mao here!”
“Brother Yi, I’ve got forty cents!”
“Brother Yi, I’ll go talk to my dad and see if I can get him to chip in some money for your wedding with Sister Xue…”
Li Yi shook his head and said, “No need. I’ve already figured out a way to make money, but I need your help. And I won’t let you help for free—I’ll pay you!”
“We don’t need payment to work for Brother Yi. Just tell us what we can do, Brother Yi!”
The speaker was Qiangzi, Secretary Feng’s grandson. He was 17 years old and, aside from Li Yi, the oldest among this group of young men.
“You guys know where the mushrooms grow on the back mountain, right?”
“We know—there are tons of those things on the back mountain!”
Li Yi’s eyes lit up immediately, and he said straight away, “What I want you to do is pick mushrooms!”
“Pick mushrooms?”
“Right, we need both pine mushrooms and trumpet mushrooms!” Li Yi said.
“Bro Yi, what do you need those for? It’s not like we’re in a famine,” Qiangzi frowned.
“Don’t ask too many questions about that. I’ll tell you later!”
“Bro Yi, when do you need them?”
“The sooner, the better!”
Qiangzi immediately replied, “Then let’s skip the fish. We’ll head into the woods to pick mushrooms right now. We should be able to gather quite a few by nightfall!”
“Sounds good to me. We’ve got about two hours until dark—we should have no problem gathering a few dozen pounds!”
“Brother Yi, why don’t you go back and grab a burlap sack or a big basket? The rest of us will start picking mushrooms first.”
Li Yi nodded and said, “Alright, you guys go ahead and start picking. I’ll go back and get a basket!”
“Alright!”
……..
The back mountain was three li away from Nianzishan Village. By the time Li Yi returned to the back mountain, it was already past seven in the evening, and the sun had begun to set.
Li Yi entered the woods and saw that Dongzi, Qiangzi, and the others had already picked quite a few mushrooms, piling them into several heaps.
He placed the mushrooms one by one into the baskets, and before long, the two large baskets he’d brought were completely full.
Seeing that it was getting late, Li Yi immediately called out to the boys to head back to the village; after all, it was quite dangerous to be in the mountains after dark.
Although there were no predators like wolves, tigers, or leopards on the back mountain, there were wild boars—and those beasts were just as fierce as wolves.
So, carrying the two large baskets of mushrooms and their fishing gear, the group set off in a long procession toward the village.
By the time Li Yi and the others returned to the village, it was completely dark, and many households had already lit their kerosene lamps!
Although Nianzishan Village now had electricity, only a few households could afford to use electric lights; the vast majority of villagers were still accustomed to using kerosene lamps!
No other reason—just to save money!
When he got home, his parents were already back. His father was giving the mule a drink, while his mother was bustling around the stove, presumably cooking.
Seeing Li Yi and a bunch of young lads carrying two large baskets inside, Li Shankui was a bit surprised and immediately asked, “What’s in those baskets?”
“Mushrooms!”
“Why bother with that stuff? We’re not short on food at home,” Li Shankui asked, puzzled.
“They’ll come in handy. Just don’t ask about it, old man!”
Li Yi then had Qiangzi and the others help carry the mushrooms into the house, instructing them to go back up the mountain to gather more tomorrow. He told them he’d come find them again tomorrow afternoon.
After that, he sent them on their way!
After Qiangzi and the others left, Zhang Yuehong asked while tending the fire, “Xiao Yi, I see your tea tray is pretty empty. How did the liangpi sell?”
Li Yi smiled and said, “Not bad—I sold out completely!”
“Did you make any money?”
“Yeah, I made about ten yuan today!”
“Ten… ten yuan?”
Just then, Li Shankui walked in from outside and said, “What do you mean, ten yuan?”
Zhang Yuehong stammered a bit and said, “Old man, Little Yi says he made ten yuan selling liangpi today!”
Li Shankui was taken aback for a moment, then frowned and said, “Don’t talk nonsense, kid. Money isn’t that easy to make!”
Li Yi knew that explaining it with just words wouldn’t do any good, so he lifted the felt blanket covering the kang, pulled out the money pouch from underneath, and dumped all the money onto the kang!
When a pile of one- and two-mao bills scattered across the bed, Li Shankui and his wife’s eyes widened in utter shock!