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I went back to Hengdian and told my father that I had quit and came home.My father was very happy and said, “It’s good to have you back.Please help me frame the picture.” At that time, my father was framing, painting, writing couplets, making huqin, and working at other craft businesses.I came back to help him.Of course he was happy.
The leader of the Hengdian Commune knew that I had come back in Hengdian.He came to me and asked me to work in the Hengdian Commune.I said I wouldn’t go.Then he suggested me to be the director of the Hengdian supply and marketing cooperative.Again I did not agree.Since I had left Anwen, I must go home and work on the production team.If I came back from Anwen and still worked as a cadre, how could I face my friends in Anwen? The old secretary of the Hengdian brigade, Guo Guifa, and the old party members of the branch were very happy to know that I had returned to Hengdian.They came to me and asked me to replace Guo Guifa as the party secretary of Hengdian.I said that I resigned from a government official position, and I wouldn’t take any official position in the brigade.
To tell the truth, when I came back from Anwen, it was as if I had escaped from the whirlpool of “Five Winds Movement” and being forced to do things against my will.I truly appreciated the freedom of the common people.
As long as I was free, I always thought of traveling.At that time, the 400-500 yuan settlement was not a small amount to me.At the time, I was single and unattached.How to spend that money was entirely up to me.
I found two friends who were together with me since childhood, Zhou Deyuan and Zhou Dechuan.Zhou Deyuan, like me, was a cadre who was sent home from Wuning Town.I invited them to travel with me, and I would pay for the trip.They both agreed.So the three of us each packed a vest, a pair of shorts, a pair of slippers, and went out on the road.I also carried a small extra bag, and it was five hundred yuan wrapped in a handkerchief.We stayed in Shanghai for seven days, wandered aimlessly for seven days, and returned home just in time to spend all the money I had brought.I am such a person who values friends more than money.Loyalty weighed more than gains and losses for me.
After returning from Shanghai, I worked in the production team during the day to earn workpoints, and helped my father frame couplets at night.Life was quiet, but I didn’t have enough to eat, especially no pocket money at all.It was uncomfortable for a young man.
After a while, I made an appointment with Jin Yihai, originally the party secretary of Yunshan Commune, and we discussed something about doing business.It occurred to us that Pan’an County was so poor in fertilizer because its corn was grown in the mountains.If we could get some fertilizer back, we could exchange it for corn.Back then, city dwellers rarely used flush toilets, and every household used a portable toilet.The excrement that accumulated on the toilet seat, which was solid crystal, could be knocked off in pieces when dried out.Its fertility was even stronger than refined urea fertilizer.I told them I had been to Shanghai, and every family would clean their toilet at the door in the morning.We could collect it if we went to Shanghai.
Jin Yihai, me, with another friend went to Shanghai, to collect toilet sand from door to door.We paid 70 cents per jin , and collected a total of more than 1,500 jin .We were so excited to get the fertilizer.But transportation became a problem because of preparation for the war.Corn plants were seasonal.If we missed the corn season, the value would be much less.We were very anxious.
Later, it occurred to us that railway passengers could each carry two pieces of luggage not exceeding 40 kilograms.Fortunately, I had many friends and acquaintances in Shanghai.I turned to them for help.They each bought a platform ticket, put their things on the train and got off.
We gathered things into two carriages.The conductor began to check tickets when the train arrived in Jiaxing.We were afraid of fines or needing to pay for extra tickets since we had so much luggage.Yet there was no way to hide it.We had to tell the truth and asked for help.We shared the fresh lychees we had taken with us with them.We got through it.As the train got to Hangzhou and the conductor changed shifts, we began to worry again.Later, the ticket inspection began, and we could detect the Dongyang accent of the conductor.We pulled up the connections and got to Yiwu.Things got so much easier in Yiwu where the conductor helped us to take the luggage off the train.The next day the toilet sand was all shipped to Pan’an County, where it was distributed as soon as it reached Anwen since we had already reached agreements with the communes.That year, we made a couple of trips to import toilet sand, and I probably made over 1,000 kilos of corn, which was equivalent to 1,200 yuan as the price for the corn was 1.2 yuan per jin .But I didn’t sell it.I lent the corn to my neighbors and acquaintances.By the time they returned, the price of corn had dropped to about 40 cents per jin .Although I had lost a small amount, the cadres and the people had a good impression of me.They said that I had the brains, the means and the ability.A few old party members still wanted me to be the secretary of the party branch of the brigade.