The production team leader perked up his nose and took several deep sniffs.
“Well, that smells wonderful! Qingfeng told me your nephew took down a wolf when he first arrived. Impressive!”
“You bet. That boy’s got a lot of guts. He ran into a wolf and still dared to fight it head-on. Luckily, he wasn’t hurt!” Li Guihua replied with a cheerful laugh.
Then Li Guihua turned to Li Xiangdong and said, “Dongzi, this is the production team leader of our Shuangjing Village. Just call him Uncle Feng.”
Li Xiangdong answered and smiled at production team leader Feng Shouye. “Hello, Uncle Feng!”
Feng Shouye looked Li Xiangdong up and down a few times, then nodded. “Mm, you look like a fine young man, just a little thin. How old are you this year?”
“I’m eighteen this year, and I’ll be nineteen after the New Year!”
“Mm, eat a little more from now on and you’ll surely grow taller!” Feng Shouye turned to Sun Qingfeng. “Qingfeng, your nephew seems like a fine fellow. He’ll surely become a skilled plowman!”
“Hahaha, of course. Back home, he could do all kinds of work. It’s just that he eats a lot, and we didn’t have much land back home, so we didn’t get much grain. He was always hungry, which is why he came here.”
“A strapping young man can eat his old man out of house and home—that’s an old saying. But don’t worry. There’s plenty of land here, and we produce plenty of grain. You certainly won’t go hungry!”
The group sat down inside and lit cigarettes while Li Guihua busied herself preparing the meal.
Before long, a pot of wolf meat stew was brought out. Sun Qingfeng also brought out two bottles of loose liquor and poured some for everyone.
After eating and drinking for a while, they started discussing Li Xiangdong’s household registration.
Since the 1950s, rural youths from provinces in Guannai had continually come here to help develop the border regions.
Most people in places like Shuangjing Village had come to support the border regions.
So as long as all the paperwork was in order, the production team would accept anyone. After all, one more person meant one more worker!
This had already been agreed upon beforehand. Li Xiangdong had set out only after receiving the acceptance certificate.
So naturally, Feng Shouye had no reason to refuse. After taking a sip of liquor, he said, “No problem. If it doesn’t snow tomorrow, we’ll go into town and take care of Dongzi’s household registration. What about a place to live? Will he stay at your place or get a house of his own?”
Sun Qingfeng answered straight away, “He can stay at my place this winter. Once spring comes, we’ll build him a house of his own. In another year or two, he’ll be ready to get married, and he can’t do that without a house!”
Feng Shouye nodded. “Mm, true. There’s no way to build one now, so we’ll wait until spring. The authorities give subsidies to people who register in the village. It’s not much, but it’s forty or fifty yuan, enough to put a house in order!”
When youths sent to support the border regions arrived at their destination, the authorities provided subsidies. The money wasn’t given to individuals, but to the village collective, to cover the settlement expenses of newcomers.
That included housing, tools, and ration grain.
“There’s one more thing I’d like to bring up, Team Leader. See what you think?” Sun Qingfeng continued.
“Mm, what is it?”
Sun Qingfeng handed him a cigarette. “Dongzi took down a wolf on his way back, right? Now he’s wondering if, once he registers in our village, he can go hunting in the mountains this winter to earn a little money. Otherwise, life’s going to be hard for him!”
Normally, even in winter, people in the production team still had to work, though they didn’t have to labor in the fields.
There was still plenty to do, like repairing irrigation channels, logging, and taking on sideline work. And even when it got so cold that work stopped and people stayed home for the winter, they still had to shell corn.
So going into the mountains to hunt required the production team leader’s approval.
Feng Shouye turned to Li Xiangdong. “Dongzi, hunting isn’t easy work. You’ll be facing wind and snow, and risking your life. Are you sure you want to do it?”
Li Xiangdong nodded firmly. “Uncle Feng, I really do want to do this. To be honest, I’ve only got a little over ten yuan on me. If I don’t find a way to earn some money, I can’t expect my aunt and uncle to keep supporting me, can I?”
“Mm, that’s true. All right, I’ll approve it. Hunting can be the sideline work our village assigns you. Will you prepare your own gear or use the production team’s?”
Li Xiangdong asked curiously, “What’s the difference?”
“Hahaha, quite a lot. If you use the team’s gear, I’ll have to set you a quota. You’ll have to bring back at least 300 jin of meat for the team this winter.
Of what you catch within the quota, the team gets 80 percent and you get 20 percent. Anything beyond the quota is split 60-40, with the team taking 60 percent and you 40 percent. But as long as you meet the quota, I’ll give you full work points.”
“What if I prepare my own gear?”
“That’s simpler. We split it 60-40: you get 60 percent and the team gets 40 percent. I’ll convert the amount of game you turn in into work points. The more you turn in, the more work points and grain you’ll get!”
Li Xiangdong’s thoughts raced. Both options had their advantages.
If he chose to use the public weapons, he’d have to accept a quota. It was a safe bet: as long as he met it, he’d receive full work points.
Even if he failed, they wouldn’t deduct much, but the distribution ratio would leave him at a disadvantage.
If he chose to use his own weapons, that wouldn’t be an issue. But his income would depend directly on what he caught. If he got game, he could earn more; if he didn’t, he’d truly go hungry.
He couldn’t make up his mind just then, so he looked up at Sun Qingfeng.
Sun Qingfeng knew his village’s circumstances all too well. Their village had just over thirty households, and the village brigade had only enough for a single militia squad.
They had only two rifles: one Type 38 rifle and one Hanyang-made rifle. They had only twenty or thirty bullets, too. These were all strictly controlled, so there was no way they’d let Li Xiangdong use them.
The only things they could let him use were an old muzzleloader and a red-tasseled spear.
That wasn’t much different from preparing his own weapons. The only difference was that the team would provide the gun, gunpowder, and iron shot.
But Li Xiangdong had no hunting experience. If he failed to catch anything, the team leader would lose face.
So after thinking it over, Sun Qingfeng said, “Team Leader, Dongzi doesn’t have any hunting experience. I’m afraid he won’t meet the quota if he accepts one, and then there’ll be trouble explaining things. Let him hunt on his own this year and see how much he can catch. We can decide next year whether to give him a quota. What do you think?”
Feng Shouye didn’t object. He nodded instead. “That works. Let’s have him try this year and see how it goes. Who knows, maybe Dongzi won’t want to hunt tomorrow after all. If that happens, I can assign him something else. What about the gear—what have you decided?”
“I just went over to Old Chen’s place. He has an old muzzleloader, so I was thinking of buying it from him.”
“Oh, Old Chen’s place. Right, he does have one. But can it still fire?”
“Old Chen says it can. We just don’t know how accurate it is.”
“Then that’ll do. How much does he want for it?”
“Not much, just five yuan. That includes the gunpowder and iron shot he has left. Oh, and Team Leader, you’ll have to write Dongzi a letter of introduction when he needs to buy gunpowder.”
“No problem. That’s easy. Whenever you run low on gunpowder, just come to me for a letter of introduction!”