Chronicle of the 70s-Chapter 364 - 346: Sinking Into a Quagmire

The driver seemed to have seen them and cracked his whip to make the donkey pick up speed, for which Li Xianglu felt a wave of gratitude.

By now everyone had walked out of the mud pit, and Xiao An’s face was as pale as death when he stepped onto solid ground and exclaimed, "So that wasn’t a road at all!"

At this point, no one bothered with complaints; everyone was safe, and the rest could wait.

The donkey cart had arrived by now. The driver wore a large leather hat and an old military coat. Because he arrived facing the light, none of them could see his face clearly.

But the man shouted excitedly, "Aiyo, it’s you big sister!"

Li Xianglu’s arms were sore and hanging down by her sides; the children were being held by Leng Qing and Hu Zi. Hearing this somewhat familiar voice, she paused and then squinted to see—it was a dark face with joy written all over it, as if meeting an old acquaintance in a foreign land.

Li Xianglu then remembered who this man was; he was the sturdy man who had asked them for soup.

After his initial excitement, he asked with confusion, "Hey, what are you all doing here?"

Just having calmed down from her nerves, Li Xianglu felt the cold sweat on her back and tightened her clothes as she said, "Don’t ask. Our car got stuck in a mud pit."

The sturdy man followed Li Xianglu’s gesture and looked to the east, exclaiming, "This, this, this, you were really reckless. This is Guizi Port!"

What! Everyone was stunned. It wasn’t just a mud pit?

Half an hour later, the women and the old man were seated in the donkey cart, while Hu Zi and the driver were jogging alongside it.

There was an air of lamentation; they were lucky to be alive, for if the vehicle had moved any further ahead, they feared the whole party might have been swallowed up.

It turned out that what they had fallen into was not a mud pit but a part of the lake. It was cold, the surface of the lake had frozen over, and due to a mountain blocking the view to the east, they hadn’t seen the largest part of the lake, mistaking it for a barren land.

And indeed, it was a corner of a real lake where the silt was exceptionally treacherous, and in the summer, no one dared to venture into this area.

Hearing what the sturdy man named Chen Zhong had to say, everyone broke out in a cold sweat from the fright.

And Chen Zhong was the chief of the village up ahead. He had served in the military before and, upon retiring, returned to the village just in time for the household responsibility system reform, which did away with the old brigade leader system, requiring a village chief election.

Considering that taking a job in the county was not as good as staying in the village to help everyone out, Chen Zhong entered the election.

And so, Chen Zhong became the chief of Datu Village.

On the way, he boasted to everyone about that year’s village yield and how much surplus money was in the villagers’ hands. His expression made it seem as if the money was all his own, but everyone could see that man was likely not wealthy, his clothing described aptly as worn, with three or four patches on his military coat.

After traveling for forty minutes in the donkey cart, they arrived at a village that was well situated near the newly built national highway. As soon as the donkey cart entered the village, people started greeting Chen Zhong with great warmth.

Chen Zhong, seeing people, hailed them, "Get ready, come to my house. A friend’s car got stuck in Guizi Port, and we’ll need animals to pull it out."

Everyone almost immediately agreed and went back to fetch their beasts of burden.

Along the way, Li Xianglu saw several new crimson brick houses, obviously built this year, and even the less impressive houses were made of clay but had snow-white walls.

Finally, they reached a house at the end of the village, which might be the most dilapidated in the village. The house was made of clay, but the yard was unusually clean and tidy.

The donkey cart stopped, and Chen Zhong called out to the courtyard, "Hua’er, we have guests at home, hurry out."

A response came from the house, the door curtain was lifted, and a woman in a crimson padded jacket came out, coughing first before smiling and asking, "Who are our guests?"

By now, Li Xianglu and the others had gotten off the donkey cart. They saw a woman with long braided hair coming out of the courtyard, looking puzzled at them. There were still things on the cart; Chen Zhong helped Hu Zi and Xiao An carry them into the yard before saying to the woman, "They are acquaintances from Hu County, and we met again on the road. Their car is stuck in Guizi Port. I’m going to lead people to pull it out. Get something hot ready, and fire up the Kang bed-stove in our west room. The guests will be staying overnight."