The two of them reached the courtyard on their second stop. The director in charge of the kitchen saw the plump rooster and was overjoyed.

The kitchen here had an accounting affair, so Li Yungui quickly got the money. The director also gave Li Yungui a small cloth bag of dried shrimp.

The two agreed that no matter when Li Yungui came again, he would bring ten more roosters.

Li Yungui of course agreed, Jiang Xinyu said that roosters grow slower after reaching three pounds. Now they are still collecting chicks, and the number of roosters is particularly large. They can be eaten and sold, so they better be sold off quickly.

He went to find Secretary Wu and Secretary Tian and gave each of them two chickens. Both accepted the money without refusal.

"I’m very sorry, we really don’t have any surplus eggs."

"No worries, I’ll take a bus to your village on Sunday to buy some," Secretary Tian said with a smile.

"Yes, we’ll go together."

"Alright, I’ll save some for you two," Li Yungui said quietly. "Make sure you ask for them when the time comes."

"Bring two more roosters next time."

"That’s no problem. If you need more later, and I’m not around, you can just go directly to the village."

It’s always good to maintain relationships well; it makes things easier in the future.

Li Yungui gave Secretary Tian another chicken, "This is for the leader, I won’t go in to bother him."

Finally, he accepted the three yuan given by Secretary Tian. When reaching the village, he would make up for it. At such a sensitive time, accepting payment was appropriate.

The second stop was the bank, "Old Li, how many chickens did you bring me? Not enough for everyone!"

"The supply and marketing cooperative wants over twenty, there are forty-two here right now."

"Then give me twenty-two. I’ll take them all. But it’s still not enough for everyone, why didn’t you bring a few more, Old Li? Is it hard to make this trip?"

"Haha, our village’s chicken farm is very strictly managed. Once chickens leave, they can’t re-enter the farm. I took the risk to bring two extra; if nobody wants them, I can afford to buy them myself. If there were more, I wouldn’t have the chance to buy them either."

"Haha, is there really such a rule?"

"Indeed, I, the village chief, haven’t even entered the chicken house. Those managing the chicken house are all elderly people, and they rarely come out."

"Haha, that’s really good. But Old Li, as long as it’s less than forty chickens next time, we can take all of them.

Also, I’ve already reserved fifty roosters for the New Year’s, don’t miss it. Even extra of ten is doable.

Old Li, don’t let me down."

Li Yungui nodded, "Don’t worry, I’ll save them for you."

"I trust Village Chief Li, but there are fewer eggs."

"There’s no choice, next month it should be better, I’ll prepare what the leaders need in advance."

"One hundred jin."

"Haha, that’s quite a lot. No problem, once it cools down, we’ll have enough in a day."

President Chen was secretly surprised, how many chickens does the Li Family Village’s chicken farm have?

Forget it, it’s none of his business, as long as he can buy eggs and roosters it’s fine.

He rather hoped their chicken farm was big; wouldn’t it make things easier for him?

"Red Army, you keep an eye on President Chen, next time you can directly come by yourself."

Red Army greeted respectfully. It was like clearing the way so both parties could feel at ease.

The last stop was the supply and marketing cooperative. This place was equally straightforward.

"Old Li, when will you come next to deliver?"

I said yesterday afternoon that there would be roosters these days, over thirty were already reserved.

"In a few days. Just delivering them alone doesn’t even cover the oil money."

Everyone understood this. "Old Li, give me forty chickens next time."

"Alright, no problem, once I arrange it I’ll bring them over. This is my nephew, next time I might not have time, so I’ll let him come."

"Alright, I’ll remember this young man."

The trailer was now empty.

"Second Uncle, when we go back, my Second Grandpa has to keep making chicken cages."

"Indeed, charge them for the cages next time. Your Second Grandpa finds it quite laborious to make these."

The tractor drove straight to the doorstep. By this time, Li Yunqiao had come home from work. He already knew his second brother was coming.

Secretary Wu joyfully said he had bought two roosters.

Upon returning, he saw three shiny roosters in the chicken cage at the courtyard.

This was his Second Brother’s arrival home.

Seeing his wife handling the dumplings, he joined to help.

"Second Brother came over, brought three roosters and quite a few eggs, as well as some white flour and cracked corn."

"Hmm, you just eat at ease, our village has a chicken farm."

"Okay, Zhibin can now eat egg custard too, he ate several spoonfuls today."

"You should eat too, don’t treat yourself poorly."

"I know, I’m a grown-up, do I need you to remind me?"

"I’m just afraid you’d hesitate to eat well."

"By the way, it was Red Army driving the tractor over. He seems to have grown taller, he’s not shorter than you."

"That’s because he eats well at his Second Uncle’s house."

"Indeed, they always give us things, but we have nothing to give back."

"Brothers don’t need immediate reciprocation. There’ll be opportunities in the future, don’t worry, he’s my brother."

Wang Wugu watched the couple being sweet and intimate, so she went to the kitchen to prepare for boiling the dumplings.

The living room had only the couple left, Li Yunqiao gently kissed his wife’s lips. 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

The couple was sweet and affectionate, like young people full of passion.

They heard the sound of a tractor outside, and the kitchen started to light the fire for boiling water.

Red Army was quite excited to see Dad.

Li Yunqiao looked at his taller and stronger second son with pride in his heart.

He stood up and hugged Red Army, "My son is all grown up."

Red Army also hugged Li Yunqiao, "Dad."

"Good, my son makes me so proud."

At this moment, Hong Lin and his wife also returned. They had to wait until their work hours were over to come back.

It was another round of warm greetings. Li Yungui also came in from outside. He had gone to wash up; there was dust everywhere on the road.

Red Army saw Second Uncle come in and also went out to wash up.

The dumplings were already being boiled. There was a plate of peanuts and a plate of cucumber with bean curd on the table.

The dumplings were served, and the family gathered around to eat.

Zheng Lihong had Zhibin sitting on her lap, and there was an egg custard prepared next to him. Obviously, the little guy was more interested in dumplings.

Li Yunqiao picked some filling and fed it to him.

Zhibin was fascinated, he watched the adults eat dumplings, making them somewhat embarrassed.

Wang Wugu then came over, took away the egg custard, and picked up Zhibin. The child was still too young, to eat digestible food was better.

"Second Uncle, our village is really good now. I heard there are fifty formal workers now. That’s quite remarkable."