When Wang An tried to leave behind rice and white flour, Shi Suo naturally resisted and blocked him every which way, and Shi Suo's wife also tried to obstruct him.
It was only when Wang An generously declared that there had been a bumper harvest this year and that all his relatives and friends should have some rice and white flour to taste the freshness that Shi Suo finally accepted.
Leaving Shi Suo's house, Wang An checked his watch. He felt that by this time, Fang Xiu'e must have already started work, so Wang An drove his four-wheeled vehicle toward the county government compound.
To be honest, driving a four-wheeler loaded with grain was incredibly inconvenient. The main issue was that the thing was far too conspicuous; it was like a giant attention-grabber.
Arriving at the county government compound, Wang An didn't say a word and instead smiled as he first lit a cigarette for Old Cao, the security guard. There was no helping it; if you didn't give this old man a cigarette, he wouldn't help you get anything done. He was quite a headache.
Sure enough, after a few puffs of the cigarette, Old Cao said with a smile
"Young man, you're looking for Wu Dong, right?"
Wang An immediately nodded and smiled
"Yep, could I trouble you, Uncle, to call him for me?"
The old man took a few more puffs before saying cheerfully
"Aye, alright, I'll go find him for you now."
Truth be told, this old man was actually quite interesting. The main thing was that his requirements weren't high; a single cigarette could make him quite happy.
Wang An waited at the main gate for less than five minutes before Wu Dong ran out from the courtyard. Upon seeing Wang An at the gate, Wu Dong was very pleased.
As soon as they met, Wu Dong said with a smile
"Gosh, I've been so busy every single day. It's been a long time since we last gathered, hasn't it?"
Wang An nodded and smiled
"Indeed. I knew you were busy, so I didn't even dare to look for you, hahahaha."
Wu Dong laughed
"It'll be over soon. In about half a month, I'll basically be finished. Once we're done, we absolutely have to have a proper get-together, hahaha."
After a bit more brief small talk, Wang An finally said
"I specifically came today to bring you guys some rice and white flour. It was a harvest year; the rice and wheat yields weren't small at all, so I brought some for you guys to taste, hehehe."
Wu Dong frowned slightly and said
"You should keep the grain for yourselves. Think about it—do you really think people like us are lacking grain to eat? It's not easy for you to harvest grain over the course of a year. After paying the state quota, if you still give some to us, how much will your family have left?"
Wang An said with a smile
"It's a bumper harvest this year. If it had been a poor harvest, I wouldn't give it to you even if you asked, hahaha."
Wu Dong continued to wave his hand
"Really, no need. You don't get grain coupons every month; the whole family relies on this bit of grain for the year. Quickly take it back. Wang Shuai, Liangzi, and Qiangzi definitely wouldn't want it either."
After a pause, Wu Dong added with a smile
"If you brought some blue sheep, yellow sheep, or roe deer, then we'd definitely want that, hahahaha... Forget the grain, really. Giving us grain is purely redundant."
Seeing that Wu Dong truly didn't want it, Wang An tried tentatively
"How about you just keep a little? Just so you can all taste it? This is freshly processed rice and white flour; just smelling it before cooking is incredibly fragrant."
Wu Dong said skeptically
"Is it really that mystical? I eat it every day; I figure it's all the same."
Hearing this, Wang An said with some exaggeration
"Then you've definitely never eaten this kind of new rice. Let me tell you, starting from the day the grain is harvested, the fragrance of this rice fades a little more every day. If you leave it for a couple of years, there's no fragrance left at all."
Actually, it wasn't just rice; most foods were like this. Fresh food was definitely tastier than food that had been stored for a long time.
Being told this by Wang An, Wu Dong was clearly tempted and said
"Then how about you leave some for us? I'll taste how fragrant this newly harvested rice is."
Wang An said with full confidence
"It's definitely fragrant. So fragrant that you won't even want the side dishes; you could devour two big bowls of plain steamed rice, hahahaha..."
As he spoke, Wang An wanted to unload the rice, but Wu Dong hurried to stop him
"Wait a second, I'll go drive the car over. It's too tiring to carry it by hand."
After saying this, Wu Dong ran back into the courtyard.
Soon, Wu Dong drove out in his large jeep. Once Wu Dong got out of the car, Wang An asked
"It's not far to your house; do you actually drive to work?"
Wu Dong said with a look of helplessness
"No choice. You're lucky today that I happened to be back at the unit for a meeting, otherwise you wouldn't have seen a shadow of me."
Wang An didn't ask what Wu Dong was busy with now, but instead asked with a smile
"This car of yours is pretty great. Do you guys have a way to get me one too? Now that the cold weather has arrived, riding that sidecar thing is too much of a struggle—it's freezing cold."
Wu Dong opened the trunk and said with a smile
"What? You want to buy a car too? This thing is seriously not cheap."
Hearing this, Wang An said with an arrogant expression
"Listen to you, acting like I'm short on money. I'm telling you, Brother Wu, as long as something has a price, I can get it."
The reason Wang An wanted to buy a car was partly for convenience when going out, and partly because Mu Xueqing was about to give birth.
Regarding Mu Xueqing's delivery, Wang An didn't want her to give birth at home; he wanted to take her to the hospital.
Although in this era, the idea of going to a hospital to give birth was still very rare, Wang An didn't care about that. The main thing was that the hospital was much safer.
Furthermore, there was a high probability that Mu Xueqing was carrying twins. Giving birth at home would be too dangerous!
If some small accident happened, he'd be damned.
Hearing this, Wu Dong couldn't help but laugh loudly
"Holy crap, when it comes to posing, it's still you, Wang An. The way you flex is simply invincible."
Wang An moved the rice off the four-wheeler and, while loading it onto Wu Dong's jeep, said with a grin
"Just tell me if you can handle this small matter or not."
Wu Dong suddenly looked left and right, then spoke in a voice that only the two of them could hear
"A while back for the exercises, we used some channels to get a batch of modified GAZes from the Russians. Now that the exercises are over, they want to sell these cars to the local sectors. If you're interested, I'll get you one."
He called them "channels," but in reality, it was smuggling. Those who knew, knew. After all, if they followed official procedures, the Russians wouldn't dare sell things like cars over here at this time.
Wang An's eyes immediately lit up. Just as he was about to speak, he heard Wu Dong add
"Because it went through channels, they said new cars are too conspicuous and might get them in trouble, so the exteriors of this batch aren't great, but the insides are all good—brand new."
Wang An said with excitement
"No problem! As long as the guts are fine, it's okay. How much for one? You must get me one."