After Wang An finished speaking, he saw Hao Dayou frown and say with some hesitation
"Brother, the thing is, the price of bricks has gone up—it's been rising for over a year now. I really can't do anything about the pricing."
Wang An immediately replied
"The price is fine; whatever the price should be, it should be. If you can arrange things in advance for your little brother here, I would be eternally grateful."
As soon as Wang An finished speaking, the phone rang again. Hao Dayou gave an apologetic smile and said
"Wait a moment, little brother, let me take this call."
Sure enough, it was another call from some unit pressing for bricks.
After hanging up, Wang An hurriedly urged Hao Dayou
"Big brother, please hurry up and write me the slip. I have a feeling more people will be calling you in a bit."
Hao Dayou gave a bitter smile and said apologetically
"I spend my whole day just answering phones; everyone is rushing me, haha..."
As he spoke, Hao Dayou began writing the slip for Wang An.
And so, relying solely on his face, Wang An very composedly jumped the queue and ordered 80,000 bricks for Huang Baoguo.
It was no longer a secret in the county town that bricks were in short supply at the factory, demand exceeded supply, and one had to queue to buy them.
Huang Baoguo, who wanted to buy bricks to build a house, had naturally heard about this long ago.
Therefore, when Huang Baoguo saw with his own eyes how easily and pleasantly Wang An secured the bricks, he was utterly shocked. What shocked him most was the factory director's attitude toward Wang An.
That attitude was simply too good; the two of them were like friends.
Although Huang Baoguo knew Wang An was capable, he never imagined Wang An could be capable to this extent—he was practically invincible.
Huang Baoguo's admiration for Wang An suddenly surged like the endless waters of the Yangtze River, or like the flooding Yellow River, becoming uncontrollable.
However, Huang Baoguo was naturally clumsy with words, so he didn't show it in front of Wang An.
Instead, he pressed this gratitude deep into his heart, waiting for the day Wang An or Wang An's family needed something, at which point he would spare no effort to help.
With the cement, lime, steel bars, and bricks resolved, all the materials for building the house were ready. Once the bricks arrived, Huang Baoguo's house could be constructed.
Next, Wang An took half a day to use the crawler tractor to push out the foundation for Huang Baoguo's house. Over the following few days, the red and blue bricks ordered from the factory were delivered one after another.
After Huang Baoguo led a group of people from Weizigou to blast and bring back a lot of stone from the Stone Mountain, the construction of Huang Baoguo's house officially began amidst several explosions of firecrackers.
Wang An didn't need to worry about the pharmaceutical factory, and the motorcycle factory's business was currently lukewarm. Wang Shuai and He Liang's efforts to set up a gold shop in Ice City didn't require Wang An's help. Han Xiaomin and Qiao Xiaohu had never sought him out, and at this time of year, the business of purchasing bear gall and pelts was basically suspended. Thus, Wang An once again became a man of great leisure.
Equally idle were Mu Xueli and Wang Li.
Mainly, at this season, the business of growing vegetables in greenhouses was over. After harvesting the last crop of ground vegetables in a few days, planting wouldn't start again until autumn.
The crops in the fields had only recently sprouted and didn't yet require weeding or thinning.
Therefore, for the next twenty-odd days, the mountain folk had nothing to do except go into the mountains to dig wild vegetables.
Consequently, Wang An, Mu Xueli, and Wang Li discussed it and decided to take a stroll in the mountains.
Mainly, after not hunting in the mountains for a long time, Wang An felt an itch all over his body. More importantly, the new puppies Mu Xueli and Wang Li had bought needed to be taken into the mountains for training.
Additionally, they could help bring back some meat for Huang Baoguo's family.
As the saying goes, help where you can; it was a matter of doing it while they were at it anyway.
Thus, on this morning, Wang An, Wang Li, Mu Xueli, and Huang Zhong each rode a horse, leading a large pack of dogs and wolves into the mountains.
Yes, a large pack—a very large one.
Wang An's four black dogs and four wolves.
Wang Li's four big yellow dogs and four adolescent Oroqen dogs.
And Mu Xueli's three wolf-hybrids and five adolescent yellow dogs.
With a total of 24 dogs and wolves together, the spectacle was quite magnificent.
As for Wang An's four spotted dogs, although they also wanted to join the expedition, Wang An did not bring them, nor would he bring them in the future.
Their role was now limited to guarding the house and yard.
It wasn't that they weren't loyal or brave; it was simply that their abilities and talent were too poor. Two of them combined weren't worth one proper dog; they were too useless.
The four of them didn't ride fast; they were as leisurely as if they were sightseeing.
"Brother-in-law, where are we going?" Mu Xueli asked instinctively, seeing Wang An scanning the surroundings.
Wang An said indifferently
"Nowhere in particular, just wandering. If we run into prey, we'll hunt it; if not, consider it training for your dogs."
Pausing, Wang An asked Wang Li and Mu Xueli
"Have you two heard anything these past few days about people digging wild vegetables and running into wild boars or bears?"
Wang Li shook his head
"I just got back from my second brother-in-law's place a few days ago; I didn't hear anything."
Mu Xueli also said
"I just finished helping my father-in-law plant his fields; I haven't been wandering around the village crowds."
Having witnessed the speed of a walk-behind tractor pulling a seed drill, Li Xiuhong's maternal family and Li Xiuyu's family had both set their sights on Mu Xueli and Wang Li, their sons-in-law.
Starting last year, after Mu Xueli and Wang Li finished planting their own land, they would each drive their tractors to their fathers-in-law's houses to help plant crops and transplant rice seedlings.
However, under Wang An's instigation—or more accurately, influence—these two also adhered to the principle of "family is family, money is money."
That is to say, they didn't help their fathers-in-law for free; they charged money or asked for grain.
At first, Mu Xueli's third brother-in-law, Li Xiuhong's biological third brother, was very angry, saying, "What use is this brother-in-law? You can't rely on him for anything, and he wants money to help plant fields. Isn't this what Mu Xueli should do as a son-in-law?"
With Mu Xueli's sharp tongue, there was no way he would tolerate this. He brought up the bride price, and then brought up fuel and repair costs, completely silencing his third brother-in-law.
Since the man was just trying to get something for nothing and was shameless, he couldn't withstand Mu Xueli's questioning.
To be fair, although the walk-behind tractors of this era were durable and could be used for many years, the technology of the time was limited, so the diesel engines broke down often and required frequent repairs.
Fortunately, the construction of these 12-horsepower diesel engines was very simple; usually, it was just a clogged carburetor or a blown cylinder head gasket, so they weren't hard to fix.
After the two finished speaking, Wang An nodded with an indifferent expression and said
"Then we'll just wander. Hunt whatever we find; if we find nothing, so be it."
Wang Li suddenly said
"Fourth Brother, why don't we go check Wild Boar Forest? I reckon there must be boars there. Killing a couple would be enough for Little Zhong's family."
Wang An thought about it, looked at the pack of dogs, and then said
"Alright. If there's nothing there, we'll go to Roe Deer Gully."
To be honest, this season wasn't suitable for dog-driven encircling hunts, so Wang An didn't actually have high hopes for this trip into the mountains.