At this time, Uncle An's face turned pale. At this moment, he already knew in his heart that his nephew's marriage would most likely fall through.
Although the other party promised to return the bride price to their family, it was money, and it would be difficult to find a woman who was the same as Shui Hua.
In the early 1990s, the price of a donkey in Xihaigu area was about 500 yuan, the price of two sheep was about 400 yuan, and the price of two cages of chickens was about 200 yuan. In addition to the water cellar, the bride price they paid to settle down was about 100 yuan.
Over a thousand.
This money was collected by the relatives of the An family through selling money. In addition, all the invitations to the wedding have been sent out. If the bride cannot be present today, the An family will definitely become the laughing stock of Kushui Village!
‘What to do?’
'What can I do?'
'If we don't get the bride today, won't our family be unable to hold their heads high for the rest of their lives?'
Uncle An secretly glanced at Li Jie who was standing in front of him. For some reason, he didn't dare to offend him even though he didn't want to in every way.
He had a hunch that if he argued with the other party, he would be the one to suffer.
‘What to do?’
Li Jie looked around and said calmly: "Okay, since no one objects, then this matter is settled."
As the words fell, Uncle An's family seemed to have been relieved of a heavy burden, and he breathed a long sigh of relief. He secretly glanced at the villagers of Kushui Village who had followed him. No one present dared to be the leader.
Seeing this, Uncle An immediately put his heart in his stomach and muttered secretly.
'That's fine, I'll have an explanation when I get back.'
Li Jieruo glanced at Uncle An intentionally or unintentionally, pointed at him, and said.
"You, you, you, since everything is okay, you should leave quickly, we still have to continue the meeting!"
"..."
For a moment, Uncle An was speechless.
Finally, Uncle An glanced at Li Jie, then glared at Li Laoshuan who was hiding behind the door, and said harsh words.
"Uh... I'll give you five days. If the time is up and you still can't exchange the money, Shuihua, I'm sure we're going to get married!"
"Okay! Five days, five days!"
Uncle An gritted his teeth and said, "Let's go!"
Originally, Li Jie was planning to agree on a date, but who would have thought that Uncle An would take the initiative to set a date, and the time would be more generous than he expected.
According to the memory in his mind, Li Jie knew very well about the family background of the 'Ma family'. In order to support his eldest son Ma Defu and his youngest daughter Ma Dehua's education, the Ma family's financial conditions were extremely tight.
Now their family's total assets do not exceed 1,000 yuan, and the Shuihua family's betrothal gift is 2,000 yuan. If the An family's wedding money, banquet money, and double the betrothal money paid to Li Laoshuan are taken out, the gap is as high as
Four thousand yuan.
You must know that this was 4,000 yuan in 1991, and it was 4,000 yuan in the Xihaigu area. In Yongquan Village, let alone 4,000 yuan, it was 2,000 yuan. They were also among the richest families in the village.
Why do the villagers resist the immigrants from Diaozhuang?
It’s not because of poverty!
Everyone is so poor that most of the villagers are so poor that they don’t even have enough to eat. How can they have money to build houses if they don’t even have enough to eat?
The biggest obstacle to diaozhuang immigrants is ‘money’!
After the people from Kushui Village left, the interrupted meeting could start again.
"Ahem! Ahem! Okay! Okay! Let's go! Let's continue the meeting!"
"How miserable and poor this place is, I don't think there's any need to emphasize it again. Why did the higher-ups arrange this village for us to immigrate to? I think it's up to Director Zhang to explain it to us."
"Everyone is welcome, welcome!"
After saying this, Li Jie took the lead in applauding, and then the villagers present also applauded.
Zhang Shucheng glanced at Li Jie inquiringly. After seeing Li Jie nod, he coughed slightly, lowered his hands slightly, and said with a bright smile on his face.
"Everyone, what Director Ma just said was very good. I would like to add two points here."
"First of all, what is Diaozhuang?"
"In Diaozhuang, your current home and cultivated land will remain unchanged. The government will allocate you another piece of cultivated land and homestead on the large plain in Yuquanying to build a new home and take root again."
"Of course, I also know that the current situation at Yuquanying is indeed a bit difficult."
"but!"
"The geographical conditions over there are much better than here. Dozens of Diaozhuang households in our county have also left, but they all stayed there. Only the people from Yongquan Village in Ermen ran back?"
"Why?"
As soon as these words came out, there was a commotion at the scene. Several villagers who had escaped back felt that they couldn't keep it on their faces and started talking one after another.
"What! What!"
"The land over there is all loess and sand, how can you grow crops!"
"The mosquitoes there are better than the flies here. Look at my hands, my legs, what happened to the bitten ones."
"Wuquan is right. When we go there, we won't even have drinking water. When will we be able to drink water from the Yellow River?"
…
…
Facing the questions from the villagers, Zhang Shucheng, who was participating in grassroots work for the first time, was a little confused. He didn't know which question to answer in a short period of time.
Li Jie glanced at Zhang Shucheng beside him, and then banged the table.
"What are you talking about!"
"What are you talking about!"
"Everyone, please be quiet!"
While speaking, Li Jie released a little momentum and immediately calmed the chattering villagers.
When the scene became quiet again, Li Jie continued.
"Director Zhang just made it very clear!"
"The conditions there are better than here, and only people from Ermen Yongquan Village in the county have escaped."
"What does this mean?"
"Old party secretary, please comment, are they doing the right thing?"
"There's no point in being a deserter!"
Hearing these words, the old party secretary in the crowd took a hard sip of the dry cigarette in his hand and frowned into the Chinese character "Sichuan".
After a long time, the old branch secretary slowly spoke.
"Director Zhang is right, and Shoushui is also right. Although our Yongquan Village is poorer than other villages, we are poor, but our ambitions cannot be short-lived!"
"We still have to go to this Diaozhuang!"
As he spoke, the old party secretary pointed to his son Li Dayou beside him with the dry pipe in his hand.
"Um, sign up for our family first!"
"Dayou!"
"Are you going or not?"
In full view of everyone, the kind-hearted Li Dayou really couldn't find a reason to refuse, not to mention that this was his father who took the initiative to ask him.
So, I had to nod my head.
"Uh...uh go!"
Seeing that his son agreed, the old branch secretary turned and looked at Han San.
"And you?"
Han San hesitated for a while and said: "Uh...uh, go too!"
Now that someone has taken the initiative, the rest of the matter will be easier to handle, and one banker after another bit the bullet and agreed.