Yan Xiuping looked at her husband in a daze, she didn't expect him to be so bold, it was the land in the village, the reason why the brigade kept it must have important plans, if it did so, it would definitely make people blush, but if it was as Yan Yuxiang said, this would be much more profitable than hitting stones. After thinking about it, she finally decided to do it under Yan Yuxiang's continuous persuasion.

In the past few days, Yan Yuxiang has been driving his tractor to the back mountain to find wood by burning the fire at home. There were few people living on this mountain, and when passing through the village, people didn't feel strange at all when they saw Yan Yuxiang's car pulling a cart of firewood, and sometimes they persuaded a few words: "You said that your illness is just right, so you can't stop for a few days, no wonder the days are getting better and better, it's really a busy person who can't be idle." Ping'er is really willing to use you like this. Whenever this happens, Yan Yuxiang always smiles and says: "It's because you can't stay idle that you can get better, and the more idle people are, the more sick they are." This sounds very pertinent to the people who are suffering in the village.

Yan Yuxiang is like this, leaving the impression on the people in the village that he is loyal, honest and down-to-earth and capable.

After a few days of "open investigation and secret visits", Yan Yuxiang found an excellent place, not only can not be discovered, but also there must be coal under the ground at a glance. This strengthened his confidence.

One night, he told Yan Xiuping about this, and the two were very happy, such as hoes, pickaxes, shovels, carts and other basic tools at home, which were all essential items for peasant families. They didn't dare to fire the cannon, so they had to use an iron pickaxe to plane. I also need to get a hard hat for my wife, and I also need to buy a long enough rope and a strong enough rope to buy a miner's lamp...... Yan Yuxiang summed up.

The next day, he went to the county town to buy these necessities. Because the Chinese New Year is coming, there are many people who go to the city to buy things these days, Yan Xiuping specially prepared a hemp bag for him, and the two of them are very careful, no one can see what he is buying.

Everything is ready, according to Yan Xiuping's meaning, no matter what, she has to wait until the end of the New Year to start acting, but Yan Yuxiang made another bold move, in fact, his concerns are right, this kind of thing should be done as soon as possible. And it coincides with the Chinese New Year, and they can take advantage of the momentum of the New Year to take advantage of the fact that they can take advantage of it.

Since her husband said so, she had no choice but to obey, and the day she set off was the night of the fifteenth day of the lunar month. Yan Yuxiang and his wife waited for Xia Er to finish washing the dishes, and then arranged for the children to sleep well. Now that the children are older, the four sisters and brothers can no longer squeeze into one bed, Yan Yuxiang has long ago cleaned up the furniture in the room where the children live, and then made four small beds with bricks and wooden boards, and each person sleeps one, which is quite comfortable.

Seeing that the four children were asleep, and the two of them sat quietly by the stove, Yan Yuxiang opened the lid of the stove, lightly picked the burning charcoal, and the flames came up as soon as they breathed, almost burning his wife's hair, and the two were joking and worrying at the same time. No one has ever done this kind of thing, so it's hard to say whether it's feasible or not.

"It's a good thing. There is still a period of time before departure, and there is nothing to do, Yan Yuxiang said while fiddling with the charcoal.

"Well, I don't know if this is a way for us to make money. Yan Xiuping said worriedly.

"You don't know if you have to break through the money, or you will regret not eating the meat you put in your mouth. Yan Yuxiang saw that his wife was still a little undetermined, so he said so.

"I heard that Songjiazhuang was strictly investigated for several days a few days ago, and if he was caught, he would go to jail. ”

"Well, I've heard about this too, so if there's anything going on, you run away and leave me alone. Just meet at home when you're done, and even if something happens, you can catch me alone, you remember. Yan Yuxiang gently brushed his wife's hair and said affectionately.

"Well, I know, don't worry at this point, not to mention that you still have these children at home, I will run out no matter what. Yan Xiuping said firmly.

Yan Yuxiang nodded with satisfaction, "Well, it's good if you can figure this out." ”

Both of them knew that doing so would be at great risk, not only for their lives, but also vaguely aware of the possibility of being caught and sent to jail. As for whether it is illegal or not, there is no such concept in their minds. Just two days ago, seven or eight people were arrested in the next town in one night, and it is said that the criminal police team and the anti-riot squad acted together to arrest people, and this matter spread throughout the county and even to the city. Yan Yuxiang and his wife didn't know that they had also heard that the people who had been arrested had been subjected to all kinds of abuse in the detention center, and they had not even been given food, and when they came out, they were all skinny. But rural people are like this, Yan Yuxiang and his wife are even more so, they are poor and afraid, even if there is a big danger, as long as they can earn money, they are willing to try. Moreover, in their concept, there is no such thing as breaking the law.

Just after twelve o'clock in the night, Yan Yuxiang pushed open the door of the room where the children lived, fiddled with the stove, added some charcoal, and after covering each child with a quilt, he hung up the door, and the two of them took advantage of the moonlight to take the tools to the back mountain. They didn't drive a tractor today, at least not for the last few days, so let's wait until they dig up coal. It's a bit too early to drive. In fact, the people in the village will go to bed by ten o'clock at the latest. The winter nights in the small mountain village are really quiet and scary.

Neither of them spoke along the way. The moon on the fifteenth day was so bright that two people could walk along the path without a miner's lamp. Since having this idea, Yan Xiuping has never come to Houshan again. This is her first time here in recent times. Yan Yuxiang saw the place he was looking at from a distance and pointed it out to Yan Xiuping. It turns out that the place is backed by the village, and even a little light is difficult for people to detect.

When Yan Yuxiang arrived at the place, he looked at his watch, half past twelve, because from his house to the back mountain had to cross the entire village, it seemed that they were walking fast. The two looked at each other and nodded slightly. Let's get started. Yan Xiuping untied the rope hanging on her body and turned on the miner's lamp. A bright ray of light shone on Yan Yuxiang's face, Yan Yuxiang hurriedly covered the flashlight with his hand, asked her to turn it off, and said in a low voice: "I can see it, don't use it yet." ”

Yan Xiuping didn't know what she should do, so she could only watch her husband, who seemed to have a lot of ideas, start to take a shovel to clean up the weeds and cornerstones on the ground. At the beginning of winter, there was a heavy snowfall, which covered these weeds, and now until the end of the year, the snow has melted away, and some of the grass is still green, and I have to admire this tenacious life. Seeing her husband doing this, Yan Xiuping drew a gourd in the same way, and also picked up a shovel to clean it up, Yan Yuxiang whispered: "Gently shovel the grass, keep the big one, and cover it during the day!" Yan Xiuping suddenly woke up, so she gently planted the weeds and put them aside.

After a while, the two of them cleared a three-square-sized piece of space on the ground. Yan Yuxiang paused for a while, as if holding a solemn ceremony, put the pickaxe aside, knelt down, knocked his head three times, and then got up and said to his wife: "I'm going to start construction!"

Yan Yuxiang is simply an all-round talent in the eyes of the whole village, not only planting well, hitting stones well, but also pruning fruit trees, etc., he does not only work efficiently, but also exquisite. It's just like what to do. He also often laughs at himself and says, "Whether there is a kind or not, it all depends on pretending." Having said that, Yan Xiuping's heart is full of admiration for her husband.

Yan Yuxiang glanced back at his wife, who was looking at him, and asked with a puzzled face: "What are you doing in a daze, hurry up with a shovel and shovel out the soil I planed." "Oh!" the wife suddenly realized. Seeing his stunned wife Yan Yuxiang, he didn't think much about it, and continued to turn his head and plow the ground.

They didn't stop and worked until four o'clock in the morning before they covered the withered grass they shoveled at the beginning, which Yan Yuxiang personally did. In order to achieve the purpose of making it real, he deliberately folded some dead branches and covered them, and looked at it from a distance, and it looked the same as other places, and then he went home satisfied.

It was almost five o'clock when the two of them got home, and after some time, some old people in the village would get up early to exercise, and the first thing they did when they came home was to add fire to the children's stoves. The two of them burned the stove, took off their essence, and took a good "bath". When it is said to be a bath, it is actually just a washbasin that is washed from top to bottom. After washing and looking at the time, I don't sleep, and I generally don't have anything to do in the morning, so I can lie on the bed and squint for a while. Yan Xiuping went to the kitchen to make breakfast first. Today she was in a good mood and made coarse grain cornmeal batter. Now this delicacy is almost extinct.

The night passed like this, it was an extremely exciting night, although there was no great fruit of labor, but the two of them were as if they had completed a big project, and they were very happy in their hearts.

And just like that, they dug for five nights in a row. By the twentieth day of the lunar month, the two of them no longer had the excitement they had before, and even took a nap before leaving, the same time, the only thing that changed was that the moonlight tonight was not as bright as the fifteenth. As soon as the two of them left the village in the dark, they turned on the miner's lamp, and they didn't have the caution of that meeting, but they still said very little.

When they reached the mouth, the two of them still pushed the weeds away, and went their separate ways, this time they took a large basket made of fine wicker, because the depth was almost the same, and it was necessary for one man to catch the slag with a bucket. This task can only be done by Yan Xiuping. Each time, Yan Yuxiang first tied the rope to the tree, and then he slipped along the rope to the well, and then Yan Xiuping's work. The progress of the work is very slow, because Yan Yuxiang feels sorry for his wife, and he puts very little in the basket every time.

Yan Xiuping was actually a little discouraged in her heart, although she had never said such doubts to her confident husband. She even doubted at one point whether her husband's judgment was accurate. But every time the words came to my lips, I saw my husband's determined eyes, and I thought to myself, even if it was wrong, what did it matter, anyway, I had already worked hard. The husband and wife's character of not admitting defeat was branded and deeply imprinted in Xiao Dongzi's heart.

In fact, Yan Yuxiang was also anxious in his heart, he was very confident in himself, but he was afraid that his wife would not last long and would give up. So when he digs, he picks a place and goes deeper, trying to prove himself right. He even thought, "If you don't dig up coal after tonight, you won't be guilty of it." It's okay to say it yourself, let your wife suffer with you, and no one can say it.

The coal was discovered by Yan Xiuping first, on the night of the twentieth day of the lunar month, the miner's lamp was pinned to her forehead, and when they were about to call it a day, Yan Xiuping tried her best to catch up a basket of soil slag, and when she was about to dump it as usual, she suddenly found that the color of the soil had changed. To be precise, the slag with the crushed stones suddenly turned black. He held it in his hand and shook it, as if a fresh smell was rushing towards him. This is no less surprising than a long drought and a rainy day.

She was ecstatic, but she didn't call out, five days of work had already trained a cautious Yan Xiuping. She shook Yan Yuxiang at the bottom of the well with a miner's lamp, which was their unique way of communicating. Yan Yuxiang raised his head and was stunned for a second, then thought of something. He threw away the pickaxe, lay on the ground, and scraped it with his hands, and in a short time saw a black, bright layer emerge. Oh my God! That's not coal, that's carbon! That's almost the best carbon burned in China!

Both of them were so excited and even more motivated. The next step to consider is to see how deep the coal seam really is. Yan Yuxiang looked at his watch, there was still a little time before four o'clock, and he saw him digging deep along the large piece of carbon he dug up. His wife Yan Xiuping knew that the time was almost up, and kept urging him to come up quickly, but he seemed to be fascinated, and kept digging into the ground, digging to a depth of about half a meter, and the more he dug the coal, the better the quality. He couldn't have been happier. threw the pickaxe to the ground, and lay down, ** this piece of land that gave birth to him and raised him, sure enough, what Grandpa Dongzi said was not wrong, this is really a piece of feng shui treasure.

After a long time, the two of them reluctantly left there, and before leaving this time, Yan Yuxiang did not ask his wife to do it, but hid the "mine" with his own hands. For the first time, he felt the joy of success.

In this way, from the next night, the two maintained the efficiency of producing a car of carbon in one night, and pulled it to Linzhen by tractor before dawn, which once again proved Yan Yuxiang's correctness is that the current coal is extremely easy to sell, and for the New Year, who also needs to take out the money at the bottom of the box to buy a ton of carbon to burn. Therefore, every day is just a little bright, and the carbon is sold in a blink of an eye.

The two of them were so happy in those few days, and the atmosphere in this house was getting better and better. Even three days later, the two drove a tractor to the county town to buy a 25-inch color TV with the carbon money they had just sold. I thought that such days would get better and better, but paper can't contain the fire. The crisis finally befell the family once again.