On the sixth day of the Chinese New Year, I slept until noon before getting up in a drowsy state. Everyone at home had lunch. When my mother saw me getting up, she quickly called me and hurriedly went to the pot house to bring me food.

After the Spring Festival, I basically only eat two meals a day in rural Huaibei, one meal at around 10 am and the other meal is around 4 pm. This habit has been around for a long time since ancient times, mainly to save food and spend the upcoming spring famine. Now, although I can eat enough, this habit has been preserved.

I was sitting on the millstone that I hadn't used in the yard. While I was having a meal, Ergoudan came to me and when he pushed open the yard door, he shouted in a straight voice: "Daping, why did you eat? What's wrong in the afternoon?"

"It's okay. Are you doing anything?" I saw him excitedly, and I didn't know what this kid was selling, so I couldn't help but ask back.

"I really have something to do with you." Ergoudan said with a shy face and a little mysterious.

I put the finished bowl on the top of the grinding and wiped my mouth: "Tell me, what's the matter with you guys?"

"Good thing. Please clean up quickly, push the bicycle on, and help me do something." Ergoudan saw her mother coming out of the pot house and greeted her casually, "Auntie, I'll ask Daping to do me a favor."

"Okay, please let him go. Just don't let him drink too much. Daping's alcohol capacity is not as good as you." My mother thought Ergoudan was calling me to drink with her again, and agreed with a happy look on her face.

Ergoudan and I rode out of the east entrance of the village by themselves. The canal dam behind us became more and more distant, and the flat wheat fields spread out to the horizon. After the severe winter sunshine, it had enough warmth, and it was extremely comfortable to shine on people. Looking into the distance, the peaks in southern Shandong were like a touch of dark blue, smearing at the end of the horizon. Under Ergoudan's butt was a brand new weighted "flying pigeon". We rode the car hard and rushed towards Xiaoxiaojia Village.

"Daping, I'll invite you to drink tonight." Ergoudan said proudly, panting.

"What's wrong with you going to the gypsum mine?" I was so moved when I heard that I was going to the gypsum mine.

"You will know when you get there." Ergoudan continued to keep his teeth in a silence, grinning.

"You work in the mine, how is Sanhong treating you? How much can you pay for a month?" I understand Ergoudan's temper. The more you beg him, the more he shows you the examples, and then he simply changed the topic.

"Don't you know what kind of person is Sanhong? He is comparable to Zhou Bapi, who is "chicken in the middle of the night", but he dare not deduct the money he should give us, otherwise no one will work for his family." Ergoudan took the cotton hat on his head and threw it into the car basket in front of him. He wiped the sweat beads on his forehead and continued, "You ask me how much I can drive a month? Let's say that, it's more than you can get in the brass mill anyway."

Ergou's jokes made me feel heartbroken for a moment and felt indescribable. Before this holiday, I heard Fatty Zhang mutter in private that after the New Year, the old monkey would do something new "reform" and I don't know what troubles will happen this time.

Ergoudan saw that I didn't answer his words, turned his face and glanced at me: "What are you thinking? After passing the village ahead, you will arrive soon."

We walked through a small path through Xiaoxiaojia Village and passed through a small poplar forest by the field. In front of us, a large yard surrounded by red bricks appeared. In the yard was a tall well tower, and the black iron racks shone with golden light in the sun.

Ergoudan, with his thief eyes, slowed down the car speed, and muttered, "Blessed by Bodhisattva, Sanhong's brother is not here today."

"What are you muttering?" I was a little puzzled when I heard his stupid words.

"Don't squeak." Ergoudan interrupted me in a hurry, stretched his head and looked around, then walked to the door of the big yard and knocked on the tall iron fence.

With Ergoudan knocking on the door, a vulgar and thin man with a felt hat appeared behind the fence door. He glanced at me behind Ergoudan and immediately showed a look of alertness.

"It's okay, this is my friend Daping, a brother who grew up naked." Ergoudan explained to him while calling the thin man to open the door.

"Last night, the boss played mahjong all night. I heard that he lost several thousand. It seems that he was not in the mood to come over to patrol today. I'll prepare the car for you." The thin man in a felt hat opened the iron fence door, put us in the large yard, stretched out his head and looked around, and quickly locked the door.

This should be the contracted land of Xiao Meihua's family. Now it is full of ore dug from the ground, and white plaster is tied into the blue-gray stones. At this time, I realized that Ergoudan called me over and asked me to help steal a few trucks of ore. He had already discussed it with this thin man before the holiday, and was about to take advantage of the holiday to get a few trucks out, and sell it in the small cement factory in southern Shandong in the north, and get some pocket money to spend. I was very disdainful of this kind of rooster crowing and dog-stealing robbery, but when I thought of Xiao Meihua who was crying and Sanhong's family who was unkind, I felt uncomfortable and did not refuse Ergoudan.

Because the target of pulling the plaster during the day was too big, Ergoudan and Shaozi decided to take action after it was dark. Seeing that the sun was still high in the sky, Ergoudan was afraid that I would be bored, so he suggested that I go down the mine to take a look. I had never gone down the mine, so he agreed readily. The three of us came to the wellhead, and Shaozi closed the switch, and a winch on the derrick turned up, driving two wire ropes to lift an iron fence cage to the wellhead.

Ergoudan opened a small door next to it and led me to the iron fence cage. The thin man with a felt hat said, "You two should pay attention, so he pressed the switch again. The iron cage took Ergoudan and me and fell towards the black wellhead. This was the first time I was sitting on this broken thing. As the wellhead above my head became smaller and smaller, the sky turned into a five-cent coin. The man swayed into the darkness, and his heart couldn't stop thrusting and jumping up.

"This wire rope will not break, right?" I asked with a loud voice and worry as the iron cage fluctuated.

"It's okay, we sit every day, and we can lift two or three tons of plaster up, which is only a lot of weight for us." Ergoudan laughed at me in the darkness.

After about a hundred meters down, we finally saw the bottom of the well. Ergoudan hurriedly raised his face and shouted at it: "Caoshan Mine, you goddamn, stop the machine soon."

The skinny Caoshan Mine responded to it, and the echo was buzzing down, and the iron fence cage hit the bottom of the well with a bang.

"Oh, this goddamn Caoshan Mine is going to kill me." Ergoudan cursed in anger.

Ergoudan lays the iron fence cage, twists the flashlight, pushes up the knife on a power board beside him, and a series of lights lit up along the alley in front of us. Ergoudan leads in front, and we walk into the horizontal alley one after another. I have seen the scene of a coal mine in the movie, the mine is dark like hell. But it is different from the situation in the movie. The wellbore is like a large culvert with warm winter and cool summer, and there are no rows of support sleepers in the coal mine. The key is that it is still very dry, and the light looks very bright under the reflection of white gypsum stone.

"It's really good here. The light is like a fairy cave for four times, and it won't collapse on it, right?" I looked over my head worriedly as I walked in.

"Don't worry, there is gypsum around it, which is strong. In addition, the gypsum also absorbs moisture, so it's dry, and you can't see the sun, and it's the same inside." Ergoudan took me in for dozens of meters, then stopped and stopped walking in.

"That thin man is your friend?" I stopped with Ergoudan, leaned against the mine wall and asked.

"Are you talking about Caoshan Mine? You're not a friend, you're just a partner in work. This kid is not from our place, but from Sanhong's brother found it from the city's coal mine. I heard that his family was in a countryside in Xiahe, northern Jiangsu. His father was a miner who was recruited to mine. Later, he was paralyzed from the mine disaster. His mother couldn't help but run away with people. This kid was out of education and kept scattered in society. He went there when there was food, and he was a thing that recognized his mother if he had milk." Ergoudan said contemptuously, waved the flashlight in his hand, and walked back.

"You have to be careful of such a person. At the first time I saw him, I felt that this kid was unauthorized." I followed Ergoudan and reminded him, "In the future, don't steal plaster with him, be careful not to suffer any losses..."

"I also know that he is a bastard, just take advantage of this kid." Ergoudan responded in front.

After that, Ergoudan and I didn't talk anymore. The footsteps of the two of us were heard in the quiet alley. The empty sound made people's inner uneasiness suddenly magnified.
Chapter completed!