PCJ – Chapter 625 The Peddler

“Cadre Zhang, my leg is healed! It doesn’t hurt at all. Some of my old ailments also seem to have completely gone away. The medicine you gave me really worked wonders. These years have been hard on Chuangui, the poor child. My legs were bad, so he had to carry all the water for the household from the mountain, bucket by bucket. While other children could happily play, my Chuangui had to do work even grown men would struggle with. Many times, he even fell down the mountain slope while fetching water…” As Gu Yongyi spoke, he couldn’t help but break down in sobs.

“Grandpa, I’ve grown up now. From now on, I’ll take care of you,” said Gu Chuangui.

Zhang Jiaohua smiled and said, “Chuangui, now that Grandpa’s leg is healed, are you happy?”

Gu Chuangui nodded vigorously. “Happy, of course I’m happy. Thank you, Uncle Zhang.”

“Cadre Zhang, you’re such a good man—why did you come to our poor mountain village? Our place is in such a state, no one can lift it out of poverty. Now that you’re here, our Yingpan Village will just be a burden to you,” said Gu Yongyi with a worried expression.

“Please don’t say that, elder. Since I’ve come here, I’ll do everything in my power to help Yingpan Village slowly improve. I’m new here and unfamiliar with the place. I’ll need the support of the villagers in the future,” Zhang Jiaohua replied.

“Don’t worry about that. You’ve helped me so much already—I’ll do everything I can to persuade the whole village to follow your lead,” Gu Yongyi said.

“Elder, don’t rush. The biggest issue in Yingpan Village is water. Once we solve that, the other problems will be much easier to handle,” Zhang Jiaohua said.

“But it’s the water issue that’s the hardest to fix!” Gu Yongyi shook his head.

“I’ll figure out a way to solve it,” Zhang Jiaohua said.

“If we can solve the water problem, then all our other problems are solved. Our village has over 2,000 mu of rice paddies. If we can plant rice, the harvest in one year could feed the whole village for years. The only reason we’re starving is because of the water shortage. Some of the paddy fields are even turning into saline-alkali land now,” Gu Yongyi said excitedly.

“If there’s irrigation water, about how many mu of paddy fields can still be planted?” Zhang Jiaohua asked.

“At least a thousand mu,” Gu Yongyi thought for a moment and replied.

“That means more than half can still be reclaimed.” Zhang Jiaohua quickly did the math—just a thousand mu alone would yield a considerable harvest.

Zhang Jiaohua knew that although the source of the salinization had been blocked, fully restoring the land would take a lot of work. The water in the small reservoir needed to be drained, and the salt layers that had seeped into the soil had to be removed. It was a massive undertaking—something that the current manpower of Yingpan Village could not accomplish. Even without walking around much, he could already tell that the village was now almost entirely made up of elderly people and children. He hadn’t seen any young adults yet.

At that moment, a loudspeaker sounded from the entrance of the village.

“Buying medicinal herbs! Buying medicinal herbs!”

The announcement repeated over and over again.

“What’s that about?” Zhang Jiaohua asked curiously.

Gu Chuangui quickly replied, “They’re here to buy medicinal herbs. The villagers can’t farm because of the water shortage, so they survive by digging herbs in the mountains. I’ve dug some too—I’ll go get them.”

With that, Gu Chuangui took off running. Gu Yongyi smiled and said, “This kid always gets excited whenever someone comes to buy herbs.”

“Elder, if you don’t mind me asking—what about Chuangui’s parents?” Zhang Jiaohua asked.

Sigh “I knew you’d ask eventually. I’ve been keeping this from Chuangui. His father died years ago—he was a construction worker and died when the scaffolding collapsed. His mother never came back after collecting the compensation. Later, I went to her family’s place and heard she had remarried. I never dared tell the child that his father was gone and his mother had abandoned him. Tell me, how could such a good kid end up so pitiful?” Gu Yongyi sighed heavily, his eyes filled with despair.

Zhang Jiaohua remained silent—he hadn’t expected Chuangui’s life to be so tragic.

“Elder, don’t dwell too much on the past. I’m going to go check out what’s going on at the village entrance,” Zhang Jiaohua said, walking toward the source of the loudspeaker voice.

“Don’t rush! One at a time. I’ll buy all of your herbs. As long as the quality is good, I’ll pay a high price,” said the herbal buyer, who was named Tao Chunhe.

When Zhang Jiaohua arrived at the village entrance, villagers were trickling in, including a few young people in their thirties. This surprised Zhang Jiaohua—he had assumed all the working-age villagers had left for jobs elsewhere. Unexpectedly, six had shown up.

This was quite unexpected. These guys usually didn’t show themselves. Young and strong as they were, they stayed at home scraping by with a little herb gathering—how could they possibly have a future like that?

The village party secretary, Gu Baishui, also came over carrying a bamboo basket filled with herbs. When he saw Zhang Jiaohua, he quickly greeted him.

“Little Zhang, you’re here too? This man is Tao Chunhe. He’s the one who buys all the herbs from our village. Without him, the villagers wouldn’t have any way to make money. It’s just that the prices he pays are a bit low.” Gu Baishui seemed helpless—he couldn’t just drive Tao Chunhe away. If he did, the herb gatherers would skin him alive for cutting off their only source of income.

But Zhang Jiaohua knew that wild herbs like these fetched sky-high prices in the cities—far higher than what Tao Chunhe was paying.

Yingpan Village was surrounded by lush mountains, rich in wild resources, but exploiting nature this recklessly would definitely lead to big problems in the future. Zhang Jiaohua was already forming some new ideas in his mind.

“Wait a minute! Last time this baizhi herb sold for a much higher price. Why is it lower this time?” someone in the crowd complained.

“I already told you—the prices of herbs fluctuate. If I kept the price fixed, wouldn’t I go broke? You can sell if you want. If not, then forget it. I won’t come back here anymore. Find someone else to buy your herbs,” Tao Chunhe retorted without a trace of fear.

“Brother Chunhe, why are you getting so worked up? If there’s a problem, we can talk it through,” Gu Baishui rushed over to mediate.

“No, no. The people of Yingpan Village are too much for me. I don’t dare come back here again,” Tao Chunhe said, though he had no intention of leaving—buying herbs here was highly profitable. How could he give it up so easily?

“If you don’t come, I’ll find someone else to do it!” Zhang Jiaohua stepped forward and said.

Hearing the unfamiliar accent, Tao Chunhe assumed Zhang Jiaohua was a tough outsider. He immediately became wary and said, “What are you people trying to do? Don’t you know the rules? This place is already mine.”

“Yours?” Zhang Jiaohua frowned in confusion. He still hadn’t figured out what exactly was going on here.