"Li Long wants to set up a cooperative? That's a step backward! He wants to go back to the People's Commune days and oppose Reform and Opening Up!" Ma Jinbao stood in the General Store with a cup of loose liquor, shouting at the top of his lungs, his face red. "What does he think he's doing? Does he want to go back to everyone eating from the same pot? Absolutely not! I'm going to report him!"
"Old Ma, isn't that going a bit far?" someone tried to reason with him. "The cooperatives back then might not have shown much benefit, but that doesn't mean we're going back to everyone eating from the same pot, does it? Li Long's a County People's Congress Representative, after all. How could he make that kind of mistake?"
"Why couldn't he? He's gotten too full of himself! Haven't you seen what he's been doing this past year? He bought two High-Horsepower Tractors costing two or three hundred thousand in one go! And he just gave away the Dongfanghong 75 at home! Wang the Miser's such a good man, and he's driven him into a corner. Old Wang, isn't that right?"
In the corner, Wang the Miser leaned over the counter. He also had a cup of loose liquor in front of him, though he had a packet of pickled mustard greens more than Ma Jinbao did.
At Ma Jinbao's words, he immediately waved his hand.
"Old Ma, I never said that. He's got the ability to make money, and all I can do is admire him. What Xiao Long does is his own business, isn't it? There's nothing wrong with a cooperative, either. Several of them discussed it together. Would the others work with him if there was nothing in it for them?"
"Then