Li Long did not stay long at his eldest brother's house. After two bowls of hot tea, he hurried away in the Jeep.
It was already dark. He switched on the headlights. Their beams were a far cry from the high beams of later years, but they were enough to light the road ahead now.
Lu Yingming only came over to the Li family's house after the Jeep had left.
He knocked on the West Room's window and called out:
"Old Li, are you in?"
"Yes, yes! Is that Tietou's dad? Come on in," Liang Yuemei called from inside.
Quite a few village households had made some money this year, and several had bought televisions. They were only black-and-white sets, but they were watchable. As a result, fewer people came to watch the color television in Li Qingxia's room, especially now, when the cold made people reluctant to go outside.
The place would only grow lively again close to New Year, once the children were on holiday.
Lu Yingming entered and saw that the Li family were all there. The children were talking in the room to the west, and a gamey smell hung in the air.
"Your family's certainly been busy today," Lu Yingming said with a smile. "That Jeep looked beautiful. Was that..."
"Xiao Long drove it here," Li Jianguo said. "A leader at the Prefectural Supply and Marketing Cooperative asked him to handle something and left him the vehicle to make the work easier."
"Xiao Long drove it? He can drive a car?" Lu Yingming was surprised too. "He really is something!"
"Haha, the leader trusts him," Li Jianguo said with a smile. "The job will take a while, so they left the vehicle here. We went out to do something, and Xiao Long dropped us home