The work of buying reed bundles went astonishingly fast this time. Just as nearly everyone in the Fourth Team was working hard, planning to tie more bundles and earn more money, Li Jianguo announced that it was over.
Nine days was a new record for the reed-bundling work over these past two years.
Of course, the bundles had not all come from the Fourth Team. Some households there still had huge stacks of reeds at home and were planning to tie more.
On the eighth day, Han Benzhong and Han Dachun from the Corps farm brought over two horse-drawn carts loaded with reed bundles, four or five hundred in all.
The day after Li Long delivered the first load of reed bundles to the Supply and Marketing Cooperative, Han Dachun came to Li Jianguo's house, bringing the Li family two plastic jugs of liquor.
Han Benzhong had collected the liquor on the Huke Highway.
A tanker carrying liquor had overturned in an accident, rupturing its tank and spilling the undiluted liquor. Han Benzhong, who had been working at the edge of a field, rescued the driver. The driver then told him to hurry home and get containers to collect the liquor-it would only go to waste otherwise.
"This is undiluted liquor from a distillery, headed to a liquor factory up north for blending," Han Dachun said. "We've got a few dozen kilos at home. These are for you, Uncle Li."
Naturally, ordinary people considered freshly distilled, undiluted liquor better than blended liquor-though it burned fiercely going down, mainly because of its high alcohol content.
It was quite a fine gift. Since Li Jianguo was buying reed bundles and knew the Han family could do the work, he told Han Dachun to go home and speak to Han Benzhong. If they