Chapter 28 Repaying Zhou Xiye's Favor
Jiang Zhizhi leaned against the door, listening to Sun Xiaoyue greet Old Man Liang warmly outside: "Secretary Liang, I have a new idea about improving everyone's quality of life."
Old Liang was a little confused by Sun Xiaoyue's stilted words: "What's this 'quality of life'? What's that?"
Actually, he had a pretty good impression of Sun Xiaoyue. Although the method she mentioned earlier didn't work, she was a girl with ideas and seemed very proactive and enthusiastic every day.
Sun Xiaoyue smiled and said, "I've been here for the past two days and I've seen that everyone is having a hard time. I've also heard that many families run out of food by the time the New Year comes, and they have to eat potatoes for the rest of the year. When food is scarce, they have to rely on wild vegetables to survive."
"If this continues, everyone will easily suffer from malnutrition, especially children, who are at the stage of growing up."
Old Liang nodded repeatedly, still not understanding what Sun Xiaoyue was trying to say.
"Sun Zhiqing, what are your thoughts?"
Sun Xiaoyue said with some pride: "In winter, when it snows heavily, no one can do anything, which is a waste of time. The land is covered by snow, and we miss a season of crops, which is a pity. I thought, why not build plastic greenhouses?"
The term "plastic greenhouse" was completely unfamiliar to Old Liang, who was utterly bewildered: "What greenhouse?"
Sun Xiaoyue is very confident: "We just need to build a plastic greenhouse on the land, and then grow the crops we want inside. When it gets particularly cold, we can light a fire inside the greenhouse to keep the temperature warm. In this way, we can harvest a season's worth of crops even in winter."
Although Old Man Liang hadn't figured out what this plastic greenhouse was all about, he already felt it was unreliable just from hearing about it!
"How much plastic would that require? And how much firewood would you need? The cost would be too high. Besides, winter wheat is about to be planted in the fields. If you plant something else, when will the wheat be planted? That's the whole village's food supply for the year."
Sun Xiaoyue was stunned for a moment. She had never thought about this question before. In her previous life, she grew up in the countryside until she was nineteen years old. Although she did a lot of farm work, she had no experience in farming.
Later, she was taken back by the Jiang family and married Zhou Xiye. She lived in the compound and never had to worry about food or clothing again.
Seeing Sun Xiaoyue's stunned expression, Old Man Liang felt even more that what she said was unreliable: "Young Master Sun, your idea is good, but it doesn't apply here. Winter wheat yields will be higher. If the land is destroyed and other crops are planted, spring wheat yields will be half as low, and then everyone will be even less able to eat."
Sun Xiaoyue said awkwardly, "I really want to help everyone. Maybe I should go back and think about it some more. I'm sure I can find a way to improve everyone's living standards."
Old Liang couldn't bear to dampen Sun Xiaoyue's enthusiasm, so he nodded somewhat perfunctorily: "Alright, then I'll have to trouble you, Sun Qingqing."
Jiang Zhizhi was quite surprised that Sun Xiaoyue was so enthusiastic. She didn't think much about the plastic greenhouses, since Beijing already had them, and the vegetables grown there were specially supplied vegetables that ordinary people couldn't afford!
The reason for the lack of large-scale promotion is not only because building greenhouses is costly, but also because people's most basic food and clothing needs have not been met. How could they possibly grow these cash crops? And since they cannot trade them privately, who would they sell them to?
...
In the afternoon, Yang Fengmei came over again to help Jiang Zhizhi tidy up her room and make the bed. She kept reminding Jiang Zhizhi, "You have to make sure to lock the door properly when you live alone at night. Even though there are militiamen guarding the back, it's easy to get hurt if bad guys come in."
"Also, you don't need to cook for yourself. Just come to my house to eat at a certain time. I won't let you eat for free. You'll give me some food coupons every month, okay?"
She didn't really want to take Jiang Zhizhi's food coupons; she just thought of asking for some because she was afraid Jiang Zhizhi would be embarrassed to go.
Upon hearing this, Jiang Zhizhi readily agreed: "Then I'll have to trouble you, Auntie, from now on."
Yang Fengmei waved her hand with a smile: "What trouble? We still need to eat at home, right? Having one more person just means having one more pair of chopsticks."
Jiang Zhizhi also had something on her mind: Zhou Xiye had helped her a lot during this period, and she wanted to know how she should repay him.
Inviting someone to dinner or buying them a gift can seem a bit ambiguous these days.
Why not find a way to repay Zhou Xiye's big favor?
After Yang Fengmei finished tidying up, she prepared to go home and let Jiang Zhizhi rest. But as she walked to the door, she remembered something: "It's strange. Captain Zhou and his team went into the mountains to build roads, and the mountains have been blasted up. Why can't they let people into the mountains?"
"Captain Zhou and his entire unit have gone into the mountains. They've even set up a sentry post at the bottom of the mountain road. It's just road repair, but they're making it sound so secretive."
Jiang Zhizhi's eyelids twitched. She was familiar with this operation: blasting open mountains to build bases, construct fortifications, and conduct experiments.
Thinking back to when we met Zhou Xiye and that strange man by the river, they were pointing and drawing on the drawings, probably looking at the design plans. They smiled and said to Yang Fengmei, "Even if we don't blast the mountain, building a road is still dangerous. Falling rocks from the mountain are also very dangerous."
Yang Fengmei thought about it and agreed, looking regretful: "It's such a pity. Now many wild fruits in the mountains are ripe, and there are mushrooms over by the pine trees. We can pick them, dry them, and they'll taste delicious in winter."
Jiang Zhizhi smiled and said, "Compared to all this, life is more important."
Yang Fengmei laughed and said, "That's right, life is more important than anything else."
After Yang Fengmei left, Jiang Zhizhi looked around her little apartment and became more and more satisfied. Finally, she had her own private space.
She lay happily on the somewhat hard bed, closed her eyes and enjoyed this retirement-like life. Apart from the poor food, everything else made her very satisfied!
She had only intended to lie down for a while, but she accidentally closed her eyes and fell asleep, until the closing bell woke her up.
Jiang Zhizhi got up, washed up quickly, locked the door, and went to Old Man Liang's house for dinner.
Before they even left the village committee's courtyard, Old Man Liang rushed in with a dark face, headed straight for the office, turned on the loudspeaker, and began to announce: "Everyone who just finished work, go to the threshing ground. Two educated youths have gone missing in the mountains. We need to go look for them."
After being called three times, Old Man Liang came out of the office cursing.
Seeing this, Jiang Zhizhi couldn't help but complain: "These educated youth, why don't they listen to anything we say? We repeatedly emphasized that they can't go into the mountains, but they still sneaked off. Now look what happened, they've disappeared."
Jiang Zhizhi was also quite surprised: "What are they doing in the mountains?"
Old Liang had no idea: "Who knew? At noon I was thinking that Sun, the educated youth, was a nice person, quite smart and resourceful. Who knew that in the afternoon she would take another educated youth into the mountains. How could she be so good at causing trouble?"
Jiang Zhizhi never expected that the person who went into the mountain was actually Sun Xiaoyue.
Thinking to myself, Sun Xiaoyue is really good at stirring things up! What exactly is she trying to do?
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