When Lin Guoqing came back, he heard his wife say that the old lady at home wanted to buy a boat. He was puzzled.
"What do you need a boat for? Can you row?"
"I can do it!" Liang Shengdi nodded seriously. "I can also row with my feet. If you want to learn, I can teach you."
Lin Guoqing expressed his gratitude, saying that he didn't want to go because he couldn't even swim and was rowing the boat with his feet, purely to feed the fish.
Liang Shengdi wanted a boat, and she was thinking about getting on it all the time. She counted on her fingers and told them that it was a good deal to buy the boat.
"If you need a three-wheeled spring flower, build me a boat. When I have some free time, I can row it to catch fish and then row it along the river to sell them. Isn't that perfect?"
"When it gets colder, I'll go dig some bamboo shoots and mushrooms, pile them all up on the boat, and row them around to sell them. Isn't that more than what a tricycle can carry?"
"Actually, it's faster for us to go to the provincial capital and the city by boat, right? I can even row the boat to take our eldest daughter to school! Chunhua, weren't you thinking about expanding the chicken and duck farm a few days ago? You were worried that the tricycle wouldn't be able to fit them all in one trip?"
"If it doesn't fit, put it on the boat and I'll row you!"
Lin Guoqing & Chen Chunhua: ...
In fact, the water system here is indeed more developed. When I took Lin Shuying to the provincial capital for medical treatment, we took a boat and arrived in more than an hour. However, after getting off the boat to go to the hospital, we had to take the bus again, so time was wasted.
But if Liang Shengdi is right, selling vegetables without a specific destination... then it really has to be a boat. Even if more than a dozen rivers were filled to build roads for development after the founding of the People's Republic of China, that couldn't stop the unimpeded flow of thousands of rivers.
The reason why Chen Chunhua and Lin Guoqing thought about buying a tricycle instead of a boat was that they were rare landlubbers in the water town and could not row a boat.
Another thing is that compared to tricycles, their boats are more conspicuous. The inspection teams on land are not as numerous as those on the water.
Back then, it was all done in secret. You'd be paddling on the river, and someone would flash a big flashlight at you and ask you what you were doing. Whether you answered or not, I'd jump on your boat and check it out.
If I were on the ground, there would be a place to hide, and I might be able to find a corner and run away when I saw the light. On the river, I could only jump off the boat, after all, they were hand-cranked boats, and I couldn't escape.
But now Liang Shengdi said she wanted to row a boat to sell things, which was really possible.
Thousands of rivers, large and small, pass directly through people's houses. The river is right in front of you when you open the door. You can row your boat on the river and sell your goods. If anyone wants to buy something, they just need to open the window and ask them to stop the boat.
The road map of Shaoxing Prefecture during the Ming and Qing Dynasties found on the Internet shows nothing but rivers, big rivers, medium rivers and small rivers.
Now many families are doing this, setting up stalls by rowing boats. The county even has a river that has formed a small market where people sell cloth, vegetables, bamboo baskets, and everything else.
"Then...what should we do with the fields?" Lin Guoqing smacked his lips. In fact, he was a little tempted. If his mother earned more than he did in the factory, he would even go to work for the old lady.
But the key is the farm work; it can't stop now. After the policy was relaxed, Zhuang Zhijie's food station no longer had to subsidize the eggs they collected with food coupons. With more people involved in the poultry and egg business, there was no need for any incentives.
Liang Shengdi: "I'll go during the slack season. There's nothing much to do these past two days. Chunhua must be tired after wandering around all morning. She can look after our fields in the afternoon, so I might as well go out for a walk."
To be honest, she still prefers the time when she was in the mountains and rivers, where she had more freedom. Farming for the past few years has made her back ache, and mainly because she has no money, so she just wants to go out for a walk.
"Besides, didn't Chunhua say that if we continue farming for two more years, we'll be able to buy food without tickets? Then I can row my boat out every day. This boat is worth buying!"
"Ah? We won't need food coupons for another two years? How did you know that?" Lin Guoqing was shocked. The factory was promoting the latest policies every day, right? How could he not know about this?
"Oh! Mom! What are you talking about! That's not what I meant!"
Chen Chunhua had just said that she might not need a ticket, and the old lady had been thinking about it. Now she directly crossed out the word "maybe", confirming her identity as a demigod.
In fact, it will take another 10 years for food coupons to be truly abolished nationwide, but in two years, the unified purchase and sale system will be abolished. Here, you still need coupons to buy food at the grain and oil station, but you can also go to private grain and oil stores to buy rice without coupons, but it will be a bit more expensive.
"What I mean is, doesn't everyone farm their own fields now? They've been saying there's more food every year for the past two years... Then, one day, there won't be a shortage of food!"
"Didn't you tell me last time you came back that you can eat without a ticket in the Special Administrative Region? Isn't that a sign? Maybe one day, we won't even need a ticket here!"
When Lin Guoqing heard her talk about her last business trip to the Special Administrative Region, his heart ached. "Yes, you can buy it, but a bowl of rice costs five cents if you have food coupons, and fifty cents if you don't! Rice is so expensive, we'd better just grow it ourselves..."
Chen Chunhua: ...It’s not that expensive.
"I didn't say I won't plant it now. It'll be two years later! If you go to the Special Administrative Region, everything will be expensive!" Chen Chunhua curled her lips, but couldn't say it clearly. She was so angry that she didn't want to pay attention to this country bumpkin for a while.
However, it is a good thing that Liang Shengdi wants to make money. Lin Guoqing feels that he should not undermine her self-confidence. In case the family really stops farming in the future, it would be a good thing for the old lady to find something to do.
"I'll go ask in a couple of days where the best boat builders are and order one. Do you want a wupeng boat or a stone boat?"
"Of course it's the black-sailed one! We need to put things on the boat. Stone boats don't have roofs. What if they get wet in the rain?" Liang Shengdi quickly picked it up when she saw that her son had agreed.
My dear, there is more to this chapter. Please click on the next page to continue reading. It will be even more exciting later!
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