Finally, Liang Shengdi found a job rolling tobacco shreds in a small homemade cigarette factory. She worked in two shifts, from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., or from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m., earning 5 yuan a month with two days off.
Liang Shengdi didn't mind. Five yuan could buy 50 kilograms of rice! It was more than enough for her to live on for a month, and she could even buy some vegetables and meat, and maybe even some clothes!
She worked so hard to earn fifty yuan for the five-yuan job that her boss was very satisfied. When he paid her the first month's salary, he gave her two candies as an encouragement.
Even though he thought giving candies was worse than giving money, he was still excited about Liang Shengdi and was reluctant to give her the candies. He opened the two candies in front of the boss and put them all in his mouth.
"Don't worry, boss! I will do my best!"
She thought she had settled down here completely. All the money she earned every month was spent on rice and meat. Then she used the money she had earned from exchanging for a gun to move things into her home bit by bit, like an ant moving house.
Now that I have a bed and a stove, I can't keep a fire in the house every day.
Now that I have a stove, I've also made a small table so I can sit in bed and eat. If I have a table, I should also get a stool, right? Otherwise, it would be weird to eat in bed all the time.
She used the small pot that the Japanese had taken away. It was enough for her to use by herself, but she had to find a spatula so that she could cook some vegetables if she had money to buy oil one day.
The autumn harvest is almost here, so the new grain will be available soon, right?
She plans to buy more after getting her salary at the end of this month and save the rest of the money to buy herself a new set of clothes.
Damn it, she had been wearing this tattered cotton-padded jacket and the clothes she had exchanged with the village chief's daughter-in-law at the foot of Tiantai Mountain for the entire summer, and she was almost sweating from it.
Buy! You have to wear new clothes in your life!
Well... then she has to buy a wardrobe, since she still has money!
Liang Shengdi dreamed of a beautiful life and worked tirelessly every day. Since her life was stable, she refused to treat herself badly, and the little money she earned each month was basically all spent on her mouth. She couldn't save any money at all.
Unfortunately, God seemed blind and her beautiful dream was soon shattered.
After the autumn harvest of that year, landlords and capitalists used methods such as forced rent and debt collection to purchase large quantities of grain from farmers at a low price of six or seven yuan per dan, and hoarded the grain, leaving very little grain on the market.
When Liang Shengdi first came here, it was a spring famine. At that time, one dollar could buy 10 kilograms of rice, but now after the autumn harvest, one dollar can only buy 8 kilograms of rice.
Her original idea of buying clothes was completely shattered. Apart from buying rice and salt every month, she was reluctant to spend money on anything else.
Food prices are rising every month. Later on, not only rice, but also brown rice, millet and beans have risen in price.
By the beginning of the following spring, that is, the 29th year of the Republic of China, 1940 AD.
A widespread drought occurred throughout the country, and a concentrated famine broke out in eastern Zhejiang, with Yuezhou being the worst hit.
Grain prices skyrocketed, reaching 66 yuan per dan (a dan) by the end of May! A dan (a dan) of rice weighed only 180 jin (approximately 200 kg), meaning one jin cost 0.37 yuan.
Liang Shengdi didn't understand, but when she heard others tell her that her monthly salary of 5 taels was only enough to buy 13.5 kilograms, she became strangely angry.
Damn capitalists!
Thirteen and a half pounds, do you want to starve her to death?
The most important thing is that there is no rice at all, and grain stores sell limited quantities every day, and their closing times are getting earlier and earlier.
Every day when the door opens, the prices on the sign change, which makes you feel uneasy.
Liang Shengdi exchanged all the little money she had for rice. As a result, she could only eat porridge for every meal, fearing that she would not be able to afford food when she got the money next month.
When chatting with the people who worked with her, everyone had a sad face. One of her aunts even said to Liang Shengdi, "You'd better find a man to marry as soon as possible. The two of you can always pool your money to buy more rice."
Liang Shengdi was speechless. Could the man be full by drinking the northwest wind or could she be full by drinking water?
She didn't know what got into her head, but she suddenly ran to her boss and asked if she could get a raise.
The boss looked at her puzzledly, "Why should I give you a raise?"
Liang Shengdi: "...Rice is too expensive. I can't even afford to eat with this salary."
The boss sneered and looked at Liang Shengdi as if she were a fool.
"I didn't raise the price of rice. Why should I care if you don't have enough to eat? You're not my daughter."
"If you work hard for a month and still can't earn enough to buy rice, that's because you're useless. Think about whether you're not working hard enough!"
"No one comes to me to beg for food?! My family doesn't want rice? Who should I ask for it?
"Go, go, go! Go to work! If you can't do it well, don't do it!"
…
Liang Shengdi finally realized that day that the boss giving her candy was like throwing a bone to a dog. He wouldn't really care about her life or death.
She had only heard from her colleagues how much money the cigarette factory made and how rich the boss was, so she had this unrealistic thought that if she worked so hard, the boss might take care of her.
She was too naive.
But what the boss said was right. She was not his daughter. He just hired her to do a job, and the price was clearly marked before she started working: five dollars a month.
At the beginning, this money was indeed enough for her to have three meals a day, but who knew that the price of food would suddenly rise so much.
But she was still hurt and didn't want to do this job anymore, at least not to make money for this boss.
Do you want to quit?
Liang Shengdi worked the night shift yesterday and was now rushing home to sleep. As she walked on the way, her mind was still in a mess.
Suddenly, she heard a gunshot, which scared her. She quickly hid in the corner of the wall. There was a commotion around her.
Then she heard a few more "bangs". The gunshots were not far from her position, but also seemed not that close.
She was not far from her home, so she hurried over, ran a few steps back home, closed the door, locked the doors and windows, and then snuggled into the double blanket.
When I went to work the next day, I heard everyone discussing the gunshots from yesterday.
The county has been very unstable recently, with hundreds of people pouring in from outside every day. Liang Shengdi heard from her sister-in-law, who was the most informed, that they were all farmers in the county.
They all gathered in the county town and sent petition representatives to the county magistrate to demand that unscrupulous merchants be punished, the rice market be opened, rice prices be stabilized, and supply be guaranteed.
But the county magistrate ignored them and sent the Self-Defense Force to shoot and suppress the petitioners. I heard that several people were injured and a group of people were arrested!
The other aunt kept working, curled her lips and snorted coldly,
"They are so stupid! They don't even think about the chaos outside because of the food prices! How could the county magistrate not know?
It's just that they collected enough money! They also stockpiled enough food! They helped people steal money and kill people! "
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