Chapter 136
Speaking of reed stalks, An Baoling also started to worry: "But I've gone to every place you can, and even bought back the reed stalks that were too short and thin before. If I don't tell my sister-in-law, the mat weaving team will really have to stop working."
When there were no orders before, I used to worry about the piles of reeds. I never thought that now that there are more orders, I still have to worry about the piles of reeds. The only difference is that before, I worried that the reeds I bought would rot in my hands, but now I worry that the piles of reeds fall off too quickly.
Zhao Xianzhi knew how much Xia Juhua valued the weaving team and was determined not to let them stop working. He gritted his teeth and said to An Baoling, "Okay, then you come with me to find the captain tonight. We won't talk about those people's gossips, but just ask the captain if he has any way to find some reeds for us."
When the two arrived at Xia Juhua's house in the evening, the family had already finished dinner. Baoguo was doing his homework at the kang table by the oil lamp, Lele was lying on Xia Juhua's lap, saying something, and Xiaoman was strolling back and forth on the floor.
Zhao Xianzhi asked as soon as she saw him, "Xiaoman will be pregnant in a few days, right? I think her belly is getting smaller."
Xia Juhua wanted to go downstairs to greet them, but An Baoling stopped her on the edge of the kang and said, "Do we still need to be so polite?"
Although she said you're welcome, Wang Caifeng quickly poured a cup of brown sugar water for each person, and when she handed it to them, she smiled and said, "I also said that Xiaoman will be born soon, so I hope she can give birth soon so that I can see my nephew before moving."
Wang Caifeng's mother was afraid that her daughter's words would make her sister-in-law worried, so she glared at her and said, "When the time is right, the baby will grow a little bit longer if it stays in the belly for one more day. You've already given birth to two children, don't you understand this?"
Xiao Man smiled hurriedly and said, "Auntie, my sister-in-law is worried that I will be scared when the time comes, and she is at home to help me build up my courage, there is no other intention."
This made Wang Caifeng's mother laugh: "Yes, you are sisters, one helping the other, I am a bad guy for nothing."
Wang Caifeng said to her mother with a smile: "Mom, you are not a bad person for nothing. We two sisters are fine."
Wang Caifeng's mother smiled at Xia Juhua and said, "I just want to learn from you. How can you get along so well with your daughter-in-law and make them both think alike and get along better than real sisters?" Even real sisters can fight over a jacket. In the two days she had been here, she had not seen any disagreements between her daughter-in-law and her sister-in-law.
Xia Juhua herself had thought about this question many times before, and slowly said: "To be honest, I really did nothing. I didn't interfere with how the couple lived, nor did I interfere with how the sisters-in-law got along with each other. From the day I became the production team leader of Ping'an Village, I couldn't take care of the family affairs at all. Maybe it's because I can't take care of the family that the two sisters don't help each other, and there's no one to help them when they encounter problems, so they can't get along well?"
It is easier said than done not to mix. After all, the living conditions in rural areas are generally poor now. A large family pools resources together, and only through the redistribution of resources by the parents can everyone be guaranteed not to go hungry. So can parents really not mix?
This is the case with the Liu family. Except for the two children, can earn money. Even though Xiaoman can only walk around with a bulging belly and cannot get out of the field, she can earn as much money from frying peanuts for a whole winter as an employed person can in a year. Only when the family has abundant resources can parents let go and let the small family arrange their own lives.
In addition, the most profitable person in the family is not the strong laborers Liu Zhiquan and Liu Zhishuang, nor is it Xiaoman who earns more by frying peanuts in a winter than others do in a whole year, but Xia Juhua. Therefore, Xia Juhua has the confidence not to take all the family resources into her own hands.
She has more money than her two sons combined, so there is no need to worry about her using one son's money to support the other. It would be strange if there were any conflicts between brothers and sisters-in-law.
As Wang Caifeng's biological mother, when she saw Wang Caifeng crying like that after returning home, wasn't the first person she wanted to persuade? Why did she keep making excuses for Xia Juhua? Wasn't it because she knew that her daughter had a good life, and it was not because of Liu Zhiquan but because of Xia Juhua, the mother-in-law?
It's hard to curry favor with such a rich mother-in-law, but I dare not let my daughter-in-law be distracted by her.
Seeing that Wang Caifeng's mother remained silent after hearing what Xia Juhua said, An Baoling smiled and tried to change the subject. She said to Xia Juhua, "Xianzhi and I came here today, but I have something to ask my sister-in-law to make a decision on."
Xia Juhua smiled and nodded to let her continue. Wang Caifeng's mother had already carried Lele over: "Lele is sleepy. I'll take her back to the house to sleep." Even though Lele struggled twice in her arms, she still insisted on taking the child away.
An Baoling was in no hurry to talk about business. She and Zhao Xianzhi sent her out the door before coming back to say to Xia Juhua, "Sister-in-law is so lucky. She has a good daughter-in-law and the in-laws are all very considerate." Wang Caifeng's mother was very considerate. When she heard that Wang Caifeng had something important to talk about, she immediately took the ignorant child away to avoid disturbing their conversation.
Xia Juhua was happy: "If someone in the family is diligent, they will raise a bunch of lazy people. I am lazy and don't know how to deal with people, so I force my family to be diligent and considerate, and even my in-laws have to give in to me. Okay, I know you two are busy people, just tell me what's going on."
Zhao Xianzhi and the other two came to ask Xia Juhua for advice, and without any empty words, they told Xia Juhua directly that there were not many reeds left in Ping'an Manor, and they could only support about seven or eight days at most.
Xia Juhua just remembered that she always felt like she had forgotten something when she came back, but she was so busy that she didn't think about it carefully. Now that Zhao Xianzhi and the others mentioned it, she remembered the thoughts she had at the Expo.
"Zhishuang, go get me some wheat straw." Xia Juhua assigned a task to her youngest son. Everyone in the room was very surprised. They didn't know why Xia Juhua wanted wheat straw when they were saying that there were not enough wheat straw. However, Liu Zhihua still followed his mother's request and quickly brought back the wheat straw.
Xia Juhua took a close look at the wheat straw in her hand and removed the outer skin of the wheat straw. The smooth straw stalks even shone faintly under the oil lamp. Then Xia Juhua picked up the knife she had just found and broke the wheat straw in the same way as she had broken the skin of the wheat straw. She then carefully scraped the pith inside cleanly.
After testing the hardness and softness, Xia Juhua began to weave it. After a while, a small pepper was formed under Xia Juhua's hands. Although the wheat straw skin was not dyed, the shape was still recognizable at a glance, and its smoothness was no worse than that of the one woven with reed skin.
"Captain?" Zhao Xianzhi grabbed the pepper in disbelief and looked at it over and over again: "It turns out that wheat straw can also be woven into decorations."
Xia Juhua nodded and said, "When I received the order in Yangcheng, I was worried that we didn't have enough reed stalks, so I wanted to come back and try to weave with wheat straw. But I got sick after I came back, and then one thing after another happened after I was discharged from the hospital, and I forgot about it."
An Baoling took the pepper from Zhao Xianzhi and looked at it again and again: "That's great. Our team doesn't have much other things, but we have as much wheat straw as we want. This time we don't have to worry about not having any."
Xia Juhua shattered her dream: "Wheat straw is easy to break, but it's too soft. If you want to weave it to have the same effect as reed stalks, you have to use at least two of them. How can you make two pieces look the same as one? You can't weave something that doesn't go in and out. It takes a lot of practice."
"As for reed mats, we can't use wheat straw, we have to use reed stalks. Tomorrow I will go to the county seat and call the regional or provincial supply and marketing system to ask if they can allocate some reed stalks for us. We have to complete the orders in hand."
Hearing that Xia Juhua was going to the city, Liu Zhishuang asked: "Mom, are you well enough? How about I drive you there on my tractor?" His mother was busy driving again after leaving the hospital, so how could he feel at ease to report to the district.
"No need." Xia Juhua answered firmly: "You should teach Zhifu these few days. I can go there by bike."
It turned out that because Liu Zhishuang was going to work in the district, Xia Juhua asked him to teach Liu Erzhuang's eldest son Liu Zhifu how to drive a tractor. When the tractors first arrived at the Ping'anzhuang Brigade, it was agreed that one of them must be used by the Ping'anzhuang Production Team, so no one objected to Xia Juhua's decision.
An Baoling would not think that Xia Juhua took too much care of Li Daya's family. Her own son Liu Zhijun was able to join the army. Wasn't it Xia Juhua who took care of him? Why should she want all the good things to happen to herself?
Besides, her son Zhiguo is still studying. An Baoling really doesn't want Zhiguo to stop studying and go home to learn how to drive a tractor - driving a tractor seems to be very popular, but judging from the expression of her sister-in-law Xia Juhua, it is obvious that she values children who can study more. As long as Zhiguo studies hard, he will have plenty of opportunities in the future.
Zhao Xianzhi and An Baoling, who had thought clearly and made up their minds, left Xia Juhua's house with a smile on their faces. All they talked about along the way was that the captain was the captain, and look at how smart he was. They said that he had already thought about their gray hair problems, but they were too busy to mention them.
The next day, Xia Juhua called Deputy Director Gu of the provincial supply and marketing system. However, she felt that her brain was not as smart as Zhao Xianzhi and the others thought, because Deputy Director Gu asked her a question on the phone, which was where did all the cashews she bought go?
"That is, we distributed it to the neighbors and the people in the production team so that everyone can have a taste of it." Xia Juhua was startled, but she still gave Deputy Director Gu the answer she had thought of long ago.
Deputy Director Gu laughed on the other end of the phone: "That's right, there are so many people in your Ping'an Village Brigade, and you have been back for such a long time, how could you have finished all the cashews?"
This did not make Xia Juhua relax. She asked carefully, "Deputy Director Gu, why are you suddenly concerned about my cashews?"
Deputy Director Gu said nonchalantly, "It's nothing. I don't know where some cashews came from in the black market in the provincial capital, and people were panicking for a few days. Fortunately, the man was not very courageous. He ran away when he saw that things were not going well, and he was not caught. So I'm telling you today to keep an eye on your cashews. If you eat them all, forget it."
Xia Juhua breathed a sigh of relief. It seemed that Deputy Director Gu had suppressed the cashew nut issue for her. So she said solemnly to the other end of the phone, "Deputy Director Gu, thank you for your reminder. I will pay attention to it."
Deputy Director Gu on the other end of the phone laughed again: "This is nothing. Compared with the contribution you have made, I am just reminding you not to make mistakes, not shielding you. You don't need to thank me. By the way, I asked someone to coordinate the reed poles you mentioned after you left. Maybe they can be transported to Ping An Zhuang in a day or two. But let's make it clear first that the cost of the reed poles and the transportation fee must be paid by you, Ping An Zhuang."
Xia Juhua said quickly, "No problem, no problem. As long as you have reeds, we in Ping'an Village will definitely pay for them. Deputy Director Gu, thank you so much. Whenever you come to Pingde County for an inspection, you must come to visit our Ping'an Village Brigade."
Deputy Director Gu smiled and said, "There will definitely be a chance. I heard that Ping'an Village will make a great contribution again this time. This is the pride of the people of our province. When you have finished products, our supply and marketing system will go to Ping'an Village to learn from you."
Xia Juhua realized that what Deputy Director Gu was talking about was that Ping'an Village was going to supply hot and sour noodles to the troops. As for how he knew that, it was easy to understand: making hot and sour noodles is inseparable from sweet potatoes, and at this time, the troops' coordination of sweet potatoes certainly cannot be separated from the supply and marketing system.
She also talked to Deputy Director Gu on the phone about the construction progress of the vermicelli factory in Ping'anzhuang Brigade. After accepting his encouragement, Xia Juhua hung up the phone with great satisfaction.
Uncle Qi listened to Xia Juhua's phone call, and after delivering the water to Xia Juhua, he asked, "Are you relieved now?"
Xia Juhua nodded: "Well, now we have a place to get the reeds. Deputy Director Gu said they can be delivered to Ping'an Village in a day or two."
Uncle Qi snorted disdainfully: "I'm asking you what's going on with cashews."
Xia Juhua said very unhappily: "Director Qi, didn't you say you wouldn't listen to us?"
"This is my office, you borrowed my phone." Uncle Qi didn't feel embarrassed about being discovered, and continued to ask the question that concerned him: "Didn't you say that there were only so many cashews? What did Deputy Director Gu say just now?"
Xia Juhua certainly couldn't tell the truth, so she used the words that Deputy Director Gu had just agreed with her to respond to Uncle Qi, which made him angry enough: "Don't think that there is no □□ now, but speculation and profiteering are still being caught. You and Qi Weidong should be careful. If anything happens, don't say that I don't care about you."
Humph, if you really don't care, why are you asking? Xia Juhua walked out of Uncle Qi's office with confidence, and returned to Ping'an Manor to inform Zhao Xianzhi and others of the good news. Zhao Xianzhi, who was in charge of purchasing reed stems, was very happy: "This is good, today is really a double happiness."
"What double happiness?" Xia Juhua came to the mat-making group as soon as she came back from the county, and didn't go to the brigade, so she didn't know what the other happiness Zhao Xianzhi was talking about was. Zhao Xianzhi was very proud of her well-informed information: "Accountant Chang notified all production teams today that electricity will be available in every household in the evening, and we can also turn on the lights at night."
In other words, unknowingly, electricity was connected to all production teams in Ping'anzhuang. Tonight, Ping'anzhuang, which had been silent since dark, will usher in the brightest night in its history.
For Xia Juhua, the significance of electricity is not only the change of night lighting tools, but also more electrical equipment can be applied to production. She didn't even bother to talk to Zhao Xianzhi for a few more seconds, and rode her bicycle to the group again.
When they arrived at the brigade headquarters, Accountant Chang was not there, only Li Changshun was guarding the brigade headquarters. Seeing Xia Juhua coming, the old man smiled until his eyes narrowed into slits: "You also heard that we can have electricity tonight."
Xia Juhua's face, which had been stern for many days, finally smiled: "Yes, I heard that the electricity would be available in the evening when I came back from the county, so I came to take a look."
"Go ahead, they are all at the transformer." Li Changshun had just gone to see it once, but felt that he couldn't understand it, so he came back to guard the brigade headquarters.
Xia Juhua was not in a hurry to leave: "Captain, now that we have electricity, we need someone to look after the transformer and let someone learn how to be an electrician. We can't bother the commune's electrician with every little thing."
Li Changshun naturally nodded in agreement: "We need to send someone to learn. I heard from the people at the power supply bureau that electricity is not a joke. If you are not careful, you will get electrocuted. Who do you think is suitable to send?"
Xia Juhua was also worried: too few people in Ping'anzhuang Brigade had been to school, and the few junior high school graduates hadn't touched a book in more than ten years. I'm afraid they would return it to the teacher with porridge.
But that's electricity. Xia Juhua couldn't imagine what she could learn by rote memorization without even a junior high school education.
For a while, Xia Juhua really couldn't think of who to choose as an electrician. She had no choice but to shake her head and said, "Forget it, there's no rush. Let's wait and see what those guys will learn. For the time being, let's trouble the electrician in the commune first." She had to not bother, because she had just taken it for granted.
Li Changshun knew that Xia Juhua was a person with her own ideas. Now, apart from calming down the situation for her, he rarely expressed his opinions on ordinary matters. Moreover, Li Changshun found that since the incident with the former fifth captain, his role in calming down the situation was becoming increasingly difficult to play. It seemed that he would have to learn from the fifth master and stay in the small village more often, so that he would not have to worry about the big team anymore.
Thinking of the Fifth Master, Li Changshun asked, "The Fifth Master hasn't come out yet?"
Xia Juhua recalled the news she heard the day before yesterday, and felt that today was not a double happiness, but a triple happiness: "When I went to see Master Wu the day before yesterday, although I didn't go in, Qixi told me that a chick had already hatched, and that it should be almost ready by today."
After returning to Ping'an Manor, she would knock on Master Wu's door again. If all the chicks had hatched, maybe she could get in today. Xia Juhua calculated the time and felt that it was about time - Master Wu had locked the gate four days before she came back, and it had been more than half a month, nearly twenty days, since she came back, so it was not time for the chicks to hatch.
Li Changshun also became interested after hearing this. He was not in a hurry to let Xia Juhua go to see the transformer. He pulled her aside and asked, "Qi Xizhen said that some chicks have hatched. How many have hatched? Are they alive? Are many of them killed?"
Xia Juhua really couldn't answer these questions, which made Li Changshun say with regret: "As long as we can hatch a few this time, it can be regarded as a new way to find out. Next time we will definitely hatch more than this time."
Xia Juhua thought so too, but she heard Qixi's cheerful tone when talking to her, so she thought they wouldn't waste too many chickens. Besides, it was almost May now, and the hens in many members' homes had already started brooding, and they should be out of their shells in less than half a month, so even if Wuye was not successful this time, it would not affect the chicken-raising plan of the Pingan Village Brigade.
In fact, it was a correct choice for Li Changshun to guard the brigade headquarters: in Xia Juhua's view, the transformer was just a lump of iron. She couldn't understand the pipes and wires on it. All she saw was a group of people gathered around the thing, busy with something unknown.
"Captain, you're here." Upon seeing Xia Juhua, Sun Qinglin, the newly elected captain of the fifth team and the former chairman of the poor peasants of the brigade, greeted her. Fearing that she had arrived late and didn't understand the situation, he introduced her to the power supply bureau, saying, "The comrades at the power supply bureau said that as long as the transformer is connected, the lights of each household can be turned on by pushing the switch."
Xia Juhua had already put away the smile she had maintained in front of Li Changshun, but she did not look stern in front of Sun Qinglin, the former chairman of the poor peasants' committee, and asked, "Can you pick it up before dinner?"
Sun Qinglin asked the crowd and got a positive answer. Xia Juhua also looked into the crowd and found Hu Zhongshan and Li Youguang also watching the lively crowd.
Since the summer juhua stipulated that the educated youth could only take a one-month vacation during the Chinese New Year, and they were required to study the regulations for the management of educated youth carefully, these educated youth became obedient. No one complained to the team during the spring ploughing, and they all honestly took care of the little land allocated to them - the educated youth did not have much food left last year, and if they did not farm well, they would still be hungry this year.
Xia Juhua felt that the educated youth had become so obedient probably because someone had heard some news after returning home, or because Deng Chunlin, the troublemaker, had been exposed by her and had lost his prestige among the educated youth and could no longer cause trouble.
However, the educated youths still seldom interacted with the people from Ping'anzhuang Brigade. Why did Hu Zhongshan and the other two come to see the excitement today?
"Hu Zhongshan." Xia Juhua felt that she couldn't figure it out, so she simply called Hu Zhongshan over. She didn't ask them why they were hanging out with the other members today, but instead asked, "Did the educated youths' point pull the wires?"
Hu Zhongshan didn't expect that Xia Juhua called him for this matter. He hesitated for a moment and said, "I had it with Li Youguang in that room. They, they didn't seem to have done anything."
Xia Juhua understood without asking. Although the power supply bureau funded the electric poles and wires that connected the production teams to the brigade, the wires to the members' homes, as well as the wiring and light bulbs in the homes, were still paid for by the members themselves. I think the same was true for the educated youth sites. Hu Zhongshan and Li Youguang had good family conditions and the money to lay the wires, but the rest of the people were not sure. Who knows, new conflicts might arise over that little money.
"Okay, but you still have to pay attention to electrical safety." Xia Juhua understood that Hu Zhongshan and Li Youguang wanted to see whether the electricity could be turned on tonight, so she reminded him.
If Hu Zhongshan had said this normally, he would have just agreed and left. But today he did not move. Instead, he looked at Xia Juhua and said, "Captain, I heard that almost all the members' homes in the production teams have been wired."
Xia Juhua nodded. All the members of Ping'anzhuang Brigade had earned money last year and were very active in pulling up electric wires, just waiting for the day when electricity would be available so that they could have electric lights in their homes that would light up with a single pull and would not irritate the eyes, so that they could show off to their relatives who did not have electricity yet.
So Xia Juhua confirmed Hu Zhongshan's question: "Yes, almost every family has accepted it. What's the matter? What do you think?"
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