Chapter 147
Qi Weidong wanted to say that he had been doing business for many years and was not afraid of making a profit or loss. However, it was a rare opportunity to sell badly to Xia Juhua, so he did not want to let it go: "I am also worried. But think about it, several people follow me for meals, what will those people eat if I don't stock up?"
"I'm just looking forward to having good things like dried shrimps and cashews so that I can stockpile as much as I can and still sell them. Otherwise, if I have one of these things stuck in my hands, all my years of hard work will have been in vain."
You won't work in vain, you will have to build a farmers' market in the future. Xia Juhua looked at Qi Weidong's eloquent words and didn't want to respond to his words. Qi Weidong knew how to strike while the iron was hot, and asked with a smile: "Auntie, when can you bring back some more dried shrimps, so that we can make money from him again."
The dried shrimps that Xia Juhua brought back from Guangzhou last time were also given to Qi Weidong to sell. He actually asked for a high price of eight yuan per pound and sold them all. The profit was also divided equally between the two of them.
However, there were only a little over 100 kilograms of dried shrimps in total, which was far less than the money earned from cashews. Xia Juhua didn't even save the money in the bank and kept it at home.
Now Qi Weidong mentioned dried shrimps again, knowing that cashews would not be available for a second time. Xia Juhua was a little tempted: road construction requires a lot of money, and if she could make some money from selling dried shrimps, she would have more to contribute when raising funds.
"I brought that thing back from Guangzhou. I'm not going to Guangzhou now, so I have nowhere to get it." Xia Juhua said with some regret: "I wish I could go to Guangzhou again someday."
No, she still has a chance to go to Guangzhou. Xia Juhua suddenly remembered that the contract signed by Country A required her to receive the goods in person after they arrived in Guangzhou, so she could go to Guangzhou then.
It stands to reason that after three or four months, the rubber from Country A should have arrived. Because the goods were shipped directly to Yangcheng, it didn't really matter whether Xia Juhua went to Yangcheng or not. She wasn't sure whether the ministry still needed her to go to Yangcheng, so she didn't mention it to Qi Weidong. Seeing that he wasn't greatly affected, she felt relieved and went to the county government to find Uncle Qi.
Uncle Qi knew that Xia Juhua would not come to him for no reason, but he had never thought that her matter was so serious. Road construction is paved with money. Even if the road from the county town to Ping'an Village is only more than 30 miles, according to the standards Xia Juhua mentioned, it is a provincial highway of the first grade. How much money does it cost?
I'm afraid you can't get it without 100,000 yuan.
One hundred thousand yuan. The annual budget of Pingde County Committee is only a few hundred thousand yuan!
So even though Uncle Qi was tempted, he still shook his head with regret: "The county can't afford so much money. Even for materials for road construction, the county supply and marketing cooperative can't coordinate."
"What if the members of our Ping An Village raise funds?" Xia Juhua asked.
Uncle Qi's eyes changed when he looked at Xia Juhua: "Raising funds, how do you raise funds? Do you, the members of Ping'an Village, raise money to repair it? Xia Juhua, your team just had a few days of good days, don't you know how much money the members have? Repairing the road is not just about making it smooth, stones, sand, asphalt, labor, which one is free, have you calculated how much it costs?!"
Xia Juhua lowered her head a little in the face of the questioning, but she still had something to say: "Although I haven't calculated how much money it is, I know it will be a lot. I just thought that if we produce more and more hot and sour noodles in the future and can't ship them out, not only will the people in Ping'an Village be worried, but the comrades in the army will be even more worried. And we have to pay for the orders from the mat-making team if we are delayed, and they will not trust us in the future and will no longer place orders with us."
"With these two things combined, how can I not think about building roads?" Xia Juhua felt more and more that the road ahead was darker and darker. She slumped in her chair and couldn't muster up any energy. "It's so hard for the mat-making team to sign these orders. If we can't sign them because of late delivery, then we've learned the craft in vain. If we can't make money from foreigners, we'll have to dig in the soil to make a living. There's only so much land, and if more people work in the land, fewer work points will be recorded, and the members will have to go through the hard times again."
Perhaps because she looked so pitiful, Uncle Qi's tone became better: "I understand that you are anxious, but what is the situation now? Comrade, everything needs to be done. Apart from letting everyone have a full meal first, everything else has to wait."
"If we want to build a road, we can't just rely on our own team members. We can ask people from any commune or team to help build the road. Can't we provide meals?" Xia Juhua muttered. Her idea was simple. Since the county was worried that some people still had no food to eat, then let Ping'an Village Team provide meals.
After hearing this, Uncle Qi's eyes lit up: Building a road cannot be completed in one day. If the work of road construction in Ping'an Village is shared among the passing brigades, whether it is providing meals or exchanging labor, it is equivalent to increasing the income of those brigades in disguise.
Uncle Qi was shamelessly tempted: he was the head of a county, and the livelihoods of all the people in Pingde County were on his mind, so he was happy to see any brigade increase its income. He was happy that Pingan Village's income had increased significantly in the past two years, and he was even happier that other brigades could increase their incomes together with Pingan Village.
So he asked Xia Juhua: "They have their own food. If we build a house in front of their house, it will be closer to their home. What should we do if they don't want to eat your food?"
Xia Juhua thought this was not a problem: "If you don't want to eat, just give them the meal money. I just said that we can exchange work with them. But the work points of Ping'an Village are too high. We can't exchange with them according to the work points of Ping'an Village. We can only exchange according to the work points of their respective production teams, or the county average."
Now we have to clarify the issue of work points, because Xia Juhua also knows that road construction cannot be completed in a day or two, and it is also a money-burning activity. According to the work points of the Ping'anzhuang production team, the labor cost alone is an astronomical figure.
Uncle Qi was waiting for Xia Juhua to say this. He did not raise any objection to the work point calculation method. He simply picked up the phone on the table and made a call. When the call was connected, the ease on his face when facing Xia Juhua disappeared, and he told her in a very serious manner what Xia Juhua had just told him.
Several questions came from the other end of the phone, and Uncle Qi answered them one by one according to Xia Juhua's explanation. There was silence on the other end of the phone, and after a while, a word was heard, and Uncle Qi hung up the phone.
He stood up and said to Xia Juhua, "I understand what you said. Go back and write a report. I will go to the secretary to discuss it first. When your report is submitted, the county will report to the district." The county magistrate is not the highest leader of Pingde County, but the secretary is. Uncle Qi cannot make the decision on such a big matter alone. He must report to the secretary before making a decision.
"When I go back, can I talk to the members first and calculate roughly how much money we can raise?" When Xia Juhua heard that there was a way, she wanted to get the work done first.
Uncle Qi did not object to this: "You can give a general idea first, but you cannot collect money from the members yet. I will inform the secretary and then see the specific opinions of the district before we can discuss the next step."
Xia Juhua certainly understood, and she was already very satisfied with the result today. After returning to Ping'an Village, she asked someone to go to the elementary school to see what Liu Lizhu was doing, and if he was free, he would come to the brigade headquarters.
Hearing that it was Xia Juhua who was looking for him, Liu Lizhu did not delay and followed the others who were looking for him. Xia Juhua asked him to sit down and told him her purpose: "...you should hurry up and write the report, and try to hand it in to the county tomorrow or the day after tomorrow."
Liu Lizhu shook his head and asked, "Captain, do we have to repair this road?"
Xia Juhua nodded firmly: "Well, if we don't repair it, it might rain heavily one day and the cars won't be able to get in. In fact, the order is easy to say. Our seating group has made an advance quota and can supply the army's hot and sour noodles. Can't delay."
"Okay, I'll go back and write it." Liu Lizhu had understood Xia Juhua's intention, and stood up and said, "Captain, you know our family's situation in the past few years. I can't come up with extra money. If we need to raise funds, our family will contribute 200 yuan."
Hearing that he was actually asking for a fund-raiser of 200 yuan, Xia Juhua was somewhat moved: before the establishment of the weaving team, Liu Lizhu's family was in debt. It was only in the past two years, when Liu Lizhu taught and Ma Xiaoqin joined the weaving team, that the family's situation improved. However, compared with other families in the Ping'anzhuang production team, their life could only be considered lower-middle class.
Two hundred yuan was not all their family savings, but at least more than half. But Liu Lizhu did not even consider whether the road could be built, and directly participated in the fundraising, completely out of trust in Xia Juhua herself.
Xia Juhua was touched by this and advised him: "Go back and discuss it with Xiaoqin. It's not certain whether the fundraising can be successful. Don't get angry with each other over the fundraising."
Liu Lizhu felt a little inferior because he had been unable to take part in collective labor due to poor health for many years. Even though teaching was not as tiring as working in the fields and his health had improved, he was still not good at arguing with others, so he just nodded to Xia Juhua's words and left the brigade headquarters.
Xia Juhua's heart, however, could not calm down for a long time because of Liu Lizhu's initiative to raise funds. She believed that there must be many members of the Pinganzhuang production team who participated in the fund-raising simply because of their trust in her, just like Liu Lizhu. The heavy trust of everyone made Xia Juhua think that she should think of a way to prevent everyone from suffering losses because of their trust in her.
Without raising funds, the road would definitely not be built, so funds must be raised. Moreover, there was no concept of collecting tolls at that time, and Xia Juhua would not dare to bring up this concept no matter how brave she was - she had heard a lot of news about toll roads being scolded and sued in her previous life, and she was as disgusted as all ordinary people, so how could she let herself become someone she herself disliked.
But if we want to make a profit from everyone's fundraising, and we can't charge for repairing the road, the best way is for whoever benefits to pay - the vermicelli factory and the mat-weaving team are currently the biggest beneficiaries of the road construction. Xia Juhua thinks that a portion of the income from these two places can be taken out to give interest to the members who raised funds.
等到以後粉條廠和收益提高了，就可以把集資款返還給社員。至于路在使用一段時間後壞了，需要再修時，也該到國家提出要想富先修路的時間，就不用平安莊自己再操心了。
盡管自己心裏有了方向，不過事情太大，夏菊花自己不能做主，便請來李長順、劉力群等大隊幹部和幾個生産隊長開會商量，還把劉力柱叫來旁聽，以便寫報告的時候能把付利息的辦法涵蓋進去，免得将來付利息的時候，有人跳出來說三道四。
李長順覺得不大現實：“編席組是有收益，可現在已經從各生産隊招了一百多個人，一個月工資不少。粉條廠現在一個月将夠工資和電費，從哪兒拿錢出來給大夥發利息。”
陳秋生倒是很樂觀：“現在看着粉條廠沒啥餘錢，可等不用供應部隊，咱們的酸辣粉還愁往出賣？到時候拿出些錢來沒問題。”
編席組同樣要出錢，陳秋生連提都沒提，因為他有把握——只要把夏菊花的意思跟婦女們一說，她們不光不會反對，還會踴躍的集資。
不給利息也要集的那種。
陳秋生即是粉條廠的廠長，也是編席組所在平安莊生産隊長，兩個将出錢的地方都歸他管，他最有發言權。既然他這個出錢的都沒說啥，與會的幾個人幹脆不問，重點集中在了每家要集資多少和利息咋支付上。
夏菊花上輩子同樣受過攤派的苦，所以明确提出，集資全憑社員自願，也就是每家每戶願意出多少出多少，能集多少集多少。
對此大家心裏都有些畫魂：不攤派全憑自願，能有人願意出錢嗎？
夏菊花便看向劉力柱，把他已經表示願意集資二百塊錢的事兒說了一遍，以增加說服力：“我知道力柱是信我，才要集資這麽些錢。我提出讓大家集資，自己也不能落後，這次我準備集資五千。”
話音一落，滿層皆驚。李長順哆嗦着嘴唇問：“你出多少？”知道你前兩年炒花生掙了些錢，可掙這麽多也完全沒想到好吧。
夏菊花知道自己說出的數有些吓人，可為了增加社員們将來集資的積極性還是得确認：“我準備集資五千。上回到省城，因為我跟國際友人談判給國家省了些外彙，國家和省裏獎勵我的錢，我準備都拿出來集資修路。”
在省城時拿到獎勵之後，夏菊花是高興的，只是回到平安莊後一直忙碌，沒時間存到銀行。現在自己提出集資，那就用來修路好了——就算利息比存銀行裏少點兒，夏菊花還是覺得集資比放在銀行有價值多了。
何況她手裏不光有上次去省城的五千塊，還有利用羊城得到的兩千塊錢獎金買下腰果，又被齊衛東賣出後掙的五千，以及賣海米掙的幾百塊錢。要不是這錢沒法拿出來，她會全部用來集資。
哪怕羊城之行掙的錢沒法拿出來，集資五千塊錢的來路也向大家解釋清楚了，衆人還是被吓得不輕，李長順終于把舌頭捊直了：“那是你的獎金，咋也得自己留點兒，不能都修路用了。”手裏一點錢沒有，真遇到事兒咋辦？
夏菊花向他笑一下：“大隊長，一修起路來你就知道，五千塊錢頂不了多大的事兒。”
李長順一下子說不出話來，默默想了一會兒說：“我沒你有錢，不過也存了點兒棺材本，我出五百。”
夏菊花卻急了：“大隊長，你的錢不能動。”用李長順的話說，他那錢可真是棺材本了，肯定是這些年的全部存款，哪能讓他都拿出來。
李長順也急了：“咋地，行你把所有錢都拿出來修路，我就不如你覺悟高？”
夏菊花很想告訴他，自己跟他不一樣，除了承諾的五千塊錢，手裏還有五千多，銀行裏也存着四千多。只是這數字聽起來太吓人，不好解釋來處，她是真沒法告訴李長順。
聽到兩人的争執，劉力群開口了：“得了，大家都是想着咋把路給修通了，有多大力出多大力。我也跟李大隊長一樣，出五百吧。”
他跟着一表态，其他參與開會的人便有些坐不住了，常會計也說自己家出三百，牛隊長則跟李長順和劉力群的标準一樣，要出五百。
夏菊花連忙制止突發的集資比拼，對大家說：“今天咱們就是商量一下集資可行不可行，還有集資後利息咋支付的問題，不是現在就讓大家說集資多少。”
“大家都有一家人要養活，不用看着別人參加集資不好意思，也跟着出錢，還是回家之後跟家裏人商量商量，在不影響自己家日子的情況下，确定能出多少集資款。”
李大牛幾個人暗暗松了一口氣，眼睛不時的看向夏菊花與陳秋生。那兩個跟感覺不到別人看自己一樣，接着跟李長順幾個商量從啥時候付利息合适、一年給多少利息不讓社員吃虧。
聽那說法，集資款是一定會還回來的，利息也一定能支付的，讓李大牛三個竟覺得，自己如果集資少了話，說不定會吃虧。
好在結果很快讨論出來了，否則李大牛都想把自己家的箱子底下存錢數報出來了：利息的支付太誘人了。
因為粉條廠一時還見不着利潤，所以夏菊花她們的讨論結果是從明年底才開始給集資人，按百分之五支付利息。也就是說集資一百塊錢，一年不用操心就有五塊錢的利息。
夏菊花真出五千塊錢的話，一年光利息錢就能掙二百五十塊錢。這足以抵得上一個壯勞力一年的分紅了。
記錄的劉力柱腦子裏也飛快的算了出來，他跟李大牛幾個人的想法不同之處在于，他算的是粉條廠和編席組一年得掙多少錢，才夠付集資款的利息。
又因為牽扯到利息問題，會後沒多久，平安莊大隊的社員們便都知道了，大隊想集資修路，集資款還會返還，不還之前每年都給利息的事兒。
大家從來都沒聽說過集資這個名詞，對利息的說法也很陌生——以前各生産隊分紅少，離縣城又遠，很少有社員會把錢存到銀行——都有些懷疑是不是真有每年白得錢的好事。
相比別的生産隊，平安莊的社員們态度很一至，那就是他們都相信夏菊花，聽說夏菊花要把自己所有獎金都拿出來修路，上門勸她給自己留點的人就沒斷過。
見她不聽勸，大家側面知道了修路燒錢的現實，向紅玲報出自己集資的數就有些吓人：陳秋生家直接報了個一千五，趙仙枝、常仙草家分別是一千，連七奶都告訴紅玲，收錢的時候她老人家也出五十。
夏菊花聽說後，趕到家裏勸老人家，七奶是這麽對她說的：“跟你出的錢比起來，我這點錢算啥。你一個人帶大兩個孩子，現在孩子不用你操心了，你能放心把錢拿出來。我一輩子沒孩子，可往後的生活也不用自己操心，憑啥不能把錢拿出來。”
盡管老人家表達的不太清楚，意思夏菊花還是聽明白了，那就是老人相信有平安莊生産隊在，對自己以後的生活就不會沒人管，不怕集資以後沒飯吃。
于是夏菊花沒再勸七奶，而是答應她如果生産隊收集資款，一定讓紅玲頭一個來收她的。對此七奶十分滿意，領着夏菊花看她的雞棚子，指着裏頭低頭啄食的半大雞說：
“你瞧瞧，全村誰家的雞比我的大？這都是各家你送一只我送一只送我的。以前咋沒人送給我，還不是大家生活都好了，有餘力照顧我們這樣的孤寡人了？我就知道，平安莊好了我的日子才能好。再說，等這些雞長大能下蛋了，還怕我沒錢使？”
夏菊花聽了只覺得心酸，不過臉上的笑卻一點沒變：“可不是。不過七奶，到時候那蛋你也別都賣了，自己該吃也得吃。”
“我當然自己得吃。”七奶答應的可利索了：“擱以前象我這樣的孤老婆子，一年到頭也吃不上一頓白面，可現在你看看，口糧一斤也不缺我的，還不用我交錢，不說頓頓是白面也差不多。我再不吃點好的把身子養好點兒，多過幾年好日子，不成了傻子？”
說到這兒七奶有些擔心的看夏菊花：“倒是你，前些年一個人養活兩孩子，身子虧的狠了，累狠了就病得住院，現在可得加點兒小心。”
夏菊花忙讓老人家放心：“你放心吧，上次住院那個大夫給開了調理身子的藥，我不是喝了有兩個月？現在身子好着呢。你要是有哪兒不自在，可不能瞞着怕麻煩人，咱們早點上醫院看看去。”
上輩子七奶都沒活過旱災，這輩子能好好跟自己說話，還對往後的生活充滿了希望，夏菊花覺得眼角更酸了。
Why be afraid of being tired or having difficulties? No matter how tired or difficult it is, as long as your life is better than your previous life and the people around you live much better than their previous life, then it is worth it.
Grandma Qi noticed that Xia Juhua was a little sad, so she patted her on the back without saying anything else. After sending her out of the hospital gate, she wiped the corners of her eyes vigorously and went to feed the chickens.
Xia Juhua was thinking a lot as she walked home. She was a little dazed when An Baoling pulled her back. An Baoling was startled: "Sister-in-law, what's wrong with you? Who said something unpleasant?"