Everyone looked at Sun Hongmei. The dissatisfaction in Liu Zhishuang's eyes scared Sun Hongmei so much that she wanted to stop talking, but she was unwilling to accept it: this year she did not work in Pingan Manor, so she would not get any share of the dividends from Pingan Manor. If Xia Juhua really said that each branch and she would each manage half, the dividends of the first branch couple would be much more than Liu Zhishuang alone!
How could I be outdone by the first wife's life just after getting married? Sun Hongmei tried her best to ignore Liu Zhishuang's gaze on her, tried to smile more naturally, and spoke a little slower so that her voice would not sound so harsh:
"I heard that in Ping An Manor, the old man who heads the family usually keeps some money for use in case of emergency, and the remaining dividends are divided equally among the brothers. Mother is thinking of keeping half of the dividends, and the remaining half will be divided equally between us and my eldest brother, right?"
Liu Zhiquan and Wang Caifeng were stunned, but Liu Zhishuang was not. His eyes turned red and he wanted to cover Sun Hongmei's mouth immediately: This woman really doesn't want to live a good life, right? These days, he has been pretending to be crazy and stupid in front of his mother to make her happy. Who is he doing this for?
Couldn't she see that her mother ignored her and no one else wanted to pay attention to her? It was too late for her to listen to her mother and let her know that she really wanted to correct her mistakes. How could she have the nerve to say that she wanted to share the profits with her eldest brother and sister-in-law?
Liu Zhishuang didn't believe that Sun Hongmei didn't understand what his mother meant at first. There was only one reason why she said that, which was that she felt that the money she got was too little, and that her mother was unfair, so she wanted to get the same amount as her eldest brother and his wife.
Did she really think that her mother had been saving face for her these few days because she was afraid that she would go back to her parents' home and be single for the rest of her life? Liu Zhishuang looked at Sun Hongmei like a fool and was in no mood to cover up for her. Without waiting for Xia Juhua to speak, he asked, "Who did you hear that from?"
"What?" Sun Hongmei was stunned by Liu Zhishuang's question and asked without thinking.
Xia Juhua still didn't say anything, just looked at Liu Zhishuang and continued to ask Sun Hongmei: "I want to ask you, from whom did you hear that Ping'an Manor has such a rule, that no matter how many work points the brothers earn, they have to share it equally among the several families? Tell me about it."
Sun Hongmei couldn't say it, and couldn't say it.
After Sun Guizhi instigated Sun's family to come to their house and cause trouble, Sun Hongmei promised Liu Zhishuang that she would never have any contact with Sun Guizhi again. Now she dared not say that she had told her before Sun Guizhi introduced her to Liu Zhishuang. The old Liu family has always done this, so Liu Sizhuang and his wife can live a lazy life every day and still have enough food and clothes.
Even without her saying anything, Liu Zhishuang could guess who had given Sun Hongmei this idea. No one in the room could have guessed it except Liu Baoguo.
Xia Juhua looked at Sun Hongmei who was speechless, and suddenly she lost interest - arguing with a brainless person, her own brain was useless. She shook her head at Liu Zhishuang: "Second brother, you don't need to ask her, and I don't want to listen to her. She is not my child, I can't control her, I will listen to whatever you two say."
The harmonious atmosphere had long since disappeared. Liu Zhiquan looked at Liu Zhishuang angrily and had to nod in agreement with Xia Juhua. Wang Caifeng wanted to express that she didn't want to take the money, but was glared back by Liu Zhiquan.
Didn't Xia Juhua see the look Liu Zhiquan gave Wang Caifeng? She had been paying attention to everyone's actions with her peripheral vision, so how could she not see it? It was because she saw it that she became more determined to let the two sons live separately - Liu Zhiquan could make Wang Caifeng shut up at any time in this life, so why couldn't he do it in his previous life?
There was no point in thinking too much, so Xia Juhua neatly divided the money from the two rooms into two parts, and pushed one of them in front of Liu Zhiquan and Liu Zhishuang: "It's getting late, have you counted correctly? If you are, go back to sleep, you still have to go to work tomorrow."
Liu Zhiquan opened his mouth and swallowed his words. Xia Juhua had no interest in knowing what he was swallowing. Liu Zhishuang put aside his lazy behavior of the past two days, stuffed the money into his pocket without even counting it, and suddenly stood up and walked out the door.
Sun Hongmei looked at Xia Juhua somewhat at a loss, and found that her mother-in-law didn't even glance at her. She stood up with Liu Zhishuang in boredom, and said with a forced smile: "Mom, you should also go to bed early. Sister-in-law, you are in a heavy body, so I will cook for you tomorrow morning."
After she said that, Xia Juhua remembered that she had forgotten to take out the food for tomorrow morning's cooking because of the money, so she had to get off the kang. Wang Caifeng said that she would go to get food for Xia Juhua, but she refused. Since the day she took back the key, Xia Juhua never thought of giving the key to anyone else.
It has nothing to do with trust or not, she just wants everyone in the family to understand that without her, they won't even have enough to eat.
Are you angry and think that you, as a mother-in-law, are too strict and want to go out and complain about yourself? Xia Juhua is not worried at all. Her approach is a common practice in Pingan Village where families that have not separated their families usually do so. When daughters-in-law go out and complain, people who hear them will teach them a lesson.
Thinking of Sun Hongmei's broken iron voice that night, Xia Juhua found some cotton before going to bed and plugged her ears. She actually slept soundly. I don't know if the cotton really blocked the noise for her, or if the couple didn't have any conflicts at all. Xia Juhua would rather be the latter - she is not a member of the Red Team, and she hopes that her family will be in turmoil every day.
If you didn't hear it, it didn't happen. Now Xia Juhua is very good at pretending to be deaf and dumb. She can ignore the smugness in Wang Caifeng's eyes and eyebrows, and she can turn a blind eye to Sun Hongmei cooking with unkempt hair again.
The current Sun Hongmei is completely different from the sympathy she received in her previous life. Xia Juhua doesn't have that much energy to spend on her as she has more important things to do.
For example, the rice that had been bought back from the warehouse had been picked out, and the broken rice had been sifted out. It was time to grind it into flour and mix it into the cornmeal, and then steam it into the dry grain when the Liu Zhiquan brothers went to repair the dike.
In the past, Xia Juhua never ordered others to do this kind of work. She could grind the mill herself after lunch, and it would take two or three days to grind the rice. Now she is not so stupid. Why not use her sons? She directly ordered her two sons to grind the mill, and no one else could expect to eat the ready-made rice.
Wang Caifeng felt a little sorry for the man and wanted to take the bag on Liu Zhiquan's back to grind the mill. But Xia Juhua asked her, "Don't you care about that thing in your stomach?" Liu Zhiquan obediently put the bag of food on his shoulders.
As for Sun Hongmei, who wanted to ease the relationship with Liu Zhishuang and wanted to go with him, Xia Juhua said nothing because Sun Hongmei was not pregnant and every rural woman had experienced hard work.
Xia Juhua didn't think Sun Hongmei was overdoing it at all - she was busy every day weaving reed mats in the production team's yard. At this time, Xia Juhua had already woven three reed mats, the fastest of all the women.
The women who wanted to see Xia Juhua laugh at first now just wanted her to weave slower, because compared to her, they were obviously slacking off - the reed mats sold at the supply and marketing cooperative cost 2.5 yuan a sheet, and the production team charged 1.5 yuan. The production team gave the women who weaved mats five to six hours a day, but required them to weave one reed mat in two and a half days before they could be credited.
Many women were illiterate, but many knew how to calculate work points. They could figure out how much work they had to do to get the work points they were worth, so as not to anger the production team leaders, and to avoid doing too much and getting into trouble. Women in the production team had lived this way for many years, and except for those like Li Changwang who were too slow and made people uncomfortable, no one else could blame anyone.
As a result, Xia Juhua wove three reed mats in five days, disrupting the peace of the women weaving reed mats. Everyone looked at her in a strange way. This "Xia Xiaohuo" was too capable. In the past, people only thought she was strong and could endure hardships, but they didn't expect that she was so good at doing work that didn't require any strength but only skill.
Compared with her, Liu Erzhuang and the accountant were no longer happy with those women who were slacking off at work, and even gave them an ultimatum that if they failed to weave a mat within two days, they would only be given four work points a day in the future.
No one knew what the women were discussing. An Baoling sat next to Xia Juhua that day, weaving mats absent-mindedly and looking at Xia Juhua from time to time.
"Just say what herself you want to say." Xia Juhua felt frightened by An Baoling's gaze, so she had to ask.
An Baoling felt a little embarrassed. It was hard to say this. But if she didn't tell everyone to take less credit, Xia Juhua would inevitably be gossiped about behind her back. An Baoling gritted her teeth and said, "Can you weave the mats a little slower?"
"What?" Xia Juhua didn't quite understand. She was always so focused on her work that she didn't care about anything else. She couldn't understand why she had to work slower when she could be fast: "Isn't it okay to finish early and go home earlier?"
An Baoling was amused by her innocent expression: "It's not that I can't, it's that you don't fit in. If everyone gets one less day's work because of you, won't they all hate you?"
Xia Juhua is a quick worker. The word "slacking off" doesn't exist in her dictionary. She looked at An Baoling with some embarrassment: "But I get used to it as I weave. I can't be slow."
Well, An Baoling didn't know what to say. Xia Juhua herself began to think, and realized that if she really let all the women weaving the mats squeeze out, Sun Hongmei and Sun Guizhi would have to use their skills again, and the sympathy she had won by the words she said when she first came to weave the mats would be blown away by the wind.
How could she weave the mat more slowly and still make Liu Erzhuang and the accountant feel that it was a natural process?
Because the four corners had to be symmetrical and it was the first time to weave words on the mat, Xia Juhua spent two and a half days weaving this mat. Liu Erzhuang, who was inspecting it, asked in disbelief, "Sister-in-law, did someone say something to you? Why are you weaving so slowly this time?"
Liu Erzhuang was not the production team leader for nothing. He had been Xia Juhua's brother-in-law for more than 20 years and knew how skillful his sister-in-law was. It took her two and a half days to weave a mat, which was not her level at all. Those women must have said something strange to her.
He had thought it all out. As long as Xia Juhua nodded, he would go and teach those old ladies a lesson. What's the matter? They are slow in compiling and they want to compile the fast ones of others. Do they really want to keep four shifts from now on?
Xia Juhua didn't want to offend a group of people, so she shook her head and said, "No, no, I was thinking that other production teams can also make the mats we make, so the supply and marketing cooperative couldn't give me a price, so I tried to weave the word "happiness" on it. Ask the supply and marketing cooperative if they can raise the price of this mat when you go there."
"Weave words on the mat?" Liu Erzhuang was a little unconvinced. He opened the mat and saw at a glance that Xia Juhua's mat was different from others: four double happiness characters were placed on each corner of the mat. The color was light gold. Against the backdrop of the clean white reeds around it, it looked straight and upright, and looked energetic.
"Sister-in-law, how did you come up with this idea?" Liu Erzhuang fumbled with the Chinese character "喜", moving very gently, as if he was afraid that he would remove the color of the character. The accountant watching from the side was also curious and said:
"Er Zhuang, why don't you take this mat to the supply and marketing cooperative? My brother is getting married, so I'll buy it for RMB 2.5." The supply and marketing cooperative would not pay such a high price. As an elder brother, giving his younger brother such a unique kang mat looks good and sounds nice.
Liu Erzhuang looked at Xia Juhua with some embarrassment. It was true that the mat was woven by Xia Juhua, but the reeds were cut by the production team and the venue was also provided by the production team. No matter how much money the accountant spent to buy it, Xia Juhua could only get five work points a day.
Xia Juhua had another idea. She smiled and said to the accountant, "Your brother's wedding is still two days away. I'll weave another one for him. You can find some reeds yourself, and I'll go home and weave it quickly. I won't charge you. We should go to the commune to ask for this one. If they can raise the price, we can weave like this in the future, and the team can earn more."
"Okay!" Liu Erzhuang agreed directly. The accountant also thanked Xia Juhua with a smile on his face, and discussed with Liu Erzhuang whether Xia Juhua should be given six hours of work in the past few days.
Liu Erzhuang had no objection, and Xia Juhua didn't think she shouldn't get an extra work point either - she made mats faster than others, so why shouldn't she get an extra work point? But she still said to Liu Erzhuang and the accountant, "Let's wait until Erzhuang comes back from the supply and marketing cooperative. Otherwise, you just said you would give others four work points a day, but you give me six. Those people will eat me up."
Liu Erzhuang and the accountant had both experienced women's mouths, and they nodded in agreement with Xia Juhua's opinion, and Xia Juhua returned to her seat. Others didn't know that Xia Juhua had made a lot of tricks in weaving mats, but An Baoling, who was sitting next to her, could see it clearly. When she saw her come back, she came over and asked, "What did my second brother say?"
Xia Juhua had dealt with the director of the supply and marketing cooperative last time and knew that he was a man with ideas. She was looking forward to the price increase. But mats were different from sugar-coated peanuts. Who knew if the director of the supply and marketing cooperative would like them? She could only say, "It depends on whether the supply and marketing cooperative will raise the price."
An Baoling was even more optimistic than Xia Juhua herself: "I think it's OK. The characters you wove are so good, and the sizes are all the same. Not only young married people, but even I want to weave one for my own home."
Xia Juhua was happy, but she was not in a hurry to start over. She continued to look for darker-colored reed stalks in the reed pile and started to weave them. Even if the supply and marketing cooperative did not raise the price, she had to continue weaving ordinary reed mats, and she had to weave the mats for the accountant brothers' wedding.
Before Xia Juhua had finished breaking all the reed stalks, Liu Erzhuang had already returned from the supply and marketing cooperative. There was not much joy on his face. Instead, he looked at the women weaving mats with a very serious expression.
An Baoling knew that he had returned from the supply and marketing cooperative, and could not help but touch Xia Juhua's arm: "What's wrong with my second brother? Even if the supply and marketing cooperative does not agree to raise the price, it won't be as if he has lost money."
Xia Juhua also felt that Liu Erzhuang's expression was a little strange. Just as An Baoling said, the supply and marketing cooperative did not agree to raise the price, so Xia Juhua could just continue to weave ordinary mats, and Liu Erzhuang did not need to look at everyone with a bitter and resentful look.
Everyone was so stared at that they didn't know what to do, and some people even had their fingers cut by the reeds - I've never seen Liu Erzhuang so majestic before.
"Sister-in-law, come here. I have something to discuss with you." Liu Erzhuang looked at the people who were making mats again, and finally called Xia Juhua. An Baoling looked at Xia Juhua in confusion, and found that her sister-in-law was also looking at Liu Erzhuang in surprise.
It seems that the sister-in-law doesn't know why Liu Erzhuang wants to see her.
Xia Juhua was puzzled, and naturally had a puzzled look on her face. Liu Erzhuang did not go far, but waited for her at the edge of the yard. Seeing Xia Juhua coming, he sighed and said, "Sister-in-law, the supply and marketing cooperative thinks your mat is very good, and agreed to charge you two yuan a piece."
Raising the price by 50 cents per seat, isn't that a good thing? Why is Liu Erzhuang acting like someone owes him money? Xia Juhua was getting more and more confused, but she was never one to ask questions, so she just looked at Liu Erzhuang and waited for him to continue.
Liu Erzhuang knew his sister-in-law very well, so he felt that what he said next was very difficult. No matter how difficult it was, he had to say it. He looked around the yard again, but still didn't find anyone who could replace Xia Juhua, so he had to say, "The supply and marketing cooperative wants to order 200 seats from our production team, and they all want the pattern you made up."
It's still a good thing. There are more than a dozen women in the production team who make mats. According to the current progress, they can complete the orders of the supply and marketing cooperative in one month, and they won't delay the New Year. Looking at Liu Erzhuang's embarrassed expression, Xia Juhua realized that she had come up with the pattern and made the new mats herself, and the women in the yard didn't know how to make new patterns.
So she smiled at Liu Erzhuang and said, "It's okay. I'll teach you the new pattern this afternoon and we'll finish it quickly if we work together." There are no stupid people who can weave reed mats. It's just that everyone's craft has been passed down from generation to generation, and no one has ever thought about changing it.
Xia Juhua believed that as long as she taught them carefully, these women would be able to learn how to weave the double happiness pattern into mats within two days.
Unexpectedly, after hearing her words, Liu Erzhuang's expression did not relax much. He still stood there with a frown and a bitter face, as if Xia Juhua owed him a few hundred yuan and would not pay him back.
Xia Juhua thought for a moment and said, "In fact, you can assign tasks to these people. Those who are good at breaking reeds can be assigned to breaking reeds, those who are fast at making mats can be assigned to making mats, and those who are good at finding reed poles of different colors can also be assigned to special people. It won't be difficult to make 200 mats."
Liu Erzhuang was too embarrassed to speak out when he heard his sister-in-law was only concerned about him. He didn't say anything, but that didn't mean others wouldn't say anything. Wang Caifeng had already appeared at the edge of the yard holding Liu Baoguo. When she saw Xia Juhua talking to Liu Erzhuang, she called out, "Mom." Liu Baoguo opened his two little hands and asked for milk and a hug.
Liu Erzhuang had to tell her now. When Xia Juhua was wondering what happened at home that made Wang Caifeng come to see her with Liu Baoguo in her arms, she heard Liu Erzhuang say with difficulty:
"The director of the supply and marketing cooperative said that the county supply and marketing cooperative was very satisfied with the peanuts you fried last time, so they want you to fry another 2,000 kilograms of peanuts. When I came back just now, Caifeng's cousin came over with some things."
Xia Juhua immediately understood why Liu Erzhuang was too embarrassed to say it out loud: She roasted peanuts for the supply and marketing cooperative, and received subsidies by the kilogram, which went directly into her pocket. But it was different to make mats for the production team. She had to teach these women how to do it first, and then she only got five or six work points a day.
Anyone who has never been to school will make this calculation.
The production team leader Liu Erzhuang also knows how to calculate, and he calculates very shrewdly. The director of the supply and marketing cooperative said that if they can deliver 200 seats within a month, they will be paid directly in cash. If the sales are good, they will place an order with the production team after the New Year. This is an extra 50 cents per seat, and Liu Erzhuang was so stupid that he didn't agree.
He could agree, but what about Xia Juhua? Two thousand kilograms of peanuts is not a small amount either. It takes a lot of effort to fry them and the heat needs to be controlled. They also need to be delivered to the supply and marketing cooperative before the New Year. Where does the sister-in-law find the time to fry peanuts and teach others how to weave mats? !
From the perspective of the production team, Liu Erzhuang certainly hoped that Xia Juhua would teach everyone new tricks. But what about Xia Juhua? Liu Erzhuang, who always felt that he owed Xia Juhua and his two nephews something, really had no right to ask Xia Juhua to give up frying peanuts for the supply and marketing cooperative.
Just when Liu Erzhuang was at a loss, Xia Juhua spoke up: "I will fry more peanuts these two nights, and teach you how to knit during the day."
"Sister-in-law." Liu Erzhuang was somewhat moved, but he opened his mouth but didn't say anything. This was already the best solution, and no matter what he said, it would seem hypocritical.
Knowing why Liu Erzhuang was in trouble, Xia Juhua also knew why Wang Caifeng came to find her. She said hello to Liu Erzhuang, took Liu Baoguo, and hurried home with Wang Caifeng. Wang Caixia was Wang Caifeng's cousin, so she was a guest of her mother's family. She had helped Xia Juhua before, and even the job of frying peanuts was because of her. Xia Juhua certainly couldn't neglect Wang Caixia.
"You didn't even tell me you were coming. If I had known I would have waited for you at home instead of going to work. It's so rude to make you wait for me."
Wang Caixia smiled and said, "Our director originally thought that your production team had too much work, so he sent you the peanuts two days later. Today, I met your production team leader and heard that you were helping to weave mats. I thought it would be better for you to make money by frying peanuts for the supply and marketing cooperative, so I sent them to you."
As she spoke, she pointed to several large sacks that had been unloaded at the warehouse door and said, "They are all here. I checked them for you when they were shipped out of the warehouse. There is not a pound less."
Xia Juhua quickly pulled her towards the main room, saying as they walked: "If someone else had brought it to me, I would have weighed it in person. There is nothing for us to worry about. Don't leave at noon, just eat at home."
Wang Caifeng still wanted to refuse, but Xia Juhua whispered to her: "We are real relatives, I won't be polite with you. But there is also the boss of the car, we can't let him help us in vain." In the future, it will be inevitable to deal with the supply and marketing cooperative, and it will be inevitable to ask the boss of the car for help, so it is time to establish a good relationship now.
Xia Juhua didn't understand these things in her previous life, so she has to learn them from scratch in this life.
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