Chapter 55
Although Wang Caifeng didn't know why her mother-in-law's expression suddenly changed, she hoped that her mother-in-law could be happier and wanted to be closer to her. While watching Xia Juhua eat noodles, she chattered about everything and told Xia Juhua everything that happened in the village today.
The biggest event in the village was that the pig raised by Sun was accidentally discovered. Seeing that the pig had turned into such a good condition, many people secretly scolded Liu Erzhuang. Liu Erzhuang had already returned to work in the morning, but after hearing's discussion, he stayed at home to rest in the afternoon.
Xia Juhua didn't want to comment on Liu Erzhuang. She had more important things to worry about: "When Zhiquan comes back later, ask him to change the water in the sweet potato paste. Don't do it yourself."
Xia Juhua really couldn't bear to ask a pregnant woman who was six or seven months pregnant to change the water in such a big bowl of sweet potato pulp.
Wang Caifeng was even more moved: "I already asked him to change it once at noon, does he need to change it again at night?"
That's not necessary, just change the water in the sweet potato pulp once a day. Xia Juhua was curious about how Wang Caifeng could persuade Liu Zhiquan, who had always refused to enter the kitchen. Wang Caifeng was a little embarrassed by the question, and smiled with a little pride: "I told him that if he doesn't change, I will tell mother that he is not sincere in doing housework."
All right, they are all taking advantage of the power of others. Xia Juhua also felt that she could deal with Liu Zhiquan in this way - who said that women have to do all the work in the kitchen? Zhao Tiedan's family has three bachelors, so they won't eat?
Wang Caifeng saw Xia Juhua eating happily, and she was happy too. She had rarely talked to Xia Juhua about daily life in her life, but now she couldn't stop talking. Plus, Liu Baoguo couldn't speak fluently and loved to mix things up, Xia Juhua couldn't help but relax, slowly closed her eyes, and fell asleep.
"Baoguo." Wang Caifeng called her son softly, put on his shoes, carried him off the kang, and gently covered her mother-in-law with a blanket before pulling her son's hand and walking out. Liu Baoguo seemed to understand and remained silent until he reached the door and said in a baby voice, "Grandma, I'm tired."
"Well, grandma is tired. Don't speak loudly and wake her up, okay?" Wang Caifeng looked back at her mother-in-law who was sleeping soundly, just like her son. The corners of her mouth rose slightly unconsciously: "Grandma is tired from worrying about us."
Xia Juhua slept soundly that night and did not hear Liu Zhiquan and his colleagues leaving work. When she woke up, they had not only eaten, but also weighed the peanuts sent by the noodle factory.
This made Xia Juhua speechless. Did they have nothing to do? The noodle factory was not relying on the peanuts to make money. They wanted to provide benefits to the employees. If there were less, there would not be enough to share in the future, and they would be in trouble.
But hearing Liu Zhishuang's excited face counting to her, Xia Juhua couldn't keep a straight face: "One pound of fried peanuts makes eight ounces of cooked peanuts. The noodle factory wants one thousand pounds of cooked peanuts, so of course the amount that needs to be shaved in the middle has to be counted in." Who does he think is as stupid as you?
Wang Caifeng always helped Xia Juhua, and could more or less calculate how many cooked peanuts Xia Juhua could get from one pound of fried peanuts. She asked uncertainly, "Mom, I think you can get more than eight ounces per pound."
But my mother-in-law never told the supply and marketing cooperative about the extra peanuts.
Liu Zhiquan looked at his wife with dissatisfaction: "That's because my mother is a good cook. I like the taste of her cooking."
Xia Juhua nodded, not feeling embarrassed that Wang Caifeng found out that she could earn more raw peanuts: "Zhiquan is right. When I stir-fry peanuts, no matter how many raw peanuts I use, as long as the quantity is enough and the taste is good, it's fine as long as others approve of it. Besides, there's sugar, so sugar doesn't count for the quantity, right?"
The supply and marketing cooperative may not have failed to realize that sugar would account for a certain proportion, but they thought it could be ignored and just accepted it.
Wang Caifeng looked at her mother-in-law with admiration. It turned out that frying peanuts could not only earn her processing fee, but also peanuts. She just didn't know how many peanuts her mother-in-law earned. No wonder there were always peanut crumbs in Baoguo's bowl these days. When she cooked, her mother-in-law also told her not to be reluctant to use oil.
"Mom, let's fry the peanuts now." Wang Caifeng couldn't wait to fry the peanuts. She always felt that only if she gave the cooked peanuts to the noodle factory, the remaining peanuts would truly be hers.
Now that the conversation was over, Xia Juhua Gancui asked Liu Zhiquan to weigh out 100 kilograms of raw peanuts and put them in the west room of the main house in front of everyone: "When we prepare New Year's goods in a few days, we will find a way to exchange them for some peanut oil."
This made Liu Zhiquan and his friends even more motivated. When Xia Juhua arrived at the kitchen, the peanuts were almost soaked. Even the firewood was brought back by Liu Zhishuang. Since they loved to work so much, Xia Juhua let Liu Zhishuang light the fire while she fried the peanuts herself.
Not only did she fry the peanuts herself, she also asked Wang Caifeng, who was putting her child to sleep, to watch. In addition to having her instruct Liu Zhiquan on when to add firewood and when to turn down the heat, the most important thing was to teach Wang Caifeng how to coat the peanuts with icing sugar.
"If you want to spread the icing evenly and save sugar, the key is to control the temperature of boiling the sugar..." Xia Juhua said carefully and Wang Caifeng listened attentively. No one noticed when Liu Baoguo appeared outside the kitchen barefoot.
"Mom, I'm tired." The child held onto the door frame and tried to step over the threshold with his short legs. The threshold that an adult could easily step over was a huge obstacle for a one-year-old child. He tried several times but couldn't step over it, so he spoke out to remind his mother.
Didn't you say you were tired? Why are you asking you to do the work again?
He frightened Xia Juhua so much that she dropped the spatula in her hand into the pot. She hurriedly picked it out and burned her hand: "Didn't you say the child was asleep? Why did you get out of bed by yourself?" I hope he didn't fall.
Liu Zhishuang, an idle man, picked up Liu Baoguo and wiped the dirt off his feet with his hands, saying, "You little brat, you woke up, why don't you go and say hello to your mother instead of running out on your own."
Wang Caifeng was even more annoyed. She stepped forward to take Liu Baoguo, but was sent back to the house by Xia Juhua to coax the children, leaving Liu Zhiquan and his brother to fry peanuts with her.
Thinking of the processing fee of 1.5 cents per pound, Xia Juhua cooked three pots in a row before stopping. Liu Zhishuang couldn't help but grab a few peanuts and put them in his mouth to taste them. He gave his mother a thumbs up and said, "Mom, if I sell these peanuts myself, I have to sell them for one yuan per pound."
Liu Zhiquan didn't take any himself, but Xia Juhua grabbed a few for him. After he finished chewing, he said, "Everyone knows that Mom fried peanuts for the supply and marketing cooperative. If Mom sells them, people will think that Mom kept the peanuts from the supply and marketing cooperative. If the Red Team hears about it, will they let Mom go?"
Oh, Xia Juhua has to look at her eldest son with new eyes. She has always thought that her eldest son is not as smart as her younger son, but she didn't expect that he can see things much better than Liu Zhishuang who only sees the present.
"That's the reason." Xia Juhua glanced at Liu Zhishuang and said, "It's the same reason why I didn't let you go to the commune to exchange food that day. Now that I'm the production team leader, I have to pay more attention to many things."
Liu Zhiquan's face lit up, he looked at Liu Zhishuang proudly and asked, "Mom, shall we continue cooking?"
What are you cooking? Why don't you check the time? Xia Juhua suddenly remembered that she was so tired that she fell asleep when she came back in the afternoon. She didn't even plan to go to the dregs and bran tomorrow. She had to get up early tomorrow to plan it.
Alas, Xia Juhua couldn't let go of either the production team's work or the peanut roasting. She felt the burden was very heavy.
No matter how heavy the load is, if it is on your shoulders, and you carried it on your shoulders by yourself, how can you put it down? In her last life, Xia Juhua never put down her load, and even if it is heavy in this life, she will not put it down.
The next day, she got up early, washed up, and went to knock on the door of Fifth Master's house. Thanks to Fifth Master's age, she felt less, otherwise Xia Juhua would have felt guilty. Fifth Master was happy to hear that he could go to buy dregs and bran. He didn't think Xia Juhua came too early at all. He shouted towards Liu Daxi's house and called him over.
"Grandpa, why are you calling me so early in the morning?" Liu Daxi was really sleepy. Hearing the Fifth Master's call, he dared not delay, and spoke with some resentment. After he finished speaking, he saw Xia Juhua in the yard, rubbed his hands and asked, "Is it my sister-in-law who is here? What do you want to talk to me about?"
"Good thing!" The fifth master ignored Liu Daxi's resentment: "That bastard Erzhuang has been lying down for the past two days. Your sister-in-law needs someone to help you. Call your brothers, and you will do whatever your sister-in-law asks. What are you doing?"
With just one sentence, all the men from the three neighboring courtyards were gathered together. Xia Juhua once again admired the prosperity of the Fifth Master's family.
Those who were of the Sun family did not come out. The people in front of Xia Juhua were all of Liu Daxi's generation, thirteen in total. They all looked confused and listened to Liu Daxi conveying the Fifth Master's orders to them in confusion.
Regardless of whether they understood or not, whether they were willing or not, none of the Fifth Master's grandchildren said no, so Xia Juhua asked them to get ready and went to find Chen Qiu Sheng. Chen Qiu Sheng was in charge of the production team's money, so he was destined to be busy all day.
"What?" Everyone in Chen Qiu Sheng's family was stunned: "Captain, you said that our production team should buy reed poles from other production teams and then keep weaving mats?" After saying that, he pinched Chen Qiu Sheng in disbelief, causing him to scream.
Chen Qiu Sheng rubbed his arm and asked uncertainly: "Can the county supply and marketing cooperative really accept 400 seats from us at one time? And we have to ask people to buy dregs and bran today?" How much will this cost?
Their female team leader can earn money but she is also very brave to spend it. Clearly, no one from the county supply and marketing cooperative has come yet, so how dare she collect reed stalks from other production teams?
Xia Juhua nodded affirmatively: "Director Lin will not deceive us. You can calculate at home how much we can afford to buy reed stems after spending money on dregs of rice and bran. The brigade wants us to pay in cash."
"They are so lucky." Chen Qiusheng's family was shocked when they heard this: "When they paid their public rations, they didn't get cash directly. Why do they want cash for a few reeds?"
Originally, Xia Juhua wanted to talk to Chen Qiu Sheng about something, but his wife had been listening beside them, which made Xia Juhua feel a little suspicious. Now, hearing her constant interruptions, she couldn't help but look at her.
Chen Qiusheng's family suddenly became depressed, and Chen Qiusheng felt embarrassed: "Shut up. The captain is talking to me, why are you butting in? I tell you, if you dare to go out and talk nonsense again, I will send you back to your mother's house."
"I just felt that there was not much money in the team, so I gave it all to others..." Chen Qiu Sheng's family could not continue under Xia Juhua's increasingly cold gaze.
"Qiu Sheng's family," Xia Juhua's face darkened. "No matter how much money the team has, it's not your business to know. How the team uses the money is also not your business to interfere. If you spread what I said to Qiu Sheng today, I won't dare let you weave anymore, and I won't dare let Qiu Sheng be the accountant anymore."
Chen Qiusheng's face suddenly turned red, and she felt even worse than when Chen Qiusheng scolded her the night before. She just couldn't help it, and when she saw the captain coming, she was unwilling to leave, hoping to help the captain a little.
Who knew the captain disliked her so much.
Xia Juhua looked at Chen Qiusheng's face, which was about to bleed. She couldn't bear it, so she softened her tone a little: "I know you are on the side of the production team, but you are not a cadre of the production team, and you don't understand what the production team will do next, but you have to butt in."
"Qiu Sheng is too stubborn. If he were someone with a softer ear, wouldn't he follow your ideas? Would I still dare to let him be the accountant?"
"Captain, I was wrong. From now on, I won't ask about anything about the production team. Even if Qiu Sheng wants to tell me, I won't listen. Just let me continue to weave mats." Chen Qiu Sheng's family felt as if they had been pardoned, and they wanted to swear to the sky.
Chen Qiusheng, who originally wanted to scold her, said: …
He knew that his wife would become brainless when she met the captain, but he didn't expect her to be so brainless.
Without even giving Chen Qiu Sheng time to speak, he made his promise to Xia Juhua and quickly returned to the house, slamming the door.
Chen Qiusheng: …
Xia Juhua was amused: "Your wife is quite straightforward."
Chen Qiusheng didn't know what else he could do except scratch his hair. Xia Juhua came to discuss something with him, not to see him embarrassed, so she told him her plan: "There is only one ox cart in the team, use it to transport the bran. The dregs will be carried by others, so stop transporting fertilizer and carry the dregs back first."
When it comes to business, Chen Qiusheng is no longer so embarrassed: "One person can only carry about 100 kilograms at most, so at least 20 people are needed. How are the work points recorded? It's easy to carry wheat bran, but 5,000 kilograms of wheat bran plus dregs, isn't it a bit too much?"
Xia Juhua shook her head. She would definitely have to raise enough pigs for the mission next year. She felt that the amount she bought was not enough. Fortunately, Pingan Village had bought 1,000 kilograms before other production teams. If she needed more in the future, she could go through Section Chief Chen's connections and get some more.
Next spring, we must not let pigs steal people's food. And what about the chickens? They are the small banks of each family. If the chickens don't lay eggs, many families will have no way to earn pocket money.
Suddenly, she had an idea and asked Chen Qiu Sheng, "What do you think? If we let the women collect some reed stalks themselves and make mats from them, and then hand them over to the supply and marketing cooperative together with the mats made by the production team, is that okay?"
Chen Qiusheng's eyes widened. This captain was too bold. He waved his hands repeatedly: "Captain, I dare not do this. Have you forgotten that your mother-in-law reported you?"
Xia Juhua nodded and said, "I haven't forgotten. But this time is different from the last time. This time, the supply and marketing cooperative came forward and ordered the reed poles for us from the production teams in order to complete the task of the county supply and marketing cooperative. Our production team does not have enough money, and the members are highly conscious and took the initiative to pay for the reed poles for the production team. What's wrong with that?"
How can you say that? Chen Qiusheng knew that Xia Juhua was making a wrong argument, but he couldn't think of a rebuttal. He could only ask, "How do we record the work points for the mats made from the reeds we bought? What if we delay the production team's task of making mats?"
Alas, Xia Juhua sighed in her heart. Comrade Chen Qiusheng still didn't realize that in order to make more money, people's potential is infinite: "The production team has set tasks for the staff. As long as they complete the tasks of the production team on time and there is no problem with the quality after inspection, they will be given work points."
"As for the mats that the members made during their rest time using the reeds they bought for the production team, they just asked the production team to hand them in on their behalf. The production team is willing to help. If anyone dares to delay the production team's tasks in order to make their own mats, then they can just not record their work points and not sell them on their behalf."
Chen Qiu Sheng then realized that both the sales and new styles of mats were controlled by Xia Juhua who was sitting opposite him, so she was not afraid that someone would only weave their own mats and not go to work in the yard in order to make more money, thus delaying the production team from fulfilling their tasks for the supply and marketing community.
After Xia Juhua left Chen Qiu Sheng's house, she found that she had one more thing to do, which was to find Li Changwang's house and let her quietly tell every woman who was weaving mats about her idea.
Even though she said it lightly in front of Chen Qiu Sheng, she knew in her heart that this matter must not be known to people outside Ping An Manor, so when she gave instructions to Li Changwang's family, her expression was serious and her tone was cold:
"I came up with this idea so that everyone can earn some extra money for the New Year. If outsiders knew about this, I would be arrested by the Red Team and put into a study class, and the supply and marketing cooperative would not dare to buy Ping An Village's mats. The money you spent on buying the reed stalks would be wasted, and the effort you put into making the mats would also be wasted."
"Ask them whether they want to just make a quick buck or save some money to make clothes for their children."
After she said so, Li Changwang's family only said something more harsh to the women. When Xia Juhua led the first truck of wheat bran back to Ping'an Village, Li Changwang's family heard the news and ran to the granary to find her:
"Captain, I told them all. No one was hiding it. We all said it together and listened to it together. Everyone swore that if anyone told anyone, they would divorce their husbands immediately, their sons would not be able to find wives and would remain single, their daughters would not be able to marry, and those who were married would be sent back to their parents' homes."
Apart from giving Li Changwang's family a shocked look, Xia Juhua could not make any other expression.
It was too cruel. At that time, the rural women, the men and children they cared about were all trapped in the oath of Li Changwang's family. Who dared to tell anyone?
Without the worry of being reported, Pingan Village began collecting reed stalks after each production team had finished collecting dregs and bran. Other production teams rushed to deliver reed stalks to Pingan Village, and even quarreled over who delivered first, fearing that Pingan Village would collect reed stalks from other production teams and not be able to pay when it came to their own production team.
After receiving the money for the reeds, the captains of each production team gathered together to discuss how much money Ping An Zhuangbian Xi had earned. The total amount of money earned from the reeds sold by each production team was over a thousand yuan!
Nowadays, which production team can take out thousands of yuan after distributing dividends?
"Forget it," Li Daniu threw the cigarette butt to the ground, and twisted it again and again with his feet: "Even if Ping'an Village won't give us a cent, let's think about how we can make some money next year. If we don't wait for the dividends at the end of the year, someone will want to move their household registration to Ping'an Village."
Everyone knew that Li Daniu's words were just spoken in anger, but the production team leaders all felt the crisis: the members looked forward to dividends all year round, and in rural areas, relatives rely on each other for support, so within half a day the whole team will know which production team has high work points and which has low work points.
If I really lose too much to Ping An Manor, wouldn't I be laughed at and called worse than a woman?
"Who said that our production team doesn't have a young man named Xia?" The captain of the third team spat heavily on the ground: "Did the people in Ping'an Village take the wrong medicine? Why did they choose young man Xia as the production team leader?"
It turns out how great it is to have Liu Erzhuang as the production team leader. The height difference between each production team is less than two centimeters, and no one is much shorter than anyone else.
"If it weren't for young man Xia, would we have been able to pull in so much rice and bran?" The captain of the second team was a loyal man. Even though he was jealous of Ping'an Village's prosperity, he also spoke a fair word for Xia Juhua.
A man should not forget his roots. If he starts to gossip about others as soon as he gets a favor from them, what kind of man is he? If he has the ability, he should think of ways to make money for the production team. It is much better than a few big bosses who only know how to smoke together.
Li Changshun had heard what the production team leaders had said. He waited until the second team leader finished speaking before he spoke: "You stupid idiots! The production team can weave mats, but you can't twist ropes or make brooms. Which one of you won't make money if you hand it over to the supply and marketing cooperative?"
Several production team leaders grinned, and no one dared to refute Li Changshun's words. Li Changshun felt that they had no courage at all, so he limped away with his hands behind his back. The rest of the people felt that it was boring, and left Ping'an Village with their respective people who delivered reed poles.
Li Daniu glanced at the thatched wall as he passed by, still wondering in his heart, aren't the women in Ping'an Village afraid of the cold? It would be so nice to just light a brazier and warm themselves by the fire at home in the middle of winter, instead of having to get together and weave mats.
They were still laughing, and laughing very happily. He could hear it clearly from outside the reed wall.
The women of Pingan Village laughed, and everyone laughed from the bottom of their hearts: not only could they earn work points during the day, but they could also weave mats at home at night. The money from selling the mats they made at night was their own, and although they felt bad about the little money they had to pay for the reed stalks, it was nothing compared to the two yuan and fifty cents for a mat.
Two dollars and fifty cents is enough for an adult to make a new piece of clothing.
Besides, it was not only them who earned work points, the men were busy all winter and earned work points every day. Even when the fertilizer transporting work was almost finished and the canal was about to be repaired and they would soon have some free time, Xia Juhua found new work for the men.
Originally, women thought that men could have two days off, and they were tired after a year, so they could have two days off. But the captain could come up with a way for men to make money, so why should they take a break? Are grown men afraid of being tired when they make money?!
You said that Captain Xia made more money from frying peanuts every night than the whole family combined? If Captain Xia hadn't fried peanuts in the beginning, would the supply and marketing cooperative have raised the price of new mats from 2 yuan a piece to 2.5 yuan a piece? Would the production team have been able to buy so much bran and dregs?
Speaking of braised pork, the people in Ping'an Village heard that the pigs of the production team have been eating the braised pork bought by the team leader these days, and their hair has become much smoother. By the end of the year, maybe each person can get an extra 2 taels of meat.
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