Chapter 92
Without any objections, Xia Juhua picked up the money on the table and said, "This is mine. My dividend this year is 252 yuan, which includes a portion of food money for the children. Caifeng, take this money." Then she counted out 180 yuan and handed it to Wang Caifeng.
Wang Caifeng didn't reach out: "Mom, even if we buy expensive food outside, we won't be able to use this much."
Xia Juhua handed the money to her stubbornly: "The high-priced grain doesn't require so much, but the production team deducted 1,500 work points from Zhiquan per person, and you have to pay that amount for your children."
After saying that, Xia Juhua picked up the second thickest pile and said, "This is Zhishuang's. He didn't take any leave this year, so his dividend is 240 yuan." She counted out sixty and handed them to Liu Zhishuang, and the remaining 180 was handed to Wang Caifeng.
Wang Caifeng couldn't stop crying. She had only heard of people fighting and cursing over money, but she had never heard of a mother-in-law trying to stuff money into her daughter-in-law's hands.
"Mom, we can't accept all this money from Zhishuang," she sniffed and said, "Zhishuang still has to get married, and besides, the money I have is enough for his food expenses." After that, Wang Caifeng took out eighty yuan and handed the rest back to Xia Juhua.
Liu Zhishuang was about to push the money away from his sister-in-law, but Liu Zhiquan held his hand and said, "Second brother, this year your sister-in-law can't work in the fields, so I shamelessly took advantage of you for a year. When your sister-in-law can work in the fields next year, I will return the money to you." After saying that, he looked at Xia Juhua and said, "Mom, I will return your share to you as well."
Xia Juhua didn't say that she didn't have to pay it back. She was willing to give the subsidy. Wang Caifeng had worked hard at home for the past year. Besides, Xia Juhua wanted to let men know that women who take care of children and do housework at home are also contributing to the family and should be recognized. But if Liu Zhiquan asked to pay it back, she would not refuse, lest they think that her contribution is taken for granted.
Liu Zhiquan put the sixty yuan he had just received and the one hundred yuan that Liu Zhiquan had pressed in his hand together, pushed them to Xia Juhua and said, "Mom, you keep this money. I have enough money in my hand."
Xia Juhua counted out eighty yuan and handed it to him: "We have set the rules, so we have to follow them. Just keep the money you deserve."
These words made Liu Zhishuang blush. He took the money and said nothing more.
Needless to say, the thinnest stack of money that Xia Juhua picked up at the end belonged to Liu Zhiquan. Wang Caifeng thought he would not get the money back today, but unexpectedly he still had some left, so she couldn't help but nudge him with her elbow.
Liu Zhiquan turned around and whispered to her, "When the dividends were distributed, my mother said that Baoguo and Lele's food money would be paid tomorrow, so I got a little bit." This made Liu Zhiquan a little proud. He watched Xia Juhua figure out her dividend in a few seconds:
"After deducting your and your two husband's food rations from Zhiquan's work points, there is still 60 yuan left for dividends. I'll take 30 yuan, and you can keep the rest." After saying that, he handed another 30 yuan to Wang Caifeng.
Wang Caifeng, who became the biggest winner of the night, felt like crying again. She forced herself to take out ten yuan and handed it to Xia Juhua: "Mom, keep this for yourself to buy some clothes. I won't go to the county town either, because I'm afraid I can't buy good ones in the commune."
Liu Zhiquan thought he should show some appreciation for his wife sensible: "Mom, why don't I go to the county town to buy you another scarf? But why didn't I see you wearing one a few times last year?"
It would have been fine if he hadn't mentioned it. As soon as Xia Juhua mentioned it, she remembered her resistance to the khaki scarf: "It's not time to wear it yet. I'll wear it when the weather gets cold. Don't buy more blindly. One is enough. Buying more is a waste of money."
Liu Zhishuang also handed Xia Juhua ten yuan.
He then raised the other money in his hand and gestured, "This belongs to all of us."
Separating her own money from the family's money is something Xia Juhua has been doing all her life. Both her son and daughter-in-law have become accustomed to it, and no one thinks there is anything wrong with her doing so.
Liu Zhiquan stood up and said, "Mom, let's go back."
Liu Zhishuang also said: "Brother, you stay at home, I will go to my uncle's house."
Seeing that Xia Juhua didn't say anything, Liu Zhiquan didn't object and followed Wang Caifeng back to the east room.
After the three of them left, Xia Juhua closed the door and took out the money from under the kang cabinet. There were two small bags containing her own money and the shared money. As for the shared money, Xia Juhua counted it and found that there were 422 yuan, which was a lot for a rural family.
However, Xia Juhua took out a grid notebook where the children did their homework and wrote on it: Liu Zhiquan 30, Liu Zhishuang 80 - she had to know exactly how much money the two boys had, so that when she asked them to build a house, they wouldn't have to use the excuse of having no money.
As for her share of the money, Xia Juhua was calculating in her mind when she opened the small package: Adding this to what she just got, it should be enough for one thousand, right?
After counting, there were only 870 yuan, 130 yuan short of 1,000 yuan. Xia Juhua slapped her forehead, wondering why she had forgotten about the bicycle, which was a huge expense of 168 yuan and was also Xia Juhua's largest fixed asset.
This money was useless for the time being, so Xia Juhua decided to deposit it in the bank the next time she went to the county town, at least there would be some interest. As for the introduction letter required to deposit money, Xia Juhua, who was already a production team leader, didn't take it seriously - Chen Qiusheng was not a talkative person, so she just asked him to open a card.
Unfortunately, Xia Juhua received 2,000 kilograms of peanuts from the noodle factory the next day, so she couldn't go to the county town for a while. She went to ask Chen Qiusheng for leave, but Li Changshun came to Ping'an Village again today. When he heard that she had to ask Chen Qiusheng for leave again, his eyes popped up:
"You agreed to fry peanuts for the noodle factory because you wanted to buy bran for the whole team, not for personal reasons. Why are you asking for leave?" He glared at Chen Qiusheng and said, "You are just an accountant, and you dare to approve leave for the production team leader. Can you also approve a day off for me tomorrow?"
Chen Qiusheng felt wronged: "Captain, last year when our captain was frying peanuts, she asked for leave, but I didn't listen to her. Why did she deduct her work points this time?"
Li Changshun then let Chen Qiusheng go: "That's better. Boy, you should know what's going on. Without your captain, you still want to share the profits. You can just drink the wind."
Old comrade, that's an exaggeration. Xia Juhua quickly asked Li Changshun why he came, so as to change the subject: "Captain, why are you here today?"
Li Changshun smiled: "I heard that your production team distributed dividends last night, and I thought that we should ask those production teams to pay back the work points they earned from learning how to leak powder from you last year. By the way, how much is one work point worth this year?"
Chen Qiusheng looked at Xia Juhua, not knowing whether he should tell the truth. Seeing Xia Juhua slightly, he said, "One work point is worth 1.2 cents."
"Did you include the money for paying the public rations? Did you not mention the retention of money, or did you include the money for paying the pigs for the mission?" Li Changshun had a series of questions. He just couldn't believe that in such a year, Ping'an Village had not even paid the public rations, but its work points had reached 1.2 cents.
His family lived in Xiaozhuangtou, and everyone in his family was in the Xiaozhuangtou Production Team, so he knew the work point value of the Xiaozhuangtou Production Team very clearly: four points.
Originally, Li Changshun thought that Ping'an Village must have a higher work score than Xiaozhuangtou, maybe two or three points higher at most. But now it is three times that of Xiaozhuangtou. How can he not ask a series of questions?
Chen Qiu Sheng said to Li Changshun proudly: "Captain, we have reserved all the levies for our production team, and we have not included the pig money for the mission. Moreover," Chen Qiu Sheng emphasized: "This year, our food rations and work points are deducted at 1,500 per person!"
Put away your smug expression. Xia Juhua glared at Chen Qiu Sheng and looked at Li Changshun sympathetically: "Captain, if those production teams..."
"No, we agreed at the time to calculate it based on the work points of your Ping'an Village, so you have to pay according to the work points of Ping'an Village." Li Changshun said with an unquestionable look, which made Xia Juhua, who originally wanted to say that the four production teams could wait a while before paying, shut up obediently.
It would be better to give them money now. Except for the families of Grandma Qi and Uncle Dong, all the people in Ping An Zhuang have taught the outside production team how to leak powder. Everyone remembers when and who learned from whom and how many days they learned. After calculating the accounts, the people in Ping An Zhuang have made an extra income.
Li Changshun had already stood up. After thinking for a while, he said to Xia Juhua and the other two, "You'd better not tell anyone about the fact that your production team only deducted 1,500 food ration points." If the people from the other four production teams heard about it, they would be even more dissatisfied with the cadres of their own production team.
Now he has heard many people whispering that the cadres of their production team are not good enough. If they were all as capable as Xia Xiao, their production team would have been able to make money by selling powder a long time ago.
What else can those four production team leaders do? !
It was not until Li Changshun limped out of the production team yard that Xia Juhua sighed from the bottom of her heart: "The team leader didn't even tell me not to take the work points from the four production teams today."
Chen Qiusheng said with a smile: "The captain said something himself, can he take it back? Now the people in the production team should be happy again, because they still have to help us repair the canal for 20 days."
"It's just right. During these twenty days, the grain in the yard has almost dried up. Let's clean up the yard and the powder room. It's time to start kilning bricks in Xiajiazhuang."
The first batch of bricks fired went very smoothly. After the fire was stopped and the temperature dropped, green bricks appeared in front of everyone. When the adobe was removed, the molds used by Ping An Village were the same as those used for ordinary adobe bricks, so the fired bricks were larger and thicker than normal bricks, and looked very heavy.
Uncle San picked up two bricks and knocked them hard. Only a few small pieces of debris fell off the two bricks, and they remained intact. The broken parts were still the same blue-black color as the surface. Uncle San nodded with satisfaction: "The fire is right, and the water is just right. The bricks are solid. If you want to build a house, one layer of bricks is enough."
Mantun came over and wanted to take two bricks to try, but was stopped by his third uncle: "If your eldest aunt knew that you ruined her bricks, she would definitely hit you with bricks." Mantun was so scared that he shrank his neck and asked unwillingly: "Third uncle, you should rest for a while before the next kiln, I will help you watch the fire."
The third master smiled and said, "Okay, you remember when to add fire, when to add water, and when to turn off the fire, right? Next time I won't remind you at all. If you burn it and your aunt gets angry and your father beats you, don't let me speak for you."
This is a bit difficult. Mantun thought about it and was about to answer, but he saw a smile in his Third Master's eyes. He knew he was still teasing him, so he smiled too: "Okay, Third Master, as long as you are assured, I dare to burn it."
A newborn ox is not afraid of a tiger, and this is true for people of Mantun's age. Sanye himself learned his trade from his master, and he knows that you can't develop real skills just by watching, so he said that just now to test Mantun's courage.
Seeing Mantun agreed, the third master was also infected by his excitement and gave Mantun a hug: "Go and move the bricks, and send them to your aunt later."
Xia Juhua, who was counting the days, certainly would not let Xia Jiazhuang deliver the bricks. Chen Qiusheng came with a bullock cart and a dozen strong men. He quickly loaded the bricks onto the bullock cart and pulled his uncle aside: "Third Master, our captain has a mission at the noodle factory and cannot leave, so I brought you some things."
Chen Qiusheng handed a small cloth bag filled with five pounds of peanuts to his uncle. This was a gift from his niece, so his uncle felt at ease accepting it. However, when he opened the bag at home, he found that in addition to the peanuts, there were also six yuan in it, which was exactly the salary for the three days of work from setting up the kiln to making bricks that Xia Juhua had told him about.
Looking at the six yuan in his hand, Uncle San felt both excited and relieved: after so many years, he was finally able to make money with his craft.
When Xia Juhua saw the bricks, she was relieved: "Unload the bricks to the yard first."
Zhao Hua drove the ox cart to the yard and complained: "Captain, you are a little too biased towards women. You were the first to bring women to the county town, and now that there are some bricks, you give them to the women first. In the end, we are the ones who have to move the bricks and put up the scaffolding. If you do this again next time, we old men will not do it anymore."
"Zhao Huashan, you have become more capable, right?" Zhao Xianzhi heard this and quickly spoke up for Xia Juhua: "When the dividends were distributed that day, why didn't you say that the captain favored us women? This year, you are getting dividends, but they were all woven by us women piece by piece. Otherwise, you would get nothing!"
The words were rough but true. Not only Zhao Huashan, but all the men in Pingan Village remained silent at this time. Xia Juhua saw that when she encountered such a situation in the past, she always had to say stubbornly, "What do you women know? You are a bunch of short-sighted people with long hair." Now, the men could only maintain their dignity with silence and smiled with pursed lips.
It’s great that women can openly refute men. It’s good. It’s even better that women say it’s their own labor that makes all the people in the production team benefit together.
However, we can't discourage the enthusiasm of men too much, because the main force of the next powder leak will be replaced by men: "Don't talk nonsense, if Li Changwang hadn't leaked powder to you, I don't think you would still have the energy to make a fuss." Xia Juhua pretended to scold Zhao Xianzhi.
Zhao Xianzhi didn't take it seriously at all: "I even made him new clothes inside and out. This is called reciprocity."
All right, this is how courtesy is used, Xia Juhua had nothing to say. But others urged Zhao Xianzhi to talk about what courtesy she had with Li Changwang, which made Zhao Xianzhi so angry that she scolded this one and then ran to that one, and the atmosphere in the courtyard was high for a while.
Chen Qiu Sheng took the opportunity to start assigning tasks: "Liu Erzhuang, you guys take down the shed, Liu Erxi, you guys start laying the foundation after the shed is taken down, Zhao Dagou, you take your father and your brother and follow Brother Lu Sheng to push mud in the river, and cut out the hemp knife today."
Everyone else happily accepted the task, but Zhao Tiedan was unhappy after being specifically named: "I am the father who leads my son to work, why should the big dog lead me to work?"
No one answered Zhao Tiedan's question, because this year Zhao Dagou was like a different person. He worked hard no matter what work was assigned to him. At the beginning, he was not skilled and could only get seven or eight work points. After the wheat was harvested, he could get ten full work points.
Everyone noticed that if Zhao Tiedan didn't work hard, Zhao Dagou would whisper something in his ear, and then Zhao Tiedan would do his work obediently. Although Zhao Tiedan was still a hard worker, he could easily get six or seven work points a day during the busy farming season.
When it came time to distribute dividends this year, the Zhao father and son not only had enough work points to deduct for this year's food rations, they even took out 2,000 work points to pay off debts from previous years. This made people believe that as long as Zhao Dagou was there, Zhao Tiedan would be able to do the work.
So now who cares whether Zhao Tiedan complains or not, as long as the tasks assigned to the three of them can be completed, isn't that enough?
By the time Xia Juhua had finished frying the peanuts for the noodle factory and sent Zhao Huashan away in a bullock cart, two rows of houses had been built in the yard, using the summer thatched roofs. Although they were still thatched roofs, the green walls looked thick, and there were doors and windows. The women laughed when they thought about weaving mats or baskets in such a house.
Liu Hongling and the others came over to tease Xia Juhua again: "Auntie, we are willing to weave things with our mother and the others. Please let us go to the yard as well."
It seems that everyone will not forget the name of the courtyard for a while, and Xia Juhua did not correct them: "You are so warm at home knitting things, wait until next summer to go out, so as not to freeze your hands and have itchy hands every year."
Xiaoman said softly, "But no one's house has such a big place. We can't stand together when we want to talk."
Seeing that the little girls were looking at her expectantly, Xia Juhua couldn't bear to tease them any more: "Look, there are two rows of houses. One row is for your mother to weave mats, and the other row is divided into half to place reed poles. The other half is prepared for you. How about it, can you sit down now?"
"Yes." Liu Hongcui agreed quickly and came up to hug Xia Juhua's arm and rubbed it: "Auntie, you are so kind. We have thought about it. When the time comes, we will make something for Lele to play with."
Xia Juhua was happy: "Okay, when you come up with something good, I'll send it to the supply and marketing cooperative for you."
Liu Hongling and the other two helped everyone earn money with the little baskets they made. In addition to the seven work points they could record every day, they also received a bonus of five yuan each. They were full of confidence and heard a small cheer from everyone who was happy.
"Okay, now that you're happy, get back to work." Xia Juhua still had to go check on the progress of the tile laying and powder room, so she chatted with the girls for a while before letting them go back to work.
Liu Hongcui pouted and said, "Auntie Xianzhi has been in a bad mood these past two days. Because there are fewer reeds this year, she always wants everyone to weave mats. But we also want to weave some small baskets or something, but we don't dare to make her angry."
The biggest impact of less rain on Ping An Village is not the reduction in grain production, but the fact that the reeds that everyone brought back with them in previous years have grown shorter and more sparsely this year. The reeds that Ping An Village brought back are not even enough to make 3,000 mats, so Zhao Xianzhi feels that they should do their best to ensure that the mats can be made.
Xia Juhua, however, felt that compared to weaving mats, it was more cost-effective to weave small baskets, large roosters, or the small flower baskets and small pen holders that Seventh Grandma had been trying to weave with the girls over the past six months.
Apart from the time required for dyeing, these small things also use less than a quarter or a fifth of the reed bark of reed mats, and the time required is also much shorter than weaving mats, and the supply and marketing cooperatives charge them a full dollar.
After the expo, these small things came into the sight of the provincial supply and marketing cooperative. Orders were sent to Ping'anzhuang in batches from top to bottom, and the settlement was also very smooth.
Xia Juhua went to the yard with the other girls and asked Zhao Xianzhi, only to find out that other people thought weaving mats was a serious job, and weaving small baskets was just like playing house with children in her eyes. She was embarrassed to have to count nine hours of work every day just for weaving baskets.
"Let me ask you, has the supply and marketing cooperative placed any order for reed mats with us so far?" Xia Juhua knew in her heart that within ten years, reed mats would be completely eliminated from rural life, and various types of kang leather would replace reed mats because they were smooth and easy to clean.
Now is not the time to say it, so I can only use the method that can convince Zhao Xianzhi the most: "It is obvious that they are more willing to let us make these little things now, so why don't we make more money while the little things are selling well?" I couldn't help but tap Zhao Xianzhi's forehead:
"Don't you know which is more troublesome, making mats or making small things? You are wasting the easy money."
Zhao Xianzhi could not hear what Xia Juhua said at the end. She was still thinking about Xia Juhua tapping her forehead affectionately. She now dared to pat her chest and guarantee that the captain and she were best friends. An Baoling and Zhang Cuiping should all stand aside!
"Okay, captain, I know what to do. Today I will go to all the production teams along the river and ask if anyone is willing to sell reed stems. I will buy all the ones I can." There is another advantage of making small things that the captain didn't mention just now, which is that there is no need to worry about the reed stems turning yellow after being stored for a long time - they have to be dyed anyway, so what's the big deal if the base color is a little yellow.
Zhao Xianzhi felt much more relieved after Xia Juhua figured it out. He asked her to continue to look after the work in the yard with An Baoling and Zhang Cuiping, and walked towards the powder room where the leak was being covered.
In winter, leaking powder became the main task of Pingan Village. Whether the house was built well or not was of great importance. Just like Li Changshun, Xia Juhua would be worried if she didn't check it every day.
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