Chapter 152
The two workers turned their gaze to the technician. The technician looked at Captain Niu with some embarrassment and did not tell him his final decision. He thought it would be better to discuss it with Xia Juhua.
The two workers who were preparing to cook had already run back to their respective posts and quietly told their fellow workers the news that Ping An Zhuang would provide meals. The workers felt that they were taking advantage of Ping An Zhuang and worked even harder during the rest of the time - the workers knew why Ping An Zhuang would provide their lunch.
Xia Juhua saw that lunch was ready, so she came over to invite everyone. She was pulled aside by the technician and said with some complaint, "Captain Xia, you have given me a difficult problem."
Xia Juhua was a little puzzled: "It's just a lunch, what's the problem? I don't stew meat for everyone every day. I just want everyone to eat better so that they can do their work more carefully. Don't worry about it. I will report to your director later. The lunch is a voluntary thank you from our Ping'anzhuang Brigade to the workers so that he won't criticize you."
Is this a matter of criticism or not? This is a matter of taking advantage of Ping An Zhuang and getting subsidies from the bureau. The technician felt that he had to explain to the workers that they had already received the subsidies, otherwise he would feel guilty.
After he finished speaking, Xia Juhua was silent for a while before speaking: "I have already thought about the situation you are talking about. After all, the road construction in Pingan Village was agreed by the county and the district. Even if your Transportation Bureau is doing it for the county and the district to see, it will send the best people to help."
"But the emperor doesn't need hungry soldiers. How can we, Ping An Village, feel at ease to take advantage of the Transportation Bureau? You don't charge us money, and the salary is paid by the bureau. So all we can do is this lunch."
"Perhaps you think that since the workers have received subsidies from the bureau, Ping An Manor should not provide lunch for them. But have you ever thought that the workers are also human beings, and they have families to support. To put it bluntly, many of these workers come from rural areas, and their entire families depend on them, so they should be given some subsidies to support their families?"
Xia Juhua explained it very clearly, and the technician also figured it out - Xia Juhua was right, getting a job as a road construction worker in the Transportation Bureau sounded like a job with rationed food and monthly salary, but due to the nature of the work, such workers were not as respectable as other workers in factories or institutions, who were all recruited from rural areas in previous years.
Their roots are still in the countryside, and because they have become workers, they have great prospects in the eyes of the villagers. Their families have higher expectations of them than for their brothers and sisters who are still in the countryside, and their demands have increased accordingly.
As a result, they have to pay more money to support their families, otherwise they will be accused of being unfilial and of being workers who do not recognize their parents. Therefore, it is natural for workers to value the subsidies they have received and hope to keep them in their hands.
The technician said to Xia Juhua shyly, "Captain Xia, I'm sorry to make fun of you. Just like what you said, everyone..."
Xia Juhua looked at him with a smile and said, "We are all breadwinners, and this is the same everywhere. Don't feel bad. As long as everyone can repair the road, we in Ping'an Village will be very grateful to everyone." Although Xia Juhua did understand the difficulties faced by the workers, Ping'an Village still had to make progress.
"Don't worry about that." The technician patted his chest and assured Xia Juhua: "Although everyone likes to take advantage of small things, they are not ungrateful. The two of us will definitely watch them carefully and make sure they build the best road in Pingde County."
Just be content. Xia Juhua was about to explain to the technician that the stewed meat would only be eaten today and on the last day, and the rest of the time there would only be stewed vegetables and staple food, so that the workers would not think that Ping An Zhuang was fooling them.
The meal was delivered by Team Three, which was not far from the construction site. The smell of asphalt was still very strong, but it couldn't stop the satisfied smiles on the workers' faces - in this day and age, seeing two large pots of red, trembling potato stew and an even larger pot of white flour steamed buns that were the size of an adult's head in front of them, it was impossible to stop smiling.
I came to work for the Ping'anzhuang Brigade, so I guess I'm here.
The technician asked Xia Juhua to sit down and eat with everyone. She didn't hesitate and sat down on the open space. She smiled and said to everyone: "Why don't you guys pick up your chopsticks? Come and try it. I don't know if it suits your taste."
The workers still didn't start, and all looked at the technician who came with Xia Juhua. When the technician saw that everyone was looking at him, he put down the chopsticks he had just picked up and said, "The Ping'anzhuang Brigade is considerate of us big bosses and made rice with less salt and oil. They will take care of our lunch for the few next days."
"You all saw it, the members of Pingan Village were reluctant to eat meat, so they left it for us. They were reluctant to eat white flour steamed buns, so they didn't mix any corn flour in the steamed buns they made for us. We can't just eat and forget about the good things. We have to repair the roads for others, and people should be content."
"Captain Xia just told me that it's not easy to support a large family, and we have to take the little food subsidies from the bureau. I thanked Captain Xia on behalf of grateful. But we can't stew meat or fry vegetables anymore. We can't afford it."
"Yes, that's right. We can't just remember to eat and not remember the good things."
"It's already a big hassle that they prepared meals for us. When we were building roads, we had to eat dry food."
Xia Juhua looked at the technician with gratitude and without saying anything polite, she once again asked everyone to eat quickly to prevent the food from getting cold.
How can a dish with meat be bad? Everyone was hesitant at first, but when they saw that Xia Juhua didn't feel uncomfortable as a woman sitting among a group of old men, they gradually relaxed, talked more, and moved their chopsticks faster. Soon, they had finished two full pots of stewed meat.
"This meal is enough for me to eat in a whole day."
"It's only been one day. Can you eat meat like this during Chinese New Year? I think the people in Ping'an Village have a better life."
"We have wheat as our food, and we have a vermicelli factory. Now we are even building our own roads. If this life is not good enough, what life can be considered good?"
…………
Seeing the workers walking towards the construction site while talking, Xia Juhua asked the technician: "Would you like to take a break?"
The technician shook his head and said, "Why should I rest? I'll feel bad if I rest after eating such a good meal."
Xia Juhua said nothing and just watched the workers smilingly start a new job.
Liu Liqun was still the one who stayed on the construction site to coordinate. He had not eaten with everyone just now. It was not until the technicians went to check the construction quality that he came over and said to Xia Juhua, "Captain, I'm watching over this. You can go back and have a rest."
The workers who had been working all morning were unwilling to rest. Xia Juhua felt that she was not that proud, so she shook her head and said to Liu Liqun, "No need to rest. I will go back and collect the number of adobe bricks that each production team has taken off. Tomorrow I have to go to the Xiawo Brigade to discuss and ask them when they will reopen the kiln for us."
Liu Liqun was delighted when he heard this: "I guess the Xiaowo Brigade is looking forward to your visit now."
It's not that Liu Liqun feels too good about himself or says too arrogantly, but that Ping'anzhuang Brigade has not stopped burning bricks before the summer harvest this year. In addition to supplying adobe bricks themselves, coal is also coordinated by Ping'anzhuang itself. Xia'ao Brigade provides manpower, and Ping'anzhuang also exchanges workers for work according to the work points here.
If Xia Juhua's mother's family wasn't from the Xiawu Brigade, how could such a good thing happen to the Xiawu Brigade?
Xia Juhua didn't care about Liu Liqun's joke. She hadn't been back to her parents' home this year. She met her two brothers and their wives. It was Liu Zhiquan and Liu Zhishuang who came to see them off because they were moving. There were so many people and it was so busy that they didn't have a good conversation. It was a good opportunity to go back.
Xia Juhua was the only one at home now. She didn't eat many of the eggs that had been laid since last autumn. She took thirty from each of her two brothers and thirty from her third uncle. She didn't take anything else.
Seeing that she had brought back so many things, Xia Long's wife Xu Hongcui pushed her out directly: "Big sister, I won't let you in. You are the elder sister, how can I let you get things for us every time?"
Xia Juhua squeezed in with a smile: "You guys took a lot of things when you visited me, why can't I bring some back? Besides, this is not for you to eat, this is for Mantun and Manyi to replenish their brains."
Xu Hongcui couldn't really keep her elder sister-in-law out of the door, so she could only pretend to be angry and say, "Feng Ling and I are a very happy mother, how could we let your nephew down?"
Xia Juhua didn't want to argue with her over the eggs anymore, so she just asked, "Where are Xia Long and the others? Are they going to work?"
Xu Hongcui said proudly, "I went to see the brick kiln with my uncle. He said we need to clean up the slag inside. Otherwise, your team will come back to burn bricks. It will take time to clean up now. By the way, big sister, when will you come back to burn bricks?"
Xia Juhua came today just to burn bricks, so she told Xu Hongcui that the bricks would be delivered in two days, and the kiln could be started once the coal arrived. Xu Hongcui was delighted and said:
"That's good. Our captain has long wanted to ask Xia Long to go to Ping'an Village to ask, but I think if your team doesn't need bricks this year, wouldn't it be embarrassing for you if Xia Long went to ask? Let him wait for two days."
Hearing that her brother's wife was thinking about her, Xia Juhua was a little emotional: "It's not a big deal to ask. If there is such a thing again, just let Xia Long go. I can still meet and talk with him more often."
Knowing that their brother and sister had a good relationship, and that her eldest aunt was always helping her family, Xu Hongcui always regarded Xia Juhua as her biological sister, and whispered to her: "Of course we are willing to go to Ping'an Village more often. But eldest sister, you said that if we go to Ping'an Village again and again, people will think that you are just to help us, so you always ask the Xiawa brigade to bake bricks. Isn't that going to cause trouble for you?"
"There are many places where our brigade needs bricks." Xia Juhua didn't care about this and asked, "Didn't I ask Xia Long and his men to take off some more adobe bricks to make tiles when they have nothing to do? Did they do it?"
Xu Hongcui nodded and said, "They took them off. Didn't you see they covered them with straw curtains? They were afraid that they would be ruined by the rain. Sister, why did you let them take off these adobes? Do you want to build a brick house?"
Xia Juhua shook her head and said, "It's not that I want to build it, but our brigade is going to build another factory, and bricks and tiles are indispensable. But what Ping'anzhuang Brigade is short of is manpower, so let Xia Long and his friends take care of the adobe bricks, and then sell them to our brigade, which will bring more income to the family."
"Then do you, the members of Ping'anzhuang Brigade, have any objections?" Xu Hongcui was of course willing to add another source of income to her family, but she was afraid that Xia Juhua would be criticized for it, so she asked with some concern.
Xia Juhua reassured her: "I've told you that our team is short of manpower. It's not just your family. If anyone in our production team has unused adobe bricks, we want to buy them all together."
Xia Juhua had thought of this idea a long time ago and had mentioned it once to Xia Hongmin, the leader of Xiawo Brigade. But from what Xu Hongcui said, it seemed that Xia Hongmin had not told the members of Xiawo Brigade about this.
Xu Hongcui had indeed not received any notification from the production team. When she heard that Ping'an Village needed a large number of adobe bricks, she was worried about Xia Juhua: "If you need a large quantity, the ones Xia Long and his family have taken off may not be enough. Feng Ling and I counted them the other day. The two families together had 18,400 adobe bricks and 15,700 tiles."
"Okay, I'm just going to ask Xia Hongmin when he can open the kiln, and ask him to buy some adobe bricks for our team. I'll let him buy yours first. By the way, if there's time, let Xia Long and the others continue making bricks. I heard that several families in our production team want to build houses, and they're too busy this year to make adobe bricks, so we can sell them to them when the time comes."
Hearing that Xia Juhua was going to look for Xia Hongmin, Xu Hongcui had no choice but to let her go, and repeatedly told her to come home for lunch at noon. If she didn't come or went back to Ping'an Manor secretly, she would have to ask her nephews to go to Ping'an Manor and bring her back. She smiled at Xia Juhua and watched her ride away before returning to the courtyard.
Xia Hongmin was reading a newspaper at the brigade headquarters. When he saw Xia Juhua coming, he stood up immediately and said, "Juhua, you are here. I have been waiting for you. Are you going to talk about burning bricks? Don't worry, as long as your adobe bricks are delivered and the coal is in place, we can burn them whenever you come."
Xia Juhua had nothing to say with such a good attitude. Naturally, she repeated that the bricks from Ping'an Village Brigade would be brought over soon and that the kiln could be opened after the coal was transported. Then she asked, "Captain, how many bricks and tiles can your brigade provide us? How much do you want to sell them for?"
Xia Hongmin was a little surprised and said, "At that time I just thought you were being polite, so I didn't dare to mention it to the members when I came back, for fear that we would all be blamed if we didn't accept it. Just tell me how many adobes and tiles Ping'an Village needs, and I will have someone provide them for you right away." After saying that, he slapped the table in annoyance and said, "How could I forget that? You never say useless things. Did I delay your business?"
Xia Juhua said quickly: "People in our team also took off some, but it's not enough. We will collect as much as your team has first, and after we have collected and counted them, we will know how much is left. This is the price..."
Bricks are hard to buy now, but adobe bricks can be removed by pushing the soil on the river bank with a little effort, so they are not worth much. Xia Hongmin does not take this opportunity to ask for a high price: "Now a brick is only one cent, and more than half of the cost is labor and coal. So, what do you think of adobe bricks at one cent and three pieces, and tiles at one cent and two pieces?" Making tiles takes more time than making adobe bricks, so the price is more expensive than adobe bricks.
This price is cheaper than if the members of Ping'an Village Brigade removed the adobe bricks themselves, so Xia Juhua agreed, "Okay, then we'll make a deal. I'll let Xia Long and the other two remove some of the bricks, and the total cost of the adobe bricks and tiles will be more than 10,000 yuan but less than 20,000 yuan. Don't forget to write it down for them when the time comes."
Xia Hongmin agreed repeatedly and accompanied Xia Juhua to the brick kiln to take a look and asked her to give him some suggestions on whether the brick kiln should build more kilns if it wanted to expand production.
Xia Juhua was still quite surprised that Xia Hongmin wanted to expand the brick factory. After all, coal was hard to buy now and few people came to burn bricks. It was probably not profitable to expand the brick factory for the time being.
Xia Hongmin had been thinking about this problem for a long time, and now he spoke very clearly: "It seems that we are not making money now, but your Ping'an Village Brigade has been busy building factories in the past two years, and the members have been too busy to take care of their own family affairs. When you are no longer busy, will the members think about building new houses? Everyone in Ping'an Village has money in their hands, so who is willing to build adobe houses? Then won't they need our bricks?"
Don't think that Xia Hongmin is taking it for granted that he is pinning his hopes on Ping'anzhuang. You should know that the work points of Ping'anzhuang Brigade are being watched by all the brigades in Red Star Commune. Looking at the truckloads of sweet potatoes being transported in, and the truckloads of hot and sour noodles and textiles being transported away, you can tell that the work points of Ping'anzhuang Brigade will increase in the next few years.
When farmers have money, the first thing they think about is food and building a house. A new brick house can improve the status of a daughter-in-law or daughter-in-law by several levels. In order to find a daughter-in-law or daughter-in-law, the members of Pingan Village also have to build a new brick house.
That’s how much Xia Hongmin believes in Ping An Zhuang.
After hearing Xia Hongmin's reasons, Xia Juhua couldn't help but admire his foresight as a team leader, and nodded: "That's right, my two sisters-in-law are thinking about building a new house, and I usually hear that there are several families who haven't decided whether to build adobe houses or brick and tile houses. I guess that when my two sisters-in-law build brick and tile houses, they will have to follow suit."
Xia Hongmin was happy: "So I think that expanding the brick kiln is a matter of sooner or later, so it's better to do it sooner rather than later." At this point, he looked around and whispered to Xia Juhua: "To be honest, if Mancang and Manwu hadn't learned how to fire bricks, I wouldn't have dared to think about expanding the brick kiln. But my uncle said that Mancang and Manwu could both become masters and watch the kiln fire themselves, so I was moved."
Xia Juhua was surprised that Mancang and Manwu could actually watch the kiln fire by themselves, but she was immediately happy for her two nephews: "These two boys can actually watch the kiln fire. They didn't tell me when they saw it just now. I hope I won't scold them when I get home. This is a good thing. Why are they hiding it from me? They are really ignorant. Are they afraid that I will let them treat us?"
Chinese parents, no matter how happy they are when their children make progress, always have to be humble in front of outsiders, or point out some shortcomings to avoid others thinking they are showing off.
Xia Hongmin knew this, and he said to Xia Juhua like any other Chinese person: "Those two kids may be embarrassed, so they didn't tell you. They are both good kids, and they have learned to watch the kiln fire in just half a year. Uncle San said he didn't expect it. If you don't praise them, they will scold you. Be careful that they won't take you back to your parents' home next time."
Xia Juhua didn't care whether her two nephews would take her back to her mother's home: one life is close, two lives are cousins, and three lives are forgetful. Even if her nephews really didn't like her aunt, it wasn't a big loss for Xia Juhua. Moreover, Xia Juhua was so poor in her last life, and Mancang and the others followed Xia Long to Ping'an Manor to help her out. So she didn't worry that the two of them would look down on her in this life.
During these visits to her parents' home, Xia Juhua has observed the performance of her children.
Xia Hongmin was just joking, and was happy to see that Xia Juhua didn't take it seriously. He then turned to Xia Juhua and asked if she could help coordinate if the Xiawo Brigade needed coal and cement to expand the brick kiln.
Xia Juhua did not refuse this - now in Xiawo Brigade, the only people who know how to watch the kiln are Uncle San, Mancang and Manwu. If the brick kiln is expanded, only the three of them can be the masters. Since it is beneficial to both Xiawo Brigade and her mother's family, Xia Juhua is still willing to lend a hand.
Seeing that she agreed so readily, Xia Hongmin happily pulled her to his house to have dinner. Xia Juhua was refusing when Mancang ran over and said, "Aunt, my mother has prepared the meal. I want you to finish your business and go home to have dinner. My second uncle and his family have all gone home."
Xia Hongmin knew that he couldn't invite Xia Juhua, so he simply asked Mancang: "Why did you only invite your aunt? Didn't you see that I, the captain, am also standing here?"
Mancang was a little reserved in front of the captain, but he tried to speak politely: "Of course I want to invite the captain, I'm not afraid that the captain will not honor me."
"You little brat," Xia Hongmin laughed out loud, "Seeing how distressed you are, I must go and try your mother's cooking skills."
Xia Juhua was happy to see Xia Hongmin take the initiative to get closer to the Xia Long family. She asked Mancang to push the bicycle for her, and they returned to Xia Long's house quickly. As Mancang said, a large square table for New Year's Eve dinner was set up in the yard. Uncle San was already sitting at the table, and the brothers Xia Long and Xia Hu stood on both sides of him and talked.
Seeing Xia Hongmin and Xia Juhua enter the courtyard together, several people were a little surprised, but they quickly came over to greet them. Xia Long let them in and said, "This is the first time the captain has come to our house. I don't know what to say. Please don't be offended if the food is not good."
Xia Hongmin shook his head nonchalantly: "We all have the surname Xia and come from the same ancestor, but in the past we were all busy filling our stomachs and didn't have the opportunity to walk around more. If you walk around a few times in the future, you'll know that I'm a person who says what I think and I'm not a big deal."
Xia Hongmin was so polite that Xia Long couldn't help but smile sincerely. He hurriedly asked him to sit in the seat of honor, and then turned around to ask Xu Hongcui and Zhang Fengling to serve the dishes. When the dishes were served, Xia Hongmin pointed at the six dishes on the table and said, "Your family's food is not good. You can't even eat it during the Chinese New Year."
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