Chapter 171
Chang Qingshan looked at the former Captain Tang who had lost two pounds, and then looked at Tang Qijin who kept glacing at his sister. He suppressed his anger and said, "You can ask my father to go and plead for mercy. As long as Tang Qijin agrees to divorce Chunya, I will go by myself if my father doesn't go. Even if the captain doesn't agree, I will beg her to agree even if I kneel down and beg her."
Tang Qijin looked at Chang Chunya in disbelief: "You've caused such a big problem for our family, and you still want to divorce me?"
Chang Chunya now looked at Tang Qijin with a very calm gaze: "You are still pushing all the responsibilities onto me. Have you ever thought about why I can't live with you?"
Tang Qijin stiffened his neck and said, "It's because you despise the poor and love the rich. My father used to be the leader of the militia, and you cried and begged to marry me. Now that my father is no longer an official, you look down on our family."
Chang Qingling couldn't help but stepped forward and punched Tang Qijin: "You rely on your father to be alive every day, are you still a man?" How could his sister cry and shout to marry a bastard like him? It was his father who asked this and that to act as a matchmaker every day, so that Accountant Chang thought that their family valued Chunya and agreed to this marriage, okay?
Chang Qingling's punch and his doubts about whether Tang Qijin was a man completely broke up Chang Chunya and Tang Qijin's marriage. The two went to the commune to handle the divorce procedures the next day, but when Chang Chunya went to Tang's house to get his things, a conflict occurred again.
Captain Tang has become the former Captain Tang, and his wife is still detained in the police station. He has completely lost all sense of shame and only allows Chang Chunya to take her clothes, and refuses to allow the bicycle that came as a dowry to be pushed back to Ping'an Village.
Chang Qingshan and Chang Qingling, who followed the girl to get the things, directly punched the two old men. The two still held on to the rear rack of the bicycle tightly and shouted for help from the members of the production team.
Looking at the members who gathered around, Chang Chunya asked Mr. Tang two or three questions: First, was the bicycle her dowry? Second, when she went through the divorce procedure, did she return all the betrothal gifts that the Tang family had given to Tang Qijin? Third, was the dividends she had received from the production team in the past two years directly collected by Tang Qijin's mother?
The members who wanted to help Mr. and Mrs. Tang were ashamed of having thought of helping them. If the couple couldn't make ends meet, it would be understandable to withhold the dowry if they hadn't returned the betrothal gift. They had already returned the betrothal gift, but they still wanted to withhold the dowry. As for the dividend money, don't say that Chang Chunya ate the food of the Tang family, so it should belong to the Tang family. The dividends were the remainder after deducting the work points and food rations. Didn't everyone know?
The members just stood there, watching from afar as the Chang brothers pried open Mr. Tang's fingers one by one, and walked away with their sister.
Former Captain Tang looked at the members who stood by and did not help with hatred, and turned back home. However, Tang Qijin ran after the Chang brothers and sisters and asked, "When can my mother come home?"
Chang Qingshan said without turning his head: "When I get my sister's dividend, I will go to find the captain." Tang Qijin was left standing there in a daze.
After returning home, Chang Chunya fell seriously ill and was unable to go to work for five or six days.
If you have something to do, just distract yourself. I believe Chang Chunya will be able to recover faster.
Chang Chunya looked at Xia Juhua in disbelief and asked, "Captain, can I still work at the instant noodle factory? Aren't you afraid that I will cause you trouble? Also, I'm divorced now, aren't you afraid that I will bring discredit to the instant noodle factory?"
This silly girl's heart knot is here. Xia Juhua gently patted her forehead and said, "What are you thinking? Who told you that divorce is shameful? It's not that you are sorry to the Tang family. It's their family who are torturing you. If you don't leave their family, they will torture you sick or crazy sooner or later."
"You are the daughter of our Ping An Manor. If you are bullied and go back to Ping An Manor, everyone will feel sorry for you and no one will laugh at you. As for what the other people say, you don't live with them and you don't eat their food, so let them say whatever they want. If they dare to say it to your face, just slap them in the face and tell me, and I will bring people to vent your anger."
Chang Chunya had been holding back tears since her divorce, but when Xia Juhua said she was the daughter of Ping An Manor, she burst into tears and cried, "If it weren't for... if it weren't for their family... being so, so bullying, and... forcing me to give... the wages I earned at the instant noodle factory to... to them, I wouldn't have asked for a divorce..."
She had not been able to spend a penny of her dividends for the past two years, and was even required to hand over her wages for working at her mother's house. This was the last straw that broke the camel's back for Chang Chunya. Now that she talked about it, although she was still crying, she felt a lot more relieved and open-minded.
Li Xingfang, who was hiding under the window, said to Accountant Chang, "It's better to cry it out than to hold it in." But her own tears began to fall.
Accountant Chang wiped his face fiercely and said to his wife, "In the future, if Chunya looks for someone else, besides her own willingness, she must also ask the captain to help check."
Li Xingfang nodded in agreement, her heart filled with gratitude towards Xia Juhua: just like a lady, when she heard Xia Juhua say that the lady was the lady of Ping An Manor, Li Xingfang felt confident.
Chang Chunya, who had been persuaded by Xia Juhua, became visibly more energetic and returned to work at the instant noodle factory the next day. When An Baoling saw her, she patted her arm gently and said, "Why haven't you come to work these days, kid? Aren't you afraid that you'll break my old arm?" She looked like she had no idea that Chang Chunya was divorced.
Not only An Baoling, half of the workers in the instant noodle factory are female workers. Normally, they love to gossip about their parents, but when it comes to Chang Chunya's divorce, no one said a word. They just quietly helped her share the burden while working.
Chang Chunya suddenly had a feeling that she was not only the daughter of the old Chang family, but also the daughter of Ping'an Manor. All the people in Ping'an Manor cared for her silently as if she were their own child.
With gratitude to everyone, Chang Chunya worked harder and more thoughtfully, and soon took on the position of head of the seasoning preparation team of the instant noodle factory, and An Baoling was able to return to the weaving team.
In An Baoling's words, even though the instant noodle factory was also owned by Ping'an Village, she had left the weaving group and felt unmotivated at work every day. She also had to quarrel with Zhao Xianzhi every day to find the work interesting.
A forced melon is not sweet. Xia Juhua could do nothing with An Baoling and could only let her pack her bags and return to the weaving team. She also had to send her back to the weaving team in person as An Baoling requested.
I have to send her back. An Baoling said, "If I go back by myself, people will think I can't do the work of the weaving group and I'm being sent back. Zhao Xianzhi will laugh at me. It will be different if you send me back, sister-in-law. Once you send me back, she will know that I have successfully completed the task and am being sent back by welcome."
Is there a difference between the two? Xia Juhua didn't see it, but she naturally had to give face to An Baoling, who moved wherever she was needed. The two sisters-in-law chatted and laughed and returned to the weaving group.
As soon as Zhao Xianzhi saw An Baoling, she shouted, "Everyone, come out and take a look. The traitor dared to return to the weaving team."
Li Daya, Zhang Cuiping and others all ran out, and couldn't help but smile when they saw An Baoling. Then they saw Xia Juhua following behind An Baoling, and they were even more delighted to hold her hand tightly and not let go - Xia Juhua's focus is now on the instant noodle factory, and she can't come to ten the weaving group for days or half a month.
Even though they knew that she let them manage the weaving team because she trusted them, they still wanted to be closer to her. Now that they had met her, they couldn't let her go easily. They had to talk to her nicely.
"It's still more fun for us to be together. We can say whatever we want and do whatever we want." After drinking the water poured by Hong Cui, An Baoling let out a long breath. If there was a sofa instead of a wooden chair behind her, she would probably have a "Ge You paralysis".
Xia Juhua deliberately put on a stern face and asked, "In the instant noodle factory, I didn't allow you to speak?"
"How can it be the same? I'm the team leader in the instant noodle factory. I have to set an example for the new workers and be serious, otherwise they won't listen to me." An Baoling continued to lean back in her chair happily, calmly telling about her "frustrating" life in the instant noodle factory.
Zhao Xianzhi couldn't bear to see her arguing with Xia Juhua, so she shook her chair and said, "It's as if you're not the leader of the weaving group. I'm telling you, Cuiping is busy shipping now and can't take care of group three. You have to take over for me."
An Baoling wailed and insisted on taking a few days off before taking on the position of team leader of Group 3, but was ruthlessly suppressed by her sisters-in-law Zhao Xianzhi and Chang Xiancao.
Xia Juhua and An Baoling felt similar, both of them felt relaxed from the inside out after returning to the knitting group. However, time passed too quickly and there were too many things to do, so she couldn't let herself enjoy her leisure time.
The first month of 1979 was the most stressful month for Xia Juhua. She had no time to prepare New Year's goods for the coming New Year. Instead, she kept going in and out of the warehouses of the vermicelli factory and instant noodle factory, calculating the quantity of shipments and silently anticipating the arrival of that day.
Her emotions not only infected the workers of the two factories, but also made Chen Dongsheng, the director of the vermicelli factory, and Chang Chunya, the director of the instant noodles factory, very nervous. They didn't know why Xia Juhua was so strict about the shipments, and even when there were no shipments, she stayed in the warehouse to count the inventory over and over again.
"Captain, Zhiquan and the others are about to come back for the New Year. Why don't you go back and see if there's anything that needs to be cleaned up at home?" Chen Dongsheng looked at Xia Juhua, who had a dark shadow under her eyes, and felt a little distressed, so he asked her to go home and rest.
Unexpectedly, Xia Juhua shook her head and said, "Why are you taking a break? How many orders have the troops received in the past few days?"
All the orders related to the troops were in Chen Dongsheng's mind: "Two thousand boxes came the day before yesterday, and three thousand boxes were ordered yesterday. That's right, the troops ordered a lot of instant noodles last year, and only half of the hot and sour noodles they ordered the year before last. Why are there so many more this year?"
"No matter how much, we will ship the troops' orders first. As for other people's orders, we will ship them if we can, and pay them deposits if we can't." Xia Juhua made this decision without any hesitation.
Chen Qiusheng grinned quietly. Only the captain dared to say such a thing. You know, since the orders for hot and sour noodles from the troops decreased last year, the remaining half was pushed into the market. That was not just making money!
The first person to place an order with the vermicelli factory was Qi Weidong, who offered a price of 40 cents per bag.
A bag of hot and sour noodles costs 40 cents. What does that mean? The dough in a bag of hot and sour noodles weighs only 300 grams, and the cost is at most 9 cents. Add in the seasoning and labor, and the cost of a bag is no more than 15 cents! Chen Dongsheng was shocked when he heard the price given by Qi Weidong, and wanted to ask him if instant hot and sour noodles are so worth the money?
If Chen Qiu Sheng had not been dealing with Qi Weidong for such a long time, he would have suspected that Qi Weidong was planning a long-term strategy to defeat the vermicelli factory - first he would use high prices to induce the vermicelli factory to increase production, and after gaining the vermicelli factory's trust, he would delay payment for two days due to some funding problems, and then he would run away with the hot and sour noodles, leaving the vermicelli factory with nothing left and having to close down.
Fortunately, Xia Juhua stopped Chen Dongsheng's guess in time and told him that Qi Weidong had already found a buyer, which was the train he took to purchase seafood, and the buyer had offered Qi Weidong a price of 55 cents per bag.
That guy only needs to deliver instant hot and sour noodles to the train when he is on the train. He can earn 1.5 cents per bag. He can deliver 50 bags to a box, and deliver hundreds of boxes to the train at a time. Do you think Qi Weidong can earn so much just by paying for transportation? Does he need to destroy the vermicelli factory in Pingan Village? If he destroys the vermicelli factory, how can he make money?
Chen Qiu Sheng admitted with some shame that he had thought too much, but in the end he found that he had thought too little - Qi Weidong's promotion of hot and sour noodles on trains was equivalent to giving them a thumbs up across the country. Orders came from all over the country to the Ping'anzhuang vermicelli factory. Chen Qiu Sheng finally understood what it felt like for the weaving team to sit at home while orders came from the sky.
Along with the orders came deposits that were transferred to Ping'anzhuang's account through the county supply and marketing cooperative. At this time, procurement was still the responsibility of local supply and marketing cooperatives, and it was easy for them to transfer money between the county supply and marketing cooperatives. Director Lin was also happy to provide this convenience to the Ping'anzhuang Brigade.
When Xia Juhua received the first deposit, she warned Chen Qiu Sheng that since he had accepted the deposit, he had to supply the goods on time and in the right quantity. Ping'anzhuang Vermicelli Factory must not hold back goods or not supply goods after collecting the deposit.
But today, Xia Juhua herself denied her previous warning, which made Chen Qiusheng realize that Xia Juhua attached too much importance to the supply of the troops, which was abnormal.
Chen Qiusheng said tentatively: "Captain, the interest we give to members for raising funds depends on those orders. If we can't deliver the goods on time, in addition to paying the deposit, we will have no money to pay the interest to everyone."
The interest on the fund-raising is indeed a difficult problem. The reason why we didn’t pay it last year was because we had agreed at the time of the fund-raising that there would be no interest in the first year. That was 1977, and it was understandable not to pay the interest in 1978, but now it’s 1979, and if we still don’t pay it, we’ll be breaking our promise.
Although it is only January now, Xia Juhua feels that it will be difficult for the instant noodle factory to make interest this year.
The most important thing for a leader is to gain the trust of his subordinates. Otherwise, no one will listen to him when he wants to arrange things for them. Xia Juhua calculated her bank account in her mind. Last year, she had received salary from the vermicelli factory, weaving group, and instant noodle factory. With the monthly allowance from the team leader, she earned nearly 200 yuan a month. With the dividends from the Ping An Zhuang production team at the end of the year, her bank account reached 5,600 yuan again.
When the road was being built, Ping'an Village Brigade raised a total of 90,300 yuan, with an annual interest of 4,500 yuan. Her savings paid the members 5% interest per year, which lasted for a year.
So he said to Chen Qiusheng: "If the interest on the members doesn't work, I will pay for it myself."
Chen Qiusheng's eyes narrowed. The captain would rather pay the interest himself to ensure the supply of the priority troops. There must be some secrets that he didn't know. But he tried once, and Xia Juhua didn't want to talk about the rest, so he didn't ask about it. He just said, "Captain, we are not in a hurry to pay the interest, so you don't have to pay it to me even if you pay it."
Xia Juhua was delighted. How could she have forgotten about the 5,000 yuan she had raised? If she really paid the interest to herself, it would be like putting the money in her left pocket into her right pocket. If others knew about this, they would definitely laugh their heads off.
However, she was very satisfied with Chen Qiusheng's attitude and nodded to him heavily: "If the situation is still like this next year, I might really have to borrow money from you to pay everyone's interest."
Chen Qiusheng would not say that his family had no money. They were all from the same production team, and Xia Juhua was the team leader. She knew exactly how much their family earned. If she did not trust him, Xia Juhua would not have asked him for money. He told Xia Juhua directly, "Just leave me the money for building the house, and you can use whatever is left."
Don't blame Chen Qiusheng for wanting to save some for his family. After another year of hard work, the members of the Pingan Village production team have reaped a lot of rewards. Building brick and tile houses has become a trend. Liu Erzhuang and Liu Sanzhuang have already built more than 20 new courtyards, all with blue bricks and blue tiles, with main rooms and side rooms, and even the height of the courtyard walls is the same.
These twenty or so new courtyards were built straight along the slightly narrow asphalt road after entering the village. None of them had walls for entering and exiting. Every house had a gate of the same width, which was a hollow iron door purchased by Qi Weidong. They looked stronger and more beautiful than the heavy wooden doors of the old courtyards.
The most endearing thing is that those yards are only four meters away from the asphalt road. Whoever has repaired his yard will go to the production team to register and get some cement, and then pave a short cement road between his house and the asphalt road, leading directly into the yard, so there is no need to step on mud when going in and out.
Ha, is this still a rural area? Whenever Chen Qiusheng walked on that street, he felt that it was more orderly and grand than the streets in the county town, and he wished he could build one in his own home as soon as possible.
Unfortunately, he is the production team leader of Pingan Village and the director of the vermicelli factory. He is busy from dawn to dusk every day. How can he have the time and energy to make tiles from adobe? Even if he can buy adobe tiles from Xiawo Brigade now, he has to have time to buy them, right?
Thinking of this, Chen Qiusheng smiled and said to Xia Juhua: "Captain, you must keep the residential land behind Liu Erzhuang's house for me, and don't give it to anyone else."
"It's too late for you to say that. Zhao Dagou is about to leave." Xia Juhua mercilessly broke Chen Qiusheng's dream: "The row behind them, there is only one vacant lot next to Li Changwang's house. If you want more, you have to go to the row further back."
"Li Changwang's family is next door, isn't that Zhao Xianzhi's family?" Chen Qiusheng had reason to believe that Xia Juhua said this on purpose. He couldn't imagine how his family would live after becoming neighbors with Zhao Xianzhi's family.
Seeing that Li Changwang dared not say a harsh word every day, he felt that if he became a neighbor of Zhao Xianzhi, he would not be far from that step. Xia Juhua ignored how he lamented about the hardships of life, and after instructing him to keep an eye on the supply of the troops, she turned around and went to the instant noodle factory.
"Yes, we need to put half an extra portion of seasoning packets in each box. Don't be afraid of the trouble. Put three seasoning packets into small plastic bags and seal them." Chang Chunya was instructing the female workers in the packaging group. It sounded like they were adding seasonings to the troops' instant noodle boxes.
This is also the solution that Xia Juhua and Lin Hongliang came up with after discussing it: the troops' training volume increased, the number of marches increased, not only did the demand for instant noodles increase, but some soldiers also complained that the seasoning tasted bland. In fact, it was because people sweated more and needed more salt, so they felt that the taste was not strong enough.
Only some people responded. In order to cater to the other people who did not need stronger flavors, Xia Juhua and her colleagues came up with the idea of adding extra seasoning packets, which increased the workload. Lin Hongliang took the initiative to propose increasing the processing fee for each bag of instant noodles to two cents.
In order to relieve the troops of the psychological burden, Xia Juhua agreed to his proposal, but also requested that this only apply to the instant noodles with additional seasoning packets. In the future, for those that do not need additional seasoning packets, a processing fee of one cent per bag will be charged.
Lin Hongliang knew the price of hot and sour noodles after they were put on the market, and he also knew that after Xia Juhua's words, Ping An Manor would make a greater sacrifice. But apart from solemnly saluting Xia Juhua, he could not and did not express his gratitude to her in a more practical way at this time.
Xia Juhua felt unworthy of Lin Hongliang's military salute: she only said a few words, but the members of Pingan Village had to make sacrifices together. So in the past year, she has increased the number of chickens raised by each household.
In 1977, each household raised 30 chickens, and the sale of eggs and adult chickens brought nearly 200 yuan in additional income to each member. Seeing hope, everyone became more active in raising chickens. The members of Teams 4 and 5, who raised fewer chickens and made less profit, regretted it so much that in 1978, each family raised about 50 chickens to make up for the loss of the previous year.
As they had too many chickens, Xia Juhua was worried about chicken plague, so she contacted the agricultural technology station and forced every household to vaccinate their chickens. Although some members did not understand, if the chickens did not get vaccinated one day, Xia Juhua would definitely show up at home the next day. After three or five days, all the chickens had been vaccinated.
It was this shot that prevented the chicken plague that was rampant in Pingde County from bypassing Ping'an Village. The family also made a fortune because of the increase in prices of eggs and adult chickens after the plague. This year, some caring families are already planning to raise hundreds of chicks from it after the spring.
The inside the dike were compensated by the losses outside the dike. With the increase in income from raising chickens, the wages of the people working in the three factories did not decrease, and the dividends of the members who stayed to farm also increased. Therefore, although the members of Ping'an Village made some sacrifices, it was still within everyone's acceptable range. No one complained about anything, and when they saw Xia Juhua, they smiled as if they were looking at the God of Wealth.
The same is true for the female workers in the instant noodle factory - since they started working there, the voices of both their mothers-in-law and the men have become softer. This is all thanks to Xia Juhua, who set up the factory and hired them to work. It would be strange if they didn't smile when they see her.
Chang Chunya, who was also smiling like a flower, asked crisply, "Captain, you are worried about us again and came to check the warehouse in person."
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