Chapter 23
Chen Lanjun was stunned for a while and walked towards Zheng Mei.
"Mom, you've lost a lot of weight this month."
Zheng Mei's jawline is much clearer than before, and she is tanned, but she does not look haggard at all, but rather has a glowing spirit.
Zheng Mei thought that she would be surprised to ask where the bicycle came from, but unexpectedly, her daughter was the first to notice that she had lost weight. Suddenly, she felt indescribable in her heart, raised her hand and patted Chen Lanjun on the shoulder: "Really? Maybe a little, look at this bicycle."
It was a very beautiful bicycle. Before coming to school, Zheng Mei wiped the handlebars, handlebars and seat of the bicycle twice with a new rag. There was no dust at all and it was shiny and bright.
Chen Lanjun looked at the bicycle carefully, raised her head and smiled: "My mother is really amazing! She can buy a bicycle whenever she wants."
Zheng Mei snorted with pride and patted the back seat of the bicycle: "Get on, Mom will take you home!"
In this era, owning a bicycle is definitely something to be envied. After all, a bicycle costs at least 100 yuan, and you also need the corresponding industrial coupons, which is very difficult to get.
It's OK in the county, after all, there are so many bicycles. But once you drive on the country roads, farmers passing by will take a second look.
The place is small, and Zheng Mei, as a brigade cadre, interacts with people more often. When some farmers see them riding bicycles, they will ask in surprise: "Zheng Mei, did your family buy a bicycle?"
At this time, Chen Lanjun, who was sitting in the back seat of the car and hugging her mother's waist, would say loudly: "My mother bought this, it's amazing!"
Zheng Mei laughed and pedaled faster, the wind blew her hair and brushed it against Chen Lanjun's face. The hair of the mother and daughter was very similar, equally black and hard.
The fiery clouds in the sky continued to spread, illuminating the dirt road.
It was very quiet as they walked through the woods. Chen Lanjun asked, "Mom, how did you become rich?"
"I'm confused myself, actually! It's a good time to come here."
It turned out that since sending Chen Lanjun to school last time, Zheng Mei started to pull Chen Zhisheng to think of ways to make money together.
She originally planned to apply to the brigade and the commune to set up a commune enterprise. However, the brigade leader and other cadres were not optimistic and said, "As a woman, don't mess around. Setting up a factory? How can our brigade have the money to set up a factory?"
This is true. The Fushui Brigade where Zheng Mei works has many mountains and forests, few fields, and average soil fertility. In the past, when everyone ate from the same pot, the brigade could barely make ends meet. Although the situation has improved in the past two years, the brigade still has little money.
Setting up a factory sounds like something that costs money. The factory building, the equipment... everything costs money, and it also takes a lot of effort, and it may not necessarily be effective.
The captain is already old and prefers stability. His first reaction to this kind of uncertain new thing is to reject it, thinking that it is better to have less trouble than more.
Zheng Mei understood, but she was a persistent person. Seeing that the idea of setting up a commune-brigade enterprise was not feasible at the moment, she proposed that the brigade should guarantee that her husband Chen Zhisheng's carpentry work was legitimate and not speculation.
"We can consider whether to run this commune enterprise slowly, but can we issue a letter of introduction in the name of the brigade, saying that it is our furniture factory of Fushui Brigade? It's just a name, saying that we specially send people to provide support, and it doesn't cost any money." Zheng Mei said, "We will bear all other risks ourselves. If we don't make any money, it's ours. We just hope that the brigade can help us so that we can have an explanation."
The team leader hesitated. He had already rejected Zheng Mei's first request, and he felt a little guilty. If he rejected another one, it would seem a bit disrespectful. They all lived in the same village, and they were all relatives. Chen Zhisheng had also helped to repair his furniture, and he hadn't charged him. On the other hand, Zheng Mei had always worked diligently, and was noticed by the commune leaders, who introduced her to the party organization. It would be bad if she really offended him.
Besides, Zheng Mei's second request sounded okay, not too excessive, and did not require the team to do anything. In the past, there were carpenters who went to other villages to help, which was considered a craft, not a business. It was only in the past few years when the situation became tense that everyone stopped doing it.
After thinking it over again, the team leader reluctantly agreed: "Okay, you are an old comrade, so we will give you a little extra help." As he said that, he helped stamp the letter of introduction.
"In order to support comrades from other places, the Fushui Brigade Furniture Factory has specially sent our technician Chen Zhisheng to your place to help repair and build furniture."
With a letter of introduction, Zheng Mei was confident enough, and she and Chen Zhisheng divided the work. Chen Zhisheng was responsible for the technical work of carpentry, while Zheng Mei went to nearby brigades and communes to ask if there was any need for furniture repair or making.
In the surrounding area, there hadn’t been a carpenter who came to visit for about ten years. In addition, the household contract responsibility system had been implemented for a year, and the more diligent villagers had saved a little money. Seeing that it was a cadre from the Fushui Brigade who came to visit with a smile and a reasonable price, they took out their shaky wooden tables and chairs that had long needed repairs and waited for Chen Zhisheng to come and repair them.
While Zheng Mei was running around in the surrounding villages, Chen Zhisheng was not idle either. Although he was not good at socializing, he was a smart man. He did not want his wife to work while he was idle, so he started in advance and cut wood from the forest that belonged to his family to make some simple benches, bamboo chairs and the like.
When coming to repair the furniture, Chen Zhisheng specially brought his newly made bamboo chairs and small stools.
Most people who need furniture repairs don’t have much furniture at home, so when they see one, they ask, “Do you sell this?”
"Sell, this one is three dollars, this one is five dollars, no ticket required."
After some bargaining, it was actually sold.
Zheng Mei smiled and said: "Compared to these, this is still a small income. The big money this time is that a family in the commune is marrying off their daughter and asked us to make furniture. A bed costs 40 yuan, a wide chair 20 yuan!"
Wow, the price of this bed is equivalent to the hard work she put into printing test papers for an entire month.
Chen Lanjun was shocked when she heard this, and couldn't help but sigh in her heart that she had underestimated her parents.
She asked, "So how much money did you make this month?"
"Anyway, I really didn't expect that there would be more than 300!"
"More than three hundred?"
"Yes, more than three hundred."
After a long silence, the bicycle chain could be heard clicking in the fresh scent of the leaves.
Zheng Mei asked: "What's wrong? Why did you suddenly stop talking?"
"I'm calculating. Your one month is better than the two months I spent in Suicheng." Chen Lanjun said, "Doesn't that mean I can be a lazy rich second-generation?"
Zheng Mei didn't understand what "rich second generation" meant, but considering the context, she guessed it a little. She smiled and said, "If nothing else, at least you can study with peace of mind and don't have to worry about making money!"
There was a downhill slope ahead. Zheng Mei was happy and teased her daughter, saying, "Second sister, hold on tight. Mom will take you forward!"
"Take off!"
Taking advantage of the hillside, Zheng Mei didn't even need to step on the pedals, the bike just naturally dived forward.
The wind was whistling in my ears, it must be the east wind, blowing the mother and daughter's hair wildly.
Chen Lanjun opened her arms to embrace the east wind, and shouted with a smile:
“My parents are awesome!”
What responded to her in the wind was Zheng Mei's laughter.
"My good girl is the best!"
…
We rode back home talking and laughing all the way.
When we arrived, the sun had already set on the horizon. Under the blue-black sky, Chen Zhisheng was busy planing wood. His little sister was standing beside him, curiously playing with a rope and ink.
Hearing the sound of bicycles, the younger sister looked up, smiled and came over, shouting, "Mom and second sister are back."
Today's dinner was very sumptuous, with the main dish being chicken stewed with chestnuts. The chestnuts were picked from the chestnut trees on the back hill. They were hairy and a little prickly, like a small kiwi fruit, and after peeling, the common light yellow flesh was revealed. The chicken was an old hen bought from a neighbor's house, and was stewed in an iron pot with firewood for an afternoon, stewed with chestnuts, until it was crispy, fragrant and soft. The chicken separated from the bones with a slight pull, and the aroma was fragrant.
Two chicken legs, one for Chen Lanjun and one for her younger sister.
Zheng Mei picked up a chicken wing and ate it slowly, not forgetting to explain to her younger sister: "Little sister, we will buy you a bicycle in the future, but we are not well off right now, so we can only give it to your second sister first. She will take the college entrance examination soon, but don't worry, you will have one soon."
"It's okay," the younger sister said vaguely while chewing a chicken drumstick, "I understand. It would be nice if we had a bicycle. Mm, this chicken drumstick smells really good."
The whole family laughed.
Chen Lanjun picked up a chestnut and put it in the little sister's bowl: "A bite of chicken and a bite of chestnut, it tastes even better."
She sat facing east, and when she looked up, she saw a shadow in the distance, emerging from the vast expanse of dark green.
Chen Lanjun gestured to Zheng Mei and Chen Zhisheng: "It seems someone is coming."
Zheng Mei turned to look, put down her bowl and chopsticks, stood up, and greeted with a smile: "Captain, good evening, have you eaten? Lao Chen, go get a set of bowls and chopsticks."
"No hurry, I've eaten." A short and fat old man came over. It was Captain Chen. He smiled and said, "I can smell the fragrance from a long distance in the woods. What about the chicken?"
"Haha, both of my daughters are back today, so let them be willful." Zheng Mei said.
If it were in the past, Chen Lanjun would probably sit there like Chen Zhisheng and her younger sister, just grinning. But after all, she has experienced some things now and has some self-awareness, so she went to move a chair over: "Captain, please sit down."
Captain Chen sat down with a smile and said, "Your second sister has really grown up."
"Yes, I said yes too." Zheng Mei said with a smile.
As he was talking, Chen Zhisheng suddenly realized what was going on and went to pour some tea.
"You're welcome." Captain Chen held the enamel cup in both hands, smiling, but his eyes flickered to the bicycle parked under the eaves of Chen's house.
He blew away the steaming tea smoke and said, "You all sit down and continue eating. Don't be nervous. It's nothing serious."
Zheng Mei smiled and said, "What's the matter with you coming here? Captain, just tell me."
"Well, there is one thing that is good." Captain Chen said, "Comrade Zheng Mei, your previous proposal to build a commune enterprise has been approved. We plan to officially establish the furniture factory of Fushui Brigade."
Chen Lanjun sat aside and listened, but smiled without saying a word. She picked up a chestnut and chewed it slowly. She seemed to know what was going on - the peaches had come.
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