Sure enough, the reform movement took off in 1981.
First, a few days after the New Year, land was distributed to individual households across the country, and many places celebrated the New Year with great joy.
All rural children born before the day of land redistribution received a share of land. Children born after that day did not receive a share, and the one-child policy was implemented.
In rural areas, if a woman's first child is a daughter, she can have a second child. However, this is not allowed in cities. Anyone with a city household registration, regardless of gender, can only have one child.
If it exceeds this regulation, then a fine must be paid. Allowing childbirth only after a fine is considered somewhat humane. In many places, the regulations are very strict; if childbirth is not allowed, it's not allowed at all, and it's not just a matter of a fine.
However, in many rural areas these days, people are unwilling to have only two children; most still have three or more, even if it means paying the fine.
As early as after returning to Beijing, Qiao Jiuru personally asked Su Ze and Zhou Wanwan if they wanted to have another child!
However, after discussing it, Su Ze and Zhou Wanwan both decided not to have any more children. In the years before and after the liberation, they felt that having children would only cause them suffering, and that they already had enough with their two children, Da Bao and Xiao Bao.
The Su family already has descendants to carry on the family line, so they can be considered to have completed their mission. That's why the couple made this decision.
As for Su Feng and Su Huazhu, they will most likely only be able to have one child under this policy. However, both siblings will be getting married this year, and if the policy is relatively relaxed for the next three years, and there are special preferential policies in place, there is still a good chance they will have a second child.
Two days before the Lunar New Year, the brigade leader, Bai Lianshan, called Su Huaiyuan and Qiao Jiuru to tell them the good news that the production team would be distributing land to individual households on the third day of the Lunar New Year.
Bai Lianshan planned to stay in the position of brigade leader for another year or two, first training the next brigade leader, and then he would work with Qiao Jiuru.
In the past six months, especially after selling that batch of socks and clothes here, Bai Lianshan realized that farming was not a good business. All year round, apart from not starving to death, everyone would only receive a few dollars.
In their production team, it was considered good if each family received a few yuan. I heard that many production teams in other places didn't even receive two yuan a year.
They only receive two dollars a year. After expenses like weddings, childbirth, medical care, medicine, tuition, and social obligations, not to mention clothes, shoes, and daily necessities, a large family might only manage to save seventy or eighty dollars a year if they were considered thrifty. But who can actually save that much?!
When Qiao Jiuru heard the good news about the land being distributed to individual households in Baigou Village, she was happy for them. She also understood from Bai Lianshan's words that farming wouldn't make money.
Growing vegetables may not earn as much as making clothes, but you can't just not grow them. Besides, not everyone is suited to doing business, not everyone is suited to working in a factory, and not everyone is willing to work in a factory.
Instead, let those who want to work go out to work, those who want to do business go out to do business, and those who want to grow mulberry continue to grow mulberry. Everyone will get what they deserve, and everyone will be happy.
That's what she thought, and that's what she told Bai Lianshan. Everyone is suited to different jobs. Those who don't have time to grow rice can rent it out to those who want to, only needing to pay their share of the grain tax. Of course, if someone wants to both pay the grain tax and grow rice, no one would want to do that.
After listening to Qiao Jiuru's instructions over the phone, Bai Lianshan looked thoughtful. He followed her instructions and began to agree with her.
Unfortunately, the phone call was too expensive. Just talking for a few minutes took more than ten minutes and cost nearly twenty yuan, which scared Bai Lianshan so much that he dared not ask any more questions.
Although twenty yuan is not much for Bai Lianshan's family now, especially since he had just earned some money two months ago, it doesn't hurt him too much.
It would be better to wait until he has time and makes a trip to Beijing in person to have a proper talk with Qiao Jiuru and Su Huaiyuan. Asking them face-to-face would be much clearer.
After the Lantern Festival, after seeing Su Feng and Jin Zhu off, Su Huaiyuan and Qiao Jiuru's family moved back to the Peking University staff quarters. Old Feng and Feng Zilu also went back. School started in a couple of days, and all three children had to pack up their winter vacation homework and books before going to school to register and pay tuition.
Elementary, middle, and high schools have just finished their semesters, and universities are starting theirs soon after, keeping everyone busy.
Qiao Jiuru plans to retire in June, and she had informed the school in advance about this, so everyone knows about her retirement.
After the start of the semester, Qiao Jiuru began to hand over some of her work and focused more on training students who wanted to stay at the school.
It wasn't until mid-March that they proactively contacted Boss Chen and asked her to send a batch of winter clothes to Beijing, which they didn't want to leave unsold because winter was almost over.
This batch of winter clothes is quite large, totaling more than 40,000 pieces. They are all from several clothing factories that Chen Meili knows, who want to get paid to produce new styles and don't want the clothes to sit unused until the end of the year. That's why they are willing to sell the goods at a loss.
For example, Chen Meili used to give her a coat for 20 to 25 yuan wholesale, but now she can get it for only 15 yuan. The quality and style are both fashionable, just like the batch she got before.
Regular sweaters have dropped to eight yuan each, while wool sweaters are twenty-eight yuan each. Trench coats, cotton-padded coats, and suits have been reduced to ten or eleven yuan each, which is incredibly cheap.
As long as the quality is fine, Qiao Jiuru will handle as many as she can. She even called her youngest son, Su Feng, and asked him and Ling Xiaohe to inspect the goods together. She had already proactively wired a large sum of money to Su Feng a few days after he returned to Yangcheng.
After receiving the delivery call from her youngest son, Su Feng, and Boss Chen, Qiao Jiuru notified Mai Nian, Xiao Lei, and Guang Sheng, along with Grandpa Song and Song Luoyun, to pick up the goods at the train station three days later.
Like Su Huazhu, Song Luoyun was in his final year of university. However, he had already started his internship after the start of the semester, working as a student teacher at a school near his home. After the internship, he no longer lived at the school and could go home every day.
Knowing that Qiao Jiuru was a university professor, Boss Chen chose to ship the goods on Friday mornings, so that Qiao Jiuru and her team could pick them up on their day off.
More than 40,000 pieces of clothing would probably not sell much in the warm south, but it's still very cold in the north right now. In March, Beijing is still below 10 degrees Celsius, so there's no worry about them not selling. Not to mention the three northeastern provinces, where the temperature is still below zero.
Moreover, Qiao Jiuru did not intend to sell these clothes only in Beijing and Shijiazhuang. She planned to transport 15,000 pieces to Bai Jianmin and his group so that they could sell them in the city, county, commune, and near the production teams.
With such a favorable clearance price, this batch of goods will definitely sell for a bit less than the previous batch, by about five to seven or eight dollars. Of course, we also need to tell customers beforehand that this price is due to the summer styles being released in the south.
Furthermore, Qiao Jiuru doesn't plan to sell everything. She intends to select some stylish and high-quality clothing to store in her space, and then raise the prices to sell them again in October.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com