Chapter 301 Chapter 302: Purpose
Zhou's mother sighed, "What a lot of money! The money the youngest son used to buy a tractor was lent to him by his father-in-law. To repair the brick and tile house, it was Chunyan who took the youngest son and Huifang to the mountains to find herbs to sell. They were lucky enough to kill a wounded wild boar and sold it for some money."
She paused, "Later, the youngest couple found ways to collect eels and herbs to sell, and met a kind-hearted Huang who helped us. We sent the chickens, eggs, and vegetables at home to restaurants in the city and earned some more money."
"Everyone only saw the thief eating the meat, but didn't see the thief being beaten! Our whole family got up at five in the morning and went to bed at midnight. Even Jiaming and his friends helped pick vegetables and wash herbs until midnight. Every day before dawn, the youngest and third sons would take things to the city to exchange for money."
"Your brother and Huairong carried yellow mud to burn in the kiln. The skin on their shoulders was worn out. The old man is in his forties, but he still helps us step on the mud, turn over the bricks, and watch over the kiln every day. Otherwise, where would we get the money to build the house?"
"That's right. I think they are just jealous of you." Miss Zhou San looked at her flatteringly. "Second sister-in-law, I heard from eldest sister-in-law that you are still buying eggs and vegetables from eldest and third brothers. I have a lot of eggs and vegetables at home. Can you help me sell some?"
Zhou's mother apologized and said, "It's not that I don't help you sell. You know we are helping the eldest brother and the third brother sell eggs and vegetables. The city only needs so much. If there are more, we can't sell them!"
It turned out that it was that gossipy woman Li Yinfu who told her. The third brother knew about it, and it wouldn’t be long before the eldest and second brother knew about it.
"Is that so?" Miss Zhou San's eyes rolled. "Second sister-in-law, our team has a lot of herbs. Why don't you teach me how to dig herbs and sell them?"
Zhou's mother smiled and said, "Plantain, dandelion, sticky grass... you know all of these, just dig them up, clean them, and send them over."
She was thinking, why did that nosy Li Yinfu only mention digging herbs but not picking red mushrooms?
"Yes!" Miss Zhou San stretched her neck and looked around, "Why can't I see the old man?"
Zhou's mother didn't expect her to agree so readily. She glanced at her and said, "The old man is over at the kiln. I'll take you there."
"Let's go!" Miss Zhou San took the lead and walked forward.
****
Yang Chunyan had just poured the half-cooked rice into the rice steamer at home and started steaming it when she saw Aunt Zhou and her mother-in-law coming in with baskets on their backs.
As soon as Aunt Zhou saw her, she said, "Chunyan, it's hard to find. The red mushrooms we found today are not as many as the miscellaneous mushrooms."
Yang Chunyan went forward to take a look. Each person seemed to weigh no more than 6 or 7 kilograms. "It's a bit too little."
Aunt Zhou nodded, "Your sister-in-law and the others haven't come back yet?"
Yang Chunyan looked at the time and said, "It should be soon!"
The three of them picked the red mushrooms together, put them into a bamboo basket and weighed them. The mother-in-law and daughter-in-law only picked up 15 and a half kilograms in total.
Today's harvest is more than half of what we got in the first few days of picking red mushrooms, but the two of them still earn a few dollars a day, which is better than anything else.
The mother-in-law and daughter-in-law each accepted today's earnings and said, "I think we can only pick mushrooms for another ten days or so, and then there will be no more mushrooms on the mountain."
"Grandpa and the old man said that the weather is going to change. It should be easier to pick up grain after the next rain." Yang Chunyan said, thinking of paying the public grain tax. "Uncle Datian sent the list and said that the public grain tax should be paid the day after tomorrow."
"Is that so?" Aunt Zhou San and her mother-in-law picked up the baskets, "We have to go back and see how the millet is drying. I heard that it's not drying well, and not only will the grade be low, but you will also have to take it home to redo the work."
"After drying, take them to Yiding's house, and Huaian will drive the tractor to deliver them to the grain station in town."
Aunt Zhou said gratefully, "Your third father was still asking last night when he would come to find the youngest son and ask you to help him take the money over to pay the public grain tax."
"Auntie San knows that you won't take your wages even if I give you money. The tractor needs oil to move, so you must accept the oil money."
Yang Chunyan has always respected this strong-willed woman and said with a smile, "We are all family, no need to be polite."
Aunt Zhou said seriously, "We should pay for the gas. If you don't even charge for the gas, we can just borrow a truck and haul it there ourselves."
"Okay, you can give it to Huai'an when the time comes." Yang Chunyan smiled and sent the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law away. She picked up the basket and walked to the stove to start cleaning the red mushrooms.
She recalled the first time in her previous life when she and Zhou Huaian went to the town to collect grain to pay the public tax.
When they arrived, outside the high blue brick wall and in front of the big iron gate, there were carts and buses lined up in a long queue.
When it was his family's turn to be inspected, the inspector from the grain station inserted a hollow iron rod into the sack and took out the grains in the middle of the bag.
First hold it in your hand to look at the color, then blow on it to make sure there is no dust or impurities, then put it in your mouth and bite it. If it is crunchy, it is up to standard.
If the grain does not meet the standards, they must take it back, dry it again, dust it, remove impurities, and then hand it in again. It is not so bad for farmers who live close to the town, but for farmers like them who live in the mountains and have a long journey, it is very troublesome and delays things.
At that time, the bags used to hold millet were either fertilizer bags or sacks.
Every time they went to pay public grain, each family would write the name of the head of the household on the bag as a mark, so that even if the grain in the bag was poured into the granary, the bag would not be lost.
Then they weighed it. I had clearly packed enough at home, but when I put it on their scale it was not enough.
Zhou Huaian argued with him for a few words, and then he waved his hand and called the next person, not even bothering to say a word to him.
In the end, he had no choice but to shamelessly go to the He family and buy 20 kilograms of millet, and then go to apologize to the man and say nice things to him, but the man was too lazy to even pay attention to him.
Later, he met the Xu family who helped him put in some good words for him, and he was finally able to surrender.
After suffering a loss once, when I went there the next year, I would put an extra 20 kilograms of millet into the sacks to deduct the loss from those people, otherwise there would be more trouble.
The grain output in those days was not as high as in later times, and the yield per mu in some cases was less than half of what it is now. But no matter how much grain you harvested, you had to pay the public grain tax, and you couldn’t pay less than what you should pay.
In addition to paying public grain, one also has to pay three increases and five unified taxes.
In the first few years, after paying the public grain tax, they had to add sweet potatoes and coarse grains to the remaining food rations to make sure they had enough to eat.
Yang Chunyan got up and went to the main room to pick up the booklet that had just been delivered, which listed the three items that the village should retain: provident fund, public welfare fund, and management fee.
The provident fund is used for basic construction of farmland and water conservancy, afforestation, purchase of productive fixed materials and establishment of collective enterprises.
The public welfare fund is used for five protection supports, subsidies for extremely poor households, cooperative medical care and other collective welfare undertakings; the management fee is used for the remuneration of village cadres and management expenses.
"What are you looking at so seriously?" Zhao Huifang and the other two put down their backpacks with sweat on their foreheads.
"The brigade sent me a list of public grain." Yang Chunyan put it down and went out. "How's your harvest?"
Zhao Huifang smiled and said, "There are more on the hill behind Xiaoxue's house. We picked up about thirty kilograms."
Zhang Xiuxiang pointed at the basket on the ground and said, "We brought Xiaoxue's family here too. She said Zhiqiang will be waiting for him at the intersection to go into the city together in the morning."
"Hey! Who brought these duck eggs in this basket?" Li Qiuyue pointed at the basket beside the table.
"Miss San brought some duck eggs and asked me to pickle them for Grandpa to eat."
"What is she doing here?" Zhang Xiuxiang pouted in disdain, "Among the three sisters, she is the most talkative and the most eccentric."
(End of this chapter)
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