As the year draws to a close, villagers who had gone out to work are gradually returning to the village.
Although they learned about the changes in their hometown through phone calls or fellow villagers, they still showed surprise when they saw with their own eyes the smooth and wide roads, the greenhouses planted with lush crops, and the tall and clean factories that were out of place in the surrounding villages.
"I thought they were just bragging, but it turns out it's all true." Zhang Lei looked in the direction of Xu's Food Processing Factory, a hopeful look in his eyes, and muttered to himself, "I wonder what kind of treatment this factory offers, and whether it's worth staying in the village."
As they brushed past each other, Li Chun overheard Zhang Lei's mutterings and instinctively stopped to reply:
"The factory owned by Boss Xu offers excellent benefits. Lunch is free, with vegetables, meat, and soup every meal. The salary is 1,000 yuan a month, which is 100 yuan higher than in town. If there are holidays and you have to work overtime, the overtime pay is very generous."
"Right now, during the Spring Festival, it's the busiest time for the factory. From the first to the third day of the Lunar New Year, we get triple pay, and for the other days, we get double pay. Those ten or eight days during the Spring Festival mean we can earn an extra month's wages."
At first, Li Chun was just introducing Zhang Lei to the salary and benefits at Xu's Food Processing Plant, but as he spoke, his tone became full of envy.
Having worked away from home for many years, I've worked in four or five factories of all sizes. During the Spring Festival, we were just grateful if the factories could give us two extra days off; we never dared to dream of double or triple pay.
Zhang Chun looked Li Chun up and down, and asked with some skepticism, "Since the pay is so good, why don't you go work in the factory?"
"You think I didn't want to!" Li Chun rolled his eyes at Zhang Lei and said resentfully, "To get into the factory, you have to take an exam. I missed it by one point and didn't get selected."
"We still have to take exams. What kind of exams will we be on, and how difficult will they be?"
"That's definitely difficult, otherwise I wouldn't have failed. I was in fifth grade back then, and if I hadn't been careless and lost points, I definitely would have gotten the job."
After making a few shouts to save face, Li Chun said mysteriously, "The factory work is really good, but now, there's an even better job. Guess what it is?"
“An even better job.” Zhang Lei deliberately dragged out the word to tease Li Chun for a while before slowly revealing the answer: “Growing ghost peppers, you mean?”
"Didn't you only get back late last night? How do you know about this?"
“Hey, that’s an interesting point,” Zhang Lei said meaningfully. “Not just in our village, everyone in the surrounding area knows that growing ghost peppers can make a lot of money, and everyone knows that ghost peppers can’t be planted continuously. So many people from our village have come back, isn’t it all for this?”
The moment the words fell, a series of hurried footsteps approached from afar. The two turned around and saw that it was a group of villagers walking towards them.
Seeing this, the two hurriedly walked towards the huge, blue sunshade in the hall, afraid of falling behind.
Cough cough ————
After clearing his throat twice into the microphone to confirm that it was functioning properly, Li Sixin didn't waste any time on small talk and went straight to the point of the meeting.
"I'm sure you've all heard a lot of rumors, like how ghost peppers can't be planted consecutively, or that the village plans to have everyone draw lots to rotate plantings. Yes, these are all true!"
The villagers of Hezibao were no strangers to this news, but before this, it was just rumors circulating among the people, merely speculation. Now that Li Sixin had revealed it, everyone felt reassured and eager to try it out.
If I'm lucky enough to be selected for greenhouse cultivation and also pass Xu's Catering's factory entry assessment, then next year during the Spring Festival, I might be able to sit in a brand-new big house, eating and drinking the finest food.
"Besides the allocation of quotas for planting ghost peppers, I also want to mention something else. Mr. Xu from Xu's Catering has acquired the land that our brigade reclaimed in the 1950s, and he will be building 800 greenhouses on it! Our village has been allocated 150 greenhouse planting quotas."
As he spoke, Li Sixin waved to two people at the back of the crowd. The two people carried two raffle boxes, one large and one small, to the stage and placed them in front of Li Sixin.
"The cardboard box on my left contains 257 crumpled pieces of paper, 49 of which are labeled 'Ghost Pepper.' The cardboard box on my right also contains 257 crumpled pieces of paper, 101 of which are labeled 'Greenhouse.'"
After briefly explaining the rules of the lottery, the lottery began.
Roll call. Those whose names are called go up to draw lots. First, they draw from the small box. If they win, they register with Zhang Daniu. If they don't win, they draw from the large box. If they win the large box, they register with Li Xiumei.
Two hundred people seemed like a lot, but everyone worked quickly and efficiently, completing the lottery and registration process in less than half an hour.
"Those who did not win the lottery and those whose names were not called should come to Xu's Catering next year to collect their planting plans and sign planting contracts."
Next spring, Xu's Catering will build two additional factory buildings, each covering six acres, next to the food processing plant. The company plans to hire 500 employees, with the same salaries and benefits as the food processing plant. Those wishing to work there will still need to pass an assessment.
In addition, after spring, the land on the back hill should be cleared and planted entirely with Sichuan pepper trees. The primary school should be rebuilt, and all children of the appropriate age, regardless of gender, should be enrolled. Support policies should be approved, and subsidies should be provided for the renovation of dilapidated houses.
Some villagers who were not selected in the lottery, as well as the 49 households who took out loans to build greenhouses for growing hot pot, had some complaints.
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