After lying there miserably for a while, Xiang Mianmian got up with a dead heart. His hands and feet were weak, as if his body was not his own and he had no control over it at all.
The moment she got out of bed and stood up, everything went dark before her eyes, and then she saw stars. After a while, she felt like she was walking on clouds, with no strength at all and dizzy.
It wasn't that she wanted to stand up, but the aroma of the rice porridge outside was too tempting.
There are many people in the family and the sound insulation in the tube-shaped building is poor, but strangely, Xiang Mianmian can only hear the bubbling sound of the porridge on the stove.
So delicious!
At this moment, she even understood Xu Qin. A bowl of white porridge is also a life-saving food!
Xiang Mianmian came out with his nose twitching, his hands and feet trembling, and the desire in his eyes was almost shooting through the iron pot.
Zhang Jidi, the chef, sighed, took a bowl in his left hand, slowly lowered it to the bottom and picked it up with his right hand, and poured a bowl of thick porridge for his little daughter.
Xiang Mianmian, who was sitting in front of the table, didn't care at all that she hadn't brushed her teeth or washed her face. All she had eyes for was this bowl of porridge, which was just out of the pot and still steaming, bubbling, and not drinkable yet.
Zhang Jidi quickly distributed the porridge to the five children, then took out a bottle of fermented bean curd from the cupboard, scooped a portion onto a plate with his chopsticks, and placed it on the table.
"Your eldest brother and I are going to work. The five of you stay home and behave yourself. Don't sneak out of the compound!"
She focused her attention on her fourth son, Xiang Lihua, who was just graduating from elementary school (elementary school is five years long, and people usually start elementary school at the age of six). At the age of eleven, he was a biting kid. He loved running around in the mountains and forests with his friends. He was bitten by a snake once. Fortunately, it was a non-venomous snake, otherwise he would have lost his life!
Xiang Lihua, who was the one being given special attention, lowered his head dejectedly and mechanically stirred the paste on the table with the bamboo strips in his hand. He pasted it on the side of the matchbox with his index finger inside and thumb outside, pressed it firmly, and put it into the large bamboo basket next to him.
The second sister, Xiang Meimei, was even quicker. She was fifteen years old and her family loved her very much. However, she dropped out of high school after finishing it because her family was in financial difficulty and she couldn't find a job. She had four years of experience in pasting matchboxes and was very skilled.
After Zhang Jidi closed the door and left, the five brothers and sisters looked at the porridge on the table, their eyes filled with desire that was almost overflowing.
"Paste a few more matchboxes and fill this basket before eating, otherwise I won't be able to hand it in by twelve o'clock. It's better to eat the porridge when it's cold."
Xiang Meimei doesn't indulge the big guy. She glanced at the inventory nearby and roughly estimated the progress.
Xiang Mianmian, who wanted to take the risk of pouring the liquid in, stopped, his eyes darkened, he put the bowl down, and turned sideways to watch how they were pasting the matchboxes.
"Little sister, please sit down for a while. You don't have to help. Don't be so silly in the future. Big brother has food to eat at work, and we also work at home." Xiang Meimei stopped Xiang Mianmian from picking up the matchbox and said considerately.
Xiang Mianmian was actually curious. She was born in a county town in the millennium and had never seen a real matchbox. It was only through watching some old science videos on DouY that she learned that this thing was a fire-starting tool used by everyone in the era when there were no lighters.
She looked at it for a while and then asked, "Why do you have to use the same process? Folding the box, gluing it, pressing it. It's actually faster to do it separately."
Although capitalists are hateful, facts have proven that the assembly line is the fastest, and division of labor and cooperation are simpler and more efficient.
The brothers and sisters looked at each other and said, "Yes!"
So an experiment was conducted.
They were divided into two groups, the second sister Xiang Meimei and the third brother Xiang Lidang, the fourth brother Xiang Lihua and the fifth sister Xiang Lili.
The girls were clever and dexterous. The box was made of pieces of paper, and they had to use both hands to fold the paper to make marks. They were both good at folding the paper, and they could fold the matchbox in no time.
The second step is to apply paste on the sides. Xiang Lidang and Xiang Lihua are very skilled in this. They have steady hands and can control the amount very accurately, and the pressing is even more precise.
This way, you don't have to pick up the bamboo strips and dip them in glue, and then use both hands to fold the box.
Sometimes they fail to estimate the amount correctly and end up with excess glue on their hands, which gets all over the paper box when they fold it. The matchboxes made this way are unqualified, and they have to wash their hands before they can continue, which is even more troublesome.
After realizing that the speed of four people was just as fast as that of five people, Xiang Meimei smiled happily:
"Finally, I've caught up. If I can't submit it this time, I might lose this job, which pays me dozens of dollars a month!"
An experienced adult worker works from dawn to dusk and can only make 2,000 matchboxes a day. Ten thousand matchboxes cost 5 yuan, so he can earn 30 yuan a month!
This is a big deal. You know, Xiang Mianmian's elder brother works as a temporary worker in a machinery factory, earning 15.8 yuan a month. How can he compare?
It really can't be done, because the matchbox pasting is outsourced and the quantity is very unstable. Sometimes in the off-season, you are only assigned 20,000 to 30,000 pieces a month, and sometimes in the peak season, it is so busy that you really want to work 25 hours a day to barely keep up with the supply.
Xiang Lili's eyes turned, her chin raised, and her expression was arrogant: "Who dares to make our sister Meimei unemployed? Doesn't he want to have a wife?"
Xiang Meimei, who was folding a matchbox, blushed and lowered her head to pinch Wumei. She said nothing, but her face turned red from her ears to her neck.
He grinned and folded a few more for Lili, then rushed to the table: "Eat, eat, I'm almost starving, there's so much work to do."
Unexpectedly, the fifth sister has understood the essence of working people. She laughed at Mianmian, but when several brothers and sisters reached for chopsticks to eat fermented tofu, she also quickly reached out her hand.
In the days when there were not many vegetables, fermented tofu had to be snatched away.
Zhang Jidi is indeed a good housekeeper. He scooped out a piece of fermented tofu, and after everyone took a bite with their chopsticks, the plate was basically clean.
The five people present looked at Mianmian and saw a few grains of rice at the bottom of their bowls. They quickly licked them clean, and the others did the same.
Although the porridge was as thin as rice soup, it was still very precious. After the meal, even the fermented tofu juice was licked clean by Xiang Lihua, saving him the trouble of washing dishes.
Xiang Mianmian watched them paste the matchboxes, then stood up to clean up the dishes.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
