Chapter 53 Cameras Shouldn't women like having their pictures taken? ...
Lai Yiu-wai saw a man in an old military uniform, who was huddled around a mud-made "cornbread." Instantly, a thought flashed through his mind: "It's all over, it's all over."
Having finally escaped the village, thrown away his hoe, and refused to be a peasant anymore, why is this guy getting more and more regressive as he gets older?
"Jianzhi, what are you doing?" Li Yaowei admired him in his heart. This guy had actually done something that he had never dared to do before. Farming was allowed in the family compound of their unit, but his family did not farm. His wife, Liu Xiaoyun, also felt that the few cents of vegetables were not worth it.
Although the school required students to participate in agricultural training, since it was located in the city and most of the children's parents were working professionals, the training was often just a formality. Many female teachers did not participate because their husbands were employed and both received two salaries. On the other hand, the male teachers' families were relatively poor, and if their wives were unemployed housewives, they needed to grow vegetables and raise chickens to supplement their income.
His brother Jianzhi is in the navy, a deputy regimental commander, and he gets some subsidies. If he goes to sea, he gets a sea allowance. For example, the army only gets two cents a day for field training, while at sea, they get at least six cents a day for training. As for submariners, their income is even higher, with a subsidy of one dollar and fifty cents a day for submariners.
For example, a regular soldier who had just enlisted would receive a monthly salary of six yuan. After eighteen days of training at sea, he would receive a ten-yuan sailing allowance and nutrition vouchers. If he was to carry out a long-range mission, he would even receive a few yuan in foreign exchange certificates, which was more than his monthly salary. Therefore, many people were willing to join the navy.
Li Yaowei inquired about the daily sailing allowance for a deputy regimental-level officer like Li Jianzhi. It was three dollars for a day and one dollar and fifty cents for half a day. If the sailing time exceeded twelve hours, it was considered a full-day allowance of three dollars. If it exceeded six hours but was less than twelve hours, it was considered a half-day allowance of one dollar and fifty cents. If the sailing time was less than six hours, it was not included in the allowance. However, if it was an emergency return to port due to an accident and the sailing time exceeded four hours, it was also considered a half-day allowance.
There is also a special case: a six-hour flight that spans day and night is considered a full-day subsidy.
Li Yaowei had a very thorough understanding of these subsidy clauses. In general, this guy's annual salary and subsidies were quite substantial, so he didn't need his wife in the city to grow vegetables and raise chickens to supplement the family income.
Unless... this guy just doesn't forget his roots, he just wants to farm, he insists on dealing with mud.
I'm speechless.
Li Jianzhi: "I'm making a bread oven. This thing can be used to bake bread, fish, and chicken in the future."
When bread was mentioned, Li Jianzhi paused for a moment. Warships in this era all had ovens, and the bread they baked was... well, let's just say it was not very good. However, he could still accept it, considering it as a low-fat whole wheat bread. It was, well, dry.
Therefore, many naval soldiers particularly dislike eating bread, preferring to eat steamed buns rather than bread.
When making bread at home, you should definitely add oil, milk, and eggs to make it more fragrant and softer.
"I can also bake savory pancakes, Little Fatty. Dad will bake savory pancakes for you from now on."
The chubby boy hesitated for a moment, then nodded.
Although he was young and not a picky eater, his personal experience told him that his mother's cooking was consistently "delicious"; his grandfather's cooking was relatively consistently "edible"; and his father's cooking was either "very delicious," like chocolate-coated ice cream, or "barely edible," like crucian carp tofu.
My dad's cooking skills are inconsistent, and I don't even know if what he says is really delicious.
Lai Yiu-wai: "You really have the leisure to cook for the kids."
Li Jianzhi calmly replied, "It's because I love my wife and children. I'm determined to be a good husband and a good father."
Qin Xiangxiang: "..."
Fatty: "?!"
"This is Comrade Qin. Your husband is truly outstanding, much better than my old Comrade Li." Liu Xiaoyun looked at the beautiful woman in front of her, speaking with great trepidation. She realized that girls raised in the city were indeed different; even with mud on their faces, their fair and clean features were still evident.
This younger sister-in-law has a delicate oval face with a touch of baby fat, full and smooth skin, and striking almond-shaped eyes. Truly, even dressed in patched-up clothes, she would still be a beautiful woman.
Some people don't need clothes to enhance their appearance.
"Teacher Liu, don't boost others' morale and diminish our own." Li Yaowei was quite proud, and he boasted, "Putting aside everything else, I'm definitely better than him at farming."
Li Jianzhi: "That's not necessarily true."
He watched so many videos by planting bloggers and learned a lot of scientific breeding knowledge. Even if it's just theoretical knowledge now, he'll definitely be able to carefully cultivate a vegetable garden full of fruits and vegetables in the future.
Little Chubby Boy: "My dad is amazing! He even has pictures."
"What picture?"
Li Jianzhi: "I specifically drew up a plan for the vegetable garden."
Lai Yiu-wai was practically dying of laughter: "You think growing vegetables is like fighting a war, where you have to write plans and outlines?"
"Let me do it. I'll rely entirely on my experience and guarantee I'll grow better crops than you."
Li Jian thought to himself: Nonsense, tasteless, just bragging.
Even if my crops are terrible, I still have the magical resurrection technique.
“We have a unique and precious good soldier, Comrade Li Qingfeng.”
"That's right, that's right!" The chubby boy jumped up.
Lai Yiu-wai and his wife helped to finish sealing the bread oven. Lai Kin-chi even kneaded a few clay balls, saying they were for making "bear ears," to add ears to the bread oven in front of them. Then he had his son sculpt two small, beady eyes, picked up the little chubby boy, and had him put the clay eyes on them.
Qin Xiangxiang pinched the shape of a nose, and she thought it was so much fun that she could actually mold this earthen kiln into the shape of a small animal.
Once the nose is glued on, the entrance to the fire pit below will essentially become the bear's mouth.
After sticking the nose on, Qin Xiangxiang still felt something was wrong, so she used a bamboo stick to draw three whiskers on each side.
The earthen kiln in front of me looks like a bear with its mouth open.
Liu Xiaoyun watched from the side and found it very amusing, thinking to herself that the couple really knew how to raise their child.
Lai Yiu-wai was also shocked, "This is a bear's head, and you even made a bear-shaped earthen kiln?"
Chubby boy: "This is mine! This is the bunker of the chubby warrior!"
Li Jianzhi: "Then you guard it well every day, and I'll bake you bread to eat in half a month."
The chubby boy nodded frantically.
"I'll have to see if your earthen kiln is actually usable in a while," Li Yaowei said, reaching out to touch the bear's head. The chubby soldier immediately raised his hand to block and defend himself, saying warily, "Uncle, don't blow up my bunker."
Lai Yiu-wai: "..."
After finishing the shape of the bread oven, Li Jianzhi didn't take any photos to commemorate the moment. It was only then that he realized he should buy a camera to record this magnificent scene.
"Let's think about it, let's buy a camera."
Qin Xiangxiang was stunned. She looked at Li Jianzhi in disbelief, thinking: I think you've gone crazy!
Since they didn't have a photographer at home, ordinary people would go to a photo studio to have a professional photographer take group photos. At that time, an ordinary camera cost around 160 to 200 yuan; a better one cost over 500 yuan. Of course, such cameras costing over 500 yuan were special supplies and could only be purchased with special tickets, so ordinary people couldn't buy them.
Even the most basic Seagull camera, if you buy it with 120 film, costs 1.8 yuan. One roll of film can take 15 square photos. Developing it costs 30 cents, and printing each photo costs 6 cents. So, the cost of taking one photo is 20 cents.
At the photo studio, a passport photo costs 30 cents, a regular photo costs 60 cents, and a family photo costs 1.5 yuan.
...It is indeed cheaper than going to a photo studio, but there's no need for that.
Even without considering the cost of the camera, four photos could buy a pound of pork. Most families aren't that extravagant to buy a camera specifically for that purpose.
You can actually rent a camera from a photo studio, but photo studios on the island don't offer that service. Photo studios in Minnesota might be able to rent cameras, which costs 10 cents an hour or $2.40 a day. Some art students rent cameras to go to the countryside for sketching trips, but the $2.40 daily rental fee is extremely expensive.
Li Jianzhi: "Think about it, since you moved in, we haven't added any big items to our home. We can't afford a piano right now, so let's buy a camera instead. Consider it a big addition to our home!"
Qin Xiangxiang: "!!!!!!!" She originally thought that 110 yuan a month was enough to live on, but this man in front of her actually wanted to buy a camera.
This would cost her almost two months' worth of living expenses in one go, and Qin Xiangxiang felt a little pained. She was more willing to spend money on food, drinks, and clothing, but there was no great need for other things.
She refused to "save money" to buy big-ticket items.
"What do you need a camera for? You can take photos at a photo studio."
“I can take pictures for you. Also, this bread oven that our whole family made, and the chicken coop… In about ten days, it will be the completion ceremony of our bread oven. We need to take pictures to commemorate it.” Actually, Li Jianzhi also wanted to say that he could take pictures of the family’s vegetable garden to record the changes every week. When the garden is full of fruits and vegetables, it will be a great sense of harvest from nothing to something.
Qin Xiangxiang: "???" If it weren't for Li Yaowei and Liu Xiaoyun being there, Qin Xiangxiang would have slapped him to bring him to his senses.
Taking photos of her and her son is one thing, but what's with taking photos of a chicken coop and a clay kiln? Does he think he can fly to the sky?
Art students rent cameras to take pictures in the countryside, which are supposed to be landscapes, but you...you're taking pictures of chicken coops and earthen kilns!
—Even in my past extravagance, I never went to this level.
"Smack!" After the sound came out, Qin Xiangxiang realized that she really couldn't help herself and quickly slapped the man in front of her lightly on the cheek. "Does it hurt? Are you awake now?"
Li Jianzhi asked in confusion, "Shouldn't women like taking pictures?"
Qin Xiangxiang: "..." That's true, but going to the photo studio to take pictures gave Qin Xiangxiang a bad experience because she was not free to pose. The photographer had the power of life and death and told her to pose however she wanted, which made her very stiff.
Moreover, she felt that the photos she took didn't look as good as her reflection in the mirror.
But if you have your own camera, you can pose however you want without worrying about people gossiping when they're taking pictures.
After thinking carefully for a moment, Qin Xiangxiang said rationally, "We can borrow a camera from a photo studio. I used to know an art student. They borrowed cameras for 2.4 yuan a day, or 1.2 yuan for 12 hours. They could borrow cameras that could hold 135 film. These kinds of cameras cost at least 500 or 600 yuan. She said that if you load the film in bed, you can take 38 photos at once. They usually rent these kinds of cameras to go out and take pictures."
These students are quite shrewd. When they go to the countryside to collect folk art, in addition to taking photos, they also solicit customers in nearby villages, asking villagers to take their pictures for a fee. Rural farmers dare not go to photo studios in the city, but these young and inexperienced students persuade them to take their pictures in the village.
In this way, many farmers who had never been to a photo studio in their lives had their first family photo taken, and the students also earned back some of the money they spent on renting cameras and buying film.
Qin Xiangxiang wasn't an art or photography student, so she never thought about renting a camera to take pictures.
“We can rent cameras like they do.”
Li Jianzhi: "This is too much trouble, honey, let's just buy it directly."
Qin Xiangxiang: "..."
Standing to the side, Li Yaowei and Liu Xiaoyun exchanged bewildered glances. Meanwhile, the chubby boy clung to his father's trouser leg without uttering a sound, silently supporting his father. He sensed that his father wanted to buy "something nice," so the chubby boy had to support his father.
Li Yaowei had come here wanting to see Li Jianzhi and his sister-in-law Qin Xiangxiang argue, and this time he witnessed it firsthand. They even got physical, with his sister-in-law slapping him in the face... But why didn't he feel happy or secretly pleased at all?
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