Chapter 015: Insufficient income
Lin Wanxia looked sideways at Xingxing who was sleeping beside her, and let out a long breath. Finally, she had made it through another day.
Lin Wanxia spent a week getting used to Xingxing.
During this week, she got to know Xingxing's eating habits, daily routine, strengths and weaknesses.
For example, the bedwetting that day was indeed just an accident, and he didn't wet the bed in the following days.
The advantage is that this child has strong self-care ability, can dress himself, wash his face and brush his teeth, is very kind, and is well-mannered most of the time.
The disadvantage is that he is probably too sensitive because he has eaten at many different houses, and crying is just unconscious self-protection, the purpose of which is to test the bottom line of others' tolerance for him.
Children are very simple, and they will express their likes and dislikes directly. Lin Wanxia began to like this child who lost his mother at a young age, was sensitive, and believed in "Auntie Xia".
Of course, these seven days were also extremely long for Lin Wanxia, and every day felt like a year.
She had to compete with Xingxing and prepare three meals a day for him, and she was so tired that she fell asleep every day.
Finally, she realized why everyone said that whoever takes care of a child will collapse.
The hardship of taking care of a child for a day is less than the tiredness of working overtime for a week.
She is tired physically, and even more tired mentally.
This is not the most important thing for Lin Wanxia. The fatal injury is that she has very little money left.
Although Jiang Sinian promised to reimburse Xingxing's expenses and promised to give her 20 yuan a day for babysitting, she had to pay for it before he came back.
She earned a total of 31 yuan, and now she has less than half of it.
A week's milk costs 3 yuan, and two pounds of meat costs 4 yuan. Pork is not always 2 yuan a pound. Lean meat is only 1.8 yuan, and pork belly with fat and lean is the most expensive. If you have food coupons, pork belly is at most 1.6 yuan.
In 1983, it was a dual-track economy. This period was the transition from the previous planned economy to the market economy, which means that goods often have two prices.
For example, a factory originally planned to produce 100 pieces to meet daily needs. These 100 pieces still need to be purchased with tickets, and the price is still very low.
However, the goods beyond these 100 pieces are called unplanned goods. These goods do not need to be purchased with tickets in the market, but the price is much more expensive than buying with tickets.
This is why Lin Wanxia bought pork for 2
yuan and 20 cents. In addition, Lin Wanxia also bought 10 kilograms of rice and 10 kilograms of flour.
Rice is also divided into first, second and third grades, the cheapest is 14 cents per kilogram, and the good one is 17.2 cents per kilogram. Lin Wanxia chose the medium one, 16 cents per kilogram, and 10 kilograms for 1 yuan and 60 cents.
There are 17 cents per kilogram and 22 cents per kilogram of flour. Lin Wanxia bought ten kilograms of cheap flour, which cost one yuan and seventy cents.
The hens had recently reached the time to hatch chicks and stopped laying eggs. Lin Wanxia bought ten eggs from a neighbor and put them in the nest for the hens to hatch chicks. It cost one yuan in total. She
also went to the market to weigh two kilograms of eggs for herself. One kilogram of eggs cost one yuan and twenty-five cents, so two kilograms cost two yuan and fifty cents.
It was such a hot day, so she had to eat some fruit. Watermelons were the cheapest at the market, seven cents a kilogram.
Lin Wanxia bought a watermelon and spent ninety cents.
She had nine yuan and ninety cents left.
After calculating the bill, Lin Wanxia could no longer sleep.
If they don't make money, she and Xingxing will starve to death before Jiang Sinian comes back.
How to make money is a problem.
Lin Wanxia frowned and thought hard.
As for the golden finger, she couldn't count on it for the time being.
She would take Xingxing to the beach to pick up garbage every morning.
But in 1983, people hardly used plastic bags for daily shopping, there was no takeout, and there was no white garbage.
The average person was poor, and they drank water from water bottles, and no drink bottles or mineral water bottles were thrown into the sea.
At most, they picked up some broken rubber shoes and the like, and only picked up five or six kilograms of marine garbage in a week.
Lin Wanxia can't do any of the tasks that can get high scores, such as preventing sewage from being discharged into the ocean or rescuing large marine life, preventing fishermen from using abnormal means to catch fish, and repairing coral reefs.
The only thing you can do is to sign in every
day. Say to the little mermaid every day: "Princess, please sign in." You can get ten points.
With more points, you can unlock and control new marine species, or upgrade the currently unlocked species.
For example, 100 points can unlock the horsehead fish or upgrade the small yellow croaker to a medium-sized yellow croaker of 13 cm to 18 cm.
Including the marine garbage picked up, there are still ten points away from the upgrade.
The fishing ban will not end for another month.
Lin Wanxia thought for a long time, and it seems that there is only one way to go, fishing.
This fishing is not that fishing.
It is not the kind of fishing where you just throw a rod and two hooks into the river, lake or sea and wait. If
Lin Wanxia wants to fish, she has to use a row of hooks.
The so-called "lower row of hooks" is a single-strand nylon line with a diameter of two millimeters as the main line. The sixty to eighty centimeters long, 0.5 millimeter thick leader line is tied to a No. 16 hook and hung on the main line at equal distances. The distance between the hooks is based on not getting tangled with each other. Each set of hooks has 120 pieces, with a total length of about 200 meters.
Fishing also requires bait, which all need to be bought.
In order to save money, Lin Wanxia only bought some fish hooks and made them herself.
Fish hooks are very cheap in the island city, and you can buy a bunch for ten yuan.
Every household has a lot of nylon line in stock, and the Lin family also has it, so there is no need to buy it for the time being.
After spending a day tying the fish hooks, Lin Wanxia quietly got up early the next morning to go fishing.
In order to sell the fish at the morning market, she had to go out fishing at dawn.
It was only three o'clock in the morning when Lin Wanxia yawned and locked the door. She locked
the door because she was afraid that Xingxing would wake up and run around.
The row of hooks is similar to a small fishing net when used properly.
Lin Wanxia also liked fishing all his life, but his skills were not very good.
As the sky turned white and the sky gradually brightened, he caught less than ten kilograms of fish in total.
Three yellow croakers of different sizes, a grouper, two octopuses, and some other miscellaneous fish.
When she got home, Xingxing was still asleep, so Lin Wanxia breathed a sigh of relief.
When fishing outside, she was always distracted, afraid that Xingxing would wake up and not see her crying, or get hurt.
Raising a child is not easy, Lin Wanxia sighed, and she would never take Jiang Sinian's job as a nanny again. He
really makes a living by selling anything else.
After washing up, she called Xingxing to go to the port with her to find Lei Yanjun.
Lei Yanjun was obviously surprised when he saw Lin Wanxia, "Why are you here?"
After not seeing each other for so many days, Lei Yanjun thought that Lin Wanxia had no intention of cooperating with him.
"I'm bringing you some fish." Lin Wanxia put the fish basket on the ground.
Lei Yanjun looked around and said, "…"
"Just a few?"
Lin Wanxia: "You don't want these?"
"Yes." Lei Yanjun responded readily. These were all fresh fish, and they were easy to sell, but they were a little rare.
Six fish of different sizes and species, Lin Wanxia earned three yuan and sixty cents.
The most valuable one was the grouper, which was two yuan and fifty cents each.