Volume 1: Reborn in the 1980s, selling lunch boxes with my mother Chapter 18 Work hard to make money and move!
Taking some dry food with her, Hu Qiongfang carried two buckets on a shoulder pole, which were filled with alive and kicking loaches and eels.
Jiang Tian was not empty-handed either. She had caught many snails as big as children's fists in the rice fields these past two days.
Country people also eat this thing, but they cook it, take out the snail meat, dry it, and then steam it with garlic and chili peppers.
However, Jiang Tian knew that city people liked to stew snails with bacon, and then put a piece of braised old tofu in it, and it would become a delicious meat dish that goes well with rice.
Especially suitable for men who like to drink.
Nowadays, this kind of snail can be seen everywhere in the countryside, as well as smaller green-shell snails. However, the common people are busy growing crops and producing crops, so few people go to catch them and eat them.
Sometimes children are too playful and go outside to get a bunch of trash, and then they get scolded by their parents while twisting their ears.
After cursing, he smashed the snails and field snails with bricks and threw them into a basin to feed the chickens and ducks.
Who would be willing to spend so much time preparing this?
Jiang Tian wanted to try her luck by bringing some snails. If the restaurant was willing to accept them, then their family would have an additional source of income.
She never intended to rely on farming to support her and her two children.
Farming these days is even worse than it was decades ago. A portion of the hard-earned grain must be set aside as public tax, and the rest must be kept for one's own consumption.
There aren't many that can actually be sold for money.
The food is already in this state, not to mention the sweet potatoes and potatoes grown in dry land.
The only valuable grains are probably sesame and peanuts.
But they only have that much dry land. Even if they planted sesame and peanuts on it all, how much could they earn in a year?
It’s still faster to make money by doing business.
Especially in the aquatic business.
Even though this thing is difficult to make, city people love to eat it.
In her previous life, Jiang Tian heard that there was a gangster in their town who made a living by going to the countryside to collect loaches and eels, then riding on his uncle's truck to transport them to the provincial capital to sell. In just two years, he actually bought a motorcycle!
The motorcycles of that era were similar to the BBA of later generations.
If a family can buy a motorcycle for a young man in the family, they don’t have to pay a dowry, and those fashionable girls will all rush over.
Jiang Tian didn't plan to buy a motorcycle.
She just wants to save money to build a house near the provincial road!
That's right, she doesn't plan to build the house in the village.
One reason is that there are many gossipy people in the village. Her mother's husband had just died a few days ago, and already someone came to propose marriage to her. After a year of mourning, wouldn't there be more people coming to propose marriage to her mother?
Jiang Tian was not against her mother's remarriage.
However, these days, rural people generally look down on widows whose husbands have died. The men who can be introduced to her mother are either disabled or old bachelors who are too poor to find a wife.
Or he could be like the one introduced by Aunt Jiang before, who has no house of his own and is a widower with two sons, and wants to live in their house.
In short, there is absolutely no chance for a widow like Hu Qiongfang to find a good man.
Jiang Tian doesn't want her mother to marry this kind of man. Isn't that jumping into the fire pit?
But if they continue to live in the village, such troubles will always be inevitable.
The only solution is to move.
Move to a place where you don't know many people.
What Jiang Tian was interested in was the provincial road which was dozens of miles away from their village.
First of all, there are a lot of cars coming and going here, which makes it convenient for them to do small business to support their families.
Secondly, if Jiang Tian remembers correctly, Provincial Highway 336 will be rebuilt and expanded in seven or eight years.
In the previous life, because of the expansion and reconstruction of the provincial road, many residents who originally lived on both sides of the provincial road received a sum of money because of the demolition of their houses. At that time, in order to encourage them to move their land, in addition to the compensation, these families were also re-arranged with residential land close to the provincial road.
I made money and could continue to live near the provincial road and do business. It was really a big win.
Jiang Tian wanted to take advantage of the past two years, when the provincial road had not yet been renovated or expanded, and the management of homesteads was relatively loose, to seize the time and occupy a piece of land.
After getting familiar with them, I would invite nearby village cadres to dinner, give them two packs of cigarettes, and try to get the homestead certificate.
In this way, when Provincial Highway 336 is renovated and expanded in the future, their family will not only get a new residential land, but also receive demolition compensation.
Jiang Tian had already made a plan in her mind. Once she received the compensation, she would persuade her mother not to rush to build a house for them to live in. Instead, she would use the land and the demolition compensation to build a three-story house, open a restaurant on the first floor, a small hotel on the second floor, and they would live in the third floor.
By then, the family will hire two more people to help, open a restaurant and a small hotel, and the money earned every year will be enough for the three of them to live a well-off life in this era.
The ideal is very good, but the reality is that the mother and daughter were exhausted. They finally carried the loaches and eels and walked to a large restaurant next to the provincial road. When they went in and asked, they were found that they didn't want their eels at all.
"Is it worth it for you to come all the way here to sell this little stuff?"
"Pick some and take them home to eat."
A fat and big-eared cook in the kitchen waved his hands at them impatiently.
Jiang Tian didn't give up, and walked with Hu Qiongfang for a few more minutes until they found another restaurant.
Who knew that I had bad luck? A fishmonger just delivered a batch of river fish, but I had already bought them.
Although river fish such as loaches and eels are not easy to kill and can be kept for two days, they cannot be kept for too long, otherwise they will become thin and easily suffocate to death.
Dead loaches and eels are worthless.
The boss of this shop was kind-hearted. Seeing that the mother and daughter were sweating from exhaustion, and that Hu Qiongfang was a skinny woman whose calves were trembling from carrying two heavy buckets, he let them sit in the shop for a while.
He also gave Jiang Tian some advice: It’s not easy for you to come out to sell things, so after three o’clock, you can set up a stall outside the vegetable market and sell something.
Jiang Tian thanked the boss gratefully.
However, neither the mother nor the daughter sat down to rest in the store.
They smell like fish, don’t let it stink up other people’s shops.
"Then I'll bring you two stools so you can sit outside and take a break."
The proprietress with long thin eyebrows moved two small stools for them and placed them under the eaves.
The sun in September was still very hot. Hu Qiongfang saw beads of sweat on her daughter's forehead and face. She did not refuse the proprietress's kindness. She thanked her again and again with gratitude and put down the carrying pole.
Then he took out the cotton handkerchief from his pocket and wiped the sweat from Jiang Tian's forehead.
"Mom, drink some water." Jiang Tian also took the kettle across her body, unscrewed the lid, and let Hu Qiongfang drink first.
The lady boss enviously praised: "Sister, your daughter is so filial!"
The boss lady dreamed of having a fair and soft little girl, but unfortunately she gave birth to two boys in a row, both of whom were naughty boys.
Looking at Jiang Tian's sweet smile, the proprietress was really envious.
