Volume 1: Reborn in the 1980s, selling lunch boxes with my mother Chapter 22: Fuck the Second Marriage
Although Li Guifen was a bit stingy when bargaining, she is actually very cheerful and generous.
Perhaps she felt a little guilty for taking Jiang Tian's secret recipe for no reason, so after Jiang Tian and Hu Qiongfang had put away the loaches and eels they had brought, Li Guifen bent down and took out two packages from under the cash register.
"I'm afraid you might get hungry on the way, so take this bag of soft candies and this bag of candied beans with you."
Hu Qiongfang quickly waved her hands to refuse, refusing to accept it.
Although material conditions are much better now than they were a few years ago, the soft candies that the proprietress took out, namely sorghum candy and candied beans, are still rare things in the countryside.
Ordinary families would only weigh two kilograms to entertain guests during the Chinese New Year.
If my own children want to eat it, they have to wait until guests come to our house before they can get one or two.
Li Guifen didn't like to take advantage of others, so when she saw Hu Qiongfang refuse, she simply stuffed two bags of candy into Jiang Tian's schoolbag.
"I'm not giving it to you, I'm giving it to your daughter! Oh, sister, I don't envy you for anything else, I just envy you for having such a beautiful, sensible and capable daughter."
"Unlike those two brats in my family, each one is more naughty than the other!"
If she had not given birth to two sons at once and had not had to build houses for them and find wives for them in the future, Li Guifen and her husband would not have worked so hard to make money.
It’s all tears if I talk too much!
…
After coming out of the restaurant, the mother and daughter carried empty buckets with happy smiles on their faces.
Jiang Tian was fine, but Hu Qiongfang suffered a huge shock.
In the past, she caught eels and sold them to fishmongers in the countryside for 30 cents per pound, which she thought was very good. She never expected that the same eel would only cost 30 cents and the price would double if she took a bus to the provincial road!
Hu Qiongfang's heart bleeds when she thought about how she had sold 50 kilograms of eels at one time and how she lost 20 yuan just from the price difference.
This time, Jiang Tian didn't need to brainwash her. On the way back, Hu Qiongfang took the initiative to suggest that the loaches and eels caught at home would not be sold to fishmongers in the future.
I would rather work harder, even if it takes an hour to walk to the provincial road. If the price can double, it will be worth it.
What's more, you don't have to walk . As long as you can catch the bus, what's the big deal if you spend thirty cents on the bus?
After this trip, they earned at least fifty dollars more!
Hu Qiongfang felt full of energy when she touched the roll of banknotes hidden in her inner pocket.
Today they brought 26 kilograms of eels, 17 kilograms of loaches, and half a bucket of snails, and sold them for a total of 29.20 yuan.
Minus the $1.20 spent on the round trip fare for the mother and daughter, the net profit is $28!
If we do as Li Guifen said just now, we can deliver 20 kilograms of eels, 10 kilograms of loaches, and 50 kilograms of snails every other day, and we can earn more than 20 yuan for each trip.
Wouldn't that mean they could earn three or four hundred yuan a month?
Hu Qiongfang silently calculated the amount in her mind and her face turned red with excitement.
You know, my husband used to work in a mine, it was hard and tiring, and he could only earn more than two hundred yuan a month.
It’s a pity that eels cannot be caught in the countryside all year round, otherwise she would go fishing for eels every day and the money she earned would be enough to support her two children.
At this moment, Ms. Hu Qiongfang suddenly felt .
In fact, when Aunt Jiang suggested that she find another one, Hu Qiongfang had considered it.
There is a lot of heavy physical work in the countryside. It is really difficult for a woman like her to support a family and do all the farm work.
Hu Qiongfang didn't need a man. She was afraid that as a woman, she couldn't raise two children or give them a better life.
But now, Hu Qiongfang found that she could earn three to four hundred yuan a month just by fishing for eels, and she suddenly felt enlightened.
Fuck your second marriage!
Which man in the countryside can give his wife three or four hundred yuan a month for living expenses?
Not to mention one month, some people may not be able to give that much in a year.
That’s fine, but some incompetent men not only don’t provide their wives with household expenses, but also ask their wives for money.
If you don’t give me money, I will beat you.
Some women in the village are pitiful. They work hard all year round to grow crops and pay the public grain for their families. The remaining grain, after they have a lot of trouble to sell for some money, is often taken by their men for drinking and gambling. Their lives are so hard.
Thinking of this, Hu Qiongfang immediately made up her mind not to get married again.
At worst, she could just endure a little more hardship and catch more eels to sell. When it was busy farming season and she couldn't do the farm work by herself, she would hire someone from the village to do it!
Anyway, the busiest time in the fields every year is only a few days.
Hu Qiongfang thought about it silently. She would do other farm work slowly if it was not urgent. When it was time to harvest rice or wheat, she would pay someone to help.
Her family now has only two acres of paddy fields and two acres of dry land. When , they can hire two strong laborers and finish the work in two days.
According to the current wage for hiring workers in the countryside, one dollar per person per day, including one meal, it is only four dollars for two days.
The food doesn't have to be too good. Just buy two pounds of meat, have a bowl of braised pork with tofu and two side dishes for one meal, and that's enough. It won't cost much.
Along the way, Jiang Tian was still thinking about how to take advantage of the high money made from the sales this time and persuade her mother to outsource the heavy physical work in the fields to others after she returns.
Unexpectedly, as soon as they got home, the mother and daughter each poured themselves a glass of boiled water, and Hu Qiongfang took the initiative to tell her daughter about her plan.
"I thought about it and realized that in previous years, after the water in the rice fields was drained, eels could be caught in the eel holes on the ridges of the fields. There was water in the holes and the eels hid in the holes."
"This year, I plan to let someone else harvest our two mu of rice. You can cook at home while I go to the fields to fish for eels."
"I calculated that if I could catch ten kilograms of eels a day, I could sell them for seven dollars. After deducting two dollars for the hired workers and one dollar for the meals, my family could still make an extra four dollars."
The most important thing is that this way people don’t get tired.
Jiang Tian wasn't the only one who was afraid that her mother would overwork herself.
Hu Qiongfang herself is even more afraid of getting sick. If she falls ill, who will take care of her two children?
It has to be said that after her husband died and her mother-in-law passed away, Ms. Hu Qiongfang seemed to be forced to grow up overnight.
Jiang Tian was stunned.
Is this still her biological mother who is submissive and dares not take even a single wrong step?
She herself didn't expect that she could actually hire someone to help harvest the rice!
"Why don't you speak? Are you tired?" Seeing that her daughter couldn't help but reach out and touch her daughter's forehead.
Fortunately, I don’t have a fever.
Jiang Tian nodded quickly: "Mom, you are absolutely right, let's hire someone to harvest the rice."
"This way, after cooking every day, I can pick up some snails."
"After adding water to the rice fields, snails are easier to find than usual."
"Let's pick up more, bring them back and raise them to sell later, hehe~"
